Chapter 3 – Not So Secret Crush
Months had gone past since Ashlyn joined Xavier's school, she had made many friends, but her closest friends were John and Kitty. However, she almost held a soft spot for John, and tended to share more with him. They had come to know a lot about each other in these past few days, and right now they were sitting in a museum cafeteria waiting for Rogue and Bobby to join them, and while they waited, Ashlyn watched John play with his lighter.
"Where did you get something that decorated?" Ashlyn asked him as she suddenly swiped the lighter from his hands, the open flame not bothering her at all.
"Hey, give me it back." He told her with a smile, as she held it back out of his reach.
"Not until you tell me where you got it." Ashlyn told him with a teasing smile on her face.
"I'll tell you once I get it back." He told her, suddenly making a quick grab for it, but missing and he ended up knocking both himself and her off their chairs and onto the floor, where he landed on top of her.
"Oh, I'm sorry." He told her as he quickly pushed himself up.
"Don't worry about it." She laughed, pushing herself up, and she took his hand when he offered it to her and she stood up.
When she was standing, they stood there for a few minutes, holding each other's hands and when John realised he let go of her as if she was a hot poker.
"Um, yeah once again, I'm sorry about that."He told her, sitting back at the table.
"And like I have said, John its fine." She smiled, sitting with him.
He didn't get to reply to her again, before Bobby and Rogue joined them, and then anything he wanted to tell her was thrown to the back of his mind and forgotten about.
"Is anyone else findin' dis trip borin', or iz it just me?" Rogue asked.
"Nope, I'm finding it boring too." Ashlyn sighed. "There's nothing to do."
"Well, we could try and sneak off."
"I wouldn't think about it if I were you, Mister Allerdyce."
Everyone groaned as they heard the Professor's voice in their heads and then the other three looked at John.
"You and your big mouth." Bobby told him, though this caused both boys to laugh and start a small play fight, which still caused Ashlyn to move her chair closer to Rogue out of the way.
"Come on Rogue, let's go for a walk." Ashlyn whispered after a few minutes, and Rogue gave her a nod, getting up and walking away from the two boys, and they walked into a middle ages expo that was going on in the museum and they got to play dress up in the outfits that were being handed out. Overall, the girls were having a really good time together, and it wasn't impaired with Rogue's inability to touch.
"So, what's the deal wiv you an' John?" She asked as they were admiring themselves in one of the full length mirrors.
"Nothing really, we're just friends." Ashlyn told her.
"Come on Ash, you know that ah dun believe dat." Rogue told her.
"Okay then, these past few days, I've developed a crush on John, but please Rogue, don't say anything to him." She told her.
"Don't worry, I won't." She smiled.
Meanwhile, John and Bobby were looking around the museum for the girls, since they only noticed that they had left a few minutes ago.
"So, what's the deal with you and Ash?" Bobby asked.
"What do you mean?" John asked, playing it cool.
"Well, you do act pretty close, I was wondering if you-"He was then cut off by John.
"Is this one of your little girl talks Bobby? Because I can assure you that I'm not getting tricked into telling you anything." John told him.
"I was just curious John, because like I was going to say, she looks like she has a crush on you too." Bobby told him, holding his hands up in surrender.
John raised an eyebrow. "Okay, whatever." He sighed. "Yes, I do feel something for Ash, but if I find out you've told her Bobby, I'll put you six feet under."
"Don't worry John, I won't tell a soul." Bobby promised.
They went back to looking for the girls, eventually finding them near the middle ages expo, looking at the remains of artefacts from that era.
"Hey you two, where did you go?" Bobby asked, sliding his arms around Rogue, being careful.
"You two were busy, so we went for a walk." Ashlyn told them as she fixed her hair in the reflection of the glass case which held the artefacts.
"You could have stayed." John told her.
"Yeah, and get hurt by one of you, no thank you." Rogue told him, and together they all walked around the museum together.
Later that night, Bobby and Rogue were sitting in her room, listening to music, when she turned onto her side and looked at him.
"So, did you ask John?" Rogue asked him.
"About him having a crush on Ash?" Bobby asked her, just to clarify.
"Yeah." Rogue told him, sitting up straight in excitement.
"Well, I talked to him, and he said that he does have a crush on Ash, but I think that he's scared to do anything about it." Bobby told her, looking over at her. "What about Ash?"
"She said the same, an' like John, she's scared to do or say anythang about it. I'm not even supposed to be tellin' you about it."
"Well then, why don't we get them together?"
"That would be perfect." Rogue smiled.
Bobby nodded. "Then, how about we get them together?" He asked.
"Yeah, we should, but how?"
"Leave that to me." Bobby told her, giving her a careful hug.
What Bobby and Rogue didn't realise, was that Ashlyn and John were going to take matters into their own hands, based on what they felt for each other, and they both left their rooms, walking off to find the other, which resulted in them literally walking into each other in a hallway.
"John." Ash squeaked in surprise.
"Ash." John breathed.
"Hey, um I was just coming to find you..."
"Yeah, I was just looking for you too."
"John, we need to talk."
He nodded and the pair walked outside in the courtyard, where Ash stood by a cement bench, and she looked at him.
"John, I love you and I don't care who knows." Ashlyn told him, and she watched John freeze in place, looking at her.
When he had finally recovered, John looked at her. "Ash...I...I love you too."
They stood there staring at each other for a few minutes, before they started to smile, and Ashlyn ran over to him, throwing her arms around him as they shared a loving and romantic hug.
"Bobby asked me what I felt about you earlier." John told her randomly.
"So did Rogue." Ashlyn told him, before her head snapped up to look at him. "I've got an idea."
"What is it?" John asked, looking down at her from his height.
"Let's not tell anyone yet, because I think Rogue and Bobby are up to something, so let's just pretend to be single when we are around them, but when we're like this, we do what we want." Ashlyn told him.
"I like the sound of that." John smiled.
"Great." Ashlyn smiled.
The couple smiled at each other, before they decided to go back inside, remaining as they normally would, playfully pushing and shoving each other out of the way.