If Paddy is out of character then I'm sorry, he's a difficult little Scott. (The views expressed by little boys everywhere that girls are gross are not necessarily the author's own) This story is no where near as fluffy as I originally intended, but please enjoy uvu See you on the other side.

Girls are gross.

It was a fact recognized by little boys everywhere. The thing is, Tommy wasn't a little boy anymore, he was thirteen and an honorary member of the Teens Next Door. Practically a grown-up.

Paddy and he realised that maybe girls weren't horrible and annoying as they learned from their peers in elementary school. They knew Sonya was cool. That was a given, as she was practically a boy (but one who wore skirts and had frilly tastes), however, maybeother girls were okay, too. A lot of them were better at a lot of things than the two (not that they would ever admit it.)

Sitting at the same old table in the same old tree house as they had since they were just kids, they boys noticed that Lee had long since figured out that girls weren't icky. They noticed something else, too, as they caught their friend try to hide under his hat that he was staring every so often at the girl across from him. Lee thought Sonya was anything but icky.

XxX

"Morning, Lee."

"Good Morning, Sonya."

"(Giggle) Let's flirt in front of the others until their heads explode!"

"Haha, yes, that sounds fun."

This is what had been going on for the last two weeks (Or so the boys would tell you, if someone had asked). Ever since Tommy and Paddy figured out their fellow operatives had been exhibiting symptoms of puppy love.

Alright, they had to admit, it was plenty obvious before that the two had gihugic crushes on one another, and they'd teased plenty when they were still in the KND, but this was the big times. Teenagers date. And the no-longer-little boys were so fed up with their friends' love sick antics, they were going to make them date. Using force, if need be. And they had devised the perfect plan.

XxX

The fidgeting duo (Soon to be couple! Tommy thought gleefully) sat at the table as instructed by their leader.

Normally it would be odd to see Lee fiddle nervously with his yo-yo, avoiding the eyes of the girl next to him, but what the teacher had so eloquently announced in biology about themselves being naturally curious about the other gender made the air in the tree house awkward. The lesson made Paddy question whether it was right to go through with the plan hat day, but Tommy assured him it was completely fine.

The red head who had called the meeting stood up on his chair. "So, you guys," he began. "Today is Sector T-W's day off, so we're going to play a game." he recited his line awkwardly.

"Oh! What game?" Sonya perked up excitedly, somewhat dispelling the uncomfortableness. Lee regained his usual grin.

"I vote hide and seek!" Tommy said, a bit too quickly, but the others didn't seem to notice.

"That sounds good!" Paddy nodded as if the idea was new to him.

"I'm in!"

"Cool."

They decided who would be it by pressing a finger to their noses, Paddy not raising his hadn until he was sure everyone else had. He pretended to sulk for a moment as they argued it was 'the rules!'.

As their leader 'reluctantly' counted to twenty, Tommy ushered their victims (he meant friends. Honest) away, acting frantic. "Quick! In here!" He gasped, shoving them into a closet. (It was well lit and had flashlights. They weren't monsters.) He shoved a chair under the door handle and ran to join Paddy in the next room, where they had rigged a C.U.P.N.S.T.R.I.N.G. (conveniently useful pretty neat stereo to reach in next grooming-room).

There was silence for a while, followed by shuffling.

"It's probably dumb to hide in the same place when there's only three hiders." Sonya said after a minute. Lee must have shrugged, because she continued with, "I'll go hide somewhere else." There was more shuffling and Sonya jiggled the handle. She paused before letting out an awkward, somewhat hysterical laugh. She tried again. "Um... Lee? It won't open."

"That's ridiculous, let me try."

The door handle made an empty metallic noise. "Told you."

"Oh, alright. Let's see if we can get someone's attention, then." He acted offended.

After another moment's shuffling, they started beating on the door. Paddy jumped from where he was lying on his stomach on the floor. A second later, Tommy heard a thick Scottish accent, "Guys?"

"Paddy! The door is jammed, help!" Sonya cried.

Paddy tapped the handle a couple times. "Oh, no! Sorry, guys, it's stuck on this side, too. Tommy and I are going to go get an ice cream, but hey! Isn't that the room where we keep cookies and juice? You should be fine for a while. We'll probably get you out, don't worry. Byyyyye!" He left to rejoin his friend before they could protest, and the eavesdroppers high fived and snickered quietly.

There was a quiet scraping noise on the other end of C.U.P.N.S.T.R.I.N.G. as the trapped two made themselves comfortable.

XxX

Inside the little room, the blonde cracked open a sleeve of cookies, rationing the snack between her and her cell mate and sitting against the wall.

Much like their comrades, she had been wondering exactly what her status was with Lee, ever since her friends informed her that it was near impossible for a guy and girl to be so close, and that the two were already 'practically dating' anyways. Sonya was 80% sure he liked her in the same way she liked him, conceited as thinking something like that made her feel. After all, they were teenagers. Normally one would start to get curious about that sort of thing, right?

The Biology lesson suddenly pushed it's way to the front of Sonya's brain. The teacher was right, their bodies were different. She knew that, of course, it's knowledge that comes with having so many brothers. The thought of a guy's body being different from bers didn't faze the girl at all, but it clearly made Lee nervous. He wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Lee?" She finally began before she could think about how to bring up a topic as awkward as dating. She could barely continue when Lee looked up. "Um, hi."

"Hey," he almost phrased it as a question.

She stared at him for a minute. The beet way around this was probably to attack head on, she finally decided, none of that mushy stop-and-go that usually made everything dramatic in the movies. "What are we? Relationship wise?"

Outside, the boys nudged eachother in anticipation. "What?" Lee looked up again quickly, eyes wide.

"I like you. Like, like-like you." she smiled at the terminology that seemed a little childish.

Yanking down on the sides of his ushanka, the boy flushed. "I like you, too. Uh, like that."

"I know it's not supposed to matter, you know, labels and stuff," she smiled for a second, tapping her feet to keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks. This was harder than she anticipated. Her bravery was running out quickly. "But do you wanna, um, go out?"

Lee looked at her curiously. "I don't know how that works."

"Oh, um..." Sonya was suddenly still as she bit her lip in thought. The words had semmed funny, and weird, once she'd spoken them. "Me neither."

"You read romance novels, you should know."

"Oh, please," she grinned. "You read them more than me." He read more than her in all genres. He playfully shoved her, but stayed silent. "I guess it means we hang out a lot and hold hands and, uh, kiss."

"We already do those things. Except for kissing." He shrugged. They did often press heir lips to one another's cheeks or forehead, but was that he same? Sonya's cheeks finally exploded with red.

"So are we already dating?" Lee nodded. She looked thoughtful for a moment before grinning widely. "Cool."

XxX

The boys ouside sat on the floor, both dissatisfied. That wasn't the ushy gushy love scene they'd spent the last week preparing or. They were expecting tears. They wanted Lee to uncharacteristically give a long speech about everything he loved most about her before she collapsed in his arms and they kissed (they were both honestly dreading the kiss). That's how it happened in every movie they rented. Movies neither of them liked, of course. No way at all. And even if they did, they would never tell anyone.

Either way, the boys were grumbling as the pair in the closet went from their short love scene to playing a card game with a deck they found on one of the shelves. Tommy removed the chair, 'miraculously' fixing the door handle with some 'amazing 2x4 technology'.

"Whoo-hoo, yay, you're free." Paddy crossed his arms. "Tommy and I are going to the arcade."

The only way to cure this dissatisfaction was with a good old fashioned romcom.

Bloop okay that was longer than I expected, but it was so much fun to write om g... I originally planned to make these stories in chronological order (and I might sort them out that way one day) but for now I don't really care pfff

Please leave questions, critiques and love letters in the box below (wonk)