Prompt: Resolutions

Characters/Pairings: Jake/Rose; Trixie; Spud

Chapter content warnings:

Homecoming is canon here but HKL is not

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

"Do it."

"I can't."

"Do it!"

"I can't!"

"Jake," Trixie huffed loudly. "What was this year's resolution?"

"To talk to Rose," Jake mumbled, staring down at the floor.

"And, what month is it now?" Spud added, knowing what his lines were because they had played out this exact conversation a hundred times.

"December."

"And what's not allowed to happen?"

"That I have the same resolution next year as I did this year."

"So, what are we doing?"

"Talking to Rose." Jake's eyes lifted from the floor, finding her across the room.

Rose was standing with her twin sister and their group of girlfriends. They had all clearly dressed up for the occasion of their last high school Christmas semi-formal, half of them in green and half of them in red. Rose was one of the ones in red. She was wearing something that looked like it might be from the 1950s, with mesh covering her chest before the rest of the dress faded into textured flowers. It hugged her waist and had little cap sleeves and it stopped a few good inches above her knee, which would probably get her dress coded in any other situation. She did a little spin when Courtney – one of the ones dressed in green – also started spinning. Then, all six of them were off and laughing together, heading to the middle of the dance floor.

"Just go say hi," Spud said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Jake could lose her again. That was the worst that could happen. He would never fully recover from Homecoming and he knew it and his friends knew it. No matter what happened in the future, there was always some part of Jake that was going to be standing there, watching her disappear, not knowing if she would ever come back. And, then, she had come back. Two years without knowing a single thing about whether she lived or died or what was going on and then bam, she had been in his homeroom one September, more beautiful than he remembered. Jake had taken the seat behind her and had listened to her laugh again and had felt what could only be described as pure bliss. Then, he had stayed away from her. She had looked at him in class and her gaze had drifted over him, like he was just a stranger that she had completely indifferent feelings toward. He hadn't wanted to complicate the life that she had now and that had left him watching her from afar, his friends having to deal with his complaining and yearning.

Which, apparently, they were well over hearing about.

"Go. Speak."

"I –" can't.

Except, Trixie wasn't listening to him. She had shoved him fully onto the dance floor, just inches from Rose's group. Jake looked helplessly over his shoulder but even the pushover who was Spud was shaking his head and gesturing Jake to get closer to Rose. There was clearly no turning around for Jake now so he cleared his throat, straightened up, and adjusted the sport coat he had worn to fit with the 'semi-formal' theme of the evening. He was the American Dragon. He had confidence. He could talk to a girl.

Jake took the two steps forward, tapped on Rose's shoulder, and then became completely disarmed when she turned around.

Jake could talk to a girl. But this girl? This girl who was probably the love of his life but he was the only one who knew it? This girl who was heaven and hell, pain and relief, the first and last thought he would ever have? Jake squeaked, which she definitely didn't hear over the thumping of the dance floor's music.

Rose leant toward him, half shouting, "Sure! We can dance."

Jake let her take his hand and pull him off to the side, hardly believing his luck. Being awkward never got him anywhere. But, here he was, watching Rose look all kinds of graceful under the pink disco light and he tried not to go too hard and make it weird again. Now was not the time for break dancing moves, even though he was convinced they would impress her. They had before, after all.

They had barely started dancing when the song changed to something slow. Jake paused, watching Rose do the same thing. He wasn't even sure if she knew his name anymore or thought of him at all. They only had homeroom together; they had never been class partners or been in the same club. He could just be some stranger.

Jake offered her his hand. Rose stared at him, her blue eyes unreadable as the soft guitar chords rang out over the gym. Then, she slowly but very deliberately put her hand in his.

Jake closed his fingers around her, not letting this chance slip through his fingers. He moved slowly, bringing her so that they were chest to chest, her free arm going around his neck while his looped around her waist. Slowly, they started moving in circles and her hand shifted so that they were properly holding hands, their fingers interlaced together. Jake watched her glance over his shoulder, making a small gesture with her head, and she looked back up at him. When they made another turn, Jake realized that she had been communicating something to her twin. He dropped his gaze from Heather back down to Rose's baby blues, and he was surprised to see how hard she was blushing.

"Thank you for asking me to dance," Rose said to his chest.

"I've thought about it a lot."

"You have?"

The hope in her voice made Jake too honest and he confessed, "Every dance since you moved here."

"What took you so long?"

"I didn't think you knew me."

"Me? Not know you? Jake, never."

Jake's head dropped, nearly touching her shoulder. "What? You know me? What about me?"

"The moment we came back to New York, I started remembering things. Then, when I saw you again, everything was back. The highs, the lows, the love."

Jake worked his jaw, biting the inside of his cheek as he did so. The feelings that were raging inside of him right now were not ones that he knew how to deal with. This whole time, staring at her across classrooms for over a year, reliving everything they had loved and lost, and she had known?

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Because if Jake had even an indication that she knew anything about him – or even thought that he was the cute guy across the school room – he would have done anything and everything for her attention, to have her affection, to just hear her say his name again.

"You never even looked at me," Rose confessed. "I thought you wanted to forget me. I just didn't want to hurt you. I know what it must have cost you all this time and I didn't want to make it worse. God, Jake, I love you. I couldn't be a person who hurt you again."

"I'm kissing you now."

Rose was leaning up on her toes before Jake even had all of the words out of his mouth. He pulled her in so that they were actually chest to chest, forehead to forehead, and then Jake bent his head, his lips finding hers. It was as natural as breathing, to be kissing Rose again. Holding her, feeling her breath, listening to the little noise that she made against his mouth, this was meaning. This was life. Jake's knees almost gave out because this was everything. Everything he wanted, everything he had missed, everything that he had hoped that it would be. Her hand was tangled in his hair, keeping him to her, as if Jake had ever had a thought of being anywhere without her.

"So, uh, do you still love me too?"

The song changed again, wild and happy, and Jake could see the couples separating so that their friend groups could all dance again. Jake clenched her hand but she wasn't going anywhere. She hadn't even looked away from him.

"Rose, of course I do." Jake pressed his forehead against hers. "If I had known that you knew last year, we would have been doing this again."

Rose laughed, half humour and half relief. "This what? You wearing my lipstick?"

"Oops, well, guess we better see if I can give it back to you."

And then Jake was kissing her again.