Prompt: an AU story, set in high school + a first kiss.

Author's note

So just a little explanation because I did create a whole story in my head but it took on a life of it's own and, to be honest, it very much left the AU Caskett stratosphere and these characters became entirely new and this has just kind of been sitting on the back burner for so long! However, I did promise to fill this prompt so I thought I'd share the final scene that I had outlined. Although I didn't envision this as being their first kiss, I do still hope this fits the bill!

It's senior year, Kate Beckett is counting down the months until graduation because she cannot wait to be able to jump on the first train out of town and start a new life (dead mother, alcoholic father... I'm sure you can see the appeal of a fresh start). Cue Richard Rodgers, the bad boy who has been kicked out of every Prep school in the city. His reputation precedes him and all the teacher assume he is a lost cause so Mr Donovan (the English teacher) asks Kate to help Rick 'catch up' on what he has missed in the first few weeks. She begrudgingly agrees to meet him in the library after school twice a week (honestly, the valid reason to not be at home is welcome). She soon realises that Rick needs no help whatsoever when it comes to the curriculum. At first she's bothered that he wasted her time but when he tries to charm her into continuing their tutoring sessions, she caves fairly easily.

I think you can probably fill in the blanks from there.

Anyways, I'll stop rambling now and let you read...

Enjoy : )

She focused on the soft drone of wheels against tile and the rhythmic clack each time they hit grout. She focused on the pattern; how it remained steady, like her stride.

Drone, clack. Drone, clack.

Predictable. Reliable.

Like her, but so unlike him.

He was a disruption; wily and unpredictable. She barely knew him, knew she shouldn't trust him, but for some unfathomable reason she did.

Her eyes fixed to his back, following his lead as he navigated the crowd. There was a part of her - a big, loud part of her - that knew he shouldn't be here. She'd had this planned for years now: get on the first train out and never look back. She would start fresh somewhere new, somewhere different, somewhere she could be anyone she wanted to be without the baggage of the past weighing heavy on her.

But here he was, ruining her plans.

If she was honest with herself, despite the unsettling feeling that this was going to end in the most heart-breaking, soul-crushing way (because that's just how things went for her) she wouldn't want it any other way.

She wanted to believe that he was sent to her: the universe's way of righting wrongs, of giving back the source of happiness it had taken from her and bringing light back into the darkest parts of her life. Her head cautioned her, reminded her why blind faith was never a good idea, why she had to stay guarded and question everything.

Your happiness is limited.

Their love is conditional.

Nothing lasts forever.

At just eighteen she was jaded, cynical. But her heart, yearning to be freed from the cage she had put it in at such a young age, was so ready to risk it all.

"Doesn't it bother you?"

Kate reached for him, her fingertips just barely brushing against the inside of his elbow but it was enough to stop him in his tracks.

Rick turned to face her, looked at her with those steel-blue eyes that could so easily pierce her armour and see into the very depths of her soul.

"Bother me?" he asked.

"How cliché this is?" Kate clarified. "It's very... teen romance movie."

The corners of his mouth curved into a tight smile. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

He looked down to her hands and very carefully took them in his, lacing their fingers together. He stepped closer and she felt the rest of the world fade away. In the middle of Grand Central Station, in the peak of the knock-off o'clock rush, she could have sworn it was just the two of them.

"Isn't it?" she questioned, her voice so soft and unsure.

"Not at all," he reassured her, his confidence unwavering. "You say cliché, I say familiar. It's comforting."

"You're romanticising," she scolded.

"Again, you say that like it's a bad thing," he countered without missing a beat.

Despite the frown on her face, his smile remained.

"Despite what Mr Donovan - who only became a teacher after a failed attempt at becoming an author, may I add - spent the last six months trying to teach us, clichés aren't inherently bad. There is a reason stories become cliché. There's a reason people will go back and read those books or watch those movies again and again."

"Yeah? Why is that, Mr Know-it-all?"

"Because it's... promising. It's reassurance that despite your reputation - earned or not - and despite how the world views you, there's always someone out there that will see through the façade." He placed his finger under her chin and tilted her head, forcing her eyes to meet his. "There's always someone that will see you for who you truly are and will love you regardless of what anyone else thinks of you."

"Are you that someone, Rick?" she asked hesitantly, her heart beating erratically. "Do you love me?"

His hand slipped to the back of her head, fingers combing through her hair as he pulled her close enough to rest his forehead against hers.

"You gonna tell me how foolish I am for it?"

She huffed out a laugh, weakened by her nerves, and shook her head. "No."

"Then, yes," he whispered. "I do. I love you."

He leaned in and kissed her tenderly; a hundred assurances on his lips.

She would never claim to know everything there was to know, but one thing she had known from the moment she met him; her life would never be same.