Author's note: If you havent read Saving Elliot, this one-shot does contain a spoiler, so beware! this is takes place about two years before the events of SE! and just a note, if it says 'canon' below the title of the story, it means the events/characters is offical to saving elliot/the story. if it says AU (which stands for Alternate Universe) it means, the events/characters diverge from the original plot/world of saving elliot. e.g. an AU would be, Jensen and Fintry meet as rivalling spies for MI6. Hope that's clear.

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Story: Saving Elliot

Type: Canon

Pairing(s): Christopher Finley/Benjamin O'Connor

Summary: In which Finley stumbles across fluttery, complicated feelings for his best friend.

⇹

Landed in a very common crisis
Everything's in order in a black hole
Nothing seems as pretty as the past though
That Bloody Mary's lacking in Tabasco
Remember when he used to be a rascal?

⇹

CHRISTOPHER FINLEY IS fourteen years old. It's four days before his fifteenth birthday and he's at Danielle Richmond's house party.

Why, he doesn't fully understand because he's not even friends with Danielle Richmond and she's a year older than him (and way cooler). Finley suspects its because she has a crush on O'Connor and only invited him because he's best mates with him.

And also, it's a Sunday, like, who throws a party on a Sunday?

Do cool people get the privilege of throwing parties on a Sunday?

Finley is a little bit tipsy, hey, he's only had a few jagerbombs (okay like five) but that's only because Karsten Richter challenged him to a drinking contest and the last thing you wanna do is decline a challenge from Karsten Richter. He's crazy okay?

If you decline he'll punch you for being a pussy and if you say yes and win, he'll punch you for beating him. If you say yes and lose, he'll punch you because...well, because you're a loser. So, Finley lost the drinking contest and Richter punched him in the stomach for being and he quotes "a little bitch who can't hold his drink". Finley refrained from pointing out that he's only fourteen so he can't be expected to do that.

Feeling winded from the punch, he leaves the crowded kitchen and starts looking for O'Connor because he's had enough of this party and wants to go home. He didn't even want to come to this thing in the first place, for crying out loud its almost one o'clock in the morning on a Sunday and he has a French test first thing on Monday. The majority of the people here are in Year Eleven or the first year of sixth form and Finley is neither.

Jensen was right, he thinks sourly, he shouldn't have come, then again Jensen is always right so he shouldn't be so surprised at this turn of events.

Not even five minutes after they had arrived and O'Connor ditched Finley for the first girl who batted their eyelashes at him. The living room is even more packed with gyrating teenagers and unbearable sound of S Club 7 (Why? Why S Club 7? Is all he can ask himself.) He feels his mobile buzz in his jean pocket, he pulls it out and funnily enough it's a text from Jensen.

JENSEN, 00:10 AM : How's the party? You pissed yet?

(O'Connor and Tam love to make fun how she texts so formally.)

(He considers telling her about the fact he just got punched in the gut by Richter but decides against it. Jensen would just get those demonic rage-fuelled moments and rush to the party just to beat Richter up for him. He really would like to avoid that.)

FINLEY, 00:11 AM : terrible and nah im not.

FINLEY, 00:11 AM : y r u not asleep

JENSEN, 00:12 AM : I had to finish the English coursework we have due for next week and make a revision timetable for the exams.

FINLEY, 00:12 AM : omg, u dork. the exams r like 3 months away

JENSEN, 00:12 AM : Yeah but I don't wanna end up homeless and dead??? That's your future not mine.

JENSEN, 00:12 AM : By the way, are my brothers there?

FINLEY, 00:12 AM : which ones jensen, you have like 42

JENSEN, 00:13 AM : HA, hilarious.

JENSEN, 00: 13 AM: Mac and Arthur. Are they there?

JENSEN, 00:14 AM : Cause they're grounded but I bet they try and come to that party.

FINLEY, 00: 14 AM : don't think so, i haven't seen em.

JENSEN, 00:15 AM : Hmmm.

JENSEN, 00:15 AM : Whatever. I'm going to sleep. They can deal with mum in the morning she finds out they're not in their bedrooms.

JENSEN, 00:15 AM : Don't get too drunk, Fin. Night x

FINLEY, 00: 15 AM: lol, we'll see. goodnight xxx

He shoves his phone back in his jeans' pockets. He looks up and spots Kopov and Goodwin near the bay window in the living room. The two boys are talking to another as they wear amused smiles, curious as to what is going on and more than eager to create as much distance between himself and Richter, Finley walks over to them.

Kopov sits on a leather armchair with a beer in one hand and his mobile in the other. Since all the seats are taken in the living room, Goodwin has to sit on the armrest of the chair as he leans forward to laugh at something on Kopov's phone. Goodwin and Kopov glance up at him then.

The Russian's boy grey eyes meet his and he grins. "Alright, Finley?" Kopov says.

"Fin, you gotta see this," Goodwin says and nudges Kopov, "hey, show him."

Kopov's grin widens as he lifts his phone to Finley's face. Finley's eyebrows rise. It's a picture from last week's footy match of Jensen kicking the ball right into Theodore West's crotch. West's face is captured in a moment of terror and pain as Jensen looks on in steely determination.

Finley laughs, "Oh my God, who took that?"

"Tamara," he says, "she posted it on her Facebook last night. I couldn't believe it."

Finley looks at the picture again and bursts out laughing. It has fifty likes, including Kleo Sampson and the Jensen twins. West must have said something sexist (like he always does during their footy matches) to Jensen and she snapped and kicked a ball into his crotch. Despite the amount of times, Jensen keeps beating him down, the guy doesn't stop pissing her off. Finley bets its because West likes being beating up by her. The guy's a wierdo.

"I'm making this my wallpaper on my phone and on my laptop," Kopov says as he looks back at his phone, "This is just too good, I am never going to let West forget this."

Finley glances around in hopes of seeing O'Connor.

"Hey, where's Jensen?" Kopov asks him.

Finley looks back at him. "Oh she didn't wanna come," he says, "she said she had better things to do with her time than and I quote go to some sweaty party."

Kopov pouts, "Damn it, I really wanted to see her drunk."

"What kind of drunk do you think she would be?" Goodwin asks.

"Violent," Kopov grins, "and really, really wild."

Finley nods in agreement. "Have you seen guys seen O'Connor?"

"Like ten minutes ago," Kopov says, "he was talking to Danielle Richmond. I swear if he snogs her tonight I'll...I'll give Karsten Richter a kiss on the mouth myself!"

Finley grins, "Is that a bet?"

Kopov is quiet for a few moments and then he nods, "Yep! Cause there's no way, O'Connor's gonna get her, she's in the year above and she's, like, one of the fittest girls in our school. No way."

This is brilliant. Finley really wants to see Kopov kiss Karsten. He knows for a fact, Kopov's gonna lose some teeth or his life. Definitely one of the two. Goodwin and Kopov shake hands on the bet as Finley laughs.

He opens his mouth to tell Kopov, he should call his dentist for an early appointment when two familiar voices interrupt him.

"BONJOUR BITCHES!"

The three boys look over to find none other than Mac and Arthur Jensen standing in the doorway of the living room. The sixteen-year-old twins are holding two large vodka bottles in their hands as they grin at everyone. There's a moment of silence before the whole room erupts in ear-shattering cheers.

Kopov says, "The Jensen twins are here and you know what that means?"

"What?" Finley says.

"This is officially the coolest party we've ever been to."

Mac's hazel eyes land on Finley, he pats Arthur's shoulder and makes his way towards them. He leaves Arthur to talk to a pretty dark-skinned girl.

"Fin!" Mac says and pulls Finley into his side. He glances down at him, "you're so short, how tall are you?"

So, Mac's close to six foot and Finley just reaches his shoulders but his mother assures him he's going to be tall. His father went through his early teens being five foot six before he sprouted up three inches over the summer. Finley hopes this growth spurt will just come already.

He ignores Mac's question, "Why are you guys here? I swear you're grounded."

Two weeks ago Arthur illegally bought from some fireworks from some shady store in Chinatown and Mac tried to set them off in their back garden. One of the fireworks landed in their neighbour's garden and set the doghouse on fire.

"My mum said we're grounded until Monday," Mac says and glances at his wristwatch, "it is now twenty-three minutes past midnight and it's officially Monday."

Finley stares at Mac for a few seconds, trying to understand how this guy or his brother haven't been sent to prison. He laughs and shakes his head. "You're ridiculous."

"My sister told me you won't join the footy team," he says.

Finley sighs. Elliot Jensen's defining trait is her stubbornness, she has this laser-sharp determination that no one could ever match or dare to stop. It's one of the things, he admires about her but sometimes, it's just too much.

"Just can't be arsed," Finley says but it's more like, he's scared he won't make the team. He's heard Mr. Clarke's highly selective and just brutal when it comes to enlisting new players. He doesn't want to break down and start crying in front of the team like the last guy.

"Bullshit," Mac says, pushing loose ringlets of his blond hair back, "I've seen you play, you're fucking amazing. Look, Mr. Clarke's having tryouts this Thursday and when he sees your moves, I guarantee you're gonna make the team."

Finley bites his lips. "Uhm...I don't know, Mac."

"C'mon what do you have to lose?"

"My life?"

Mac rolls his eyes, "I can read you like a book, I know you want to be on the team. I've seen you lurking about during footy practice."

"I wasn't lurking--"

"I'm serious Fin."

Finley doesn't say anything. It would be great to be playing footy with Jensen and O'Connor. Finley thinks of how proud his father would be to see him out on the sports field and the rush of making a goal or winning a match.

"Alright, fine," he says, "I'll go for the tryouts if it'll shut you up."

"Yes, Fin!" Mac grins and ruffles his hair, "alright, I'm gonna get piss drunk."

Mac pats his back and turns around, heading towards the kitchen. Finley sighs and glances over at Kopov. "I'm gonna go look for O'Connor."

Goodwin and Kopov nod as they go back to laughing at the picture of West.

By the time Finley forces his way out of the cramped room, he's been elbowed eight times and groped twice.

"Okay," he mumbles to himself, not quite believing that someone tried to slip their hands down his pants. "Okay, I'll...I'll just block that, yeah...I...yeah."

The hallway is plastered with people either snogging or laughing their arses off at some drunken joke but there's no sign of O'Connor. Upstairs is pretty much the same and again, no sign of O'Connor. He's getting antsy now, partly because he's fed up of this party and mainly because he needs to get home before two o'clock.

O'Connor promised that much. It's only after another five minutes of searching that he finally finds him. He's walking down the stairs, feeling scarred from walking in on a couple in the middle of having sex, when he bumps into O'Connor.

"Fin!" He exclaims, nearly making him jump, "Fin, oh, dear Fin where've you been?"

Finley frowns, leaning close to peer at him, "are you drunk?"

He shrugs, "m-maybe...ma-maybe not, but Fin! Fin! That doesn't matter because you'll never guess what?"

"What?"

"I snogged Danielle Richmond!" He says and he's grinning now.

He's about to respond, say something about wanting to leave , when he's blindsided by the sheer brilliance of his grin. Benjamin O'Connor is always smiling or laughing one way or another but its usually to either mask some bullshit story he's spinning or to charm a girl.

This one reaches his eyes, coloured a golden brown and bright with mirth, bringing a flutter of unwanted butterflies into his stomach. This one, Finley thinks as he stares rather unabashedly, this one is gorgeous.

He's gorgeous and -

Oh shit.

Shit.

A small gasp escapes his lips when O'Connor cups his face and leans dangerously close. He says, "Fin, did you hear me? I said, I kissed Danielle Richmond. The fittest girl in Year Eleven. I kissed her!"

Oh God, he's blushing. He knows it, he can feel the heat spreading across his cheeks but he's suddenly thankful that O'Connor is too drunk to notice. Finley swallows and says, "yeah I heard, uh...well done?"

O'Connor's hands are warm on his cheeks and that smile is going to be the death of him. He almost protests when O'Connor lets his hands slip from face and instead, he slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls him close.

Shit.

Shit.

He really shouldn't have come. Oh why didn't Jensen force him to say no?

O'Connor is still grinning, this time singing along to the Akon track, obviously delirious from finally kissing Danielle Richmond. Something warm is settling in his chest as he watches O'Connor, he can't stop looking at him. He can see the tiny barely visible freckles smattering his nose and cheeks, his blonde hair is mussed up, falling across his forehead in messy waves and his mouth, he's never noticed how lovely it is, he has full lips like bows and they're red and a little swollen from the make out session with Danielle Richmond.

He feels a twinge of - of - something, something not at all pleasant at the thought of O'Connor kissing her. He should be happy that he kissed Danielle, because it means Kopov has to kiss Richter and that's going to be so fun to watch. But at that moment, he just feels strangely bitter about it.

Music is still blaring, O'Connor is still singing, the party is in full swing and Finley realises that he's fucked.

Totally and utterly fucked.

Monday morning comes and Finley tells himself what happened at the party was totally down to the alcohol. He did have, like, five yaegerbombs so it makes sense.

It makes sense until O'Connor flashes him one of his blinding grins during their French test in second period and anything French related just vanishes from his mind. Finley ends up staring at the back of O'Connor mop of messy blond hair for the rest of the test, entranced by the series of freckles, like constellations, on the back of his neck. When the forty-five minutes are up, Finley glances at his paper sees he's written nothing but Je suis.

Oh he's definetly failed. Whatever. He reassures himself that the test is only worth ten percent and he can always resit. French is his easiest subject, he could do this with his eyes shut. Which is probably why Miss Durand gives him a look of deep disappointment when he hands in his test.

Again, anything French related vanish into thin air when O'Connor bumps Finley's shoulder and laughs.

"Jesus, what happened to you in there?" O'Connor asks, deep brown eyes filled with mirth. "Finley, you wrote like two words."

"Uh, I don't know," Finley scratches the back of his head, "Guess I kinda spaced out."

"Did I tell you I snogged Danielle Richmond?" O'Connor asks, that bright grin is back and Finley has to look away. It's all he's been talking about.

"Yeah, like twenty times," he says, fighting a frown, "you don't have to keep telling me. So...what are you two dating now?"

O'Connor shakes his head, "Nah...thinking about asking her out though, I mean, she texted me this morning and wanted to know what I'm up to this weekend."

"Uh, great," Finley dredges up a smile, "I think you're in there."

O'Connor proceeds to grin and his sling his arm over Finley's shoulder. He whistles as they walk to their next class and it takes everything in his power not to lean into him.

It's only when Finley sees the black eye Kopov's sporting at lunch that he feels infinetly better about this whole situation.

Finley laughs, "Oh my God, did you actually try to kiss Richter?"

Kopov throws him a glare, "Obviously! I barely leaned in and the guy socked in me the face."

Finley laughs so hard he bangs his head on the floor and has to go to the nurse's office.

It takes Christopher Finley approximately two months to accept that he has a massive, heartstopping crush on Benjamin O'Connor, (his flirty, womanizing best friend who just happens to be a boy) and not long after to realise, he might be bisexual.

It's all because of Sabrina Dunst really. She was his first kiss and his first girlfriend.

It's three weeks after Jensen's fifteenth birthday and he's walking home with Sabrina Dunst, a petite auburn-haired girl in his R.E class. They stop by the front gate of her house, which is two streets away from his apartment block , when Sabrina pauses and looks back at him.

"You okay?" he asks.

Finley's eyebrows furrow when she takes a step towards him and rises up onto the tips of her toes. She presses their lips together and Finley freezes. He expects to hate it, he really does because all that's been rattling through his mind for months now is O'Connor, O'Connor, O'Connor but he finds its not so bad. Her lips are soft and warm and he kisses her back. She tastes of strawberry bubblegum and he finds likes it, he likes it a lot.

As soon as their lips part, the brown eyes and blond hair and bright smile of a certain Irish boy come flooding back into his mind.

Sabrina smiles, "Sorry, I just...really wanted to do that, I hope you don't mind."

Finley blinks, surprised to find that he doesn't mind. He doesn't mind at all. He smiles back, "It's okay."

"Do you...Do you maybe want to go out?" She says, "You know, go see to the cinemas and watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall? I heard that's pretty funny."

Finley looks at her for a moment. O'Connor's smile flashes in his mind and he pushes the image away.

He nods, "Yeah, okay."

He dates Sabrina Dunst from early April to late June.

He ends it when O'Connor kisses his cheek after they win a footy match and tells him how dear Finley is to him. He debates breaking up with her for a whole week until he comes to this simple conclusion.

He likes Sabrina Dunst. She's kind and funny and caring. Everything he wants in a girlfriend.

But.

But she's not Benjamin O'Connor.

That sunny Tuesday afternoon in early June is the first time he's ever had to break up with someone and his heart breaks when he sees the tears brimming in her eyes as she sniffles and walks away. He doesn't get the image out of his head or the clawing guilt for months after. Jensen and Tamara are baffled as to why he broke up with Sabrina, for ages they won't shup up about it.

"She was perfect for you," Tam says a few days after the break-up, "You were so cute together, Christopher, what the hell happened?"

He glances at O'Connor, heart stuttering at the way the sunlight catches his blond hair. He looks back at Tamara's expectant gaze and shrugs.

"It just didn't work out," he says.

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Author's note: GAAh, i dont even know how i feel about this. i wrote it one night and i kinda missed the characters of SE so i was like why not. it came out way longer than i expected but finley is such a babe. anyway, i hoped you enjoyed this litte snippet into finley's life before SE.

- Rose xoxo