Steven

I looked in the mirror, smoothed back my hair and stepped outside.

"Damn! It is cold!" I turned on my heel and grabbed my leather jacket then continued my journey outside. Snow was beginning to pile up on the roof of my Viking houses. I tossed my wings onto my back and seamlessly took off into the sky. The cold winds bit my nose and ears as I flew; I squinted my eyes and scanned the ground for Lizzy's place. We were meeting for dinner to discuss a bunch of Christmas stuff, I'm really not too sure. Lizzy is the holiday queen and I'm sure she had something planned this year since Devin will be joining us.

"HOWDY, NEIGHBOR!" A voice yelled from below; a smile broke out over my face as I swooped down to meet Lizzy. I stumbled over a rock and fell into a bush. "You boys are terrible at landings."

"It's only because you've got rocks everywhere." I replied in fake spite as I pulled myself up to my feet.

"You got a bunch snow in your hair." She giggled and wiped the white specks out of my chocolate brown hair. "Come on in." I stepped through the doorway and took off my jacket.

"Man, it's freezing out there." I hung up my jacket and slipped off my work boots.

"Looks it, your face is all red." We moved into the recently finished kitchen that smelled of chicken stir-fry.

"How's the plumbing holding up in here?" I asked as I sat down to a plate of steaming ramen, chicken and vegetables.

"Great, thanks to you." Lizzy grabbed two sodas and a notebook and joined me at the table.

"Trust me, it won't stay that way for long. My pipe burst yesterday."

"You're a great plumber, it'll be fine. It might have been the cold."

"Yeah, maybe." I took a bite of the dinner. "So, about Christmas..." I started.

"Yes! Christmas!" Lizzy opened her 'Notebook of Ideas' and flipped around the pages. "I was thinking that maybe you should host it this year, since you have plenty of extra space that I don't have but, I'll probably bring the food as usual."

"Why can't Ben host it? I'm terrible at hosting and he has a better living room."

"That's the thing. Did you tell him about the whole Devin what-not?" She grabbed her Coke bottle and did a whole twist-then-pull action and the cap popped open.

"Which thing? You wanted me to tell him a bunch of stuff. Also, can you open mine?" I passed Lizzy my Coke and she went to open it; I've never been able to pop the cap without an opener.

"That you should tell Ben about how he should ask Devin to go to Damian's Christmas party." She passed my now open bottle over to me.

"Yeah, I did that. I honestly don't think that Ben will ask him though."

"Exactly!" Lizzy pointed her fork at me. "Since I am the person that I am, I thought all this through. You tell Ben about Devin, now Ben has that idea in his head, but he's too chicken to go through with it. Devin now has the next move. I'll watch him at the party and if he looks over or talks to Ben more than once, we can assume that Devin feels the same way, but I pretty much know that he does. Next, it's our party on Christmas day, before the party I will talk to Devin, you'll talk to Ben and hype them up. Since it'll be only us four, so I can pull a 'Hey Steven can you help me with this' which will leave Ben and Devin alone together. From then on, it is no longer our problem. We can't control what they do, so we just hope that one of them has the guts to do SOMETHING."

"That sounds so psychopathic but genius at the same time."

"I get that a lot." Lizzy laughed.

"But still, why can't Ben host it? He has the most space and if he does host it Devin will have to thank the host and do all that stuff."

"If Ben does host, he will be too focused on hosting and keeping his place nice rather than focusing on Devin." Lizzy explained like this was the most normal thing to do. I nodded along and took another bite of the food.

"What about the gift situation because I know you have another big idea for gifts."

"Indeed, I do; all you and I have to do is give mediocre gifts. Nothing too amazing that will take the spotlight away from what Devin and Ben will give to each other."

"So, I'm assuming you want me to ask around and find out what Ben wants for Christmas so I can tell Devin and vice versa." I said; I knew Lizzy well enough to know exactly what she wanted me to do without even saying it.

"Yep. I'm thinking that maybe Ben should give Devin a brand-new pair of wings, emphasizing 'brand new.' We don't need another incident."

"After Ben gives him the present, he could monologue and say something along the lines of, 'I was saving these for myself, but you were more important.'" I added putting on a weird accent for Ben's voice

"That is one Disney Channel quality monologue." Lizzy congratulated.

"That bad?" I chuckled.

"Yes." Lizzy took another chug of her soda. "So bad it might work."

"No!" I backtracked, "Ben will NEVER get a date if he uses a pick-up line like that."

"Or a pick-up line in general." She joked. We tried our best to hold back our laughter. "Actually though. We need to think of something."

Ben

"Damian's Christmas is in a couple days and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" I asked my reflection. "No that's stupid...Hey, are you going to Damian's Christmas party? You are, me to! If you want, we could go together. No that's even worse." I racked my brain for a non-cringy way to ask him out.

Steven told me to ask Dev out today. Today is almost over and Devin is still quote unquote single.

"Like he would even say 'yes' anyway." I left the bathroom mirror and jumped onto the couch. This was the problem with asking someone out. You ask them out and they say no, you're crushed, they say yes, your problems are solved, but now you have to do relationship stuff. If you don't ask them out you will always wonder what would've happened.

"There's a two out of three chance that this ends badly." I commentated. It was easier for me to understand my problem if I talk through it. "But it's fifty/fifty chance things will go wrong if I ask him, but there's 100 percent chance that things will go wrong if I don't ask him." Why does life have to be so hard? "Just man up!" I scolded myself. "Just send a text and improvise from there! How hard can it be?" I picked up my phone and opened up my text messages.

Ben- hey

My finger hovered over the 'send' button. My stomach churned and my palms began to sweat. 'Just! Press! Send!' I internally yelled at myself. In a sudden burst of confidence, I pressed send. I stared at the message waiting for a response or something, anything!

*read*

"He read it!" I celebrated.

Devin- sup

I laid out across the couch and typed out a response.

Ben- how's life

I sent the message and pored over the phone waiting for another message like a teenage girl.

Devin- pretty good you?

Ben- good. R you going to damians christmas party?

My hands began to tremble as I turned our 'conversation' towards the matter at hand.

Devin- Yeeeeeeeeee <----Me in any online conversation (@Tomato0428 can prove it)

Devin

I sat with my knees up against my chest as I watched the three little bubbles signifying, he was typing. 'Come on, come on, write faster!' I thought. Just then, Mercedes jumped up onto the bed which made me scream from the sudden noise.

"Gosh dangit, Mercedes! Quit scaring me like that." I pulled the little gray kitty into my arms and rested my chin on her coat. *Bzzt* "He texted me back!"

Ben- me to. Wanna come with me?

"YES!" I jumped up as Mercedes tumbled onto the comforter with her claws out in effort to not fall onto the ground. "He asked me out! Aren't you excited!" I threw my arms up in the air in pure joy; after the quick motion my phone flew out of my hand and behind the headboard of the bed. "No!" My phone fell all the way down to the floor, underneath my bed, behind the headboard. How is someone supposed to get all the way down there?

Ben

I hunched over my phone waiting for a response while I petted Ziggy and my leg bounced nervously.

*read*

"Breathe, just breathe, he'll respond." I tried to calm myself down, but it didn't seem to work. The bubbles weren't showing up. 'Why isn't he texting back?" I started to panic even more than I already was. 'Did I say something wrong? Does he not like me back? Backtrack! BACKTRACK!' My fingers were faster than the kids in the Lego commercial as I typed up a response. (My favorite line in this whole chapter)

Ben- as a friend

I tossed my phone on the couch and I stood up and started to pace back in fourth with Ziggy staying on my heels, expecting to go on a walk or get food.

Devin

Using the Swiffer I had standing up in the bathroom, I was finally able to whack my phone around to a place where I could finally grab it. I felt it buzz and I eagerly unlocked it and found my messages.

Ben- as a friend

"What do you mean 'as a friend!" I screeched. "You asked me out! No take-backs!" My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I tried to come up with a cool, witty response.

Devin- k

"Why does Ben have to be like this?" I asked the cat. "He could've just left it at 'wanna come with me' it's perfectly acceptable and now I don't know what he thinks!"

"Meow."

"Like you could've done any better, you don't have thumbs." I contradicted.

"Meow!"

"Fine, I'll get your food you little nugget." Mercedes weaved around my legs and nearly tripped me to get ahead to the tuna.

1,718 words. Were all the POV changes confusing for you guys? It wasn't confusing to me but I think it might for some people, just let me know and I'll change it but I'm pretty sure most chapters won't POV change that often. Yes, I know the ending was bad, you don't have to spam me in the comments.

Also, I really love writing interactions between Lizzy and Steven, they have such a special bond and I freaking love it. (BTW Lizzy and Steven are not 'together') That's about it for today, so yeah.

Love y'all!

--Kio