•All of Oliver
•early May XX47 - early June XX47
•Oliver's POV
•Contains: cursing, food
•maybe it isn't all that healthy to be going back to dating after what had just happened to him, but maybe oliver deserved a little bit of happiness in his life, too.
(in other words- five times oliver vaguely wanted to kiss grace, and the first time he actually did, because the author is a sucker for a 5+1 story layout)

•~~~~•
(1)

May 1st, XX47. Oliver had survived the move, and so far he'd survived it for a month.

It was actually surprising for him to realize- which he did, at lunch that very day, sitting across from the only friend he'd managed to make in the time he'd been in Nevada thus far. He didn't see himself making any more, but that was fine. He still had trust issues but overall just needed someone to help keep him sane. When he moved he'd expected to become the quiet kid that no one knew, who just sat at the back of class doing nothing, so where he was at as the second "weird" kid was better. Slightly.

He still didn't have to talk to anyone he didn't want to engage with.

"What are you eating?"

Oliver looked up from his single protein bar. He showed Grace the wrapper with a shrug, and they raised an eyebrow.

"You not hungry?"

"Eh."

Grace opened their lunchbox- they were probably the only person in school who brought a legitimate lunch, weren't they?- and proceeded to throw him a cosmic brownie. Oliver tapped his fingers on the lunch table a few times.

"Oh. Thanks."

"No problem!"

Yep. That was all he had right now. What the hell was he gonna do for college, anyway? He wasn't even sure if he still wanted to go. He had dreams of becoming a teacher but at this point it'd be easier to just work at a gas station or something for the rest of his life. Teachers hardly get a better paycheck, anyway.

He glanced at Grace. She was a lot quieter than you'd ever expect her to be, especially when you got to know her. They had a lot to say but at the end of the day were more content with silence. They sure had their life worked out too, it seemed. A part-time job, a car, and parents that would probably pay for their college was a lot to ask for at seventeen. Even if they ate the exact same thing for lunch everyday it seemed like shit was gonna work out for them. Surely.

"You had prom, right?"

Oliver looked up yet again. Grace was blinking semi-rapidly, something they did often. "What do you mean?"

"You had prom at your old school before you moved? I just realized, you got here like a week or two after ours happened."

"Oh." He shifted in his seat. "Yeah, uh, the day before I left was my school's prom, actually."

"Ah, okay. I'm glad you got to have it." It wasn't all that good.

"Yeah."

"Ours was pretty boring this year, though. I mean, never had it before since I'm a junior but compared to my past homecomings it was boring. A lot more slow dancing that I didn't take part in."

"That's... yeah. Pretty similar, ours were."

Grace laughed. "Mhm, maybe we could dance at next year's. Uhm, might as well."

"Yeah, that'd be fun."

Grace's reaction to his answer was a bit odd, and she had seemed hesitant to say what she'd just said before, but she smiled and took a bite from her food nonetheless. Oliver began opening the brownie he'd been gifted.

Funny that he'd been in a relationship by now and had never slow danced before. Or maybe it wasn't that funny. Surely it couldn't be that hard, though. If Grace knew then they could teach him.

That would be fun, wouldn't it? Slow dancing with Grace.

Slow dancing... with Grace.

Oh shit.

The tips of Oliver's ears began to burn- it felt like a 50 pound weight had just been dropped into his stomach, and like all the air in his body was struggling to escape him.

Oh shit, he thought.

Not this again.

•~~~~•
(2)

Crushes were painful, and upon the horrible realization that Oliver had one on his only friend in the entire world, his first instinct was to try and avoid her as much as possible, just in case this turned into another Joe situation, but hypothetical avoidance caused problems in itself. It left both of them with no friends, unless Grace had friends outside of school, but either way Oliver wouldn't have any and currently that would just suck. It would also be kind of a dick move to just ghost them with no explanation. At this point it was best to just ignore it, and it would go away with time. They could get to college and drift apart naturally for all he cared. If he even went, he still wasn't sure if he was even meant to have the opportunity.

He wouldn't even have the opportunity to think about it unless he had good grades, though. Presently they were sub-par but a lot worse than they'd ever been. And now finals were in less than a month, so it's either dig himself into the pit he was already standing in or allow himself a single strand of hope and... study.

Grace asked him if he wanted to study with them, so that seemed to be the option he was gonna take. Only problem was that upon getting together, both realized they didn't know how.

Sitting on Grace's floor, books and papers sprawled out around them, it was easy to feel lost.

"So..." Grace picked up a paper, skimmed it for a moment, and then let it fall to the floor. "What do you usually do to study for stuff?"

Oliver only blinked. "I was gonna ask you that."

"Oh- hah, were you a 'gifted' kid in elementary school, too?"

"Yup. But I rode the wave for a while, I'm really only now hitting burnout."

"That's lucky." They looked down at the stuff on the floor once more. "Well... the finals are just gonna be question and answer, right? We've taken finals before. Let's just look at the study guide and go through it. We can test each other."

"That works."

"What do you wanna start with?"

"Uh, I got the math one right next to me."

"Oh, great," Grace jokingly rolled her eyes. "Fun. You wanna just do the problems, compare answers, and then check our work. We're both in the same math, right?"

"I think. I'm in Algebra III. Wanted nothing to do with pre-calc."

"Hey, me neither." She laughed a bit. Oliver was being a bit more talkative today, that was nice. He grabbed the study guide and moved to hand it to Grace so she could look at it, which caused their hands to brush for a moment as the paper was passed over, and Oliver quickly re-coiled. Grace apologized seemingly without noticing his hesitation, and then Oliver pursed his lips and wondered why he was being so hesitant in the first place.

No, no, that had an obvious answer. His life had just been threatened only a few months before, of course he was gonna be hesitant the minute he gets a crush on a new person. But at the same time, it was Grace. And at a similar time that's exactly what he had told himself before, and he'd been wrong.

Unless his hesitation was just a barrier he'd accidentally put up to stop himself from healing?

"Oliver?"

Shit, time exists. "Oh, sorry. Zoned out. Uh..." he took a quick breath and looked at the sheet Grace was holding, where they were pointing to the first math problem.

"So we can just do it real quick and then-"

"It's x = 5 +/- 4√10, right?"

Grace went silent. They glanced down at the paper. Oliver gulped.

"U-uh, y'know, 'cuz... that's the algebra II review chapter, and with the 10 and the 25 it would make the one part a 5, and then you just kinda... simplify the other half, and..." damn it, "I could be wrong, I don't know."

"No, no, that makes sense, I think..." Grace took a quick glance at the answer sheet and hummed. "You're right, yeah."

"Oh."

They smiled. "You're really smart, huh?"

"Well, I mean, it wasn't... I don't know. It was more me having a decent memory."

"My memory's shit, I guess you just got lucky." They grinned, followed by a laugh, and Oliver chuckled a bit alongside them.

Okay. Maybe this wasn't that bad.

•~~~~•
(3)

Finals were now a week away, and besides the day Oliver had studied with Grace he hadn't bothered to do anything else in preparation, still being torn between how he wanted his future to turn out while also dealing with academic burnout for what might be the first time in his life. Grace gave him plenty of tips but it was all just a lot of effort he didn't wanna put in to anything. He'd been getting those tips, though, by avoiding the studying and hanging out with Grace, which could become a problem in itself because the repression Oliver initially signed himself up for wasn't working very well.

Which is where he was at this moment, watching YouTube in her bed. There were textbooks on her desk on the other side of his room, they could very well study together again if they wanted to but Grace seemed to be procrastinating it about as much as he was.

During an ad on the video they were watching Oliver opted to open Instagram on his phone, which was something he'd gotten recently and after Grace followed him a bunch of other kids at the school had found his account in their suggested and followed as well. It was nice to have something new to scroll through at the very least.

He started tapping through people's stories and came across one of a bunch of kids from their school at some birthday-party-campfire situation, and Grace glanced over to his phone and saw it as well. Oliver then felt bad because half the kids in the photo were the girls Grace hung out with and they sure as hell weren't invited- not that Oliver was either, but still, it must sting.

"Looks fun," Grace then mumbled, in an almost salty manner, which surprised Oliver a bit. He hesitated to move to the next person's story, looking up at them.

"You... good?"

They sighed. "I'm just excited for summer when I don't have to see all them."

"I thought you liked talking to them? I mean, you seem to, you go talk to them a lot."

"Well, I-" they paused, blinking a few times at Oliver. "You know they don't like me, right?"

Oh. Well now Oliver felt weird, he thought Grace was the one who didn't realize that. "Yeah, yeah I can kinda tell, just- you act pretty nice around them, so I don't know."

The video had started again by then, but neither were paying attention to it. Grace's finger hung over the pause button for a moment, but her hand ultimately returned to her side. "I didn't realize they didn't like me until highschool, but to be fair I don't think they did stop until then, I just... I remember a weird shift in their demeanor around me. But it's easier to act like I didn't notice."

"Shit, that... sucks." Oliver was apparently really bad at comforting people.

"Don't feel sorry, I didn't mean to open such a sucky conversation," they laughed a bit, "just a little salty."

"...And I guess I don't know how to comfort people, so, yeah."

Grace laughed at that too, and patted Oliver's shoulder a few times, so Oliver patted Grace's hand once they'd put it down, but by the time their attention had turned to the video their pinky fingers were just about intertwined.

Terrifying, but Oliver chose to stay silent about it. It was nice. Momentary happiness was better than ruining the moment.

•~~~~•
(4)

Finals came, and finals went, and ultimately both Oliver and Grace got through them, even if it was difficult. By now it was the last day of school, and their last period teacher had been nice enough to give them coloring pages and crayons to relieve stress and give them all at least one class period of peace before their senior year began.

Grace and Oliver were in their little area of the room, off in a corner away from pretty much everyone else, only sharing a few words and mostly listening to the movie the teacher had also put on. Looking over, Grace was coloring in a rainbow, and Oliver then glanced towards where the more popular girls were sitting together. He furrowed his eyebrows a bit, making a small confused noise which caused Grace to look up at him.

"What?"

"I'm just..." he looked back, "this is an all-girls christian school."

"Supposedly, yeah. I mean, look at us."

"Right. But how the hell are we the only queer ones? Usually you hear about non-co-ed schools having a shit ton of gay people."

Grace snickered a bit, continuing to color. "We're definitely not the only ones, I've seen kids around that give me a vibe, it's just that most of them are underclassmen and everyone also has their own little groups already so we don't really come into contact with them at all."

Oliver rolled a crayon back and forth on the floor. "Y'know, that one girl you said you were friends with in elementary, she's probably gay."

"Amanda?"

"Mhm."

Grace sighed. "We'll let her figure that one out herself."

Oliver remembered the bi flag that hung in Grace's room. He knew she was bi and some flavor of non-binary and she knew he was trans but they never really talked about it, did they?

"You're bi, right?"

"Bi and demiace, yeah."

"Oh, cool." Might as well go all in. "Yeah, uhm... im pan and ace."

"Oh, sweet." Grace smiled, then looked him up and down and began tapping their fingers on their drawing, a bit nervously. They looked at the clock. Oliver looked as well.

"How can you read those things?"

"The what?"

"The clock, unless it's digital it always takes me forever to tell what it says."

Grace chuckled. "Yeah, me too sometimes. We have about five minutes left, though."

"Cool."

Their coloring continued. Oliver noticed Grace was checking the clock about once a minute. It was understandable, once the bell rang they'd officially be out of school for summer. By the time it was one minute to the end of the school day pretty much everyone in the room seemed restless. Grace was tapping their crayon on the drawing repeatedly, until they sighed and decidedly let it drop out of their hand with a determined look on their face.

"So- hey, uh, since we're both gonna have a pretty clear schedule in a minute I was thinking we should go do something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, I was thinking we could maybe get Dunkin together, walk around a park for a bit or... just chill, something like that, y'know?"

Oliver let out a breath, becoming very aware of himself in that moment. If this was what he thought it was, then...

"Like, a..."

Grace gulped. "Like, uh, like a date, yeah."

Shit. He considered it for a moment, but ultimately was scared of taking too long to think, and tried to hurry himself up. He wanted this, didn't he? Yes. He really did. He just didn't think they'd want it just as much, or even enough to ask him. He thought pretending like he didn't want anything to do with Grace that didn't involve friendship would work, and that he'd start to believe it himself, but clearly it hadn't. At this point he might as well just go for it, right? Terrifying, sure, but... might as well.

"Uh- yeah, sure, that sounds fun."

Grace gasped lightly and then grinned, fingertips tapping their thumbs one by one. "Oh, really? Good! Okay- great! Uhm- I'll text you, yeah? We can figure something out? No pressure, doesn't have to be soon, but I'm excited, yeah!"

"Me too, me too." He let himself smile, and then the bell rang, so they packed up their few items without another word and rushed, along with everyone else, to get everything left out of their lockers and out the front doors of the school. Grace and Oliver walked out at the same time and shared a happy wave before Grace ran off to her car and Oliver was left standing amidst a sea of teenagers.

They parted around him, and soon enough he was left, ready to walk home. It was summer. And something new was about to go down. For better or for worse, though?

He started on his walk, finding a pebble to kick down the sidewalk with him. "I mean..." he mumbled, "I like being around them. I know the signs of when something weird is going on. If something starts to happen I'll catch it before it does, and... I don't really see how this could go all that bad."

•~~~~•
(5)

After texting about when and where and the details of everything that was to come, Oliver and Grace were in a bit less contact than they usually were, as nerves were building up and somehow it became embarrassing to text each other. About two hours before Grace was supposed to pick Oliver up, though, Oliver realized something simple that was wrong with this plan and that was that he had no idea what the hell he was supposed to turn up in.

Only thing he could really do was text her, right?

He started with a pretty simple hey, but of course that one text wasn't enough so he quickly followed up with so wtf am i supposed to wear to this thing?. It appeared that the text had been read, and a bubble on the other side formed but then quickly disappeared, and then suddenly Grace was requesting a FaceTime call. A bit out of the blue but Oliver hit the answer button, coming face to face with his date, who was laughing and seemingly laying in bed. Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing, just- the hey made me nervous but then you were like- oh my god, I don't even know. Sorry," they calmed their laughing, Oliver letting out a small snicker himself. "Right. I called so I could help you pick something out."

"Oh, sweet."

The two decided on something relatively casual, since it was just to Dunkin and the park, and Oliver threw a jacket on too because he still wasn't used to what "warm" meant in Nevada compared to Florida. The time came that Grace pulled up to Oliver's house, and they drove not very far to the same Dunkin Donuts that Grace worked at, since they were the only person between the two of them with both a car and a license.

Upon walking inside the tired teenager behind the counter greeted Grace by name with a smile, which made sense considering they were probably co-workers. The two shared a small smile as Grace walked up and began to order, Oliver ordering just a donut after her. Once they got their food they found a table by a window and sat, there only being one other customer in the eating area.

Once the two were settled, it took a moment for conversation to get going, both still reveling in the realness of the situation they'd gotten themselves into.

"So, uh..." Oliver pushed his donut a bit on the plate it was sitting on, "do you like working here?"

Grace held back a laugh. "Hell no."

"Wait, really?"

"Just because there aren't that many benefits in the long run. Or at all."

"Why are you still here, then? Do your parents want you to be working?"

"No, they told me I didn't need to worry about getting anything part-time until maybe college because they'd be there for all that, but then I started coming here multiple times a week and the employees started knowing me by name and I wanted more stuff to do outside softball season, and then I found out they were hiring, so... yeah. Here I am."

Oliver blinked a few times, hands folded on the table. "...You play softball?"

"Oh, yeah." Grace laughed and took a sip from whatever drink they'd gotten. "Forgot you didn't know that. It's kinda sad, you moved when you did and pretty much missed the entire season. I was out of school the week before you came anyway, though. Had to miss some of it myself."

"Huh. Well I know nothing about sports, but... good for you."

"Neither does any of my family. It's funny."

"Hah- yeah."

"But, uh... Dunkin. It's okay. I'll quit after I graduate highschool, sure."

"Interesting place to have a first date."

Grace took notice to his mild teasing and snickered, jokingly rolling her eyes. "Okay, okay. But it's a delicacy. Just because it's causal doesn't mean it's bad."

"That's true."

"I mean, take places like McDonalds and In-N-Out. Decent food there, too, even if it's just some other fast food place."

Oliver pursed his lips. "I've never had In-N-Out."

"What?!"

He chuckled, "Grace, I moved here from Florida, all we have there is Chic-Fil-A and... that goddamn place is everywhere in this country. What's down there that isn't here? Uh... Waffle House. We have the occasional Waffle House."

"Is Waffle House good?"

"No. Not at all."

Both laughed a tad. "I guess my new goal in life is to get you to admit here is better than Florida."

"That's not hard, you're absolutely right. Florida adds nothing to this world."

"A little harsh, but yeah."

"We might as well saw the entire thing off of America and let it drift away with everyone living there."

Grace raised an eyebrow, smiling. "You don't have any friends back there?"

Oliver took a bite from his donut. Hypothetically, would he let Joe and Sage drift away with the rest of Florida? They weren't his friends anymore, really, so...

"Nope. Let it burn. Or sink."

"Cheers to that." Grace grabbed her drink to clink it against Oliver's, but then quickly realized he didn't have one. "Awh man, I can't even cheers you."

"I wasn't thirsty."

"Ugh."

Oliver chuckled. "What is yours, anyway?"

"Medium iced cappuccino with oat milk and six ice cubes."

"Six?"

"I started counting one day and realized I almost always get given six so now I just ask for that."

"Huh. Nice."

The two ended up staying in the Dunkin Donuts for longer than they'd expected to, until it was too dark for them to want to walk around a park anymore. They'd decidedly gotten what they wanted out of the date, though, and so after they cleaned up Grace drove Oliver back home. They stopped in front of his house and Oliver unbuckled his seatbelt, preparing to say goodbye.

"Well, uh, thank you. That was nice."

"Yeah, it was." Grace smiled. "Glad you enjoyed it."

"Heh, yeah."

"Uhm, would you wanna go out again some time? No pressure."

"Sure, yeah."

Her smile widened. She glanced down to her lap and then back at him. "Okay."

And there it was. Oliver was ready to get out of the car, but he couldn't. For some reason, it felt like he had to do something first, and he was pretty certain in what that was but all in all, was he really up for that quite yet?

Looking him up and down a few times, Grace put a steady hand on the armrest between them. "Why are you nervous?"

"I... don't know."

"Well, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking then I'll just say this, you don't have to kiss me."

"...Oh?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine, I mean... it's just one date. It's a causal thing, y'know? No rules, we're just doing what we want right now, we don't have to make strides forward now or ever."

Oliver let out a breath, and leaned back in his seat. "Right."

"So, it's chill if you aren't ready for that, per say."

It wasn't really that he wasn't ready- he was perfectly willing, and it seemed Grace was too so there really shouldn't be anything stopping him. But the thought was still terrifying. God, he wanted to so badly now, but one wrong move and he'd forget who he was kissing and freak out because of that. It wasn't worth it- not yet.

"...Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uhm, I'll text you. Have a good night?"

Grace chuckled, smiling. "Take a breath, dude. Goodnight."

Laughing away the nerves, Oliver patted Grace's hand before getting out of the car and walking up to his doorstep. He looked back once he was up there, watching their car drive down the road and out of sight. He quickly got himself in the house and up to his room, where he threw himself onto his bed with a huff.

He took a deep breath then, and took his hair out of the bun it was always up in, letting it lay behind his shoulders. Turning on his side and rubbing his face he saw a picture on his desk.

The one picture he still had with his Florida friend group- the one picture he didn't have the strength to get rid of. He got out of bed and walked over to it, taking another deep breath as he did so, and once he was over there he carefully picked it up, flipped it upside-down, and let it sit back on the desk.

He really couldn't have a new start if he was still thinking about the past so much, could he?

•~~~~•
(+1)

It was only a week after their first date when Oliver found himself laying in bed once again, just to receive a new text from Grace.

<Two questions:
<1. Are you busy today?
<2. How chill are you with
impulsive plans and trying
new things?

lmao what do you
wanna go do>

<Answer😡 /lh

i'm not busy and i'm decently
chill with impulsivity, then>

<Yaaay okay
<Dress fancy
<I'll pick you up at nine

where are we going?>

<You'll find out when
we get there!! :)

Simple. Dress fancy, be ready by nine. He chuckled to himself and got out of bed, deciding he might as well pick out his outfit now if he was supposed to look nice.

The only relatively "fancy" thing in his closet, though, was a pair of suspenders he could pair with a button-down shirt. Looking at himself in the mirror he looked decent enough, but he also looked like a freshman at his first homecoming, but to be fair the outfit was practically what he had wanted to wear. Whatever worked.

The day went by pretty slow and Oliver spent most of it wondering where he was gonna end up, but when nine came Grace showed up as promised, dressed in a turtleneck, maroon plaid overall dress, knee-high socks, and what now seemed to be her "signature" mushroom earrings. He got in the car and fastened his seatbelt, both looking the other person up and down.

"Where are we going, then?" Oliver started by asking as Grace took the car out of park with a smile.

"You'll find out when we get there."

"Is this expensive? Is that why you said to dress fancy?"

"I told you, you'll find out when we get there."

"Right. Well I promise I can pay you back as soon as I get-"

"No, no, no, don't even. I wanna pay for you."

"Are you sure?"

"My main love language is gift giving, now wait until we get there."

Oliver chuckled and glanced out the window, but trying to see where they were going through visual cues wasn't going to help because they were getting on a highway and he still hardly knew his way around town. It was best to just stay quiet and wait like she said, he guessed.

About ten minutes passed, and at some point in that time Grace had turned on the radio for some background noise, but suddenly they were off the highway and they pulled into the driveway of not a fancy restaurant, but... In-N-Out?

"Why did you tell me to dress fancy if you're taking me to-"

"You'll understand in a sec! Do you like cheeseburgers?"

"Doesn't everyone?"

"My mom doesn't. Okay. I'm getting two cheeseburgers and a thing of fries we can share."

"Got it."

Very confusing. Grace ordered and received the food pretty quick, and the smell of fast food filled their car as the two drove a bit further until they pulled into a mall's parking lot. There were a few cars here and there but for the most part they were alone, and there wasn't another person in sight. A little creepy, honestly, but Oliver brushed it off, momentarily letting himself trust her. Grace got out of the car and he followed.

"What the hell are we doing? Are we gonna break in to have dinner or something? Are the nice outfits for our mugshots?"

Grace laughed, beginning to put the food they'd gotten on the front of the car. "No, silly, we're having a little picnic. Come on."

Grace climbed up on the car with ease, sitting right on the hood with their legs dangling in front of them. They patted the spot next to them, so Oliver sighed and tried to lift himself up, but quickly discovered his height combined with his lack of strength and the height of the car were all working against him.

"I literally have no upper-body strength."

"Seriously?"

"Your car is kinda tall."

"Oh my gosh- okay, hold on."

She grinned and got down, taking a step towards Oliver, who looked her up and down. "I really doubt you can lift me up there, if that's what you're thinking of. I'm not-"

"You doubt it?"

"I do, yeah."

Grace took another step and made a move to pick him up, hesitating for a moment to see if he stopped her, but he didn't, and with only a bit of struggle Oliver suddenly found himself sitting on the front of the car. He looked down at his sudden seated position and Grace took a step back.

"...Oh. Huh."

Grace started laughing and climbed back up, reaching into the In-N-Out bag to hand Oliver his cheeseburger and place the fries between them.

"So... we're here now, right?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Can you tell me what this is now?"

Grace grinned. "I don't really know."

"Oh my god-"

"Look, look," they were laughing again, "I saw something somewhere about sitting on the hood of a car with someone in an empty parking lot and I thought it was a cute idea."

"Why'd you make me get dressed up, then?"

"I don't know, the aesthetic of it? Come on, it's cute, right?"

Oliver glanced around. He looked down at the burger in his hands, and then looked back up. "Yeah, I guess."

"Hah." They took a quick bite from their food. "I also just wanted to get you to try this."

"I guess that works."

Oliver took a bite from his own burger, and it wasn't too bad. Definitely wasn't the best thing he'd ever had either, but it was decent. "Not bad. Better than Waffle House."

"That's a relief."

They ate in mostly silence, besides the occasional shared word, and even though they haven't known each other for long it's a pretty comfortable silence. By the time they were done eating they were really just enjoying each other's company, but of course Oliver remembered that this was a date, and maybe he should actually try to hold their hand or something like that, considering that they still hadn't done a thing like that.

He put his hand in between where they were sitting, idly testing the water. Grace took notice after a moment, and then gestured to the hand with their eyes. Oliver tapped his fingers and then nodded, so the two intertwined their fingers between them and Oliver let out a small sigh.

Let yourself relax.

"I feel like we need a blanket or something."

Grace chuckled. "It's June."

"So?"

She laughed quietly at that, and Oliver smirked a bit, looking to the side. "You're pretty funny, Oli."

Oli. His smirk faded, and he looked down to his lap with a hum. Didn't think that one would come back.

"...You don't like nicknames?"

"Huh?" He looked up, "Uh, not really that one, but..." he trailed off, and then shrugged.

"Hmm. What about Olive?"

It didn't even cross his mind at first that Olive was just a more feminine version of his own name, but he truly didn't mind, he knew who he was. Grace didn't seem to realize it anyway. "Olive?"

"Olive."

"Uh... sure."

"I could call you Liver, too."

He chuckled. "Now that's just weird."

"No, it's funny," they grinned.

"Right." Both laughed a tad. "What do people usually call you?"

"Depends. My parents call me GG sometimes."

"GG?"

"For Grace Galanis. Some people call me Gracie, too, even though that's just a longer version of my name which goes against the definition of a nickname, but it's fine. That's all I can really think of."

Oliver gently kicked the back of his feet against the car, staring down at the paved parking lot beneath the car's wheels. "...Had a guy back in Florida that called me Bubbles."

"Bubbles?" Grace echoed, confused.

"He was... weird. Not a fan of that nickname either."

With a giggle, Grace squeezed his hand, and Oliver felt a little more at ease. He barely concealed a smile, and the two settled into silence for a bit, Grace eventually looking back over at him.

"Could you hand me your trash?"

"Oh, sure."

He grabbed the In-N-Out bag sitting next to him, and Grace scooted a bit closer to grab it from him and add it to the pile of their own trash. Everything was set off to the side, and Oliver took note of their closeness.

"Hmm."

"What?"

He looked her up and down, "You just did that to move closer."

Grace raised their eyebrows, failed to hide a smile and let out a small snort of a laugh. This sent Oliver into a chuckle, and Grace went along with him. It died down after a moment.

"...Yeah, maybe."

"Maybe," Oliver mumbled back.

The two looked at each other for a moment, and Grace began tapping her fingers on her dress. Their hands shifted in the other's grasp, and Oliver blinked a few times to himself before looking away. He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. He suddenly felt awkward for no apparent reason.

"You're nervous again," Grace pointed out.

"Yeah."

"Everything okay?"

"Mhm, just..." there was a lot he could say next. Nothing seemed correct. "...can I be honest for a sec?"

"Yeah, go for it."

He gulped. "Uhm. I don't... actually have anything against kissing you."

Grace stopped tapping their fingers, but then began to do it a bit faster. "Oh."

"Yeah. Just, kinda... I get a lot of anxiety lately with romance-related stuff. So it's... eh."

He really was trying to improve himself. He was trying to improve the way he generally felt about things too, stop letting his past guide him, if he didn't get over it now he probably never would.

"That's okay. Just take your time. This can't work unless both of us are content, so..." she smiled gently, rubbing the back of his hand. "Relax a bit. I'm just happy I get to sit next to you here."

Oliver took a deep breath and nodded. He glanced at her lips for a moment, and hesitated a few times, before finally deciding on what to say. "Well... maybe you should just kiss me, then."

A small laugh. "Really? You sure?"

"I'm just saying, if you want to, I'm..." he gestured vaguely, "here."

They stared at him for a moment, a small breath of a laugh passing through their parted lips. He realized their face was definitely a bit red, and he'd be surprised if his own wasn't as well. "I've never done it before."

"It's not that tricky."

A quick smile and Grace let go of his hand in favor of placing her own flat on the front of the car behind them. She began reaching a hand up to his face and hesitated to let Oliver say if he wanted that or not, and he wasn't sure for a moment but ultimately nodded, placing a hand of his own on her side. A jolt of goosebumps flew through his arms and face, and he just did his best to ignore it. With a deep breath he closed his eyes, promising himself that when he opened them he'd be in the same place he was when they closed. He felt Grace move a bit closer, but then they stopped.

"Holy shit," was all they muttered. Oliver opened his eyes, and they were grinning nervously.

"You haven't even kissed me yet?" He muttered back. Grace snickered.

"Shut up, you're making me do everything around here," they said sarcastically, "I paid for both of our dates thus far."

Oliver hummed. "I think it's because you're taller. What happened to your love language being gift giving, though?"

Grace ducked their head and laughed, before taking a deep breath and looking back up. Oliver forced down any urge he still had to laugh and tried to let himself relax again- at least if they both got through this it would be easier in the future, right? His eyelids fell closed, and he felt breath on his lips until Grace leaned all the way in.

At first it was surprising- surprisingly soft. It certainly wasn't something Oliver was used to feeling, and as he settled his face only grew warmer. He kissed her as well as he could back, until she was the one to pull away, what felt like a moment too soon.

As they pulled apart Grace retracted their hand as well, so Oliver took away his, and there was a silence between them for a brief moment until the kiss found its way to the front of their mind. It was a lot better than Oliver ever thought it would be, that was for sure. He kind of wanted to do it again. No, that would be too much.

Their hands found each other's. Still mildly terrified, Oliver squeezed Grace's hand, and she squeezed back.

"...Well?"

"Huh?" Oliver looked up at them. A gentle smile had graced Grace's face.

"Was it okay?"

He pondered the question for a moment. It was more than okay. "...Yeah, actually. I'm pretty comfy now."

"Oh- good," Grace chuckled, "Uhm, I really liked it. Thank you. I'm glad you're not feeling as anxious anymore.  That was... good."

"Hah... yeah. I really, uh..." he trailed off. Ugh, feelings. He was already saying a lot more than he expected himself to.

"You really what?"

He pushed up his glasses again, fingers falling to his cheek, and he felt where Grace had held it for a moment. His hand dropped to his side.

"I really like you."

"I really like you."

They leaned against each other. There was still a picture of his Florida friends sitting on his desk at home, but it was upside-down. He didn't have to look at it. He'd much rather look at this.

•~~~~•
oliver rlly said "im not gonna ignore my emotions" and then found a different way to ignore his emotions
also i'm really only continuing this because i'm trying to turn this entire series into a non-tss related thing (which won't ever be on wattpad/etc but anyway) and i need somewhere to get the backstory for these two out sooooo yea

See ya in the next one!