"You probably shouldn't have just gone, you know."

"Ya sound like my mum, ain't no big deal, no one was even 'ome anyway. I ain't exactly a kid, Olive. Mum treats me like one enough as is."

Olive blushed a little and wrinkled her nose at Enoch's sarcasm. "I didn't say you were." She reached for his hand and found it tucked into the pocket of his coat instead of open for her. He had been stoic and unresponsive as ever all afternoon except for the twenty minutes in which he'd consented to hold her hand during the movie. Enoch hadn't seemed in a good mood at all, not that he ever really was, but Olive could certainly see a difference, since the day he'd faked sick last week and nor had he been inclined to tell her what had happened after she left. Olive wasn't surprised at all by that, in fact, she would have been more surprised if he had told her anything but she was sure it at a lot to do with Enoch's extra sour mood lately.

Did she feel sorry for him? Very much, and she knew far better than to tell him that. Enoch wouldn't take pity, he'd be insulted instead of seeing it like she cared about him. And boy, did she care about him. Even if it hardly seemed fair to just say "care" anymore.

Despite it being the longer way, much to Enoch's chagrin Olive had managed to persuade him to walk home with her one of the park ways. Coming towards the end of January, it had finally snowed with more conviction and body than it had done for several years in London. A snow that was more assuredly snow and stuck to the ground rather than melting into slush before a flake could land. It probably wouldn't last long, and would melt away soon enough but Olive wanted very much to enjoy it while it lasted.

A sudden, and completely mad, idea stuck her and Olive couldn't help a wide, amused grin stretching across her face as she let go of Enoch's arm where she'd relented and held that instead of his hand.
He clearly noticed and stopped on the spot suddenly enough that Olive didn't realise for a step or two. She turned to see Enoch staring at her slightly suspiciously.
"What?...What's so funny?" If his raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes didn't scream suspicion his low tone certainly did and for a moment Olive was sure he'd just read her mind anyway. It seemed he could do that sometimes.

"Nothing!" She chirped perfectly innocently, like she wasn't imagining how Enoch would react if she threw a snowball at him, and Enoch didn't seem to buy it at first.

"Uh huh..."

"Seriously." Olive hopped back over to stand in front of him and smiled up at him. She could practically feel the blood in her face rushing to her cheeks against the cold. "I'm just happy. You know I'm a happy person."

"Understatement of the bloomin' century." Her boyfriend scoffed but seemed convinced enough as he gently nudged her shoulder as he stepped around to keep going.
Olive lingered just half a second to bend down and gather a handful of snow the moment Enoch was a few steps ahead. She held her gloved hands behind her back, compacting the snow together behind her, and ran a few steps to catch up, huffing and pretending to be frustrated.
"Enoch, your legs are a lot longer than mine, you could wait for me."

"Could. Probably won't." He shrugged with only a cursory little glance at her, giving no indication that he knew what she was up to.

There were two possible outcomes of Olive going through with it. One, Enoch would glare at her but be as determined to win as she suspected he could get, and retaliate. Or two, and it was probably a lot more likely, he'd huff and get annoyed with her and proceed to ignore her for the rest of the day. Even if that was the case, and he did get annoyed with her for a little bit, Olive very much wanted to find out. She stole a look around. They were nearly alone anyway, no one would think anything of it if they saw at all. Enoch would be the only one who cared in the least.

What the heck?

Olive hopped in front of him, bringing Enoch to a sharp stop an inch away from her, looking down with a raised eyebrow and she raised herself up on her toes like she was expecting a kiss.

"No, Olive."

She just pouted. "Oh come on, you sourpuss, you'll be in a better mood."

"'oo says? There's people 'ere."

"Hardly, and I don't get why you care so much about that. Please?"

"No."

"I'll make you."

Enoch rolled his eyes and took a step backwards. Apparently Olive was not as intimidating as she thought she was.

"Ya 'bout as intimidatin' as a duckling, Olive."

Evidently, Enoch could read her mind. Olive glared at him, ice water was starting to trickling through her fingers as she took a deep breath, summoned her daring and brought her hand around to splat the snow right on the side of his face and neck.

For what seemed like an awful lot longer than the five seconds it really was, Enoch didn't so much as bat an eyelid and every anxious beat of her heart seemed magnified to Olive's ears. It was going to be outcome number two. Definitely. Undeniably. She was going to regret that.

"...Are you seventeen or seven?"

"Are you seventeen or seventy?" She retorted and Olive bit her lip as Enoch still gave no indication on his face, other than wrinkling his nose, of what he was thinking.
He reached up to wipe away the snow from his face and then a shudder passed through his entire body as it must have trickled down his back. She watched as his eyes flickered past her and around, as if he was scanning their surroundings.

"Ya gonna regret that."

For a moment she really thought she might as Enoch's whole face suddenly twisted into a glare. Then the unthinkable happened. Enoch bent down, slowly, purposefully, and Olive had only a second to move. So she did. She squealed and leapt to the side before Enoch could grab her and then suddenly, completely and wonderfully unpredictably, it became a game of sorts. He missed the poorly compacted handful of snow he'd flicked rather than thrown at her and Olive was running like she was a child again, laughing and weaving behind a tree. Enoch definitely had speed on her, even if she rarely saw him speed up faster than a brisk walk, but was it really terrible if he caught her. He was letting go of his hatred just for a minute and that made her happier than anything else did.

She could hear him following and then suddenly he came the other way around the tree where she had been trying to escape and she hurtled headlong into his chest with a laughing shriek as Enoch's fingers closed around her wrist.

He wasn't quite smiling, not as she'd seen once, just that little, almost there smile he had sometimes when he was vaguely amused or agreeing with her.

"No. No, no, don't..." But she couldn't stop giggling even while she half-heartedly tried to pull her hand away and squirmed away from the threatening handful of snow that Enoch held aloft. Then she was laughing and he'd had no qualms at all dropping it right on her head.

"Enoch!"

"You 'ad it comin'...What? You're lookin' at me weird."

Was she? Olive had frantically tried to shake the icey water from her hair and wipe it from her face but inevitably she supposed she was staring at him. His fingers were still wrapped around her wrist, holding it up between both of their chests like he didn't realise he was still holding her there.

"I'm not, I'm just...I haven't seen you really have fun before."

That wasn't all. Of course it wasn't. Olive was completely head over heels in love with him and she didn't even try to deny it. Enoch made her happy, ironic as it may be for someone who never was happy himself, and she'd fallen for him very hard some time ago. Telling him anything of the sort however, was a completely different matter, she was scared he'd just close right up and become all awkward if she told him, so she didn't. But Olive was determined to see him happy. If he made her smile, it was every bit as important for her to do the same for Enoch, and this was the closest he'd come yet, she was sure of that.

"Didn' say it was fun."

"I know. But it was pretty close."

xxxXxxx

"I ain't some stupid novelty for old bags to gawk at." Enoch grumbled.

"You're not, or we're not?"

"Either. Or both, whateva."

Olive rolled her eyes. Enoch had come so close to forgetting to care about being in public, and even let her tug him down by his collar to give her a kiss when some elderly ladies in vain hope of feeding some bird mad enough to be around in the weather, had said something none too quietly about young love and Enoch had seized up completely.

He had relaxed a little by the time they turned onto her street but was still muttering under his breath. That on a whole didn't matter to Olive, she'd seen what she had been dying to see and that was enough for her for now. There was no car in the drive as they stopped in front of her house, which more than likely meant her father was at the station and her mother too was out.

"Well whatever you think, or say, I had fun. I'm glad your maybe was yes."

This time Enoch rolled his eyes in response though the corner of his mouth did twitch into half a smirk that did not go unnoticed by Olive as she stepped forward. Her hand flitted to his shoulder as she hopped up on her toes to kiss his cheek. The moment her fingers applied the slightest bit of pressure Enoch hissed suddenly and his smirk turned into a grimace of pain. Olive immediately backed off and her eyes widened.

"What is it? Are you-"

"Fine." Enoch snapped immediately but his hand went to his shoulder the moment Olive's left it. "I'm fine, just...scraped it on a branch or somefin' runnin' after you."

Olive couldn't help cringing as she watched a muscle twitch in Enoch's jaw as he rolled his left shoulder and pressed his fingers against it. Now that she looked, his coat was slightly torn and looking close enough she could see the green of whatever he was wearing under it.
"Do you want me to look at it? I ca-"

"Not particularly. Kinda smarts but it's fine."

"Enoch, it might be bleeding."

"I fink I woulda noticed, Olive, just leave it."

"Not all covered up you might not. I'm not completely helpless you know, if I stings like that, it can only help to look."

Enoch glared at her and her eyes followed his to the front door. She could practically see all the comments he was actively trying not to say to her.

"Will ya shut up 'bout it?"

"If it's nothing, yes." She shook her hair back off her shoulders and tried to square off with him as stubbornly as she could before raising an eyebrow and hurrying up the stairs to the front door before turning and looking back at him expectantly.

When Enoch didn't so much as move at first, she sighed. "Enoch, you're hurt because I was really silly. Please?"

"Oh don' go bein' all soppy and apologetic about absolutely nofin'..." He groaned and Olive could see his resolve weakening. After a few more seconds he followed her more slowly up the steps. "Fine. But I'm bloody fine."

Yes, I know you're fine. It was silly, but Olive couldn't help thinking it and had to bite her lip with her back to him to keep from smiling. Had she been anyone else in that moment Olive might had actually let slip the comment that foolishly popped into her head automatically while she fished her house key out of her pocket.

"Mum?!" She called as she stepped inside and closed the door behind Enoch lumbering uncomfortably into the house behind her. She had been right. No one was home. Her father would have both her head and Enoch's if he'd known but Olive didn't care about that now. It was just for a minute so she could satisfy herself that Enoch wasn't hurt on her, or anyone else's account.

Enoch looked as uncomfortable in her house as he had the first time. Like he felt like he didn't quite fit in, but she knew if she asked him the answer would have been that he never fit in anywhere anyway and he liked it that way.

"You worry way too much. For cryin' out loud it's probably just a scratch."

"That stings when you put pressure on it and ripped right through your coat. If you're going to be so annoyed with it at least put up with my worrying for half a second so that I can stop, Enoch." She rounded on him in the middle of the entrance way and Enoch's eyebrows disappeared into the few curls over his forehead.
"And you don't need to be so uptight, my parents aren't home."

"I ain't uptight...whateva." He grumbled and Olive was satisfied enough that he was coming along a little more willingly as she walked through into the living room. "An' if they do come 'ome?"

"It'll only be a minute. They won't. Dad will be at the station all day and...well I don't know where Mum is, but it's entirely appropriate that I just want to make sure you're fine and no-"

"You're over justifying, Olive. I don't really care."

"Sorry." Olive felt herself blush and stopped talking as she sat down on the couch in the well-lit room during the day and patted the cushion beside her to gesture for him to sit. "Umm..."