"Why can't I have a cigarette?"

"Already told you, good girls don't smoke."

"I swear to fucking God-"

"And I swear to fucking Lucifer -"

"I'm being serious, Eddie. Please? I've had a rough night. I've never smoked before, I just want to try it once. "

They'd been having this argument since Eddie backed his van up to the shore of Lover's Lake, throwing open the back doors of his vans. It had a few blankets and pillows bunched into a corner back there that Eddie spread out so they could sit in the back and overlook the lake as he lit up a cigarette.

Willow has never wanted to smoke before, but watching the way he relaxes as he exhales the smoke makes her feel like she's missing out.

"Smoking gives you cancer," he says, blowing the smoke he just inhaled from what is almost a butt now away from her.

Willow scoffs, "You're one to talk."

"Exactly! I should be like, on the cover of every pack of cigs as to why you shouldn't smoke!" he puts out the butt into the ashtray by his thigh, dramatically putting on an accent Willow doesn't recognize as he says, "Don't smoke, or you'll turn out like this dude - a Devil worshiper !"

"I don't think the cigarettes caused that one," Willow muses, looking up at Eddie from where she's now settled her head on his shoulder. It's comfortable and he hasn't made her move yet.

"No?"

"No, it was probably all that shitty music you listen to."

Eddie immediately gasps, glancing down at her with an open mouth, "Take that back . We aren't having this argument again - my music taste is heavenly, deal with it."

Willow simply shakes her head, giggling, "I'm not taking it back," they go quiet for a bit and Willow watches the serenity of the lake. There's a few sparse ripples from the summer breeze blowing over it. Something about the peacefulness of the moment makes her feel the need to get vulnerable, just in the slightest as she offers reassurance, "In all seriousness, though, I don't think the music you listen to makes you a scary Satan worshiper, or whatever rumor Jason spreads."

"You're right, it was definitely the three kids I sacrificed out in these woods that makes me that," Eddie deadpans, clearly not feeling as vulnerable as her as he fumbles with his pack of cigarettes again, pulling another one out. Willow tries to reach out to snatch the pack from him, but he's quick to pull it away from her and give her a smack on the wrist, "Ah, ah. Careful doll, or you'll be number four."

Doll . Something about that nickname gets to Willow, maybe due to how new it is to her still. Eddie had worn out Red, and tested the waters plenty with sweetheart. And while those still triggered a certain giddiness in her chest, doll struck her somewhere deeper.

"I was trying to be nice, asshole," she scrunches up her face as if she's mad, but it's no use. Eddie is smiling widely around his cigarette as he brings his lighter to its end and flicks it alight.

He sucks on the cigarette for a while, pulling it away and breathing deeply before the smoke shoots out the corner of his mouth farthest from Willow. He does that, she notices - puts in the effort to keep her separate from the smoke. He's also holding the cigarette in the hand not pressed against her currently.

"Flattery doesn't work with devil worshipers," he says as he exhales more smoke with each word.

She sighs dramatically. " Clearly ."

"I'll make you a deal," he moves abruptly, and Willow removes her head from his shoulder.

"Another deal?" Willow's interest is peaked, excitement brewing at the prospect.

"Another deal, but this one expires tonight," Eddie grins sitting cross-legged and turning towards her, "You go swimming with me in the lake, I'll let you have a cigarette."

Willow's excitement immediately deflates. "What? No, I'm not swimming in the lake."

"Why not? You want a cigarette so bad, that's my offer."

"Because it's cold, and I don't have a bathing suit, and-" Willow cuts off her list of excuses at his excited grin, "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"Who needs a bathing suit?"

Not a moment after he's said this, he's suddenly jumping up and throwing himself out of the back of the van.

He couldn't possibly mean-

Willow stays seated, stunned and watching him suddenly yank his shirt, shoes, and socks off.

It's only once she sees him fumbling with his belt as he begins to run towards the lake that she starts to follow him frantically. "Edward Munson, we are not skinny dipping!"

"Okay, we aren't skinny dipping!" He calls out over his shoulder.

"Exactly, so why are you taking your clothes off ?" She stresses as she grabs up his discarded shirt, clutching it tightly.

He drops his pants, and Willow squeaks as she reaches up to cover her eyes, "Relax, Red!" He calls out loudly over the distance between them. He's almost reached the lakeshore, "Underwear stays on, scout's honor!"

She removes her hand slowly, bringing it down limply to her side as she watches him in exasperation; he's down to his boxers, and running straight into the water. He lets out a quick yell as the water sloshes against his thighs. Willow takes her time making it closer to the lake, to him, and by the time she's no longer far enough they have to shout, he's in the water to his shoulders.

"Cold?" She asks him, a distinct 'I-told-you-so' tone lacing the word.

He shakes his head wildly, water splashing up his neck, "Nah, warm as a bath. Why don't you find out for yourself?"

She drops his shirt she had picked up on top of his pants, making sure they stay on a dry patch of land. She's looking at him like he's insane - he is insane. But something in his wild smile and the way his hair is beginning to plaster against his cheeks makes the insanity contagious.

"You're lying," she states plainly, but she's already reaching down to untie her shoes.

"Am I?"

"You are. I better get a cigarette out of this."

"Of course - a deal's a deal."

His eyes are wide and expecting once she's barefoot, her hands trembling at the hem of her shirt.

Was she really about to do this?

"You don't have to-" Eddie starts to deter her, realizing she was nervous, taking back his peer pressure, but she doesn't give him the chance - she pulls her shirt up and lets caution fall with it to the pile of their clothes now. "Shit."

He's speechless. She's shirtless and he suddenly can't form a single word.

"Can I negotiate up to two cigarettes?" She laughs nervously as she tugs on the fly of her pants and begins to shimmy them down, staring at the ground so he can't see her blush.

She's never been this close to naked in front of a boy.

"I..." he trails off once she starts to step into the water, leaping back once she feels just how freezing it is, "We can talk renegotiations once you're actually in the water."

It's now or never. As she stands at the edge of Lover's Lake, in nothing but her underwear, she feels a tide shifting within her that matches the ripples surrounding Eddie. They both know it's not about the cigarettes anymore. It's not even about Steve anymore - her entire breakdown in the parking lot is long forgotten. This is about Eddie, for her. This is about the way he's looking at her like no one else has ever looked at her; he's looking at her as if he has no doubts she'll get into the water, as if she's the bravest person he's ever met. Everyone always expects her apprehension. Steve and Robin are the ones to fight monsters, not Willow. Willow is the sensible one, the smart one, the control freak who never lets loose. She is too delicate to handle the real world.

Until she met Eddie. Eddie doesn't treat her delicately. He treats her as his equal, expecting her to wade right into the unknown at his side. In two weeks, she's grown more than she has her entire high school career.

"You okay there, Red? Water's only getting warmer," he teases her, wading out farther into the water.

Instead of replying, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

And then she runs.

The rocks sting her feet at first, but suddenly she's splashing into the water and squealing, Eddie cheering her on as she quickly makes her way to the depths he's floating in.

" Fuck, shit, Jesus Christ - it's fucking cold , Munson!"

He's cackling at her once she's at his side in the water. "That's my girl. Forgot you had the mouth of a sailor."

"You know," she pauses, teeth chattering as she wildly kicks her legs to stay afloat, too cold to acknowledge what he just called her, "It's been scientifically p-proven that cursing h-helps with pain."

"Really? God, I love when you talk nerdy to me," he takes a couple strides backwards, putting distance between them, "Come on, swim. It'll warm you up."

She listens to him. He backstrokes away, and she follows persistently, never letting him get too far from her. She can't stop moving, can't let herself think too hard about what she's doing. She's almost skinny dipping in Lover's Lake with Eddie Munson, her fake boyfriend.

And she's having fun.

By the time they're nearing the center of the lake, Willow has become numb to the cold. Her shivering ceases as Eddie suddenly splashes at her, giggles shaking her instead.

"Hey! No fair!" She squeals as she splashes him back.

He gets a mouthful of water, spitting it back up before looking at her, "Oh, it's on, Red."

Suddenly, he's splashing her rapidly, and at some point, she returns the favor. It's a flurry of water arching back and forth between them and it's impossible to know who's getting more attacks in as they both become soaked. She finds herself swimming back towards shore backwards as she continues splashing, using her feet some through her laughter.

"You're gonna drown me!" She gasps after a particularly large wave hits her right in the face. Eddie stops immediately, looking at her with concern.

"Shit, sorry," he apologizes, and starts to swim towards her without malice. Right as he does this, her feet brush against the bottom of the lake again, once more in shallow water. She keeps up her injured acting, dramatically rubbing the water from her eyes.

Just a little bit closer, she thinks.

Once Eddie is not even a full foot from her, reaching out to make sure she's okay, she attacks. She swings her arm and the wave it creates covers him completely. She doesn't even attempt to hide her laughter as his hair flattens and wraps around his face.

"Gotcha," she laughs, slowly moving backwards, smile faltering as she waits for a reaction from Eddie.

At first, she's scared he's angry. He's not saying a word, slowly moving his hands up to brush his hair from his eyes. He takes his time opening them - a neutral look remaining as his lips stay in a straight line.

"You okay?" She says suddenly, stomach dropping at the thought that she took it too far. Maybe she got too much water up his nose, or she actually hurt him, "I'm sorry, I took it too fa-"

Suddenly, Eddie dunks himself underwater.

"Eddie?" Not a second later, she suddenly feels something grab her legs. She screams.

It's Eddie, his arms locked around her as he lifts her up out of the water as he breaks the surface. He pauses for a moment as he's holding her, suddenly leaning up and whispering, "Gotcha."

She flails at first as he spins her, and she can hear his laughter, no longer afraid that he's hurt.

"Payback's a bitch , Red!"

"You started this!"

"And I'll finish it!"

As he says this, he drops her back into the water, dunking her under completely. Although it takes her by surprise, she doesn't feel an ounce of fear as he keeps his arms around her waist. Within seconds after being dunked, he's yanking her back up out of the water, arms locked around her and keeping her close to his body as she catches her breath.

On instinct, she wraps her legs around his waist once his arms loosen on her. She doesn't even overthink it.

It only takes a second of them floating interlocked that way for Willow to suddenly realize their position; she can feel Eddie's breath on her cheek, legs still tight around him as his hands lay flat on her lower back.

She pulls her head back to look into Eddie's eyes. Based on how he's looking at her, he's obviously hyper-aware of their position as well.

"Hi," she whispers softly, everything around them going quiet.

"Hi," Eddie echoes back to her, just as softly.

For a moment, it's just them.

She's dizzy, not from him spinning her, but by the proximity. Her skin is burning beneath the water where his fingers are gripping her, and she wonders if it's possible that they'll leave bruises despite how absolutely gentle and delicately he's placed them on her - she just needs physical proof that this was real. A reminder that this moment did happen. If this was a movie, she's convinced he would kiss her. And she's convinced that if he did, she'd be okay with it - even a step further, she'd kiss him back.

But it isn't a movie.

They don't kiss, even when they're so close her nose bumps his. Even when she can count his eyelashes, and the water drops on the said eyelashes. They don't kiss, because this isn't a movie, and they aren't really dating.

"I think I won," she finally says to break the moment, to break whatever trance they had each other in.

Eddie immediately shakes his head and some of the water flies off of his hair and hits Willow, "Absolutely not. I demand a rematch."

"Really? You want to get your ass kicked by a girl, again ? You need to be beat twice by little old me?" She taunts him, leaning back further and creating more and more space between them.

"I always do - it'd be an honor, Miss Jenkins."

—

She doesn't know how long they spend in the lake. At some point, they stop splashing each other and simply swim in circles. Eddie excitedly learns how to do a flip and forces Willow to watch him through his ten failed attempts just to witness the single successful one. She makes sure he knows that she can do a perfect handstand in the water, quite effortlessly at that, but she is choosing not to because 'the floor of a lake is probably disgusting' and she refuses to put her hands on it.

When they finally leave the water, they sit in the back of Eddie's van again, this time with their legs dangling.

"I can't believe you made me do that," Willow sighs, leaning over as she attempts to wring out her hair over the rocks beneath them.

"I didn't make you do shit ," Eddie defends himself as he watches her carefully. After a second, he begins to mimic her with his own hair.

They're both still mostly naked. Eddie had grabbed their pile of clothes on their way out, but he'd tossed them further up into the van once they decided to sit and air-dry.

"Ask anyone - you peer pressured me. Speaking of which, where's my cigarette?" She brings her feet up into the van, sitting criss-cross and turning in Eddie's direction with raised eyebrows, "Actually, where's both of my cigarettes? We negotiated up to two, remember?"

Eddie cackles as he leans back, digging into his jean pocket for a moment before producing his pack of cigarettes. "We actually didn't negotiate, but a deal's a deal. You get one cigarette."

He pinches it carefully between his fingers by the side meant to be lit, holding it out to her. She just stares at first, not expecting to have won this argument by how staunch Eddie had been against her smoking.

"Well?" He waves it in her face.

She finally reaches out and gingerly grabs the filtered side. "Oh, um - thanks."

"What? Didn't think I'm good on my word?"

"I dunno. You really didn't seem like you wanted me to smoke."

At this, his face hardens ever so slightly. If she had blinked, she would've missed the change. "I don't. But, call me a cool mom, I guess - if you're going to do it, which I know you will since you're so fucking stubborn, I want you to do it with me ."

She nods, fighting back giggles at his mom analogy, knowing he was serious.

"You know, you could just politely ask me not to smoke," she offers as she rotates the cigarette around in her fingers, looking at it curiously.

"And you'd tell me no, not so politely."

"I think the words I would say would be, and I quote, 'fuck off'."

They both laugh. Willow still makes no move to put the cigarette in her mouth.

Eddie has pulled out a cigarette for himself and produced a lighter, flicking it to light his up. He pauses before he does so, looking at her carefully, "You know, I can help you light it."

"Oh!" Willow shakes her head, embarrassed, "No, no. It's fine. I mean, I can light it myself."

"Okay."

His hand is steady as he holds out the lighter to her. She doesn't take it immediately and he smiles, cocking one eyebrow.

Do I really want to do this?

"Red, you don't have to, you know that, right?"

For some reason, Eddie's reassurance is all it takes. She snatches the lighter from him immediately, flicking as she had watched him do several times, and brings it up to the cigarette as she places it in her mouth. She watches the flame dance for a few seconds.

Nothing.

She tries again, but still sighs with frustration as the cigarette doesn't light.

"Here," Eddie says suddenly, scooting closer to her and taking the lighter from her, "You have to suck on it as you light it."

"What? Suck on it?" She scrunches her nose, talking around the cigarette hanging from her mouth.

"Yeah, like a straw," Eddie nods, placing his lit cigarette in his mouth and motioning for her to do as he instructed.

She does, and he flicks the lighter, leaning in dangerously close to her and cupping his hand around the end of the cigarette as the flame engulfs it. He's staring directly into her eyes, surely just for encouragement and nothing more. But it's distracting - so distracting that Willow doesn't realize that the black smoke has begun to curl into her mouth and throat until it's too late.

The moment he pulls away the lighter, Willow has to reach out and yank the cigarette from her mouth, immediately falling victim to a terrible coughing fit. Her lungs burn . She can smell the smoke, the smoke coming from her mouth and not Eddie's, as it's forced out of her body. Tears spring to her eyes.

How the fuck is this fun?

Eddie reaches behind her, rubbing her back softly as he laughs a bit, "Hey, hey, hey. Don't die on me. Just breathe. Yeah, just like that - you're good. Deep breaths, Red."

"That," another cough, "was god awful ."

She's still coughing, albeit not as roughly as at first, and trying to focus on sucking in deep breaths like he had encouraged.

"Here, give me that," he reaches out and takes the cigarette she was holding awkwardly in her hand, leaning forward to look her in her eyes as she leans forward miserably, eyes still watering painfully, "Now do you see why I didn't want you to? Not worth it."