Olive's heart pounded hard in her chest as she sat on one of the benches in the centre of the outdoor mall around a large display of lit up reindeer that always appeared around the middle of November in the same spot. She was early, and certainly hadn't expected Enoch to be and the mall was busy to say the least. All around milled couples and groups and families out to spend a Saturday night or do their Christmas shopping. She tugged at the fingers of her black gloves and wrung her hands together nervously in her lap. They'd agreed to meet there at a quarter to seven, and she was still ten minutes early having been so keen not to be late she'd left far too early.

Enoch had suggested it yesterday, and when he had, Olive had been so surprised she'd actually dropped her phone. Was it a date? She thought so, it was certainly as close to asking her out as Enoch was going to get and she was definitely going to take it. When she'd told her parents, she had practically whispered the word, which had not gone unnoticed and promptly been given a curfew of eleven at the latest to be home.

Olive toyed with one of the large wooden buttons on her pale pink coat and tapped her ankle boots on the pavement. The thought of Enoch changing his mind had crossed hers for a moment before she'd dismissed it. As much as she knew he disliked social activity, she didn't think he would cancel on her at the last minute and not tell her anything. Then just as she looked down at her phone and clicked the screen on, she heard close footsteps and looked up beaming as she saw him.

Enoch was almost entirely in black, from his jeans to the warm jacket zipped up to the middle of his chest and was such a direct contrast to his skin it made his face look even paler. The curls that usually fell over his forehead had blown back in the breeze in a very attractive way that made Olive turn slightly pink when she realised she was staring at his hair. To be fair, she could hardly help it.

"Hi!" She hopped up to her feet as he slightly between a couple and their squealing children and a bespectacled man in a beanie and scarf towards her.

He freed a hand from his pocket to wave half-heartedly at her and she blushed a little as she caught his blue eyes flick up and down her as he stepped over to stand in front of her. How long would it be before she could confidently kiss him hello without being afraid he would push her away. Alone was one thing, in front of a mall full of people was quite another.

"Shall we get goin' then?" Enoch's greetings also needed work but Olive didn't mind. This was probably so far out of his comfort zone he might as well be on another planet.

She fell into step beside him as they started down the mall towards the movie theatre.

"Were your parents surprised you're going out? You said you prefer to spend the weekends inside."

Enoch scoffed and she caught his eye as he looked sideways at her. "Well...got me outta 'omework. Mum guessed 'oo the friend was I was wiv."

Olive loved his accent, she could easily get lost in his voice when he spoke more than a few sentences, both out of deciphering the Cockney, and because it was Enoch. But he'd said friend. He hadn't said date. Did she expect him to? She probably shouldn't have, even if he had admitted he did want her around. She was always going to be his anyway.

"You didn't tell them it was me?"

"Didn' 'ave to. They just fink it'll do me good ta be social. I don' necessarily agree..." Enoch shrugged and the moment they walked into the crowded theatre, full on a Saturday evening, Olive practically felt him tense up. It was probably one thing to be used to a crowded school, and another to willingly put himself into this environment when anyone who looked at a young boy and girl out together would probably assume it was a date.

"Well...it wouldn't do any harm." Olive wrinkled her nose as they joined the reasonably quickly moving ticket line.

Enoch seemed to read her mind. Olive knew she could be painfully transparent in her thoughts sometimes but it seemed even when she didn't think she was being particularly obvious, Enoch could see right through her anyway.

"Didn' I ask you 'ere?"

They'd settled on a new gunslinging western with the comedy relief of Chris Pratt which had seemed like a fair compromise to their probably very different tastes. Although, she wouldn't quite admit out loud, but Olive would have happy sat through another awful horror flick if it went she could do with Enoch sitting beside her.

Enoch didn't say much for the first several minutes after they found seats and kept shifting uneasily in his seat as if he couldn't find a comfortable position. Olive smiled at him and couldn't help giggling at his movements. Hesitating for just a moment she reached over and put a hand on his arm resting on the arm rest between them.

"It's only me, Enoch." Her green eyes drifted behind him to the further aisle and widened in surprise. "Oh!"

"...what?" Enoch followed her gaze and his whole face went sour. "Are you flippin' kiddin'?" He cursed and slumped down lower in his seat. "Get down, maybe they won't see."

Olive just stared at him. It was too late anyway. Emma was already halfway down the aisle towards them, on the arm of Jacob Portman of all people, and she and Enoch were right on the end of their row, hardly invisible. Of all coincidences to happen. Enoch was too tall to slouch down far and his knees had already stuck against the seat in front of him as he attempted poorly to hide his face behind a hand. He was glaring at her like it was somehow her fault that Emma and Jacob had shown up.

"What? I didn't tell her a thing. It's not my fault."

Emma caught Olive's eye and the blonde's jaw dropped and she pulled Jacob to a stop beside them.

"No way..." Her wide brown eyes shot from Olive to the suddenly very surly Enoch and back again as a grin started to play at the corners of her mouth. "Well you're the last people I would have expected to run into. At least, one of you is. When did this happen?"

"Ask yourself the same bloody question wiv 'im." Enoch growled and turned his glare on Jacob, bypassing Emma completely. "Now get lost."

"You don't mince words do you?" Jacob replied dryly and Enoch's eyebrows shot up at him.

"Oh I got a lot ta say now, wanna 'ear the rest?"

"Enoch, it's not a big deal." Olive tried, in an attempt to dissuade the heated argument that might have broken out between the boys but Enoch ignored her and kept glaring between Emma and Jacob.

Emma just ignored him and rolled her eyes before beaming at Olive. "Not interrupting, I promise. Believe me, I wouldn't dream of that. Come on, Jake!"

They moved right on, several rows ahead and a good deal towards the left of Enoch and Olive, and only then did Enoch sit up a little more in his seat. Though his expression was no less grumpy than it had been when Emma and Jacob had shown up.

"Hey..." Olive waved a hand in front of his face as the cinema began to darken and the pre-show advertisements and trailers began to play. "Come on, they're not bothering you over there."

Enoch grunted and finally looked back at her, his eyes only softening the slightest bit. "Of anywhere in London? 'ell...there's always gotta be someone in the way."

"They're all the way across the theatre, Enoch." Olive lowered her voice slightly when a lady behind her shushed them, and adjusted the bucket of popcorn in her lap.

xxxXxxx

Truth be told, Olive only remembered half of the movie, she was distracted by the situation so much. By the time the movie actually started, Enoch had calmed down considerably, and actually for the first time the whole evening, seemed to relax a tiny bit. Even if he did smile at the bloodier and messier parts that made Olive cringe, and didn't so much as twitch his lip at the things she laughed at, he entranced her. It just felt...nice, to sit with him, and occasionally bump elbows over the arm rest and meet fingers in the popcorn. That only happened once and at first, Olive hadn't even been sure he'd noticed until she looked over and caught him quickly looking away from her, it might have been the light from the movie, but she could have sworn he was blushing a little.

To Olive's relief and probably to Enoch's great pleasure, Emma and Jacob didn't so much as try to find them after the movie ended and Olive caught sight of Emma's blue coat disappearing through the doors ahead of them.

It was noticeably colder outside after the two and a half hours they'd spent inside and just after half past nine. The crowds throughout the mall had lessened considerably but it was still busy while the vendors and shops stayed open later for Christmas shoppers.

"Well that was...I think I quite liked it. What did you think?" She hopped on the balls of her feet and leaned over to nudge Enoch whose eyebrows shot up in surprise and he cleared his throat and shrugged.

"Ya think ya liked it? Wasn' too bad..."

They sat back on the same group of benches around the reindeer display they'd met at a few hours ago, cradling Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate which Olive had been very surprised Enoch had agreed to.

"I've had fun tonight, thank you."

"Don' thank me, I didn't do much."

Olive laughed and looked down at the cup cradled in her gloved hands. "You did ask me to come. I suppose you don't think that counts for too much?"

"I s'pose if ya wanna put it that way."

"Enoch, can I ask you something?"

"That's a stupid question 'cause ya just did." Enoch smirked a little but shrugged his shoulder and lifted his cup to his lips as he raised his eyebrows at her.

"Why did you ask me to come out?" She asked, brushing a strand of loose red hair back behind her ear and choosing her words carefully to avoid any fateful slip of the tongue like "ask me out" lest Enoch just uncomfortable again.

"Do I need a reason? Why do normal people do it?"

Olive shrugged and sipped up the melted remnants of a pink marshmallow before she spoke again. "You can say it, if you like? I thought you'd get that you can tell me things by now."

"Maybe I can tolerate your company." Enoch said after a long few moments of silence and Olive sighed and shook her head at him.

"Well thank you, that's awfully nice-" She was cut off by Enoch's lips twitching up into the closest thing to a smile he got to and her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Enoch sighed and his smile vanished as he looked away at the thinning crowds. Olive's eyes followed his hand to his mouth as he wiped away traces of hot chocolate from his upper lip.

"Oh for cryin' out loud, I obviously wanted ta see ya, alright?" He shrugged and Olive smiled happily, opening her mouth to thank him for actually saying it when to her immense surprise, Enoch voluntarily continued before she could.

"Surprise, I never 'ad friends. I never particularly wanted 'em either, and I still don't really 'ave 'em."

"Enoch, you do have friends whether you like it or not..." Olive started and he raised a dark eyebrow at her at the same moment the wind blew behind him and made him reach up to push a few messy curls away from his eyes.

"What, Hugh and that? I s'pose. That's not really what I mean. Yeh'd be the first good'n'proper one I ever 'ad."

Olive felt her whole face fill with colour. She'd bet any amount of money that he'd never admitted anything of the kind before and if he was going to let her in even just a little bit for five minutes now, she was damn well going to let him. She put down her hot chocolate, reached over and rested her hand on his again, only this time, Enoch didn't immediately pull it away. He looked down, but didn't move his hand any direction, and then looked back up at her.

Then they were kissing again and while his cold hand under her gloved one still didn't move, his free hand, which had clearly left his own drink some time ago, was behind her neck, over the collar of her coat. It was slower, and there was something so undeniably sweet that had nothing to do with the traces of hot chocolate that had still been on his lips when Enoch backed off first.

"...I don't 'ave many but I'm pretty sure just any 'friends' don' do that." He muttered and Olive couldn't help laughing as she pulled her hand away from his and grinned giddily down at the pavement for a second.

"No...maybe not just friends."