Enoch meant every word of what he had said about Valentine's Day being the stupidest idea for a day. He might have someone he did actually love and who, more unbelievably, loved him, but damn it all if he was going to even think twice about it just because things were different this year. It shouldn't make a difference anyway, he sure wasn't going to act any different and wouldn't even have made the connection with this weekend if Olive hadn't pointed it out.

He had very nearly shot her down with a firm 'no way', and to be honest, even right now he still wanted to, but Olive had looked so happy, and was trying so hard to persuade him with assurances it would be any other date anyway that something had possessed him to let her convince him. Then of course Hugh had bugged him by talking aloud to Millard with Enoch right behind them about what he should do for Fiona, so much so that the moment he'd even implied Enoch would do anything, Enoch had rolled his eyes and stomped off. He didn't have a romantic bone in his body and that was likely to stay that way. Besides, he and Olive had barely been close and not even quite dating for only four months. They were hardly in a serious relationship by whatever conventional standards might be.

But Enoch was not conventional, and neither was Olive really. Together they probably made no sense at all to everyone, well...most people, give or take a few weird and apparently avid supporters of their relationship. No, conventional was not the word to describe their relationship. Before Olive came along Enoch hadn't even shown so much as an interest in anyone beyond acknowledging a girl was good looking. So yes he was serious, because he never joked. Sarcasm was his forte, yes, but he never joked. Besides, people didn't bring out those three words lightly, least of all Enoch.

That was all beside the point anyway and despite the red and pink heart displays in shop windows and gaggles of gossiping girls comparing notes on chocolate and flowers, cliché to say the least, refused to even think about the whole concept. Olive knew how he felt, he'd told her once and that ought to be quite enough for a time. She certainly couldn't expect him to want to make any sort of deal about it. Instead he ignored the whole idea of the day when Friday came around, pretending not even to hear whenever someone mentioned it in passing conversation. Despite half of his school day spent in the company of Olive, and at the point of several snide jokes from friend, or rather ally, and foe alike, he didn't so much as even say 'Happy Valentine's Day', whether she hoped he might or not.

But he had agreed to see her regardless of his poor attitude. Enoch quietly enjoyed her company more and more with each slightly more lingering kiss and particular smile that was his and only his to see. There was no denying that. The only trouble had been agreeing on something to do.

With the weather as 'drowned ratish' as it was, nobody wanted to stay out anywhere, so the idea of stealing away from everyone by themselves in some park where they might at least have been more alone, was completely out of the question. The challenge was persuading at least one set of parents to trust leaving two teenagers at home together. Enoch had, unsurprisingly, never bothered to mention that Olive had been over when his parents had gone away and very nearly been late home to her own parents, who incidentally had not known they were home alone either.

Between the lack of privacy and an overbearing father, Enoch would have given anything to move out.

"Absolutely not."

"Oh come on, two freakin' hours."

"If I 'ave ta talk ta you again 'bout your language, Enoch...you'll regret it."

Enoch rolled his eyes and drummed his fingers impatiently on his arm where he stopped with his arms crossed in the cold, sterile back room of the mortuary, watching his father massaging the rigor mortis limbs of a corpse so they could be moved again.

"What's the difference between bein' alone there and bein' out? I ain't a kid."

"One isn't under my roof. You could 'elp, instead of standin' there useless." His father shot a glare at him and raised a warning eyebrow, "I know you ain't a kid, that's exactly why I'm not allowin' it in my 'ouse. I was your age once, ya know."

"It's not my day ta work. I only came 'ere 'cause a' this...and I don't bloody fink I'm much like you."

"Yeah, Enoch, really makin' a strong argument there. Keep goin' and you might not be goin' anywhere."

Enoch clenched his jaw and his fingers reflexively tightened around his own shoulder briefly as he got increasingly more frustrated. It was times like this when he wanted more than anything to bite back and deliberately disobey but he held his tongue this one time, if only so he wouldn't be completely forbidden from seeing Olive tonight. No. Never mind. He was going to say it anyway.

"I get 'er dad not likin' me, but you should know what I wouldn' do."

"Frankly, son, last time I looked you didn't do any sort of company at all. Let alone make out wiv girls in ya bedroom. So no, I don't know. You're goin' the right way ta be grounded again."

"Girl. Singular. And my grades are up."

"From an F to a D – is hardly up, Enoch."

Enoch scowled. He'd forced himself through actually studying to get that, out of sheer fear that his father would make good on the threat of hiring a tutor. He hadn't even confided that in Olive.

"It's the difference between a fail and barely passing, Dad." He snapped and turned on his heel to storm out the door.

xxxXxxx

If there was no way his parents were going to let them be left alone, then there was even less chance of Olive's agreeing. Which is why Enoch actually ending up on their doorstep, leaning against the railing and waiting for someone to come to the door was not what he expected to be doing that night at all. He despised the idea of having Olive's father sticking his head in every ten minutes to make sure Enoch wasn't trying to grope his daughter or, forget that, so much as put his arm around her.

To his immense annoyance, it wasn't even Olive who answered the door, though he could see her a few steps behind her father when the door opened.

"I hope you know I don't approve of this one bit."

"Greetings 'ave gone down'ill." Enoch couldn't stop himself muttering, which did not many any better an impression on the fireman who just continued to glare at him warningly.

"Now I might be on call tonight but you can bet I'll know if you put one toe out of line, young man."

On what? Did that mean...but before Enoch could so much as open his mouth to refute it, Olive had slipped in front of her father, hissed something at him and took Enoch's hand to pull him inside and away from the man.

"Dad was asked to be on call at the station tonight..." Olive whispered quickly, "Kind of upset Mum but she'd already said you could be here anyway and she promised to stay out of the way."

Enoch just scoffed, although admittedly his spirits had risen considerably knowing that her father at least wouldn't be hanging over their shoulders.

The middle ground that, after some twisting of Enoch's arm, they had agreed on was letting Enoch at least pick the kind of movie, since he didn't particularly want to do this anyway.

It occurred to him vaguely that he'd never ever thought to ask Olive what sort of movies she liked. Or...anything really now that he thought of it. Well that made him come across as a terrible boyfriend but it didn't deter him for long.

"I feel like a twelve year old kid." He was grumbling half an hour later squashed up in the corner of a couch.

Olive laughed at him and he glanced out of the corner of his eyes to see her staring at him in amusement with her legs curled up under the blanket she'd pulled from the back of the couch.

"Whatever for?"

" 'cause I'm very conscious of the fact ya mother is still in the 'ouse and my parents, who lets be real don't know me from a bar of soap, couldn't trust me less anymore."

"Well I do, very much."

He turned his head properly, away from the thriller that he had in part chosen because it was his preferred choice of movie short of some war flick with a lot of blood and violence, and in part because he quietly enjoyed it when Olive felt the need to get closer to him, to see her smiling and his own lip twitched slightly in response.

"Yeah well...that's the important bit."

"And what are you still doing all the way over there? You'll protect me if you come here." She patted the cushion beside her and Enoch squinted a little in confusion.

"...From what?"

Olive turned pink as Enoch just raised an eyebrow at her and scoffed. But who was he to resist what was half the point of choosing the movies he had? So instead, he pretended to be a lot more out of his way than he was and sighed as he straightened up and scooted closer to the middle of the couch.

"Bloody 'ell, you really 'ave no stomach for these, do ya?"

"I enjoy them more when you're here."

"Whateva."

"Oh relax, at least Dad isn't around. No need to keep those hackles up." Olive smiled and reached out to lace her fingers through Enoch's where his hand rested on his knee.

"There's always a need." Enoch muttered, more to himself than to her and was suddenly very much reminded of the Halloween night that had started it all. Granted she hadn't been holding his han and he'd been very much in denial still but there was a certain sense of déjà vu that he couldn't deny.

The movie became more of a journey of Olive's blanket. It had been pulled down originally to warm up her legs when she'd asked him to pass it to her and he threw it on her head instead. Then when she scooted closer to him the tenser the move became for her, and the more amusing it did for him, it had moved its way over one of his legs too and slowly further and further up Olive until she was hiding behind it up to her eyes.

She was adorable. Enoch never used that word, but Olive was exactly the embodiment of it and unsurprisingly he found himself glancing at her almost as often as the TV screen. Only once did he catch her mother checking up on them when the hallway light switched on and he caught sight of a figure walking past the doorway towards the kitchen. That was when he chose to push Olive's blanket off his lap and leave it to her.

But all the while something in his pocket was burning a hole through his jeans as he continually put off giving it to her. He didn't want to have to say anything, he was almost considering just leaving it for her to find on the couch when he got up but the chance of her missing it and someone else seeing it before her annoyed him too much.

So instead in drew in a long breath which made Olive's head on his shoulder gently raise up and down and squirmed a little in his seat. If she noticed, which she must have, she didn't even glance at him and kept her green eyes glued to the movie, to Enoch's immense relief.

He pulled out the folded piece of A4 paper and turned it around in his left hand out of her view on the far side of his legs and swallowed. It had taken him much longer than it would have done a few months ago, when he was less concerned about it being perfect, and would definitely be the first tangible thing he'd given her. But he didn't want to say anything about it and copped out halfway as he just flicked over into the crook of her arm instead.

Olive jumped and he couldn't help smirking a little at how easily she did before determinedly fixing his eyes on the movie instead. But then it stopped and he cut his eyes to the side to see Olive had paused it and was setting the remote back down on her side.

"Now that just ruins the atmosphere don't it?"

"What's this?" She held up the paper curiously and had just started to unfold it from its quarters when Enoch replied curtly and obviously.

"Paper."

He watched out of the corner of his eye as she unfolded the drawing, morbid and unromantic as she would probably think it was, and pulled her hand out of his to cover her mouth in surprise.

"Is...Enoch, is this for me?"

"...Well it ain't for anyone else is it?" He muttered sarcastically and finally looked at her face properly. "It ain't for flippin'...Valentine's Day, mind. Just...'cause." Well that was jolly convincing.

Olive didn't say anything and for a moment Enoch felt a twinge of guilt that she didn't like the fact it was a skeleton and a much more realistic heart than she might have preferred. But he wasn't about to change his whole style. He'd tried. She deserved something more than a hurried and thoroughly awful confession to prove that he loved her. This was much more his way. Silent.

"Olive?"

She looked up and her eyes were swimming, which made him feel even more awkward about the whole thing.

"Well if you 'ate it..."

"Hate it? Enoch, it's...it's amazing."

"I know it ain't convential-"

"And I wouldn't want it be. Enoch...it's...I love it."

Then her arms were around his neck and Enoch had barely time to let out a quick "Wha-" before she was kissing him for all she was worth and his arm automatically flew behind him to stop her tackling him right over.

"I ain't that good..." He mumbled the first chance he got to breathe and stared at her like she had gone mad. Pleasantly mad.

"I beg to differ."