30 Seconds or Less

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A/N: I once said in the hangouts app I wrote something at 3 am and I did.

The original title of this entire book was supposed to be "They Kiss at the End" ; )

Ages 16-17

***

No one was surprised when they announced they were dating, much to Gilly's chagrin.

"About time," "We suspected," "Congrats," "FUCKING FINALLY!" were their responses, earning a scowl from Gilly and a huff of amusement from Jax. They had not brought it up to Rapunzel or Anna yet, but they too, knew, for some reason.

At least everyone was happy about it.

It had been a few months then and it was just — alright. Public displays of affection weren't awkward; the two holding hands or hugging became a common occurrence. Sometimes Jax would rub his cheek on Gilly's face out of fondness that would either receive coos from Maxine and Kayla, or noises of disgust from Jocelyn. If they had free time, they would go out in the village to hang out, eat, or inadvertently solving problems in the middle of taking strolls and eating waffles because that happened often, too often that they once had to skip watching a play at Pinocchio's Puppet Theatre to catch a runaway pegasus— not that they minded (but it was still a damper).

By then, one would expect their relationship to progress a lot more. On the emotional scale, they were a lot more comfortable with each other, Jax respecting her space while also being her pillar, and Gilly confiding her thoughts plus listening to him earnestly in return. For developments on the outside, well, some character development was going on with Gilly from how rarely she cared about others seeing her let Jax rest his head on her shoulder while she complains about something. And they're really close. Gilly back then would get embarrassed. Sometimes Ollie would shed a proud tear whenever he saw them together. It was great.

Except there was a teeny tiny, probably insignificant and totally something-they-could-solve setback gnawing on their minds that shouldn't even be that big of a problem but was awkward and embarrassing and one of them (Gilly) might just explode from overthinking.

Their first attempt at kissing was in the library, ending in a comedic yet unfortunate way. Jax was quizzing Gilly about the neighboring kingdoms and their own villainous villains (Wonderland had their Queen of Hearts, Neverland, some Captain Spear or something) until Gilly couldn't keep up and asked if they could take a break. With reluctance, Jax put his book down and let Gilly pass the time by playing a game. Funnily enough, it was a game about asking questions to each other. If anyone were to refuse answering the question, they would receive a penalty (said by Jax, thinking he could trick her into studying again).

All the questions started alright, with the typical What's your favorite color? (Gilly: 'Blue', plus stating reasons why after Jax joked that it was probably violet instead), Why do you keep carrying your sword?(Jax: 'Same reason why you have your bow and arrows, just in case' ), or Where is FTRS located? (Gilly rolled her eyes) to some that poked fun at each other like On the scale of 1 to 10 how much do you like me? (Gilly: '6.5, I hate you enough'), or Will you let me copy your answers in the upcoming test? (Jax rolled up a scroll and whacked her on the head).

Some this and that until Jax couldn't give an answer to the question Have you written anything about me? and whatever creature or spirit passing by seemingly possessed Gilly to test the waters, blurting out his penalty was to kiss her.

Later she would deny she had ever said that.

Because when he leaned in, a book had fallen over and it shocked both of them that they knocked foreheads. There were a few seconds of silence before it replayed in their heads and both of them agreed (in defeat) to just—leave the library.

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