Paper Aeroplanes (Ashton Irwin fanfiction)

6

The aeroplane conversations with Ashton leaves Kristine no more clear about her feelings towards him, in fact it leaves her split 50/50 between the two boys. Michael and Ashton, however, are certain of their feelings. Michael invites Kristine out again, just the two of them and they go out to lunch, afterwards he walks her home.

"Okay, I know you're going to disagree but the best Zelda game by far has to be Ocarina of Time," Michael says halfway through their video games conversation.

"And you'd be right because Twilight Princess is far better," she disagrees.

"Come on, have you even played Ocarina," he groans walking backwards so he's standing in front of her.

"Yes, but I much prefer Twilight Princess," she widdens her eyes.

"God, you have no taste," he sighs.

"Me? No taste? I think you'd find that's you," she battles while giggling.

He chuckles too, "Ok, darling, you're allowed to have opinions they're just wrong"

"It appears we have come to a disagreement, and we were getting along so well," she sighs, sarcastically.

"Well I'm willing to make a compromise, since it's you," he smiles sweetly.

Kristine smiles too but her face falls slightly as she finds herself now swaying slightly towards Michael. When they get to her front door he stops her.

"Listen, Kriss, I've been thinking about this for a while and I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go out sometime, like properly," he fiddles with his fingers while he talks.

"I'd love to, Mikey, it's just," she pauses looking up at him as his face falls, "I'm a little torn at the moment, there could be another guy and I don't want to end up wrongly hurting people. I just need to sort out my feelings"

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," he nods with a frown.

She smiles sympathetically.

"Krissy," he calls as she goes inside. She turns, "I'll be waiting, just know that, I'll be waiting for you"

She feels suddenly like the worst person in the world, she's already hurt him while trying to do the right thing, what if it turns out that she actually likes Ashton? She couldn't bare to hurt him more.

Kristine doesn't go to her room once she's inside, she wants to be alone, and that's not alone enough, surrounded by phones, computers and family. Instead she finds herself in the back garden.

"What are you doing out here?" Cruz asks, walking up the garden to come into the house.

"Nothing, dad, I just, wanted to be alone," she says shakily.

"Well, I know for a fact that the Irwin's wouldn't mind if you used the treehouse," he says.

She looks at the old childhood treehouse and smiles.

As she climbs the fence, Cruz looks up at Ashton's window to find he's been watching. He nods towards the treehouse which makes Ash smile. Cruz leaves and Ashton runs though his house and out the backdoor.

He climbs up the ladder, "Thought I saw you come in here"

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't think you'd mind, I wanted some alone time," she smiles slightly.

"Sure you don't want some Fletch and Zelda time?" he chances his luck.

Her stomach fills with a fuzzy feeling and she nods, "That'd be great"

He crawls across the wooden floor and sits down next to her. She lets her head flop down onto his shoulder and a smile creeps onto his face.

"What's up buttercup?" he asks.

"Just a lot of mixed feelings," she answers.

"Want to talk about it?"

She looks into his eyes briefly and nods.

"I'm assuming this has something to do with Michael," he sighs a little.

She nods again.

"You like him don't you?" he frowns.

"I think so," she replies. "But I'm not sure"

"Not sure?" he furrows his eyebrows.

"Well," Kristine thinks of how she can explain it without letting Ashton know, "there could be another guy"

"Oh," Ashton's stomach sinks at the thought of some unknown guy taking his Zelda further from him.

"I'm not sure though, he's giving me a lot of mixed signals, and I know for a fact that Michael likes me but that wasn't enough to make my mind up," she further elaborates.

"I see," Ashton's expression changes and he looks at his feet.

"Why are you so sad?" she asks, laughing a little. "This is my problem not yours"

"Well, I don't like seeing you sad," he thinks on the spot. "Also I'm not keen on the idea of someone taking my Zel away from me"

She snuggles a little closer to him, which makes his stomach flutter.

"Don't worry, no one could ever be the Fletch to my Zelda, that's too big of a space for anyone to fill," she tells him.

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty buff now," he jokes. "Look at these guns"

He tenses his arms holding them in the air.

"There's next to nothing there, Fletch," she prods his arms.

"Fine, but I'm taller than you again," he smiles proudly.

"Yeah," she sighs, defeated.

"Ashie! Krissy!" Anne-Marie calls from the other end of the garden.

Ashton pokes his head out, "Yeah?"

"Do you want anything brought out?" she asks.

"Blankets," he replies before turning to Kristine who excitedly mouths, 'ice-cream', "And ice cream!"

Soon the pair are snuggled in the treehouse under 3 blankets with a tub of ice cream between them.

"See I miss this," he says.

"What? Ice-cream?" she smiles.

"No, hanging out with you," he replies licking his spoon clean.

"We hang out all the time"

"Just the two of us," he adds.

She shrugs, "I guess we're a little to pre-occupied with all our other friends"

"Or you with Michae," he mutters.

"What?" she doesn't hear.

"Oh nothing," he quickly says.

Without meaning to they spend the night in the treehouse, and then next morning they wake up, Kristine's head is lying on Ashton's chest, their legs tangled together under the mess of blankets and a warm arm draped around her shoulders. Ashton wakes up first and watches Kristine sleep as she breathes softly, her head rising and falling as he breathes.

Ash her eyes flutter open he whispers, "Morning, princess"

"Princess?" she questions with a smile rolling over a little.

"I felt like we needed a change from Fletch and Zel right now," he shrugs.

"What are you? A prince?"

"It's up to you," he replies.

"Nah, you're more like a frog"

They chuckle sleepily.