Paper Aeroplanes (Ashton Irwin fanfiction)

9

Kristine and Ashton get closer after that, mostly because Kristine is considering when to bring up the possibility of her and Michael and Ashton is scraping back the shread of hope that they might end up together.

Harry and Lauren grow immensely fond of Kristine over the course of around a week, Harry shows her all the magic tricks he learns (especially since his siblings are constantly growing tired of the constant failures) and Lauren talks to her a lot, she turns into what is essentially an honorary big sister. Ashton doesn't object to having Kristine around at his house every day, it just means she's spending as little time as possible with Michael which is definitely not a bad thing.

"I can't stay for long, Fletch," Kristine says one day when she shows up at his door.

"What's gotten you all busy today?" he asks.

"Michael's taking me out for the day since we've not had time to hang out recently," she grins. "But he's stopping by to get me. My dad says he'll send him here when he arrives"

"Ah, I see," Ashton says trying not to sound disappointed.

"It's okay Fletch we've still got an hour for me to beat you at guitar hero," she grins moving past him.

"I doubt that," he chuckles closing the front door and following her.

The hour passes quicker than either of them wanted it to and soon Michael is knocking at hte front door.

"Hey Mikey," Ashton paints on his best smile.

"Hey, Cruz said something along the lines of 'Kristine is probably thrashing Ash's ass at some video game'," Michael chuckles.

"Oh yeah, I'll get her... she said you were going to get her," he says turning and yelling, "Zel, Mikey's here!"

She skips down the stairs.

"Oh, I need to run to mine and grab my bag, just wait here," she says to Michael.

"No problem," he grins.

"So, all's well with you and Kristine?" Ashton says and Michael nods as a reply. "Is this a date or...?"

"No we're just friends, for now," Michael begins. "I think she really does like me though, I reckon she'll say yes to a date in no time. You wouldn't happen to know anything, Fletch?" he mocks. "Afterall you are, like, her best friend"

"No, not a thing, that's not really the sort of thing we share," he half lies.

It's obvious to anyone that Kristine likes Michael, even if it's not that much. He doesn't want to let Michael know any more than he already does, Kristine is his. He doesn't care how demeaning or insensitive or posessive he's being but she's his Zelda, no one elses.

When Kristine replies the two start walking, they only make it as far as the local park before sitting themselves down on the swings.

"I've been thinking, Krissy, have you got any further in deciding whether you want to be my girlfriend?" Michael asks bluntly out of the blue, it's obviously be clawing it's way out for a while.

"I don't know, I'm closer I guess, I'm still thinking things over, Mikey," she smiles, almost sympathetically.

"Come on, Kriss, what is there to think about, we're perfect together, two peas in a pod, the corn to my god, the cheese to my pizza, the vegemite to my toast, the Piglet to my Winnie the Pooh," he tries to pursuade.

"Weren't Piglet and Winnie both dudes, and just friends," she glances up at him.

"Fine then, the Marge to my Homer," he sighs.

"I don't know Michael it's a lot more complicated than you think," she feels really bad letting Michael down like this, he obviously had his hopes set on today being the day she finally said yes.

"I don't see what can be so complicated, it's a simple yes or no question," he mutters looking away from her.

"Give me a day, max. I'll have it figured out by then," she tries to reason.

He simply tilts his head so his big puppy dog eyes are string into hers.

"I still need to think Michael, we're really good friends, it's not something I want to lose if we don't work out," she tells him.

"What makes you think we won't work out?" he asks, smiling now and swinging slightly on his swing.

"Relationships change things, I've seen it happen before," she fibs.

"It didn't happen with Riley and Alexis when they started dating Cal and Luke," Michael reminds.

"But they jumped straight into a relationship, it's different because we became friends first," she smirks a little.

"I knew I should have asked you out from day one," he laughs.

"You really should have," she whispers to herself.

She wouldn't have been in this mess if Michael had grown a pair of balls, but she can't pin this all on Ashton, some of the blame has to go onto Ashton. If it wasn't for Ashton and his constant friendly flirting she might not have feelings for him at all. Most of all she had herself to blame, always getting herself attached to people and getting let down whenever the slightest thing tampered with that.

They don't talk about it again after that. That's what Kristine likes about Michael, he doesn't pester her about things but that's also something she can grow to dislike, he's a little bit of a push over sometimes, Ashton fights for what he wants-even if eventually he ends up giving in. Michael and Ashton are two completely different people, even though they are so similar in many ways.

Ashton practically counts the seconds that pass when Michael and Kristine are out, constantly on the look out for them arriving back. There's a feeling in the back of his mind that Michael was thinking of asking his Zelda out and a part of him wanting her to say yes, knowing how happy Michael will make Kristine but a bigger part begging her to turn him down and come running to him, no matter how unlikely he thinks it to be.