second to him | g.d.

o n e

third person's pov :

grayson continues to fiddle with his fingers as he watches elena and ethan from afar, laughing and rushing to form snowballs in both of their hands.

"gray! come join us! come beat-"

before elena can finish her sentence, ethan throws a snowball towards her and she dodges it just in time.

"oh, you're on dolan!" she shrieks, running through the heaps and piles of snow to tackle ethan down

grayson plasters on a fake smile as he watches his twin brother run to his side, clutching onto his shoulders and hiding his figure behind grayson's.

"save me, gray! save me!" he pleads

"kids, get inside right now! you three of you are insane, playing around when it's this cold." lisa yells through the window

grayson lets out a relieved sigh and he slowly walks into his house, smiling at the warm air.

"mmm, it's so warm in here." elena grins, bumping shoulders with grayson in a teasing manner

"want me to make you hot chocolate?" grayson offers

"with my-"

"yes, yes. two marshmallows, i know lena." grayson chuckles

elena smiles as she stares at grayson, surprised at how he remembers.

"you want one too, e?" grayson asks

"no, i'm alright. you make them too sweet." he teases, punching grayson's arm softly

grayson shakes his head and fakes a smile again, grabbing the ingredients to make his famous hot chocolate.

"don't be mean to him you meanie." elena gasps, pointing at ethan

grayson's cheeks flush a deep, dark red but he pushes his shoulders to his cheeks to try to hide them from his best friends.

"c'mon! it was a joke." ethan smiles, standing next to elena to bump shoulders with her

she blushes at the contact of his skin and grayson's jaw clenches in jealousy as he watches them talk away, not even realizing he's overfilling the mug with the burning hot chocolate.

"grayson, honey!" lisa yells out, catching his attention immediately

he looks down at his hand and lets out a hiss as the liquid starts to burn his skin and lisa just shakes her head, bringing his hand down to the sink and turning it on as cold water pours out.

"you need to be more careful." she smiles, still holding his hand under the cold water

"i know, ma. something just distracted me, that's all." he murmurs, turning off the cold water and grabbing a towel to dry his hand

"grayson? are you alright?" elena rushes over, grabbing grayson's hand gently to look at his burn

he hisses as her fingers touch the forming scar and she quickly pulls back her hand, smiling up at him and whispering a quiet, "sorry."

"c'mon, let's go up so i can wrap up your hand and put something on the scar." she orders

"no, no. i can do it by myself lena. you go-"

"nope. c'mon, i'm helping you out."

he nods and automatically smiles as she runs up the stairs, her hand still holding onto his.

"you really need to be more careful, gray. what even got you so bothered that you didn't pay attention?" she asks, now in the bathroom of his room

she grabs the medical box as she waits for grayson's answer and he just shrugs, pretending to not know.

"not sure. guess i just got lost in my thoughts." he murmurs

"you know you can tell me anything, right?" she asks, stopping all of her movements to look into his eyes

his breath gets caught in his chest as he meets her dark eyes and he slowly nods as she smiles, looking back down and rubbing his scar gently with the ointment.

"i don't get how hot chocolate can burn someone's skin this bad. why did you make it that hot?" she chuckles

"i don't know honestly." grayson laughs, a wide smile forming onto his lips as he listens to elena's laugh

"whatever you say, clumsy."

"clumsy?" he questions

"sure. it's your new name." she smiles, looking up at him once again and then back down to wrap his hand up in the bandage

grayson nods gently as he watches her slowly wrap the brown bandage around his puffy hand.

she crosses both of her hands on his injured one as she looks up once again. 

"all done." she smiles, offering her hand to help him get off of the counter

he looks down at her soft hand and then back up into her eyes, obliging and intertwining his free hand with her's.

"see? that wasn't so hard, now was it?" she teases as he jumps off of the counter