The First Date

✦ ✦ ✦

This is a gender-neutral Y/N fanfic, with little to no mention of Y/N's looks. Please use this to place in your preferred pronouns and how you look! 🤍

CW: Teenage drinking. Mentions of it, and Rodrick takes a few sips of beer. Nothing too crazy or triggering.

✦ ✦ ✦

Y/N hopped into the front seat of Rodrick's van, a nervous feeling bubbling in their stomach. They had no reason to feel this way, they've known Rodrick ever since their family moved to Plainview when they were 5. Still, things were... different now. Rodrick wasn't some annoying boy across the street. He was a friend, and a bit more.

Rodrick slyly smiled at y/n as they shut the van door.

"What?" Y/n asked playfully, smiling at the messy haired brunette in the drivers seat. Rodrick let out a small chuckled and shook his head.

"Nothin," a beat. "Well, you do look a bit nervous."

"What? No I don't," Y/n stated, picking a flake of skin off their fingernail. Rodrick sighed and put his hand out.

"Lemme see," he said in a bored tone. Y/n grumbled and placed their hand in his, their face heating up. Rodrick took barely a second to look over their nail beds, then carelessly let go of y/n's wrist, letting it flop into the empty space between the two front seats.

"Yup, just as I expected," Rodrick said in a 'holier than thou' tone, shifting the van into drive, "Honestly, y/n, you got nothing to worry about. I'm not gonna make out with your dad or something."

Y/n let out a playful scoff and nudged Rodrick on the arm.

"It's not that that I'm worried about," they said, smiling at Rodrick's determined look on his face. He was trying to get out of the sucky parallel parking job he'd done in front of the high school, and even he knew one wrong turn he'd end up paying for even a small dent on the newish-looking Jeep Wrangler that sat parked in front of him.

After a beat of silence and a moment of struggle, Rodrick managed to shimmy his way out of the cramped parking job. He smiled to himself and looked over at Y/N.

"Then what are you worried about? I've known your dad since I was six," Rodrick stated, his eyes moving from the road to Y/N every so often.

"Well, I know that," Y/N said defensively, their fingers starting to tear away at their cuticles, "but it's different now and you know that." Rodrick's sly grin grew to a smile, and he shared a look with Y/N for a second.

"It's different now that instead of a play date it's an actual one? I don't get it," Rodrick teased.

"It's different because we're... together," they said. The word 'partners' sounded too new, too fresh... and a bit clingy.

"Ok, ok, I get it," Rodrick said. There was a moment of silence between the two as Rodrick tried to manage the bulky van through rush hour traffic. Y/N sighed, and was thankful their silences were never awkward. They could sit and stare at the same wall together, and it wouldn't feel tense or weird.

Rodrick pulled up to the third red light they've hit so far and cursed under his breath. Y/N suppressed a smile. Rodrick's need to go 55 in a 30 all the time was being crushed by slow drivers and bad luck, and his unnecessary shortness about it was laughable in Y/N's eyes... and kinda cute.

Rodrick stopped the van a bit too abruptly, and by instinct his arm went flailing out and onto Y/N's stomach. He moved it quickly, it having only rested there for a second, but enough for him to lock eyes with Y/N. Y/N noted the small blush on Rodrick's ears and cheeks, and hoped theirs wasn't noticeable. Their face felt hot.