Archive of Our Own ^beta

Step One: Show up at your internet girlfriend's house in the dead of night.

Tap.

Rose Lalonde wakes up to the most bizarre things.

Tap. Tap.

And yes, a series of strange noises at her window will do the trick.

Tap.

She's a little groggy, but the constant tapping noises are starting to annoy her a bit. She pushes her window open and quickly finds the source.

"Uh, hey Rose!" John smiles so brightly that he might as well start glowing. "Surprise!"

"John? What are you..." She realizes he has a boombox and quickly starts piecing things together. "Oh no, you're not."

Oh yes, he is.

Rose isn't even sure you're supposed to sing along with the original song, but she won't protest. Not like there are any neighbors to complain.

"...Oh and I
I need you in my arms, need you to hold
You're my world, my heart, my soul
If you'd ever leave
Oh Rose that would take away everything good in my life..."

John's not a great singer. He's not a bad singer, but he's not great. Though he's got twice as much heart and sincerity as any professional. Even (especially?) if he changed every instance of "baby" with some variation of "Rose".

This is like something out of a terrible romantic comedy. But she can't help but smile and watch.

Around the end of the song, John puts down the boombox and pulls out a fake magician's wand from... somewhere. It's hard to tell. "Nothing up my sleeves!" He grins and crosses his arms loosely. "You have to count to three, though!"

Rose shakes her head, but obliges. She thinks she knows what's coming.

On three, John pulls out a small bouquet of violas, holding them up to the window. "For you! These are your favorite, right?" He doesn't realize they could have been paper flowers.

Rose affirms this. She wishes she knew how to react to sincerity better. "John, please tell me you have somewhere to stay."

He's quiet, and then he starts laughing nervously. "I. Uh. Well."

She shakes her head. "Hold on." She appears at the front door in a fuzzy pink bathrobe shortly after. John is trying to hold everything at once without crushing the violas. She does him a favor and takes the flowers.

John puts down the boombox next to the coat rack. "So you like them?"

Rose tries her hand at sincerity, which here means intertwining fingers and smiling so broadly it's a little ridiculous. "Do you really need to ask?"

He blushes, and she thinks it's funny in a cute way that she can make him do that. "I missed you."

She meets his eyes, and wow, he forgot how the lavender looked so... wow. It's fair enough because she's transfixed with just how blue his own eyes are.

The air is really warm all of a sudden.

Rose swallows a lump in her throat. "I missed you, too." The words are soft. Like her lips, John thinks. Like her bathrobe.

(Tell her?) "I..." Her eyes transfix him again. (Tell her later.) "Uh, it's pretty late here, isn't it?"

"Right." She knows that isn't what he was going to say. But she'll drop it for now because it's the middle of the night, and sleep would be nice.

---

Step Two: Be the best part of waking up.

John isn’t entirely sure how one went about waking someone up romantically, but he has a fair idea of what that could look like. It could involve quietly sneaking into this someone’s room, which is difficult because his hands are kind of full again. But this time he's trying to balance a tray of two plates of blueberry pancakes and cinnamon toast. He tries to not get too distracted by how the someone looks ridiculously adorable all curled up with the blankets and sheets like that.

"Ro-ose." He almost sings it as he draws near to her bedside. "Wake up, wonderful. Breakfast..." He sets the tray of plates at the foot of the bed as she starts to stir, and he kisses her on the cheek. "Good morning."

Rose rubs the sleep out of her eyes and sits up. "It's nine in the morning. How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to make pancakes and toast." John grins and all but shoves one of the plates in Rose's face. "There's an extra ingredient," he says in the same singsong voice.

Rose chuckles and takes the pancakes and toast. "Um, I just need-"

"Crap, I forgot!" John slaps a hand to his forehead. "Hold on, be right back!" He bolts downstairs.

Someone is in a weird mood, Rose thinks. She considers the previous night and the pancakes. John has always been affectionate, but this was... a little much. Something was rotten in the state of Denmark. Maybe the distance between them was starting to worry him, so he felt the need to recreate as many traditionally elaborate and romantic scenarios as possible for a sense of stability in their relationship.

Likely cause, Rose thinks. She likes that theory for now.

"Here ya go!" John strikes a heroic pose with the two forks. It looks a little silly considering he's wearing a ratty Ghostbusters shirt and polka dotted pajama pants.

"Thank you." She moves over and pats the open space next to her. "Join me?" She smiles more brightly than normal when he nods.

John bounces down next to Rose again, handing her a fork. "Hey, I was just wondering," he says as he reaches over for the other plate. "Will your mom be upset that I just kinda showed up here without being invited?"

Rose shrugs as she takes a couple bites of the pancakes. Good grief, these are delicious. "I imagine she'll be fine with it. She's been lamenting that those guest rooms haven't been put to more use. Won't your father be upset that you are spending this much time alone with me? Things could happen, after all." She smirks and raises an eyebrow.

John chokes a little. "Uh- uhhm." He coughs. "No, he said this whole thing was cool." He decides not to mention he wouldn't mind if, after all, things happened.

Neither of them are really sure why they went quiet all of a sudden.

Rose looks at John from the corner of her eye. "Is everything all right?" This is clearly a trap into her psychoanalytical nonsense and he should know this.

He nods. "I'm just thinking."

"What about?"

"Oh, you. The usual." He takes a large bite and leaves the fork in his mouth for a bit. The fork is caught on his buck teeth. That can't be comfortable.

"Does this have something to do with last night?" All he does is nod, so Rose continues with her thought. "I will confess to be slightly taken aback by... the display. When you told me your plans the other week, I was under the impression that it was your usual japery."

He shrugs. "Well, I just thought it would be a nice surprise! Like, if I was going to do it, now's kinda the time to do it. Heheh." His toes twitch under the covers.

Rose raises an eyebrow. "You mean since we are presently free from any academia-related responsibilities that may otherwise take up our time?"

"Eeeeyup."

"And there is absolutely nothing else that inspired this excursion?" Her foot nudges his.

"Well, I certainly didn't come here to sit around and play footsie, if that's what you're asking!" He exhales and grins, and the topic is dropped without even being directly touched. "So I saw in your newspaper that there's a fair or something? We should go to that! I mean, if you wanna." He bumps shoulders with her.

Oh he is up to something. "That actually sounds delightful. When do you want to go?" And she is going to figure out what that something is.

---

Step… ah, to hell with the steps. John knows what he's doing.

Rose lives on the outskirts of a small town, and as any person from a small town will tell you, it’s just not normal to not have a fair for a fair’s sake. People who have the proper ID can walk in that lit up tent, and walk out pretty lit up themselves. The people in charge make sure everybody hears at least five times that there will be fireworks starting around ten o’clock. Yes, at the lake, they know, they really know. Meanwhile, they have the whole day ahead of them, and what a beautiful day to have.

Turns out Rose is more distracting than usual once you get her out in the sunlight. Or maybe it’s the sundress, and how the breeze keeps curling it around her legs. And are her eyes that bright because it’s summer, or maybe it’s something else? Then her lips are stained purple and blue from the cotton candy and… hmmm.

Maybe it's because up here on the Ferris Wheel, they can basically see forever, and John keeps equating "forever" with "Rose".

“John, you’ve done nothing but stare at me for the last three minutes. While I suppose I appreciate the attention, I really feel I must ask if there's something on your mind.” Rose looks ready to dig through a few layers of said mind.

John shakes his head. “Just enjoying the view, that’s all!” He wraps his arm around her shoulders. “We should just stay up here the rest of our lives.”

Rose raises an eyebrow and starts to smile. “If you planned on living for another week, given the lack of nourishment. Oh wait, you have to take exposure into account…” Clearly, this is romance.

John sighs. “Oh Rose. We’ll just get them to build a little house around us and send us food and water, like on Jade’s island!” He pulls her closer.

“Have you been reading my journal? Because truly, this is everything I ever wanted in life.”

John laughs. “I just get you. It’s OK, you don’t have to be suspicious of everything I do. Because everything I do…” Doe eyes. The doe-iest you’d ever seen. “I do for you.”

Laugh or stare into eyes? Rose take a third option and does both. She thinks about telling him that when he pulls cheesy lines like that, he’s adorable, but right now she’d rather help him find something else to do with those lips besides grin.

John’s honestly surprised she reacted that way to one of his terrible one liners (he’ll admit to their terribleness), but this is really nice. It’s… yeah, this is going somewhere good.

The wheel kicks back into motion, startling them out of the kiss. They’re both a little flushed and it takes them a few tries to catch their breath.

Rose breaks the quiet. “If we’re staying up here the rest of our lives, we’re going to need reading material.” She takes his hand, intertwining their fingers. “Lots of reading material.”

John snickers. “Oh don’t worry. I always keep a copy of your wizard fanfiction on hand.” He squeezes Rose’s hand when she glares at him. “You’re the best, Rose!”

Rose is perfectly content with going on a few more rides after they get off the wheel, but no. John’s spotted something. “That is the biggest, purplest octopus I have ever seen, and I must win it for you.”

He takes it as a sign that Rose was always meant to have this ridiculous thing when it turns out that in order to win it, he has to hit the bell on a high striker. OK, that’s a little weird, but “really, that’s not a sign, John.”

And now people are laughing because John is a string bean of an 18-year-old who looks like he’d be lucky to get the puck a foot high. “Let them laugh.” He rolls up his sleeves, and doesn't give a damn that they roll right back down. "Gimme that thing."

The overseer raises an eyebrow, but hands him the mallet. "Don't worry if you don't get it that-"

WA-BAM.

Well, the laughing's stopped.

DING.

"Now, good sir, I believe you owe me that giant purple octopus."

---

After ten minutes of lugging it around, John and Rose agree to put the octopus in the car. It will be just fine without them, and how are they even supposed to get something to eat with such a thing in tow?

No trip to any fairground is complete without elephant ears and corn dogs, even especially if the corn dogs are spongy and leave behind grease stains. And Rose knows just the place to enjoy this completely nutritious lunch.

It takes fifteen minutes to cross the bridge over the lake, but that's mostly because John wanted to feed the ducks corn dog crumbs. On the other side, there's a trail that leads into some wheat fields, but Rose guides them under the bridge. They hold each other's hands for balance, treading carefully around the moss. They settle on a clear patch of cool grass.

"I've always liked writing here. It's quiet, but not the sort of quiet that unsettles a person. It's more peaceful." Rose glances up at the bridge's colorfully tagged underside. "Even with the vandalism."

John chews slowly at his elephant ear. He gets cinnamon and sugar all over his mouth. "So you could say that this is where the magic happens?" He grins when Rose laughs.

"That was terrible."

"Funny enough for you."

"You have crumbs all over..." Rose stops herself and there's a sudden gleam in her eye. John's not the only one who can pull out every romantic cliche in the book.

John's eyebrows knit together. "What's that look fo-" O-oh. Heh, that - that whole tongue thing feels kind of funny in the nicest way.

He should really be used to this by now, but every time this happens, a part of him wants to run to the highest rooftop and shout at the top of his lungs, "ROSE LALONDE LIKES ME!" Banners everywhere. Airplanes doing loop-de-loops. Puppies for everyone. It would be amazing.

She breaks away with the most peculiar expression. "I have the strangest compulsion to ask you to dance, and I've no idea where it came from."

But John knows her well. "Rose... are you trying to be passive-aggressive while sweeping me off my feet?" He smirks. He can't quite pull it off.

Rose has nothing to say to that except, "Are you really going to say no?" She stands up and offers her hand. John chuckles and takes it, standing up with her. He puts his left arm around her back as she loosely wraps hers around his neck. Her hair brushes against his skin, and he lets his head rest on hers.

They slowly shift in a circle, trying to move to music that doesn't exist. If it did, it probably would have been something soft and happy. That's a pretty good descriptor for this moment, Rose thinks. Soft and happy. Then again, she doesn't have many moments with this boy that aren't like that.

"I bet you do this for all the people you date."

Rose knows that for every joke, there's something real behind it. "Just you." She tries to hold him a little closer, and now she can sort of feel his heartbeat. By extension, he can probably sort of feel hers. "I haven't told you yet, but... I'm really glad you're here." She meant that last part in more ways than one.

He exhales and closes his eyes. Their movement slows to a stop. "Me too." Tell her now? "Hey, Rose?"

"Hmm?"

Timing still doesn't feel quite right. Think quickly, John. "I think your writing magic is infecting me. Cuz I just thought of a story."

"Oh really?" He can practically hear the eyebrow raise. They sit back down on the patch of grass, and Rose prompts him, "Well let's hear it."

John grins. "Fine. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, magical princess, and there was a prince who lived in the clouds..."

---

The rest of the afternoon is spent trying to find the most scream-worthy ride (definitely the Tilt-O-Whirl; plunges weren’t supposed to be so sudden or so creaky) With no other immediate ideas, John and Rose head back to Rose’s home.

Rose raises her guard when she notices that the entry is suspiciously neater. And good Lord, is that a Febreze plug-in air freshener? She holds on to John’s wrist as they walk through. He hasn’t noticed anything is wrong.

“Oh man, it smells so good in here!” he marvels, inhaling deeply. “And hey, the flowers I gave you!” He points with his free hand, but Rose has already seen them and she finds herself without words. Her mother has taken the flowers and put them in an elaborate vase. There are ribbons. Lacy ribbons.

“Mother!” Rose calls, keeping an eye out for the stick-thin woman. “Where are you? We’ve come back from the fair!” And by the way, my boyfriend is dragging a gigantic purple octopus by the tentacle through the hallway. They truly are a sight.

John looks downright nervous. Last time he encountered Rose’s mother, she’d definitely asked some uncomfortable questions about his intentions. And she hadn’t really been very discreet about it. And he may have been forced to acknowledge that certain words were in his vocabulary. “We’ve had a wonderfully chaste time, Ms. Rose’s Mom!” He giggles nervously at the look Rose gives him.

“Hmm.” They stop in the kitchen. There are chocolate chip cookies and they smell delicious. Well-played, Mother, well-played. Rose picks up a slip of paper near the plate of cookies and examines it. “She’s up in the laboratory. She’s cleaned up the guest room for you, John.”

“Oh GOD. There were undergarments in there. On the floor.” John hides his face in his hands. “I can never face your mother again.”

“That’s what you said last time. Cookie?”

“…Yes please.” John drowns his shame in perhaps the third-greatest chocolate chip cookie he’s ever had in his life, and looks outside. He doesn’t remember Rose ever mentioning a big, shiny lake sitting right outside her house. A waterfall, yeah, but not a lake. Maybe the waterfall was supposed to inform the lake. “That lake good for swimming?”

Rose shrugs. “I suppose. But the water’s going to be cold. It hasn’t been warm long enough.”

“Oh.” John sounds disappointed.

“I could take you out on the boat, though.”

The boat in question is nothing too spectacular. It’s more of a paddleboat than anything. It makes John wish he had a gondolier driver outfit, and Rose wish she had a huge umbrella. It doesn’t matter because Rose doesn’t even care for umbrellas that much, and John’s never tried to steer a boat a day in his life. The only sounds they can hear are birds calling and water splashing.

“So I may as well tell you before you find out for yourself or from anyone else.” Rose bites her lip, but doesn’t break eye contact with John. “I think I’m going to Brown.”

John stares at her before realizing what she’s talking about. “Oh! No, that’s great! Because… because we’ll only be a couple hours away from each other. Way better than it is now.” Read: way more difficult than it is now.

Rose shifts and pulls at the ends of her dress. “It’s just that the program there for-”

“No, no! I get it. It’s great. It’s perfect and… yeah.” John feels the need to repeat a third time, “That’ll be really great.”

Water looks really dark. How far down does this lake go?

Rose slides her feet out to meet the tips of John’s sneakers. “We’ll make plans. Coordinate our classes.” Read: Everything’s going to be fine.

“Yeah. Do weekends together or something like that.” Read: I know.

Sun breaks through the trees and hits the water. Light plays off the surface like diamonds. This would have been a really good time to tell her if they had been talking about anything else.

"It's too quiet! Come on, we're out in the boonies. Let's have an adventure!" For emphasis, John makes the terrible choice of jumping up. The boat rocks dangerously.

Rose pulls John back down. "Not that kind of adventure."

Rose quirks an eyebrow. She successfully stays undistracted from how adorable John looks when he’s just leaning against her window like that. “Then is it really still a surprise?”

“Yes, because you don’t what it is, where it’ll be, or when I’m actually going to show it to you. You only know that I need to set it up now. And no peeking!” John holds out his pinkie finger, and Rose hooks hers onto it.

“OK, I promise.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.” He kisses her quickly and bounds downstairs.

She figured it was going to be a significant amount of time, but after forty-five minutes of reading, Rose really has to wonder what John is even doing out there. She’s tempted to look out her window, but remembers the promise. Blast those pinkie promises and their sacred bonds.

Another twenty minutes is wasted playing the violin.

What could possibly take an hour to set up?

She tries to write, but finds herself staring at a dent in the wall until she hears someone playing piano. And singing.

"You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by…"

Rose wonders where he got that bow tie. She figures the fedora came from the elder Egbert as well as the dapper jacket, seeing as how the sleeves are just a little too long for John.

She stands at the top of the staircase, watching him play. He lingers on a chord to smile up at her. She walks down as he resumes playing. “John, why are you doing this?” She sits down next to him on the piano bench.

He winks, but keeps playing the song. “The world will always welcome lovers…” He waggles his eyebrows on that last word, and Rose can’t help but laugh a little. “As time goes by…” He plays the same series of notes, looking slightly worried. “Uh… shoot.” He presses down on six keys and lets his fingers slide off the piano. “Forgot the rest of the words.”

Rose shakes her head and takes his hand. “You play beautifully.” She starts to lean in closer, but he stands up before her lips can meet his.

“Follow me.” He has that gleam in his eye as they walk into the next room, only to be greeted by an impressive pillow fort, candlelight, and flowers.

Rose raises her eyebrows. “Pillow forts are romantic now?” A niggling voice at the back of her head thinks that there is no way John could have done this all on his own. He doesn’t even know where half of these pillows were originally located.

“Of course they are. When were they ever not romantic?”

She feels like she's seven years old again as they sit down in the fort, except this time she doesn't intend to stay inside forever. Well... probably not. "So is this the part where we make a sign dictating who can and can't enter the fort?" Then she notices the blue and purple crayon doodle labeled "Fort John<3Rose". "...I spoke too soon."

John laughs and scratches the back of his head. "Haha. I had to make it. I just had to."

"Of course."

"And for the finishing touches-" John pulls a quilt from some corner of the air, or (more likely) behind some loose pillows, and drapes it over them. He then pulls a bottle of wine? - oh, nope, sparkling grape juice - from under the quilt. Two plastic martini glasses, as well. With a wink and an eager tone, he says, "You should look up now."

Rose heard a little click as she looked to the top of the fort, and stringed Christmas lights should not look that magical, but they do. The music box that starts playing as they illuminate the pillows helps the effect. "Setting the mood?" she says lightly.

"Something like that." John squeezes her around her waist. "So what do you want to do now? You're queen of the castle." He beams.

Honestly? She wants to figure him out, and he knows that. "Does that make you king?" That eyebrow raise runs in the family.

"Naturally." John's eyes are brighter than normal. Doesn't take a whole lot of wondering why to figure out the reason.

Rose decides it's high time to break into that grape juice. Maybe they're seven years old after all. "You know, I believe my mother is in the observatory." Or maybe not.

John holds the glasses as she pours. "I'm still not hearing a suggestion." He waits for her to recap the bottle, and gives her one of the drinks.

Rose takes a sip and sets down the glass. "Since we have proper music, would you care to dance?" She doesn't think he was expecting that. "Granted, we won't have much room to move, but there should be enough space to allow it."

John responds by taking her hand. So they dance.

"By the way, John." Step. "There's something I've wanted to tell you."

And dance.

"I know, Rose." Step. "There's something I have to tell you, too."

And dance...

His lips brush her ear. "Close your eyes." She does. Something clicks again and she feels something small tickling against her skin. She opens her eyes and...

Glitter.

Glitter everywhere.

"John."

"Shhhh now we're Queen and King of Rainbow Castle. Do you realize what this means?" John continues when Rose simply brushes some of the glitter from his hair, "It means... uh... magic. Lots of magic, Rose. Like, if you weren't already pretty damn magical, I would be concerned."

She hmmms and combs some glitter out of her hair with her fingers. "I am picking up some hints here that this is a very particular kind of magic that can only be used in very particular circumstances. At which point can we expect someone to tell us that we must be pure of heart and true of mind in order to use this? I wouldn't want my dark little heart to corrupt this power."

John chuckles. "Oh yeah, cuz your heart's sooo corrupted, I forgot!"

"Laugh all you want, John, but what will you do when it actually happens?"

"Please Rose, you can't corrupt the power of..." What a weird moment to stall. "...rainbow glitter magic."

She wonders if he really expects her not to understand what he meant to say, but otherwise ignores it.

---