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“Will you go to prom with me?”
Jasper’s question is sorta out of no where, sitting with Charlotte and Henry in the man-cave much later than any of them should be up on a school night, stitching an open wound shut. There’s an extended moment of silence, where Henry and Charlotte look at each other, then back at Jasper, then back at each other even more confused.
“Who?”
Jasper looks up, apologizing with a sympathetic wince when he accidentally tucks on the thread harder than he meant to, “Both of you.”
“Like, as friends?”
Jasper shrugs, carefully putting the needle on the table and tying off the suture, “If you want?”
“Is this you asking us out?” Henry sounds like he’s smirking, despite the pain and discomfort of having his arm put back together.
The team medic grins when he looks up, “Sure! Unless you don’t want me to, then yes I’m asking as your friend and totally not someone who has a crush on you.”
Charlotte snorts, sliding off the table and onto the blue couch beside him, leaning close enough to place a small kiss on his cheek, “I’d love to. Hen?”
Jasper’s blushing up a storm, and he only gets redder when Henry leans forward and does the same thing Charlotte did, leaving the slightly sticky feeling of his chapstick on his hopefully-future-boyfriend’s cheek.
“Sweet!” the medic fist pumps, carefully and in his lap to avoid dislodging Charlotte, “Are we meeting at the school? Do you think Ray will pay for the tickets? They’re like fifty bucks.”
“They’re what?!” Ray’s got a towel wrapped over his head, with presumably nothing but a robe and maybe some boxers on underneath, walking out slightly drippy from the back rooms, “Fifty bucks?! For a school dance?”
“Yep, school needs the money. Some places they’re even higher,” Charlotte shrugs.
“Please Ray?” Jasper leans over the back of the couch and gives his best puppy eyes, he feels Henry lean up against his back and presumably do the same thing. Despite all of Ray’s attempted protests, he relents, and soon they’re all 50$ richer.
“What about suits? I’m sure I could afford mine with the money Ray pays us, but what about you two?” the team computer whizz readjusts now that her boys are sitting properly again and not begging Ray.
“I can afford mine!” Jasper declares, “I’ve been planning this for like, a while, and even if you guys didn’t want to go as a date I wanted to go with you guys as friends, so I’ve been saving up.”
“I haven’t actually spent most of it, saving up for when I move out. I can rent something.”
…
The night of prom Charlotte is the first one at the school. She sits outside on the benches in her dark blue suit, fidgeting with the corsage box in her hands. It feels a bit silly for her to be the one holding it, when everybody else has had the woman wearing the corsage, or her boyfriend showing up with it on hand and giving it over.
They’ve never really been traditional, though. Even before this.
“Charlotte? Is Jasper here yet?” Henry’s voice calls over the crowd of teenagers, him slipping between students and barely stopping to apologize when he nearly elbows someone over. He’s got a very different outfit than she had expected on.
It’s a white dress shirt with a black bow tie, but no suit jacket in sight. Instead, it matches perfectly with the aesthetically wrinkled white skirt that reaches his ankles and hides the tops of his presumably mismatched socks.
“No, just me, you look… handsome,” she laughs, standing from the bench to hand him the box. It’s actually black and white, because she’d expected him to show up in a similar outfit to hers; black tux with a white shirt underneath.
Her boyfriend(!) takes the pin with a goofy grin, “Thanks, Char! This is awesome, uh, I didn’t bring anything because I totally forgot, and! You look good, it suits you.” he laughs, awkwardly reaching up to ruffle his hair and hitting himself in the side of the face with the already forgotten corsage.
Charlotte snorts, reaching up to cover her face while he clips the fake flowers to the top edge of his skirt. Just then, over his shoulder, she catches sight of Jasper.
He’s waving excitedly to her, one arm up in the air and the other holding up the dress he’s wearing. And wow, it’s gorgeous. It’s a long cream-colored dress with yellow flowers and frills along the top. There aren’t any straps, the sleeves going around the sides of his arms in a line instead of up and over his shoulders. The dress nearly drags on the ground, but the telltale sound of high heels reaches her ears and she realizes why it isn’t.
He has a white lace choker on and a matching barrette in his hair. She’s almost speechless, watching him stumble his way through the crowd and entirely ignore the whispers and stares some of that crowd starts up.
He makes it about ten feet away, which means Henry is now gaping alongside her at their boyfriend, before his heel catches on the edge of the concrete and he flails. Henry and Charlotte squawk, leaping into action. Henry blurs past her, catching Jasper before he can fall face first or scrape up his presumably expensive dress.
(The whispers get louder, and none of them pay any attention. They’ll forget it in an hour when they get their hands on the spiked punch.)
“Jasper, what– you look amazing!” Henry laughs, helping him to his feet, “You put a lot of effort into this, huh?”
“I did! And yes I do, I look gorgeous, thank you!” he does a short twirl, his partners right there to catch him when he stumbles again, “Although, I am starting to regret the heels a little bit. They’re my moms.”
Charlotte laughs, leaning into him and turning her group toward the doors, “Let’s head inside, we’ll make sure you don’t trip and die, Jasp, promise.”
(Prom is a little bit of a letdown, but they have fun and steer clear of any drinks when Charlotte runs out to grab her bag holding three bottles of soda. Thirty minutes in Jasper’s finally convinced to take his heels off, then playfully made fun of for wearing socks and heels.
It’s a good memory, even if the music sucks and they end up walking around the school for most of it.)