The Sweetest Things

[Aster]

((Samuel Howard continued from TROUBLE))

Samuel loved weekends. It gave him two whole days to kick back, relax, and push off school and other stressors. Samuel usually spent these days writing, binge watching Investigation Discovery or  scrolling through Tumblr. This routine was only rarely interrupted by his relatives, but also when, under certain circumstances, he could invite a special someone over.

The latter opportunity presented itself yesterday evening. His father told him he'd be out on errands, and Nanna would be spending the day visiting an old friend. This gave Samuel the whole house to himself for several hours.

And what did Samuel do with all this free time?

Invite his girlfriend over, of course.

Samuel texted Penelope and asked her to come over around noon. This gave him about an hour before she'd arrive.

Enough time to prepare a little treat.

He peered into the oven, checking the sugar cookies for the umpteenth time. They hadn't turned golden brown just yet. Samuel sighed and leaned on the counter, taking out his phone to scroll through Tumblr. He thought of what they'd do together. When Penelope was over, they always just hung out. They'd watch a movie or play video games, or just snuggle. It was Samuel's typical lazy day, except with Penelope. He was looking forward to a carefree day spent with her.

His only worry was that the cookies wouldn't be ready when she'd arrive.

[VoltTurtle]

((Penelope Fitzgerald continued from Skeletons and Spaghetti))

Penelope walked down the street, glancing around at the various trees and shrubs of the mostly dead Arizona landscape. She was on her way to her boyfriend Sam's house. He had called her earlier and mentioned that they would have the house all to themselves and she jumped at the opportunity. After grabbing a bag to stick a few things in, she started making her way over. He only lived about 25 minutes away, and she was already getting close. She was getting butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought of them doing things together.

Penelope was definitely a giving type when it came to romance. She was happy when Sam was happy, and always wanted to make sure that he was feeling good. He often returned the favor, but her own personal enjoyment of things didn't matter nearly as much to her as Sam's. In fact, she'd even do things that would make her personally uncomfortable just to make sure he was happy, not that that actually came up all that often.

Penelope saw Sam's house steadily approaching and smiled. It was time to get down to business. She walked right up to the door and knocked.

"Helloooooooooooooo! It's me!"

[Aster]

Samuel had mixed feelings when he heard the knock on the door. On the downside, it meant that the cookies weren't ready in time. But on the upside, it meant Penelope was here. The positive outweighed the negative here.

He made his way to the front door and swung it open. "Penny!" He exclaimed, pulling her into a tight hug. Samuel was a huge sucker for physical intimacy. He loved to give Penelope gifts, but he mostly showed love through hugs and kisses. The fact that she loved this sort of stuff too made it even better.

He held her for a moment and released. "How've you been doing honey?"

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope gave out a tiny yelp when she was suddenly yanked forward into Sam's arms.

After a few moments of going limp, she quickly wrapped her arms around Sam's torso and pressed her face into his chest. Before she was quite ready to release the hug, Sam let go of her and asked how she had been doing. Penelope took a slight step back and said, "Well, I just got out of a good game of TF2. There was a lot of burning people, kinda like logs of wood." She paused for a moment, before looking up at Sam and smiling. "...But that's probably not that important. Otherwise it's been pretty normal lately."

Penelope caught the faint aroma of cookies and sniffed the air, just to make sure her nose wasn't lying to her. Penelope gave Sam a mischievous as she recognized the exact scent; sugar cookies, her favorite kind. "Are those sugar cookies I smell?"

Penelope gave Sam no time to answer before barging into his house and flopping over on his couch. Penelope stretched a little bit before sighing happily and reclining, taking up nearly the whole thing with her small frame. She paused for a beat, before sitting up slightly and asking, "Yo, Sam, you have any soda?"

[Aster]

"Er, yeah," Samuel replied, scratching the back of his head. "I was hoping I could surprise you with them when you got here, but they're not ready yet."

He followed Penelope into the living room, when she asked for soda. "We should have some," Samuel said, heading into the kitchen. "Do you want any soda in particular?" He opened the fridge and called back, "We've got Coke and Dr. Pepper!"

While waiting for her answer, he leaned over and peered into the oven. They weren't ready now, but they would be soon.

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope tapped her chin and wiggled her lips back and forth for a few seconds, considering.

She sat up and called over to Sam. "I'll take a Dr. Pepper! Need those 23 flavors, all over my tongue yo!"

Penelope laid back down on the couch and started thinking. The dance was soon, and it was girls ask boys. Sam probably wanted to go to the dance with her, what with the romantic atmosphere and all the expression of affection. Penelope herself didn't care much for dances and formal occasions, she found them super arbitrary. Real love was the long car rides where both parties are having a blast just being together, even if it's just them exchanging jokes and talking in a car. True love was being able to be together in any situation and enjoy yourself. Fake love was going out for passionate, "special" moments but ultimately not really being able to enjoy time with your partner outside of that. Penelope liked to think that the love between her and Sam was the real kind of love, they didn't need some dance to enjoy each other's company.

But Sam would probably want to go to the dance with Penelope anyway, in spite of all that, and she still understood that sentiment. Even if you did have that real kind of love, sometimes you might want to do those special things anyway, just to make the love even more passionately involved and enjoyable year to year. Penelope considered for a second what she should do. Being forward about things was never something she had a problem with, so it won't be hard for her to just ask Sam to the dance. She would probably ask him if he wants to go after the cookies get done and they start enjoying them.

Probably.

[Aster]

"Got it!" He called back, grabbing a can of Dr. Pepper and bumping the fridge closed with his hip. He placed it on the counter and checked the oven again. This time, they were golden brown.

Perfect.

He put on a pair of oven mitts and pulled out the tray, setting it on the table to cool off. Samuel decided to wait for the cookies to cool before taking it all to Penelope. He hated making her wait, but it would save time. As he idled, thoughts of the upcoming dance drifted into his mind.

Samuel wasn't the sort of person to attend school socials, mostly because he didn't have anyone to go with. He'd be more inclined to go to dances if he had a date, or at least a group of friends to hang out with. Unfortunately, he didn't have many close friends, and for most of high school he was single.

Until now, of course.

Samuel was considering going, though the decision was out of his hands: Sadie Hawkins was a girls-ask-boys event, and it was entirely up to Penelope. Samuel wouldn't think much if she didn't ask, but he'd say yes if she did. He'd be willing to do most anything if that girl was involved.

After they'd cooled, he put them on a plate and carried the snack into  the living room. "Bon appetit," he grinned, handing her the Dr. Pepper as he sat down. Samuel held the plate between them, and used his free hand to grab the remote. "You up for some TV?"

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope sat and watched as Samuel held the cookies and the Dr. Pepper can out to her.

She grabbed the can and a cookie with a smile on her face, cracking open the can and taking a bite out of the cookie while vocalizing a "nom nom nom" to show her approval. Sugar cookies were her favorite kind of cookie, and Sam baked them all the time when she came over. Penelope swallowed her bite as Sam asked about turning on the TV. "Uh yeah, sure!" she said, before biting into the cookie again. Penelope didn't actually watch TV very often, she only turned the TV on once in a blue moon to watch a cartoon of some kind, usually something on Cartoon Network like Adventure Time or The Amazing World of Gumball.

The warm glow of the TV enveloped the room as Sam flicked it on. Penelope scooted over slightly to get as close as she could to Sam before curling her legs up towards her and lying her head on his shoulder. She took a sip from the soda, clutching the can in both of her hands after having finished her first cookie. They sat there for a few moments, enjoying each other's company, no words needing to be exchanged as the local news program went on about an incident with a man and a bundle of watermelons. She rubbed her head against Sam's shoulder again, acting as if she were an affectionate kitten. Her eyes briefly closed, feeling utterly relaxed in a state of complete calm. She opened her eyes again and set her can of soda down before turning her head up to meet Sam's gaze. "Hey... Sam..."

Penelope craned her head upwards to kiss Sam, with him recognizing her advances. They shared the kiss for a few moments before she backed away and leaned into Sam's ear and whispered, "Do you want to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?"

Before he could actually answer, she went back to kissing him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and weight leaning on him.

[Aster]

God, she was still adorable when she ate. Samuel turned the television on to the local news, which he didn't normally watch. But Penelope had just snuggled up against him, and he didn't want to disturb her. Instead, he wrapped his arm around Penelope's shoulder, leaning his head against hers. They didn't need to speak - in times like this, they just lazed around and enjoyed each other's company.

Samuel loved it when this happened.

Penelope shifted and gave him a look. She started to ask a question, but Samuel knew what was coming. He accepted the kiss gladly, closing his eyes to savor the moment. She broke off, and she whispered in his ear.

Penelope asked him to the dance.

Samuel paused, and she resumed the kiss, leaning against him. Samuel instinctively leaned back, reclining until the two were lying on the couch. He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes for a moment. He paused, feeling her on top of him, before replying.

"Yes," He replied, hugging her to his chest and resting his chin on her head. "Of course I would."

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope smiled as Samuel said yes to going to the dance, and slowly relaxed in his embrace.

Penelope closed her eyes and gently rubbed her head on Samuel's chest. She loved these moments that the two shared with each other. "Let's just stay here for now, yeah? We can talk dance plans... later." She said, quietly.

She opened her eyes briefly to look at the TV, the noise and warm glow emanating around the room. Despite looking at it, she couldn't make out what was being played or being said because it didn't matter what was actually playing on it at this point. All that mattered right now was the two of them, together and happy. Maybe she was just young and naive, but Penelope legitimately believed that she and Samuel were going to be together forever. She loved him, and he returned the favor. Despite that all they were planning to do is go to a dance that she thought was somewhat arbitrary, she started to think more about their future together. She rubbed her head on Samuel's chest again. She hoped that they would be the one lucky couple to be high school sweethearts and then wind up happily married. The odds were against them, but she believed.

Penelope wiggled her lips back and forth as she considered something else. She leaned over towards the edge of the couch and grabbed her bag. "Hey, Sam... I have an idea... if you're up for it..."

((Penelope Fitzgerald and Samuel Howard continued elsewhere...))