swimmingwolf59:

When
Adam had said he’d wanted something unique for their first date, this was not what he’d meant.

Adam
had done it all before. He’d bought flowers for girls, had them delivered to
their doorsteps. He’d gone to movies, kissed them in the back of the movie
theater. He’d gone out to dinner, shared secret touches under the table, walked
them home and kissed them on their front porch. He’d done it all, and while he
certainly wouldn’t mind doing it again, it didn’t sit right with him.

Because
this was Ronan. Magical, incredible Ronan who Adam had never spent a dull
moment with. Ever. Their entire lives
were wrapped up in magic and craziness and it felt wrong, untruthful even, to
have a mundane first date. Especially since so much was hanging on it.

After
everything with Gansey and Glendower went down, both Adam and Ronan had
relapsed into some kind of angry, mourning state. They were glad to be together
and there for each other, they were glad Gansey was alive, but underneath everything
was the profound sense of loss. Ronan had lost his mother, one of the only
people who still mattered, and Adam had lost Cabeswater, one of the few beings
that thought he mattered. They’d taken it out on each other, sometimes, in bad
fights that neither of them wanted to be having but couldn’t seem to figure out
how to stop. Sometimes it just hurt too much, and the need to lash out was too
great.

They’d
talked it out, and decided they needed to start over. Go on a date, since they
hadn’t yet. Spend a day together that wasn’t about mourning or near-death
experiences and was just about them. They
needed to figure out who they were together before their grief tore them apart.

Adam
went back to St. Agnes for the night, so that Ronan could do the whole ‘picking
up my date in my fancy car’ thing and so that they could both take a breather
and be excited about tomorrow. And Adam was
excited – he was excited to see what Ronan had in store for them.

He
just hadn’t been expecting this.

For
Ronan picked him up, just as expected, in the hottest pair of jeans Adam had
ever seen on another person, and drove them to the grocery store.

At
first, Adam thought that it was a joke, so he remained in the car even when
Ronan pulled into a parking spot. It was only when Ronan got out and grabbed
fucking grocery bags that he had
stored in the trunk of his fucking car that Adam realized he was serious.

Furious,
Adam cranked down the window and glared at Ronan. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Ronan
grinned and hooked his elbows on the window. “You said you wanted something
unique.”

“This
is not what I meant.”

But
Ronan was still smirking as he leaned in to leave a kiss on Adam’s nose. “Just
come into the damn store, Parrish, I swear you’ll like it.”

And
really, Adam had no choice but to follow him. He wasn’t happy about it, though.
He’d been so looking forward to this day, and it didn’t even seem like Ronan
was taking it seriously, even though it had seemed like such a big deal to both
of them when they’d talked about it before. He wondered with a sinking heart if
maybe they’d lost something else when all of the shit had gone down, if they’d
both forgotten how to have magic together.

When
they stepped into the store, the cheap, ‘everything in one convenient stop!’
type of store that made Adam nervous he wound run into his parents, Ronan
shoved one of the shopping bags into Adam’s hands. “Alright, here’s the game:
you have to go through this store and pick out a picnic spread you think I’d
really like. I’m going to do the same for you, and whoever gets done the
slowest has to make breakfast for a week. Oh, and you can only spend $20 total.”

Adam
was bewildered. “Wha—?”

“Go!”
Ronan shouted cheerfully and ran off deeper into the store.

Adam
lost ten precious seconds standing there like an idiot, trying to process what
had just happened. It was only when his brain caught up to the losing terms
that it kicked into action – he was decent in the kitchen, but he should not be
allowed anywhere near a stove before he had his morning coffee.

So he
couldn’t afford to lose.

A plan
in his mind, he sprinted off down the aisles, nearly knocking shelves over in
his haste. Even with his delay, he felt that he had the upper hand – he’d been
bargain shopping literally his entire life and could find the cheapest
combination of food items in his sleep. Ronan, who no doubt had never looked at
a price tag in his life, wouldn’t stand a chance against that, even if he had a
knack for instantly thinking of and being able to make food that Adam liked.

And as
the game progressed, Adam actually found himself enjoying the challenge.
Whenever he ran into Ronan he would shout taunts at him, laughing as Ronan
merely cursed at him and shook a full basket that could in no way be under the
money constraint in his face. One time, he and Ronan actually ran into each
other as they both reached for a box of Pop-Tarts, an all-around family
favorite. Though of course, neither of them grabbed it after seeing the other
wanted it. They were both stubborn, after all.

When
Adam was sure of his selections, he ran for the cash register, only to find
Ronan running from it too from the opposite direction.

As
they locked eyes, they both sped up, running and crashing through the crowds to
reach the only open cash register first. Ronan had played tennis once upon a
time, and worked on a farm, but Adam had spent a better portion of his life
biking to school every day, and so it was with one second that Adam slammed
into the counter before Ronan. It was so close that Ronan couldn’t stop in time
and crashed into Adam, nearly causing them both to fall over.

Laughing,
Adam triumphantly began unloading his cart onto the conveyer belt. “Too bad,
Lynch – guess you’re making breakfast for a week.”

“Dammit,”
Ronan panted out, but he was grinning as he slid his arms around Adam’s waist
and leaned his chin on his shoulder. “I bet what I picked out for you is
better, anyway.”

“Well,
you should’ve bet on that then,” Adam retorted, shooting him a teasing glance
over his shoulder. “Though I think I’ll win that too.”

“Oh,
fuck you,” Ronan said joyfully as he leaned back and started haphazardly
tossing his things onto the belt behind Adam’s.

They
each paid for their own baskets before heading back out to the car, hand in
hand. Adam was in a significantly better mood than when he’d gone into the
store – this challenge had felt exactly like something they would’ve done
together when they’d first met. It was just the kind of stupid boy thing that
Adam secretly loved doing and secretly loved watching Ronan do. It felt like them, and it was a relief.

“So,
are we heading back to the Barns, or what?” Adam asked as he buckled in his
seat belt.

Ronan
switched on his pulsing EDM and revved out of the parking lot. “Nope, I told
you – this is for a picnic.”

Adam’s
mouth twitched into a smile. “How domestic.”

“You
know, you’re a snarky little shit considering how close you came to losing
today,” Ronan sniped.

Adam
couldn’t help but laugh. “You could not possibly sound more bitter right now.
Did you think you would win?”

“I
honestly thought you would take so long worrying about prices that it’d be easy.”

Adam
shoved him. “I’ve been doing that all my life – it takes no time at all now. I
know the cheapest brands. When was the last time you looked at a price tag?”

Ronan
curled his lip but didn’t answer. Adam took it as a win, rolled down his
window, and settled back for the drive. As it was with most of their drives, he
was content to let Ronan take them wherever his pounding emotions and music
took him.

Today,
though, he was purposeful in his wild turns, sure in his accelerations on the
straights. It didn’t take long for Adam to find out why.

Ronan
took him up into the mountains, climbing climbing, the engine purring under
their feet and thighs, and pulled over at a lookout that Adam knew like the
back of his hand. This was where the adventures started; this was where the
magic happened. This was where Gansey had taken Blue on one of the first nights
they’d went out together, as he’d told Adam later. This was where Adam and
Ronan had gone when they’d first gotten back after shit went down, where they’d
escaped to when everywhere they called home felt too suppressing and choked
with memories. This was where they could see the entirety of Henrietta spread
out before them, where they could see every star, where they could feel like
kings.

This
was one of the only places not tainted by bad memories.

It
made sense Ronan had thought of this place. They’d needed to get away from the
bad memories.

After
haphazardly parking the car, Ronan threw himself out and went around back to
grab their groceries. Adam settled himself on the hood of the BMW, lying back
and watching as the sun began to sink below the horizon.

“Alright,
Parrish, let’s see what we’ve got here,” Ronan said as he practically leaped
onto the hood, nearly knocking Adam right off.

Adam
pushed at him playfully before sinking into his side and grabbing his grocery
bag. Ronan gestured for him to go first so Adam began taking out each item one
by one. “Deli ham, potato salad, gouda and crackers, and, of course, IPA.”

“Not
bad, Parrish, not bad,” Ronan said, licking his lips. Adam watched every second
of it. “Alright, my turn: string cheese, ingredients for PB&J, black
olives, Cheerios, and, of course—” Ronan pulled out a can and held it to Adam’s
chest playfully, where it matched perfectly with his shirt, “—Coca fucking
Cola.”

“…Okay,
Lynch, I admit, that’s pretty damn good,” Adam said as he took the coke from
Ronan. “I think we both won the selection category.”

“Whatever
makes you feel better about yourself,” Ronan replied and popped his beer.

Adam stuck
his tongue out at him and started digging into his meal. He had to admit, it
had been fun picking out food that he thought Ronan would like, and it made him
feel warm all over realizing that Ronan knew enough about him to know what he
would like, too. Adam had always thought himself unknowable, but each moment he
spent with Ronan made him feel just a little bit more known. He liked to think
he was getting to know Ronan better each moment, too.

They
ate dinner and cracked jokes and talked and kissed until the sun finally went
down. Warm and happier than they had been in days, they laid back on the hood
of the car, tangled up in each other as they watched the stars emerge, each one
blinking to life slowly across the sky.

It
was, as always, breathtaking.

“I
actually had a lot of fun today,” Adam admitted after they’d laid there quietly
for what felt like hours. He could feel Ronan’s heart beating hard where his deaf
ear was pressed against his chest. “Thank you.”

Ronan
hummed and kissed the top of his head. “I figured out what we are together, you
know.”

Adam
pushed himself up on his elbows to turn and look at him. “…Oh yeah? What’s
that?”

Smirking,
Ronan reached up to swipe his thumb across Adam’s cheek. “Little shits who want
nothing more than to wreak havoc on the world.”

Adam
laughed and leaned down to kiss him, enjoying the warmth of their bodies
pressed together. Just then, he couldn’t remember why he’d ever been worried
about them. They’d always fought, and they most likely would again, but it
wouldn’t break them. After all, they’d already known who they were together; they’d
known for years. They’d just needed a reminder. “I think we’re quite good at
that, then.”

Ronan
grinned, the light of the universe in his eyes, and ran his hands up Adam’s
back. “Yeah, I think we are.”