#Like a kid who made a homemade Valentine for his crush in junior high

[m1ssunderstanding]

People have probably already seen this because apparently it's been on YouTube for a week but I hadn't so here you go if you want! Spoilers (I guess) in the tags so for people that don't want to watch this sneak peak and ruin their movie experience, don't read my tags :)

[morg-among-the-stars]

Valentine’s Day

Word Count: 1,658

(Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! Here’s a sweet Hobarkley fic in honor of today! <3)

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Payton doesn't get particularly excited about commercial holidays, especially now that he's always preoccupied with one thing or another.

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and he vaguely, half-heartedly knows that he has to get Alice something nice. He's gotten her something nice since they were kids.

But back when he was a kid, his dream had only just spawned in his mind.

He wasn't a politician, he was only a kid with an answer to the question of, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Payton remembers telling his mom about Alice and talking about how Mrs. Charles always wore pearls around her neck.

Shiny and beautiful.

Those two things seemed separate, completely unrelated, but it made sense to an eight-year-old boy with his first little crush.

He wanted to buy Alice a set of pearls for Valentine's Day.

While he didn't understand the scope of his family's wealth, he did know they had the money for his intended gift.

But Georgina didn't want her son to buy something so grand, she wanted him to give a gift in the scope of his age.

He's only eight, he can gift her pearls when he is older.

Payton had pouted and protested, but he had been given an alternative idea; he could make a necklace himself.

It was the one homemade thing Payton ever made for anyone. He was never into arts and crafts, even as a child, besides the occasional drawing to be hung on the refrigerator.

But he sat in his bedroom, stringing shiny plastic beads together, picking out all the white ones for the necklace.

When his work was done, Payton had hid it underneath all the other Valentines that were to be passed out the following day.

Once they'd been let out for recess, Payton took Alice behind the rock wall near the swings, the swings where McAfee and James kept watch so Payton could have his moment in the most private place kids their age had access to.

Payton presented the "pearls", stuttering and bashful, telling Alice that he loves her.

Being bashful about how he feels is a thing he learned to overcome with Alice and most people later on in life.

But at the age of eight, Alice was happy, giving the one boy who didn't believe in cooties a peck on the cheek.

Alice loved him, too.

Payton stepped out from behind the rock wall, grinning like the happiest boy on the planet.

His future First Lady was set in stone.

Payton made it a point to buy Alice something for every Valentine's Day from that day forward.

He stuck to it through elementary and middle school, but high school is when the idea of buying a card or chocolates became one thing to take him away from focusing on changing the world.

A distraction as opposed to a heart-felt gesture.

Now, in his junior year of high school, heart-felt gestures are off the table.

If Alice feels any heartache about it, she never speaks of it.

She sees the pink and red heart motifs everywhere she goes in February and she pays it no mind, pushing forward.

James, in his love for Alice, sees Payton's dismissal of the holiday and something in him wants to buy Alice something nice himself.

But he knows that won't do him any good, Payton would kill him.

So, he does the next best thing and reminds Payton that Valentine's Day is in two days.

"We don't do that. You know it, James." Payton tells him across the table in the library, while Alice and McAfee are off somewhere else, "Since when do you care about Valentine's Day anyway?"

James doesn't have an answer that he can give Payton.

So, he makes one up.

"She's your girlfriend, it's the right thing to do." Payton laughs, audibly laughs at that and looks up from his laptop,

"In twenty years, when we're all in the White House, this stupid holiday won't matter."

James drops it there, there is no getting through to Payton and his stubbornness.

The sun rises the following day and the holiday he now despises is a day away, fast approaching.

He doesn't like this mushy stuff, the cards and little teddy bears and the roses.

But James' words hit him all of a sudden when he thinks of the way Alice had looked at him through her usual content gaze.

She looks frustrated, frustrated in a way she can't express.

If she expressed it, it would cause a rift and a disturbance.

If Payton truly hates anything, he hates a disturbance in his meticulously crafted plans.

So, he drives out to the local Hallmark store in search of something to get James' words out of his mind and that look of frustration out of Alice's eyes.

The store is quiet, a few people are wandering up and down the isles, picking out any number of gifts for their special someone.

Payton turns to the Hallmark cards and the biggest disturbance in his life is shuffling through the various options.

River has a small stuffed bear tucked under his arm.

Payton goes down the isle, shuffling through the cards himself, watching River as subtlety as he can.

He struggles to find a card that is good enough for Alice.

Half of him doesn't care about this one bit and the other half cares a lot, maybe even too much.

In his third or fourth glance in River's direction, he sees him pick a card covered in roses and hearts.

Payton knows that underneath the cheesy Hallmark message will be something poetic and sweet and from the heart.

Astrid is a very lucky girl.

At a point, River looks back at Payton, in a waiting game to see who would acknowledge the other first.

"I thought you and Alice didn't do stuff like this." He comments.

Payton had forgotten that he told River about his distain for Valentine's Day during last week’s tutoring session.

"We don't." Payton states, then shrugs, "But I felt like it was the right thing to do."

River looks almost proud of Payton for using his morals.

Payton can tell him that James knocked the sense into him in a few days, when this store is all set up for St. Patrick's Day on February fifteenth.

Payton picks up a card and puts it right back, asking, "Are you and Astrid doing anything special?"

The question comes off his tongue and it tastes bitter like an unripe lemon.

River smiles to himself and the bitterness only grows as he goes on about their plans for dinner at the best place in town.

Payton has to think quick on his feet when River flips the question back around to him,

"Oh, well- I think- we're going out. Though, I'm still trying to book a reservation, God knows everyone else is trying to steal my great idea." He jokes towards the end to mask the fact that it's nothing special.

He hadn't even thought about it until yesterday in the library.

But River has how he'll treat Astrid like royalty all planned out and Payton is bitter and envious for reasons his subconscious won't allow him to confront.

He picks up a card that's pastel colored and classy, the same as Alice is.

He can write his own message in it tonight.

Payton drafts up the card's message on the way home. He'd also picked up a heart-shaped box of fancy chocolate that Alice likes.

He feels good; this is the most he's done in years.

He wants to do more in the future, the bitterness from his run-in with River solidifies it.

As dumb as it is, Payton understands the frustration Alice feels.

He knows he won't receive a heartfelt card or a nice evening out, where he's showered in sweet words and love from River and that gives him an ache in his heart.

It's a thing he'll never have and he has to deal with it.

He pushes his sorrows to the back of his mind and readies himself for tomorrow.

Alice is overjoyed with what Payton gives him.

No matter how cold and calculated she is, she's still a girl who wants to be shown love, even in the commercial sense that Payton isn't fond of.

James looks at him, it's a look of approval.

A job well done. His First Lady is happy.

At the end of the day, Payton goes to his locker to put his books away.

A folded piece of loose-leaf paper falls out when the door is opened.

A note from River.

Happy Valentine's Day, Payton. You're a busy guy, so I'll keep this short and sweet...

The note is short and sweet in a very literal sense, Payton feels warm and fuzzy at the brief words River had written.

It's signed, "Your buddy, River", but if Payton squints, he can see where the eraser of River's pencil erased the, "L" in, "Love".

Today is the best time to use that word, but River knows better than to make Payton short-circuit when he only has a few hours to prepare an evening out for himself and Alice.

River knows him well, he loves him a lot.

Payton knows River loves him, it's evident in every word he's ever spoken to him or every way he's ever looked at him.

He is the best disturbance in Payton's life.

In the end, Payton enjoys his evening with Alice; he has a lot to be grateful for when it comes to her.

He doesn't explain to her that a run-in with River and a nudge from James pushed him to be so romantic, he keeps that to himself.

Payton keeps River's note in his wallet, tucked behind his school ID.

Next year, he might be brave enough to sneak his own note into River's locker.