15 minutes. 15 minutes had passed since Alabaster had decided to work up a little courage after listening to his friends advice.

He had picked a rose from the castle gardens, the best one he could find and wrapped a silver ribbon around the stem, leaving the rose on the bed in Peter Maximoff's room. Underneath the rose was an envelope with Peters name, written in silver gel pen. The handwriting was very fancy, almost like calligraphy.

Alabaster was currently sat on a bench in the rose garden, waiting, hoping. He looked up at the night sky and smiled a little. He had always loved the outdoors and sometimes his emotions got the better of him so he hoped his idea would work.

Will had ran into the ballroom, slightly out of breath and when he saw Peter, he ran over. "Hey Peter." He greeted him.

"Well if it isn't my double." Peter smirked a little and frowned, seeing how out if breath he was. "There's no point in trying to be as fast as me." He stated.

"Funny Peter. No I've been looking for you. I saw someone enter your room. I dont know who it was but I thought I should tell you." Will told him with a slight frown.

Peter frowned and looked at his double. "Thanks for telling me, I should check it out. I'll talk to ya later." He told him and sped off, running to his room in a matter of seconds, just missing the knowing smirk appearing on Will's face.

Peter ran into his room and paused by the bed, frowning a little. There was a white rose with a silver ribbon wrapped around the stem and an envelope with his name on it. He sat on the bed and opened the envelope, reading the letter inside it.

Please meet me in the Gardens where the rose I gave you came from. I will be waiting for you there, I promise.

Peter turned the note over in his hands, frowning down at both the rose and the note. He couldn't see a signature on the letter and he could only hope that it wasn't Madge trying to get back together with him after their breakup. Nevertheless, he brushed his hair out of his face, adjusted his bow tie and sped off out into the gardens.

It was safe to say that the person Peter saw sitting by the rose bush was not the one he had expected and he paused, holding the rose in his hands as he looked around behind himself, had he gotten the wrong bush? That must have been it as there was no way on god's green earth that Alabaster would leave him a rose. No way at all.

Alabaster looked around, hands shaking a little from nervousness. Will had given him some advice and he hoped it would work, he didn't even know if peter liked guys. Well, he was about to find out. He looked at peter as he sped in and stood up, a small smile on his face as he walked over. "You got them then," he mumbled a little.

For once in his life Peter was at a loss for words, "I, uh, huh, what, you? This was from you? So I didn't get the wrong bush then. Okay... um. Wow. Right." he said, quickly, nodding his head. He was silent for a few tense moments before smiling a little, "Thanks."

Al nodded, looking down. "Yeah it was me.. I kinda I dont know, have a crush maybe and I spoke to will but first I thought he was you and he told me that I should just tell you how I feel but I was scared so I wrote a note and now I feel like a sap and an idiot because I don't know that much about you and.." He rambled before sighing. "Sorry"

Peter couldn't help but snigger at the case of mistaken identity, "That must have been awkward." he remarked, fondling the rose in his hand for a moment before roughly snapping off the stalk and tucking it into the button hole on the left lapel of his blazer, "Was kinda sappy, not gonna lie." he said, smiling somewhat, "But cute."

Alabaster sighed before smiling a little. "You thought it was cute?" He asked, a little surprised "That rose suits you" he pointed out with a grin.

Peter had to bite his lip to stop himself from grinning at the compliment, "Yeah. I thought it was cute." he nodded, zipping closer until he was standing right in front of him, "And if I don't do this now then I'm never going to have the guts to do it. So here goes." he said and took the lapels of Al's blazer into his hands, pulling the younger man towards him before crushing their lips together.

Alabaster didn't have much time to react before peter was in front of him and kissing him. He returned the kiss, grinning. He definitely owed Will for the advice. "So um.." He blushed deeply after breaking the kiss.

Peter took a step back and cleared his throat, bowing his head a little, "Yup." he nodded, popping the 'p'. "Please tell me I didn't completely misinterpret what you meant by crush?"

Al's cheeks were heating up and he swore he probably looked like a tomato. He bit his lip and shook his head. "No um.." He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. He was at a loss, he didn't know what to say. "Dance?" He managed to ask before leaning in to kiss him again.

"I, uh, I don't know how." Peter stammered, embarrassed. Though that didn't stop him leaning back in also.

"I can show you how?" Al offered with a grin.

"Alright, but I'm not being the lady." Peter smirked.

"I bet you'd suit a dress though." Al smirked at Peter before grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the castle doors.

"I swear if you even think about me in a dress I will slap you." Peter warned, allowing himself to be dragged through even though he could move so much quicker.

"Too late." Al teased him and continued to walk towards the castle. Eventually he got to the ballroom and looked at Peter with a fond smile.

"I will break your feet." Peter said, "That's not a threat by the way, that's a fact. I'm so bad at dancing I'll probably manage to kick you in the eye accidentally."

Al began to laugh a little. "You cant be that bad." He stated with a small smile and moved one hand to peters shoulder and the other to peters back as a slow song began to play.

"I'll prove you wrong." Peter smirked. He took Al's hand in his and placed his other around the other man's waist and couldn't help but blush.

"I bet your a great dancer." Al stated, still blushing profusely. He started to dance with him, smiling. He began to move in time to the slow music, almost like a Waltz, but a tad more painful. Peter was right, he couldn't dance.

"I'm really not." Peter said adamantly, focusing furiously on his feet. "Sorry." He frowned everytime he missed a step and either kicked Al's leg or stood on his foot, which was a lot.

"It's alright, practice makes perfect." Al stated with a small shrug.

After about 5 minutes of dancing, Al sat down and Peter sped over with 2 glasses of champagne.
"Here ya go Al." Peter smiled and passed him a glass, downing his own.

"You know, you're supposed to sip champagne." Al chuckled and started to sip his.

"Whatever." Peter smirked and put his glass down. He sat next to Al and sighed. "You know, when I first saw you in the gardens, I was surprised. I didn't think you were the one who gave me the rose or wrote that note." He admitted.

"Yeah but it was a good surprise though, right?" Al asked him, messing with his hands.

"Yeah, it was." Peter stated and held Al's hands in his own, before kissing him again.

Al kissed him back and closed his eyes, leaning against Peter. "Tonight's been one of the best nights I've had." He told him. "And hopefully, if you want, we can have more good times together?"

"Are you asking me out?" Peter asked him, with a knowing smile.

"Well um.. yeah." Al blushed, looking down.

"Well then my answers yes." Peter replied, grinning. He moved his hand under Al's chin and lifted his head up. "I mean you're a sap and you're also really sweet, when you want to be." He teased a little.

"And you're very annoying, even when you don't want to be." Al laughed a little, joking with him.

"Whatever magic boy." Peter smirked. "You're just jealous."

"Jealous of what? Your hair? You look like Gandalf, which is funny, because your dad actually is Gandalf." Al laughed a little.

Peter chuckled a little. "Just because I have silver hair and ny dad is Gandalf, doesn't make me Gandalf. I'm Gandalf junior." He laughed and soon Al began laughing as well.

"That's pretty funny." Al grinned at him and stood up, getting Peter up. "We should get something to eat, you know, before the castle changes again." He stated.

"Yeah, you're right." Peter nodded and stood behind Al, holding his hand against the back of his head. "So you don't get whiplash." He smirked and sped off into the castle kitchen with him.

Fin