Banana Pancakes

"Wake up," Harry's voice was more raspy than normal, due to the somewhat early hour of the morning but that didn't stop him.

He'd convinced Amanda to come over the night before for movies and a game of who-can-eat-the-most-pizza. She'd fallen asleep on the couch, like she did every single time she overdosed on pizza and coke. And, like every single other time, Harry had moved her to the spare bedroom. After the first time she slept over and woke up with a crick in her neck she swore she was never going to fall asleep on the couch again. Except old habits die hard and she always fell asleep halfway through the last movie, with a slice of pizza on a plate on her lap.

Harry knew the routine like clockwork.

"Come on Amanda…wake up," Harry leaned down, taking her lax arms and wrapping them around his shoulders while he wrapped his arms around her torso, hugging her. He gave the slightest squeeze and felt her arms start to move, pulling away a little.

"Get off," Amanda mumbled, trying to wriggle out of his grip.

Harry didn't reply. He just squeezed her tighter, burying his head in her neck and climbing up on the bed to straddle her. This was routine too. It was how he always woke her up when she stayed over.

The first time he'd done it butterflies had exploded in her stomach. Actually, they still did. Only the first time she was naive enough to assume that when he hugged her like this it meant more than it did. Harry, she reasoned after the fifth time, was just a physical person. That was the whole of it.

"Get off me Haz!" Amanda pulled her arms in, pressing her hands against his chest and pushing. He had (unfortunately) decided to get fully dressed before he woke her up.

"Never!" He laughed, making his legs go lack so he could fall on top of her, completely squishing her between his body and the bed. Amanda laughed as Harry rolled over the wrong way, causing them both to fall to the floor, dragging the blankets with them.

"Harry!" She finally got away from him, scrambling to her feet and making it to the door, grabbing the wall like it was base.

"Breakfast is ready," Harry commented, still lying on the pile of blankets.

Amanda ran to the kitchen. She could hear him getting up from the floor and chasing after her. She ran down the hall and down the stairs into the living room, trying to make it to the kitchen before him. Harry went the other way, climbing on the couch and using it as a platform, jumping on her and tackling her to the ground.

"No!" She whined, trying to get out from under him, "I'm getting breakfast before you!"

Breakfast was a routine of theirs too. Banana Pancakes. Every time she slept over Harry made banana pancakes with cinnamon and nutmeg. Sometimes he added chocolate chips but that was only on special occasions when he wanted something.

"No!" Harry laughed, wrestling with her.

"Harry!" she repeated, kneeing him lightly in the stomach.

Harry, who enjoyed being overdramatic, rolled onto off of her, holding his stomach and moaning like he'd been shot. Amanda rolled her eyes and got up, taking off for the kitchen again. She made it in, taking a seat at the table.

Usually Harry just left a plate of pancakes next to the stove and left the turkey bacon in the pan. Today was out of the ordinary. The table was set for two, the coffee pot sitting on the electric heater in the middle, waiting to be poured. Next to it was a plate of bacon and a plate of Banana Pancakes. Harry had even made the syrup that she loved.

She approached the table cautiously, taking her fork and stabbing the first pancake on the stack. After inspecting the bottom she noticed the chocolate chips littering the cake. Harry came in behind her, taking a seat at the table as if this part of the day was as ordinary as all the other parts.

Except it wasn't. Amanda knew it wasn't.

"What did you do?" She put her fork down and crossed her arms under her chest, eyeing Harry suspiciously.

"Wow Harry, this is all so nice, you're such a good best friend, what would I do without you…" Harry mumbled.

"Thank you Haz," Amanda rolled her eyes, "now what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Harry retorted.

"Really? The last time you went to this much trouble you accidentally let my cat out when you were supposed to be sitting him for me," Amanda said.

"He wanted to get out, besides he was mean to me," Harry pouted.

"Well you either did something or…" Amanda paused as realization dawned on her, "what do you want?"

"Nothing but your love," Harry grinned.

Amanda let out an amused laugh but dropped the subject, sitting down to eat. Harry's banana pancakes were her absolute favorite.

Her and Harry had been friends for a fairly long time. She'd always thought he was cute but never thought of him as anything but a good friend. Until a little while ago. She didn't really know when it was, she just knew that he went from looking like an adorable kid to looking like a sex god in the blink of an eye. Not that she was complaining.

She tried to ignore that as she ate though. Harry was somewhat concentrated on his food, looking up at her every once in a while to make a face. She suspected that the rest of the day would go as planned, though with the change of events at breakfast she couldn't be sure.

Anyone else would say that she was ridiculous for reading that much into a simple morning meal. But Amanda knew how she and Harry worked. Movie night and the morning after was always the exact same thing. It was like going to school and always having an assigned seat. To suddenly go in one day and have the teacher let them sit anywhere was somewhat life altering. If that didn't sound too overdramatic.

"I'm going to get a shower," Amanda announced, pushing her plate a little away from her body.

That was the next step in their day after movie night. After breakfast (which had been unusually quiet this time) was showering. She always showered first because she always finished eating first. Harry would make some perverted joke about showering with her, which he would then reiterate when he went to take his own shower.

Harry hopped right up after her from the table, "Wait!"

"What?"

Amanda waited for Harry to say something but instead he just stood there, rubbing the back of his neck. He had been preparing for this moment since he called her last night and asked her to head over for movie night. He got all the best romantic movies as some sort of foreshadowing/mood-setting for the morning after. Now it was the morning after and he'd done everything according to his plan until now. He couldn't think of a single word to say to her.

All the great speeches he'd rehearsed yesterday had been washed out of his brain. Now he was just standing there staring at her, waiting for all the words to come back, and probably freaking her out.

"Uh…I…I uh, well," Harry took a deep breath, trying to form an actual word.

"So you do want something?" Amanda laughed, "See I told you! I knew it! I knew you wanted something!"

She moved around the table toward and Harry moved back. The situation was slowly diffusing as she joked with him. She poked him in the chest with each accusatory sentence. Harry laughed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward him and spinning her around so her back was flat against his chest.

"Gotcha," he whispered in her ear.

"That's what you think," she smiled (Harry loved her smile) and reached with her free hand, tickling his sides.

Harry lurched forward a bit and then back away from her, letting go of her hand as she tickled him. Once she was free Amanda ran out of the kitchen and down the hall. She ran back into the bedroom, running around the side of it and crawling underneath. She could hear Harry's footsteps in the hall. He walked slowly like he didn't know where she was and Amanda tried not to laugh when he entered the bedroom.

He walked along the foot of the bed, crouching down to see Amanda's legs. He grabbed her ankles and pulled her out from under the bed as she laughed hysterically. The minute she was uncovered he fell, straddling her as he landed with his knees on either side of her.

"Gotcha again," he grabbed her wrists when she reached forward, pinning her down so she couldn't tickle him again.

Amanda smiled at him. Harry was leaning closer to her now, his face inches from hers as he held her arms above her. There was that famous grin on his face, his dimples just hinting at existence. She could see all the green of his eyes and all the little blemishes on his face. She wanted to speak, wanted to have some sort of a remarkably clever comeback. But Harry was so close that she literally felt dizzy.

She didn't have to worry though because he didn't let her speak. As close as he was to her, she was to him. Harry felt completely overwhelmed. He was entirely too aware of the cliched nature of his move but he didn't care. He had to get his point across and another moment like this wouldn't come.

So he leaned down and kissed her. He didn't really know how long he was supposed to kiss her or if he was supposed to move his lips around. When the perfect time to spring back and pretend that it was an honest mistake so she wouldn't slap him was. He just knew that he wanted to kiss her and now his slightly chapped lips were covering her moist ones (she probably felt gross and there was the tiny sting of a cut he'd gotten on his lip that made him want to whimper in pain but he held it in; he was kissing Amanda after all).

But things like that have to end because people have to breathe. Sometimes. Maybe. He wasn't sure that was a scientifically good enough reason. Maybe he could conduct a study, if Amanda didn't want to get up and run out of the house and never have movie night again. But she was still there, under him, staring up with eyes the size of doll-house saucers.

He kept thinking movie night would be more fun. There would be no more sleeping in the guest room. Or showering separately (maybe he was rushing things). They could skip the boring monologue parts of movies and just make out. That would be fun. They could have banana pancakes in bed…except maybe without the syrup because he really hated washing his sheets (they were so big and bulky and)…Amanda was talking. What was she saying?

"Wha?" Harry asked, sounding somewhere between confused and high.

Amanda sucked in another breath. He wanted her to repeat herself? He'd totally just blanked out? She finally told him she loved him as he finished kissing her and he chose that moment to go off in his head. Amanda wanted to roll her eyes, that was so like Harry. Always missing the important parts.

"So…" she tried to start again but the words wouldn't come out. So she settled for being dumb, "was that what you wanted?"

"Yeah," he blushed, letting go of her wrists to sit up and rub the back of his neck. He climbed off her, helping her up to her feet because he figured pinning her to the ground wasn't a great way to start a relationship.

"Definitely better than banana pancakes," she bit her lip. She wouldn't tell him. Not today. Maybe tomorrow or the next day or next week or some month later on down the line. She'd pluck up the courage again and tell him that she loved him but right now it wasn't so important.

"Even with chocolate chips?" And there it was, the smug grin crept back into place and the shyness from a moment ago disappeared. He felt like on of those American football players when they make a touchdown. He wanted to victory dance all over his flat and possibly shout to the whole world that Amanda liked him.

"Well, I mean…" she grinned just as smugly, "they are chocolate chips."

And just like that they were off again. Amanda tearing through the flat as Harry chased her, threatening things that made Amanda want to get caught (like kissing her to death). She was sort of amazed that even though everything had completely changed, they were no longer 'just friends', everything still felt sort of the same.

Except this time, as Harry caught her from behind and pulled her close, he planted a kiss at the corner of her mouth and she swore she heard the faintest of 'I love you's' before she squirmed free.

Maybe she'd tell him tonight.