if i can't have you || rini au

43. young love

nini played with the whisk in her hands as she watched the curly-haired boy decorate a few cupcakes he'd made while she was choosing her outfits for the slumber party she'd been invited to, rambling on about how she should go about the evening with them.

"-what do i even say? how do i act? should i be like my usual self or do i change a little since it's only us girls and seb?"

ricky chuckled as he took a small pick, carefully decorating the cupcakes with focus while speaking "why don't you just be yourself?"

nini raised her eyebrows "be myself? myself is my princess self that had been banned from any sort of human interaction for all of her life. i in all seriousness cannot be myself..."

"you really are rapunzel - except without the extremely long blonde hair that goes on for miles." he said, placing the cupcakes on a large platter as nini sighed

"life would be so much easier if i were rapunzel. imagine all the things i could do with the hair! we could swing around on trees and climb mountains, and taking care of it would be such a hassle but the magic that it has would make up for it," she hummed

ricky grinned, turning around and holding the plate "it'd be like tarzan 2.0."

nini knit her eyebrows "tarzan?"

"and that's on the list too," he mumbled with an exhale of his breath, the girl shrugging her shoulders before noticing him staring down at the plate

"are you alright?"

ricky whipped his head up at the girl, eyebrows raised "hm?"

"you're staring at the cupcakes you were going to put out on display," nini elaborated, pointing at the platter in his hands "i'm sure they're perfectly made as usual."

ricky's cheeks flushed with a tint of red as he just smiled and shook his head "um...actually, these are...for you."

nini looked at him curiously, opening her mouth as her eyes lit up a little "what's the occasion...?"

ricky nervously took a deep breath as he stayed silent and just made his way over to her, placing the platter of cupcakes on the table in front of her to see

she looked down and saw the four cupcakes lined up, all with white vanilla icing on it with little pearl sprinkles and a small design; the first one had a blue snowflake that was made with intricate detail, the second one had a snowman that looked a lot like olaf from froze which made an instinctive smile form on her face, then the third cupcake had a disco ball with yellow star sprinkles and the final one had two red hearts on it: one with the letter 'n' and another with the letter 'r'.

nini looked up at ricky in awe, him seated opposite her with a hopeful anxious expression as she exhaled

"they're beautiful." she breathed "what-"

"it's...um...it's supposed to be a sort of proposal to go to the winter formal with me..." he mumbled shyly, looking down at his fingers as nini's heart sped up

"the winter formal?" she asked with a hint of excitement in her voice

ricky nodded "yeah...it's this dance we have the weekend of christmas break to celebrate the winter season and i know you'd love to go so i was wondering if going with me would be something you'd want...?"

nini smiled uncontrollably as she brought her hands up to rest her chin on them "so...we'd be wearing coordinated outfits and take pictures all night and dance together and i'd tell you how lucky i am to be there with you?"

ricky looked up at her and nodded with a sheepish smile "something along those lines..."

the girl giggled happily and nodded "yeah...of course! yes!" she exclaimed as she got up from her seat and jumped into his arms, ricky chuckling at her reaction as he hugged her tightly before they heard the kitchen door opening, the two looking over to see a tired erica walk in

nini stayed seated on ricky's lap comfortably as he held her waist securely, the girl looking at her aunt in confusion

"what's wrong aunt erica?"

"i just had to debate my way into catering the winter formal," erica exhaled deeply "spoiler alert; i won!" she said with faded enthusiasm, the teens stifling a laugh as she slumped on a chair

"cupcake?" nini proposed, handing her one

erica nodded "gladly," she sighed "is this olaf?"

ricky nodded "good right?"

"decorating skills are getting much better," erica grinned as she took a bite "oh chocolate!"

nini giggled as she took the fourth cupcake, twirling it around on the table slowly with a smile on her face "how long do cupcakes last?"

"no idea, why?" ricky asked

"i want to frame this, it's my favorite..." she said softly, ricky smiling at her as he sighed and took his phone out

"one picture."

nini gasped happily "yay!" she squealed, taking his phone and holding the cupcake up between them as she took a photo of the two

"oh and when you eat it, you can see how cupcakes are meant to have no gooey, uncooked batter in the middle." ricky smirked playfully as the girl whacked his arm with a chuckle

erica watched as the two continued to talk quietly to each other with interest and smiles wider than she'd ever seen...it made her happy to see them like this...happy and also many other worrying emotions that she dreaded to deal with later on.