(Norman x Emma) I think I know you (TPN)

16

'I've got it!'

Norman stood in his kitchen, standing in front of the toaster as he waited for it to pop up with his toast. He was thinking to himself, mainly pondering how he would go about the day. He had looked outside through the window and had taken note of how cloudy the day was. Regardless of the weather's plans for that day, however, he decided that he had finally figured out the plan. Emma would arrive in about two hours, and he would be waiting on his porch for her by then.

Wait, but she oftentimes arrives early, sometimes half an hour early, sometimes five minutes early, is he supposed to wait out there forever? He shook his head to himself, he'll just wait outside for like, forty minutes maybe, that should be fine. And then when he is waiting for her, he'll have some flowers in his hands for her!

Wait, that won't work, because the only available flowers to him were the ones in his front yard, and she'll obviously see that, and she might think he doesn't put a lot of effort into things. Its too late for him to get flowers from the store and be back in time to shower and wait for her, so maybe he'll have to ditch the flower idea. Why is his plan falling apart right as he recites it?

At that moment, a sudden 'pop' from the toaster sounded, scaring the white haired boy out of his thoughts. He sighed, and put his head in his hands, how can he do this the right way? Is there even a right way to do this? Suddenly he is thinking back to the girl he liked when he was younger, and how his tiny self wanted to tell her he really liked her.

*around ten years prior*

"Whats that in your hand?"

This startled the tiny Norman, whom was waiting behind the building for his dearest friend to arrive. He was only six years old.

"Oh, these are flowers I picked from the backyard! Aren't they pretty?" Norman smiled, showing off his find to his friend. The friend is an older boy, probably around age eight. Instead of answering, the older boy shook his head.

"Why do you have flowers? Thats weird."

The excitement on Norman's face had faded with the remark, is it really weird? No, it isn't, because they aren't for him.

"No they aren't! They aren't for me, so its not weird!" Norman shot back, trying hard to defend himself against his elder.

"You picked flowers for someone? What are you, gay?" The older male asked, before he started laughing. Panic swept the tiny boy, as he struggled to think of a response.

"No! Its not gay! Th-They are for a girl! Girls like flowers!" He scrambled to defend himself. The older male cocked his head to the left, and looked around.

"Wait. Are these for that girl you always play with?" He asked, earning a timid nod from Norman in response. The older of the two began to laugh.

"Norman, you are the weirdest boy here! What, do you like her? Is that it?" He asked in an aggressive manner, which only scared the smaller one even more than he already was.

"W-Well..yeah, I do l-like her.." He trailed off, diverting his eyes away from the bully-like male hovering over him. This caused the eldest to continue laughing even more, as if he was taunting him with his laughter. He looked down at the boy.

"Wow! Weirdo likes a girl!" He said aloud, causing a few of the other kids to overhear, and some began to laugh. Norman looked around helplessly, trying to find a way out of this situation he's found himself in. He felt backed into a corner, not knowing what to do or where to go. The older of the two noticed this fear of his, and decided to continue to play on it.

"Come on, you don't think she would like you back, do you?" He asked in a taunting manner, "I know you aren't that stupid. So then why tell her? She's just going to make fun of you also. Do you want that?"

His eyes were burning as they began to water, and in defeat, he shook his head no, and put his head down so that nobody else would see the tears lining his eyes. Norman could no longer respond verbally without choking up, so he stayed quiet.

"Then I suggest you hand me those," He said, as he aggressively yanked the flowers from the pale boy's hands, "And we get rid of them," He threw the flowers to the floor, and Norman watched as he stomped on them, leaving them covered in mud, "And you don't do anything stupid like that again. Got it?" He said, leaning closer to the boy to make sure he heard him. The smaller one only nodded his head in response.

Then, the older boy's tone turned into one of fake compassion, "Oh, its okay little Norman. You know I only did this so you don't embarrass yourself, right?We wouldn't want people to start making fun of you, do we?" He said, before he started chuckling a few seconds later again.

And so, he never did get to tell the girl he liked her. Eventually, they were separated, and she only remained a distant memory, he couldn't remember much about her at all.

*Now*

Having relived a memory he had long since suppressed, Norman took a deep breath, and sighed. He never liked remembering things from his childhood, because a lot of the memories were bad, so somewhere along the way, his mind began to shut them out, but this unfortunately meant that his mind shut out a lot of the good memories and feelings too. Only rarely will he remember something, and as we can tell, this one wasn't a good one. He stood up from his slouch over the counter, grabbed his toast, and walked to the table to have a seat.

Instead of being discouraged by this memory, he decided that he'd learn from it. He clenched his hand in a fist, and was suddenly filled with determination to not repeat the past. He can't remember much about that girl from his distant past, but he now knows that the bully was probably just picking on him, and he missed his chance to be open with the girl he liked. He was not about to miss his chance now, this time with Emma.

With that, he finished his food, and went back upstairs to get ready, only having about an hour and a half left in time. He didn't want to overdress, so he chose the attire he had worn on that first outing he went on with her, oh so many Saturdays ago. After this, he took a shower, and decided to blow dry his hair like he had before. He began to notice how his hair was growing longer, and could not tell whether he liked this or not.

Norman checked the time, and figured he had about twenty minutes till the earliest she would usually arrive, so he decided to take this time to calm his nerves and compose himself. This wasn't a big deal, he knew what he had to do, it didn't have to be some elaborate scheme, he knew that the best way to do this was the simplest way. He'll just hang out with her, and he'll try to feel for when he should tell her. Who knew that the best plan, would be no plan at all?

He took a deep breath, and his nerves had been calmed, that is..until his phone went off.

Emma: Okay so I was SUPER BORED and decided to come very early! Come down! Its cold!

So much for composing himself.