Morning comes and everything is just absolute chaos. Henry tries to stay out of everyone’s way in hopes of not getting murdered. He puts on a suit and a fancy watch that he got from his dad. He was going to put his hair up but his brother used up all the hair wax (that greasy-haired freak) so he ends up wearing his hair down, looking like a puppy more than anything.

He’s waiting for Amber to come out and he’s not gonna lie that he’s excited to see what she’s wearing. Knowing her, she probably wouldn’t wear a dress so that’s definitely out of the question unless by some kind of magic, Whitney manages to convince her in wearing one. He really doubts that.

A light tap on the shoulder interrupts his train of thought and he turns around, his breath hitching a little bit when he sees her. She’s not wearing a dress but a white pantsuit paired with a black jacket and Henry thinks he may have forgotten how to breathe at that moment.

“I don’t look stupid, do I?” Amber asks, straightening her jacket.

Henry finally snaps out of his trance, finally remembering how words work. “No, you look great! Are those heels?”

Amber looks grimly at the three-inch white pumps on her feet and groans. “I could have sworn I packed a pair of flats but this was all I found in my bag. Ailee must have thought it was funny.”

Henry chuckles and quickly holds her by the arm when she starts wobbling. “You can hold on to me, if you want.”

“Ah, my knight in shining armor.” Amber says, completely devoid of enthusiasm but loops her arm around his, nonetheless.

“Did Whitney put makeup on you?” Henry asks, leaning in a little bit closer to get a better look and immediately regrets it when he realizes how close their faces were.

Amber doesn’t seem so fazed at their close proximity and just scrunches her nose. “And your cousin. You owe me big time.”

He whines when she flicks his nose and she chuckles before tugging him downstairs. Sometimes, Henry wonders why he puts up with her constant bullying but all she has to do is smile at him and he’d remember.

Amber thinks that the wedding was beautiful and Henry keeps denying that he teared up during the vows. She teases him about it even at the reception and he shuts her up by shoving a cupcake in . She glares and smears frosting on his cheek. Before they can start a havoc with the cupcake frosting, a little girl came running into Henry, hugging his leg with all her squealing and giggling glory.

“Henry gege!” the six-year-old squeals and Henry looks down and smiles when he sees her, crouching down to her level.

“Hey Junjun.” He greets, ruffling her hair, fond smile still on his face. The little girl giggles again and clings to his neck and he laughs as he wraps his arms around her and lifts her up.

“How’s my favorite ballerina?” Henry pinches her cheek and she giggles again, reaching out to pinch his with her tiny hands. Amber watches over them with a fond smile of her own. She knows Henry has a way with kids and she has always thought it was cute but now, it’s making her knees go weak.

“Gege, who’s your friend?” Amber was busy fawning at the sight in front of her that she didn’t notice they already turned their attention to her.

“She’s your Amber jiejie,” Henry starts. “She’s Henry gege’s girlfriend.”

Amber knows she’s blushing and she also knows that Henry knows she’s blushing.

Junjun turns to her, smiling. She’s cute, missing teeth and all. She smiles back, giving her a small wave.

“Are you going to marry her, gege? Like Mimi gege and Qian jiejie?” Junjun asks innocently. Amber could almost hear Henry’s internal groan.

“It’s too early for that, Junjun.” He answers, finally setting her down. Someone calls Junjun from behind them and she giggles before running off to another direction, her big sister running after her.

“How many more marriage questions should I expect?” Amber sighs, grabbing a flute of champagne from the table.

“A lot more if we stick close to my mom and her friends.” Henry grumbles, nodding his head towards the group of moms in the table near where they were standing. He saw his mom’s gaze landed on the two of them and he panics, snatching Amber’s drink and putting it back from the table. Amber protests and he shushes her.

“Let’s dance.” Henry says, grabbing her wrist and leading her to the dance floor, glancing behind them to make sure his mom is nowhere in sight.

“What was that for?!” Amber hisses and Henry just wraps an arm around her waist and clasps their hands together, some Jay Chou song blasting through the speakers. Amber can feel the heat going up her cheeks.

“Mom was about to come to us. She’s probably going to drag us to their table and introduce us to her friends and if she does, there’s going to be a lot more marriage questions. ” Henry’s hissing but the intensity of his voice is opposite to the way he gently holds her in his arms, swaying to the music.

“I love your family and all, but you guys are crazy.” Amber sighs, letting Henry pull her closer to him until her face is buried on his shoulder. She gets a whiff of the faint smell of his cologne and smiles. It’s the one that she gave him for his birthday a year ago. It feels like a sense of ownership and she feels bad for thinking it.

“And I’m sorry you have to put up with that.” Henry chuckles and Amber must have been imagining things because she swears he ghosted a kiss on the side of her head. Her hand on his shoulder clenches ever so slightly, feeling the butterflies in her stomach go crazy.

He starts humming to the song and Amber smiles, humming along with him. She could still feel the butterflies even after the song ended and he’s already dancing with his mother. She bites on her lip, her heart still thumping against her ribcage.

She grabs another champagne to calm herself but from the corner of her eye, she sees Henry glancing at her as he says something to his mother, not missing the fond smile on his face. She immediately looks away, taking interest on the chocolate covered strawberries, heart still beating fast.

She takes a swig of champagne, quickly emptying its contents before letting out a sigh. This is going to be a long weekend.

The next morning, she was woken up by a loud banging on the door and a raging headache. She groans as she gets up, feeling the world spin under her feet. She may have drunk too much last night. Groaning again, she opens the door and finds Henry carrying a tray with a glass of water, some pain reliever, a bowl of rice porridge and an exasperated look on his face.

“I told you not to drink too much.” He frowns as he walks into the room, setting the tray on the nightstand. Amber follows after him and faceplants on the bed, whining about her headache.

“Your fault.” He says, sticking his tongue out and Amber wants to tell him that it’s his fault because of this damn feelings that she has for him.

Henry grabs the pain reliever and the glass of water and hands it to her, still with that i-told-you-so look that she wants to slap off his face. She pops the pill into and downs it with water before Henry takes the bowl of rice porridge to feed her.

“I have hands. I can do it on my own.” Amber pouts, trying to snatch the spoon away.

Henry tsks and swats her hand. “Yeah and you also said that you can handle your alcohol and look where that got you.”

Amber groans and opens and Henry smiles as he feeds her. “You can go back to sleep after you finish this.”

“But I thought we’re gonna go out today?” She will feel really bad if he’ll cancel his plans for them because of a hangover. She doesn’t go back to Taiwan as often as Henry does and she really wants to look around with him.

“We’ll just do it in the afternoon.” He says with a reassuring smile. “I don’t want to deal with your whiny if I force you to go out with that hangover.”

Amber almost throws the bowl to his face.

Henry wakes her up at lunch time and tells her to come downstairs and eat. Her headache is gone and she doesn’t feel like throwing up anymore. Making sure that she looks decent, she follows Henry downstairs to the dining room, sitting next to him.

“Are you feeling better now, Amber?” Henry’s father asks and she nods, smiling.

“I am. I’m sorry for getting drunk.” Amber answers, cheeks heating up because of embarrassment. As far as she remembers, she hadn’t done anything embarrassing last night, otherwise Henry’s family would have been horrified of her. They don’t seem like they are so she’s still good.

She hopes.

After lunch, she takes a quick shower, puts on some skinny jeans and a hoodie and meets Henry downstairs. They say their goodbyes to everyone before getting into the car that Henry borrowed from his uncle. He doesn’t tell her where they’re going even though she’s sure that annoying him would get it out of him but he stays quiet and tells her to wait.

Henry pulls up to a zoo and Amber raises an eyebrow. She never pegged him as the type to take his dates to the zoo.

“The zoo?” She asks, eyebrow still raised.

“You’re going to love it.” He grins before taking her wrist and dragging her inside.

Henry insists on seeing the birds first because he just recently watched Rio and Amber doesn’t know if she should coo or be embarrassed as he points excitedly at the birds, grinning. He does look adorable though, watching the birds in awe like a little kid.

They stay there for a bit - Henry telling her stupid made up facts about the birds and Amber laughing and telling him how stupid he is. It’s not long before he drags her to the Panda House and Amber doesn’t miss that he takes her hand instead of her wrist this time, calloused fingers tangling with hers and she can’t even concentrate on anything anymore. Not even the cute pandas.

Goddammit.

He holds her hand the entire time and she knows that she shouldn’t be so worked up because she’s not in middle school anymore and he’s just holding her hand. But she is. And now, she’s hyper aware of her hand. Is it too small? Is it clammy? She tries not to think about it too much because her headache might come back.

For the most part, she does succeeds on not acting like a lovesick fool just because he’s holding her hand and she manages to enjoy it. She did find out though, that Henry can make up stupid useless facts about animals in less than a minute. That’s impressive. She also found out how much she loves the sound of his stupid laugh, especially when he’s laughing with her.

After the trip to the zoo, they went to the night market where they did nothing but eat and shop. Henry grips her hand, afraid of getting lost even though he’s been here more than she has.

They ate almost everything that seems edible. Henry eats a lot of stinky tofu and Amber buys a lot of fresh mints to deal with his breath.

“Hey,” Amber starts, watching Henry slurp his noodles sloppily. It’s cute but she won’t tell him that.

Henry looks up from his bowl. “Hmm?”

“I didn’t do or say anything embarrassing last night, right?” She plays with her noodles, waiting for his answer.

“No.” Amber sighs in relief until - “You did sing Ariana Grande songs, though. Very off key, i might add. But don’t worry, no one else heard.”

And Henry chuckles as Amber groans, mumbling how she’s never going to drink again.

“You say that every time you get wasted.” He says and she glares, flicking his forehead. He winces but chuckles, telling her to eat up before her noodles get cold.

He doesn’t tell her that she asked him to kiss her last night. 

sorry it took long for me to update! i have a lot of personal stuff going on so i didn't get enough time to write.