A/N My attempt at the Proboards February writing prompt. It is based on my other favourite cute-meet, which is from The Fault in Our Stars, so any dialogue you recognise belongs to that and not to me. Enjoy. Sorcha xox

okay

Liesl doesn't think she's ever been a fatalistic person, particularly. Things don't just happen for no obvious reason other than God or the stars or the Three Fates with their scissors snip-snip-snipping determined them to be. That's why, when she sits in that doctor's office with her Dad and her new mother, clenching their hands so hard her fingers turn as white as ice as they tell her the results of the blood-tests, the first thing she thinks is what did I do to deserve this?

When it looked like the situation was pretty hopeless, Maria had the idea of sending Liesl to the Abbey to talk to one of the sisters about death and dying and the afterlife. Even the thought of thinking about it makes fear curdle in lumps in her stomach, but Liesl von Trapp is nothing if not brave, so she holds her head high and smiles at her parents – so filled with love for each other and for her and for every one of her six siblings – and says she'll go. Anything to make them feel better about her sorry situation, to stop Maria crying at night when she thinks Liesl can't hear her.

Maria dropped her off with a kiss and a reminder to call if she needed a new oxygen tank because that one was running low, and with that – prayers at her back giving her wings, she feigns confidence and marches into the abbey, her feet singing on the flagstoned floors.

She bumps into him when she's coming out of the Mother Superior's office and almost goes flying – it's only a pair of strong hands that catch her and set her on her feet as though she's as light as a soap bubble. "Oh, I'm sorry," she manages, looking up into a pair of eyes that remind her of the sky over the mountains on a rainy day.

"No problem," he says, giving her a little smile. After a second, she shakes her head and begins to walk towards the exit, her heart drumming against the confines of her ribs. He falls into step beside her. "What's your name?"

"Liesl."

"No," he says, looking down at her with that smile again. Liesl feels as though her bones are melting, just like chocolate, thick and gooey and it takes all her concentration not to wobble. "Your full name."

"Liesl Birgit von Trapp," she says, confused. His smile widens and she finds the corners of her lips tugging upwards in response. He is rather good-looking – much more so than the boys at school who stopped chasing after the second they heard her diagnosis. It makes her want to scream. Cancer isn't a contagious disease, honestly, it wouldn't have killed them to be like they used to, to put their arms around her in the corridor and smile and wink and flirt in the hopes of catching the eye of the prettiest girl in junior year. She's used to the covert looks, the whispers, so why does the feel of his eyes on her skin make delicious shivers crawl up her shoulder-blades? "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you're beautiful," he says without missing a beat. Her breath hitches in her throat. She's always been pretty; pretty or cute. Never beautiful, except to Dad and Maria, but here is this boy she's known all of five minutes calling her…

"Oh-my-god," rushes out of her lungs because she can stop it, but she's laughing.

"How about we go and see a movie?" he asks. "Have you seen the new Star Wars?"

"No," she says. "I'm free tomorrow."

Liesl doesn't think she's ever been a fatalistic person. But sometimes, there isn't a reason. Perhaps the stars just aligned or God willed her to have some happiness before the Fates with their scissors snip-snip-snipping cut the thread of her life, and for once, she's happy to believe it.