Oh God. Did I really write this? I did. I am so sorry for any scarring this might cause you. It ran away from me. Fast. Valentine's prompt.

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Jason inhaled slowly before placing the single red rose on the floor in front of Caitlyn's apartment door. Then he knocked on the door and ran for the elevators.

He would have loved to see her reaction, but there was still a week until Valentine's Day, so he could wait for one of the real gifts.

There was still the chocolate and the stuffed animal and the necklace and the music box and the bracelet and the leather journal and…was that really all he had for her?

Okay, so it was actually a lot for a girl he wasn't dating…but he had never been one to do things small-scale.

Still. He felt like there was just one thing missing from it all.

He called up Shane to see if he could make any kind of suggestion.

"You should buy yourself a pair of heart-patterned silk boxers, break into her apartment while she's gone, light a bunch of candles, put on some Barry White, and leave a trail of rose petals leading to the bed. Where you're lounging, ready for her to come in and be swept away by the love."

"No, Shane. That sounds dangerous. Anyway, how would I get her key?" Jason said with a sigh.

"Mitchie has a spare. And it's not dangerous…you just have to make sure her parents aren't coming to visit…"

Jason grinned. "Speaking from past experience?"

Shane blew a raspberry. "No. Why would you think that?"

"Because it sounds like something you'd do. Now seriously. What else should I get Caity?"

"Well, if you're so averse to the boxer thing… You could…you could…" he paused. "You could buy her some lingerie!"

"WHAT?" Jason squawked. "I'm not buying her anything like that!"

"Why not? You have the hots for her, dontcha? And Mitchie says it's all too clear she has it bad for you…just buy the two of you some underwear and get busy."

"Shane, I'm hanging up now," Jason said quickly.

"You know I'm rig—!"

Jason stowed his phone in his pocket and went to a nearby mall. After deciding against books and more jewelry and clothes, he walked by Victoria's Secret. He stood outside it for about five minutes before he walked in.

Then his phone rang.

"Hi, Shane," Jason said resignedly.

"Dude. I was serious before. Buy Gellar some sexy underwear."

"Well, I'm in the store now…" Jason said uncomfortably, flipping through a rack of bras.

"Seriously? Dude, alright, high five!" he said. "Get her something red. To excite the senses."

"Shane. Shut up. And don't talk like that. It gives me the creeps."

"I'm just saying…"

"Yeah, well, you've said enough."

"Dude. Don't hang up on me again."

"What's the point? You're just going to call me back again."

"Look, just buy her something that you like."

"This is ridiculous. I can't believe you're trying to talk me into buying Caity sex clothes! I'm not going to! It's Caity." Jason hung up the phone and went back to looking at the teddies.

There were an awful lot of red and black ones. With fur and lace and ribbons…

They did feel soft though…

And smooth.

"Shopping for yourself?" said an all-too-familiar voice.

Jason spun. "CAITY!" he exclaimed loudly. Too loudly.

"Do you need some help?" asked a salesgirl as she looked between the two of them.

"N-n-no, thank you," he stammered. He clutched the hanger tightly as she walked away.

"I have to say, I never really figured you for a teddy man. You always struck me as a babydoll kind of guy," Caitlyn said, fingering the material of the garment Jason was holding. "Nice feel though. Very silky." She smirked up at him.

"I-I-I…uh…yeah. I mean, if you like that kind of thing. It's nice. I suppose." He blushed and hung it up. "Do you like…that kind of thing?"

Caitlyn shrugged. "I guess it's okay. But I don't like teddies; it feels like I'm wearing a swimsuit to bed." She looked up at him with mischief in her eyes. "And they're kind of hard to get out of."

Jason's eyes went wide. "You, uh…you wear stuff like this?" he asked, waving his hand around the store.

"I got a few things as jokes on my last birthday. But I really only wear them if all my other pajamas are in the laundry. Or to feel pretty when I'm on a date. That's only been three times since October though."

"Yeah, thank the Lord," Jason muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing," Jason said.

"Besides, I prefer the comfy stuff on the other side of the store." As if to prove her point, she held up a pair of gray cotton boy shorts and a blue bra.

Jason nodded. "Nice," he squeaked.

She smiled. "So…are you…shopping for someone?" Caitlyn asked. She walked around behind him and stood in his line of vision.

"Sorta. It's really at Shane's suggestion though. He thinks I should break into her apartment next week and sit on her bed until she comes home. In my underwear."

"Oh." Caitlyn blushed slightly. "That…sounds…very…Shane-like."

"Yeah…I don't even know why I'm here really." He glanced over at her. She was adding something lacy to her basket. "Were you like…for real shopping here?"

"Yeah…sorta. But whatever. Let's help you out. Gotta get this lady of yours, right?" she said, linking her arm through his.

"Uh…yeah…yeah…" he stammered. Caitlyn was leading him to the back of the store. Where the things he had very carefully avoided were. The stuff in the front was purely kitschy Valentine's stuff. The things in the back were…well…

"Do you like this?" Caitlyn asked, holding a white corset up against herself.

Jason gulped. There were little suspender straps at the bottom. To hold up the…

"These go with it," she said, shaking the attached bag containing a pair of fishnets.

"It's okay," he said noncommittally.

"Hm?" she questioned, holding up a matching bra and panty set in leopard print.

Jason shook his head quickly.

She shrugged. "Shame. Leopard makes me feel dangerous."

Jason tried not to think about that comment too much. "It seems too Tarzan-y…"

"To each his own," she said, turning back to the rack. After a moment, she gasped softly and turned to him with a grin. "What about something like…this?"

Jason could feel the blood simultaneously leave and rush to his face.

This was a sheer, black, sort-of-lacy babydoll with thin satiny ribbons for straps and trimmed with bows and the skirt had ruffles and fell a good four inches above her knee.

Jason nodded slightly and made a noise of consent.

Caitlyn smiled widely. "I'm going to go try some of these on. Okay?"

"Okay," he ground out. He did not need this.

"Do you want to see what these look like on someone before you buy something for that girl?" she asked.

Jason shook his head wildly and backed away. "No…no…just…tell me which one you like best…I don't need to see you in anything."

"O-kay-y," she said. "If you're sure."

She smiled at him and walked off to the dressing rooms. He followed her and sat on the couch outside the door, staring straight ahead. This was torture.

After a while, she opened the door and held up the last one she had showed him.

"I like this one the best. Unfortunately, I don't have the money for it," she said, hanging it up on the rack. "Oh, well. Maybe next year." She looped her arm through his and led him up to the cash register.

"Did you and your boyfriend find everything alright?" the cashier asked.

Jason opened his mouth to contradict the woman, but Caitlyn leaned against his shoulder. "Oh, yes. We're very satisfied."

Jason groaned inwardly. This was almost as bad as the time back at camp when Caitlyn had fallen in the lake in that white sundress.

"Find anything for Valentine's?"

She giggled and scooted closer to him. "Oh, that's going to be a surprise."

Okay, correction. This was worse.

Way worse.

They left the store and Caitlyn grinned. "Well, that was fun. I'm going to go see if my secret admirer has left me anything since that rose earlier today. Bye!"

Jason let out a sigh of relief as Caitlyn pranced away.

Then he pulled out his phone.

"Shane Eugene Gray! Do you know how I spent the last hour of my life?"

"Hello to you too, brother dear," Shane said.

"I ran into Caity at the sex clothes store. She made me sit there while she tried things on."

"Did you see her in anything?"

"No. I didn't look at her at all. But she made the cashier think that I was her boyfriend."'

"Well, aren't you planning on becoming that?" Shane asked.

"Well, yes…but I didn't need to be tortured for an hour to hear her say I was…"

"Did she buy anything?"

"She didn't get any…sex things…she just got regular stuff…but she tried on some of the…other things…I think…"

"Do you know if there was one she liked?" Shane asked.

"I guess she liked this one black one…"

"Well…you could go get it…"

"I don't want to buy Caity sex clothes."

"Dude. Stop calling them sex clothes. You sound like you're twelve."

"Well…that's the point of them, right?" Jason asked.

"Well, sometimes. Mitchie likes them because they make her feel pretty."

"I don't need to hear this about your girlfriend, thank you."

"So…?" Shane asked. "Are you going to make Caitlyn feel pretty?"

Jason growled. "I'll go buy Caity sex clothes. Okay?" he said as he hung up.

"Be sure to buy you something that matche—"

Jason walked into the store again and plucked one of the slip things that Caitlyn had tried on off the rack. He gulped. It was practically see-through.

He ran to the register before he could chicken out and while waiting in line, he looked in the bin next to him. Fuzzy socks. Like the ones Caitlyn always wore when they watched movies.

He picked up a pair and studied them. Looking between the slip thing and the socks, he wrinkled his nose. Depending on how things went this week, with leaving Caitlyn the gifts, he could either give her the sex clothes or the fuzzy socks. Or both.

He pulled out his credit card and prayed for the best.

(LINE)

He had given her balloons, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a sliver necklace with an envelope hanging from it that had "Today and Always" engraved on it, a plush bee holding a heart that said "Bee Mine", a carousel music box, a gold charm bracelet, and a leather-bound journal.

And now it was Valentine's Day and he was wavering between leaving the box containing the fuzzy socks on her doorstep and revealing himself later that night or breaking into her apartment, lighting a bunch of tea lights, scattering rose petals from the door to her bedroom, and laying on her bed in red silk boxers until she got home.

The first option seemed easiest and had less of a chance of failing, but the second would probably cause Caity to pounce on him if it went right.

And he sort of wanted her to pounce.

Maybe he'd do the crazy rose petals and candle thing but leave the fuzzy socks on the doorstep. Like a prelude.

Early that evening, Jason unlocked Caitlyn's door and started setting things up.

First the candles. He put some on the windowsill above her bed, some on the dresser and a few more on the nightstands.

Then he took the rose petals and arranged a path from the door to the bed. And made a heart on the spread.

Next, he started the music. Just some soft instrumental stuff. No Barry White. That was tacky.

Then the only thing that was really left for him to do was put on the boxers and wait for Caity.

Oh, and set out the slip thing on the floor for her so she'd see it when she came in.

This was going to be torture.

He had almost fallen asleep when he heard the doorknob jiggle.

Jason snapped to attention.

"What the hell?" he heard her say as she walked in. She dropped her keys and bag. "Oh my God," she said softly.

Five agonizing minutes after she had walked in the door, he heard her footsteps coming down the hall.

He had been holding his breath the whole time.

The bedroom door creaked open slowly and Jason's mind went blank.

Caity was wearing the stupid slip thing and the fuzzy socks. And she was smiling.

"Hi," she said softly. Her face was flushed and she bit her lip shyly.

"Hi," he whispered.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"And to you," he said hoarsely.

She looked around the room in wonder. "I liked the gifts."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad. It took me a while to figure out what to get you."

She nodded and fell silent for a moment as she looked down at her socks. "I knew it was you the day you left the rose. I knew it when I ran into you at the mall."

Jason sat up. "But that was the first day! How?"

Caitlyn smirked. "Doorman. And security tapes."

"So…you were just…torturing me on purpose with all of…" he waved his hand at her.

"This?" she asked sweetly, spinning around once. "Yeah."

"I hate you…" he grumbled.

Caitlyn jumped onto the bed and pushed him backwards. "No, you don't," she said in a singsong voice.

"I certainly think you're evil. Like…like…really, really evil," Jason said with a pout.

Caitlyn smiled and lowered her face so that it was inches from his. "Said the boy who committed breaking and entering just so he could get a girl."

"You like grand, romantic gestures. Even if you say you don't."

"Okay, I like grand, romantic gestures. Now let's kiss or something, please. I was half-tempted to drag you into that dressing room last week just so you'd get that pained look off your face."

Jason didn't need to be told twice. He put his hands on the sides of her face and dragged her mouth down to his. Her arms went around his neck immediately and she smiled against his lips. He burrowed his hand in her hair and kissed her again, pressing his tongue against her teeth. Her mouth opened to the pressure and she moaned, gripping his hair tightly before she sighed happily. He wrapped his hands around her waist, brushing his fingers against her stomach. As he pulled her flush against him and deepened the kiss, he thought that this Valentine's beat all.