This is based very loosely on dialogue between the Shakespeare characters Benedick and Beatrice, the classic example of battling/teasing, stubborn would-be lovers who willfully deny their hearts of each other. Remind you of anyone?

They'd started out on the bed, but things had happened and then they were on the floor, along with a few layers of blankets that had come off the bed with them.

When they were done, Freddie pulled down a couple of pillows and he and Sam lay together on top of the blankets. In the sun, and after their physical exertion, they fell asleep for an hour or two.

Freddie awoke first and looked down with unguarded affection at the gorgeous curly blonde - haired head, snuggled into his chest.

He needed to move his legs. He tried to lift them and kind of do knee bends without disturbing her but he couldn't help his torso shifting slightly under her head.

In her sleep, she frowned and pulled him closer. As his arms tightened around her she made a lightly trilling noise of satisfaction, that sounded a lot like a purr to Freddie.

...

Later, when she'd woken and they were sitting up, arms still around each other, their butts on pillows and backs against the bed, he asked,

"Was that time you pushed me in front of a bicycle messenger and he knocked me down really when you started to like me?"

She blushed. She didn't know why she'd told him that – no, she was lying to herself, she did. It had still been early days in this new reality of theirs and she was terrified something would happen to shatter it, afraid to let him in too much, because…

What if he was "yoinked" away by some power there might be that saw her and her friends only as vehicles for jokes; not as people with any emotion or depth.

"No," she admitted.

"So c'mon, Sam. What was the first thing you liked about me?"

She was silent for a moment. She felt safe to be honest, even vulnerable with him now...but it was going to be hard to tell him the truth about that, because the truth about that was -

"...everything."

He felt happy but awkward, and coughed to cover what he was afraid she would call "a big, nubby smile." She saw it though, and the part of her that loved competing, especially with him, reared up and made her want to push back at him a little.

"Don't get me wrong. For the longest time, there was nothing I liked about you. In fact one little piece after another would pile up and drive me nuts, like the sad way you hung around Carly. Plus you were a boy, and boys were so gross."

They both smiled.

"And honestly..."

"What?"

"Well, one of the things that got me to sort of, take another look at you, was that...Carly loves you."

She watched his face very carefully, to see if he'd misunderstood.

"I don't mean - "

"I know," he interrupted. "You don't mean like that, like -" Like I think I feel about you were the words on his lips, but they'd not yet said such things to each other and it still scared him a little.

"Right," she said, seeming to understand. "Y'know - Carly's always been better at picking friends than boyfriends, and, you're her best friend besides me." Once that would've been a rather large admission for her to make. "So one day, I must've been feeling weak or something because I thought...maybe he's not so bad after all. And once I admitted that to myself...it was just like an avalanche. One day all those pieces of you that I didn't like fit together into this picture...and I found that I liked the complete portrait very much. And by then boys didn't seem so gross after all."

She blushed as she looked at him. He figured she was thinking about what they did that day (it certainly wasn't far from his mind) but he also thought he saw uncertainty in her eyes. He silently took in all she had said. He was not unaware or unappreciative of how far she'd let down her walls to say it.

She herself was acutely aware of it too. Hoping to level the playing field, she asked, "What made you decide I might be...worth all the suffering I put you through?"

"A good question. Why do I think you're worth a little pain?"

He paused, and she had the uncomfortable feeling he was reviewing in his mind all the pain she'd caused him, pain she would now give anything to take back, but of course couldn't.

"OK, sometimes a lot." He finished.

She crossed her arms and looked away from him, suddenly afraid again to encourage this conversation in the way it seemed to be going.

"Well." His voice was soft. "First of all, I didn't want to like you. I really didn't." He laughed slightly. "But I kept doing it anyway. It didn't matter if I wanted to."

"Why?" She finally forced from her lips.

"I realized I'd started to think about you. A lot."

"Was this after I kissed you?"

"Yes," he said.

And her heart sank.

Deep inside, I knew it. It never occurred to him to like me before I kissed him. Since Carly doesn't like him that way, and I had to be a chizhead and let him know I do...he just decided to see how far he could get with the dumb blonde. Which, as it turned out, was pretty far.

She wanted to cry. Happy though she had been, and as much as he made her heart pound, If he was just settling for her, if she was second choice -

"But also,"

She hadn't even realized he was continuing on.

"Also, before."

What was this now?

"Sam, I had to admit to myself at least the possibility that I might like you a long time ago. Because I kept thinking about you and it wasn't only with aggravation any more. It was...good stuff."

"Like what kinda good stuff?"

Now it was his turn to blush and she thought she knew why. A sly smile slowly spread across her face.

"Freddie...were you thinking about what I might look like naked?"

"Uh...yeah."

"And?"

She sat up; letting the sheet fall to just below her waist, and felt his eyes on her. He didn't say anything, just lifted his gaze to meet hers and smiled. She shuddered inside.

"Before I knew it...I was thinking about you more than anyone else. More than mom, more than Carly...even more than myself. I wanted to know if other guys were looking at you. What you were doing; where you were when we weren't at school or working on iCarly. And I had to ask myself: Why do I care?"

She wondered if he knew he had said three magic words just a few seconds ago.

"But..I tried to put it away. Still wasn't sure it was not just, a crush. Besides, I figured if I told you you would kick me in places I would rather not be kicked."

"Why would you think that?"

He gave her a level, are – you – kidding – me look. "Sam. It was right before you accidentally told Carly we kissed."

"Oh. Then you're right, I probably would've -wait, that long?"

He nodded; then looked away. She took in this new information before he continued.

"And when we thought you were into Brad -" Those hours had been torture for her, feeling driven to be near him yet unable to say why, but she smiled now at the memory.

"-well," he said, "I told myself that made much more sense anyway."

He had begun idly running his finger lightly up and down the inside of her leg, just above the knee. She wondered if he could possibly know how insanely sexy she found it.

"You have to admit," he went on, "looked at a certain way, it doesn't make sense for us to be together."

"Do you look at it in that certain way?"

He lifted his hand; gently cupped her chin and turned her head, stroking her cheek with his thumb to coax her to meet his eyes, which she did.

"No. Or rather, I see all the reasons it doesn't make sense...I just don't care. Which makes it make kind of more sense...if looked at a certain way. At least to me."

Tell me it makes sense to you. Please.

They both thought for a moment before he said,

"Maybe we already know so much about each other; so well, we can't help but, like -"

"You know what I think?"

"No."

"I think we like each other, like this," and she put her hand over his heart, "in spite of ourselves."

"I think maybe you're right," he said, and gave her a long kiss.

"Of course, we can't overlook the element of physical attraction," she breathed, as their mouths parted company and she felt heat rising through her body.

"No," he agreed.

End

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