THIS CONTAINS NO ONWARD SPOILERS

my friend jarvisdropmyneedle07 is a very talented artist and did this of Barley so i decided to make an imagine out of it!

/ / /

Your fist raised to knock on the door. You heard the talking on the inside of the house stop before the door opened. You flashed a grin at the sight of your most favorite person in the entire world.

"Hey, Bar," you said. You lifted the bag above your head. "I brought snacks."

"Excellent!" He took the bag from you and stepped aside, "Come on inside, my dear friend."

You did, glancing around. "Hey, Ian," you said to the boy that was going up the stairs.

"Hey, ___," he said.

Barley closed the door. "Aw dude, you aren't going to play Quests of Yore with us?"

"No," Ian said. "You know I'm not into that game. You guys have fun."

"Suit yourself." Barley shrugged. "Come on, I got everything set up on the kitchen table."

"Awesome," you said. You followed him to the kitchen and smiled as you saw the table with the board, the cards, and the playing pieces all prepared.

"Dost thou wish to be a wizard again?" he asked, grabbing bowls for the bags of cheese puffs you'd brought.

"Uh... yeah," you said, shrugging. You walked over to the kitchen counter. "Why not?"

Barley popped open the bag of cheese puffs. "What, you don't want to be a wizard again? Remember, we made characters and gave them names and everything!"

"No, I do, I just... it'd be cool if there were more options," you said.

"Like..."

"Like, I don't know. A super tough princess or something," you said, shrugging. "Can I help you with anything?"

"It's okay, I got it," he said, emptying out the entire bag. He looked at you and smiled. "A princess? Really?"

"Yeah," you said, reaching over and stealing a cheese puff from the bowl. "Why?"

"It's just weird. I didn't know you wanted to be a princess," he said. He laughed and shook his head.

"Well don't laugh at me," you said. "Now I just feel stupid for telling you."

"No, no!" he said quickly. "I do think it's cool. I do. And you---" He smiled at you as he walked around the counter. "--- would make an awesome princess."

"You mean that?"

"Of course I do," he said.

"Thanks," you said.

"What kind of powers would you have, princess?"

"Well," you said, following Barley to the table. You took the seat next to him. "I don't really know."

"Come on... sure you do!" He grinned. "I bet you've been thinking about this for a long time. You write stories all of the time. Give me something!"

You shook your head, embarrassed now. "What if I was a wizard and a princess. I just think that'd be pretty cool. And if there was, like, this knight that she was best friends with..."

"That's me!" he exclaimed.

You laughed. "Uh... maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Well," you said, wringing your hands together. "They're actually together. Like together, together."

"Ah." He nodded and looked away, a smile still on his face.

"But anyway," you said quickly, hoping to not let the feeling in the room get too awkward. "The princess and the knight would go on all of adventures to all of these different places together just because it's fun. Sometimes the quests are serious though. And he'd be the one that would fight and she would be the one to use all this magic. And they'd be really brave, you know, when they're together. They can't be separated easily, and when they are, they'd do anything to get back to one another. They'd fight dragons and save kingdoms and rescue people in need. It's a bunch of random silly stuff, you know. But, yeah. That's what I think about."

"Hey," he said, and you looked at him. "I think it's pretty cool."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "I'm being one hundred percent serious with you, too."

"It isn't lame?" you asked.

"Nothing you do is lame," he said. "I mean that."

You said softly, "Thanks, Bar."

For the next six hours, you and Barley played Quests of Yore together. You were the wizard as always. It was the same usual thing, but it was fun. Barley had his fake sword to really get into character, which always made you laugh the entire way through the game.

Soon enough, it was midnight, and you were texting your dad to come and get you again.

"Ugh," you said. "My dad got called into work. He can't come get me. Can you drive me home, Barley?"

"Yeah, of course," he said. "That's great, actually, because I have new music that you'll really like and I wanted to play it for you."

"Awesome," you said.

Barley held open the front door for you and let you out. He shut the door behind him after calling to Ian that he'd be back in a few minutes. He started up Guinevere and he opened the passenger door for you.

"After you, milady," he said.

You laughed as you got in the van. "You are such a dork."

He walked around the van and climbed in on his side and started it up. He turned the radio on and music blasted from it. "This is the new music I was telling you about!" he yelled over it. "Pretty great, huh?"

"Yeah," you said, flinching. "A little too loud though."

He turned the volume down with a smile before he pulled out of the driveway.

"Thanks," you said. "Oh, Barley, I meant to tell you this. But my dad said there's going to be this, like, festival about an hour or so away, and it's basically just to celebrate the Quest of Yore and all of that. A bunch of people are going to dress up and they're going to have food and games and reenactments. A bunch of fun stuff. It's sometime next month."

"That sounds really awesome," he said. "Do you want to go?"

"If you do," you said. "I think it'd be fun."

He nodded. "I think it would be, too. Yeah, I'll take us."

"Awesome," you said. "I'll text you all the details tonight."

"Sounds good to me," he said. He turned into your driveway and parked the van. "And here you are, milady."

"Thank you," you said, undoing your seat belt. "And thanks for tonight, too. It was fun."

"Hey, no problem," he said. "It was a lot of fun. And next time you're over, we can plan out what we'll dress up as for that festival thing."

"Oh, yeah!" you said, eyes lighting up.

"I have a few ideas myself," he said.

"Already?"

"Uh-huh. I think you should dress up as this princess you want to be so bad."

"Oh, I don't know," you said. "We'd have to make the costume."

"We could do it! My mom taught me how to sew."

"Well, mine didn't teach me," you said.

"Well, your best friend can," he replied. "Come on. It'll be awesome."

"Okay," you sighed. "We can do it. But who are you going to dress up as? Any ideas?"

He glanced down and paused, then shrugged his shoulders. "I, uh, I don't know. I'll figure that out later, I guess."

"Okay," you said. "Well, I can text you some ideas tonight, too." You opened the door of the van and hopped out. "I'll see you later, Bar. Thanks again!"

"Yeah," he said, sighing as you shut the door. "See ya."

He watched out the windshield as you hurried towards your front door. You skipped the front porch steps and started to dig for your house keys in your bag.

"Come on, Barley," he hissed under this breath. "Just do it!"

He gathered up his courage and opened his door. He jumped out of the van.

Before he could back out of anything, he ran up to the front porch steps. He dropped down on one knee, put a hand on his heart, and held the other arm out towards you. "Fair maiden, thou dost taketh my breath away!"

You jumped, turning around and dropping your bag to the floor. Barley gave you a nervous smile.

"Jeez, Bar, you---" You stopped. "What did you say to me?"

"Fair maiden, thou dost taketh my breath away," he repeated.

"Are you being serious?" you asked softly. "Or are we playing around?"

"I am quite serious, milady," he said. "I really like you."

"You do?"

"Yes," he said. "I really want to be the knight in the story. I want to dress up as the knight and you be the princess and we can go to this festival together and just... I like you, ___. You're my best friend. There's no one I'd rather be with."

"You already were the knight," you said. "I just couldn't tell you because that would've been embarrassing if you were like, uh, that's creepy."

"My dear, that was romantic, not creepy," he said.

You smiled and stepped down onto the first porch step. You held out your hand for him to take so he could stand up. He took it and stood, standing on the grass. He held your hand.

"I really like you."

"I like you, too," you said.

"Excellent. Fair maiden, beautiful princess --- do you wish to be thy girlfriend?"

You laughed. "I do," you said.

Barley laughed in relief. At the same time, rain started to fall from the sky. You glanced up, annoyed, and then down at the porch, where your bag had spilled everything out.

"I'm sorry," Barley said, moving to help you pick everything up. You shoved it all in your bag. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," you said. "Hey. Found my keys." You held them up and smiled.

He smiled, too, and you realized how close you were to him. He took your hand as you stood up with your bag and keys in the other.

You let go of him and turned to unlock your door. It cracked open and you looked back at him, not ready to say goodbye just yet.

Things were so different now. Things were perfect.

"I should get home," he said. "Before Ian starts to worry."

"Text me when you're home, okay?"

"Okay," he said. "I will."

You smiled. "Goodnight, Barley."

"Goodnight, ___."

You went inside and shut the door. You stood there for a long minute, holding your breath and biting your lip. Then you hurried to the window and parted the curtains. Rain dripped down the glass and you could see Barley still in your driveway, staring right at your house. He saw you and waved as he pulled out of the driveway.

That night, as you were getting ready for bed, you got a text from Barley. Your heart skipped a beat as you checked it:

I think we'd look like this.

Below was an image of you and Barley, hand drawn with markers. He had a shield and a sword. His hair looked longer and he had a braid on one side of his head. You were wearing a long sleeved gold gown with a torn skirt and a pair of leggings and boots on. You had the wizard staff in one hand. Your hair was long and blowing in the wind, flowers and leaves braided into the side of your head, which was topped by a gold crown.

You slowly sat down on the edge of your bed.

I think that's pretty perfect, Bar.

///

if you guys ever make onward art and want me to make an imagine based off of it, you can tag me in it on instagram, tumblr, or email it to me :- )

instagram: riahtouille

tumblr: spiderneds

email: [email protected]