the one with the ferris wheel cliche (2024)

baron x reader (ft. st.van x reader!bff, fluff, non-idol!au, double date!au)

a/n: full disclosure i wrote this because my best friend and i saw some tag yourself based on your birth month thing on twitter about which vav member you’d go to a fair with and we’re both april babies and got ‘baron AND st.van’, so this happened. i don’t know where that tweet is now, sadly, but if anyone sees it lmk :)

Every year, the fair comes to town.

It’s not really anything special anymore, hasn’t been since you were a thirteen year old allowed to go with your friends unchaperoned for the first time. Now, you just see over-priced food and slightly unstable-looking rides.

For some reason, none of this stops you from agreeing to a double date at the fair on its final Friday open. You’d like to say it has something to do with nostalgia, or a simple love of cotton candy, but, really, you think Baron’s just a little too charming (and you’re worried your friend might go into cardiac arrest if she has to go on rides alone with Geumhyuk the whole time).

And that’s how a Friday in late August finds you and your best friend answering the door to find Baron (whose hair looks as fluffy as cotton candy and makes you melt in a similar fashion to the sweet) and Geumhyuk (showing off his tattoos in a way you’re sure is more for your friend’s benefit than his own) smiling at you. If you hadn’t been nervous before, then you definitely are when Baron holds out his hand expectantly. Just what the hell have you gotten yourself into?

You don’t really know Baron that well, to be honest; the two of you just seem to be third- and fourth-wheeling on a cute date for the two people who are actually on a course to dating, if they ever stop being so nervous around each other. Despite this, Baron is extremely sweet to you, acting as if you were really a date he was trying to impress.

You’re starting to understand why literally everyone has a crush on him.

Geumhyuk is quick to buy everyone snacks, repeatedly asking you and your friend if you have everything you need. It flusters your friend, but it makes you laugh watching him attempt to baby the three of you. He implores you to call him ‘St. Van,’ since Baron does, and you attempt to even though it feels kind of weird. You can’t help but notice that Baron seems to be pouting the whole time the St. Van’s attention is turned to you (which isn’t all that long, really). You barely have time to dwell on it before he’s leading you towards a game booth to try and win you a prize.

It’s almost painful watching him play such an obviously rigged game, but you have to admit you’re impressed at how he manages to charm the booth’s elderly manager into giving him a prize anyways. He gently rest his palm on the small of your back and guides you to pick a prize, and you feel the tips of your ears heating up as he looks over your shoulder at the collection of small trinkets available.

You choose a small, fluffy cat keychain with angel wings, and Baron beams at you as you do. The manager winks conspiratorially at you as Baron gently leads you away from the booth towards the strong man game where Van and your friend are still waiting in line.

“I can’t believe you managed to convince that lady to give you a prize,” you laugh, and Baron shrugs, pulling off a piece of cotton candy and holding it towards you. When you hesitate, he simply nudges it closer to your lips until you finally open your mouth. The playful, satisfied smile on his face is so charming it makes you want to melt like the spun sugar on your tongue, and you have to remind yourself again that you barely know Baron and that this outing isn’t even about you and your love life.

“What can I say, I’m just that irresistible.” He pretends flip hair out of his eyes, and you press your lips together to keep from laughing too loudly.

“Whatever you say.” You direct your attention towards where St. Van is now at the front of the line, holding the hammer in his hands and carefully studying the game. St. Van has always been big and somewhat intimidating, but you can’t say you’ve ever been afraid of him — until you see him swing that hammer down and hear the bell ring.

Baron laughs at the slightly shell-shocked expression on your face, while you can’t seem to marry the big smile and slight blush on St. Van’s face as he tells your friend to pick out a giant prize with the one who could probably break you in half like a toothpick. You huff as you realize this means you can’t really threaten him with any sort of physical fight if he hurts your friend’s feelings. Seems you’ll have to resort to blackmail.

Baron immediately begins ribbing St. Van as your friend struggles to get a hold on the giant, round pink cat plush in her arms. You laugh and squish one of its ears down to look at her face,

“What are you gonna do if he wins you another prize?” You ask, and she immediately turns red.

“He already offered to carry this one for me.” You giggle as she appears to get even more flustered as she glances at him.

“Baron charmed the old lady at the game stall for this one,” you say, gently flicking the keychain you have hooked around your belt loop. She smiles down at it.

“Cute,” she coos. She looks back up at you, and the look in her eyes tells you she’s about to say something teasing before she’s interrupted by St. Van gently taking the plush from her arms and tucking it under one of his, that same big smile on his face.

“So, where to next?” You ask as the four of you walk away from the booth, and Baron is quick to grin at you.

“They have some rides over that way.”

“Are there teacup rides?” You ask, and St. Van furrows his brows.

“I think so.” You grin.

“Then we’re going there.”

You (with the help of St. Van and his somewhat outrageous biceps) turn the teacups at the fastest speed possible. A few times you knock into Baron’s shoulder, but you’re both too busy laughing to care, all squished into the teacup together. Sometimes you catch St. Van looking over at your best friend, who’s squeezing the plush to her chest as if that will keep her stable, in a way that makes your heart melt. Maybe you won’t have to resort to blackmail, even.

As you all step off the ride, bumping into each other, your group makes the executive decision to go on the carousel and then hop in line for the ferris wheel so you can get on once the sun has started setting. With night falling, the fairground has become more packed, and Baron takes a gentle hold of your hand.

“So I don’t lose you,” he says, winking over his shoulder as he pulls you along. The two of you fall behind the actual couple, content to let them chat amongst themselves. You find yourself unable to keep the fond smile off your face.

“They make a good pair,” you muse, and Baron hums in agreement from beside you. Baron gently swings your link hands back and forth as you walk along, and you’d nearly forgotten about it until your friend and St. Van turn back to both of you to suggest a pit stop before heading to the Ferris wheel. Your friend’s eyes immediately lock onto Baron’s hand holding yours, raising an eyebrow, and if it weren’t rude you would’ve snatched your hand away. She flashes you one last knowing grin before turning her attention back to her date, leaving you flustered and clammed up for the rest of the walk to the bathrooms.

You and St. Van are left outside, sitting at a picnic table nearby. There’s a good view of the Ferris wheel where you are, and it gets you thinking a bit — it’s pretty romantic for an almost-couple and two strangers to go on on a double date.

St. Van is looking down at his phone when you glance over,

“Hey.” He looks up. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, is something wrong? Are you feeling okay?” He asks, and you quickly nod, though you find it endearing that he seems so concerned over someone he barely knows. Baron hadn’t been kidding when he had jokingly called him a dad on the way here.

“I’m fine, I was just wondering… why did you decide to make this a double date?” His brows furrow, and you look down at the little cat keychain against your thigh and start playing with it, suddenly embarrassed by your own sudden outburst. “I mean, it must be awkward for you, since Baron and I are just hanging around. He and I barely know each other and—”

“It wasn’t my idea.” You whip your head back to look at him, and he looks genuinely confused.

“What?”

“Baron wanted this to be a double date. I was going to ask Y/F/N on a date anyways.” His cheeks turn a little pink as he says it, and before you can question him more he suddenly stands up with a grin on his face, signaling your friend’s arrival at the table. Following shortly behind is Baron, who immediately shoots you a winning smile.

“To the Ferris wheel?” Van asks, and you all agree. You stand up from the picnic table and find Baron is holding his hand out to you. St. Van’s words ring through your head again, and you feel your heart skip a beat before you ultimately decide to take it.

The two of you lapse into silence, but it isn’t as comfortable as before and only because you can’t stop thinking— or, well, overthinking. Why would Baron ask St. Van to go on a double date? Did he ask for you specifically, or leave it up to Y/F/N? They’re all questions you want to ask, but aren’t confident enough to ask outright as you all approach the Ferris wheel.

Surprisingly, the line isn’t very long, nor is the area surrounding the wheel as crowded as you’d expected it to be. Even despite that, Baron keeps your hand in his, occasionally tracing little patterns with his thumb on the back of your hand.

“Do you like Ferris wheels?” You ask, and then curse yourself for being so abrupt. Baron doesn’t seem to mind though, because he’s still grinning that beautiful grin when you turn to him, and nods.

“I haven’t been on one in a while. I think it should be fun.” You turn to look back at the wheel and laugh a little,

“I’ve never been on one before. I’m a little nervous.” Baron squeezes your hand, gently, and steps closer to you. When you look back at him, his face feels much, much closer, and there’s a glimmer in his eyes you can’t quite pin down the meaning of.

“Don’t be nervous,” he says, and his smile is so gentle it makes your knees weak. “I’ll be right beside you. You’ll be fine.” You feel your heart do a little flip again, getting a bit too lost in his eyes—

Out of the corner of your eye you see the line moving forward, and you take a step towards the Ferris wheel, hastily mumbling as much to Baron and looking down to hide the blush on your cheeks. After a few moments of silence, Baron starts tracing patterns on your hand again, and you start to count your breaths to try and calm your heart rate.

The Ferris wheel controller splits the double date up, stating that it’s only two people per cart. As you watch your friend and St. Van getting lifted up so you and Baron can enter your cart, you can’t help but smile at the way both of them seem to be glowing just from being near each other. You know your friend isn’t a huge fan of Ferris wheels, but you have a feeling she’s going to be alright this time.

And then you wonder, once again, just why you’re also here.

Baron let’s you go in first and pick your bench, and you choose the one with your back to your friend so you won’t be tempted to pull faces or try to snoop. However, the lack of distraction just makes you more nervous for the whole situation, and you cross your arms over your chest in an attempt to make yourself smaller and safer.

“Nervous?” Baron asks, leaning towards you. You nod, and he reaches out to brush a piece of hair behind your ear.

“It’s gonna be fun,” he says. “You’ll see.” You feel inclined to trust him with that angelic smile, but it doesn’t quite still the hammering in your heart when he also squeezes your hand before leaning back into his own seat.

You know Baron isn’t a stranger to skinship — you’ve seen him hug St. Van and his other friends on the few occasions you’ve been around them — but you can’t seem to reconcile what he’s doing with anything other than flirting. Despite that, you can’t figure out why Baron, a pretty well-known heart throb, would be flirting with you.

The Ferris wheel starts its ascent, and as the cart sways slightly you feel yourself tense up. Baron looks at you with furrowed brows.

“Are you okay?” You nod, but you don’t think it’s very convincing. Gentle as ever, Baron lets out a little laugh and leans forward.

“Why don’t we talk about something to get your mind off of it? What if we ask each other questions?” You find yourself nodding again before you can really think about it; to your benefit, Baron starts.

“Favorite color?”

“Yellow.” The wind picks up a bit, and you curl further into yourself. “Do you have like… a hidden talent?”

“I like to sing,” he says, and you smile.

“I’m sure you sound great.” Like an angel, you think, but don’t dare say it because of how cliche it is.

“Thanks.” He starts to say something else, but a gust of wind causes the cart to rock and you let out an embarrassing noise of shock. Baron reaches out for your hand,

“Hey, look at me, it’s okay. You’re okay.” His hand is warm and reassuring, and his gaze is kind, and you aren’t sure if it’s the adrenaline or not that causes you to suddenly blurt out the question that’s been on your mind since your talk with St. Van:

“Was the double date your idea?” He looks startled, but not necessarily in a bad way, and lets out a laugh,

“I thought it was my turn to ask a question.” The joke falls flat for you, unfortunately, considering how nervous you are, and Baron quickly sobers himself up, readjusting his grip on your hand. You don’t think you’ve seen him look so serious the whole night as he does now, gazing at you with earnest eyes. You can see some of the lights from below reflected in them. Your heart is pounding so hard you can hear the blood rushing in your ears.

“Yeah, it was,” he says. “I really wanted to get to know you, but I want sure how. So I had St. Van turn his date into a double date.”

“Why?” You blurt.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, everyone likes you— you could probably go on a date with anyone, so why me?” Not only does your statement seem to surprise him, but it also seems to suddenly make him bashful, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink that you can barely make out in the dusk. He clears his throat and begins to nervously play with your fingers; surprisingly, you don’t mind.

“When St. Van first told us about Y/F/N, you were with her, and I’d seen you around campus before and always thought you were really cute, I just wasn’t sure how to get to know you. So when Van said he was planning to take Y/F/N out this weekend, I asked if he wouldn’t mind setting us up.”

You have a feeling Y/F/N is going to laugh when she hears about this little scheme; you put the thought on hold, however, because Baron is looking at you with a measure of intensity and resolve that feels unfamiliar to you.

“I like you, Y/N. I want to try taking you out for real, not just third- and fourth-wheeling together.” You crack a smile, and Baron seems to let go of tension you hadn’t even noticed he’d been holding.

“I’d like that,” you say, and you one hundred percent mean it. He beams at you, his smile outshining all the lights below and the moon above, as the Ferris wheel slowly begins to lower you to the ground.

Your friend gives you a very meaningful look once the boys have dropped you back off at her house, though it’s hard to take her seriously when she’s holding the massive pink plush cat in her arms and struggled to get through the doorway with it.

“What?” You eventually ask, pointedly, and she grins.

“You and Baron were holding hands the whole night,” she says, “and I saw you give him your number.” As if on cue, your phone buzzes in your pocket, and her grin only stretches wider as she makes her way towards you.

“And I saw you drooling over St. Van’s tattoos, don’t even start.” You try to keep your demeanor cool, but you find yourself blushing anyways as you move into the kitchen to get yourself a glass of water. Your friend follows, awkwardly maneuvering herself and the large plush through the door just to continue grinning knowingly at you. You flick water in her face from the sink.

“Shut up,” you mutter sullenly, taking a sip of your water and looking towards the ground.

“I didn’t say anything.” You refuse to look up until she starts to move away, laughing. “You should probably answer that text.” She shoots you a wink as she leaves and you do your best to keep scowling at her until she’s disappeared from view.

You do, in fact, check your phone right after that (not because she told you to), and can’t keep the smile off of your face when you read your newest message from Baron:

See you on Monday ;)

You can’t wait.