A/N I *LOVED* WRITING THIS CHAPTER! I HOPE YOU LOVE READING IT AS I LOVED WRITING IT!!

Keefe's POV

I stood outside the Gilded Rose, leaning against the wall to wait for Sophie. I had left her a plain temporary leaping crystal to get here, and then came here myself to make sure I was ready when she showed up. I had left a note with the crystal with a simple message:

Dinner. Wear something pretty.

Just so that she didn't show up in her pasture clothes. Not that I minded, but I wasn't sure they'd even let us in if we weren't dressed up.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of light blue out of the corner of my eye. Oh gosh. I'm pretty sure my chin hit the golden sidewalk. Foster was standing about ten feet away in this ice blue dress covered in drop-shaped white diamonds. It glittered as she walked and looked like it was made of sparkling ice. The dress cut off just below her knees in the front but hung almost to her ankles in the back. It was sleeveless, with a halter neckline covered in tiny diamonds.

I stared at her. I couldn't look away. My gaze eventually shifted to her face, and I noticed she was bright red and fidgeting.

"Uh... Biana helped. I told her not to, but-"

"No, no." I cut her off, pushing off the wall and walking towards her. "You look amazing. It's perfect. You're perfect." Now it was my turn to stutter. "I mean- you're beautiful, Sophie. I mean, you're always beautiful, not just in this dress- but the dress is beautiful-"

She smiled, and I suddenly lost the ability to speak. Which was probably a good thing. Biana had obviously helped with her makeup too.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she grinned. "Is that supposed to be a tux?"

"Uh... I don't know. There was this weird little shop that sold human clothes, and..." I trailed off again, locking my eyes on hers and finding it impossible to breathe.

"I love it. And I love that you cared enough to find it." She stepped closer to me. I was afraid to touch her, and I guess it showed. "It's just a dress, Keefe."

"Yeah, but..." She pressed a finger to my lips, which was a very effective way to shut me up. Tingles that felt more like bolts of lightning shot through my body from her touch.

I took a moment to regain control of myself, then bowed formally and offered her my arm. "I would be honored if the beautiful, powerful, and mysterious Lady Sophie Foster would join me for dinner."

She played along, placing her hand lightly on my arm and taking on an expression that was probably supposed to look condescending but just looked like she smelled something bad. "The honor is mine, Lord Hunkyhair."

I couldn't hold back a smirk as I led her inside.

"Reservation for two." I said to the bored-looking waitress in the front.

"Name?"

"The Mysterious Miss F and her dashing sidekick."

The girl looked annoyed as she checked us off the list. I heard a soft giggle slip out before Sophie could stop herself. I grinned at her, then led her by the arm after the waitress. When we got to our table, a fancy two-seater with a tablecloth, candles, and a vase, I let go of her arm to pull out her chair. She slipped into it and smoothed her dress. I pushed her in, then sat across from her. The waitress laid out our menus and left.

I examined the paper. It looked like it was fifty years old. It had gold leaf stamped around the edges and the words were written in fancy calligraphy.

"Can you read this?" I stage-whispered to Sophie.

"Not a chance." she whispered back.

I squinted at the menu a bit longer, then looked back up at her. She had it up to her face, which was adorably scrunched up in concentration. As I was watching her, the waitress brought us some upscaled Youth in a Bottle. By upscaled, I mean they had poured it from the bottle into a fancy glass and put some weird fruit on the rim.

"I don't think you're supposed to eat that, Keefe." Sophie giggled.

"Whoops." Too late.

We finally deciphered enough of the menu to order, and told the waitress what we wanted. It came almost instantly, and it was... really pretentious.

We ordered one large serving, and it came on this huge lacy plate with hand painted designs. The tiny pieces of perfectly grilled vegetables were spaced evenly with colorful bunches of leaves and fruits in between them. We both stared for a minute, afraid to touch the thing. Eventually, Sophie broke the silence.

"It looks too pretty to eat."

I shrugged. "Nah." I took a little too long deciding on one of the five forks next to me, but I did eventually pick one and stab a little of everything onto it. Then I held it up to Foster. She leaned forward and opened her mouth, and I carefully set the food in it. She chewed, then smiled.

"It's actually pretty good."

"Cool." I tried my own bite. It wasn't bad. Had nothing on mallowmelt, but it wasn't bad.

There wasn't actually much there, though, and we ate it quickly. Good thing I'd had that snack while I was shopping earlier.

When we were done, I paid with my birth fund and led her out the door.

"Thanks for dinner, Keefe. This was a great first date. I hate that it's over so soon," Sophie said wistfully.

I grinned at her knowingly. "Who said it's over?"

*****

Five minutes later, we were standing in the door of a party neither of us was invited to. But no one was checking invitations. I figured it would be about three songs until we were kicked out, but hey, that's better than nothing. And it's not like they could arrest us.

Oh, I forgot to mention. This was a human party.

I had finally convinced Foster to leap us to the Forbidden cities. We found some random party pretty quickly, and sneaked in. Wasn't hard. The party was open-air, and it was mostly dark. There were lanterns bobbing around on strings above our heads, and music floated out from speakers around us. Right now, they were playing a slow song.

Foster took my arm, and we crossed over to the refreshment tables. She pointed out some of her favorite treats- some of which were actually really good. My favorites were called brownies. They were warm and gooshy and chocolatey and yummm. I ate like ten before this guy started yelling over the speakers.

"Alright, enough of that. Who's ready to PAR-TAY???"

The crowd around us cheered, and Sophie grinned at me. "This is the fun part."

We watched people start to line up in a circle in the middle of the dance floor. A different song started on the speakers, much faster this time. And it had a guy singing.

Nothin' I can see but you when you dance, dance, dance, dance

The people in the middle started this weirdly complicated dance. I turned to Sophie, who was bobbing her head to the song. "You can do that?"

"Not that one. Those things change quickly. A month from now, they'll be doing something completely different. This is the one I used to do to this song." And she started dancing her own little dance, right there next to the refreshments table of someone else's party. And honestly? It was way better than the other dance. Easy, too. After a minute of watching her, I hesitantly tried to copy what she was doing.

"I feel stupid." I said after a minute.

"Then ignore what I'm doing. Just do what feels right. Forget about everyone else."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "You're telling me that?"

She laughed. "You're the one dancing like you've never tried it before."

"Excuse me?" And just to spite her, I quit doing her dance and just moved my arms and legs and head to the song. After a minute, I hit a rhythm. I copied a couple moves from other people. Once I got started, it actually wasn't hard to lose myself in the music. Foster and I bobbed and turned and did weird human things with our arms until we were both laughing too hard to move.

Suddenly, the song was over. Sophie and I stood there, hands on our knees, collapsed in laughter. Before we could even catch our breaths, a new song started. Sophie groaned good naturedly.

"Oh, my dad loved this song. He would blare it in the car so loud our eardrums burst every time it came on the radio."

I listened to the lyrics for a minute.

Some boys take a beautiful girl

And hide her away from the rest of the world

I want to be the one to walk in the sun

Oh girls, they wanna have fun

Then I looked at Sophie. We locked eyes, and I realized we had drifted closer. "Cute song."

"Yeah. I guess it's about this girl who was staying out late and her parents got mad."

I smirked at her. "Is that so?"

She grinned. "Nah, mine know I'll be home late."

I stared at her a minute longer before a new song came on. It made even less sense than the last two.

Me in the middle with the one I love and

We're just tryna figure everything out

We don't fit in well

'Cause we are just ourselves

I could use some help

Gettin' out of this conversation, yeah

You look stunning, dear

So don't ask that question here

This is my only fear, that we become

Beautiful people

"Sounds like us. Well, except for the part about not being beautiful." I winked.

"How is it like us?"

"You know, don't fit in just right but working it out together."

She looked at me for a long moment, then nodded sagely. "Very profound."

I smirked at her. "I have my moments."

We watched the dancers for a little longer before another slow song came out.

"You're gonna have to show me how to do this," I warned Sophie as I pulled her out onto the floor."

She laughed. "Just follow my lead." And she put her arms around my shoulders, directing me to put mine around her waist. Then she started stepping backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, turning slightly with each step. It was a little weird, but not hard.

After we got the rhythm, Sophie stepped closer and placed her head on my shoulder, nestling it into the crook of my neck. I leaned my head down over hers.

"Getting tired?" I teased.

"Why? You have something else planned?"

"Not if you're too tired."

"Never too tired for you."

We were silent for a while, just holding on to each other and swaying slowly to the music. I was beginning to understand human dances a little more. This one was fine in my book.

When the song ended and a fast one started, I pulled her by the hand back to the entrance. "We'd better get going. Grady probably wants you home before three."

"Three? What time is it now?"

"Midnight. But we have one more stop."

*****

I hadn't completely made up my mind until right before we leaped. But I had wanted to take her somewhere special to us. Our first kiss had been in my room, and I doubt either of our dads would be good with us alone in my room in the middle of the night. So I took her to Havenfield.

"I thought you said we had one more stop?" she asked me, a twinge of disappointment in her voice.

"We do." I gently took her hand and led her past the Panakes tree, to a pile of boulders that overlooked the ocean. I had sat here many times, but she didn't need to know that. Not yet. I just showed her the way to climb up, and slipped into the mostly hidden cranny I'd discovered months ago. It was pretty roomy, but she settled in right next to me when we sat down. The cranny acted as a chair, giving us a perfect view of the starry sky reflected on the water.

I pulled Sophie up against me, and she settled in. I wrapped my arms around her and she laid her head on my chest.

"Thank you for the date. It was amazing." she murmured.

"No, thank you. I'm the luckiest guy alive to have a girl like you."

"Mhh." After a minute, she continued in a teasing tone. "By the way, that bead you left me was kind of boring. But I guess you've spoiled me with your tiny masterpieces."

"Actually..." I had been waiting for the perfect time to give her the bracelet, and this seemed as good a chance as any.

I scooted away a little so that we were facing each other. I locked eyes with her. "Foster. Lady Fosboss. Mysterious Miss F. Sophie. I am so lucky to be able to call you my girlfriend. I hope we can stay like this forever. And to show you how much I love you..." Without breaking eye contact, I slipped my hand into my pocket and came out with the bracelet. "Close your eyes."

She did. I gently took her left hand in mine, clasping the bracelet around her perfect wrist. Then, on an impulse, I kissed the back of her hand gently. "You can open them now."

Her eyes popped open, and landed immediately on her wrist. The moonlight was just bright enough to illuminate the pictures. She gasped, and turned it slowly, looking at each picture. Tears came into her eyes at a few.

"Keefe... I don't know what to say. This is perfect. My family... I can't believe you remembered them that well. And you painted them in my house! And me in my room, and Amy with Marty and Watson!" She looked up, tears really running down her face now. Her makeup was starting to smear. I scooched back close to her, wrapping my arms around her like before.

"This is the best present I can think of. I can look at my wrist and remember so much. I can remember my old life, my new life... and this life." She tilted her head up to look at me. "Not that I could ever forget you."

I pulled her in and kissed her softly. She kissed me back, her hands in my hair and the bracelet cold against my temple.

After a minute, I pulled back. "And that," I whispered. "Is the best present you could have given me."

"Mine is easier." She pulled me back down into another long kiss.

I'm not sure who pulled away, but the next thing I knew we were both staring out at the ocean.

"I should probably take you home if we ever want to be allowed on another date."

She just nodded, and we crawled out back down the rocks. When we got to the bottom. I looked at her. Her dress was wrinkled and her makeup was smudged. "I don't suppose you can change without them seeing you. I didn't bring you home in the best condition."

"It's fine. I'll tell them we sat on the rocks."

"And the tears?"

In answer, she held out her wrist. I smiled, taking her hand in mine, and led her back to the house. Before she went inside, I pulled her into one last kiss and opened the door for her. She whispered another than you for the date before slipping inside and closing the door.

I managed to make it all the way back to the rocks before I let out an involuntary "Yes!" accompanied by a fist pumped in the air. I settled back into the rocks where Foster and I had sat, sighing deeply. I'd say our first date had gone pretty well.