AN: Prequel to A Fresh Cup of Coffee.

"So I have a question for you," Fox asked Coco as they said their final goodbyes to their classmates and made their way to her car.

"Hm?"

"Why are you coming home with me? Not that I'm really complaining, mind you. I'm glad I have a ride back, but I kinda figured I'd be taking a cab."

She unlocked the doors and climbed into the driver's seat. "Who else would I be going home with?" She knew what he was thinking, but she also wanted to hear him say it.

"I know you had at least three people proposition you back there." Fox made a vague gesture towards the venue as they pulled out of the parking lot.

Coco made a disgusted noise. "And I'd slept with them all already - nothing worth an encore performance." She didn't voice the other half of the thought - that she didn't really want to sleep with someone who wasn't Fox Alistair anymore. He'd already turned her down, so there was no point. "Not like I was going to leave you behind anyway - or make you take a cab."

"What if I said you could have fun and not leave me behind?"

She jerked in surprise, cursing under her breath as she nearly swerved into the other lane. "Fox! I don't want to sleep with you!" she protested.

"Not what you said last month," he teased.

She sputtered, but didn't deny it, cheeks flushing. "I'm not going to sleep with you!" she clarified. There was no use pretending she didn't want to. Shaking her head, she merged onto the main thoroughfare that would take them back home and changed the subject. "So what were you planning?"

"Take us out to the north edge of town instead of going home. By that old abandoned logging road."

"Roger that," she said, taking an abrupt left turn to get them headed in the right direction. "Going to tell me what the game plan is? I'm not dressed for much."

Fox laughed at that. "Your outfit was meticulously planned and picked out to be both practical and fashionable. You may be wearing a long dress, but the top half fits you like a second skin and the bottom half gives you plenty of range of motion without any tripping hazards - and I know your regular combat boots also have heels on them."

She smirked. "So - grimm hunting? I don't have my usual gear."

He tsked. "You let me pack the car and I said I'd pack our 'usual gear'." His smile grew as he added, "Your mom thought it was code for condoms."

Coco sighed, only resisting the urge to cover her face with her hand because she was driving. "She should have known the condoms went into my clutch," she muttered, making Fox laugh.

The rest of the car ride was made in comfortable silence. There were fewer and fewer cars and streetlights as they approached the edge of town until Coco took a final turn onto an unlit gravel road. She stopped about half a mile up it, killing the engine and popping the trunk.

She turned to Fox with a grin. "Shall we?"