A/N: Heyyy internet. So, I'm now absolutely obsessed with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which led to this. Even though I haven't updated A Slight Change of Plans in months. I'm sorry!

Enjoy :)

"Would you like to come back to my place for a while?" Darcy asked, his eyes on Lizzie as he held the passenger side door open for her. She froze, her eyes wide and one food comically raised mid-step, the other still firmly planted on the curb. A few seconds of awkward silence passed as Lizzie visibly floundered for a response, and for a moment, Darcy's stomach clenched with the fear that she wanted to get away from him, that she was already bored of his presence after only one date. That she had changed her mind.

Darcy wasn't struck by the implications of his words until his eyes registered the faint blush that darkened Lizzie's cheeks as she lowered herself into the car, now incoherently sputtering what Darcy could only assume was meant to be some sort of answer. When he did realize the reason for her hesitation, he was certain that the blush now covering his own face was significantly more than faint. "I… that is… I didn't," he said, his sweaty palms ghosting over the silk of his tie and his chin retreating ever nearer to his neck.

Lizzie stared up at him, the remnants of panic on her face now marred by a hint of amusement as he began perhaps five stuttered sentences. "Will?"

He took a deep breath through his nose and said, "One moment." He lightly closed the car door after making sure that she was securely inside and then walked around to the driver's side. He paused a moment before opening the door. His own thoughts were silenced by the echo of her voice, wrapping round and round inside his head from months past: "Darcybot malfunction. Darcybot malfunction."

If he hadn't been so embarrassed and nervous, he might have laughed, but as it was, he only shook his head, attempting to dispel the silly mantra and achieve some semblance of rational, controlled thought before he got in the car, lest he say anything else idiotic that might frighten her away.

Finally, he opened the door and sank into the seat, leaning back until the cool leather soothed the flushed skin at the back of his neck. He buckled his seatbelt before twisting slightly to face Lizzie.

She raised a single eyebrow and waited.

"I'm sorry if my words came off as… suggestive… in any way. This is only our first date, after all. I didn't… that is, I would never presume… I intended to invite you over for casual purposes only. I thought you might like to watch a movie, or I could give you a tour of the house, or we could just talk for a while, or Gigi's home, and I know that she'd like to see you, or we could do whatever else you'd like-"

"William," she said, cutting him off.

"Yes?"

"You're rambling." She let out a breathy laugh and looked down, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Their eyes locked for a moment and neither spoke. Lizzie broke away first, turning to look at her hands, clasped in her lap. "I'd love to come back to your house for casual purposes," she said, her voice an odd mix of shy and amused. "As amazing as the theatre and dinner were, I was afraid this date was going to end too soon."

"You were?" Darcy asked, nearly wincing when he heard his own stiff tone. He wanted to curse the rampaging butterflies in his stomach to hell and back. They did horrible things to his already nearly nonexistent social skills. "I was… well, I was a bit afraid that you might already be bored of me."

"Not at all." Lizzie smiled. "I love you. Remember?" She reached out and twined her hand with his. Darcy's heartbeat quadrupled in the space of a second, and he was preoccupied with the concern that his palm would start to sweat and Lizzie would be repulsed. He knew he was being ridiculous; the girl had just said she loved him, after all. On top of that, they'd already kissed for Heaven's sake! Though Darcy didn't think it really counted, as it had been the result of a momentary impulse. (As well as months of built-up passion and restraint, but he would rather not mention that.) Lizzie loved him and agreed to go out with him; there was absolutely no reason for Darcy to panic at the notion of holding her hand.

Granted, love wasn't always reasonable, as Darcy knew only too well.

"It's too easy to convince myself that the last few days are a product of my hyperactive imagination, or perhaps head trauma."

Lizzie laughed. She had been doing that a lot tonight, Darcy realized. He decided he liked it. He liked it quite a lot. "I promise, this is 100% reality."

"That doesn't really prove anything, though. You would say that if it were my imagination, as well." He quirked an eyebrow, smirking.

"William Darcy, you are hopeless."

He shrugged. "Lobsters aren't particularly gifted in inspiring hope as a general rule, I believe."

"You're going to spend the rest of my life making me regret my first 60 videos, aren't you?"

"Perhaps only a little bit."

"Ugh!" Lizzie said, attempting to cross her arms without pulling her hand away from Darcy's. She succeeded only in looking rather ridiculous.

Darcy smiled and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. "I love you, too, you know," he said after a moment's pause.

Lizzie smiled, softer than she had all night. "I know."

Darcy wanted to lean in and kiss her, but he didn't want the first real, official kiss of their new relationship to take place in his dark car, when both of them would have to lean uncomfortably over the middle console. He wanted it to be perfect, so instead of pressing his lips against hers, he broke away from her gaze and dug his keys out of his pocket with his left hand. He had to contort awkwardly to start the car without releasing her hand. Though he hoped for a lifetime of opportunities to hold Elizabeth Bennet's hand, he wasn't ready to let it go just yet.

He pulled away from the curb onto the quiet street; the little restaurant where they had eaten was an out-of-the-way place, small and intimate, separate from the hustle of downtown. The night was quiet and dark around them, and a part of Darcy thought that he would be content to stay like this always, driving in the soft night with Lizzie beside him and her hand in his.

After a few moments, Darcy realized they were in silence. He didn't mind; it was the comfortable sort of silence that followed a dinner full of conversation, the sort of silence that felt like contentment. It occurred to Darcy, however, that Lizzie might be uncomfortable with the silence; she was, after all, of a rather more talkative disposition than he was.

"You're welcome to turn on the radio, if you'd like," he said.

"All right." She slipped her hand out of his to turn the knob, quickly scanning through the stations until she found one playing some upbeat pop number. He tried not to wince. "Is this okay?" she asked. "I know you hate popular music."

"I'm more than willing to listen to it if it's what you want. It never hurts to expand one's horizons."

"Even if expanding one's horizons involves listening to uncivilized top 40 radio?" Lizzie asked, raising her eyebrow as she again curled her fingers around his.

"Even then."

When Darcy pulled into the drive leading to his house a few miles outside of the city, he tried, and failed, not to glance over at Lizzie. Her jaw had literally dropped and she was staring at the building in front of them with perplexed wonder.

"You live here?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Only you and Gigi?"

"Yes. This was our family home when we were children. I suppose it's a little empty now with only the two of us, but I can't bring myself to sell it." He shifted into park in front of the house and got out, signaling to Lizzie to wait a moment. He hastened around the front of the car and opened her door for her.

"I am capable of opening my own door you know," she said, a slight grin twisting her lips.

"And I'm equally capable of opening it for you."

The grin expanded into a full-on smile as she said, "Well, thank you."

He nodded and grabbed her hand, leading her inside.

"So, what would you like to do?" he asked as he took her jacket. "I can give you the full tour now, and there's a library upstairs that I think you might like, or we can relax and watch a movie, or I have video games if you'd enjoy playing."

"William Darcy has a video game collection?"

Darcy felt the tips of his ears turn red. "I… wouldn't call it a collection, per se. I only own a few games."

"Which ones?"

Darcy sighed and straightened his tie with his free hand. "I might as well show you, I suppose. Come on; they're in the movie room."

"You have a movie room?"

"It's not much, just a room with a projector and screen, and a particularly comfortable couch."

"You have a movie projector. In your house." Lizzie stopped in her tracks for a second, jerking Darcy to a stop alongside her.

"Yes," Darcy said. Lizzie shook her head, frowning slightly. "Is that… okay?"

Lizzie looked at him, her eyebrows drawn together. "Of course it's okay. It's just a little overwhelming, you know. Keep in mind, at my house, all we have is a twenty year old television set. The images go fuzzy any time there's rain. And you… you have this insanely huge house with a movie room. I just feel a little-"

"Lizzie," Darcy said, cutting her off. "Lizzie, stop. None of that matters, okay?"

"What happened to 'social class is a real thing'?"

Darcy wanted to punch himself in the face but settled for wincing instead. "I believe we both said some things in the past that we regret. I was being an idiot. Yes, social classes are real, but that has nothing to do with us. You're not with me because of my money, so it shouldn't have any influence on our feelings or behavior towards each other."

Lizzie swallowed and opened her mouth as if she were going to argue but then shook her head and settled for squeezing his hand instead. He took that as consent to resume his walk to the movie room.

When they arrived, the light was already on inside. Gigi was flopped across the couch, cocooned in a blanket. On the screen was some movie that Darcy recognized but did not know by name.

Gigi bolted upright when she saw Darcy and Lizzie, immediately grabbing the remote and pausing her movie to stand and talk to them. "William! I wasn't expecting you back so early."

Darcy glanced at his watch. "It's 10:00 at night."

"Yes, well." Gigi cleared her throat. "What are you two doing back here?"

"Your brother invited me over to play video games," Lizzie said, grinning.

"Oh, did he now?" Gigi said, turning to face Darcy and raising her eyebrows. "You like video games, Lizzie?" Lizzie nodded. "That would explain why my dear brother was struck with a sudden need to go out and buy three different game systems and 20 games in the past week," she said, rolling her eyes while smiling affectionately.

Lizzie rounded on Darcy, raising her eyebrows and pulling her hand from his to cross her arms.

"Gigi!" Darcy said.

"Whoops," she said.

Lizzie continued to stare expectantly. "I… uh, well, I know you like video games," Darcy said.

"So you decided to establish your own video game store? I thought you said you only owned a few games?"

"I thought that if you were ever visiting our house and wanted to play video games, I would like to be prepared."

"Darcy," Lizzie said, an old, unpleasant edge to her voice that Darcy hadn't heard in months.

Darcy floundered for a moment, attempting to find an explanation that would placate her temper. Gigi, seeing that her offhandedly teasing comment had sparked a squabble, quickly turned off her movie and gathered up her things.

"I had been telling him that we ought to at least own a Wii for months," Gigi said, shifting awkwardly. "I'm sure your new relationship only prompted him to listen to me that much sooner." There was an awkward moment of silence in which Lizzie continued to stare down Darcy before Gigi spoke again. "Well, I was just headed up to bed, so I'll be going now."

"Weren't you in the middle of a movie?" Lizzie said, turning from Darcy to Gigi.

"Nah," she said, waving a hand, "I was starting to doze anyway. I'm really tired, so I'll just have to leave you two lovebirds alone. Have a good night, you two!" And with that, she darted out the room and down the hall.

Neither Darcy nor Lizzie spoke for a moment, before Darcy turned to Lizzie. "How much trouble am I in?"

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Not that much, I suppose. I'll forgive you because it was a sweet gesture, but you have to promise to never do something like that again. I don't want you to throw your money around for me."

"Lizzie…. It's not a big deal, really. I wouldn't buy you things if I genuinely didn't want to."

"I know, but I don't want to feel like I'm indebted to you." He started to cut her off, but she carried on over him. "I know it's not like that, but I can't help feeling that way. At least for now, please let us do this my way. And that means no buying expensive technology or jewelry or anything else for me, and I get to pay for dinner sometimes. Okay?"

Darcy sighed but nodded. "Okay. I promise."

Lizzie smiled lightly and leaned forward on her tiptoes to kiss him quickly on the cheek. Darcy blinked in shock for a few moments as he felt a smile suffuse across his face without any conscious direction. He felt Lizzie's kiss all the way down to his toes, and the softness of her lips seemed to linger against her skin longer than the second it really was.

"Now, are you ready to play some video games?" she said brightly. "Because you, William Darcy, are going down." She dragged him over to the cabinet on the other side of the room, in which all of their movies and games could be seen. "Wow," she said, running the tips of her fingers over the numerous titles. "You really could open your own store."

Darcy grinned. "Your pick."

A few seconds later, Lizzie gasped. "Just Dance! This game is my favorite!"

"I know. I thought you might choose that one."

"Do you think you can beat me at a dancing game?"

"You're willing to play against me this time, without suggesting that I 'go play Whac-A-Mole' by myself?"

"Oh God. I'd forgotten that I ever said that."
Darcy laughed. "Don't worry about it. After a… considerable amount of time, I found it humorous."

Lizzie groaned, burying her face in her hands, before pulling the game off the shelf and handing it to Darcy to set up, all without looking at him. He walked over to another small cabinet, out of which he pulled a Wii and some controllers, which he passed to Lizzie. Once the game was set up, he walked over to where she waited, exaggeratedly stretching in preparation, having already shaken off the embarrassment of a few moments past.

"Are you ready, Lizzie Bennet?"

"I was born ready."

Darcy grinned but didn't respond.

"What song would you like to do first?" he asked, scanning through the list of options.

Lizzie chose the most obnoxiously upbeat, pop-y song she could find, solely in retaliation for the number of references he had made to her videos throughout the course of the evening.

Both Lizzie and Darcy solemnly agreed to never speak of what happened next; suffice it to say that neither of the two was particularly gifted with grace or coordination. Lizzie may or may not have deteriorated into giggles upon seeing William Darcy, suit, tie, and all, flailing his arms around to "Disturbia." Darcy may or may not have snorted when Lizzie chose a song requiring him to dance along with a figure dressed as a lobster. And, though both were unsure of how it happened, they didn't made it through three songs before Darcy took a controller to the face and was forced to resign.

Lizzie immediately darted to the kitchen to find an icepack. While she was gone, Darcy moved over to the couch and sank into its soft cushions, pressing a hand over against his throbbing eye. He was forced to guiltily admit that she really did suck at video games.

Lizzie took a strangely long time to return, and Darcy was close to pushing himself up to find her and make sure she hadn't gotten lost when she walked back into the room. She plopped down next to him on the couch and gently pulled his hand away from his eye. His shirt cuffs were rolled up, exposing his arms, and her fingers lingered against his bare skin. He shivered as she pressed an ice pack to his eye, but it wasn't because of the cold.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

She lifted the icepack slightly and examined his face, pressing her hand lightly against his cheek to angle his head for optimum inspection. After a moment, she winced and cooed quietly. "It's already starting to swell. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you."

"It's all right. It doesn't hurt that badly."

"You might have a black eye, though," Lizzie said, biting her lip. Darcy's eyes were drawn to the motion. Her hand was still pressed against his cheek, and it occurred to him how easy it would be to lean forward ever so slightly and press his lips against hers. He hesitated for a second, again imagining that perfect moment, before he decided that he was an idiot.

Every moment with Lizzie was perfect.

He crept forward until his nose was nearly touching hers; her eyes, which had been widening as she watched him move closer, slid shut. He paused a moment, his lips hovering only centimeters away from hers, before he closed the final gap between them and pressed his mouth against hers.

Her lips were soft, even softer than he remembered from the unexpected, abrupt kiss of a few days past. He raised his hand and wove it through her hair, silky soft and smooth beneath his fingertips. Her hand, which had still been holding an icepack against his face, dropped to her side for a moment. The icepack was discarded, immediately forgotten, at their side, though Darcy could still feel the cold of it against his leg.

Lizzie's hand, now free, slid up his chest and curled around his tie, pulling him even closer.

The kiss lasted several eternal moments, and when he pulled away, he went back to press one, two, three more feather-light kisses against her lips. When he finally sat back, she smiled up at him and curled against his side.

They sat in silence for a moment, interrupted only by the sound of his heartbeat, pounding in his ears and thrumming against hers as she pressed her face against his chest.

"So," Darcy said after a few minutes of such bliss. "Do I get a rematch?"

"You want to play more?"

"That depends. Lizzie, do you want to get your groove thing on?"

"Will!"

A/N: So, this was inspired by Ep. 14, in which Lydia mentions that Darcy would have played Just Dance with Lizzie. Once the image of Darcy playing Just Dance was in my head, there was no turning back. Then I sat down to write it and all this other stuff came out, so hopefully it ended up making even a little bit of sense. Anyhow.

Review? :)