First Time
One Shot
By: Paramour Party

The first time he met her, he had a feeling his Baby Girl set him up. Derek knew the sudden onslaught of baked good—bribes— were cause enough to be on guard. He never thought a small favour would turn into this. Now, he stared at the young woman before him, her bright eyes, her riotous curls fighting to escape out of the braid it was trapped in, and her fist with its fierce right hook. He rubbed at his cheek. "You sure you never took self defence before?"

"I may or may not have had experience punching someone once," Hermione said. Derek definitely wanted to know the story behind that one.

"Well you definitely have the power behind those jabs," he said. He moved to stand beside her again and began correcting the little errors in her stance, "I know in the real world you won't have enough time to think about stance, but with enough practice, if you balance you weight like this, you'll have less risk on stumbling when you're moving forward to punch. Good. How about one more walk-through and we'll be done for the day?"

Jab. Cross. Hook. Cross. Grab. Knee.

When they were done, both slightly panting at the exercise Hermione laughed. "If only my friends could see me now. They'd call me barbaric."

Derek chuckled as he threw her a bottle of water. "Well you could always just punch them if they get too annoying now." The smirk on her face had him thinking she'd probably do worse.

"Thank you again for this. I know with your job you'd want any time off for relaxing. I can't imagine what Penelope used to bribe you with," she said.

He waved off her concerns. "Don't worry about it. Penelope knows I work out on my off days, having a partner just makes it more fun."

The smile she granted him had him grinning back.

The first time they met up outside of the gym, Derek knew his Baby Girl was setting him up. Her wink was reason enough behind that conclusion. When he was invited to dinner with friends, he didn't think it'd just be with Garcia, her boyfriend, and Hermione. A double date not so subtly disguised as a regular night out.

A tiny booth Garcia must have pick out on purpose had him squished to the wall or to Hermione. A glance at the curly-haired woman had him wondering if she'd come to the same conclusion, but she was happily chatting along with Penelope without any notice of the sly look the colourful woman shot him.

"What are you having?" Hermione asked him.

"Huh?"

Hermione pointed at the menu in his hands. "Your order?" she asked again before turning back to her own menu, "I can't decide between a pasta dish or the seafood platter."

Derek watched her for a moment wondering if it was a bad idea that Penelope seemed to be encouraging something to happen between them. He blinked when Hermione's attention was suddenly back on him, intelligent eyes reading him like a book. "Everything okay?" she asked him, "You've been a little quiet tonight."

He smiled at her and when she smiled in return, he decided maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Just hungry."

Hermione rose a brow and scoffed returning to her menu. "Men and their stomachs," she told Penelope. Both men at the table tried to protest but only got laughs in return.

Derek leaned back in his seat, the nerves that had built at the realization of his Baby Girl's machinations settling. "Did you decided on your order?" he asked her as he casually draped an arm behind her on the red velvet back of the bench they shared. He glanced at Garcia and noticed the way she smirked winningly in his direction.

Hermione closed her menu and seemed to finally notice the sudden closeness and she looked at him with a raised brow. "Comfy then?" she asked instead of replying.

Derek merely grinned.

For the first time, he found himself falling fast and hard. Plummeting from the sky with no end in sight. "What are you waiting for?" his Baby Girl asked him one day.

What was he waiting for? He didn't know. A sign maybe. Derek was good at reading people. But he wasn't good at reading Hermione. She was a closed book. Hermione though, didn't seem to have much trouble reading him. He wondered if she knew about his growing feelings?

"Want to go skydiving?" Hermione asked him one morning after a workout.

He blinked. "You're scared of heights."

"I don't want to be."

Derek wondered if this was his sign. They'll both be falling from the sky now.

"Maybe you should start smaller?"

Hermione had gotten a thoughtful look on her face and then she grinned. "You're right."

He rose a brow at her response. "Why do I have a feeling my idea of smaller isn't your idea of smaller?"

Hermione laughed as she dragged him to her car while typing away on her phone. "Because you have fantastic intuition."

Four hours later they were standing on a solid metal bridge like contraption 200 feet over a deep aqua-blue lagoon. Harnesses strapped on, Derek could feel the tension rolling off Hermione; could almost feel her heart racing in anticipation as she stare over the edge with a glazed look in her eyes as they waited for their turn.

"It's not too late to back out."

She shook her head mutely.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. This is happening."

Stubborn as always, Derek couldn't help but feel proud. The bungee workers helped manoeuvre them over to the jumping platform. They strapped them down and locked them together before going through the security checks. "Ready when you are folks!" They said.

"Oh bloody hell. I'm going to die."

The whispered curse caught Derek off guard and he chuckled. "You won't die. Do you trust me?" He asked her.

Hermione looked up at him and nodded. Derek wrapped an arm around her and she was quick to hold onto him tightly in return. The workers counted down and then they were falling. Hermione's scream turned into hysterical laughter. The wind roared in their ears as they plummeted towards the lagoon. Their surroundings blurred around them at the speed they fell and when Hermione opened her eyes and could only see Derek clearly, there was a proud excited look in his eyes and she could feel his laughter rumble against her.

"Wasn't so bad was it?" Derek asked a moment later when Hermione's laughter slowly calmed. They swayed gently with the rope waiting to be released.

She shook her head and hugged him close. "Thank you for coming with me," she grinned up at him, the flush of adrenaline on her cheeks.

"Any time."

There was a beat as Hermione watched him but then she was reaching up as much as she could and pressed her lips to his. Derek didn't hesitate, one hand wrapped behind her neck and the other rested securely over her back as he kissed her back. When they broke apart Hermione's blush had deepened.

"I can take that as reward for coming along on your crazy adventures too," Derek said, his voice just a little huskier. "Or any time really."

"I was hoping for the any time."

"Good," Derek replied before he kissed her again.

I'M ALIVE. I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Real life got crazy for a moment there. But I'm back. This quick One-Shot is for Mistra Rose for being my 100th reviewer on Novelty. I'm so sorry it's a million months late! I hope you enjoyed it! I'm sorry it didn't quite meet the 1,500 I had originally set. The muse was stubborn.

Original prompt: Penelope was tried of seeing her best friend getting his heart broken so she decides to set him up with a friend of her's that she had met through her college roommate. Hermione wasn't looking for a man because no one saw her as a girl just 'one of the guy's'. All she needed to do was get them to met and she knew they would get along like a house on fire, she just knew it, she knew it deep in her bones. It also helped that Hermione wasn't a pushover and knew that the world wasn't always kind to the innocent.

Now as apology for the long time away, I posted three times today! This one-shot, a Novelty update, and a new crossover~ If you're into Twilight or imprint stories, please check out my Hermione/Paul story called Kismet (shameless plug)

Until next time! Hopefully I won't take so long to update again.