We Are Timeless – A Kingdom Keepers Story
"Sneaking out after dark," Finn could hear the smirk in her voice over the phone. "I don't know, Finn…"
Amanda so did know. Finn took the bait. "C'mon," he said in his best persuasive voice. "You have to. I mean, uh, it's just…" Finn couldn't think of a way to end the sentence, without giving anything away, such as location, plans, feelings – it was getting harder and harder to conceal the latter, Finn was discovering.
The silence dragged on, and Amanda didn't even try to fill it. The silence felt important; she was waiting for Finn to finish that sentence. He could practically see her in his mind's eye, an eyebrow raised over an unconvinced expression. "We hang out all the time, but it's not like it's ever… you know…"
Amanda seriously wasn't making this easier for him. He wanted to stop, but then the silence would continue, and her lack of response was clearly her prodding him on. Get on with it, you idiot! Finn never failed at losing all forms of brain-to-mouth communication around her.
"It's never just you and I," Finn began. "And we've never even really hung out, without the others lately, just us…" He was awful at explaining things. The pressure of what he was trying to say – and was currently failing at – suffocated him.
Amanda finally spoke, her smooth voice filling up his ears. "Are you…"
"Yes."
"You don't even know what I was going to say-"
"A date." Finn cleared his throat. "I am asking you, Amanda Lockhart, out on a date."
"A… date…" Amanda seemed to be thinking over the words, the way she said them so cautiously.
"Yeah." Finn scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He just messed things up. He knew he did. Idiot idiot idiot! The mantra sang in his head. Soon, it was broken up by Dillard's last words "If you don't take a chance, you don't have a chance." He'd done the right thing – no stopping this train now. Finn's stomach flipped painfully, waiting for Amanda to say something – anything – to pull him out of this torture.
"It's a date," Amanda said again. Finn wasn't sure what he was hearing in her voice: Indifference? Disgust?
"Yeah, that's what I said." Finn was confused. Obviously, Amanda had heard him clearly, since she kept saying the words. "It's a date-"
"It's a date!" She sounded… happy. Amanda laughed out loud. Now he could hear the smile in her voice. "A date!" She said, yet again.
"Yeah!" Amanda's joy was infectious; he laughed away the butterflies and the knot in his stomach lessened.
"Finn Whitman, do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask me on a date? Like, officially?"
"Ah…" Finn couldn't think of any numbers. His brain felt numb from giddiness.
"A very long time!" Amanda laughed again. He loved it when she laughed, like the sound of sparkling chimes.
"Well, great!"
"So… where are we going? You said something about sneaking out of DSI? Not gonna lie, Finn, but sneaking out doesn't sound exactly like a typical first date. Not that I expect typical from us. I mean, we break the rules all the time! Ah," She was beginning to ramble. It made Finn smile. "Not typical is good, too, though! But… sneaking out? Where would we go? Taco Bell? The McDonald's around the street that's open for twenty-four hours?"
"Oh, yeah… right, about that…" The sneaking out thing sounded more mischievous out loud. And, now that Finn thought about it, what they were about to do was not exactly sneaking out – not really, at least. "Well, first of all, it's a surprise. Second of all, you'll probably guess what it is after I tell you that, third of all, you should probably ask Willa to borrow one of her dresses."
"Willa? But I have dresses I could wear if I wanted to, Finn. I don't need to-"
"For where we're going, you'll need to borrow one of Willa's. Or Charlene's. Since, you know…"
Finn heard Amanda suck in a breath from the other side of the line. "YOU ARE NOT-"
"Get dressed, fall asleep, cross over and I'll meet you in the Park in thirty minutes!" Finn quickly hung up, giving Amanda no time to argue. Finn laughed, imagining Amanda's fuming face from his hang up. But she probably wasn't too mad, as she didn't even try to call back.
Putting on a vintage suit, something quite dated that still maintained a classy edge, he tried several times to stop smiling. Several times, he failed. The smile plastered onto his face was as permanent as Amanda was locked in his heart. Both, he knew, would never be leaving anytime soon.
Finn lied down on his bed – he'd been lucky enough to get a room all to himself at the DSI, a special exception that most of the fellow DSI students grumbled to him about. But he didn't care. Earlier that day, Finn had run his date idea by Philby, asking him to help set up the cross over. All that was left to do now was fall asleep. Usually, it was an easy thing; he'd gotten so accustomed to falling asleep at a moment's notice over the years that it happened instantaneously.
But now, it proved to be a much more difficult task: he couldn't get his brain to shut off, couldn't calm down. Excitement mingled in the corners of his mind. Amanda. He imagined a million ways that the night could go wrong; he imagined a million more ways that the night could go right. His eyelids grew heavy. His thoughts became muddled and hazy. Finn slipped off into sleep.
Finn shivered in the cool California night air, a slight chill on the breeze. Warm orbs of light glowed all around him. A pole shot straight into the dark abyss of the sky, a flag flapping above. He felt disoriented. The last thing he remembered was talking on the phone. Amanda. Falling asleep…
Oh.
Finn stood up from his previous position of lying on the concrete. He looked all around at his surroundings. He was in Town Square, Disneyland. Down Main Street, the Sleeping Beauty Castle was painted pink and blue, its walls glowing. The crossover had been successful – but if that was the case, then why was he here alone? Where was Amanda? He pulled out his phone, his hand shimmering in its hologram state. He'd fallen asleep in time. At this point, Amanda was several minutes late.
Finn checked his phone again, nerves suddenly tumbling through his stomach. Thoughts swirled through his head. What if she had decided she didn't want to go on this date – that she and he were better off friends? Had Finn overstepped? Amanda would have at least texted him if she had decided that she didn't want this – whatever this was. Friendship, but not friendship – something. Something worth trying, something worth everything, Finn knew. She was everything. She was worth everything.
No texts. He guessed that meant the date was still on. Finn slipped his phone back into a deep pocket inside the old crisp suit, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
Finn saw a shimmer of light out of the corner of his eye. He tore his gaze away from the castle and Main Street, whirling around.
His breath caught in his throat.
Amanda stepped toward him, out of the shadows into the warm light, and it was like he was looking at a different person; but somehow, still the same – like it was Prom night all over again. His mind flashed back to the lights, the noise, Amanda: she had been the sun, then. She was light and everything that soared and bent around it. Finn had never wanted that night to end, and they'd come so close to taking the next step, so close to something more than just the word friends… that word felt too constricting, now. Too limiting. What they had reached deep – far deeper – than that.
But now, here was Amanda, a whole few months later, and this time no longer was she the sun, but the moon and a thousand twinkling stars in a night sky. Her chiffon dress in the style of the late fifties reached to her knees, colored the silver of moonlight. Shiny, glittering stars which Finn, upon closer inspection, soon realized were just earrings – not stars at all – glittered from underneath her hair. The blues of her eyes glittered, a coy smile on her lips as she looked up at Finn, taking in his vintage suit and leather shoes.
It had only been moments in Amanda's presence, and Finn found himself having to remind himself to breathe. He started choking on air.
Amanda rushed over, instantly startled. She patted Finn on the back. "Are you okay?"
Finn, now extremely red in the face (both from lack of oxygen and utter embarrassment), nodded his head. He couldn't get a word out; he was having such a hard time catching his breath, while also managing to choke on some more spit. Classy.
Amanda gave a laugh rolled her eyes. She feigned annoyance, but Finn knew what was underneath that look – the friendship they'd shared for years. But was there something more there, now…?
He didn't dare think of it. Finn didn't want to spend another five minutes coughing like a kid who had inhaled too much pool water. Yeah, what a catch I must be, Finn thought. Catch of the day, right here. With a fishy name to top it all off.
"You're such a dork."
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
My dork. Amanda thought. My Finn. She restrained herself from saying it out loud, though – she felt the need to keep that a secret.
"Ah, now that I can breathe again, shall we go?" Finn smiled, pink still coloring his cheeks. He offered Amanda his arm. She linked her arm through his, holding him close.
"Are you still not going to tell me where we're off to?" There was a glint of mischief in Amanda's eyes. "I mean, I have a couple guesses, seeing the way we're dressed…"
"That does give it away, a bit, doesn't it?" Finn laughed. He craned his neck, searching in circles all around them. Disneyland had been closed for a while, now. There was no one around, not even security, by the looks of it. Even if that was the case, Finn didn't want to linger too long out in the open, especially now that their DHIs had been booted up. Someone would notice the red flag eventually. He began to walk, Amanda following his lead.
Up in Walt's apartment, Finn and Amanda stood by the old record player. Finn flipped a switch on the machine. Amanda recalled how in the surveillance camera footage, back when Finn and the others were stuck in SBS, she'd seen him mess with this same machine so many times before. Only now, she knew what they had been doing and what the record player did.
"Once the song starts playing, get ready to run."
Finn was just about to make the song play when she placed a hand on his, stopping him. He looked at her, eyebrows drawn together. "What is it?"
Amanda bit her lip. "What if… what if we get stuck there? Like you guys did, before? I mean, you made it back, but you were gone for over twelve days, Finn. I don't- I just…" Worry shook her voice, fear of the unknown. "I don't want that to happen again."
Finn held Amanda's hand in his and gave her a reassuring smile. "We've got the bugs worked out this time. Plus I've got a backup Return in my pocket." He paused, glanced from the record player back to Amanda. "If you don't want to go, just tell me. I understand-"
"I want to." Amanda cut him off. "Really." She gave a nervous laugh. "I've just never exactly time travelled before. You can't exactly blame me for being nervous about it."
"Not many people can say they have." Finn watched as Amanda bit back a smile, her mood brightening increasingly.
"Ready?"
Amanda gave a firm nod. Curious light brimmed in her eyes. Finn gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
With the flip of a switch, the music began to play. "Here we go…"
And with that, they were off. Finn took off running, Amanda right by his side. They passed through the apartment door, made of nothing but light. Amanda and Finn, hand-in-hand, raced down Main Street, past the glittering lights and the false facades, unable to wipe the grins from their faces. Excitement fluttered in both their chests, hearts beating steadily, the sound of fabric rustling and the stomp of feet filling the unusual silence of the park.
Up ahead, as they approached Sleeping Beauty Castle, twirling light could be seen beyond – King Arthur's Carrousel. It was moving, a song riding the breeze, lifting its way to their ears.
Amanda looked over at Finn, unable to hide her own excitement. His green eyes were bright and earnest, alight with a sense of adventure and discovery. He squeezed her hand yet again as they ran all the harder, passing over the drawbridge and under the castle's opening archway.
Almost there, now. Finn thought. Their holograms passed through the fence guarding off the Carrousel and hopped onto the moving platform. Finn quickly located Jingles. He wasn't sure how much time was left of the song; the quicker, the better. He wasn't sure if any red eyes would be lingering by Mr. Toads Wild Ride, and didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.
Finn held out a hand, helping Amanda settle on Jingles first. She clutched the pole jutting out of the horse for balance as Finn hopped on behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He didn't have a time to have second-thoughts about their closeness, or to even see the blush that painted Amanda's cheeks. The colors around them swirled, murky and mixed. The world appeared lost in a backward motion, like they had fallen into an oil painting, its colors dripping off the walls.
A sinking feeling filled their stomachs as the colors turned dark, both unable to shake the feeling that they were falling, falling, falling...