When Jesse was younger, she never liked the idea of dress up. Maybe for role playing, like a time traveling space cop or something, but never for a fancy dinner.

"This dress looks so stupid..." Jesse remarked with a mild snarl as she looked at herself in the mirror. The dress itself was full length, and it made it incredibly hard to walk around in without dripping on the fabric. Being that rather indignant, selfish child Jesse was deep down, she took to habit of balling up a large section of the dress whenever she needed to walk.

"What are you talking about?!" Olivia immediately chimed, "You look fantastic!"

"Fantastically stupid." Jesse snorted. "Who's idea was it to hold a dinner party for the Order of the Stone any way?"

"The town's, if I remember correctly." Olivia thought over. "It's the year anniversary of when we defeated the Wither Storm, remember?"

Admittedly, Jesse had tried to forget. The hurting thought visibly showed on Jesse's face, allowing Olivia to take quick notice.

"Hey," her friend then said, "This is a celebration, don't get so caught up about what happened. We're all still alive, aren't we?"

Jesse looked down, obviously thinking of those who were not, in fact, alive any more because of the Wither Storm. Olivia picked up on this and honestly wasn't entirely sure how to make Jesse feel better.

"C'mon Jesse," she then offered, "You know as well as I do that they'll be a special dedication for Reuben after the party. But we have to get there first."

"I know." Jesse sighed. "I know. Just… give me some more time?"

Olivia nodded and left the room for Jesse to finish preparing herself for the dinner party.

. . .

If Jesse was given a piece of diamond every time someone complimented how nice she looked (likely right after she tripped over that stupid dress), she would have had enough to craft far more than enough diamond swords to last her a lifetime. Not even an hour into the party, and Jesse had to separate herself from everyone else. In her haste, she pushed past Lukas and continued to flee to an empty room. Lukas, sensing that something was wrong, took an instinct to follow her.

"I hate these shoes," Jesse grumbled as she started to take them off. "I hate this dress," she then said as she threw the bundle of fabric she was holding down. "I hate this stupid party!" she hollered indignantly as she turned around and found herself surprised to see Lukas standing not too far from her.

"Not sure if I could help you get along with the party or not," he casually offered, scratching the back of his head rather sheepishly, "But you should probably put your shoes back on- the last thing we need is the great leader of the New Order of the Stone to get tetanus or something."

A look of disgust crossed Jesse's face as she turned to look at her tossed shoes. She turned back to Lukas, looking rather guilty. "Can you help me?" she requested. "I really hate them."

"Sure." Lukas agreed with a nod. The two then found some place to sit in the isolated room so Jesse could put her shoes back on. When the deed was done, Jesse looked up at the ceiling for the first time and found herself admiring the craftsmanship. Lukas just looked at her, admiring her profile and her sense of interest even though she was attending something she has not fond of.

"Never lose your sense of wonder Jesse." Lukas absently said out loud, speaking a thought that was not meant to be heard.

Caught off guard by the sentence for some reason, Jesse turned to face Lukas. "Where did that come from?" Jesse questioned, if only to make sure of what she had heard. Now it was Lukas's turn to look as if he had been caught off guard.

"I said that out loud?" he remarked as his face started to flush red. "Oh-ho man… There must be something in that punch or something, am I right? Heh heh… oh god..."

Jesse raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you alright Lukas?" she ended up asking. "You're not acting like yourself tonight."

"I guess I'm just nervous," Lukas admitted, "And I don't even know why."

Jesse didn't answer, looking at him for a moment as if to study him before looking away.

"You know," Lukas sheepishly started to tell her, "You look really… beautiful tonight."

In a moment that nearly terrified Lukas, Jesse let out a rather harsh chuckle. "Everyone keeps saying that." Jesse murmured. "And I'm starting to hate it."

"W-why?!" Lukas immediately questioned. "It's true!"

Jesse looked down with a shake of her head. "Name one thing." she quietly said.

After a rather small delay, a simple "Huh?" came from Lukas.

"Name one thing that's beautiful about me, that doesn't involve this stupid dress..."

For awhile, Lukas just stared at her as if she had started to speak another language. Jesse wasn't looking up to see Lukas's face of confusion. This wasn't like Jesse, and it was some sort of emotion that Lukas wasn't aware she had; self-depreciation.

"Jesse..." Lukas slowly found himself saying, "It isn't that dress that makes you beautiful. I mean, it's certainly helped tonight, but..."

Before Lukas could finish his thought, Jesse shook her head again before starting to stand up. "I'm going home." she said.

"Jesse, no. Wait!" Lukas immediately told her, able to take a quick hold of her hand before she got too far. Jesse immediately paused and her body sagged a little, as if she was giving defeat.

"Jesse..." Lukas quietly spoke, hoping to start this train wreck of a conversation over again, "You were beautiful before you even got that ugly dress."

Jesse turned around to look at him. "What are you getting at?" she slowly questioned.

"I..." Lukas croaked, not even sure himself of what he was getting at. Just then, a thought came to Lukas. Not taking any time to consider this thought, Lukas acted upon it almost immediately- he kissed Jesse.

The girl's first reaction was to push him away and demand if he had been drinking something- but a small part from the deepest instinct inside of her gave in. Lukas pulled away not long after that, and he found that he had to keep Jesse standing as the euphoric reaction of the kiss finally reached her brain. Butterflies started to take up residence in Lukas's stomach when he realized that he had caused that reaction in Jesse -a reaction that no one had ever seen before, most likely- and he really, really wanted to do it again.

"Jesse..."

"Yeah?" was the breathless reply.

"Are you... seeing anyone?"

Then, to the disappointment of both of them, Jessie pulled away a bit. "Lukas..." she sighed heavily, "I don't… think it's right at the moment for me to settle down with someone. I don't want… I don't want someone to get hurt because I'm in the New Order, you know? They could be used to hurt me, or hurt the world, and I just wouldn't… forgive myself if something bad happened to them. It… It isn't you Lukas, honest. But I… I'm afraid that..."

Lukas looked at Jesse. "I get it." he said to her, turning away. But Jesse stopped him with a firm grip around his hand.

"But, um..." Jesse softly whispered as her fingers knit into his, "If I'm allowed to be selfish for once in my life, I wouldn't mind… another kiss..."

At this request, they both went still. Jesse's grip on Lukas's hand tightened. Slowly, Lukas turned back around to look at Jesse. It was obvious that this wasn't something she was used to, but in whatever way she felt, she was just as determined about it as she always was. Not entirely sure if he was controlling himself, Lukas raised his free hand to cup the side of Jesse's face before pulling her back in for another kiss. This time, Jesse immediately gave in as she loosened her grip around Lukas's hand to wrap her arms around his torso- effectively bringing them closer together and deepening the kiss.

Their moment of bliss and oblivion quickly went away when they could hear someone shout, "Jesse! Jesse where are you?!" coming from the party. The duo pulled away to look each other in the eye.

"My world needs me." Jesse informed Lukas with a rather small smile.

"Can't I be a part of it for a bit longer?" Lukas requested, pressing his forehead against hers in hopes of earning another kiss. They almost succeeded, until they could quite easily hear Ivor screech, "JESSE!" loud enough to wake the dead. Jesse flinched before pulling away. She hadn't noticed how dizzy her kiss with Lukas had made her until she tripped over her dress, forgetting that she had to pick it up to walk straight. Lukas afforded a small smirk as Jesse quickly regained her composure and started to head back to the party.

"Hey Lukas!" Jesse shouted from over her shoulder, her head still light from their embrace, "Just remember one thing: I'm always naked under my clothes!"

Jesse only took enough time to see Lukas's shocked reaction before throwing her head back in laughter and disappearing back into the party. Rather dizzy himself -from both the kiss and Jesse's last word- Lukas found a wall to lean against in an attempt to calm himself down before returning to the party. But all his mind could return to was Jesse and the unfortunate hormonal changes that came with it. "Jesse..." It was the only word he could say at the moment too. Lukas looked up at the ceiling before shutting his eyes and letting out a slow sigh. "Man Jesse, why'd you have to be such a good kisser?"