Title: Agnolotti & Truffled Potatoes

Author: melodydemure

Rating: PG

Pairing: Harry/Draco

Word Count: 1796

Description: Draco and Harry are meeting for their first date and Draco has trouble controlling his nervousness.

Note: Takes place in Muggle London, an undetermined time after the series. Can be epilogue-compliment or not, up to the reader. I'm thinking a prequel and/or sequel might be in order at some point, but no promises. At this point, anything unknown can be up to the readers' interpretation.

Two glasses of champagne sat on the bar in front of Draco as he waited. He sat, wondering if he should order a quick shot of vodka to take the edge off his nerves before his date arrived. But, he thought, one shot could lead to two, and two could lead to who knows how many more, and he wasn't about to ruin this night for anything.

He knew he had made the right decision when his date arrived. Calm and cool, Harry strolled in and paused near the entrance. He took his sunglasses off and scanned the restaurant. When he spotted Draco, a small smile appeared on his face, and then he made his way over the bar.

"Champagne?" Draco asked, holding out one of the glasses to Harry. Harry took it in his hand.

"Great thinking," Harry replied. The two clinked glasses and took sips from them. "Do we not have a table, or..."

"Oh, we do. They're just getting it ready; it won't take long."

"Great, 'cause I'm pretty hungry," Harry said, laughing. "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I spent so much time getting ready that I didn't have time to eat lunch."

"You've been getting ready since lunch time?" Draco asked, shocked. He felt his cheeks redden, hoping Harry didn't assume Draco thought he was ridiculous.

"Oh, yeah." Harry smiled with half of his mouth. "Well, not just getting ready. I did other stuff too, you know, like going to the gym, having a shower... I have a thorough skincare regime. And, um, my hair..."

"Well, you look great." Draco suddenly became all too aware of how little time he'd spent on getting himself ready. He did little more than he normally did to prepare for evenings out, and now he regretted it. If only he had thought to at least fix up his hair differently, wear a new cologne, anything!

Draco's thoughts were interrupted by the ma tre d' coming to tell him that the table was ready. He nodded and quickly finished the champagne in his glass, placing the glass back onto the bar before following him to the table. Harry pulled out one of the chairs and motioned for Draco to sit down.

"Wow, such a gentleman..." Again, Draco regretted not thinking ahead. It should've been him pulling the chair out for Harry, not the other way around.

"Not usually," Harry said with a faint chuckle in his voice. He sat down in his own chair and pulled open the menu. Draco did the same, holding his a touch higher to hide the nervous glances he'd been directing across the table. "Truffled potato, that sounds quite nice."

Draco nodded his head. As he scanned the menu, he became increasingly uncomfortable with his knowledge - or lack thereof - of some of these Muggle dinner options. "Pumpkin and Fennel Agnolotti..."

"Excellent choice, sir." The waiter seemed to appear out of nowhere, taking Draco by surprise. "It's very crisp, with basil and a delightful burnt honey broth. It's Chef Antony's special this evening, in fact."

"I have a question about the Truffled potato," Harry cut in. "I see that it's a vegetarian dish, but would it be possible to have it, um, not vegetarian?"

"You would like, perhaps, duck or quail added?" the waiter asked.

"I'd prefer something that maybe isn't, um..." Harry frowned slightly before continuing. "What would you recommend that isn't a bird?"

"We have a lovely smoked trout that I think would pair nicely with the Truffled potato."

"Excellent, yes."

Draco frowned as the waiter scooped up the menus and left the table. He looked down at his hands and felt a shade of red come to his cheeks. He was far too embarrassed to admit that he had no real idea what it was that he'd ordered.

"You know," Harry said. "I eat at some nice places, but I think this place might be a little bit too fancy for me. Duck? Quail? I think I saw venison tongue in there, too. Gross."

Just what Draco needed to hear - Harry hated the restaurant he picked. Draco took a long sip from his champagne glass. He had scoured the internet for a really nice Muggle place to take Harry; he really wanted to impress him and treat him to an amazing dinner. Again, he had messed up.

Harry continued to talk to Draco, mostly about quidditch and movies and art... Draco was so focused on what he'd been doing wrong, that he'd hardly been able to follow the conversation. Harry didn't seem to notice, which Draco was at least somewhat grateful for.

When the food arrived, Draco was happy to discover that he hadn't ordered something ridiculous, like eel or - well, who knows what? He had actually smiled softly at how normal his meal looked to him - he had been mentally preparing himself to eat whatever disgusting (yet beautifully presented) concoction that would arrive on his plate. Seeing that it was something fairly regular and smelled so delicious left him holding back from letting out a long, dramatic sigh of relief.

"Good?" Harry asked. Draco nodded in response, his mouth full with food. "Good. Just wondering, though, what is the different between agnolotti and ravioli? Because that looks exactly like ravioli to me."

Draco stared at his plate, and contemplated the flavours in his mouth. He almost didn't want to say anything, to admit that he had no idea whatsoever. So he examined, making a big deal about chewing to show that he wasn't just stalling to answer. Finally, he came up with something and swallowed. "Ravioli is square and agnolotti is more rectangular..."

"Oh. Okay, cool." Harry went back to his food and ate silently.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Draco wanted to believe it was a comfortable silence caused by both men being too busy eating to say a word, but he felt extremely tense. He prayed that Harry would finish eating first so that he wouldn't have to think about what to say or do.

Luckily, Harry did finish first - he wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin and let out a tiny moan. "That was great. You know, I always think that these fancy restaurants give such tiny portions, but I actually feel pretty full." He smiled across the table at Draco, still eating, before looking over his shoulder to the back of the restaurant. "Waiter's coming, should I get our bill?"

"Sure. I'd never be able to eat a dessert or anything."

Draco and Harry hadn't discussed how they would be paying for the dinner before the date. Draco had assumed that, because he was the one who asked Harry to come, he would be the one to pay. So, when Harry pulled out his credit card and handed it to the waiter, Draco nearly fell out of his chair. It would be unsightly to shout, "No! Don't!" with a mouth filled with half-chewed pumpkin agnolotti, or to snatch the card from the waiter's hand, so he sat politely and waited until they were once again alone.

"Why did you do that, Harry?" Draco asked outright.

"Hmm?"

"Pay. Why did you pay?" Draco clarified. "I was supposed to take care of the bill."

"It's not a problem, Draco," Harry said, shrugging. "I was happy to do it. My dinner was fantastic, and it looked like you were enjoying yours. Besides, we didn't talk about it before... I didn't think it would matter."

"I guess not..." Draco pouted. He shoved the last piece of agnolotti into his mouth and chewed half-heartedly, dabbing the corners of his mouth with a napkin as Harry had done moments ago.

"Did you take your car?" Harry asked, after a short silence.

"No, I walked over," Draco replied. "It was really warm out earlier and I had the time."

"Would you like a ride home? It's supposed to have gotten much colder since daytime... and, you know, I'd like to drive you home." Draco was sure he was imagining it, but he could've sworn that Harry had just blushed as badly as Draco had been earlier.

"That sounds great. Shall we, then?"

The two left for the parking lot. Harry's car was easy to find - all of his vehicles were white and spotless, far too flashy for Draco's more subtle, classy taste. As obnoxious as he thought Harry's cars were, he knew he would never say anything about them.

The ride to Draco's house was fairly silent. Harry had a news radio station playing and made brief comments on each story. He was especially distraught after hearing about a devastating house fire that left an entire family with nothing. Draco knew that Harry was likely to make an anonymous donation to the family; Draco decided that he would, too. Harry's charitable and compassionate nature was something that Draco had admired, and even though it wasn't Draco's own nature, it was something he could mimic, at least in a way.

After pulling into Draco's driveway, Harry quickly leapt out of his car and hurried to open Draco's door for him. Draco thanked him, and the two walked up to the front door. Draco could hardly contain the butterflies that existed in his stomach, fearing that some would fly out of his mouth if he attempted to speak.

"I had a really wonderful time tonight, Draco," Harry began. That blush from earlier had reappeared on his cheeks, Draco noted. "I hope you did, too." Draco nodded, smiling. "You know, to be honest, I was kind of nervous and anxious all night."

"You were anxious?" Draco laughed out. "About what? About walking into the restaurant and having everyone in the place notice how great you looked? About -"

"Are you kidding?" Harry cut him off. "There you were, Mister Suave and Sophisticated sitting at the bar with two champagne classes. You were a perfect gentleman all evening; meanwhile I acted like an asshole asking for my dinner to be altered. I must have sounded like such an uncultured shit to that waiter. Then I kept babbling on and on about so many random things, I'm sure you couldn't have cared less about any of it..."

Draco felt himself laughing again. The entire evening, he had been worried that he'd been making mistake after mistake, certain that Harry would never want to go out with him again, yet Harry was feeling the exact same way. Draco, overcome with relief, pulled Harry closer to him and kissed him. After an initial moment of shock, Harry returned the kiss, passionately and playfully against Draco's mouth.

At that moment it was clear to both of them that their first date had been a success.