It was a rather ordinary Sunday afternoon in April as Crescent Darnel watched the light rain run down her dining room window. It was the only window in her fourth floor apartment that had a slight view of the city, but in this weather she couldn't make out anything but droplets and blurry lights from the cars below.

She hugged her knees to her chest and refocused her attention on the website she'd pulled up on her laptop about a half hour ago. It was taking way too much energy to answer all of the questions it posed about her. The questionnaire never seemed to end.

She jumped when her front door opened and Thorne walked in with his usual grocery bags, his hair no doubt slick from his tendency to walk in the rain without an umbrella. He wore one of his typical lazy Sunday outfits: baggy sweatpants, sneakers, and a light hoodie. It was a decent, casual look on him, though she knew that he'd never dress this way if he were going out on the town.

Their weekly Sunday afternoon lunch date was meant to be relaxed and laid-back though, and she knew that he usually had to recover from some party he'd been to the night before. Besides, they'd known each other too long for either of them to be embarrassed about the way they looked in front of the other.

"Hey, Captain," she said, happy to have a distraction.

Cress shut her laptop as he shook off his shoes and approached her, unsure if she was ready to tell him about the decision she'd only just made yesterday. He would likely be way too into it and, even worse, way too full of advice if he knew what she was up to. She'd tell him when the time was right.

"Hey, Damsel," he said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before he walked into the kitchen with his grocery bags in tow.

Captain and Damsel were the nicknames they'd used for each other since they'd been children and couldn't get enough of their imaginary personas whenever they played by the little creek that cut through the acres of Thorne's backyard. Though they were much older now, the nicknames had stuck, and whenever they used them it brought her back to great memories of thieves, heroes, maidens, warrior princesses, and daring rescues.

Back then, he was still known as Carswell—though of course he'd sworn her to secrecy as they'd grown up. Nowadays, he preferred to go by his last name.

She didn't mind keeping this fact to herself so long as Thorne never told anyone about how many nightmares she'd had back then. It was all the nightmares that had ultimately made them so close, though, and in some ways she thanked her lucky stars for them. One particularly bad night, she'd run down to her own yard—which was dwarfed by Thorne's—and sat in the grass and cried.

Thorne, only nine at the time, had taken the little seven year old girl under his wing after he'd heard her crying from his own bedroom window. He'd snuck her into his house and he'd read her books under the blanketed fort he'd created over his bed. Even though she could read just fine, she loved the way he added extra parts to the stories and spoke in funny voices just to make her laugh.

The next day, when they were discovered asleep in the same bed, Thorne's parents had only cooed at how adorable they were. Not the type to interfere much with Thorne's life—much to his delight back then—they hadn't mentioned anything to Cress' parents about it. She was thankful for that, because unlike his parents, hers would have likely given her a beating if they knew she'd disobeyed orders and slipped out at night.

After a few more nights of finding Cress alone outside, Thorne had developed a communication system where she could ring a bell attached to a string between their houses whenever she didn't feel well. When she did, she knew Thorne would be waiting for her by the window of her outside basement to take her over to his house.

They'd been inseparable ever since.

Thousands of Captain Thorne and Damsel Darnel adventures later—not to mention many awkward teenage years—their friendship had survived even when Thorne had gone away to college. Cress, eager to leave her house and its bad memories behind as soon as possible, had managed to graduate a year early from high school, only one year behind Thorne. He had encouraged her to apply to the same college he went to so that they could see each other more often than just weekends. Their social lives were quite different during college, but Thorne had never excluded her from any events that he had planned, even if she often turned down his invitations.

Now that they were both recent graduates, she always looked forward to their ritual Sunday afternoon. Even if they didn't see each other the whole week, they both knew that this day was reserved just for the two of them.

"What's on the menu?" she asked as she joined him by the counter.

Thorne pulled out some cartons of take-out food. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, "I had a really late night. I'm just not in the mood to cook today."

"You're such a cheater," she said, but she snatched one of the cartons away from him. It smelled delicious. "You know it's your turn to cook."

"But this isn't just any take-out. It's from that little store we spotted a few weeks ago and desperately wanted to try. Remember? By that flower shop on 11th where you practically squealed at the amount of differently colored roses they had on display?"

She groaned. "When you made me tell you what all the flower colors meant so you could properly apologize to what's-her-name with the hooker heels?"

"Hey, that was important work for which I will forever be in your debt."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"I also brought dessert as a peace offering." Thorne revealed a box inside the grocery bag he'd held on his person since he came in. "You are going to looove me when you see what's in here."

Cress felt a smile playing on her lips but folded her arms, pretending to consider. "You're cooking next week, then. Don't think this gets you off rotation."

He grinned her favorite crooked grin and then winked at her. "Deal."

As they settled into their food, Thorne told her all about his date the night before with his new girl, Kate. They'd only been seeing each other for a few weeks, but already they were having many issues.

In Cress' opinion, Kate simply seemed to be too high maintenance for Thorne, who was actually quite high maintenance himself already—if you didn't count Sunday afternoons. He needed someone who boosted his ego, not the other way around.

She ate her food thoughtfully and listened to him compare her to the other women he'd dated and decently liked. The hooker heels girl was not on that list, of course.

As he talked about his night, Cress thought back to her closed laptop. Maybe if she could finally force herself to finish the questionnaire, she could eventually join Thorne on Sundays with tales of her own dates, good or bad. It'd been far too long since she'd had any prospects for a leading man in her life, and it made her feel partially incomplete. She didn't need a guy to fill some vacant hole, but she wanted someone with whom she could begin to share her life. Now that she wasn't in college anymore, some of her friends had actually started settling down—getting into more long-term relationships, moving in together, even taking the plunge of marriage. She wasn't ready for marriage yet, but she had to start somewhere.

When they moved to the couch with dessert and began to watch the movie he'd chosen (whoever cooked got to pick), a sci-fi action movie with lots of spaceships, Cress focused her attention on the love story developing between the two leading characters. If they could find love amid intergalactic war, surely she could find love using the internet. About halfway through, when they paused for a bathroom break and a quick stretch, Cress finally decided to tell Thorne about her decision.

"So, um, I wanted to tell you something," she said as she sat back down next to him. He already had the remote at the ready, but he set it down and turned to look at her.

"What's up?"

"Well…I think I'm going to sign up for an online dating site." Cress grimaced as her words came out, then looked up warily as she waited for his reaction.

Thorne broke into a wide grin. "An online dating site? Hey, that's awesome Cress!"

She had thought that he'd approve, but deep down she knew she was waiting for his confirmation that she was making the right choice. "You don't think it's stupid?"

"No way. How else are you supposed to meet people in this day and age?"

"You meet people all the time."

He dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand and a cocky attitude. "I'm Captain Thorne. Beautiful women are just drawn to me. I can't help it." The look on her face must have told him that she could see right through his phony speech, because he chuckled. "You're not really into the bar scene, Cress. The internet will be perfect for you."

"But it makes me feel kind of desperate."

Thorne wrapped his arm around her and she leaned into her favorite spot. "You, desperate? Damsel Darnel, it's those internet boys who are going to be desperate to be with you."

She nudged him with her head, and he gave her an extra squeeze. "You think?"

"I don't think. I know."

"What if they suck?" she asked, letting another worry spill out of her.

"That's why I'm here," he said. "So you can tell me everything bad about them on our Sunday dates, and then I can go beat them up as soon as I leave your house."

The thought of Thorne beating up anyone made Cress laugh, but she loved how protected she felt by him, even now, so many years after he'd first kept her safe under his fort. "I'll do it then," she said. "I'm glad you think it's a good idea."

"I love it," he said. "But I am so picking your profile photo."