A/N: I apologize that in the last chapter I evidently had no sense of time…one minute they were eating breakfast and then the next they were going to bed. Let's just pretend that my artistic license allows me to control time.

A/N2: I know this chapter is super short, but hopefully it will tide you over until I have the chance to write a longer, more plot-driven chapter. In the meantime, I wanted them to have a happy little moment without the outside world ruining it (and boy, do we need it after last night's emotional rollercoaster).

Chapter 7

"Okay, so you sit here," Arizona requested, while pushing Callie's shoulders downwards in an effort to keep her sitting on the bed. "And I'll sit over here," she finished, walking to the opposite wall and sinking down to the ground, her legs crossed Indian style.

"Arizona, this is ridiculous. I can keep my hands to myself," Callie huffed.

"No, apparently you can't," Arizona replied pointedly, with the tiniest hint of a smirk.

They had found that Arizona's taking-it-slowly rule had proven far more difficult than originally anticipated in a tiny 8x10 foot room. Not about to take back her own rule, however, Arizona was determined to make it work. So for their first "official date", or as official a date as one could have with their cellmate in jail, Arizona was putting as much distance between the two of them as possible in an effort to connect on an emotional level. Neither was questioning their physical attraction to each other.

Their first "date" consisted of sharing their dinner in their cell together, something they did every evening. Putting the "date" label on it, however, was making both of them inexplicably nervous. There were suddenly expectations and implications beyond the easy cellmate bond they'd already established. Arizona smiled to herself as she thought how adorably silly they were being, considering how much they had already been through.

"What are you smiling about?" Callie asked, bemused.

"Us. How it's kind of cute that we're both nervous."

"I'm not nervous!" Callie defended haughtily.

"Huh. Then why does it look like your leg is trying to drill a hole through the floor?"

Callie immediately stilled her bouncing leg and blushed. She opened her mouth a few times, but no words ever came out.

"That's what I thought," Arizona teased, one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, fine, I'm nervous. I've never been in this situation before. You already know way more about me than someone on the first date usually does, so what the hell are we supposed to talk about?"

"Ooooh, I know! Let's do icebreakers!" Callie rolled her eyes at the blonde's excessive enthusiasm, but remained silent as she could practically see the cogs turning in Arizona's mind. "Okay, got one. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?"

Callie pondered a moment, before replying honestly, "I don't have any special attachment to anywhere. I think I'd be happy anywhere as long as I had the right people with me."

Arizona nodded and smiled. "Well now I don't want to respond, because my answer seems totally superficial. I agree that the people make the place."

"Okay…if you were an animal, which one would you be?" Callie asked, a small smile playing on her lips.

"I would be…a butterfly. Or oooh no, a hummingbird," Arizona answered with a grin and no further explanation. "You?" She rocked forward onto her knees as she became more involved in the conversation.

"Hmmm I think I would probably be…an elephant."

"An elephant?" Arizona had expected the Latina to reply with some sort of fierce, protective animal from the cat family.

"Yeah, they're pretty amazing animals. You know there have been studies showing that they have emotions almost to the same capacity as humans?"

Arizona cocked her head to the side and smiled, taking in Callie's thoughtful words.

"Okay my turn," she said finally. "What's your most embarrassing moment?"

Callie chortled before recounting her middle and high school days as the dorky kid who sat in the back of the classroom and chewed her hair and got made fun of. Arizona shared her story of being pantsed in the hallway her senior year in front of the teacher whom she had a hopeless crush on. Callie laughed raucously at Arizona's depictions and faces she created as she narrated the story.

"I would give anything to have seen your face in that moment," Callie said breathlessly, still trying to control her laughter.

"Hey! It was a traumatic moment for me! Ms. Henderson even came over and helped me. It was mortifying!"

"So you and Ms. Henderson, huh? Did you…?" Callie trailed off, raising both of her eyebrows in suggestion.

"Callie! No! She was my teacher!" Arizona replied, clearly affronted and blushing profusely. Callie remained silent for a while, content to admire the way Arizona's pink cheeks contrasted the bright blue of her glistening eyes.

"Thank you," Callie spoke softly.

"For what?"

"For making me laugh. I can't remember the last time I laughed like that…even before I came here."

And suddenly the distance between them was literally painful for Arizona. She felt a pull towards Callie, as if drawn by opposing magnets, and she rose to sit on the bed next to her. Needing to touch her in any capacity possible, Arizona took a strand of Callie's hair and tucked it behind her ear. Her palm rested on the brunette's jaw bone while her fingers lightly grazed her scalp. There were so many ridiculous cheesy thoughts that entered Arizona's head at that moment, but she had a feeling Callie didn't do cheesy.

"I love hearing you laugh. I want to make you laugh every day before I'm released." Well, a little bit of cheese couldn't hurt.

Callie sucked in a heavy breath. The implication of Arizona's words were too much for her to handle. Surprisingly, the most difficult aspect for her to grasp was the fact that the woman she was falling for so quickly would be released at the end of the year, while she would be stuck in jail for another eight years at the least.

Sensing the change in Callie's mood, Arizona took a halting breath, hesitated slightly, and then added, "And hopefully…if I'm lucky…every day after I'm released…and then every day after you're released."

With Arizona's added words came a new set of implications that neither minded.