Leila caught up with Piper at lunch on Monday, linking her arm with the brunette's. "So where were you on Saturday? I called and called and called but Phoebe said you weren't home."

Piper blushed bright red. It had been tempting to simply call Leila and tell her right away, but she didn't want to jump the gun. Phoebe knew – she'd practically jumped on Piper the second she returned home – and it didn't take long for Prue to find out, but Piper had made the executive decision to keep it quiet for now. She was definitely happy, Hannah had pointed that out when she'd seen Piper that morning, but she didn't want to jinx it by talking about it.

"I was out."

"Uh huh, and you expect me, your best friend, to take that at face value? Yeah right."

Leila was her best friend and Piper felt terrible at the notion of lying to her. "I was watching a movie."

Leila raised an eyebrow. "At Leo's." Leila knew she had her answer when Piper winced. "Ah ha! There's more to the story than you're letting on, isn't there?"

"Can't we just leave it?"

"Are you kidding me? You're finally talking to the guy, finally getting things back on track, hopefully still realizing you're head over heels for him and you expect me to drop this perfect chance to talk about it?"

Piper had to give her that. "There's nothing to tell."

Leila knew Piper better than that. "And I'm the president of the United States. Start talking, girl."

Piper sighed, but pulled Leila down a series of hallways until they hit the yearbook office, their old lunch place. She pulled her best friend inside, hoisting herself upon the desk.

Leila whistled. "This is serious."

"It could be," Piper admitted.

"And you're just telling me this now?"

"It's new!" Piper defended.

Leila's eyes sparkled. She knew how to get things out of Piper better than anyone else. Well, maybe except Grams. "And what exactly is this 'new thing'?"

Piper dropped her head down, chin to chest. "I… Well… I was over at Leo's on Friday, right? We do the weekly movie thing…"

"Cut to the chase, you're telling me stuff I already know," Leila whined.

"He… he might have kissed me?"

Leila's jaw dropped. "He might have what now?"

"Kissed me?" Piper repeated in a small voice. "And convinced me to see if we could make a relationship work?"

"He what now?"

Piper sighed. "I fell asleep in his bed, no big deal, we've done it before. I was exhausted. Well, we woke up this morning and he… he kissed me. And I was all confused because, I mean, why would he want to kiss me, right? But he did and then I was all confused and he was like 'well let's try a relationship' and I didn't know what to do and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You need to slow down and make sense," Leila said. "He kissed you and then asked you to date him? Exclusively?"

"I don't know?" Piper replied, running a hand through her hair. She took a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts under control. "I guess so."

"Of course so!" Leila exclaimed. "This is Leo we're talking about. He's not the type to just casually date a girl and there's no way he'd casually date you."

"Leila…"

"Oh no," the redhead interrupted. "You are not pulling the insecurity card on me now. Not a chance. Piper, you have the chance that so many girls before you would have taken without issue. Why are you questioning this?"

"How can you not be?" Piper replied. "Look at it from my perspective, okay? I'm a workaholic at the age of seventeen, I have maybe three true friends, I barely make time for my family let alone making time for a boyfriend."

"You're gorgeous, especially since your sisters got a hold of you, you're smart, you're aware, you know what you want and you go for it," Leila contradicted. "Heck, Piper, I get jealous of you and I'm your best friend!"

"Jealous?" Piper asked blinking.

"Look, I'm not going to lie, you can be intimidating, but that's because you're everything so many people want to be and I'm not talking about your presidency. You're compassionate and fair, how else would you have solved the dispute between the science club and the trivia club when they wanted to use the same room at the same time? You've altered this school and you've only had the chance to do it for a year and a half."

"You're missing the point," Piper tried in exasperation.

Leila shook her head. "You're missing the point. I get that you have self-esteem issues, I knew that from the beginning, but you know Leo better than anyone except maybe Nick Trudeau. You know that he's doing this because he seriously likes you and not because he wants to just jump you."

Piper winced at the crude wording. "You think I'm being stupid?"

"I think you're being overly cautious," Leila replied. After all, if she, as Piper's best friend, couldn't tell the brunette the God's honest truth, who could?

"I'm scared," Piper said softly.

Leila sighed, hoisting herself up beside her best friend. "I get that, kind of. But you trust Leo, Piper. You know he's not going to do anything to hurt you, you know he wants you. You know you're his everything."

"I don't think I'd go that far," Piper said. Embarrassment was colouring her cheeks pink.

"Okay, but you get my point. This is a good thing," Leila said, trying to encourage her friend.

Piper smiled, the idea starting to settle in her, even if it was still mostly surreal. "This is a good thing," she agreed.

Nick leaned back in Leo's desk chair as the latter went about collecting his things for the one political science course they took together. Leo was humming some song under his breath, something Nick hadn't heard him do in a long time. It was the first sign that Leo was truly excited about something.

"Alright," Nick ordered. "Spill."

"Spill what?" Leo asked innocently as he checked his backpack for pencils and pens.

"Whatever has to humming. Dude, you're freaking humming."

Leo stopped for a moment, thinking. He was humming and it was all because of Piper. "No reason."

"Please," Nick scoffed. "You're easier to read than a children's book, what's got you on cloud nine?"

"I can't just be happy for the heck of it?" Leo replied continuing to pack his bag.

Nick picked up a framed picture of Leo and Piper, one taken by Leila the previous year. "It wouldn't have anything to do with this young lady, would it?"

Leo glanced at the picture Nick was holding and felt a grin creeping across his face no matter how hard he bit his cheek.

"So you finally buckled down and asked her out, huh? I'm glad."

"So to speak," Leo agreed.

"She didn't say 'yes'?"

"She did."

"But it took some persuading."

"It did."

"That girl is a martyr."

"But a beautiful one."

Nick smirked. "I always knew you were head over heels from her. From the day you met Piper Halliwell you were a gonner."

"Was not," Leo denied, even though he knew it was true. Piper had intrigued him from day one in the yearbook office. Then she'd worked with him on counsel and he'd been completely hooked.

"If that's what helps you sleep at night. I'm glad you guys finally decided to cut the tension." Nick cocked his head to the side. "What did make her change her mind?"

Leo blew out a breath. "It did take some convincing."

"I'll bet. God bless the girl, but self-esteem is something she really doesn't have," Nick agreed. He did love Piper dearly, but she had habits that often got on his nerves. "I'm glad she agreed."

Leo grinned widely, the happiness more than evident in every line of his body. "Me too."

This one came to me as I was writing my Criminal Minds story and I had to get it down! I'm writing different people evaluating relationships and I said to myself, I said self, I said self... What if Leila and Nick weighed in on this new development in Piper and Leo's relationship? And here we go!