"Don't you trust me?" Kidd's voice asked from somewhere behind her.

"Not blindfolded I don't." Kate snapped trying to feel if there was anything in front of her, but so far her searching arms only found empty air.

"Trust me, nothing bad will happen to you. I won't let it." The last of the two sentences carried a familiar edge to it that she hadn't heard since he had told her to fuck off when she had hugged him for telling her that the breakfast wasn't horrible. She trusted his words because of that edgy tone but she was still blind and still being on the familiar ship didn't help her since of direction at all.

"I know but where are we going?" She asked for the millionth time. As if having a red sash wrapped around her head and blocking her vision wasn't bad enough they had to keep her in suspense and not tell her where they were taking her. She did know that the ship had stopped for whatever reason at an island whose magnetic pull didn't even get noticed by the log pose.

"Down the gangplank." Kidd answered then quickly added, "Watch your step." However despite his warning Kate still tumbled forwards. She had lifted her foot too soon and her toe caught what she was supposed to have stepped over. A startled cry escaped as she blindly fell forwards, arms flailing in a rapid windmill like motion, her heart leaping into her throat as it began beating wildly in her ears.

Kate ended up tripping over exactly what Kidd had warned her about and he wasn't the only one who moved to stop her crash landing. Killer grabbed the back of his jacket while Kidd wrapped the both of his arms around her shoulders. Killer let go as he whispered, "I told you I wouldn't let anything happen to you, not even your own clumsiness."

Killer slipped away while he had the chance to. He'd of course be keeping a keen eye on things with the marine base and the fact that they had yet to be attacked by them but he wouldn't bother Kate and his captain's romantic activities. Killer believed that the thing in which they were going on was considered a date, an abstract idea when it came to Kidd and Kate and something that resembled a couple. But despite deciding to make himself scares to them he could still hear Kate's winded response.

"Look, I'm the blindfolded one here. Remember when I said that I'd rather be blind than deaf the other day?" Kate asked and even though she had asked a non-rhetorical question she continued on not giving him a chance to respond. "Well I'm seriously rethinking my response. This is so not fun." And to think she had willingly let Kidd blindfold her! All she heard next was Kidd laughing from a place slightly behind her, the crisscross hold he had over her shoulders slipped away but one of those arms slipped down and wrapped around her waist. "Stop being so mean to me and just tell me where we're going already." It was driving her crazy!

"No can do. Besides you're the one who told me that you liked mysteries, liked having to think, and enjoyed the challenge of solving the puzzle, crime or problem before it was revealed in the book."

"This isn't a book! And anyways you haven't dropped any clues for me to contemplate, you haven't slipped at any important places or forgotten any details and I can't tell if you're lying or not." While it was true that she did in fact love mysteries she did not like being blindfolded, being robbed of one of her six senses.

"Ok then I'll give you just one hint." He paused, guiding her onto the sandy beach. "You'll love it." Or at least he hoped that she would.

"But Ki-idd." She whined his name. "I love a hell of a lot of things." Could he have been anymore vague with his hint?! With the amount of things she loved and the fact that he hadn't narrowed it down to things she loved to eat or do or think about made her spin with all of the things she knew that she loved and even then there were things that she had forgotten that she loved.

"I'm aware." He said a smile in his voice. Frowning Kate turned to smack him and was pleasantly surprised when she actually managed to hit him despite the fact that she was blindfolded.

That's when the realization hit her. "You're having fun with this aren't you?" Kate knew that she shouldn't be surprised, which was something she couldn't help but be when she realized that he was enjoying teasing her and everything.

"Sure am honey. But don't you worry, you'll be enjoying yourself soon enough too." He said casually enough, not a hint of what he planned in his tone of voice or in his words.

Kate proceeded to pout. Even Nice Kidd was mean to her and that just wasn't fair! Really he was supposed to be 'nice' Kidd, not usual Kidd. "Hey, wait!" She turned her head towards the side his voice had been coming from and asked with a gasp, "We're not going to a hotel or anything of the sorts are we?" If it was sex he wanted all Kidd had to do was ask and then clear the ship so that they could do it anywhere on the vessel and not have to waste a single beli on a room where god only knew how many pairs and groups of people had gotten down and dirty.

Again she heard him laugh, a relaxed not forced, not sarcastic or threatening sound. He had been doing that a lot lately. "No ma'am, keep guessing." He doubted that she'd be able to do so correctly but he wanted to hear some of the wild things she was bound to come up with.

Since Killer knew the both of them so well Kidd had told him to set the date up so that all he had to do was to take Kate there. He had told the crew to go do whatever they wanted on the island and he had even taken the liberty of finding a black button up top, a tie- which happened to be black as well- black shoes and the dark jeans that Kate was hot and cold about. His goggles weren't around his neck or pushed up onto his head but despite his efforts to look decent on this outing Kate had insisted upon wearing his jacket.

"You're so unkind." She huffed at him, crossing her arms across her chest with a frown pulling down the corners of her mouth.

As they continued walking Kate had become unafraid, she had stopped fearing that she was going to run into someone, something, a wall, building, or even a door. She had long since dropped her arms and had stopped cautiously walking. However she did keep stubbing her toes and tripping over dips and rises in the uneven ground and she tripped over her own feet or even nothing at all. But not once of those trillions of times that she tripped, fell, stumbled or tumbled forwards did she fall hard, not once did she scrape her hands and knees or even land on them as a matter of fact.

They entered a building, Kate could tell because of the change of the ground beneath her feet and the change of atmosphere. The air held quiet chatter, soft music and was stuffier then outside. "Kidd." She hissed, she could tell that the place wasn't a bar because even blindfolded Kate would know a bar the moment she stepped foot inside. And Kidd wasn't a clubbing kind of guy so Kate was at a loss as to where exactly they were.

They came to a stop after a few minute wait and Kidd's arm around her waist disappeared and there was a weight pressing down on her shoulders until her knees buckled and she was forced down. She couldn't help but let out a startled cry that abruptly ended when her butt landed on something somewhat cushioned.

"I told you not to worry." Kidd's voice hissed into her ear before the red makeshift blindfold was pulled off.

Kate blinked a few times; unsure as to which part she was supposed to be more amazed at. They were in an expensive restaurant like the Baratie or something like that, or maybe she should be more amazed that Kidd looked . . . nice? Oh yes, he looked very nice handsome even which was a stark contrast to the usual obscene look of his. And now she kind of felt bad that she wasn't dressed up. She was still in Killers modified pants, was wearing a more decretive bra- one that she had forgotten that she had bought when those bounty hunter people had kidnapped Killer. She was also wearing Kidd's beautiful jacket.

She didn't match the fancy interior either; in fact she was now the obscene looking one, the one who stuck out like a sore thumb, just like Kidd's red hair in the somewhat dim light. Between them sat a candelabra on top of a dark mahogany table and around them were finely dressed waitresses and waiters as well as couples like them or small groups. Looking around and seeing all of this Kate couldn't help but say, "What the fuck Kidd? Where in the name of hell are we?" It all came out a little too loudly but a place like this had to be Kidd's own personal hell. He was dressed up, from head to toe, and the place looked expensive, meaning it was going to hurt his pocket book . . . unless they weren't going to pay- which might be kind of fun trying to escape and all.

"A young woman shouldn't speak like that." Kidd said with a smile.

"Oh stuff if King Kidd." She grumbled as their empty wine glasses were filled with dark maroon colored wine. It wasn't alcohol from questionable places into questionably clean mugs but instead wine from a slightly dusty bottle with a label she recognized and into a transparent and clean glass. Kidd was one to talk when it came to foul words and language. His favorite work had to be the f word, though he had claimed that it wasn't when she had asked. She leaned forwards and hissed, still busy looking around, "What are we doing in a place like this?"

Kidd slowly brought the glass up to his equally dark lips and took a drink, the rim not doing too great of a job of hiding the smile. Kate couldn't help but think that he looked nothing short of sexy as he sipped the dark liquid. And only after lightly setting it back on the table did he decide that he wanted to answer her question. "I thought you'd enjoy having a light meal before we moved onto our next activities."

"Next activities?" Kate curiously asked. It was paining her to be kept in such suspense, to be forced to keep guessing.

"A surprise." He answered with another smile. It was an 'I know what I'm doing to you' smile, one that also said that he was enjoying every second of it.

A surprise only meant that there was one. Kate noted finding herself letting out a breath of relief. With nice or the usual Kidd the word surprise kind of frightened her, why shouldn't it? Kidd wasn't exactly the nicest, most predictable guy in the world. Not only that but she didn't know how many of the surprises she'd be able to take. "Of course." Kate found herself muttering to his response, making him chuckle. And when the sound reached her ears she shot him a look and grumbled, "I thought I told you to stuff it." as plates were sat down before them, putting more things between the two of them. When had they ordered?! Kate wondered with alarm until she realized that the square dish before her contained bowtie shaped pasta smothered in a white creamy sauce with cute little pink shrimp on top. Then she looked at Kidd who hadn't wasted any time cutting into a large juicy steak. "This isn't light." Kate said, not that she was complaining, this was her favorite food after all!

"Do you have a problem with it?" He asked pausing in his cutting and taking a bite.

"Not at all." Kate answered grinning widely.

Her eyes had lit up upon seeing her favorite food placed before her; Kidd almost wished that she could have seen herself. It was kind of funny if he were to think about it, food had brought her that much joy.

After a few bites she paused and looked up saying, "Here try it!" as she stabbed a bite and leaned across the small flames of the candles. "Come on, open up. This shit is delicious!" after forcing Kidd to accept the bite Kate in turn stole a piece of his large steak without a single noise of protest from Kidd.

"Don't eat too much." He cautioned. She was right, this certainly wasn't light. Maybe they should have eaten last with the way Kate was shoveling food into her mouth as though this was her last meal and she knew it, or like it was her first in several days. However this time no one- Killer- had to force her to eat. Kidd did like that that despite the elegant and sophisticated setting Kate was anything but.

"Why not?" She asked though a large mouthful of food. "This stuff is so good!" The dinky little island without as much as a magnetic pull had surprised her with such delicious food. She didn't even care about how the server knew their favorite food- maybe he could read minds? - or why they had it prepared before they had even come- again, magic?

"You don't want to dance on a full stomach."

She slowed down considerably. "Oh, true." The reaction wasn't immediate and his words took a few seconds to sink in and for a moment he thought that she wasn't going to catch his slip. But just before he could say anything her aquamarine eyes lit up when they fully did so and she stopped her fork before speaking, "Dancing? Forget dinner and wine. Let's go right now!"

"Are you done?" Kidd couldn't help but laugh at Kate. She was already out of her chair and tugging on his wrist and trying to pull him out of his seat. "Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!" she was bouncing up and down on bare feet, the food but an afterthought. "Come on I haven't been clubbing in forever!" Maybe this time the man she loved wouldn't drug her. "Come on Kidd." She begged, pulling harder and causing more of a commotion. "Please." She dragged the word out until he allowed her to pull him from his seat.

Done or not she was ready to go.

"Shall we?" Kidd asked holding his elbow out to her, looking like a true gentleman from Kate's perspective.

"YES!" she exclaimed letting go of his wrist and clapping in delight. "We shall!" with the second sentence Kate flashed a smile and linked their arms together. And when they started walking Kidd walked like a normal person and Kate skipped, hopped, and bounced besides him. And when they stepped out of the restaurant she looked up at him still smiling. She was now positively glowing, beaming up at him; a smile was an understatement to be honest. She said, "I can't wait." They lapsed into comfortable semi silence as they figured out where they were supposed to find the place in which they would dance. "Hey." Kate suddenly stopped, forcing Kidd to stop beside her. "Is this a date?"

Kidd looked down and shrugged, "I guess-"

"Then this is the BEST first date I've ever been on." And with that she dragged him into the club, like it or not. But he didn't mind, not with Kate sliding into a space just big enough for the two of them. He didn't mind with the way she grabbed his hands and traced them up and down her body and the way she ground to the pulsating beat. Music thumped around them, lights flashed different colors and perspiring bodies moved and the two of them were dead smack in the middle of it all. It was funny anytime Kate wanted to speak she'd reach up behind her and pull his head down and shout something but even then it was hard to hear her.

Killer wasn't worried about his sister or his captain on this Marine controlled island simply because Kate could hold her own pretty well and Kidd had promised to not let anything bad happen to her. And even if she had somehow managed to find trouble Kidd would clean it up and they'd continue on their way.

Through the rest of the day and into the night they moved from dancing to drinking, cooling off and chatting then going back to dancing, During the entire time Kate's smile hardly faltered and Kidd refused to let anyone cut in or dance with his partner. During the whole time Kate coldheartedly turned down or ignored everyone who tried to do so. The only reason she could have gone off to dance with another partner would to tease Kidd with something a little more than just a smile.

That was until a tall dark beauty sauntered up in a short dress and matching heals and asked, "May I join the two of you?" Her voice was easily heard above the noise by both Kidd and Kate alike.

/

/

/

Thoughts? Opinions? Feedback?

All three greatly appreciated.