Hey, guys!

The first date! I'm so excited to know what y'all think about it. Hopefully you like it.

So, there is a lot of musical instrument talk in this chapter because Adrian and I are music kids. Fun fact though, Celestas are very rare and there are only a couple in the state I live it. I have had the opportunity to actually be in a performance with one last year. It was awesome.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Seven.

Just like Adrian had expected, his father kept him in meetings until lunchtime. After which, he walked into King Abernathy's office.

"Father, do you have a moment?" He asked as he walked up to King Abernathy's desk. He grabbed the top of the chair in front of him with his uninjured arm.

King Abernathy looked up at him. He looked tired, like he hadn't slept in weeks. "What is it?" He asked.

"I have a date with Lady Melody at two," he said. "I thought you would like to know."

King Abernathy nodded. "Ah, the librarian. Interesting choice," he said. "Well, go ahead. Just remember to tell me if anything happens during the date. Also, Lady Everleigh was an interesting choice for a kiss. Honestly, I thought you would have eliminated her sooner, but then again… Well, you never had the best judgement."

Adrian glared at his father. "I have fine judgement," he said. "And if you mean the relationship with Jensing, I feel like I should remind you that the selection wouldn't have happened if you hadn't made us break up."

King Abernathy put down the pen he had been holding. "Adrian, you should watch your tongue," he told him. "You and I both know this is your fault, not mine."

Adrian sighed. "I'm gonna go get ready for that date now."

King Abernathy nodded. "Have fun," he said. "But not too much fun. After all, it looks bad when the Crown Prince has children before he's married. It's illegal, if you don't remember."

"I remember," Adrian ground out through his teeth. "You don't have to remind me of these laws. I'm smarter than that."

King Abernathy hummed. "Well, we'll just have to see if that's true."

Adrian rolled his eyes, then turned to leave the room. He had a date to get ready for.

Adrian knocked on the door to Lady Melody's room. From inside, he could hear the sound of Melody and her maids talking to each other. After a moment though, the door opened.

"Hey, Prince Adrian," Melody said as she walked out from behind the door. She fell into a quick curtsy before looking back up to him. "So what's the plan?"

Adrian held out his hand. "It's a surprise," he told her. "You ready?"

"Yep!" She said, and walked closer to him.

"Wait! Bring your coloring books," he said.

Melody frowned. "Why?"

Adrian sighed. How could he tell her that this date had hardly been planned out and that coloring would actually add something to it?

"Nevermind," she said. "I know exactly which one we should use."

Adrian stood outside of her room and waited. He knew that he had been lucky when he had heard the selected talking during breakfast about how much Melody loved coloring and coloring books.

Melody exited her room a few minutes later, a huge coloring book and a case of coloring supplies tucked under her arm. "I came to your selection prepared," she joked.

Adrian nodded. "You sure did," he said before holding out his hand again.

She took his hand, and the two of them began to walk down the halls, mostly in silence.

"Where are you taking me and my coloring stuff?" She asked after a few moments. "Should I be concerned?"

Adrian hummed right before they stopped outside of one of the parlors. "Just in here," he said. "And no, you shouldn't be too concerned."

"Good," she said as Adrian opened the door for her. "Can you share the plan now?"

He nodded, then entered the room. It was just what he had hoped for. It was a small room, but a perfect and cozy size for the two of them. In the middle of the room was a stack of blankets. Beside the blankets, a pitcher of hot chocolate and a plate of chocolate chip cookies had been set out.

The room was fairly dull though, just plain cream walls with cream couches and cream rugs. There was a brick fireplace in the corner, but Adrian decided that it would be best to leave it alone. His father would kill him if a fire postponed the selection any longer.

"What are these blankets for?" Melody asked, then grinned. "Or is that just a part of the game?"

Adrian walked towards the blankets and picked one of them up. "I thought that a blanket fort could be fun," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel himself start to blush. "I know it's stupid and childish, but it would be a way to leave the palace while staying safe inside of it at the same time."

Melody crossed the room and grabbed his hand. "I never said that it was stupid or childish," she said. "Now let's build a fort."

Adrian grinned as she set down the coloring supplies and began moving chairs into the middle of the room.

She turned and looked at him. "How much of this can you even do with your busted arm?" She asked.

He shrugged. "I can probably help make the fort, and I can definitely eat cookies and drink hot cocoa," he said. "We'll have to see how coloring goes."

She smiled before grabbing one of the blankets and draping it over the chairs. "Can I have a hand?" She asked. "It looks like it's slipping."

Adrian nodded, then put it back into place. "I think it's secure now," he told her, but his chest squeezed. It had been awhile since he had made a fort. The last one he could remember had been for Ana, but he doubted that he and the selected had ever done this for a date.

After a few more blankets and a few more chairs, the two of them stood back and admired their work. It was sloppy, sinking in a few places, and probably not fit for a date, but it was theirs.

"It looks great," Melody said, and Adrian couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. He hoped that she was. "Now, let's see if it looks as good on the inside."

Before Adrian could answer, Melody dropped to the floor and crawled into the fort. She popped out for a second to grab the plate of cookies.

"It's pretty nice down here too!" She said from inside of the fort. "The cookies are great too!"

Adrian smiled, then lowered himself to the ground and into the tent. "Yeah, it is nice," he said. "You better not have eaten all of the cookies," he added playfully.

Melody grinned, a mischievous smirk that lit up her whole face. Her eyes glittered like stars in the night. "And what if I did?" She said, even though the plate of cookies sat beside her. "What would you do?"

Adrian hummed. "Well, I would start by banning you from cookies for the rest of your life," he began. "Then… Maybe I would sentence you to some jail time? I don't know."

Melody nodded. "It's a good thing I didn't eat all of them then," she said, then crawled out of the tent and grabbed the coloring things.

When she came back in, Her blond hair was messy and frizzy from connecting with the blankets. It had fallen into her eyes, and she didn't push it away instantly. Instead, she smiled at Adrian.

There was something about the way she smiled. It made Adrian want to smile back at her. It was contagious and beautiful. He loved it. He loved that it had been given to her.

"So, what coloring book did you grab?" He asked as he leaned back against one of the chairs. It wasn't a very comfortable position, but he could assume that it was better than being pinned under the rubble of the ballroom after the bomb. Although he had no memory of any of that, he couldn't imagine that it had been comfortable.

"It's a Christmas coloring book," she said. "You bought it for me on our last date because we both loved the book and Christmas. I planned on coloring it with Princess Ana."

Adrian scooted closer to her, his arm against hers. "It is nice," he said. "What did we do on our last date?"

She looked over at him. Their faces so close that they could feel each other's breath. "You want to know?" She asked. "Well, we just went to downtown Angeles City for some window shopping and fun. It was really nice."

"You said you got this for you and Ana?" He asked. It seemed wrong to color in something that was meant for his dead sister, but then again, he had kissed a girl in Ana's room…

"Yeah, well.. No." She said. "I got it for the three of us to use. I thought you were gonna color in the book before we had even purchased it. You really liked some of the illustrations. I think your favorite were the Nutcracker ones."

Adrian nodded. "I do like The Nutcracker," he said. "I used to go see it every year, but I doubt that I'll be doing that this year… Ana loved it too."

Melody nodded as well. "Yeah, I remember her talking about how excited she was to go see it. She wanted to bring some of us Selected."

Adrian looked over at her. "She probably would have taken all of you. From what I've heard, she was really close to all of you," he told her. "But I don't remember much."

Melody tilted her head. "What do you remember?" She asked.

Adrian sighed. He wasn't sure what all he remembered. When did his memories start? When did they end? It was a jumbled mess. It felt as foggy as a dream.

"Well, I guess the last thing that I remember was the day I met everyone, but not meeting you all," he said. "Just talking to Jensing and Ana right before I went into the room with all of the selected."

She nodded. "That sucks," she said.

Adrian nodded back. "Yep."

They sat in silence for a moment, then Melody cleared her throat. "Do you still wanna color?" She asked.

Adrian looked over at her, then down at the coloring book. "Sure."

Melody scooted closer to him and grinned. "Let's color one together," she suggested.

"One of the Nutcracker ones?" He asked.

Melody opened the book and began to flip through the pages, passing pictures of Christmas trees and children setting out cookies for Santa Claus. The pages were thick, like they were made for markers as well as pencils and crayons.

"So, because you're a music kid, tell me more about The Nutcracker," she said. "Like, I know about it, but I don't know everything about it."

"Well, the Celesta -which plays The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy- is a dying instrument. There are very few left around Illea. I think there are three in Kent, and a handful floating around Angeles. There's one in the palace actually," he said.

"What's a dying instrument?" She asked as she began to color one of the ballerinas dressed as fairies. "I'm not a music kid."

Adrian let out a small hum. "An instrument that isn't really played or used anymore. There isn't interest in learning it or there aren't enough of the instruments left," he told her. "Violas are an endangered instrument because more people opt to play the violin or the cello, not the hybrid of the two."

"That's kinda sad," she said. "An instrument that just dies because of lack of interest…"

He nodded. "Yeah, it sucks…" He said, then perked up. "Hey, did you know that the instruments here at the palace are played all of the time so that their sound doesn't die?"

Melody shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulders. "No, I didn't know that," she answered. "Who plays them?"

Adrian smiled. "Well, some professional musicians, but I play some of them," he said. "Normally all of the piano-like ones, and most of the string ones. Although father doesn't like when I play our Stradivarius. He thinks I'll break it, but I haven't dropped a violin since I was twelve."

Melody grabbed one of the cookies. "You know what we should do?" She asked.

He shook his head and shrugged. "No idea," he replied. "What should we do?"

She grinned, then took a bite of the cookie. "We should go look at the musical instruments," she said. "Maybe you could teach me how to play the Celesta so we can keep the dying instrument alive?"

Adrian grabbed one of the cookies, his finger landing on one of the soft chocolate chips. He held back a cringe. "That is a tempting offer," he said. "And it has been a few days since I have played any music."

Melody tilted her head. "How often do you practice?" She asked as Adrian took a bite of his cookie.

Adrian quickly swallowed the large bite, then tried not to cough as it hit the back of his throat. Why was he always mid-bite when people asked him long questions?

"Well, I try to practice everyday, but sometimes things get in the way," he said. "Normally it's some sort of meeting, but having my arm in a sling doesn't make practicing easy."

"Yeah…" she said. "What can you even play while in a sling?"

Well, the easy answer was nothing. He should've probably been resting his arm while it was in the sling. But music was his sanctuary from the world, from the truth of what his life was now. It was a hiding place from the nightmare he lived in.

"Well, I can't really play anything right now, or I shouldn't be at least…" He said. "Maybe I can teach you the Celesta on a second date?"

Melody grinned. "You know? I might just take you up on that offer."

So, that's the first date! Please follow, fave, and review! I would love to know what you thought of it!

Thanks for reading! Love y'all!