An entire chapter of first date fluffiness! If you do not ship Sophitz and have gotten this far, I would suggest skipping this chapter.

Sophie tugged on one earlobe, staring at the back of her eyelids. It had been years since she'd worn earrings, and then it had been single small crystals, not these dangling gold ones that felt like they should be heavy, but weren't.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now." Edaline said. The brush moved away from her face and Sophie opened her eyes. She could feel where the eyeshadow had gotten into her eye and it itched, but she resisted the urge to scratch it. She'd done that once and ended up with eyeliner and lavender powder streaked across her cheek. Biana had helped her fix it after PE. She hadn't worn eye makeup since.

Sophie stood and turned around. Vertina popped into the corner of the mirror and for once had nothing to say.

"Oh…my…gosh…" Sophie gazed openmouthed at herself in the mirror. Her hair was tied in a low knot on the back of her neck, with a white lotus flower carved out of mother-of-pearl set on the comb holding it in place. The makeup Edaline had chosen was striking and simple. A gentle smoky eye fading to gold on the inner corners paired with a darker lipstick than she'd thought. But with the dress, which fit even better now than it had before, it made her look more beautiful than she ever thought she could.

"Do you like it?"

"I…I look amazing! I don't want to cry cause it'll ruin all your hard work but…"

"Don't worry." Edaline smiled. "Elvin makeup is designed to be tear-proof and the ones I used are also supposed to be smudge-proof. I don't know if it's true, but I suppose you'll find out."

"Okay." Sophie wiped her eyes carefully. "Do you think Fitz is here? If he is, Dad's probably interrogating him."

"I'll go check. If he is here, I'll come up and let you know."

She took a deep breath. "Okay."

Edaline was only gone for a few minutes. She came back with a big grin on her face. "He's waiting for you."

It took Sophie a few tries to actually walk down the stairs. Some of it was nerves, some of it was figuring out how to walk gracefully in a large skirt and heels, even if they were low ones.

She saw Fitz before he saw her, thanks to the carpeted stairs muffling her footsteps. The dark blue tunic with gold edging complimented him well. His hair was styled more carefully than normal and he looked just as nervous as she was.

When he finally looked up, his mouth dropped open. He couldn't say anything until she had descended the stairs and was standing next to him.

"You…you look beautiful."

"Thanks. You look nice too."

Fitz didn't reply, just staring at her.

"Hey, you okay?"

"O-Oh yeah, I'm fine." He smiled and offered his arm.

She took it. "You look a little out of it is all."

"I've just never seen anyone look as beautiful as you do now."

Sophie blushed. Hearing the compliments from him made the reality of what was happening crash down on her. She was going on a date with Fitz. All those dreams of a child, wishing to get away from her world were coming true. Those stories she made up in her head after watching Cinderella, waiting and wishing for her Prince Charming to sweep her away.

And now he was here. It was happening.

Do you really think that about me? Fitz's soft voice whispered in her head.

Why are you reading my thoughts?

It wasn't on purpose, they just sort of…bled over into my head.

Oh. Well, yeah I do. It was a childhood dream I forgot about and it ended up coming true.

"Are you two going to leave or just stand there staring at each other?"

They cringed and Grady laughed. "Go on. You have two hours to talk about whatever is on your minds."

Fitz led her outside. The sun was working its was to setting and the air was balmy and cool.

"It's really nice outside."

"It'll be even nicer where we're going." He lifted the pathfinder to the light and leapt them away.

When they landed, Sophie's jaw dropped. "This place is beautiful."

The style of it was on par for everything else in the Lost Cities, but something about the graceful stairs sweeping around the side of the crystal building to the door, the large pavilion on the roof with tables, and the last wisps of sunset on the large lake on the other side of the building made it more magical. And reminded her of something, but she couldn't place what.

"It looks kind of like Cinderella's castle."

"Is that a good thing?"

Sophie laughed. "Yes it is."

Of course, people started whispering as soon as they walked in. Everyone knew who they were and no one bothered keeping their noses out of other people's business. Sophie shrunk against Fitz, staring at the floor.

"Fitz?"

"Hm?"

"Isn't this a little public? Not that I care, but people are going to talk."

He smiled, whispering into her mind. Let them talk. I guarantee most of them are just jealous. Because I am the luckiest guy in the world. Also, we have a private balcony reserved. So don't worry about it. I also took care of ordering ahead of time, since I know you're not picky, so it'll be just us.

Thank you.

The balcony table had a wonderful view of the sunset over the lake. Fitz waved a hand and telekinetically pulled her chair out for her.

"Someone's been practicing."

He smiled. "I wanted to be able to do that for you. I'm not super strong telekinesis-wise. I can throw a Splotcher, but that's my limit."

"Rivendell!"

"What?"

"Oh, sorry. I finally figured out what it reminded me of. Rivendell is an elven stronghold in Lord of the Rings. You'll see it when we watch the movies. Eventually. Once Keefe is over his Miraculous craze. Whenever that is."

Fitz laughed. "It's kind of cute."

"Has he told you what Amy, Linh, and Marella did yesterday?" Sophie stirred her drink with the straw.

He picked up on the inflections in her voice. "Oh no. What did they do? Keefe's okay, right? He seemed fine earlier today."

"Oh, they're all fine. Those dorks, well, Amy in particular, wanted to find out what would happen if you lit a CD, little metal and plastic disc, on fire. Well, they melt. So their next genius idea is to light it with Everblaze. Indoors. Without adult supervision. With only a Pyrokinetic student there in case something went wrong." Sophie shook her head, staring out over the lake as she sipped her drink.

"What happened?"

"It exploded. I really don't know what they thought would happen. None of them got hurt, except for a patch of Marella's hair caught fire. Ro made them clean it up. I made it very clear to them that nothing like that was to happen again, especially without supervision. But I think Amy's going to try something like that again."

Fitz sighed, staring at her. "I don't know what I did to deserve you."

"Huh?" She blinked, looking back at him.

"What did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful, beautiful woman?"

Sophie blushed. "Plenty of things. I don't know where to start."

"Like every time something in my life went wrong that I couldn't fix and I threw a fit and treated you horribly?"

"That's not true. It was only twice." She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Which is two times too many. I should've known better."

Sophie reached across the table and took his hand. "Fitz, if you're still beating yourself up over what happened why you dad's mind was broken, that was four years ago. You were fourteen. Don't tell me teenage hormones and general crap going on in your brain isn't a thing for elves, cause I'll know you're lying. Cut yourself some slack. You dealt with a really hard situation the best you could with the knowledge you had."

He sighed, squeezing her hand. "Thank you. But if I have to stop beating myself up over stuff that happened forever ago, then so do you. Especially for things that were not your fault."

"I thought you were going to say that." Sophie looked down at her lap.

Fitz let go of her hand and gently lifted her chin so she was forced to look him in the eye. "Really, Sophie. I probably don't remember a lot of the little things you wish you could've done better. Even if it was your fault, like you just told me, you did the best you could with the information you had. You were twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Younger than I was and you still dealt with it a lot better than I would be able to, even now."

She smiled, just now noticing the flecks of silver and green in the blue of his eyes. Little bits of imperfection that just enhanced the blue; adding depth to the colour and making her fall in love with it all over again.

It was probably just her, but everything about that moment seemed so much more than usual. The way the dying sunlight reflected off the lake. The gold ending on his tunic matching the gold highlights in his hair. The candlelight playing on the silver dishes, casting strange shadows on the floor and table.

A waiter interrupted to notify Fitz about something. He took care of it quietly, then turned back to her.

"So how did moving the new argentavis go? Wasn't that yesterday? Or the day before?"

Sophie grinned. "It was yesterday, and it went better than expected all things considered. She got into her pen okay without being hurt and Lynn and Wuna-"

"Lynn and Wuna?"

She groaned. "Words. Words aren't working. Wynn and Luna kept their noses mostly out, well once Linh came over they did. A couple of the gnomes almost got dragged off, but in the end everyone was fine. What was that about?"

"What?"

"The waiter. What was that about?"

Fitz shrugged. "I arranged for a dessert that apparently they are out of and cannot obtain more on such short notice, or that is what I was told. It's sorted out. Don't worry about it."

"Okay." Sophie raised an eyebrow when she noticed Fitz blush lightly and pointedly look upward when she leaned forward to reach something just slightly out of arm's reach. He continued to look everywhere but at her or stare very carefully at her eyes after she sat up.

She shrugged it off and leaned back, sipping on her drink as she stared out over the lake. The moon and starlight was reflected in the surface now that the sun had set.

"This place really is beautiful. You made a good choice." Sophie glanced back at him and smiled

"Th-Thank you." His blush crept up to his ears, turning them bright red and eyes avoiding hers.

"Hey are you okay? You look uncomfortable. Is something wrong?"

He jumped. "O-Oh, no, I'm okay, it's just-"

"Just what?" Sophie noticed his eyes briefly flick down to her chest and then back up to the sky. She glanced down and realized that when she had leaned forward, her dress had slipped and exposed a decent amount of cleavage. "Oh, sorry, let me fix that." She pulled the neckline back to where it should be and sat up straight to keep it there. "There. It's fixed now."

"Thank you." He looked back down at her face. "I did my best to keep my eyes to myself, but it was kind of hard."

"It's okay, I understand. If it slips again just let me know."

Their conversation lapsed into companionable silence, except for a few muttered words between them. Sophie sighed, truly content for the first time in a good long while. Every so often, she glanced over at Fitz and caught him smiling at her with a dreamy look in his eye. He always pretended he hadn't just been staring at her, but she found it sweet.

But, as all good things, their night came to an end. Eventually, after dessert, Fitz stood and offered his hand, pointing out it was getting late and they should be headed home.

Most of the other patrons had already left as they walked through the rest of the restaurant. The ones that were left were couples like themselves, all of whom were content to mind their own business.

"Do you want to take a walk through some of Eternalia before we go home?" Fitz slid his hand down her arm and took her hand.

"I thought we had to get home." Sophie grinned at him.

He sighed and smiled back. "We can go straight home if you want. But if we wait about five minutes, Biana will have given up and gone to bed and I won't be grilled when I get home."

She laughed. "I don't think I have to be anywhere tomorrow, except taking the morning shift with Keefe. But that's not something I have to be super rested for. We'll probably work on sign language and maybe watch another few episodes of Miraculous. I am so tired of that show. Amy said the next season coming out is rubbish, but Keefe will probably want to watch it anyway. Which I understand, but come on. Ro's actually learning English from watching all this stuff. I'm not sure if Keefe knew English before, but he certainly does now." She paused. "Why are you just staring at me?"

"Am I? Sorry." Fitz looked away, embarrassed. "I just love hearing you talk. Your voice is beautiful."

Sophie smiled. "Thanks."

He sighed. "You dad might be angry if you're home late, so I should probably get you home. Even though Biana is going to refuse to let me sleep until I have answered all her questions."

"Don't worry about it. You're welcome to stay for a bit." She squeezed his hand.

"Thanks." He dropped her hand and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her close. He held his pathfinder up to the light and whisked them back to Havenfield's pastures.

Grady was waiting downstairs when they walked in. He was half-asleep at first, but jerked awake when Fitz opened the door.

"You're home a bit late."

Sophie laughed. "No we're not. You're just tired from rehousing the vermillion again and fell asleep. Where's Mom?"

"In bed. I was waiting downstairs for you.

Fitz smirked at Sophie and she smiled. "Well I'm home now. I have to run up and change out of all this before I go to bed. Make sure he gets home in one piece, Dad." Sophie leaned up and kissed Fitz's cheek. He blushed, stumbling slightly as she dropped his hand and went upstairs.

As it turned out, her makeup and hair were low-fuss to get out of and the dress was easy to slip off her shoulder and over her hips.

Vertina yawned when Sophie stepped over to the mirror to take her earrings out. "How'd the date go?"

"I think it went well. I enjoyed it."

"Great. Please don't gush about how perfect your boyfriend is or all his wonderful qualities or how he can do no wrong to me. That is one trait of Jolie's I do not miss."

"Don't worry, Vertina. I won't." Sophie sighed, setting the earrings in a small box. "Goodnight."

Little more plot next week. Question for y'all. Do you guys think Tam and Glimmer should be together or is Tam a single baby? Let me know what you think! And as always, reviewers get a teaser from the next chapter, assuming I have written it. *sigh* (Just let me know if you don't want one.)

Shine brightly!

Ruby