Natara literally bites down on her tongue to keep from yelling at her mom as she follows her around the house. She's currently in the middle of trying- and failing- to make her hair look decent, but her mom has decided now is the best time to interrogate her.

"You're going to wear your jacket, right?"

"Fine," she sighs, if only to get her mom off her back. It's far too hot outside for a jacket. She tries brushing her hair back into a ponytail, but it looks even worse that way.

"And make sure you bring your pepper spray," her mom continues.

"Okay," she seethes. She's not going to need it. She lets out a small scream of frustration and gives up on her hair. It's just not going to look good no matter what. She leaves the bathroom and walks back to her bedroom, her mom trailing just a step behind.

"Oh, and don't forget-"

"Mom! Stop!" she says forcefully, whirling around. "I won't forget anything unless you keep distracting me while I'm trying to get ready." Her mom's mouth presses into a thin line as she stares back at her.

"I'm just trying to look out for you," she says in a low voice. "Is that so bad?"

"I know, and I appreciate it," Natara says, turning away and studying her closet as if it'll make the perfect outfit suddenly appear. "But I'll be okay. It's just a date."

"That doesn't mean I can't worry," her mom hums. "You know how your father and I feel about that boy."

"I know," she says. "And you know how I feel about him."

And she knows they do. She told them everything when she got back from Mal's house that day, how she had kissed him and then how he'd asked her out on an official date just before she left. She didn't want to feel like she was sneaking around behind her parents' backs, especially given their (understandable) opinions on Mal's questionable coping skills.

Her mom hovers just in the doorway as she holds up shirt after shirt, trying to figure out which one is best. She doesn't know why she's so hung up on looking nice, especially since Mal has literally seen her in her pajamas. It's all a bit silly. She still tosses half of her closet onto her bed before she finally lands on an outfit she can live with. Checking her watch, she sees she only has about ten minutes before Mal arrives, so she grabs her purse and squeezes past her mom in the hallway.

"You know I want you to be happy, right?" her mom asks, following her once again.

"Of course I do," she says. "And I am."

"Are you sure?" Her mind flashes back to those moments in Mal's attic, and she can't help the smile that spreads over her face.

"I'm sure." Her dad appears from the living room, his hands clasped behind his back. He opens his mouth to say something, but her mom cuts him off with a raised hand.

"I already made sure she has the pepper spray," she says, and her dad nods stiffly.

"Good," he says. "Remind me when you get back to show you some basic self-defense techniques."

"Dad," she complains. "Mal's not like that. He'd never hurt me or put me in danger."

"Fine," he says with a shrug. "It still might come in handy for school. I know how college boys think." She rolls her eyes, but the doorbell rings before she can respond. She gives each of her parents a kiss on the cheek before starting off toward the door.

"Hang on," her dad calls out. "Where did you say you were going again?"

"I didn't," she says. Her dad crosses his arms.

"Well don't you think we should know? Just in case?"

Truthfully, she couldn't tell her parents where they were going even if she wanted to. Mal had insisted on surprising her, and the idea interested her so much that she decided to just go along with it. She knows admitting that to her parents wouldn't go over well, though, so she does her best to play it off.

"So you can crash my date?" she asks. "No thanks. I love you, I'll be back before curfew."

Mal's shifting from foot to foot as she opens the door, but he immediately straightens up and smiles when he sees her.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey yourself," she smiles at him. "You're here early." Mal makes big show of checking his watch.

"Only by four minutes," he says. "I was excited."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," he says as they walk toward his car. "Aren't you?"

"I think I'd be a little more excited if I knew where we were going," she says lightly as he holds the car door open for her. "Why all the secrecy?"

"Are you telling me you don't like a bit of mystery?" he asks with a crooked grin.

"Normally I do," she says. "But I thought you would have given me at least a hint by now." Mal slides into the driver's seat, still grinning.

"Well, here's the thing," he says. "I don't even know what we're doing." Natara fixes him with a hard stare, but he only shrugs.

"So you didn't plan anything at all?" she asks dubiously.

"I didn't say that." Mal digs around in his pocket for a second, pulls out a quarter, and presses it into her hand. "We're going on a spontaneous adventure."

"Okay, but what do you want me to do with the quarter?" she says, eyeing it.

"Flip it, obviously. Whenever we get to an intersection, you're gonna flip the coin. Heads we go right, tails we go left." Mal throws the car into reverse and slowly backs out of her driveway, and she has to admit the idea has her intrigued. She turns the quarter over in her hand.

"How many flips do we give it?" she asks. "Cause we could flip it indefinitely and end up never stopping."

"Uh…" Mal glances at her. "Pick a number between one and twenty?"

Natara rolls her eyes. "How about fifteen?"

"Fifteen it is."

They wind up driving for about thirty minutes, flipping the coin each time they approach an intersection. Once or twice they miss a turn, but neither of them really cares. The fifteenth flip has them turning left into a parking lot for a Chinese food restaurant, and Mal looks at her again.

"I haven't really eaten much today," he says with a hopeful shrug. "You?"

"I could eat," she responds with a shrug of her own.

"Awesome, because I just thought of the perfect picnic spot if we want to do take out instead of eating inside. I think I might even have a towel in the trunk."

"Sounds perfect," she says, and it does.

The perfect picnic spot turns out to be the lookout spot a few miles away, high on a hill overlooking the town. By the time they get there the sun is getting lower in the sky, so they pick a particularly deserted spot and settle in with their food.

"I have to say, I'm a little impressed by how well this only-sort-of-planned date turned out," she says, poking through the containers.

"I'm glad," Mal says around a mouthful of sweet and sour pork. "I'm also glad we didn't end up somewhere weird like a Chuck E Cheese's or something." Natara snorts and nearly chokes on some noodles as she does.

"What do you have against Chuck E Cheese?" she asks. "I'll have you know Neha had her 4th birthday party at one, and it wasn't all bad."

"No?"

"Nope," she says. "I could have lived without the screaming little kids, but everything else was kind of fun."

"Huh," Mal says. "I wouldn't have pegged you for someone who'd like that kind of thing. Guess I'll have to keep that in mind for another date."

"Guess you will," she says. "What about you?"

"What about me?" he asks.

"What's something you enjoy doing that would surprise me?" Mal has to think for a moment.

"Well I guess it's been a while since I've done it, but I used to love to sing," he says. "Joined the church choir as a kid and everything." Natara's mouth drops open a bit.

"Really?" she asks.

"Really," he says. "Actually, I was really involved in the arts as a kid. I used to be really good at it all, too."

"I wouldn't have guessed that about you," she says with a soft smile.

"Yeah, well, it was a long time ago," he says. "I stopped doing all that a while back." A memory nags at her, something she remembers from about 7th grade.

"Wait a minute," she says, her eyebrows pulling together. "Didn't you paint a rather… well, vulgar mural on the wall at school once?" She watches as Mal's cheeks flush and he ducks his head.

"Yeah," he admits. "That was just after my dad got arrested. I was kind of hoping no one remembered that. Or, at the very least, that you didn't."

"It was all anyone talked about for weeks," she says with an apologetic half smile. "It was hard to forget."

"Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time and take it all back," he says, setting his food down and leaning back on his arms. "My mom was already going through a lot, and she really shouldn't have had to deal with me being a little shit." Natara covers his hand with hers.

"You were processing everything," she says. There's so much understanding in her voice that it fills him with more shame. "I can only imagine what it's like, finding out that someone important to you isn't who they say they are."

"It was rough," he acknowledges. "But for tonight I don't want to talk about that and ruin our date."

"That's fair," Natara says, giving his hand a small squeeze before letting go of it. "So what do you want to talk about then?" Mal gives her another grin before leaning close and placing a quick kiss on her lips.

"Who says we have to talk at all?" he asks, and she rolls her eyes.

"I do," she says flatly. "I'm starving, and I can't eat if we're busy making out."

"Killjoy," Mal mumbles as he pulls away, but he's still smiling as he does. Natara flicks a piece of beef at him.

"Only according to you," she shoots back. Mal flicks a piece of pork back at her. "And for the record, I'm not saying we can't make out later."

"I hope you know I'm going to hold you to that," he says as he picks up his carton of food. Natara rolls her eyes again, but takes advantage of the quiet moment to eat a bit more.

They manage not to start a food fight as they eat, and they keep the conversation topics light. They swap stories from their childhoods, and Natara marvels at how different their experiences were despite having grown up in the same town and even sharing some experiences. As much as she's grateful that her parents were able to provide an easy life for her and her sister, she finds herself feeling a little spoiled as she listens to Mal's stories.

"So how did you even know about this place?" she asks, looking around. It is quite picturesque, she thinks, the perfect place to watch the sunset. And she never even knew it existed. She looks at Mal, who's suddenly being very thorough about chewing his food. She waits as he swallows and then is silent for a second.

"I used to come here a lot as a kid," he finally says. "My dad used to take me and my sister to fly kites on the hill. I was never really good at it, but I do remember enjoying rolling down the hill."

"Oh," she practically whispers. "We can change the subject if you want. I know you said you didn't want to talk about your dad."

"It's okay, you didn't know," he says with half a shrug. "Honestly, when my dad got arrested it tainted a lot of the memories I had with him. It's nice to make some new memories here."

"Like our first official date," Natara says as she nods. Mal smiles at her.

"Exactly."

She leans in closer to him, and he closes the distance between their lips. It's gentle and languid and Natara can just feel the last rays of the sun on her face as it begins to dip below the horizon.

"You know," Mal says when they break apart, "I can't even count the number of times I've daydreamed about doing that."

"Doing what, exactly?" she asks with a bemused smile.

"Kissing you," he murmurs, leaning in again.

"You're so cheesy," she smiles against his lips.

"That may be," Mal says, "but it's also true. I've liked you for almost as long as I can remember."

"Really, I had no idea," Natara snarks with another eye roll. "All those years of notes and gifts didn't tip me off at all." He pulls away and reaches for her hands.

"No, listen," he says, and the tone of his voice has her sitting up a little straighter as well.

"Mal, I was just kidding," she says.

"No, I know," he assures her. "But I feel like I need to say this anyway. The notes and the gifts started out because of a crush, but eventually it became something more than that. I didn't know exactly what it was at first, but in recent years it's become clearer."

"Mal," she breathes, but he interrupts her.

"I think I'm in love with you," he admits, looking straight into her eyes. She opens her mouth to respond, but he cuts her off again. "You don't have to say it back. I know I've had more time to think about all this than you have. And I don't think you should feel like you have to say it back until you feel ready to. If you feel ready to."

Natara sits there silently for a few seconds. She already knew, and she's long since worked out that Mal has no memory of admitting it the night he showed up at her house drunk in the middle of the night.

But recently she's been wondering if she doesn't feel the same way. It's still very early in their relationship, they've still got a lot of things to work out. And part of her thinks maybe it's silly to be having these thoughts; that maybe it's just because she's a teenager being ruled by hormones. But she can't deny that she feels something for him, and that she's never felt that way about anyone else she's dated.

She knows she has to break the silence, somehow, and decides to go for lighthearted. "You're moving awfully fast for a first date," she manages to say. Mal's mouth presses into a grimace.

"Sorry," he says softly. "I just wanted to get that off my chest, I guess." Natara quickly reassures him with a kiss, and his hand comes up to cradle her cheek.

"You're allowed to do that," she says. "For now, I think it's best if we just see where this goes is all."

"That's fair," he agrees. She smiles at him, then shivers as a sudden breeze chills her. She realizes just how dark it's gotten in the last few minutes. A second later, she feels Mal drape his jacket over her shoulders. She wraps it tighter around herself, subtly hiking the collar up around her nose so she can see if it smells like him. It does, and the scent warms her from the inside out.

"We can get going if you're cold," he says, gathering up their trash. Natara shakes her head.

"I want to stay her a while longer, if that's alright." Mal smiles again and sets the trash beck down.

"A while longer it is, then."