A/N: Tee hee, we went fishing the day we wrote this.

"Have you ever been fishing?" Rosethorn asked thoughtfully, glancing up at Crane from her work.

"Fishing?" Crane looked blank.

"There is a nice lake nearby…" she trailed off.

"Would that qualify as a date?" Crane stared at her.

"If you want to think of it like that, go ahead," Rosethorn shrugged.

"Alright," Crane replied, "and by the way, I've never been on a boat in my entire life."

"Never?" asked Rosethorn.

"Never," confirmed Crane.

"It's never to late to learn!" Rosethorn said cheerfully.

"When?" Crane wondered.

"The day is young," Rosethorn said, smiling up at Crane.

"Yes," he nodded, smiling slightly.

"What are we waiting for then?" Rosethorn asked cheerfully, discarding her work.

"I'll pack a lunch," Crane said, leaving the workroom, Rosethorn close on his heels.

"I'll get changed, this is hardly a good outfit for fishing, and get bait and stuff," Rosethorn announced and headed towards Discipline Cottage.

"Meet you here in ten minutes," Crane said.

Ten minutes later…

Rosethorn arrived wearing a tunic and breeches carrying two fishing poles and tackle box.

Crane appeared seconds later wearing breeches and a tunic and carrying a sack full of food.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"Yes, I've told Lark," Rosethorn said they walked to the lake, since it was about a half hour walk.

Half an hour later…

Rosethorn stepped into the canoe from the small, falling apart dock. She sat down in the back and took her paddle from the dock and put it into the canoe.

"Hand me the tackle box Crane," she told the air dedicate.

He obliged and handed it to her, then stood waiting, a bit uncertain on what to do.

"Now get in and hand me those fishing poles," he took the fishing poles and stepped into the canoe then sat down in the seat up in the front of the canoe, handing Rosethorn the poles, she put them in the middle of the boat with the tackle box.

"Take your paddle and stick it in the water, like this," she demonstrated.

"This seems a quite slow and un-accurate way to travel," Crane stated.

"Yes, but it's quite fun once you get used to it, we'll go that little patch of reeds out there," she pointed far out into the lake where there was a little fuzzy spot.

"Are you sure we'll be able to make it all the way out there before the day's up?" Crane asked looking doubtful.

"Sure," Rosethorn said, "Should only take about and hour or so, if we paddle good and hard, keep you paddle on the port side."

"Port?"

"Left, and starboard is right."

"Ah."

The lake was glassy smooth and the canoe glided over it much faster than Crane had accounted for. Peering down into its depth he saw mostly weeds and greenness.

His arm was starting to ache and he glanced back at Rosethorn who was still paddling strongly.

She must have muscles of steel, he thought to himself.

"May I switch to the other side?" He asked.

"You mean the starboard?" Rosethorn asked.

"Yes," Crane said.

"Sure," she switched her paddle to the port side while Crane switched his to the starboard.

***

"It's so romantic!" Daja said dreamily, leaning against the chimney.

"So, where's those two silver crescents Sandry?" Briar asked smugly.

"Uh, one moment," Sandry hurried over to Tris who was, of course, reading a book, "Say Tris, you don't by any chance have two silver crescents?"

Tris shook her head while keeping her eyes on the pages of her book. Sandry glanced at the cover, "You're still reading that Winding Circle History stuff?"

"It's good," Tris replied.

Sandry sidled back over to Briar, "Briar, can I pay you later, I don't have to silver crescents."

"I know," the boy said simply.

"You know?" Sandry asked in disbelief.

"Yes, you don't have to pay, I was only kidding really when I made that bet," Briar told the girl.

"I just can't believe you were right! I mean I sort of guess I believed it all along too, but I just couldn't accept it!" Sandry said sitting next to him.

"I think it's wonderful, I mean it's like a story out of a book, two people hate each other supposedly, but they actually love each other," Daja said happily.

Anyhow, back to the two main characters…

"This looks like a good spot," Rosethorn said peering down into the murky depths of the lake. She glanced up at Crane and grinned. Seemed she was grinning a lot lately, Crane thought and smiled.

"How can you tell?" he asked watching her as she dropped down the anchor. Just watching her made his heart pound. He was filled with this feeling, of yearning, happiness, and love.

"Here," she handed him a fishing pole and he took it awkwardly.

Crane glanced around, "Rosethorn, love?"

She looked back up at him, she was attempting to get a worm out of the dirt and it was refusing.

"Stupid worm," she muttered, "what was it you wanted?"

"How, exactly do you, fish?" he asked.

Rosethorn chuckled and came over to sit next to him. The canoe tipped precariously and Crane grabbed the edges.

"Don't worry, they may be quite tippy, but they never really tip over," she assured him.

She took his rod and placed his hands on it, "hold it like this," she instructed him, "Now, before you put it in the water, you put the worm on the hook."

She reached over and took the little box that held the worms, pulling one out she closed the box and put the worm on lap, she ripped a fourth of the worm off and shoved it onto the hook.

Crane grimaced, "It's still alive."

Rosethorn shrugged, "Once you put it in the water it'll die."

He'd never realized how cruel fishing was. Rosethorn had a strong gut to be able to put a wiggling piece of worm on a sharp hook.

She rearranged his hands on the rod then showed him how to let out the line then pull it in a little bit to get it at just the right depth.

"I never knew how complicated fishing was," he said as Rosethorn put her line into the water.

Rosethorn leaned against Crane as the day wore slowly on. So far they'd had no bites, despite the fact that this was the best fishing spot on the lake. Crane suggested moving but Rosethorn said they wouldn't do any better elsewhere. The fish just weren't hungry yet.

Suddenly Crane's rod gave a jerk, he immediately leaned forward and Rosethorn turned around to see what he got. His rod was bent down close to the water as Crane reeled in the line as quick as he could. Suddenly a little fish popped out of the water. It was a sunfish, and a baby one at that.

"A throw-back," Rosethorn told him.

Crane reached for the little fish to take off the hook and it gave a little flip flop in the air, he withdrew his hand, startled.

"Here give it to me," Rosethorn said reaching for his line.

Crane obliged and Rosethorn gripped the little fish firmly as she pulled the hook out of its mouth and tossed it back into the water.

The worm was still on Crane's hook so he put it back into the water.

Then it was Rosethorn's turn to catch something and that turn came quickly.

Her rod bent quickly downward into the water and she pulled hard on it reeling the line in.

This fish did not pop out of the water though, it was very determined to stay in the water so Rosethorn grabbed the net and scooped it out of the water.

"A Walleye!" she announced proudly. She lifted it out of the net carefully and pulled the hook out. The fish was a least a foot long.

"Definitely a keeper," she said putting the fish into a bucket filled with water.

All this while the canoe had been slowly floating more into the reeds. Rosethorn did not notice that they were happily creeping up along the sides of the boat until the boat started to tip dangerously.

Crane cleared his throat and leaned down to tell the plants off. Rosethorn then also noticed them and her glare sent the rest of them off the canoe.

Crane then had the reeds push them out of the patch and into the fishing spot once again.

The moment Crane dropped his line into the water again it began to be pulled down fiercely.

Rosethorn peered down into the water and her eyeballs nearly popped out, "That's one big Northerner."

 "I can tell," Crane said standing up straining to pull the large fish out of the water.

Rosethorn, unmindful of the rocking boat, stood up as well to help him.

The Northerner gave another large yank and Rosethorn watched as he tottered hazardously, she couldn't help it, it was too tempting, it would only take one little push and he go falling in. She glanced around and gave him a nudge with her elbow; he fell in.

In a moment he splashed to the surface, then stood up, "quite shallow water really."

"Here, let me help you up," Rosethorn said as she reached a hand down to him.

"Why thank-you," he said, a mischievous grin on his face. He took her hand and pulled her into the water. There was another large splash.

She came up to the surface sputtering, "Oh! How dare you! Why I oughta"-

Crane tilted her chin up and looked her in the eye, a faint smile playing about his lips.

"I love the way you look when you're mad," he said softly.

Rosethorn opened her mouth fully intending to give a snide remark back, but Crane didn't give her the chance, for the next minute she far too busy kissing him, to argue with him.

Rosethorn pulled away, breathless as Crane ran his fingers through her wet, coppery colored, hair.

She leaned against him and they stood like that for several minutes before either one of them spoke.

"We should get back in the canoe," Crane murmured.

 Rosethorn paused a moment then replied, "Oh yeah."

Crane chuckled at her response and Rosethorn looked up at him grinning as he smiled fondly down at her.

Crane boosted her back into the canoe and she gave him a hand up and soon they were on their way back to the temple.

***

Lark, Briar and the girls all sat at the table while Lark taught them cooking skills.

"I don't wanna learn how to cook!" Briar complained as he added two cups of salt instead of sugar to the dough.

"You'll need it one of these days boy."

Briar jumped and looked up. Rosethorn was standing in the doorway holding a large fish. Crane stood next to her. Briar couldn't help but notice how close they were standing to each other. He also noticed that they were sopping wet.

"What happened?" Lark asked.

"We fell in," Rosethorn stated simply and strode off to her room. Crane paused in the doorway for a moment, before turning and going off to get changed.

A/N: The next chapter will be put up once we have 50 reviews.