A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Not so much back and forth sarcastic exchanges between Chris and Lizzie. Some funny moments with the Charmed Ones. But mostly Lizzie and Chris get to know each other.

Chapter 8

Chris orbed into the attic with Lizzie, all three Charmed Ones stopped what they were doing to regard the two.

"You two are looking hot!" Paige said.

Piper nodded her head.

"I'd have to agree. Maybe the Elders should have given you a new charge a long time ago, a shower and a shave does your body good." Phoebe said looking at Chris in a way he did not like.

It was too much like the time Leo turned the three of them into Goddesses and Phoebe kept hitting on him. And Chris didn't find it amusing in the least.

Chris rolled his eyes, "Whatever, do you have to potions ready?" he asked.

"Uh huh," Piper said, "What's the rush you got a date or something."

Chris could hear her smirk before he saw it, she was his mother after all.

"Can we hurry this up Jason has dinner reservations for us at eight." Phoebe whined.

For the first time Chris was thankful for his aunt's one track mind.

Her sisters ignored her, Piper handed out potions.

"So Lizzie you ready for your first official vanquish?" Paige asked.

Chris knew the girl had to be nervous. He looked down realizing he was still holding her hand. He ignored the smirk his mother was still wearing.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Lizzie said.

Chris gave her hand a slight squeeze.

"Its okay to be nervous, the vanquish will be pretty easy. We're only taking out one faction of demons."

"He sounds like a real Whitelighter," Phoebe gasped in faux shock.

"Faction? How many demons are in a faction?" Lizzie asked.

"I don't know do I look like your math teacher?" he asked.

"Fifteen or twenty, sans the potions." Paige explained glaring at Chris, who shot her a glare of his own.

"Way to reassure a girl," Lizzie said told him rolling her eyes..

"This isn't a comforting job; we are riding the world of evil one demon at a time." Chris said.

"Don't be so damn dramatic Chris." Piper said.

"We'd damn well better try or…" Chris stopped himself from spilling to much more.

"Or we'll be in your world. Yeah, yeah I know. We have to stop the demon that's after Wyatt." Paige said.

"At least one of you is paying attention," Chris said loudly.

Phoebe glanced up from her watch, "You don't have to shout. When are we gonna go…"

"Wyatt is with the elf nanny. So he should be good until we get back it shouldn't take long killing the faction leader should be easy we got the potion and the spell." Piper said.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Chris asked.

"Uh huh!" Phoebe shouted.

"Paige, do you have the spell? I don't want you to have to orb back home to get it again, this is Lizzie's first vanquish and I want her to see the three of you at your best if that is at all possible."

"Oh shut up," Paige said grabbing the spell off the table and stuffing it in her pocket.

Paige grabbed her sisters' hands and orbed them to the Underworld.

Chris sighed and orbed himself and Lizzie down there.

Chris couldn't stop himself from cursing when he realized that they'd orbed into a room full of demons that were ready to kill them. "Oh shit."

"Paige! Did you sense anyone down here before you orbed in?" Piper demanded.

"You didn't think it would be so easy to come back and vanquish me did you Whitelighter?" the demon asked stalking over to them, the question aimed directly at Chris.

"Did you think getting your bitch to distract my men while you steal some of my blood wouldn't be a red flag?" the demon sneered.

Chris clutched the potion tightly in his left hand he was itching to throw it. He didn't know what made him madder, the demon insulting his intelligence or calling Lizzie a bitch.

Chris didn't let his anger get the best of him, "You know me Roark I had to try,"

The demon chuckled. His minions advancing on the group of witches. Chris knew that Piper would figure out what he was doing, even if her sisters didn't.

"Chris what in the hell are you doing?" Paige asked.

He didn't look at her instead he threw the potion at Roark knowing he'd deflect it but not the one he knew Piper was going to throw.

Sure enough Roark deflected it and Piper launched hers it hit the demon and then the Charmed Ones began reading the spell, Roark screamed as he was engulfed in flames.

All of the other demons screamed as they too met a flaming death since they were apart of Roark. Chris smiled.

Lizzie watched in awe as the demons burnt up, she had never seen anything like it. Chris's negotiation skills left a lot to be desired like most of his social skills. It seemed like he knew that while he was distracting the demon with his potion Piper was going to throw hers.

Lizzie was glad Chris didn't let go of her hand. The contact was comforting.

The more time she spent around them she realized that Chris and Piper were a lot alike. So naturally, Chris must have known that Piper would have thrown the potion once the demon was distracted because it was what he would have done.

Though for a second there Lizzie thought they were going to be the ones to meet the flaming death.

"What was with that?" Phoebe said.

"He's not hard to read not when he gets that weasely smile. I knew he wanted me to hit the demon with the potion." Piper said.

"It is not a weasely smile. I like to call it a satirical smirk." Chris said.

"Looks pretty weasely to me," Piper said.

Lizzie couldn't help but laugh.

Chris muttered something Lizzie didn't even catch and she was standing next to him.

"Are we done here?" Phoebe asked.

Chris nodded.

"Good cause I've got a date." Phoebe said.

"I'll orb her back." Paige said orbing away with Phoebe.

"Good cause if I have to hear one more thing about her damn date with Jason I'm gonna tape her mouth shut," Piper said.

"We'd better get going. We've got to get some dinner ourselves." Chris said putting one hand on Piper shoulder and orbing them back to the attic.

"You guys have fun." Piper said closing the huge green volume on the podium.

"You too, we're gonna stop by P3 later so I guess we'll see you." Chris said.

"Okay, I'm gonna have dinner with Wyatt and put him to bed, and then I'll be on." Piper said walking out of the room.

"I guess I could have worn these shoes," Lizzie said.

"What did you think you'd be doing a lot of running?" Chris said.

"Well, I didn't know what to expect." Lizzie said sheepishly.

"Every vanquish is different." Chris said grinning.

Lizzie blushed, he had finally let go of her hand and she was missing the contact.

"So…where do you wanna go for dinner?" Chris asked.

"I don't know."

"I'm kind of in the mood for Chinese."

"I haven't had Chinese in ages." Lizzie said.

"Well, come on."

"Let me change my shoes."

"There are no demons with foot fetishes around nobody is gonna be looking at your shoes. You can change them before we go to P3." Chris said.

"Alright, you don't think this looks dumb–I forgot you aren't my fashion consultant." Lizzie blushed.

"You look amazing. The Converse make you look ten times hotter." Chris said.

"Really?"

It was Chris' turn to blush he looked down at his own shoes.

When he looked back up Lizzie was biting her lip looking at him nervously with her amber colored eyes.

He contemplated for a second whether or not this was a date, though neither of them had said it was. And he'd been the one to suggest they go to dinner, it didn't feel right to take the girl on a vanquish and not feed her. Especially after the little "chat" he'd had with Mr. McGuire.

He couldn't believe he'd been scared by some girl's father and the man didn't even have any powers.

Then he started to get worried, what if this was a date.

He would have to be nice and open doors and pay. He could do the latter two but being nice wasn't exactly his forte, he'd built up the walls for a reason, to keep people from hurting him. On top of that he didn't exactly have the nicest disposition. He took after his mother and his great-grams that way.

He wasn't ready to take them down yet, even though he was sure that Lizzie wouldn't hurt him.

He tried to give her a smile but he was sure it didn't reach his eyes. Not many of his smiles did, he hoped it a least reassured the girl a little.

"Alright let's go." He said reaching out his hand to her.

She smiled at him and took it.

He orbed them into an empty alleyway in downtown San Francisco. They walked out still holding hands.

Other couples were walking past them in more intimate poses, Chris couldn't help but gape at them.

He'd never had a real girlfriend to hold hands with, most of his conquests were simply girls he'd picked up in bars and fucked somewhere in the dark.

In high school it had been pretty much the same, he'd see a cute girl on the way to math and he'd say whatever he had to say to get her to go into the utility closet with him for five minutes.

He knew he could have that with Lizzie, hell, he would have to do that with her in order to get a chance to do anything else with her.

He led Lizzie inside of the restaurant praying that dinner wouldn't be a disaster, the food would be good and not overpriced, and that he wouldn't do or say anything embarrassing.

Lizzie was hoping pretty much the same thing. She spoke softly to he hostess requesting a table for two in the non smoking section.

They followed the hostess over to a booth; there were few people in the non smoking section. Everyone else seemed to be on the other side of the restaurant.

Dinner wasn't as bad as she anticipated. Chris was being nice and the food was good. Lizzie tried to eat like a lady, but she hadn't had anything to eat since lunch yesterday.

Chris laughed at her attempt to be graceful in her food scarfing and she'd flipped him the bird which got them both laughing.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Lizzie asked him over ice cream.

"I'm not telling you how many inches." He said with a smirk.

"Chris…" Lizzie said rolling her eyes, that man sure knew how to ruin a moment.

Apparently, he wanted to make the already thick sexual tension worse.

"You know that is not what I was going to ask you." Lizzie said.

"I just like to keep things interesting,"

"You just like to annoy me." She said dryly.

"Fine ask your question, I do have the right to refuse to answer any questions about my package."

"I know the future you came from sucked. But why are you so guarded and so defensive here now? With me?" Lizzie asked.

Chris sighed, "It's the whole "defense mechanism" thing, you keep yourself closed off no one can hurt you."

"Well, if you do that, no one will get the chance to love you either."

"Oh my God, are you seriously sitting here telling me that." Chris said.

Lizzie knew she had pushed his buttons.

"I told myself if this girl starts talking about love and a lasting relationship and all that crap–"

"Chris," Lizzie interrupted. "It's not like that and you know it, I just want to know you. Maybe I shouldn't the onlysigns you've been giving me are all Do Not Go There signs."

No one had ever been blunt with him and sweet at the same time. He didn't really know what to say, "You really want to know me?"

The blonde nodded, "As much as I do enjoy fighting with you, I would like to know the real you."

"Turns you on doesn't it? I'll have to remember that for later in case we need some four play."

Fuck the sexual tension, as far as he was concerned. He was out with a beautiful girl and he was horny as hell he couldn't behave any other way, at least he wasn't groping her.

Lizzie rolled her eyes, "All the fighting we've done would be twelve play by now. Could you stay on target please?"

He sighed giving in.

"Well, what do you wanna know?" he asked.

"What's your favorite song?" she asked going for a less offensive topic.

"Slow motion." He replied with a wink.

"Liar."

"I like a lot of bands, last week I "borrowed" Paige's Dashboard Confessional CD's. And I don't think I'm giving them back." He said doing air quotes.

"Good band," Lizzie said.

"What kind of music do you like?"

"I love anything by Def Leopard."

Chris gaped at her, "I had you pegged for a Justin Timberlake fan or a Claymate not the classics."

Lizzie laughed at him

"Well, Def Leopard and Motely Crue and Quiet Riot are the kind of bands I grew up on that was the stuff my dad would listen to."

"What's the last book you read?" Lizzie asked.

"This really obscure book of prophecies."

"Really,"

"Yeah. I'm here on a mission, I've got to investigate every angle. What's the last book you read."

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I doubt you heard of it it's a chick book."

"I saw the movie though when I was a kid, it didn't suck." Chris said.

"Well, onto my next question favorite movie."

"I like all kind of movies the only on the list though that you'll probably know is Training Day."

"That movie was cool,"

"What's your favorite movie?"

"Scary Movie 1."

"I've never seen it." Chris said.

"Well, we'll just have to watch it together sometime."

"Why are you so nice to me Lizzie, I've been a dick to you since we met."

"You're a good guy Chris. And I'm used to having to look past all the bullshit to see someone." Lizzie said.

"I've made girls cry from less than I've said to you, why do still try to get to know me and stuff."

Lizzie shrugged, they went up to pay, leaving the fortune cookies unopened and the ice cream half eaten and melted.

Chris wouldn't let Lizzie pay for half of it, the bill was only for fifteen dollars.

"When we go some where fancy then we can go Dutch okay." Chris told her.

"Alright,"

"You're a little Independent Woman aren't ya?" Chris asked as they walked out of the restaurant and toward the alley they'd orbed into before.

"What?"

"You like to do things yourself."

"I guess so."

"It'll make my job as a Whitelighter easier, once you master the craft. You'll be good to go and whatever loser they assign you after I'm gone won't have to do all the grunt work."

"Didn't realize we'd be grunting." Lizzie said smirking.

It was about time she got into the game. Chris grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the alley with him and orbed them back to the Manor.