A/N: The time frame is a bit off from "Butterfly kisses"; it's NOT 6 months since Rueben moved to Royal City, and Hope never met his mom at Nature Class. AND Hope is not 21 in this chapter, you will know why when reading further on. I hope you can look past this, but for this, to work it needed to be changed.

Chapter 5: Hope

This past week Hope had managed to meet Rueben a few times during their lunch breaks, and each time they'd talked as if they'd known one another for ages. Once they'd both gotten over the first jittery awkwardness, talking just came naturally. It was a pretty great feeling, and now she'd have to wait one more week before they could go out on a date. Sitting in her parents' living room she was twirling a small white flower between her fingers, thinking about Rueben, and wondered what he would plan for their first real date.

Several minutes later her dad walked in and sat down next to her, he rested his elbows on his knees while picking at his hook. Hope thought it was funny and somewhat charming that her dad still wore the hook, even if he did have a prosthetic hand he could use. But it was a symbol of who he was and in a way still is. Turning her head she could see him watching her curiously, and she knew he was waiting for her to open up with whatever was on her mind. Her father had a way of knowing when she needed time before talking.

"I need a new dress." She bit her lower lip and tried to hide a small smile that found its way to her lips.

"Oh yeah? Why would you need a new dress?" Her dad scratched behind his ear, a tic he did when he wasn't too sure of where the conversation was heading. Oh if he only knew, Hope thought wryly.

"I have a date!" Hope whispered, keeping her eyes glued to the tiny flower in her hands.

Her dad gently plucked the flower from her hands and tugged it behind her ear, "let's save the poor flower." He grinned, "A date you say, as in with a lad?"

Hope rolled her eyes at this, "Daddyyy!" she whined and leaned her head against the couch.

"What?" Her father looked at her, "I mean it could be you and the girls planning something, or… I don't know…" He waved his hand in the air.

"It's a man okay daddy and don't, I mean don't you bloody dare freak out okay," Hope said and glared at him, she could see he was trying to conceal the grin over his lips.

"Okay Butterfly I won't, who is the wee bugger I'm going to do a death stare match with when he comes to pick you up." her dad chuckled at his own words, and when Hope only squinted her eyes even more at his remark he smiled.

"Don't Daddy, I'm bloody 20 okay, it's way past the time any normal princess begins to date, so butt out okay." Hope huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Aye, you're a princess alright, and keep in mind that your mother, grandmother, and hell even your Auntie Gina, will skin the wee lad if he mistreats you, so you might let the old pirate here know beforehand and I'll warn the poor bloke." Killian tried to explain.

"So now you're on Rue's side, bloody fantastic." Hope threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes at her father. She wasn't sure where her dad was in all of this, she only hoped that he would understand why she would need a new dress.

"Rue?"

Hope closed her eyes and whispered, "he is the son of Pocahontas and John Smith," She raised an eyebrow challenging him to remember. When he shook his head she sighed, "okay you've met his parents a few months ago when they moved closer to Royal City, they come from quite the farthest place in this United Realms Auntie Gina made all those years ago."

"I might remember them, she is a Native American right? I remember she got pretty close to Tiger Lilly at that party, they've had some similar lives growing up." When Hope nodded he continued, "but I can't recall any Rue?"

"His name is Rueben, Reuben Smith, he goes to the same college now that I do." Hope tried to explain and fiddled with her fingers, feeling a blush creeping up her neck.

"So, you like this bloke?"

Hope nodded mutely and bit her lower lip, not daring to look at her daddy right now.

"Well if he goes to Magic Kingdom College, he might be worth looking into, so who was his parents again?" Her dad asked and rubbed his chin trying to look as if he was thinking about something.

"Daddy! Please, don't make this sound like you're all in on this one, I just need a new dress and can we just leave it at that. Don't go all daddy protective mode here, I might be a princess but I can bloody well take care of myself." Hope glared at him and finished, "He is a nice guy really, his mother is a sort of princess among the Native American tribe she's from, though when she married John Smith she sort of lost her title, in a way. I don't know but they are okay parents."

Her dad smiled in understanding, then he leaned over and placed a quick butterfly kiss on her cheek. She did a show of making a face and rubbing the spot, but deep inside she still loved her daddy's butterfly kisses, it was their thing.

"Talk to your mother and maybe this time you will let her help you out with the dress," Hope looked horrified at her father, then he added, "give her a chance. I know she wants to do this sort of mother-daughter bonding with you."

Hope rolled her eyes, "alright." Sure she loved her mother beyond anything in this world, but sometimes things got a bit too intense between them, like picking out dresses. Hope still remembered the dress disaster at her 'sweet-16 party', in the end, she'd gone with her dad to find the perfect dress. This date with Rueben seemed like a pretty important thing too, and she wanted to look good for their first date.

"I think she's in the garden?" Her dad shouted after her, she nodded and found her way to the back garden.

Hope found her mom outside and when she approached her, she gave her mother a huge smile.

"Hi mom," She tugged at the hem of her shirt and kicked a pebble away, not sure how to start. "So everything is ready for daddy's birthday tomorrow?" Yup, much better conversation topic there, it wouldn't be a big party tomorrow, only the closest family.

"Sure is," Her mom wiped a few stray hairs away from her face then gave her usual 'mom-scrutinizing-look', "you know we got it all ready, so I guess you came out here for something else Cygnet?"

Sighing she gave up pretending, "yeah, the thing is, I kinda need a new dress."

"Oh," her mom tilted her head and gave her a knowing smile.

Pursing her lips she took a deep breath through her nose and said, "I have a date." She rubbed the side of her nose trying to ease the tension building inside of her.

"I see," her mom nodded with a smile on her lips, "who is the lucky guy?"

Hope sighed but ended up telling her mom all about Rueben and how they'd met a few times this past week. She also explained that she wanted something new to wear.

"Okay, let's go dress shopping then," her mom said and clapped her hands together, "we could go now, we already got everything for the party tomorrow."

Hope nodded in agreement, "I have no idea what I want." She could feel the panic starting to rise as she followed her mom towards the house, "All I know is that it will not be something frilly like that monstrosity you guys tried to make me wear when I turned 16."

Her mom laughed a little at this, then twirled on her heel and looked at her, "I might have something." She grabbed Hope's hand and pulled her towards the house.

"What—" But her mother didn't listen, only dragged her to the master bedroom and opened the walk-in closet door. "Mom I'm not wearing anything of yours, it's not even… I mean come on I don't dress like you… please." Hope nearly stomped her feet in frustration, she feared what her mother would pull from the rows of dresses.

"Shush," Her mother said and rummaged around for a few short moments, then whooped in glee, "got it, you'll love this, I promise."

"I'm not—" the words dropped from her lips as she took in the light pink dress her mother showed her. "What— ?"

"See I told you'd love this." Her mom came closer and held up the short-sleeved v-neckline dress, it flared out in a loose skirt.

"Wow, did you wear that? I've never—" Hope was trying to form words, but this dress was beautiful, yet very simple and quite honestly it would be perfect.

"Yup," her mom nodded, "on my first date with your father." She grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"What?" Hope gaped at her mom for several moments, "I've never seen you in this, it's beautiful, and sooo..."

"Timeless, I know." Her mom gave her the dress and nodded to the bathroom, "go try it on, it might be a bit too loose for you. We can have Mary Margareth fix that before your date."

Hope took the dress and couldn't believe her luck. It'd been over 20 years since her mother had worn this dress, but it was so perfect. When she walked out again she asked, "how has it survived so many years?"

"Magic?" With a wink, her mom busied herself with figuring out if the dress needed some alterations. She found some pin needles and made some adjustments, "I'll have your grandmother fix this and we could come by next weekend before your date."

Hope was still staring at herself in the mirror then she caught on to what her mother was saying, "aha, you won't be there when Rue picks me up, nope not a chance in hell." She shook her head vehemently and stomped her feet.

"Come on Cygnet, this is your first date," her mom said with a frown.

"I've dated before mom, remember?" Hope rolled her eyes, "burned shoelaces."

"You were young, and I have a feeling this is something different." Her mom looked into her eyes as if she tried to convince her.

"So now you're psychic too," Hope waved her hands aimlessly in front of her, "great, just friggin great. Please just don't come, okay?"

"Alright alright, I'll send over the dress by the end of the week, you won't even see us." Her mom huffed, then began helping Hope out of the dress, now with needles in the fabric, it was a bit more tricky. Hope was beyond happy that she'd found a dress for her date with Rueben.

—

"I can't believe your mother kept that dress for so many years," Gloria said with an exaggerated sigh.

"But poor Rue won't know what hit him when he picks up our princess here," Rose said and squinted her eyes looking at Hope's face, making sure the make-up she was fixing was spot on.

"Oh shut up," Hope huffed and rolled her eyes at her friends. She did appreciate their offers to help her get ready but sometimes they got a little too meddlesome.

"All done," Rose stepped back and stuffed away the make-up, "ready for your big date."

"I don't understand why you keep making this such a big deal," Hope pointed at her friends, "you're dating the team captain," Rose smirked and waggled her eyebrows in agreement, then Hope pointed to Gloria, who went beet red, "you friggin date 'Mr-bad-boy' of the whole college," when Gloria tried to object Hope said with a chuckle, "don't even try to say you don't."

"Yeah," Gloria shrugged, "so what, Damien is actually a pretty awesome guy, not many people see his true self."

"Dear girl, all it took was for you to puke on the guy's shoes," Rose said with a teasing laugh. "Love works in mysterious ways, and tomorrow we all get to hear every little detail of what happened on Hope and Rue's big date." Rose clapped excitedly and practically skipped off towards their bathroom with the make-up.

Moments later a short knock was heard and Hope felt her heart skip a beat, "oh god I'm feeling nauseous." She shifted her tense shoulders and smoothed her hands down the skirt, then she walked to open the door.

Gaping in surprise she took in the man standing outside, Rue was wearing black dress pants, a button-down white shirt, a few buttons undone, it was casual yet very classy. Fidgeting nervously with her fingers she said, "Hi." Yup best not to have too many words come out of my mouth right now, Hope thought to herself.

"Hi," Rue grinned and stepped forward while holding out a single red carnation.

Hope accepted his small gift with wide eyes and motioned for him to come in, then she turned to see both her friends standing by their kitchen island. She wasn't sure which of her friends looked more excited, shaking her head she glared at them both, hoping they wouldn't start speaking.

"Let me take care of that," Gloria finally said and when she took the flower she leaned in closer, and in a small whisper she claimed, "think he's a keeper." Hope only tried to calm her beating heart and gave her friends a feeble smile.

Turning towards Rue again she smiled and said, "let's go." Rue agreed and with a wave of his hand to Rose and Gloria, he followed Hope out of the door.

As the door nearly closed behind them, Rose's voice could be heard loud and clear, "have fun kids, now don't do anything I wouldn't do." Quickly making sure the door was shut, Hope grinned sheepishly, "sorry about that."

"It's okay," Rue said with a smile, "I got a bit of ribbing from my friends too." He shrugged and they walked outside.

They walked to Rueben's car and within minutes they were finally heading to where they would spend their date. He still wouldn't give any clues to where they would go, Hope tried to not pout too much over this. But she could see how he kept smiling to himself as he weaved in and out of the traffic in Royal City. They reached the outskirts of the city and Hope got more and more curious.

Finally, Rue pulled up next to a quaint little dinner, looking much like Granny's Diner in Storybrooke, but looking closer Hope could finally see why he wanted to bring her here. The restaurant was decked out with various native American heirlooms.

Hope was still taking it all in when Rue opened the car door for her, she hopped out and beamed a smile at him, "this is amazing."

Rue rubbed his neck nervously, "yeah?"

"It really looks nice."

"My mom found this place not long ago, and yeah it sort of brings the traditional native American food to the people."

"Really?" Hope turned to look up at him, "bet your mom loves going here."

Rue nodded, then swept his arm towards the entrance, "let's go inside."

Without giving it much thought Hope looped her arm through his, she grinned when she could see the smile widen on his face. She could feel her magic fizzle under her skin, but she held it in control. They walked inside and were shown to a table in a somewhat secluded section of the restaurant.

While making their selection of what they wanted to eat Rue tried to explain the different dishes to her. Hope was eager to try pretty much everything. It was such a sweet and very extraordinary place to go on a date. But it matched who Rue was to a tee, and she wanted to learn more about where he came from. In every trip she'd made with her family she'd always loved to explore the different cultures and sure the food sampling was a nice addition to these discoveries.

She could see how much joy it brought Rue to share this side of him with her, and she kept her eyes on him while he spoke. The slope of his upper lip fascinated her and a few times she caught herself thinking how it would feel to have those lips pressed against her own. His dark brown eyes were shimmering with golden specks in the dimmed light of the restaurant. She wasn't sure what she liked the most, but the long hair definitely was a new favorite of hers. It had never been a 'thing' for her, but with Rue it was perfect. It turned out to be a fabulous evening.