-1Chapter Six:

Daniel took Cassandra by the arm and lead her outside to her car.

"Come on," he gently filched her car keys from her hand and they drove in silence on Route 76 before turning off onto the little road that Daniel was now so familiar with. They always sat in the same booth and ordered the same thing, so Daniel ordered for her this time, as she chewed the end of her sleeve in an anxious sort of way.

"So, what did he- Adam- say?" Daniel asked cautiously, once he was sure that she was done crying.

She took a deep breath. "He said that I don't call him enough, I told him I was working really hard at my job, he said that the job was stupid, I said I was happy with the way things were, and then he said he didn't want to be with someone who wasn't there for him and who only called every other day. He said he was so bored with me that he'd been fooling around with one of my friends from back home. We'd been fighting for the past few days so I knew something bad was gonna happen, but I only found out about him cheating this morning."

"I don't know how anyone can be bored with you," Daniel said bluntly; in his mind were images of Cassandra dancing across a room, Cassandra swearing colorfully, Cassandra telling jokes with her face glowing from the red lamps in Paper Lantern, Cassandra wearing leg warmers with high heels, and Cassandra sprawled on the floor of the Sistine Chapel with her dark hair fanned out behind her head.

Cassandra blushed and looked at their hands which were nearly touching atop the table. "Thanks Dan."

"It's the truth, I'm afraid. You're anything but boring." Daniel's heart pounded as her index finger slid along his pinky. He inwardly cursed his trembling hand as he pushed more of his fingers against hers. She wasn't looking at him, but at their hands, still, as she caressed the length of his fingers and he turned his hand so that their palms touched lightly. Cassandra's hand was unsteady too, as she slipped her fingers in between his and Daniel didn't even want to hold her hand in his tighter in fear that she'd realize what they were doing and pull away. They slid their hands further up so her fingers were splayed against his inner arm and he was gently stroking her wrist.

"I-uh…" Cassandra's voice cracked a little and she shook her head. Their eyes met over the table and Daniel knew that even at age 18, this was something big. He had kissed a fair few girls before from his old school, he'd kissed Katie Leung in Harry Potter, he'd been nude on stage during Equus, and he'd done a love scene in his film December Boys. He had experience. But all that had been highly technical. Not even real. All about appearances and perfection rather than raw instinct and pure visceral need.

He had always been a rather precocious child and his parents said that he was always over thinking. When he had first met Chris Columbus, the director who had cast him as Harry Potter, Chris had told him that he had been drawn to Daniel's eyes; he claimed that they always were focused and appeared to be thinking and analyzing. Everything had changed with Cassandra, for some reason. He was suddenly saying things without thinking and climbing into her car in the middle of filming with no idea as to where she was taking him; he just knew that this felt right. Daniel had never felt like this; a feeling that left his blue eyes glazed over, where the thumping of his heart and a strange ache inside of him completely shut down all of his rational thoughts. He found himself leaning slightly into the table and just as Cassandra was unknowingly doing the same, the waitress cheerfully placed their check on the table and picked up their glasses. Both of them jumped and sat up straight, yanking their hands back down into their laps. Daniel's heart was crashing against his ribcage, and his fingers were tingling. He pressed his hands to his burning cheeks and snuck a look at Cassandra, who had a hand to her heart and was also looking a bit flushed.

"Dan, I-" She began, looking up at him, her face clean of makeup, looking ridiculously young.

"-We should go," he said quietly, knowing she wasn't over her boyfriend and he shouldn't get his hopes up.

"We should at least read our fortunes first," Cassandra said in a small voice, handing him one. He cracked open his cookie, read the slip of paper and scoffed; crumpling it up and tossing it on the table. Cassandra was still reading hers with an unreadable expression on her face.

"What's it say?" Daniel asked.

"If you want the rainbow, you must put up with the rain," she read. Daniel's mouth felt dry suddenly.

"That's what my fortune said, the first time we ever came here." Daniel told her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, doesn't mean anything though. If anything, they just have like three or four fortunes that they use for all their cookies," Daniel said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

Cassandra pocketed the fortune just as he'd done. "Maybe." She looked like she didn't want to believe him. Daniel grabbed the keys from his pocket, and they got into the car and pulled out of the small parking lot.

"I like that quote that was in my fortune cookie," Cassandra suddenly said, as they were driving back to the studio.

"Yeah?" Daniel kept his eyes on the traffic ahead of him, scanning the road.

"Yeah. It's honest. It doesn't say that life will always be perfect. It says that you have to experience the bad in order to appreciate the good." Cassandra said thoughtfully.

Daniel thought for a moment and then spoke. "It's like that time we were in Rome, my family and I. We went to all these places my Mum wanted to go; all these modern art places and designer shops that I found so gaudy and ugly. I was so bored and I hated everything I was seeing. But finally at the end of the day, my Dad took us to the Sistine Chapel and I was completely amazed by it. Going to all those horrible places earlier on seemed totally worth it. And I'd do it again, just to see something that beautiful again." Cassandra smiled down at her lap, and that part of him that couldn't shut up around her, continued talking.

"And like, I've been around a lot of horrid girls that I don't care much for, but then you meet someone and you appreciate them becau-" He abruptly cut himself off when he realized where his sentence was going. Cassandra looked at him and then moved her hand towards him and he met her halfway over the gear shift. Their fingers interlocked and he smiled and kept driving.

When they returned to the studio, David Yates was nearly beside himself with anger. Daniel gulped and dropped Cassandra's fingers at once.

"Where. Were. You." Yates clipped off each word, his voice scarily calm.

"I-I just took my lunch break. I thought I let someone know," Daniel answered quickly. All the crew members had always found him responsible and reliable, so he knew that this was quite a shock to Yates.

"You usually do. We thought something happened to you."

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Daniel replied, feeling slightly guilty knowing that they always looked out for his safety. Cassandra was looking down at her feet, no doubt feeling guilty too.

Yates stared Daniel down for what felt like an hour, before his facial muscles visibly relaxed. "Okay, see that it doesn't." He looked from Dan to Cassandra a few times before turning around and walking back to the set.

"Well, that was close," said Dan awkwardly, turning to look at Cassandra. She gave him a wan smile which quickly dropped off her face. "I should-"

"You should go back to the set. I'm sure they're starting soon. I have some things to finish up," She said in a small voice.

"Everything will be all right, you'll see." He patted her on the arm and then turned around and walked away. Cassandra watched him walking away before going to the makeup room to work.