· Kali's POV

Weeks had passed since I had first met the others in Magix, and it had been two weeks since the disaster on Whisperia. I had been upset about what my mother had said, but I had pushed it into the back of my mind. Determined not to think about it. In an effort to (silently) rebel against my mother, I had made an effort to spend as much time as possible with the Winx kids. Male and female. As I had suspected she would, Lily quickly became my best friend. While I grew fond of Aria and Mira as well, although they were more feminine than I was used to. The same was true of the boys. Eric was like an older brother, always trying to keep things under control and Will was like a younger brother, reveling in the chaos. I also met Aaron, Aria's older brother, and Tanner.

Aaron was very mature and cool. He wore a black leather jacket, canvas shoes, and designer jeans most days. His style distant and mysterious, as he silently laughed at the other boys' antics from behind his expensive shades. Tanner was an absolute nerd, but in the best possible way. In a way that meant pop culture in-jokes, genius level intellect, and lame science puns. He wore jeans and science t-shirts over his lean, twiggy form, and smiled at the world… when he wasn't distracted by his video games. Sam was… Sam. He was one of my best friends, and we seemed to get closer all the time, quickly surpassing what was normal for 'friends.'

It was the easiest thing in the world to just hang out with them. Everyone comfortable, everything real, no fakeness to it. The other students, predictably, disapproved of our friendship, but the rest of the Winx didn't care what the other kids thought of them so long as they had each other, and I was far too powerful for the other witches to challenge. Eventually, I felt confident that this would all hit the fans, but for the time being I was glad to just enjoy the ride. It would certainly be a fun one up too, and after, that point.

We were all out at one of the many dance clubs in Magix. It was a Friday night, and Aria, Will, and I were out dancing on the floor. I lacked Aria's natural smoothness of motion and feel for the music, but I made up for that, to a limited extent, with the same grace and finesse that made me an excellent dueler. Aria was flirting with a boy now confidently, though I knew he wouldn't get far. She would string him along with the others and then leave them all high and dry soon enough. It was her nature. No one could keep her attention for long. Will and I on the other hand were dancing together comfortably, not so close as to be awkward, but close enough to ensure that none of the boys in the club who were eyeing me dared to approach.

I'll admit, I had been confused by the other girls' friendship with Will at first. With him being such a flirt, I had always imagined that they would be careful not to get too close, but Lily had soon explained it to me. Will was absolutely a player, and a flirt, and a heartbreaker, but he was undyingly loyal to and protective of his friends. I may have been fair game at the gala, but at this point, I was strictly off limits in his mind. To him, and to anyone else whom he didn't approve of. Last weekend, a guy had approached Mira in a way that she hadn't appreciated, and Will had all too cheerfully walked over and told the guy to back off. With one tall, muscular blonde in front of him, and two other boys rapidly approaching, a threatening brunette and a concerned ginger, the boy had hurried off with all possible haste. We had laughed about it later.

I soon caught Sam's eye from where he was sitting in a booth with Lily and Eric. He inclined his chin to the back exit so I separated from Will, Aria, and the rest of the crowd to follow him out. He was… striking in the moonlight. His face all luminescent eyes, and shadow covered skin. He turned to look at me and he smiled in that way he did. As if he knew something I didn't.

"Having fun?" He asked cutting through my thoughts. I nodded and smiled my eyes on the full moon up above. The full moon brilliant and white. He shifted a touch awkwardly behind me, and I realized that he was uncharacteristically nervous. Something was up.

"Sam?" I asked curiously, turning my face from the moon towards him, my voice a touch concerned. It wasn't like him to be unsure he was always so arrogantly sure of himself. The last time I had seen him so nervous had been at the end of the gala. A thought occurred to me.

He seemed to stare at me for a long moment, his eyes brushing over me. Finally he asked me, "I was wondering if you'd like to go to out with me, Sunday?" he said it smoothly false bravado in his tone. It surprised me for a moment and it occurred to me for the first time that I could hurt him. That he cared for me, and I could break that. Something to avoid. He started again, less confident, "You don't… have to, by any mea-"

I interrupted, "Sam." He paused decidedly awkward, and I had to resist the urge to giggle at him, it certainly wouldn't help his confidence at the moment. I would laugh with him about it later. "I would love to go out with you." I said sincerely, before letting my tone turn teasing, "I was wondering when you were going to ask me, actually. Were you a little nervous?"

He seemed relieved by my answer even though he glared at me for my ribbing for a moment. Then he just rolled his eyes and snarked back, "Sorry, your highness. I'll be sure to speed up the process next time."

I smiled and now I laughed brushing away the cobweb-like thoughts that hissed 'his pretty, new flavor-of-the-week.' I tucked myself under his arm comfortably; the both of us leaned up against the cold, stone walls of the alleyway. Perhaps not the most romantic place in the world, but with the memory of mist covered streets fresh in my mind's eye and the full moon shining down on us, it seemed to fit for us. A little world of our own, at least for the moment.

I glanced over at the big clock on the other side of the square again as I waited for Sam to show up. Rather than the traditional dinner-and-a-show date, he had told me to meet him here, in the square at two, although he refused to tell me what we would be doing.

Ok, I'll admit. I was pretty excited, a nice day, with a cute boy, on a (hopefully) fun date? Sounded like a good day to me. I was also… a little nervous, although I will never tell Sam that. I spent most of the morning trying to decide what to wear while the girls tried to get the identity of my 'mystery' date out of me. I obviously didn't tell them. If I had, they would have tried to prevent me from going out of some misguided attempt to protect me.

Assuming they didn't just get pissed at me for even agreeing to date a hero.

The boy had stubbornly refused to tell me where we were going so I had decided on a nice middle ground. A simple red sundress with a black belt, giving it an empire waist, along with a pair of nice red heels. Not so formal that they seemed out of place with the dress, but enough to dress up the outfit a little. A nice middle ground.

I tuned back into reality to see Sam heading towards me from across the square his outfit nice, but casual, a black backpack swung over his shoulder. We locked eyes and he gave me that obnoxious smile of his, pleased to see me while simultaneously looking arrogant. He's like that sometimes. I met him with a casual hug and I tucked my hand into the crook of his arm as we greeted each other and turned to head towards… wherever we were going.

"Hey, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long." He said with a more honest smile than earlier, and I just shook my head.

"Not too long." My tone laughing, as it usually was around him. "So, where are we going, anyway?" I asked my tone falsely casual.

"Now why would I tell you that?" he questioned. I glared, but decided not to deign that with a response. He knew perfectly well, what I was thinking. We walked a few blocks, close together, side by side, talking and laughing comfortably. He led us over to the park and I barely resisted the urge to ask, again, what we were doing here. He seemed to sense my curiosity and his smile widened arrogantly, but kindly.

We crossed the park over to the large, white band shell where an outdoor concert was about to begin. Obviously, that's what we're doing here. We weren't the only couple there; far from it. The ground was littered with couples and friends curled up on blankets. Sam swung his backpack off his shoulder and pulling a blanket from within, he grabbed a space for us. I smiled happily and sat down. The concert was nice. It was a beautiful day out, I was curled up on a blanket with a cute boy, a good band was playing in the background, and it was just happy. Innocently, gleefully, happy. We talked and we laughed, we listened to the music and I curled up under his arm, comfortably. That was one thing that decidedly characterized my time spent with him. Comfortable. To use the hackneyed expression, we were like two puzzle pieces; we just fit together. It seemed easy and natural to grab his hand or curl up next to him. I didn't feel nervous or awkward in the slightest and he always seemed pleased at my general proximity. A very easy, comfortable, genuinely happy relationship. Something I wasn't too used to.

The concert finished a little before five and we headed off to a restaurant. After a bit of debate on whether we were in the mood for Italian or Thai. Ultimately, we decided on the Italian with the unspoken consensus that if we went out together again we would try the Thai place. It was a nice little restaurant. It was a little too busy to be hometown, but a close approximate. We were escorted to a little booth in the back corner, and handed breadsticks by a waiter. He then rushed over to the next group of patrons. I ordered the traditional spaghetti and meatballs while he ordered the more obscure chicken toscano. (Part of me was suspicious that he only ordered the weird one in order to convince me to sample his food.)

"So we've talked about the hometowns, but I'm still not sure I know much about you…" Sam said suddenly. Half statement, half question.

I smiled, eager to talk to him. "Only if I can quiz you, too." I said a touch laughingly, and he nodded, agreeing to the terms. "What do you want to know?" I asked.

He paused, overdramatically, to think, "Are you a cat person or a dog person?"

"Dog" I answered easily, "Although, I've never actually had a pet."

He seemed surprised and a bit curious, "Why not?"

I shrugged not particularly concerned even though we were heading towards a rather sensitive subject. Family always was for me. "I don't know for sure, but I don't think my mother likes animals much. The one time I asked as a kid she just said no."

Oh, his face still seemed a little surprised and I resisted the urge to laugh at him a little. He was perhaps a bit too used to being spoiled rotten. (It was easy to tell that he was. A slightly arrogant, only child, and the heir to the throne. Spoiled wasn't a shocker.) 'That's too bad." He finally said.

"You?" I asked curiously. I could see him going either way with this question.

He shrugged, not too inclined one way or another. "My parents prefer dogs, and I like them fine, but I've always liked cats. They're a little less rambunctious."

My turn. I thought for a split second before questioning, "Favorite hobby?"

He laughed, "That's easy. I love to run, although I like watching movies and hanging with the guys too."

I smiled happy that our conversation wasn't too awkward. "For me it's reading, socializing, and movies, so we've got two out of three at least." I said, a little joking, a little serious.

"Are we keeping score now?" he asked just as joking as I was and I smiled pleased that he was willing to spar with me. We continued to talk and soon he was telling me a story about his childhood with Eric and Will. He leaned forward across the table his hands moving expressively as he told me. "… so we were on Solaria and we were being forced to take dance lessons. Now, I've had the 'importance of social events' drilled into my head since I was a kid, so I knew that learning to dance was important, but we all knew how already. I mean, honestly, we'd all only been to half a billion dances, balls, galas, and soirées…"

His hand was sitting on the table now as he continued with his story. I, oh so casually, put my hand up on the table next to his and he glanced down distracted for a moment. "And?" I asked, my tone ever-so innocent. He grabbed my hand in his and I intertwined our fingers while he continued with his story.

We walked hand in hand back across the square over to the bus stop where we had met earlier. It was six or so, just at sunrise, and the place was largely empty. Although, there was a familiar looking girl across the square. I couldn't quite recognize her, but I put it out of my mind when we ducked into the empty waiting area while we talked casually. It was the normal stuff. 'I had fun, we should do this again.' Things like that. I stood close to him, a little in his personal space as the bus turned the corner onto our street. He saw the bus at the same moment as I did and he seemed to realize that our time was swiftly coming to an end. He gave me a long, searching glance, and then slowly, so I could pull away if I wanted to, he leaned his face down towards mine, and kissed me sweetly. I smiled against his lips before we separated.

It seemed like a good day to me.

Author's Note

Alright, so I'm aware that the plot has been a little slow so far, but the first year is supposed to give you the general idea of the characters and why they are friends more so than give you the overarching plots. Things will speed up a bit in the next few episodes and change a lot in the first summer. I have the entire plot planned out for three years they are in school and the two summers in between so things are at least going somewhere. Also I will go back through to edit periodically so expect things to change on occasion. It won't be anything major, just grammar and word usage and the like.