Axel refers to my house as a castle, but the Sultanas' house quite literally resembles a palace, with a domed Arabian-esque roof and two turrets. It's somewhat out of place between several houses that resemble more traditional castles.

I pause at the door, wondering if Jasmine's father will be as strict with me as my father is with Aqua's dates – and now Axel, unfortunately. I wouldn't require looming threats to treat Jasmine respectfully, but I am still slightly intimidated by the possibility that her father might act like mine. However much I understand wanting to be protective, I don't enjoy the thought of being on the receiving end.

I straighten my collar with one hand, the other clasped tightly around a small bouquet of flowers – jasmine flowers. I hope she'll appreciate the irony and not find it insulting. It is considered proper to give your date flowers, right? Zack liked to bring Aqua flowers.

I knock on the door, taking a startled step back when it flings open mid-knock.

"Why hello, dear boy!" A hand grasps mine – damaging the flowers I'm holding – and pumps it up and down with as much energy as the voice. Blinking quickly, I look down and see that both belong to a somewhat short and round man. "Come in, come in!"

He practically drags me into the house, where Jasmine is petting a giant cat (assumedly Rajah) and looking simultaneously amused and exasperated.

"Don't scare him, Father," she says. I don't see much family resemblance between them.

"Of course not! I wouldn't scare the first boy you've accepted all year!"

I raise my eyebrows in slight surprise. I know Jasmine can be picky, but am I really special enough for her father to make such a fuss?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, er… Sia–Six–Sss…" Mr. Sultana snaps his fingers in thought.

"Saïx," I say.

"Saïx, yes, of course! A handsome name for a handsome young man."

Jasmine giggles as she rolls her eyes, approaching us with Rajah at her heels. "You're embarrassing him."

Now that she points it out, my face feels warm. This escapade is already off to a far-too-interesting start… And I've neglected the proper formalities.

"I'm pleased to see you, Jasmine." I hold out what's left of the flowers, not-quite-lying. I could be in a far worse situation; I could've been stuck with one of the Bimbette triplets. At least Jasmine is intelligent… And all things considered, she isn't very obnoxious unless I'm ignoring her.

She sniffs the blossoms and smiles. "It's nice to see you too. I suppose these are your sense of humor?" She gives the flowers a small shake, accidentally making a few white petals fall. I shrug and hope she meant that in a positive connotation.

"Thank you for allowing me to date your daughter." I give Mr. Sultana a respectful nod.

"Thank you, Saïx, for having the patience to put up with her-"

"Father!" Jasmine exclaims.

"Well, you're not always compliable-"

While they argue, Rajah rubs his cantaloupe-sized head against my leg, purring contentedly. I smile at him and scratch his neck, and he rolls over at my feet.

"Aww, Rajah likes you," Jasmine coos, rubbing the tabby's stomach. "He must not believe the werewolf rumors."

I snort but smile just a little. "I doubt he's heard them, unless you have been spreading them around."

Before Jasmine can make some witty reply, Mr. Sultana takes the flowers from Jasmine to place in a vase and shoos us out the door.

"Go on, go on! Have fun, you don't want to sit around this old place all day! Goodbye!"

The door shuts loudly, leaving us alone under the porch and cloudy sky – Jasmine's thin sweater doesn't look like it will offer much protection if it starts to snow.

"We're going ice skating. Do you believe that's warm enough?" I ask, gesturing to her clothing, and she frowns.

"That's the first thing you're going to say about how I look?" She puts a hand on her hip.

"It wasn't about how you look; it was about your health. There's no reason to let yourself freeze."

"Hmm… I can count on you to keep me warm, can't I?" She smiles coyly, slipping her arm through the cook of mine.

"If you fail to do so yourself, I suppose I have no choice." I pause, smelling the jasmine still lingering around us. It's stronger than before; possibly she has perfume as well. "…You do look nice," I say to correct my earlier tactlessness.

The smile now on her face looks even nicer than her silky clothing. "And you're very handsome, Saïx."

I do my best not to react, but my face warms. I'm not used to receiving compliments like that. Not that I mind them.

"Aren't you going to get me out of the cold?" Jasmine teases when I don't reply. I cough once.

"Yes. My father would like to meet you before we officially set out."

XXX

Jasmine talks most of the drive there, probably because she wants to take advantage of the two of us being together in a confined space.

"I'm sorry about my father," she says. "He doesn't mean to be rude, but he gets excited easily."

"I could tell," I reply evenly. My eyes are on the road, but I can feel her studying me out of the corner of my eye.

"What's your father like?"

I pause for a moment before answering. "He's stern but kind. A good father." 'Good' isn't a strong enough word to describe Eraqus Knight, but I'm not comfortable saying exactly how much I appreciate and respect him to anyone outside of my family.

"He sounds like he might be like you."

I glance at her, momentarily distracted from the road. "How did you come up with that idea?"

"I just get that feeling." She shrugs. Her father isn't anything like her; why does she automatically assume that I am like mine? As much as I wish it were true…

"He is kinder than I am," I mumble.

She leans over and places a hand on my shoulder, her seat belt not hindering her enough. "I know you're kind. You just waste too much time pretending to be all grumpy and annoyed at everyone."

The only other person to say something that blunt about me was Axel. How could she see through me so easily? Perhaps I need to start paying the same level of attention to her.

Her hand isn't uncomfortable on my shoulder, and it isn't too distracting from my driving, so I don't shrug her off.

"…I don't really annoy you, do I?" Jasmine asks.

I pause. She's distracting in class, but… That's not really her fault. It's mine. I should be focused enough to avoid distractions, even when she does go a little far to get my attention. That's not entirely an annoyance with her, though, more of an annoyance at myself.

"No," I answer. I realize that her presence isn't actually annoying at all. Maybe tonight won't be completely unbearable.

Jasmine smiles, and we fall into silence for a few minutes, during which I force myself to focus on my surroundings rather than on trying to decode what she might be thinking about. We finally reach the edge of town, where fountains and gardens blend into forested mountains.

Jasmine removes her hand from my shoulder to push a button on the radio, letting out a loud blast of some obnoxious pop song.

"Turn that off," I tell her, grimacing in physical pain.

She smiles in spite of my clear discomfort and turns it louder. "For being in choir, you don't seem to enjoy music."

"This is not music." I change the station to a soothing classical melody. "I have no issue with something of this sort."

But Jasmine isn't listening now; she's shuffling through the stack of CD cases in the center console. "Sooo, you like Shimomura and Disney?" She teases.

"It's better than the deplorable excuse for music on most radio stations." I try not to sound too defensive.

"I knew you enjoyed our last recital." She smiles smugly. "You sang louder on "A Whole New World" than you do most of the time."

"So did you." Not the most creative reply, but it draws the attention away from me.

"It's my favorite song." As if I wasn't already aware of that; I hear her hum it almost every day in Trigonometry.

"Disk two, track seven," I say without looking at her.

"Hm?"

"You may listen to it, if you like."

I catch her smiling out of the corner of my eye as she inserts the disk. "I suppose you have some cover-up excuse for why you know the exact track number?"

This will be a long night if I keep trying to protect my dignity. She seems intent on exposing my "secrets" anyway.

"Do you expect me to?" I ask, and she shrugs.

"You've made a habit of it." "A Whole New World" begins to play from the car's speakers.

"Well I don't," I reply bluntly.

Jasmine accepts this with a grin, humming along to the song as I follow Departure Drive, the winding road that leads to my house, up the hill.

"Unbelievable sights, indescribable feeling…"

I don't mind that much when Jasmine sings out loud, but the fact that she sings only to the female parts creates a slightly odd-sounding effect. She must notice this too, because she says, "I can't sing it all by myself."

"Of course not. It's a duet." Obviously, it's not meant to be sung alone.

"Exactly." She smiles. I glance at her in puzzlement before returning my eyes to the road.

"Is that your way of asking me to sing with you?"

She sighs. "Is that your way of saying no?"

"…Not while I'm driving," I answer, not wanting to offend her. She looks a little offended anyway, her lips curved downwards.

"You're good at making excuses," she says grumpily. "Were you being honest when you said I don't annoy you?"

I grimace internally. Again, I haven't meant to be rude… I wish I had listened to Axel's advice. Or at least asked Aqua for some insider's knowledge on girls. Even if I'm mostly doing this to keep an eye on Axel and Xion, that's no reason to mistreat Jasmine. I could be somewhat less aloof towards her.

"That wasn't an excuse; that was honesty. I need to focus on driving," I say. She still doesn't look satisfied, so I sigh through my nose. "I apologize for sounding rude."

That makes her expression soften a little, but not all the way. "So when we get there you'll have fun and stop looking like you're in pain?"

"I don't look like that." But when I check my face in the rearview mirror, I see a static scowl.

"Yes you do. Do you even know how to smile?"

…This really will be a long night. Maybe I was wrong when I said she wasn't annoying. "Yes."

"Then show me."

By that time we're in the driveway, so I manage to get out of a response for now.

"After you've met my father."

XXX

"So you are the elusive Jasmine Sultana," Father says once Jasmine and I are seated on the couch across from him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." She nods respectfully, then smiles at me from the corner of her mouth. "So he's mentioned me before?"

"A few times, in passing." Father smiles, and I'm thankful that he hasn't explained exactly what I said about 'that distracting girl who put pencils in my hair.' "Thank you for taking the time to put up with him."

"Father…" This is too similar to what Jasmine had to endure from her father, if on a lesser scale.

"He's not too insufferable." She's teasing me by using that word, the same way Axel and my siblings enjoy doing.

"May we have permission to leave now?" I ask, forcing myself to keep still. Axel, Xion, and the others are likely already at the ice skating rink, and I don't want to leave them unsupervised for too long. Well, they have Aqua, but she is more easily distracted by Terra than I am by Jasmine.

Father looks at me curiously. "If you are that eager to be dismissed, you may go." Father stands, the signal that we may rise as well, and shakes Jasmine's hand. "I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to get to know you better. We would be happy to have you and your family over for dinner sometime."

"I'd be honored," Jasmine replies. "You do have a nice son, you know."

Father smiles like he already considers her one of his daughters. I should have foreseen the consequences of this; even if I stay hidden from Axel and Xion tonight, they'll eventually find out. But it's too late to go back now.

"I'm glad you can see the good in him," Father says to Jasmine.

"I'd rather you not talk about me like I'm not here," I mumble, trying not to look too impatient.

"We were saying nice things about you, at least," Jasmine replies with a smile, hand hovering close to mine. I take it, since that seems to be the expected action.

"I appreciate that," I admit. Her hand is oddly soft; I doubt she's ever performed physical labor.

"Have a nice evening," Father says, walking us out the door. "And remember your manners, Saïx."

"I will." I've been sadly failing in that capacity so far. I will have to remedy that if I want to keep this date from ending in horrible disaster.

"Thank you, Mr. Knight." Jasmine waves.

I grab my heavy coat on the way out, with the sense that I'm suiting up for battle.