Disclaimer: I am not Uncle Rick and I do not own the rights to these characters. I just ship them immensely.

A/N 1: As promised ;) Enjoy!

A/N 2: Sorry for the delay! I was moving into my dorm this weekend and didn't get around to completing ch6 as early as I had thought. Oh, and now that classes are starting I think updated chapters will have to be bumped back to biweekly or monthly depending on how much work I have :/ As an apology, this chapter is extra long! :D

The work weeks between Thalia and Zoë's winter vacation and spring break seemed to blur by them at an increasing speed the closer the Hollywood trip came. They made much progress toward the set, and their digital designs were finished just days before their flight.

Nearly giddy with excitement and yet exhausted from their workload, they arrived at the airport on the first day of vacation. Thalia did her best not to look like a curious, wide-eyed child, but she was interested to see if she might find a familiar face here. Zoë walked in front of Thalia and they got separated by a harried looking family of six just as they began to leave the airport lobby to board.

"Just couldn't stay away from my airplane, hmm?" said a familiar voice in a mock-seducing tone from behind Thalia. She snorted a laugh as she turned around to see a familiar blue-eyed, blonde-haired face.

"Was that as bad out loud as it sounded in my head?" Luke Castellan said with a grin, readjusting a bag on his shoulder. There was a cart beside him topped with unmatched luggage. And he was wearing another uniform that matched the Olympic Airway logo colors. He was wearing dark grey pants and a (non-shiny, thank goodness) yellow-gold vest with a white shirt beneath it and a sky blue tie and matching decals on the vest. The gold and blue colors enhanced Luke's bright blue eyes and made his hair seem even more vibrantly blonde. Not that Thalia was paying attention to that.

"Yeah, pretty much," Thalia said. "But it caught my attention." She smirked, then she pointed to the bag. "Working this time?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, I flew here from Chicago, and looks like we're going to Los Angeles today. Got any plans there?" He turned to add a few more bags to his cart.

"My coworker and I are researching set designs for a play, so we're going to have a look around Hollywood for inspiration," Thalia said. "At least, that's the story we told our boss," she said with a grin.

Luke shared the smile. "I see. Well I should probably get these to the plane or else I'm going to have some unhappy passengers. Have fun in Hollywood, Thalia." He winked before he left, and Thalia watched him with a hidden smirk. When he vanished down another hallway she made her way to the plane, grimacing when Zoë gave her a look as she took her seat closest to the aisle.

"Spill." Zoë's icy gaze was nearly menacing, but there was a girlish playfulness to it. Thalia had never seen her that interested in men, but she still had an instinct for gossip.

"Spill what?" Thalia said innocently, removing headphones from her pocket.

"You're late to your seat and your cheeks are flushed because something happened and you're horrible at keeping things from me," Zoë said, studying Thalia's face with scrutiny. How was she always so right?

"It's nothing. I'll tell you later." Thalia shrugged and put the headphones in, trying to relax and forget she was on a plane while listening to some hard rock. When the plane took off and steadied in the air high above New York, a petite blonde flight attendant was beginning to come around to check if anyone wanted drinks or snacks. Thalia noticed that only she and another girl, a brunette, were assigned to this section of the plane. She abandoned the thought during the turbulence, ignoring Zoë's mocking of her fear of heights (You're a lighting and set designer, for crying out loud! Catwalks are your friend!), and attempted to get some sleep.

After an hour, Zoë got up and made her way to the front of the plane to go to the restroom. The brunette flight attendant passed Zoë with a silver tray topped with two slender glasses in her hand and began to walk down the aisle toward their seats. Suppressing a giggle and looking at Thalia with unnaturally sparkling green eyes, the girl stopped at their row. "For you and your friend, from an anonymous someone," she said in a soft voice. She winked and departed as soon as the silver tray was in Thalia's curious fingers. With her sole focus the glasses before her, Thalia thought she recognized something about them. She lifted one of the glasses and could smell the liquid inside as it neared her face. Champagne. She smiled slightly, taking a slow sip. Just what I thought. It was the same brand of champagne that Luke had sent to her and her father when they had met by chance at the restaurant her first night back in Manhattan.

Wedged between the champagne glasses at the bottom of the tray, hardly noticeable, was a slender piece of paper. It was blank on the top, but when Thalia lifted it curiously, the paper revealed an address and time written in pen on the back side. A restaurant in Los Angeles, no doubt, that . When Zoë returned, Thalia handed her the second glass of champagne, but had already hidden away the note and gave Zoë the excuse that she had asked for the glasses herself, needing something to relax her mind. She could tell that her friend was skeptical, but accepted it without a word anyway.

When the flight finally landed in Los Angeles, Thalia and Zoë hurried out to drink it all in. They made it out of the airport in less than an hour and took a shuttle to a car rental company so they would have their own transportation for the trip. Zoë drove, and Thalia used that time to research the address that was on the card. It was a fairly upscale restaurant, and she started planning what she would wear. It was a good thing she had packed a dress, despite not thinking initially that she would wear it.

Zoë pulled into the parking lot of their hotel with a low whistle. "Wow, you did good Thals." There was a man waiting at the entrance of the parking lot for valet. Zoë pulled up to him and handed him the keys before helping Thalia with the luggage. They checked in quickly and used the elevator to reach their second floor room. As soon as they got inside, Thalia immediately unpacked her suitcase.

"Where's the fire?" Zoë said with a laugh, barely closing the door by the time Thalia's suitcase was open. She found the remote and began flipping channels on her bed, her unopened suitcase beside her.

Thalia finished putting away her clothes, all except for a black dress. It was formal enough without being too fancy for the occasion.

"Whoa, hold on. What are you changing for? We literally just got here! And you were about to spill your guts to me on the plane, remember? I deserve an explanation," Zoë said, suddenly catching on that Thalia wasn't telling her something.

Thalia frowned. She gave a dramatic sigh. "Alright, as long as I can borrow the car for a couple hours tonight?" Her voice rose in pitch with a pleading tone toward the end of the question. She smiled innocently at Zoë, and gave her a pout for good measure. When Zoë finally relented with a wave of her hand, Thalia sat down at the edge of her bed and explained her tale. Zoë never interrupted her, but there was mild excitement for her friend on her face when Thalia reached the current events.

"Well well. So you weren't just trying to do some work research on this trip, were you?" Zoë's eyebrow was quirked, bu the inquiry was playful.

Thalia smiled from the corner of her lips. She shrugged. "Not entirely. I may have been hoping to bump into him. But don't worry, we've got a lot to do here as well, just the two of us." Zoë was worryingly silent, but then she broke out into uncharacteristic giggles. "Well you go get yourself a man, honey! He sounds like a keeper." She winked and gave a sweeping motion to the door with her outstretched arm.

Now it was Thalia's turn to give a surprising giggle. She snatched up the dress and was all set in less than a half hour, with some tips from Zoë every now and then on how to look subtly attractive-a subject that Zoë knew quite a lot about for someone with zero dating experience. She had about a half hour to pace the room in a haze of giddiness and nervousness.

"Hey, at least you're wearing a black dress. That way, if you spill anything on it, it won't show up," Zoë was saying, attempting to distract her. Thalia gave a short, distracted, breathy laugh. Zoë frowned with a hmph and held up Thalia's handbag. "Alright, off you go now. Not eagerly early, but not unfashionably late, either. Go get 'em, tiger."

Thalia nodded and left the room, wondering on the elevator ride why she was so nervous. She was Thalia Grace. She didn't get nervous at the drop of a hat. You've got it bad, girl. Keep it together. She shrugged the bad angel off of her shoulder and tilted her chin up, feigning confidence as she strode out to the lobby and requested that the valet pull the car around. The car ride itself was quick and almost too quiet, and she was glad to hear soft chattering as she stepped across the threshold from the cool weather outside to the warm restaurant inside. Before the waitress at the front entrance caught her attention, Thalia looked for a familiar face. A hand beckoned from just behind the waitress, the person it belonged to in just the right line of sight to catch anybody entering the establishment. Here we go. No turning back. She strode past the waitress, who had just realized that she was there and was about to open her mouth to address Thalia, and put on a polite smile as she neared the table.

"I was beginning to wonder if I'd scared you off," Luke said easily, standing from his own seat to greet her, and to help Thalia into her seat.

Thalia laughed, hoping that none of her anxiety had gotten past her lips. "I was just hoping that the note was from you," she replied.

"Oh?"

Thalia could just feel the heat and color rising in her once-pale cheeks. She stammered a response, but gave up when Luke chuckled lightheartedly, taking his seat across from her. She forced herself to relax.

"I hope you don't mind that I've already ordered an appetizer for us," Luke said, his voice smooth. He smiled when Thalia nodded approvingly.

"And let me guess, champagne?" She smirked playfully, calling out his motif. Just as the words left her voice, their waiter appeared with a plate of oysters in one hand and a silver tray in the other bearing an unopened bottle of champagne and two crystal flutes.

"Am I getting predictable already? I'll have to switch it up next time."

"Next time, as in a second date?"

"Well I wasn't going to ask so quickly, but now that you mention it, I would be honored." The waiter straightened after pouring their drinks, giving them dinner menus, and Luke thanked him as he departed.

Thalia laughed, looking up at him. "That's not what I meant."

Luke smirked as he met her eyes, sending a small, not necessarily unwanted, shiver down Thalia's spine, and said, "I know."

Thalia's blush returned and she picked up her menu, clearing her throat. "So, have you been here before? What's good?" She rubbed the back of her ear with a nervous finger. Stop it. You're twenty six, not sixteen. Act like it! Thalia reached out for an oyster and looked back at Luke, who was still smirking, but at the menu now.

"I've been here once or twice through past flights. Their seafood entrees are award winning, although I've yet to have it," was his reply, his smile sobering. He also reached out for an oyster, and his hand brushed hers, and she swore it was intentional, before he placed the oyster shell on his plate.

[To be continued. I have several chapters in mind for this story, so we'll see where it goes!]

Please follow and review! This is my first published fic, so I'd love some feedback! Critiques are welcome, rudeness is not.

A/N 3: Finally time for some Thaluke, I thought. What do you guys think? I don't know when I'll get the next chapter up, but hopefully it will be soon! Thank you again to all of my followers! Bear with me as I settle in! :)