"So, how did today go?" asked Fitz so quietly that only Gigi could hear him. He downshifted and looked back at Lizzie and Darcy in the rear view mirror.

Gigi wasn't sure how to answer. She thumbed through the photos on her phone.

"I think it's going well. Lizzie is a little hard to read, but she hasn't strangled Will yet so I feel like we're making progress."

Fitz glanced at her. That didn't sound great considering the progress they thought they'd been making with the Tiger and Eagle.

"I'm pretty sure they passed the strangulation phase a couple weeks ago."

Gigi wasn't ready to assume anything. Sure Lizzie's emotions were easy to read sometimes, but Gigi also knew she was stubborn. Gigi was confident that Lizzie was finally seeing the real Will, but she didn't know if it would be enough to actually change her opinion.

"I don't know Fitz. They're both just so...cautious around each other. It's impossible to know how either of them feel at this point."

Lizzie and Darcy probably would have been fine sitting in companionable silence in the back of the car if it hadn't been for the frantic mutterings of Fitz and Gigi up front. It was fairly obvious that they were not being included in the converstion for a reason. Lizzie looked over at Darcy who was staring hard at his hands clasped together in his lap. He chuckled lightly when Fitz said something about the Eagles majestic migration.

Lizzie wasn't one to sit around being talked about. At least not when she couldn't hear what exactly was being said.

"What are you two conspiring about?" asked Lizzie.

"Uh - uh, I was just telling Fitz how hilarious it was when you saw the Bushman and screamed bloody murder," said Gigi quickly.

"Wait, what? Of all the things you could do, you guys took her to see the Bushman!?" asked Fitz in disbelief.

Gigi glared at him.

"I mean – yeah Gigi was totally telling me all about the Bushman."

Gigi could see her brother cover his face with his hand, shaking his head. Okay so she and Fitz had a few communication problems to work out still. They were working on it. Fitz refused to let go of the Bushman thing.

"Could you not have done something a little more impressive," Fitz said, raising his eyebrows at Darcy in the mirror.

While Fitz hadn't been the greatest wingman in the past, he would at least have managed to avoid that tourist stop. Scaring the shit out of the person you were supposedly in love with was not a wise move. Fitz may or may not have known from experience.

Lizzie felt an inexplicable need to defend the Bushman.

"It was actually good," said Lizzie. "It was nice to see something so uniquely San Francisco. It said a lot about the city."

Okay. That wasn't exactly what she meant. Maybe Darcy's inability to express himself was starting to rub off on her.

"What I mean to say is it made me look at the city in a different light. It was…it was very enlightening."

She hoped that the car was getting dark enough that no one could see the color rising in her cheeks. She hoped it wasn't too obvious that she wasn't really talking about the city. Sure the Bushman incident didn't seem like that big of a deal to Fitz. But it meant something to her. It meant something to her perception of Darcy.

They had been getting along better the past week, but Lizzie had still been holding Darcy at a distance. It wasn't until that conversation after the Bushman that she realized how debilitating that distance had been, or how many preconceived notions she had developed.

More than anything, it had made her realize how little she knew about Darcy.

Not that she was about to try to explain that to anyone. She was still trying to figure out what it all meant in her own head. If only her red face wasn't so determined to betray her.

"Okay well I'm glad that your run-in didn't tarnish your perception of the city – or its citizens," this time Fitz frowned at Gigi.

As they got closer to Chinatown, the streets began to feel more urban. The buildings were much taller, the store fronts were crammed tighter and the air was dense with louds honks. Lizzie leaned back into her seat enjoying the sights and sounds of the city she had grown to love.

"Oh! Parking spot!" yelled Gigi, pointing at an empty spot on the other side of the street.

Fitz performed what was likely a highly illegal turn in the middle of the street. Everyone in the car was sent careening to the right side of the vehicle. Lizzie grabbed the back of Gigi's chair and Darcy's arm flew across Lizzie's abdomen to keep her from slamming into the door.

Fitz righted the car and expertly parallel parked before Lizzie was able to absorb what had happened. Darcy had already removed his arm, but she could feel where his arm had been like she had been burned.

"Smooth move Fitz," muttered Darcy.

Darcy's arm had been so surprising and weirdly reassuring. Lizzie found herself missing the pressure when it went away as quickly as it had appeared. God, what had got into her?

Lizzie composed herself, perfectly okay with the incident passing without any mention by either her or Darcy. But she then she saw that he hand landed in midway in the seat between them. Before she even realized what she was doing, she reached out and lightly touched his forearm.

"Hey, thanks," she said as lightly as she could. She didn't want to make a thing out of it, but she also was sick of letting things pass without any acknolwedgment. Communication was key.

Darcy wasn't sure how to react, but he managed to compose a smile before Lizzie stepped out of the card and joined Gigi and Fitz outside. The group crossed the darkening street. The sun had begun to set and lights were flickering on in the windows of the apartment buildings,

There was a line outside the restaurant. A red velvet rope kept the crowd out front in an organized line against the brick façade.

"Don't let the rope lure you into thinking we're treating you to a fancy dinner," muttered Gigi. "They don't even take reservations."

They got in the back of the the line behind four or five other parties. Lizzie peered through the restaurant window. Not that there was much to look at. Two smallish rooms packed to the brim with people in metal chairs. The walls were sparse to say the least. It certainly wasn't what Lizzie had been expecting.

But the real surprise was that they were somewhere where they had to wait. Outside. In the cold.

The sun was setting behind the buildings and they were waiting in that weird twilight where the temperature dropped 25 degrees in a matter of minutes.

Darcy noticed Lizzie tighten her arms across her chest.

He had been so excited about of his choice of restaurant that he hadn't considered the wait outside. He began unbuttoning his jacket when Fitz turned to Lizzie.

"Hey LA girl, you okay over there? You need to borrow my jacket until we get inside?" Darcy wasn't sure whether to laugh at the irony or punch Fitz in the arm.

Lizzie shook her head and smiled. She assured Fitz that she could handle the cold like a big girl. Darcy couldn't tell if she was being polite or stubbornly independent. Either way he could practically see her knees knocking. This was absurd. But he couldn't offer his jacket now.

He couldn't help but think that Fitz was unconsciously sabotaging any chance he had with Lizzie. Sure, that was dramatic, but dramatic times called for blaming dramatic wing men who threw wrenches into everything.

He knew he could still give her his jacket, insist that she take it, but he still wasn't confident in navigating what Lizzie wanted. He assumed he was going to make a fool of himself. It was something he was still working on, however slowly.

Instead he subtly stepped between Lizzie and the windy street. He stood much closer now, but he hoped that he was at least blocking some of the wind without being too obvious.

Lizzie noticed.

She wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose, but she was grateful all the same. She leaned in to him ever so slightly as if to say thank you, just in case. It was completely involuntary. It was as if their bodies were developing a sort of rhythm while their verbal communciation struggled to catch up.

Gigi continued to fill Fitz in on their adventure, although she had kept him pretty much up to date with a constant stream of texts while it had been happening.

He played dumbed pretty well until he let it slip that he didn't "get" people who ate ice cream out of the cup. Gigi tried to cover for him by pretending to have lost her contact only to find it in the corner of her eye 20 seconds later.

Finally they were ushered into the restaurant. Lizzie ended up at the front of the group, bumping between crowded tables as she tried to keep up with the light-footed hostess. They were seated at a table in the corner near the window. It was actually a long table half of which was already occupied by a loud of family of six\.

Lizzie had barely sat down, with Darcy next to here and Gigi and Fitz across from them, when their hostess handed them each a menu. She had about 30 seconds to study it before it was snatched back out of her hands. Darcy was holding up four fingers and was practically shouting to be heard over the din of the family next to them.

Lizzie stared at the departing hostess in confusion. Her hand was reaching out to take the menu back, but the hostess was already gone.

She tried to remember if she had ordered without realizing it. No.. No. She definitely had not ordered anything. Lizzie had a thing about picking out her food. She liked to do it.

"Sorry, I probably should have warned you. The food is sort of set here. The menus are more for appearances, a formality," Darcy said.

"How can food be 'sort of' set," she asked warily. No. She did not like the sound of that.

"You tell them how many people are in your party and they order for you. Apparently it's the charm of the place," said Fitz, forming air quotes with his hands.

"Come on Fitz, don't tell me you haven't tried some delicious new dishes here."

"Yeah, I've also had some mystery food that I still can't quite figure out."

"We've gone over this. They were mushrooms."

"No, you just want you to think that they were mushrooms."

Darcy looked over at Lizzie who looked far from convinced.

"Remember how I asked if you trusted my choice of restaurants?"

She nodded

"Well, try and trust me just a little longer. Please?"

Lizzie realized just how closely they were sitting. Darcy had to lean in so she could hear him over the din of the room. His warm breath brushed on her cheek.

At that moment she trusted him more than she ever had before. She knew it was just pheromones and not rational judgment. But where had rational judgment got her in the past?

It certainly had never landed her at a strange restaurant in an amazing city next to a surprisingly charming agoraphobic lobster with incredibly hot glasses.

It also hadn't allowed her to admit anything like that, even if it was just to herself.

"Okay," she said softly. Her voice surprised her with how open it sounded. The pheromones were definitely talking.