Diamond paced to and fro in her house, checking the clock every five minutes, and her pocket mirror every two. She had to make sure everything was perfect; anything less and the whole day would be ruined. Her makeup; perfect, her hair—top notch. Her clothes... well, they were about as simple as she dared make them, but it was just Scoots.

She hit herself gently. It was a date with Scoots. But, then again, they weren't going anywhere, and it wasn't like she had to wear a dress or a ball gown in her own house. Casual wear seemed the most appropriate. She gripped the hem of her tee shirt and pulled it down over her midriff. It stopped just above the waistline of her jeans, leaving her navel exposed, and a deeper neck line than usual displayed a healthy line between her breasts. She chewed her bottom lip. Maybe it was too revealing. Maybe Scoots was traditional, and would think she was trying to seduce him.

She considered the possibility. Her opening the door, his eyes roving over her body, drinking her in, stepping into her house and forcing her to step back into the foyer, pressing the advantage and kicking the door shut with his foot. He would keep going until her back was up against the wall, then he would grab her shoulders, pull himself close so their bodies were touching, and lean his head down for a kiss.

Shaking herself out of her most recent fantasy, Tiara's face flushed as she resumed her pacing motions. Calm down, Tiara, it's just a date. He's not expecting THAT and even if he was, you're not that kind of girl.

You absolutely WANT to be, though.

She groaned at that last part. Maybe she should go change.

No, she shook her head. This was Scoots. He wouldn't care what she wore, maybe he wouldn't think anything of it. It was just a movie, she and the crusaders had done this a half dozen times before, just, never alone. That's all this was; Scoots coming over to hang out, nothing more.

She groaned and put her hands on the side of her head. Except it was something more, wasn't it? There was a very real possibility that this could put them into a very real, very romance-based relationship, rather than their current platonic friendship.

She realised she hadn't been looking at the clock. She cast her eyes to one side, and found it was 5:30. Cursing, her pacing grew a bit more frantic. Tiara chewed her nails, but stopped when she realised she was at very real danger of ruining her perfect manicure.

Forcing herself to stop, Diamond took a deep breath. Yes, this was a date. Yes, this was a date with her semi-long term crush Scoot. Or, one semi long-term crush. But the worst thing that could possibly happen was that they parted that day as friends, and nothing more. Her feelings for him could be laid to rest, as well as the annoying, ever present desire to just drop to her knees whenever he so much as smiled in her direction—

A knock at the door shattered her from her musings of her bodily position relative to his, and she looked towards the door in panic. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she rushed towards the white door, smoothing down her hair, fixing her clothes, and taking a deep breath before opening the door with a smile.

Scoots stood on the other side, wearing an orange bomber vest, salmon coloured undershirt, and matching orange shorts. He was an eyesore to say the least, but with his hair colour matching his shirt, it was a rather fetching sort of eyesore. She smiled even wider when she saw that, in one hand, was a grocery bag full of various snack foods.

He waved. "Hey, T." He hefted the bag. "I bought snacks, some soda, and," he held up his other hand, where a DVD case was pressed between his thumb and forefinger. He twisted his hand, and the case morphed into two. "Two movies. Action, and rom-com."

Tiara tilted her head. "Two?"

"Well, you know," He tilted his head to and fro. "I know you like rom coms, but I'm mostly about the action, so." He shrugged. "Something for both of us."

Diamond smiled at his thoughtfulness, and stepped to one side for him to enter. "Well, let's go ahead and get the rom-com out of the way first, I don't want to torture you for too long," she quipped.

Scoots made a face. "Ugh, fine."

"Think of it like a band-aid," she said, nudging him as they walked past the stairs, and into her open plan living/kitchen area. "Rip it off now, or suffer later."

"I guess." He looked down at her with a grin. "Totally not because you don't want to sit through Mad Max, huh?"

"Ugh." Tiara echoed his noise, rolled her eyes, and detached from his side. "I'll grab a bowl or two for the snacks. You put on the movie," she said.

He nodded, and strolled over to where her large TV was mounted on the wall. She stepped around the obsidian-topped counter, opened her cupboards, and picked out a lime green plastic bowl for the popcorn, and a pink one for the pretzels. Walking back over to the couch, she found that Scoots had situated himself square against one of the arms, and motioned for her to join him. The two seater was rather small, and she put the bowls on the glass coffee table before sitting down next to him.

He picked up the remote, hit play, and popped the bags open, pouring the pretzels into the lime bowl, and the popcorn into the pink. He picked up a few kernels of popcorn and popped them into his mouth, starting to crunch.

Tiara settled herself into the couch, picked up a pretzel, and began nibbling on it as the opening logos gave way to the opening scene of the movie.

Scoots said he didn't like the romantic movies, but Tiara saw him watching intently. Even more so than her. He would never admit it to anyone, but what he really liked in a film was a good story, not just explosions and action, not thrilling chases and mystery. Which is why, in this story of unrequited love across two different couples in two separate continents, he was thoroughly engrossed.

Around halfway through, Tiara found she was inching herself closer during the more romantic scenes. A heartfelt confession in the rain had her place a hand on his knee. He looked down at it, and simulated a yawn, before throwing his arm over the back of the couch. He looked at it, then at Tiara, and moved it a bit so he was closer to her.

She looked at him. "Really? The yawn and arm thing?" She looked at him. "That's the most date-y thing you've done so far," she ribbed him gently. "I give you points for the classical approach."

He sighed and leaned forward a bit. "Sorry, I'm just not good with romance."

"You asked me out, you know," Diamond said with a good-natured smile.

He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yeah, it seemed like the cool thing to do." His eyes went wide as he fully grasped the implications of what he'd just said. "N-not that I mean that in a pity-date sort of way," he quickly said to her. "Like, I thought it would make me look cool, but that's not to say I don't want to date you! I really like you! I mean, well—"

Tiara took pity on the poor boy, and placed two delicate fingers over his lips to silence him. "It was incredibly suave." She leant in and placed a kiss on his cheek. "And I appreciated it."

"Suave," Scoots tested the word and looked away from her, brows furrowing as he adorably attempted to parse the word with its meaning in his head. Eventually he gave up, and looked back at her with an expectant, quirked eyebrow. "That means cool, right?"

Tiara put a hand in front of her lips and giggled behind it. "Yes it means cool," she said, before resting her head on his shoulder.

He hesitated for a split second before wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Thanks," he said.

Tiara bit her lip. Resting her head on his bicep, she could really feel how toned he was. The definition of his muscles—she shifted in place and pressed her ear to his shirt. The thumb of his heartbeat was like a bass drum. She gulped nothing but air, as her mouth had suddenly gone very dry. She licked her lips, and shifted in her seat.

"You know..." Tiara began, her hands shaking slightly. Scoots looked down at her, and she looked up at him with an odd glint in her eyes. "This doesn't have to be any different than any other time we hang out, if you're nervous."

He gulped as well, and cleared his throat. "Yeah, but it's just us, and it's meant to be a date."

"So what?" Diamond said. "That doesn't mean we have to be nervously batting our eyelashes at each other, we're just best friends watching a movie."

Scoots considered it for a moment, before nodding. "I guess. It just doesn't feel like a date," he said, scratching at a piece of lint on his shorts.

Diamond stroked his chest, and he looked down at her hand with a sharp, surprised twist of his head.

"I know how to fix that." Diamond purred.

Scoots clenched his jaw. "How?" He stammered. Diamond pretended to ignore it.

"Well, it's a movie date, so, we get to make out during the boring parts," she said.

Scoots flushed, and took a look at the screen. The two characters were in the middle of a rather passionate kiss themselves, and he could see Diamond's eyes; deep pools that drew his attention back to them, out of the corner of his vision.

He shrugged, and looked back at her with a wry little grin. "The whole movie is kinda boring, you know."

Diamond's smile grew to an almost predatory sort of grin, one that made Scoots think he had just walked right into her machinations. "Well," she purred, stroking his chest a little. "What are we waiting for, then?"

Scoots drifted closer, closing the gap between them in an instant. He cupped Diamond's face with a gentle hand, and placed a kiss upon her soft lips. She melted into his embrace, throwing her hands around his head, and cradling him close. Her lips parted, and with a laboured breath their tongues mingled with each other. She felt an incredibly sweet taste wash over her tongue, and all of a sudden her every thought was consumed with the wonderful man in front of her.

She growled into his mouth and pushed him back into the couch, straddling his waist and placing both of her hands on his cheeks, and attacking his lips with even greater ferver. Scoots let out a rumbling purr, and his hands trailed over her shoulders, down her sides, and landed squarely on her hips.

Tiara broke the kiss as the need to breathe over rode her desire to keep her lips against his. He opened his eyes and looked up at her.

Diamond reached back and undid the hair tie on her ponytail. "Now does it feel like a date?" She asked, her hair cascading down to her shoulders.

Scoots smiled, his hands cupped her ass, and he nodded. "Definitely."

They lunged at each other for another kiss, and the movie was left forgotten in the background.

Author's Note

IT'S ALIVE! I T ' S A L I V E !