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rapunzel

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He gives their first date a lot of thought. He talks to people. He does research. Finally, he manages to settle on a little Italian place that's got great ratings and reviews, that's fancy without being overbearing. He wants to give Rapunzel a chance to dress up, if she wants to. He doesn't have a suit made by her, yet, but he goes shopping again and finds a dark suit and shirt combo that he thinks works.

He's inexplicably nervous as he climbs the stairs to her apartment and knocks. In his hands, there's a bouquet of flowers, carefully chosen -- he'd gone with wildflowers in pinks and purples, flashes of yellow. They'd seemed more fitting for her than something more formal.

God, he wants this to go well.

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It took a little convincing, but Pascal agrees to stay home while Rapunzel goes on her date. He’s not particularly thrilled about it, but she knows that it’s just because he’s worried about her. She’s a little worried about herself, too.

But really, she’s mostly just excited. And a little nervous. This is only her second first date, after all.

She dresses up a little, adding sheer tights and a white cardigan to the dress for warmth. She does her hair in an intricate braid, weaving in baby’s breath and wildflowers, and keeps her make up neutral. She’s just pulling on a pair of purple flats when there’s a knock at the door, and Pascal hops over onto her shoulder as she stands.

“Be nice,” she reminds him, and Pascal grumbles as she heads over to open the door, smiling widely at the sight of Keys standing there, looking adorably nervous and holding flowers. “Hi! Come in.”

She opens the door and, for a moment, all that he can do is stare. He spends a lot of time with her but, usually, they're just hanging out and both of them are in more relaxed outfits. That dress, though?

"Wow," he says, giving her a crooked smile. "You look...Yeah. Wow." He holds the flowers out to her. "These are for you." He lifts one hand and waves to Pascal. "Hey, man."

Keys' reaction to seeing her makes Rapunzel blush a little, momentarily ducking her head to hide a pleased smile before looking up at him again.

"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself," she tells him, reaching out to take the flowers and scrunching her nose as she grins, endlessly pleased by the gesture. "These are wonderful. I'll need to find a vase."

Pascal seems mollified by Keys' greeting and nods at him, watching him as Rapunzel goes into the kitchen to pull a vase down from the cupboard. She puts some water in it and then sets the flowers inside, fluffing the arrangement a bit with her hands and then sighing happily.

"I love them, thank you," she says again, smiling at Keys and then twisting her head a bit to look at Pascal. "You ready for your dinner?" The chameleon squeaks and nods, hopping from her shoulder to the counter. While Rapunzel goes to get a dish of crickets, grubs, and sliced fruit from the refrigerator, Pascal gives Keys a stern look, pointing his small hand on his own eyes and then at Keys. "Oh, stop that."

"It's not as nice as something you'd have made for me," he says, straightening his lapel. "But hopefully, I won't show you up, at least." As Rapunzel is sorting the flowers, fetching his dinner, Pascal makes one of those weirdly human gestures that he does, sometimes. Steve holds up both hands in surrender, laughing a little.

"It's just dinner, Pascal. I'll have her home safe and sound, I swear."

"Oh, ignore him," she says with a laugh, shaking her head as she scoops Pascal up and gives him a kiss on the head. He tells her to be careful and she nods before setting him inside his cubby so he can eat. She comes around the counter and puts her hands on Keys' shoulders, pushing up onto her toes so she can press a quick kiss to his cheek.

"I'm ready to go," she tells him happily, grabbing her dark purple peacoat and pulling it on. "I've been looking forward to this."

She puts both hands on his shoulders and leans up to kiss him and Keys wraps his arm around her waist, briefly, holding her to it. When she pulls away, he offers her his hand.

"You smell really nice," he says.

It feels so nice to be held, to be squeezed by someone who doesn't seem to want to let her go. She pulls back and smiles at him, reaching out to take his hand.

"So do you," she tells him, grabbing her purse and opening the front door. "Bye, Pascal!"

She closes the door behind them and shivers at the cold, pressing herself to Key's side as they head for the street. "Are we walking?"

"It's only a couple of blocks so I thought we could," he says, looks down at her. "But if you're too cold, I can call a car?" He really just wants everything to be perfect for her, whatever that looks like. Mostly, he doesn't want to disappoint her.

He needs to calm down. Jesus.

"No, no, it's fine," she assures him, smiling up at the sweet expression on his face and shaking her head. "That's not far at all."

She shifts so she can take Keys hand as they walk, squeezing reassuringly because she can tell that he's nervous, and so is she. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

She takes his hand, and it's the easiest thing in the world to thread his fingers with hers, squeezing gently. "I got us a table at the Italian place off the boardwalk," he says. "It's really well reviewed -- believe me, I'm pretty sure that I read almost every single one." He flashes a smile. "I wanted you to have a good time."

"Ooh, that sounds nice." She glances up at him as they walk, hands swinging between them. Her expression softens and she squeezes his hand again. "I'm sure that it'll be lovely, but I'm easily pleased, Keys. You don't have to go to so much trouble."

"Definitely better than my cooking, anyway," he says, stroking his thumb along the length of hers. "And it's our first date, right? So that calls for something special, in my book." They've been spending plenty of time together. They text a lot. But this? This is different.

"I suppose so," she says with a pleased smile, ducking her head a bit and biting her lip. Keys always makes her feel so special and she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy it. "I do appreciate it."

It's colder along the water, so Rapunzel is relieved when they make it to the restaurant. It's quaint and nice without being too fancy, and Rapunzel smiles at how charming it is, nodding in thanks as Keys opens the door for her.

"Oh, this place is lovely," she says happily, holding onto her bag as she look around. There are candles on all the tables and old photos on the walls, making the place feel homey and warm.

"It kind of reminds me of home," he says, as they're guided to their table. Keys pulls out Rapunzel's chair from the table, waiting for her to sit so that he can scoot her in before he walks around to his own seat. "I just...yeah. It looked pretty romantic and that's the aim, right?" He glances up at her. "At least, I hope it is."

"Does it?" She asks, thanking the hostess once they're been shown to the table. She isn't expecting Keys to help her with her chair and it takes her a little by surprise. She smiles up at him, pleased, and then works her way out of her coat so she can put it over the back of her chair, straightening her cardigan a bit and smoothing down the front of her dress.

"It's very romantic," she assures him, shaking out her napkin and placing it over her lap. "You look very handsome in candlelight."

His own coat is draped over the back of his chair, and he does the same with his napkin. He's honestly not used to wearing a suit, and he feels kind of constricted by the jacket, but he's made a effort for her.

"It's very forgiving, right?" he teases, gently, as he takes his glasses out of his inside pocket and puts them on, because he needs to be able to see the menu. He definitely tries hard not to look when she smoothes the front of her dress. He almost succeeds.

"You look beautiful," he says. "Really."

"Stop it," she says with a soft giggle, waving a hand at him. "You always look very handsome. It's kind of a problem." As if on cue, he takes out his glasses and puts them on, and Rapunzel raises her eyebrows. "My point exactly."

She smiles at the compliment and reaches for the wine list, hiding her amused smile behind it. "Well, thank you. I guess we'll just have to take each other's word for it."

"Is it?" He asks, pretending to study his menu as he shifts his foot under the table so that it brushes one of hers. "A problem, I mean..."

A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

"Think we can be trusted to drink wine?"

"Maybe a bit," she says with a smile that only widens when his foot taps the side of hers. The question makes her blush, because she's both thrilled and a little embarrassed by what happened the last time they shared a bottle of wine. She knows that she has nothing to be ashamed of and they did nothing wrong, but she's still a little surprised at herself.

Some of the best things that she's ever done left her surprised with herself, so she supposes that it's not so bad.

"As long as it has bubbles in it," she replies with a teasing smile, playfully fanning herself with the wine list before setting it onto the table.

Making her blush like that always feels like a tiny victory, and Keys can't help the way the smile spreads across his face. He leaves his foot where it is, nudging up against hers.

"Bubbles. Right. Pretty sure we can work with that." He glances down at his menu again. "Whatever you want. It's on me, anyway."

"Bubbles it is," she says as she lifts her foot to rest her heel on the top of his shoe. It doesn't escape her notice how big his feet are compared to her, but all of him is big compared to her. When Keys says that he'll pay, Rapunzel nearly protests. Despite old-fashioned manners, she doesn't think one person in the relationship should have to pay for everything, and she likes being independent. She wants to share the cost of their dates, but she knows how hard he's trying to make tonight go well, so she doesn't bring that up. She only nods, because there will be time to argue about it later. He can pay for this one, the first one, because she knows it'll make him happy.

"The fettuccine looks good," she says after glancing at the menu, lifting her gaze to see him doing the same thing. "Everything looks good. Do you want to get two entrees and share?"

It's barely contact, just her heel resting against the leather of his boot, but it's something, and he doesn't pull away. "Yeah," he says, nodding, his hair tumbling across his forehead. He lifts one hand to push it back. "Fettucine is good. And maybe. Hm. Vongole is good? It's clams in white wine and tomato? Or we could do like...a meat entree, maybe?"

"Clams remind me of home," Rapunzel says, and it's clear by her tone that she doesn't necessarily consider that a good thing. "Gothel would bring back buckets of them."

She wrinkles her nose at the memory of cleaning them, slicing her hands on the shells only to watch the cuts heal over, and then looks up at Keys again. "I don't mind them, but I'm fine with skipping them, too. What about something with chicken?"

Their server comes over and brings warm bread and butter, and Rapunzel slides the wine list over to Keys to let him order.

"If they remind you of that, then we'll get somewhere else."

He only knows part of the story, but he knows enough that he knows that reminding her of Gothel is not something he ever wants to do. He orders them a bottle of good champagne. When the waiter goes away, he goes back to the menu. "What about...this?" He leans closer to her, indicating a dish with one finger -- it's chicken, white wine, mushrooms. "I'll basically eat anything."

Rapunzel gives him a grateful smile and when he leans over to show her the menu, she takes the opportunity to put her hand over his, curling her fingers around his index finger and giving it a brief squeeze.

"That looks fantastic," she assures him, squeezing again before settling back into her seat with a dusting of pink on her cheeks. After taking a sip of her ice water, she picks up a piece of bread and spreads a little butter on it before holding it out to him in offering. "The free bread is one of my favorite parts, it I'm being honest."