Our first date — playing mini golf at a place Tiana's bought out for the night — has more paparazzi than I imagined, even if we're not doing anything particularly scandalous. Still, it makes me uncomfortable and Tiana can tell.

"Just ignore them," she says, smiling at me as she leans on her putter.

"How?"

"By focusing on me!" Tiana gives a sweeping wave to herself.

I do. She's wearing a coral, knee length dress with a jewel neckline that hides most of Lis' work from earlier this week. It pairs well with the light mint long cardigan. Covered up like this, only the two of us know the truth.

I like knowing that we're getting one over on all of these people trying to get the scoop. They think they're seeing the beginning of a love story. What they don't know is that Lis and I spent the two hours before this chaste exercise in PR using Tiana until she was blissed out and sated.

"Easy there, tiger," Tiana says, giggling. I realize only then that my tail's started swishing at the memory of it.

I shoot her a bashful smile. "Sorry."

Tiana shrugs. "It's okay! Besides, you've got better things to focus on! Like how I'm absolutely kicking your butt."

I grumble, annoyed.

Normally, I'm good at games, but all the dexterity and poise I have seems to vanish the moment I try to swing. I take a deep breath. "Yeah, well... This is where I turn it around."

I bring my putter to the ball, pull back slightly, and try to not power the damn thing like I've been doing all night.

It goes careening past the hole, bounces off a wall, then another, then rolls to a stop mere inches from where I stand... And Tiana does not spare me when she starts laughing. It's deep and mirthful and I can feel how much lighter she feels.

For that, I'll happily take some embarrassment.

We haven't discussed it, but I get the feeling her conversation with Rory didn't go well. It didn't go terribly because I'd know. That's a downside of knowing how your partner's feeling at all times, whether you want to or not: you feel the bad.

And that's what we are, I think?

Partners.

We've not labeled it. I don't know that labeling it would really be appropriate until... After. Until we know how the media's going to react to us. Until there's a plan in place to manage the PR.

Until Tiana and Rory can...

A pang of guilt, one I can't help but feel, robs Tiana of her laughter.

"You wanna talk about it?" she offers. I dunno how to say "yes", so I shake my head.

"Well..." Tiana says in a bright tone I know isn't how she feels, "what do you wanna talk about? Movies? TV? Your mini-golf skills? Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were losing on purpose!"

It's a goad, and an obvious one at that, but... It works. It reminds me that the future isn't here yet. I still have this. And I refuse to ruin my first date with her just because things are going to get hard.

So I step up to the stupid neon green golf ball, and narrow my eyes. "You're going down."

I sway my hips just so, copying something I saw Tiana do earlier. Admittedly, I'd been distracted by the movement for other reasons, but now I remind myself that she's a trained fighter — and that I can learn from her.

The ball glides forward and lands in the cup.

I turn to face Tiana, smirking.

Tiana cocks an eyebrow, grinning back at me. "Yeah?"

Maybe it's folly, but hubris be damned. "Yeah."

Tiana steps closer to me. "Game on, Neff. What're the stakes?"

"Stakes?"

Tiana steps closer. "Yeah. What're you playing for?"

"Loser buys the other dinner."

"And...?" Tiana prods.

My tail wants to wrap around her. Pull her in close. I want to kiss her, even though there's cameras and we're "just friends". God, this woman just can get to me like no other, and feeling the heat radiating from within her doesn't help keep my head clear.

I just want to end the date early and—

My eyes go wide. "That's not fair."

"No?" Tiana teases, her tone far too innocent. "I said 'game on'. What did you think I meant?"

I shake my head in disbelief. "You're so paying for this."

Tiana bites her lip. "Only if you win me."

And oh, I'm in.

I do my best to focus through the next few holes, even as Tiana does everything in her power to get me to slip up. I steel myself and push back against the way she's wielding our link. It's not about shutting her out, its just about dampening the volume.

It's easier when there's distance.

And far, far easier when I'm not insanely turned on by the idea of taking her right here, right now.

"Something distracting you?" Tiana asks when my ball glances off the rim of the cup. I've rallied. It's 65 to 66, and pressure's mounting. She breezes by, close enough that I can smell her perfume.

There's the lightest "clink" as her putter connects, followed by her ball dropping into the cup.

"Your turn." Her puckish glee from knowing that she's getting to me isn't fair. Neither is the way she saunters around to lean against a metal pillar just behind the cup, or how she pulls at her skirt.

It's not lewd. It's not explicit. To outsiders, she's just adjusting it slightly. But she knows me. Knows how to tease me.

And she knows them, the people with telephoto lens taking thousands of photos, too.

"What do you think the headline's gonna be?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Depends on this shot."

I should presume they're taking pictures of my face at all times; that there's video of me and whatever I'm going to say. "I bet the headline'll be 'Tiana Fucked By Monster, Raw, For Hours After Buying Her Dinner'."

The heat in her cheeks and the way her mouth parts in a silent "oh" is worth it.

It's the opportunity I need, too, to sink the ball. I take out the score sheet and jot it down. "Final score: 66 to 67."

Tiana gives me the stink eye. There's a flicker of movement and the sheet's gone from my hand.

"Hey!" I call out, exasperated by her magical thievery.

"What?" Tiana says. "I'm just checking the math."

Shaking my head, I take a few steps forward and — on instinct — do what I've done so many times before: I go to wrap my tail around her waist. Then I stop as I remember the cameras. It's too affectionate.

Too intimate.

Damn.

So instead I guide it up to curl around one of her hands. She gently takes it.

"Wanna go somewhere else?" I ask.

"I'd like that," Tiana says. And then she teleports us away.

We spend the rest of the night on a bluff a few miles outside of the city. It's beautiful and serene.

The light pollution isn't so bad that we can stargaze, and just exist away from everyone. I curl her in close to me as the sound of crickets and wildlife lull us both into peace.

Maybe it can't be real, not all of it.

But I'll take this.