>>"You didn't have to get me anything."

"I know."

Of course he did. She was his girlfriend and this was the first birthday they had spent together. It would have been the mistake of the century to come empty-handed, and Mirror had made mistakes enough for this week.

>>"I...how did... Thank you. They're perfect. You keep surprising me, I'm going to have a happiness hangover by the end of the night."

"Right back at you" he grinned, happy that she liked her gifts. Music was still playing in the background, and it made the entire garden feel like part of a scene from a chick flick. "Well, the Danger Room has your training data saved, and when you conjure up a weapon it adjusts the weight and the balance to your hands and style, so all I had to do is download the data..."

As Gawain explained how the got the right weapon, she chuckled and shook her head. "Sneaky. I'm impressed. We'll have to test them out sometime, though, when it's not such a fancy evening. We can have a training session again." It was a little odd to say that with butterflies making the sai their perch.

Thoughts of training would have to wait though. There was still plenty of food to eat, the remainder of her glass of wine, and an enchanted evening to enjoy.

>>"Sneaky. I'm impressed. We'll have to test them out sometime, though, when it's not such a fancy evening. We can have a training session again."

Gawain beamed with pride and poured some more wine in her empty glass.

"Yeah we will. You're a trainee after all. Last thing we want is Sam running the training sessions..."

Because those either turned into dates, or turned into disasters, or sometimes turned into dates that turned into disasters...

The evening flew by with wine, grapes, music, butterflies, and more dancing, and Gawain almost lost track of time. Glancing at his watch at some point he realized they were only an hour away from midnight.

"Time to go" he announced reluctantly, offering an apologetic smile "It's Cinderella time."

As much fun as the date was, he did not want to shift in the middle of the butterfly garden.

They drove home in the same quiet and smiling mood, and the young knight mentally patted himself on the shoulder for putting together a date that didn't blow up in their faces or ended up with one of them getting hurt. He walked Evelyn back to her room, following the unspoken etiquette of first dates.

"Well, I hope you had fun" he said with a smile as they stopped at the door. He was going to say something more, but he hesitated in the last moment. Maybe Evelyn would get it anyway? She had echoes...

It was hard to leave behind the butterfly garden. Something about being there just was like an escape. There was not chaos, they weren't fighting, they were just enjoying their time. The echoes were drowning out conversations, and the occasional butterfly just made it better. But at least they got to leave while the evening was still magical. Somehow, it felt like she could just put a stopper on that memory. It felt complete: happy. If she had a bad night, she could hold on to that at least.

Back at her room, the mansion was quiet. Tonight there weren't a lot of late night wanderers which at least gave them some form of privacy. Evelyn smiled at Gawain, and shifted her gift to lean it against the door. "I had more than just fun. It was a wonderful date. Definitely better than I could have asked for." She remarked. Gawain seemed to want to say something else, and the echoes chimed in on it. They were reliable this time.

"Something else on your mind?" She asked with a tilt of her head. Unfortunately, the echoes could exactly tell her WHAT he was thinking. So she still had to rely on Gawain for the answer.

>>"I had more than just fun. It was a wonderful date. Definitely better than I could have asked for."

Gawain smiled at that; with that official declaration, the date was a complete success. Evelyn was happy, to the point of positively glowing. It was a sight that he would have a hard time forgetting, even without echoes and playbacks. He was glad that he managed to come up with at least one date's worth of good memories for all the ones that went wrong.

>>"Something else on your mind?"

The damn butterflies tagged along, after all.

"Well" he said, looking down at her, encouraged by her bright smile "I was promised a goodnight kiss for a first date." he smirked to mask the blush that crept over his cheeks. "I would like to kiss you." His voice dropped to a whisper, even though not many people were awake in the Mansion at this time, and none present in the girls' dorm corridor "I would like to really kiss you."

The echoes caught the blush, and Evelyn had a slight color to match. But this time, she wasn't letting the echoes break. She had wonderful date, and maybe it was the dancing, or the butterflies, but she felt somewhat bolder. She leaned a little bit closer, expression shifting to a more flirtatious smile. "You do?" A little bit closer. "Are you sure?"

Although it was hard to maintain an alluring attitude when your heart felt like it was going to climb up your throat. Probably would have been better without the blush as well. Or maybe that helped. It was hard to tell.

The echoes could pinpoint every color in Gawain's eyes. She pulled back slightly, a brattier gesture just to add to the suspense.

>>"You do? Are you sure?"

It's not like breathing was not important; it was just not happening at the moment. Gawain got caught up in the flirtatious look in Eve's eyes, something completely new and intriguing. She leaned in and the tips of their noses brushed, before she pulled back in a gesture that was... not shy at all. Talk about surprises. Gawain found himself wondering...
... nevermind.

Drawn in by the look in her eyes, the nod turned into a dip of his head.

"Yes."

There is tremendous difference between kissing and kissing. The former, they had done before, and it was sweet, and warm, and full of butterflies. But now that he had permission, in the form of the look she gave him, something else was happening entirely. They had been teenagers for most of the night; it was Evelyn's first date ever, and the first Gawain had had in a very long time. It was bound to be sweet and kind of awkward in a charming way.

The goodnight kiss, however, was everything but adolescent. One hand twisted in pale hair and one hand around her waist, Gawain let go of all the emotions that had been building up since they had stepped inside the butterfly house. Or maybe since he first saw her upside-down dangling from a tree.

The girl got weapons for her birthday, and she was happy with it. She was not going to break.

The kiss definitely added a new edge to the evening. It was different from any they had before, and it created a whole new set of emotions through her. She didn't need the echoes to sort out how Gawain felt. She could figure that out by herself at this point. The date was magical, and sweet, but there was something else here. She could see what her echoes kept distracting her from, and wondered if they'd be able to do that again.

She was getting a whole new batch of information now, and it just made her kiss back that much more intense. Probably a bit too much for the hallway though. She wasn't quite ready to move though and worried she would ruin the moment. Now would be a good time to just develop a phasing ability and sneak back through the door that way. If she tried backing up she was pretty sure she'd knock over the sai and attract attention that way. Hopefully, the hallway wouldn't have traffic for a little bit longer.

They had a bit of time still until midnight. She was somewhat greedily pushing that limit at this point.

The echoes might have been broken, but even if they were, neither of them really seemed to care. Whether she had extra voices giving her tips on what to do or not, Evelyn picked up the pace quickly, and the rest of the Mansion could have pretty much exploded without the young knight noticing. Which, incidentally, was a distinct possibility, given the history of the school.

Evelyn was nothing if not a quick learner, but even that only barely registered over the flood of sensations and emotions. Butterflies in the stomach compressed into a tight knot, and the world seemed to tilt. Looking for extra support before someone's knees gave out, the young knight pushed his lady against the room's door.

The sai were in the way, and they clattered into a heap from their neatly propped up position. The outside world swam back to focus as Gawain pulled away, jolted by the noise.

"Oops."

Sais were several things, but stacked together they certainly were not quiet. As Gawain and Evelyn took a step backwards, the moment was broken by the loud clatter of metal. It was loud enough to echo down the hallway, reminded Evelyn of where they were. She blushed and chuckled slightly, trying to keep the color from rising to her cheeks.

"Opps." She echoes. With a sheepish shrug she finally pushed the bedroom door open, and delicately scooted the weapons inside. She glanced over her shoulder at the clock on the wall, half hoping it wasn't close to midnight yet.

"I guess you probably have to get going, huh..." She said, a slight reluctance in her voice. She teetered in the doorway, brain still scrambled by the rush of emotions. She knew it was probably good the falling metal interrupted them, but still reluctant to let the moment go.

>>"Opps... I guess you probably have to get going, huh..."

The door opened and Evelyn scooted inside, the blush noting that people down the hallways had probably heard the noise, if they had not been listening before. Gawain braced himself on the door frame, not following her into the room. That would have been rude.

"Yeah..." he glanced over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. Fifteen minutes to midnight. "... Yeah I should. Shifting in fifteen minutes. Not as bad as the other way around, but still need to get out my clothes..."

Oops indeed.

He mentally kicked himself in the head, and blamed in on the hormones.

After the evening it was hard to feel disappointed about anything, but she was somewhat annoyed the clock was going so fast. Midnight seemed awful early right now, especially for someone who didn't sleep.

>>"Not as bad as the other way around, but still need to get out my clothes..."

Evelyn perhaps considered that comment a moment too long, then blushed when she realized what she was doing.

"Yeah, I guess you would want to, I mean...I should...draw or something..." She stumbled over her words, blush gradually crawling over her cheeks. Apparently knocking over the sai wasn't the most awkward moment so far. "If you wanted to come back after....I mean, I'll be up. I mean, because I don't sleep, not that I..." She shut her mouth then sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "I'll be here." She finished lamely.

>>"Yeah, I guess you would want to, I mean...I should...draw or something... If you wanted to come back after....I mean, I'll be up. I mean, because I don't sleep, not that I... I'll be here."

Gawain's eyebrows ran up as she looked at him, settling back into her usual blushing self, and then one eyebrow dropped as the young knight smirked.

"Sure."

He could feel goosebumps rising on his skin; it was a sign of anticipation, and also, incidentally, the first warning of the upcoming shift. Backing out of the room he closed the door and marched down the hallway to get into a new set of clothes, and also a new gender on the side.

Maya returned shortly after midnight. The shift cooled her down some, and now she was wearing simple black pants and a t-shirt as she walked in through Evelyn's mirror.

"Hey" she grinned, sitting on the edge of her desk "Long time."

As Gawain left, Evelyn retreated into her room and tried to remember how to breathe. Moving the Sai to a less noisy place on her desk, she dressed down to just the skirt and black top, and forced herself not to pace. It wasn't like Mirror hadn't been to her room before, but after the kissing her brain was still buzzing. She finally sat down to sketch a little though, leaving a paper half covered in butterflies before Maya finally stepped through the mirror.

"Hey." Evelyn remarked back. It was the most casual statement in the world, but it still got her pulse going again. It was a good thing she tended not to sleep... she had no idea how she even could today. She pushed the artwork aside and turned her attention to Maya.

Maya smiled at the picture of the butterflies; apparently they left a lasting impression that had nothing to do with playbacks. She was happy she managed to come up with a date that Evelyn truly enjoyed, even as an artist.

"Looks like the butterflies were a good idea" she noted, sliding off the desk to stand as Evelyn walked back to her. The moment had been broken when she had to walk back to her room, and now they had to figure out a way to pick things up "So... what now?"