There were only a few things that could make Amelia not notice a pretty woman telling her how lovely she looked. Food was apparently one of them. They were planning, and they were rolling, and they were on a roll.

And now, they were going to go get some sushi rolls.

Amelia casually rubbed Serena's hand between hers as they walked, to warm it.

It was a cute little sushi place called Moonlight Grill. They didn't just serve sushi there. They served hibachi chicken, and other Asian dishes. It was a Japanese grill. A petit Asian woman greeted them when they entered, and showed them to a nice little booth. It wasn't too busy, but there were enough people to call them busy-ish.

Amelia looked over the sushi menu she'd been given, and set it down almost immediately. "Welp. I know what I'm getting. Two rolls. Spicy tuna, and yellowtail. I'd suggest getting one or two, yourself, and then we could split one." She smiled.

Yellowtail with a little green onion was probably her favorite, but spicy tuna roll was a close second. If they split, she'd probably suggest a crunchy roll or a spider roll. The shrimp and the crab rolls were really good too. And those were cooked. "Need any help?" Amelia asked her. "I can help you figure out which ones are cooked and which aren't, if you wanted to start slow." It was quite easy, actually. It flat out said. Little asterisks by the name showed which ones were raw. But a newbie might miss something so simple as that.

Food is serious business. She was being just a little businesslike. So sue her.

Serena smiled as the two of them walked, humming another Avril Lavigne song as the two of them moved towards the sushi place. She'd seen it a few times, and friends had suggested that she tried it, but she'd never actually been inside it. Going there with a date who liked the food seemed to be a really good idea. One of the multitude of reasons for this being that she knew the options better.

Even after doing it a few times, and kissing to boot Serena still felt a little jolt of electricity dance up her arm. She did her best not to lightly blush, really she did. Her cheeks felt a little strained. But maybe that was just from all the smiling.

She was pretty impressed with the restaurant as they walked in. So much going on there. She blinked as Amelia spoke and smiled widely. "I'll just have another of whatever you're having, I've never tried anything like sushi before so It'll be fun to try." She responded with a soft smile, placing the same order as her date, and then paying for their meals most insistently, it was her treat after all.

Soon they were sat down in some comfortable seating with an interesting assortment of rolls and other mixtures of things, seafood and seaweed. Interesting.

The specials on the sign board hanging on the wall when one entered Moonlight listed a variety of delicious plates. There was some grill food, a special seafood item (chef's choice, catch of the day, that sort of thing), as well as special deals. It listed one interesting sushi roll, called a Pikachu roll. Different places have different things in their pikachu rolls. Some even shape them like a pikachu. This one had a cutesy drawing of the mouse that was just different enough not to get them sued by Nintendo. It had chicken tempura, avocado, cream cheese, inside, with crunch on the outside. It was too bad she'd picked her things out before she noticed it, because that sounded delicious.

Serena should have gotten the Pikachu. She picked the exact same thing as Amelia, which was kind of a let down, but okay. Half the fun of getting sushi is sharing a roll and tasting everything sushi has to offer. She would just need to teach Serena about the unwritten rule.

It took about 10 minutes to get their sushi, after they ordered it. Amelia sat with Serena and made small talk, sipping her Cherry Coke.

The sushi arrived, two spicy salmon rolls and two yellowtail rolls.

Amelia picked up her chopsticks, or o-hashi, if you're japanese, and held them up so Serena could see the way to hold them. "I'm not sure if you've used chopsticks before. You hold them this way." She demonstrated, snagging a roll of the yellowtail. She ate it, and it was good as ever. "See?" She said, after a moment of chewing.

"You can put a tiny dab of the green stuff, wasabi, on it if you want something more spicy. But it's a hot kind of mustard, so only a dab'll do ya'. The pickled ginger is a palate cleanser, when you switch between rolls, kind of like water. Go easy, though. It'll clear your sinuses right up. Soy's for dipping. Salty. Don't overdo it. And the eel sauce on the side is excellent."

Truth be told all of this was a bit of an overload to Serena, she'd never done something like this. She'd only really visited traditional restaurants, or ordered Chinese take away. She'd been to a place that followed the customs or style of a very different culture. She saw other people sampling stuff like Pikachu snacks. That was a little odd, though she supposed Sushi was Japanese.

She chuckled and twirled the chopsticks a little between her thumb and finger, pulling them into a familiar position. She smirked at her date. "I AM a student, I've had Chinese plenty of time with friends." She replied.

She tried a little of everything, but the wasabi was a little much. Serena's face scrunched up and she quickly tried a drink of coke to cool it off, which didn't really work. Thankfully it was a very intense, but fleeting kind of spice. Interesting. She'd once tried a Ghost pepper for a silly dare with other college students, and it hadn't been quite as intense, but had stuck around for freaking ages.

She tried a little of everything. And was a little apprehensive about it, but as it turned out it was all pretty good. She took her time though, not being a particularly fast eater. Sushi kind of suited her. "This is good, thanks for suggesting it~" She chirped.

Wasabi was something Amelia rarely used much of. It was spicy and cleared ones sinuses and a small amount went a long way. On the right piece, it was refreshing but on the wrong, it tended to overpower the simple flavors.

Amelia had smiled at Serena's little flair if her chopsticks, thinking 'now here's a woman who knows how to eat Asian food. Surely, she'll understand how they use sauces and flavors, and don't pile things on and on...' She had laughed at the flair, but stopped laughing, horrified, as Serena took too much wasabi and piled it on.

"Oh, your poor tongue." Amelia mourned sincerely. That scrunched face had reminded her of a lemon, and the Coke wouldn't help. For spicy, they needed calcium. Milk. But nobody did milk with sushi. Just like nobody does cheese and fish, except in certain situations like a Parmesan breading. "I'll have to make it up to you." She said, tactful neutral look on her face. "I didn't warn you enough."

Serena eventually recovered, and tried things. Amelia smiled at her as she sampled some of her favorite tastes.

"You're welcome," Amelia replied warmly. "So. Which is your favorite? I like the yellowtail. It's simple. With just a little green onion, the tuna, and the fish. Maybe a little soy on top. The saltiness enhances the flavor. It's probably my favorite, though you can't go wrong with spicy tuna. One time I had a fish taco with spicy tuna. It was this Asian Mexican fusion restaurant, and it was awesome!"

A thought struck Amelia as she sat there. "Do you think we'll want dessert?" This place looked like it did a good green tea ice cream, or some type of mochi. She thought she saw something like that on the specials board. They could always go somewhere else if that didn't appeal to Serena. There was a froyo place next door. She had noticed it when they'd come in. If Serena didn't want dessert, though, they could always do something else~

She took her time and tried a little of everything by the end of the meal she was pretty satisfied, she even braved the wasabi again. Just using a considerably lighter amount of it. She smile and laughed along with Amelia as they ate. It was a fun experience, by the time they were coming to and end of the meal she could feel little smile lines under her eyes, spending time with her was definitely good.

She chuckled. "My bad too."

"I thought the spicy tuna was pretty delicious, though I think all of it was good." She smiled. "I don't know how often I'd want to eat somewhere like this, but I'll definitely be trying sushi again sometime." She added with a smirk.

Serena wasn't really a heavy eater, she liked sweet things quite a lot, but she was also pretty happy with what they'd had and done thus far. But she could go for something if Amelia wanted to. "Well... I'm pretty happy and pleased in general with the day so far. If you want to do something else, or go to a different restaurant for dessert or eat it here, I'm happy to. I'll leave it up to you this time~" She smiled.

Serena had liked it, but next time, next time they'd do something else. Just for variety's sake. And it would be Serena's choice. "Next time, I want you to surprise me with one of your favorite restaurants." She smiled.

As for the dessert. "I guess we can hold off on dessert. It'd be good, but sushi is so good for you. I'd hate to ruin it with frozen yogurt. Anywhere else you wanted to go?"

"Maybe we could just go back to someone's apartment and chill." She shrugged.

Really, it was all an option. Someone just needed to make a choice and she spent so much time in control in police work, it was nice to let someone else call the shots once in a while.

Serena chuckled and flushed lightly. "I'd be happy to, I'm glad that there is gonna be a next time." She replied with a wide smile. She stood up and went and paid for their meals, it was her treat after all. She moved back to Amelia and smiled again. It did seem to be fairly light, calorie wise. Serena didn't worry about that too much on the whole. She wasn't a skinny person, she was fairly well toned actually.

"Hmmm. I'm not sure." She'd had a fairly good day all in all, if anything she was a little tired from it. All the excitement had seemed to ramp everything up by a few levels. Even though she was a little tired, she didn't really want to stop hanging out with her lovely date, which provided an issue.

Amelia's suggestion perked her up again. "That sounds like it'd be fun. Mine isn't too far from here~ Oh! You've not seen my apartment have you?" She added in quite the energetic tone that surprised her. If anything, she was a little bit embarassed when a lot of people saw her apartment. She'd gotten a really good deal on it, and it was quite a bit bigger than she actually needed.

A low chuckle escaped Amelia. "No, I have not. That'll be fun." An authors apartment. Serena's apartment. It'd probably have a lot of books, maybe the creative process behind her success. It'd give her a small peek into the British woman's mind. Plus, she was enjoying herself and didn't much feel like calling it a day.

She had set aside time for today. A day off is meant to be enjoyed, and Serena's presence was very enjoyable.

Maybe they could grab a bottle of wine, maybe some cheese and crackers. Watch a movie. Start a tv show. Talk.

Amelia smiled at Serena. "I hope you remembered to clean," she teased.

"Maybe we can grab a bottle of Pinot on the way?"

Serena grinned when her most lovely date agreed to go back to hers and relax. Her mind flicked through ideas of what they could do. Candles, chatting, t.v, maybe a video game or two. Or even... gasp, cuddling. There were definitely varied possibilities for how the date could conclude. "Brilliant." She replied as she looped her arm through her date's and led them out of the restaurant.

"That sounds like a good idea." Truth be told Serena had a lot of alcohol, but she wasn't actually sure what wine's she had in. They stopped by a store on the way to Serena's apartment and grabbed a bottle of wine and a few snacks. Some crackers, some crisps and a little box of mint and orange chocolates. Both, not chocolate flavoured with mint AND orange. That would be very gross.

Then they hopped in a taxi and were shortly over at Serena's apartment building. She used her keycard to buzz them up. They took the elevator and made small talk, it was way faster than climbing 5 flights of stairs. She fished her keys from the bottom of her bag with some difficulty and juggled shopping bags with Ami before she managed to get them both inside. There was a set of blue tinged lights along the bottom of the cupboards in the kitchen, but otherwise it was fairly dark.

She flicked the light switch and meandered over to the counter to put things down, wearing a scarlet blush. She, as it turned out had NOT remembered to clean. Her apartment wasn't... Well, it wasn't a typical apartment that was for sure.

If a simple description existed, it would be along the lines of different areas being split between a bastion of order, or a chaotic clutter. Her comfortable worn sofa's were a bit messy, a couple of tops and hoodies, and a blanket or two strewn messily about. Her desk was a cluster of papers, headphones, controllers and other bits. The kitchen on the other hand was completely prim and ordered. All of the cabinets had glass panes so you could see the contents, as well as reflecting the under door lighting a little.

The actual level of space was pretty huge for a single person, her lounge area being quite spread out and comfy, a several foot wide window being at the back of the room, with the curtains drawn. A set of speakers with a Ipod stand sitting next to them. She smiled and turned to Amelia, timidly murmuring. "Uhm, welcome to my place I guess."

Serena's apartment building was... cute. It was a nice apartment building with an elevator. Her apartment wasn't quite as nice. Less elevators, more stairs. Not quite so nice a neighborhood. Not bad, per se, but not super nice. The kind that someone on a starting police officer salary and had just gotten out of college would have. She wasn't sure how soon Serena would see her apartment.

Amelia helped her with the bags while she got her keys out, then passed some things back and set what she could on the counter. It WAS a little messy. Caught red-handed. She did not tsk. Her sink wasn't a saint.

The apartment itself was nice. It looked lived in. Which was good. If it had been too neat, it would have seemed like a front. Fake. A facade. The important parts were clean. It wasn't a huge mess.

Serena was acting demure, showing off her place for the first time. Amelia hadn't really ever been there. She smiled at Serena in simple understanding. "It looks great, Serena." She said, and plopped down on one of the sofas, snagging a remote control. She flipped the television on, and she saw-- whatever was the last channel or thing Serena had been watching.

Serena smiled and went and found some nice wine glasses and her bottle opener and pulled out plates and stuff to stack the snacks before putting them down on the coffee table, and moving over there near her T.V where Amelia was. She set down the glasses and the bottle with the opener and smiled at the Brunette as she surveyed the apartment. She had such pretty eyes~

She couldn't remember what she'd been watching. As it turned out it'd been a studio Ghibli film that James had pestered her to watch a little, She hadn't finished watching all of it yet. But it was pretty cute.

She slid down to the sofa next to Amelia, they weren't quite touching, but close enough that it would be easy enough if they were so inclined. Meaning, if Amelia was inclined because Serena's nerves were basically showing through her skin. She put on a brave face though and supplemented those thoughts with alcohol. Popping the cork and pouring each of them a glass of the pinot they had bought.

"Thank you."

Step one involved taking off some things. Scarf, jacket, hat. Sitting in Serena's apartment, she was simply too warm in all of her gear. The jacket and scarf, she slung over the back of the sofa on top of each other, the hat, she placed in her purse on the floor by her feet. There! Now that that situation had been resolved, and now that she was no longer overdressed, she could move on to step two: drinking.

The selection of snacks was simple, and good. They had picked well. She herself had grabbed the package of sharp cheddar, and a little thing of goat cheese to go with the wine. For crackers, they had an assortment. Thin wheat ones, and round crackers for making little cheese and cracker sandwiches. And even a tasty then baked cracker that was low cal, AND bacon flavored. No rice cakes here, folks.

As for the wine, she had picked a Pinot. She liked white wines, and blends like persecco. Sometimes, she did red wines. A nice sangria in the summer could be great. Some women are wine drinkers, some prefer other things, like rum mixers and vodka cocktails, Long Island iced teas, and fruity girly drinks. She preferred to have the best of both worlds, never specializing in one or the other. Being the daughter of a restaurant owner, she was familiar with what wines went best with what foods. But she was no wine snob. They hadn't broke the bank with their bottle, but it would still be good.

Anime, she thought, as the television came on. Her exposure to anime wasn't outstanding. Shin and Autumn had introduced her to the giant robot genre, which they liked... but she had only ever really finished a handful. She had gotten halfway through SEED before it became too much, and for Wing, she'd done about ten episodes. G Gundam was the only one that didn't take itself too seriously. So she'd finished that. Patlabor, the one about police robots, was neat, and so were Gunbuster and Eureka Seven. Her anime exposure outside of the handpicked ones from her brother and her friend included the classics, DBZ and Sailor Moon, and whatever else happened to wind up on Cartoon Network before she got too busy for TV. She wasn't an anime nerd, and wasn't up to date on anything. She mostly stuck to 90s shows, and before... and of course the bite sized anime movies like Studio Ghibli stuff. She was familiar with this one. Kikis delivery service. Serena poured and delivered a glass of wine, which Amelia took. Which brought them back to step two.

Serena thanked her, and Amelia didn't suppress a smirk as she accepted the glass of wine and thanked Serena right back. The glass tilted back lightly as Amelia took a drink. The question now was, what was step three? Amelia found the remote control again, and hit play. The movie resumed. She would let things take their natural course.

Kikis delivery service is about a witch who moved to the big city so she can earn money to set up a healing shop. Young and uncertain, it's about growing up. That's one of the many plots. Learning to live and love and learn in your own skin... and finding your own inner strength when things don't go your way. At least, that's how she remembered the plot going. It was a film she had not watched in many years. There certainly were more talking cats than she had remembered. She took another sip of wine and snagged a cracker with cheese.

"I remember this one," she said. "My brothers best friend recommended it. Said the studio was just great, all around. Do you watch anime a lot? I'll admit, I've seen some... but I was always more of a Disney princess than a giant robot. Though I did like sailor moon. Lots of magical clothing transformations. Bet I could figure that out. Though in the Japanese version, they get naked when they change into their costumes, which is kind of weird but it makes sense." And she was rambling on and on. "He always said Cutie Honey has weirder transformations than that, when I called him on it. And that was, like, THE premiere magical girl anime that started the genre."

If Serena had no idea what she was talking about, that was cool because she had no idea what she was taking about. Maybe they could google the transformation and figure the whole thing out together. She had been hesitant to let a Japanese person explain to her that something wasn't weird and just wait until you see what weird really is...

"I was always too scared to check to see if he was right." She finished flatly. Awkwardly.

Serena smiled as they settled in, grabbing some crackers and cheese and nibbling. She wasn't exactly well versed when it came to this sort of thing, hanging out with a date, that is. But Amelia seemed to know her way around which snacks and wine would be a good idea. Serena drank wine sure, but she wasn't very savvy in terms of what was good. She did have some obnoxiously well aged wine on her rack, but that wasn't something she'd actually purchased (Thank god).

She'd not gotten THAT far into the movie the last time she'd been watching it. Truth be told, it had been after she'd handed in two assignments and finished a round of edits and she'd wanted to relax with something, so she'd taken James' suggestion to try the Ghibli films she'd recorded a couple weeks back, and had fallen asleep part way in and had to rewind to more or less where she remembered getting up to. Some of those movies could get very confusing if you got a little lost.

She giggled at the comment. "Me? I barely watch anything to be honest, I haven't the time mostly. I've watched a handful of anime at the behest of James, a couple of which I actually watched with him." She smiled. "Other than that I only vaguely keep up with a few crime shows that I like, you know the ones with a lot of drama and not so much scientific accuracy? Castle is a favourite."

"Didn't watch much disney as a kid either, I think I've seen more of it as an adult come to think of it..." She mused. Amelia went on a slightly awkward ramble about Anime she'd been recommended and Serena couldn't help but chuckle. She gently leaned her head on her girlfriend's shoulder. God that was an elating though, she had a girlfriend. She didn't say anything for a bit and watched the screen, listening to Amelia intently.

Not an anime aficionado then. Well, good. They could be clueless together.

And she mentioned a James. She forgot if they knew the same James, because she had helped a James clothes shop once. Or rather, bought him some clothes... couldn't be him. New York was way to big to have that lucky of a coincidence.

Amelia bobbed her head at the comment about castle. "I like NCIS. I knew a cop once who was the spitting image of Dinozzo."

Serena listened, and rested her head on her shoulder. Casually, Amelia snaked her arm over the woman's shoulder. Classic move. She had wanted to be cute and so it with an animated scarf, but if Serena was just going to lay there.

The woman had not commented on Amelia's verbal diarrhea, however. Which made Amelia bold. Screw it, she whipped out her phone and googled it. Cutie honey... live? The opening theme? Hmmm. "Hey look at this," she said, distracting Serena from the movie with the video on her phone.

Music started. And weirdness. The Japanese woman actually vanished entire parts of her outfit, cleverly covered by the credits, in order to create her red costume... and a sword. A theme song line was actually please please don't look at me. What. The heck.

"Okay. Shin is weird."
She blinked. "I don't think I could manage exactly that." Turning clothes into clothes by breaking down the molecular makeup... and breaking down the street too. Nope. Little too out there for her.