I am not by nature a 'girly girl.'

I rarely wear skirts, I don't do much (if anything) with makeup, I don't giggle over boys or gush about the latest perfumes and jewelry. I've always found examining a person's clothing to be useful in learning about their personality, but I've never been overly concerned with fashion myself. I just try to look neat and reasonably professional, even when I'm dressing casually. When I moved to London, I did take the time to update my wardrobe a bit…but not really all that much.

That said, I do still like to dress up a bit for a date. Who doesn't? And a night out at the theater qualified for dressing up a bit.

"Why am I doing this again?" I asked Athena as I smoothed my stockings one more time and rose to put my dress on.

"What?" Athena asked. "Making yourself pretty for a date?"

I shook my head. "Going on a date at all."

"Because you find him attractive," Athena said, adjusting the (much simpler, damn it) dark green skirt that went on over her usual clothes. Though she'd swapped her usual sleeveless bodysuit for one with belled green silk sleeves. "Funny, charming, obviously clever and just as obviously interested. So, why shouldn't you?"

"Because someone just demolished my home town," I replied, "and I was a suspect. I'm still peripherally involved in the case, and it was probably Brenna who did it. I feel like I should be trying to find her." I stopped, then slipped my dress over my head and wriggled into it. It was one of the nicest things I owned as far as clothing went. Pure silk in a rich forest green (Athena and I did often match colors, but it wasn't intentional) with silver filigree at the neckline (lower than I usually wore), wrists and hem. The bodice was tight, the sleeves gracefully loose at the shoulders but tight at the wrists, and the skirt flared out from my hips to just below my knees.

"Trust me," my mother said as she came in, "I know the Killarney police. They'll be happier if you stay well away from the case at this point. Here, you can wear these." She set a pair of silver earrings - small studs with an exquisitely detailed little feather hanging from each one - on my desk.

"But I bought you those for your birthday last year," I protested. "I guess it's a good thing you'd already started to move your things here."

"Nary a baby picture lost," she agreed, "and you certainly can wear them. I know for a fact that you don't have any earrings with you that go with that dress."

I glowered at her for a moment, but she was right. Just like I'd left most of my fancy dress clothes packed up at Jonathan's flat when I went to London, I hadn't brought any of my small collection of jewelry with me when I'd left Hollis' home to visit Mom. "Thanks, Mom. Am I doing the right thing?"

"Relaxing and having a good time after a period of stress?" she joked, sitting down in my desk chair and looking at me with a soft smile on her face. "Definitely. Alys, you look beautiful. Go and have a good time."

"I hardly know anything about him," I protested, and realized that I was making excuses. I hate making excuses. What was my subconscious trying to tell me?

Mom tipped her head. "Why not go out, honey? Shed the last of your stress, relax, enjoy the night out. Who knows, maybe you'll like him. Besides, Jonathan says he knows and trusts Donovan. That's good enough for me."

"You're very tense, Mistress," Athena added. "And not because you're worried about this date." She moved to me and smoothed my dress, tugging it into place across my shoulders. "A night out is just what we need."

"Listen to her," mom said with a smile. "She's right."

"She usually is," I agreed, smoothing the silk down my front.

<> Artemis said from where she was relaxing on my bed. <>

Yet another unexpectedly insightful comment from my supposedly more mundane snow leopard familiar. I needed to stop underestimating her intelligence. "All right, you three can stop ganging up on me. No more protests."

My mom shot a curious look at Artemis, who smugly began to groom her right paw. "What'd she say?"

"That Mistress needs to forget her troubles for a little while, and Detective Donovan is the perfect person to help," Athena said as she brushed my hair into place. "Mistress, you really shouldn't hide your ears tonight. I saw a green silk ribbon in your old dresser that would match this dress, and your pointed ears make you look even more elegant."

I gave my mom a doubting look, and she nodded. "She's right. You'd look like a fairy queen with your hair back from your ears."

I prevented myself from grimacing with an effort. I dislike being reminded of my (probably) half-Sidhe heritage for a variety of reasons, and ordinarily wore my hair - a pale blond that was almost white and shimmered like gold - styled to cover my ears and their delicate points. If I could wear dark glasses all the time to hide my equally golden irises - yet another reminder of my half-Human nature - I probably would.

Was I standing knee deep in that old Egyptian river? Most likely.

Mom sighed. "Honestly, Alys...it's long past time for you to accept that part of yourself. Consider this the first step in doing so."

<> Artemis agreed. <>

"I'm being ganged up on again," I protested weakly. "All right, I surrender. Do what you will, Athena."

Athena beamed and went to my old dresser, returning a few moments later with a green silk ribbon that she used to tie my hair back, allowing the longer bangs on the right side to hang loose in the sort of artfully absent almost-disarray that can only be achieved intentionally. "There," she said, moving to stand in front of me. "How's that?" She asked my mother.

Mom nodded. "Lovely, Athena. Just right."

I looked at myself in the mirror and decided that they were correct, I did look prettier that way. Then I carefully put on mom's earrings and turned just in time to see Athena setting down a pair of ankle boots in the same shade of green as my dress. They had three-inch heels, but that wasn't significantly higher than what I usually wore, so I smiled and nodded. "Perfect."

Ten minutes later I stood staring at myself in a full-length mirror in the hall. I was used to seeing myself in day-to-day clothes…leather and heavy cotton, sometimes stained, sometimes with smudges of different substances on hands and cheeks. If not that, then in professional clothes, neat trousers and blouses for visiting a client. I was not used to seeing myself in silk, with my hair carefully done and with a few extra inches of height added by heels.

"Wow," Jonathan said. "You never dressed up like that when I took you to the theater." He grinned. "Should I be jeal-oof."

He was cut off as Mom dug her elbow into his ribs, leaving him rubbing his side and grinning unrepentantly. "Stop teasing her, Jon. Alys, you look amazing. Donovan will be speechless."

"I still can't believe I agreed to go out with him..."

"He's a thoughtful, hard-working young man," Jonathan said thoughtfully. "I've worked with him a couple of times when the Yard needed an expert here in Dublin, and he's impressed me each time." He grinned. "You could do a lot worse."

"I'm not marrying him!" I protested. "It's a date! And he was assigned to keep surveillance on me!"

"That was before they eliminated you as a possible suspect," Jonathan replied gently, then grinned. "If he starts pumping you for information about yourself, match him question for question. He's a bright lad, he'll get the hint."

"Besides," mom said as she handed me a knitted white shawl, "Finding out about a person is what first dates are for. Unless you've been dating without telling me, this is the first date you've gone on since you turned eighteen."

"Nineteen. And I've been busy," I muttered.

Athena slipped into a light cloak and smiled. "We're going to have fun tonight," she said firmly. "Right, Mistress?"

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I was being silly and I knew it. Of course, I'd had a few different reasons for not dating over the past few years. The foremost reason really was that I had been extremely busy. First with preparations for my Mage exams, then with beginning my Wizarding exam studies and with my new job in London. Add to that the lingering after-effects of the time I spent with that group of Tantric Mages - a lifestyle I am frankly not well-suited for - and the fact that young men tend to be rather intimidated by a young woman with the amount of power I have at my fingertips, and dating simply didn't happen.

It's not that I wasn't interested. It just...didn't happen. But here I was, behaving like I was sixteen again and it was my very first date.

"All work and no play..." Jonathan quoted quietly.

I gave him a startled look and thought about it for a moment. Then realized that he was probably right. The last time I'd really let my hair down - metaphorically speaking - had been months ago. Before that? Probably before I turned eighteen. I'd been going full-steam ahead since then. Don't get me wrong, I love my work and studies...but if that's all life is, then eventually they'll stop being fun.

It was, I suddenly realized, one of the reasons why Jonathan indulged his love of old pulp novels and comic books. Why he got a kick out of dressing up like the Shadow when he went out.

"Point taken," I said aloud, then slipped the shawl around my shoulders. "Clearly, I need to relax a little."

Athena, Jonathan and my mom all beamed at me. Athena and my mom in relief, Jonathan in a mixture of pride and amusement.

Artemis, sitting by the front door, made a weary sound. <>

Before I could reply, a soft but pervasive chime filled the entry hall. The doorbell.

I was suddenly extremely nervous. What if he was only doing this to build a psychological profile of me for the police? The whole thing could be a ploy to get me to lower my guard and admit to...

Athena nudged my elbow and stage-whispered, "The door, Mistress."

I shook myself and viciously squashed my nerves and paranoia, squared my shoulders and strode to the door with a swish of silk and the click of my heels on the hardwood floor. <>

<>

When I opened the door, D.I. Ben Donovan smiled down at me. Even in my heels, he had a half a head on me. He was dressed in a semi-formal suit, black with a green shirt that was almost the exact shade of my dress. I raised a bemused eyebrow at the sight. Had he done that on purpose, having seen me in green earlier, or was it entirely coincidental?

And he had flowers. A bouquet of mixed wild flowers.

He started to offer me the flowers, got a good look at my neckline - I don't have much in the way of cleavage, but this particular dress was designed to subtly accentuate what I did have - and blushed furiously. His eyes moved down - waist, hips, legs - then snapped back up and locked onto mine. "Ah...flowers..." He smiled and held them out to me, glancing over my shoulder at Athena. "As promised."

Behind me, Athena giggled. <>

<> I shot back, taking the flowers from him and smiling. "Thank you. You look handsome this evening."

"You look amazing," he said, with such simple, uncomplicated honesty that I felt my cheeks warm up a little.

My mother silently took the bouquet from me, murmuring, "I'll just put these in some water..." And stepped back.

From a little way down the hall, Jonathan interjected, "Do I need to intimidate you, Ben?"

That seemed to restore some of Donovan's equilibrium, but his blush remained as he laughed. "No, sir. I'm sure Athena and Artemis will keep me in line."

From beside his legs, Artemis mrowled softly. Mind you, even a soft meow from an 85 pound snow leopard can sound like a threat, and her meaning was clear.

Donovan smiled down at her, bending a little to ruffle her ears gently. "Don't worry, you won't have to." His eyes returned to mine, and he offered me his arm. "Shall we? I made reservations at the restaurant you recommended."

I slipped my hand into his arm as he turned. "Let's." We started down the stairs together, Athena and Artemis following behind.

From the still-open doorway, Jonathan jokingly said, "I want her home by ten o'clock, young man."

Donovan grinned. "Okay, sir." He bent a little and whispered, "He's not serious, is he?"

I shook my head and smiled. "I'm a big girl now. I stay out all night for work on a regular basis."

Also, we could hear my mom giggling right up until the door closed. "I think the whole thing was a joke at my expense, really," I said. "It's been a few years since I actually went out on a date."

He looked surprised as he handed me into the cab that was waiting for us. A horse-drawn cab, mind you...automobiles were still a rarity in Dublin. "Really?"

I nodded as he waited - to my surprised pleasure - for Athena and Artemis to climb in and sit down facing me before climbing in to sit beside me. He was a gentleman indeed. "Really," I replied. "I haven't had much time for it, with my studies, and frankly most young men are intimidated by a young woman studying to become a wizard."

Donovan - Ben, I mentally amended. I was out on a date with him, I might as well start using his first name. Ben snorted derisively. "They're fools, then."

"How so?" I asked, surprised.

"Because they're clearly afraid of dating someone who's their intellectual equal or superior," he said. "Which is silly. There's nothing I hate more than dating vapid eye-candy. I'd much rather have intelligent conversation than a supermodel."

He paused for a moment, then looked a little embarrassed. "Not to suggest that you're anything less than stunning, mind you. Clearly, I'm lucky enough to get the best of both worlds, so to speak."

<> Athena said, smiling in amusement.

<> I agreed, smiling at him. "Fortunately for you, I'm inclined to agree...I'd much rather intelligent conversation than a handsome slab of meat myself." I winked. "Not to suggest that you're anything less than handsome."

He grinned. "Touché. Truce?"

I nodded, smiling. "Truce. I'm smart and pretty, you're smart and handsome, and we're both clearly lucky."

He blew out a relieved breath and pretended to wipe nonexistent sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Thank goodness."

I was relieved to find that the little Italian restaurant I'd suggested still had excellent food. We talked about everything from our educations to our work, dodging only politics. I learned that he'd gone to Oxford University to study both law enforcement and Hermetic magic with the intention of becoming a police-Mage. He'd had a second in literature and an interest in mythology that matched my own studies, so we had more than enough to talk about. He told me that had only been with Scotland Yard for three years, having worked for the London Metropolitan Police before that since his graduation, which told me without having to ask that he was somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty, only a few years older than me.

We talked and talked, drifting from topic to topic as whim and curiosity took us.

What was special to me was that throughout dinner he made sure to include Athena - and Artemis, with some translation from her sister - in our conversations, and seemed to expect that they were at least as intelligent as I was myself. As common and accepted as familiars and Elevated familiars were, a large number of people - maybe even a majority of people - who didn't have familiars tended to treat them like animals or servants. Ben seemed to view them as just a different sort of people, and treated them accordingly.

I had joked about being charmed in the cab. By the end of dinner, I genuinely was.

To my intense amusement, the play he took me to was a stage adaptation of one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. Ben was genuinely pleased to have chosen our entertainment well, saying, "I saw the way you took in everything around you, the way you paid attention to even small details, and guessed that you were a fan."

Which made him at least as observant as I tried to be. There was more to this young man than he allowed to show on the surface. I went from charmed to interested.

The play was delightful, the actors excellent and the adaptation well done. Athena enjoyed it as much as Ben and I did, and Artemis enjoyed the opportunity to curl up and nap in the box Ben had bought seats in. Seriously, box seats. This guy did not mess around, and I was duly impressed.

Afterwards, we ended up at a little coffee shop that was open late, sitting at a small round table. Artemis dozed at our feet, while Ben, Athena and I sipped tea and picked our way through a plate of small cakes.

"I hope you've had a good time tonight," Ben said finally. "I know I have."

Athena, aware of the fact that he was speaking directly to me, hid her smile behind her teacup. She knew through our bond that I had.

"I have too," I said with a warm smile. "It was nice to be able to forget about everything for a while."

"Is that the only reason?" Ben asked in a teasingly mournful tone. He batted his eyelashes at me, then grinned when I laughed.

"No, not at all," I replied. "I couldn't ask for a better date."

"Do you think we could do it again?" He asked hopefully.

"I'd like that," I said, a little surprised by how much I meant it. "But I'm probably only going to be in Dublin for another day or two, now that I'm free to go. I have a job and studies to get back to in London."

He nodded. "I figured. But maybe we could go see another show tomorrow night, before you go? The same theater is putting on one of Shakespeare's plays."

"Which one?" I asked, leaning forward a little.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream," he said.

I grinned. "One of my favorites. I'd like that very much."

Athena made a contented little sound, causing both of us to look at her. She blushed, and said, "Sorry." <> she explained to me telepathically at the same time. <>

I blushed a little. <>

Ben looked at her for a moment longer, then looked back to me, his smile growing a little. His gray eyes sparkled with mischief. "I guess what they say is true...you can judge a spellcaster's emotional state by watching their familiar."

I laughed. He was teasing so ostentatiously that I couldn't help it. "It's true," I agreed.

Athena relaxed again, still blushing. <>

<>

"Well, I'm glad you're happy," Ben said to me. "I'm glad you're happy too," he added a moment later to Athena. "It means I'm not likely to get tossed down the stairs later if I kiss your mistress goodnight."

Athena giggled. "That still depends on her," she replied teasingly, though she could tell that I wasn't averse to the idea. "She's just as likely to do the tossing as I might be."

He looked at me for confirmation, eyebrows lifted in amusement. I nodded. "Athena and I have been studying self-defense hand-to-hand together."

"Yes, as I learned earlier today. I'd best be careful then," he said cheerfully. "Do you think I'll be in danger?"

I pretended to consider the question carefully. After a minute, I saw him fidget nervously and let my serious, thoughtful expression melt into a smile. "I think you're probably safe."

Ben, it turned out, was a good kisser. I was still a little breathless as his cab rolled away a little while later, leaving me standing on the top step of Jonathan's home with Athena and Artemis. Ben stuck his arm out the window and waved, so I returned the gesture.

He had not been tossed down the stairs. As first dates went, I counted it as a success...especially since it had been a while since the last one.