December 28th
7:01 pm

Dani stood outside of Sadie's diner, shivering her ass off while she waited for Luke. She had arrived about ten minutes early, which she instantly regretted.

She wore a sweater dress with leggings underneath, a pair of heeled boots (which her sister sent her for Christmas), and a warm winter coat, but even her coat wouldn't help her with this bitter weather.

Luke pulled up in his car exactly two minutes later, rubbing his hands together and he got out of the car and walked up to Dani. "Hey, sorry I'm late."

"You're only late by, uh," Dani looked at her phone, reading the time. "three minutes, but it's fine."

"How long have you been standing there?" Luke asked. He definitely noticed how long she was shivering, so he knew that she didn't just get there.

"Definitely not ten minutes." She lied, continuously attempting to warm up. "Don't wear too many layers" he said, what a mistake that was.

"Come on, let's get a table." He said, motioning towards the entrance.

•••

Luke and Dani sat across from each other, with Dani resting her hands on the table and Luke awkwardly resting his on his lap. They had already ordered their food, and they were now waiting for it to arrive.

"This is nice." Dani said, trying to ease the bit of awkward silence.

Yeah, this was awkward. They hadn't seen each other since Christmas, and honestly they didn't know how to act around each other. It was different when they were just friends, but now they're more than friends.

"Yeah, so did you get anything for Christmas?" Luke asked.

"My parents sent me a mini portable washer and dryer and then my little sister sent me these boots that I'm wearing now." She replied, then put her leg up a little to showcase her new shoes.

"They look painful to wear." He cringed. Sure, they were nice looking shoes, but Luke could only imagine the pain of wearing them.

"Who cares? They're velvet." Dani shrugged, then put her leg down and sat normally again.

"Yeah, well your parents must love mini appliances." Luke chuckled.

Dani rolled her eyes at him, knowing that he was referring to the mini fridge in her dorm room, which he's still obsessed about 3 days later. "Say that to the mini griddle from last Christmas."

"A mini griddle?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I can make a mean pancake." She replied.

"Maybe you can make me some sometime." Luke smirked. Of course he wanted to see her again. He had hopes that this would lead into something more than what it already was.

"Yeah, mayb-"

"Here's your burger, your veggie burger..." Their waitress said as she set down their food. "and one chocolate milkshake with two straws."

"Thank you." Luke thanked the waitress with a smile then turned his attention back to Dani.

"I didn't know you ordered a milkshake." Dani said, looking at the milkshake with two red and white striped straws in front of her.

"I didn't know you were a vegetarian." He said, referring to the veggie burger she ordered.

"You didn't question it earlier." She replied, then changed the subject back to the surprise milkshake. "So, mystery milkshake?"

"I ordered it when you went to the bathroom." He shrugged. Little did he know that "going to the bathroom" was just Dani standing in the stall for five minutes freaking out to Kendall over the phone who wanted check in's.

"Sneaky." Dani said with a finger gun, which made Luke laugh a bit.

"Mhm. Let's dig in." Luke replied, also with a finger gun. Dani laughed as well, then the two went back and forth with finger guns.

"Why do we keep doing this?" She questioned.

"Why not?" He answered.

"Okay, let's dig in for real this time." The two then went in and finally took a bite of their food. They spent the next few minutes practically housing it all down, but what else could you do at a place like Sadie's? No other diner could beat them.

"So, what did you do on Christmas Day?" Dani asked, picking at her fries a little. That burger sure filled her up, but she couldn't resist at least a couple fries.

"Um, besides kissing you..." Luke chuckled. "I, uh, got drunk off my ass with the boys."

"Did they get you anything?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Uhm, a bunch of beers." He replied, trying his best not to laugh again. Luke sure had a wild night on Christmas, but that was what he did every year. The only difference was that he was noticeably happier, and his friends drunkenly teased him the entire night. "My mum called though, I told her all about you."

"Really?" Dani questioned. She wasn't expecting that Luke would already be talking about her, but she sure wasn't complaining. Mom's loved Dani, it was like a curse but in a good way if that even made sense.

"Is that too weird?" Luke asked, but immediately answered his own question. "Actually, yeah, that's weird."

"No, it's, uh, cute." She blushed. "I've never had a guy talk about me to their mom."

"Well my mom kinda wants to meet you. Over FaceTime, of course." He said.

There was no convincing needed, because Dani was extremely willing to meet his mom. Little did she know that she would probably grill her, but the woman cared about her son, so she would probably get that. "I'd love to do that."

"Really?" Luke replied enthusiastically, then quickly changed his tune. "I mean, cool, cool."

Dani went to sip the milkshake, then looked at Luke in a bit of confusion. "This place has, what, like 50 milkshake flavors and you chose chocolate?"

"Well, I didn't wanna get a crazy flavor and have you hate it." He shrugged. Luke wouldn't admit you, but he thought it through way more than he should have.

"I would've just let you have it if that were the case." She said, going in for another sip. She couldn't deny a good milkshake from Sadie's.

"But I wanna be corny and share it with you." Luke pouted, which Dani rolled her eyes at. "You're such a dork."

"Like always."

•••

After having dinner at Sadie's, Luke took Dani to an ice skating rink nearby, which made her incredibly nervous. "Ice skating?"

"What? Never ice skated before?" Luke asked. Right now Dani was clinging onto Luke's arm, not exactly ecstatic to be ice skating for the first time ever.

"Sadly, yes." She let out a sigh.

Despite Dani being no so excited, Luke was determined to show her a good time. "Come on, you've lived in New York your entire life and never went ice skating?"

"I had no time!" Dani exclaimed. "I didn't graduate as valedictorian by doing nothing!"

"I guess." Luke shrugged. "But look, you can hold onto me the entire time if you have to."

"If I go down you're going down with me." She said, looking him dead in the eyes, and he did the same. "It's a deal."

"Perfect. Let's go."

After going to rent out skates and putting them out, Luke helped Dani on the ice, notably with her eyes squeezed so incredibly shut it hurt.

"Are we on the ice?" Dani asked, clinging onto Luke for dear life. "Uh, yeah."

"Oh." She said as she opened her eyes.

"Look, I got you, okay?" Luke assured her. There was no way he was just going to let her slip and fall on her ass. He cared too much.

"You sure?" She questioned, giving him puppy eyes, which were ultimately adorable.

"You trust me, right?" He asked.

"Is this Aladdin?" Dani raised an eyebrow.

"Aladdin isn't supposed to be white, but sure." Luke shrugged, then went to ask his original question. "Do you trust me though?"

"Yes..." She hesitated. Was she going to regret this later? Maybe. But did she care because Luke was the best guy she had ever known? Nope.

"Then let's skate!" He said enthusiastically.

Luke grabs both of Dani's hands, slowly guiding her on the ice. Dani, who had her eyes shut again, was still scared despite putting her trust in Luke. "Okay, it's happening. Um, why are you going so fast?"

"We barely moved." Luke chuckled.

"Really?" Dani asked.

"Yeah, but now we're actually gonna go fast." He whispered, which she didn't think through at first, but quickly realized.

"Wha-" She opened her eyes, then Luke quickly began skating extremely fast, dragging her with him. "Luke!"

They glided along the ice, with Luke having the time of his life and Dani not so much. If she could squeeze his hand any tighter she would, but she was already squeezing it hard enough to break his hand.

"Having fun?" Luke asked, struggling to not laugh.

"Not really!"

•••

At the end of their chaos-filled night, Luke took Dani home. Now they stood in front of her dorm room, getting ready to say their goodbyes.

"That was, um, something else." Dani said, letting out an awkward laugh. She definitely isn't going to spare details of their ice skating experience later.

"Best first date?" He asked.

"More like the only first date I've ever had." She replied. It's been said before, but Dani had never really been out with a guy. School dances nowhere near counted either.

"Ah, so I didn't have any competition." Luke chuckled, which made her blush. "Not at all."

"So, see you at New Year's?" He proposed. Yeah, this was definitely going somewhere.

"You wanna hangout at New Year's?" Dani questioned.

"Of course." Luke replied. "You can even meet Michael and Calum."

"And where will this be?" She asked.

"I'll text you the address." He said.

"Perfect." Dani smiled at him.

Before letting Dani go, Luke gave Dani a goodnight kiss, then another, and another. Basically he kissed her a bunch before he finally went home.

"Goodnight, Dani."

"Goodnight, Luke."

•••

And that's their first date!

If I end up doing the spin-off I hope to see you there!

I'm gonna claim that this is my last story update of the decade cause why not? 2019 has been a blast and a son of a bitch, so thank god it's gonna be over.

Once again, thank you for reading Christmas and Chill.