Apparently, I own a very girly imagination…

Date?

"Do you want to go on a date?"

Jessie glanced up at Buzz. It was a rainy Wednesday morning. Mrs. Anderson had left a lamp to glow softly in the den, and Buzz had suggested they watch a movie to pass the time until Bonnie came home. Jessie happily said yes, snuggling down against his shoulder the moment the opening credits began to roll.

Nothing could be more perfect than this, she thought. The movie they had chosen was sort of quiet and boring, which only made her feel more relaxed. Bullseye had wandered in and, at Buzz's invitation, joined them on the sofa. Eventually the little horse fell asleep with his head against Jessie's hip. Buzz had his arm around her and had occupied himself with playing with the ribbon at the end of her braid. All of the other toys were off somewhere else in the house. Jessie blinked at the space toy in puzzlement.

"Are you asking me on a date?" she said slowly.

Buzz shook his head. "No… n-not really. I guess… I was just curious to know if you would want to go on a date… s-sometime…"

He was getting better about not stammering, Jessie thought. She kind of missed it, though. She reached up and brushed her fingers against his jaw. Buzz gasped and hastily caught her hand in his. Jessie grinned.

"But what would we do on a date?" she wondered.

"Um… watch a movie?"

"We're doin' that right now."

"Oh…" His brow furrowed. "Well, we… we could spend time alone t-together."

Jessie smiled and cuddled even closer to him. "We are together. We are alone." Then she glanced down at Bullseye. "Well… mostly." She ran her fingers through the horse's mane and he snorted in his sleep, unconsciously pawing his hooves against the sofa before relaxing back into dream world. Jessie turned her attention back to Buzz. "What else?"

Buzz thought about it. "Dance?"

"We did that just last night."

"Play games?"

"We do that all the time."

"Talk?"

"We do that more than anything else."

Buzz looked down at her with wide blue eyes. He swallowed.

"Snuggle?" he said meekly.

Jessie giggled and hugged his arm. "What do you call this?"

Buzz seemed to be at a loss. The cowgirl tapped his chin lightly.

"Y'know what I think? I think a 'date' is just a fancied-up word for the kinda stuff we do all the time. Think about it, Buzz. We're together from the moment we wake up 'til the moment we fall asleep. Have been for ten years. We talk and we play and we sit quiet together. If you wanna do something different, about the only thing I can suggest is not spendin' time together. And no, I'm not sayin' that's what we should do," she said hastily, seeing the alarmed expression on his face. "I just think there's no need to be so formal about doin' what we do."

"Oh."

Buzz mulled over this for a moment. Jessie liked watching him think. She wondered what it would be like if she could get inside his head for a few minutes and find out why a date was such an important thing to him.

"Do you want to go on a date?" she asked suddenly.

Buzz blinked. "I – I guess I just kind of see it as the customary thing. Bo and Woody always went on dates. Andy always acted like dates were important. You remember how he used to talk to his mom about how to make the date special for his girl?"

Jessie nodded.

"Well…" He hesitated. "I guess… I just want to make the time special for my girl… for you."

Jessie felt her eyes go wide and her mouth fall open a little. She could've sworn her heart was melting. She'd always thought that such a notion was sentimental nonsense, but at that moment she knew it was true. Her heart had just turned to complete girly mush. Jessie sat right down in Buzz's lap and put her arms around his neck, snuggling her face up close to his.

"Buzz Lightyear you are so sweet," she murmured. "And you make every minute special just by bein' you."

The space ranger blushed. He carefully wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her close. Jessie shut her eyes happily. For a moment everything was so quiet that she could hear the rain splashing softly against the windows outside.

"Jess?"

She opened her eyes and looked up at Buzz. He smiled hopefully.

"Tomorrow, would you like to do more of the stuff we already do all the time?"

Jessie grinned.

"It's a date."

Howdy!

Y'know what my idea of a perfect date is? A summer night, a drive in the country with all of the good songs playing, and ice cream! Seriously. I guess I'm just a simple pleasures kind of girl :)

I had not originally intended to write about any kind of first date for Buzz and Jessie, because it's been done so much and I thought, honestly, they're together all the time. What could possibly be new and exciting after ten years (Other than kissing!). And as soon as I thought that, I knew I had a story! I figured Jess is probably kind of like me about dates. Why be all formal when really, all she wants is to be with Buzz? Buzz, on the other hand, is probably trying to make up for all those years of not acting on his feelings toward Jessie. But like her, all he really wants is to be together. And there you have it :)

Thanks guys! See you Thursday ~Owl