The date treads new and unknown ground for Mayerling when they go somewhere with other people, other people who glance at them for a moment or stare longer but regardless do nothing more than that, people who accept them as part of the environment, part of the masses occupying the night. That's all Mayerling and Sharon are to them, two more people in a busy bar. It takes his breath away for a few performances because that is new. Foreign. Unheard of. It's nothing Sharon does or Mayerling does that makes so many of those moments special, it's simply being there. He could have cried his heart out; instead he sang a ballad that did nearly the same.

Mayerling kisses Sharon a long time, not wanting the moment to end, not wanting the date to end, even as dawn's long fingers creep over the horizon. Most reluctantly, inside, even as he lets her go smoothly, with as much easy appearance as any other, Mayerling looks at her with longing— then amazement.

"Not over?" Mayerling confirms, questioningly. He nods. "I will wait for you, awake." Asleep, he'd be impossible for her to awaken. With a statement like hers, so mysterious, Mayerling won't be able to sleep if he wanted to.

He squeezes her hands, kisses her again briefly, and forces himself to break contact on the promise she will be back in an hour. Within an hour. His heart beat furiously like a storm, though calmly he returned inside before he caught flame, rose the stairs silently, and entered his coffin.

Mayerling lay there, thoughts oscillating wildly between thoughts he longed for unreasonably and serious attempts to pick apart what Sharon might mean.