Paris holds the key to your heart

When Nick woke up, he noticed two very significant changes.

The first change was that he was no longer a woman. It took a second to sink in, but his clothes fit him properly now, and he could feel a distinctive weight inside of his pants. He touched himself just to make sure, and… yes, it was definitely his penis.

The second change, and the one that made his blood freeze in terror, was the fact that he was standing in the middle of the street. And people were staring at him.

His face turned red, and he realized that he had been touching himself in public.

A dream. This has gotta be a dream, he rationalized. There’s no way I’d just be around a bunch of other people, I’ve gotta be dreaming!

“Bonjour, Nick!”

Then a familiar voice put everything into context for him.

Nick whirled around to see Rose strolling up to him with a gorgeous smile on her face. He had to take a second to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

She was beautiful.

Rose had always looked lovely; Nick had thought so from the moment he saw her for the first time in that hot tub, wearing a bikini that could hardly be considered clothing. She wore a significantly more modest outfit now, but frankly, she couldn’t compare to how she looked back then. Even though her makeup was just as impeccable, she really seemed comfortable in her own skin, in a way he was now realizing hadn’t been the case back then. She wore a purple dress cut low to expose a great deal of cleavage, which, while on other girls might have looked slutty, Nick knew it was just Rose being Rose. She had a great body, and wasn’t ashamed of it; and Nick could sense she had worn that just to catch his eye, which pleased him even more. To accommodate how revealing her dress was, she wore a bright blue shawl that she could wrap over herself, should she want to- but it was Rose, so of course she didn’t. Her smile seemed to glow in the morning sunlight, and the blue of her eyes drew Nick towards her before he even knew what was happening.

“Rose?” He stammered.

“Oui,” she nodded slightly, adjusting her shawl. “What do you think, mon compagnon? Am I your belle fille?”

She did a slight twirl, which was rather impressive on her high heels. Nick wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“…I don’t know what that means,” he admitted.

“I know,” Rose tittered. She hooked her arm around his. “That’s the fun of it.”

Nick knew how much Rose had been looking forward to her night with him, but he hadn’t expected her to go to this ****. “So… you used Dream Alley or whatever that place is called, right?” He clarified. “For twenty-four hours?”

“Oui,” Rose confirmed with a nod.

“Right… and where are we?” When Holly had used it, she’d brought him somewhere familiar. When Dawn had used it, she’d gone on a trip through their memories as well.

But Nick couldn’t remember ever being here before, wherever it was.

Rose stared at him like he was an idiot. And coming from her, that was especially painful.

Then she pointed past him. He turned and looked at a very large structure rising high above the skyline, towering over the other buildings around the large promenade.

The Eiffel Tower.

“…Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’. Come now, you really didn’t notice?” Rose tittered, giving him a playful pinch on the cheek. “And people say that I need to learn to read the room!”

“I-I was nervous!” Nick exclaimed, turning red. “I wasn’t thinking!”

It should have been obvious that Rose would take him to Paris for her date with him.

“Shall we go then?” She tugged lightly on his arm, not enough to move him, but enough to suggest that they start walking. It was surprisingly considerate of the blonde. “I’ve set the perfect itinerary for our date together- one day in Paris, just you and I.”

The way she looked at Nick made his heart speed up. “I-I would love that,” he nodded in agreement, and her smile seemed to illuminate the entire street.

“Magnifique!”

While keeping one hand wrapped around his arm, she lowered her other to take his hand. This brought her even closer to him, and she was practically snuggled against his shoulder.

Rose: 2900 BP + 100 BP = 3000 BP

“We must hurry,” Rose urged him. “It’s a very tight schedule!” That being said, she was quite comfortable going at this pace. The streets of Paris were filled with people, but none of them were real- it was like the two of them were the only people in the entire city that mattered.

“Where are we going first?” Nick asked curiously.

Rose glanced up at him and batted her eyelashes with a coy smile on her lips.

“The only place there is to go,” she informed him. “The Eiffel Tower, of course!”

“Huh?” He looked surprised. “But I thought…”

“Hmm?” Rose blinked. “You thought what?”

“W-well, I mean… the Eiffel Tower… it’s kind of… isn’t it, like, the most important place in Paris?” Nick asked, feeling kind of like an ignorant fool. His step-mother had taken him to Europe several times, but never to France; he’d always wanted to go, but he’d never been. But the Eiffel Tower was the main thing, right? “Shouldn’t we, like, save that for tonight? For the… finale?” Nick had been about to say “climax” but he knew that Rose would have teased him mercilessly if he had.

“Oh, so simple… no, no, not at all,” Rose tittered, shaking her head. “Mon compagnon, if we were to save the Eiffel Tower for tonight, you’d spend the entire date anticipating it, no?”

“Well…” She wasn’t wrong. He’d always wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower.

“Precisely! So many people say ‘save the best for last’ but if you do that, you’ll hardly enjoy all the other things,” she explained. “Paris has so many sights to see, and if all you’re doing is looking forward to what will come next, you won’t be able to enjoy them in the moment, you see?”

Nick had to admit, she had a point.

“Hey, why do you say it like that?”

“Hmm?”

“Paris. The way you say it, it sounds like ‘Perry’. Is that how you’re supposed to pronounce it or something?”

Rose smirked.

“You can admit it, Nick, am I the first French girl you’ve met?” She asked coyly, sidling up a little closer to him. Nick felt her breasts press against his arm, and he blushed.

“Well…”

“In the proper French pronunciation, you must trill the ‘r’ and leave the ‘s’ silent,” she explained. “It’s okay. You won’t sound like too much of a boorish American if you say it the way you are. Besides- I’m the only one here to care, no?”

Nick felt his face heat up even more.

“Ah? You’re blushing! I’ll take that as a compliment,” she tittered.

Rose could be merciless with her teasing, but at least she was being playful about it. Nick appreciated that.

“We must be going,” Rose said, changing the subject. “I started our date quite close, but it’s still a bit of a walk away.”

Nick expected that they’d be brought to the tower instantly, but no; Rose really expected them to walk. In fact, she even picked up the pace.

“Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, teleport us there?” Nick asked. “That’s what Dawn did, on my date with her.”

Rose sighed. “Dawn doesn’t have as big of a flair for the romantic as I do,” she said, shaking her head. “Part of the romance is the journey, wouldn’t you agree? It’s not just about teleporting from one sight to the next; to walk the streets of Paris together, that is the sort of date I wish.”

Nick nodded. He completely understood where Rose was coming from.

“Also… please, do not bring the other girls up for the rest of the day?” Rose didn’t mean to sound so ****, but her words still came out with a pleading tone. “I’m sorry, but… this date is just between you and I, so…”

“Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry. I can do at least that much,” Nick agreed. “Starting now, today’s just about the two of us. Sound good?”

Rose was stunned to hear him agree to that.

“R-really?” She asked. She honestly hadn’t expected him to just focus on her, even though she’d asked. To know that he would made her feel…

“Now who’s the one blushing?” Nick pressed.

Rose scowled. “I-I am not!” She turned up her nose, ignoring the fact that she felt like her face was on fire. “Anyway, we need to hurry!”

Rose informed Nick that the greenbelt leading up to the Eiffel Tower was known as the Champ de Mars, and that it had formerly been used as training grounds for the French military. Nick was stunned that Rose could actually retain and relay information that detailed.

And that was just the first of many facts she enlightened him with on their walk through the park.

“…And did you know, the Eiffel Tower actually gets six inches taller in the summer?” Rose asked excitedly.

“That does make sense,” Nick nodded. “Metal contracts when it gets cold, and expands when it gets hot. I’d assume it shrinks in the winter, too.”

“Oh! You’re right, it does!” Rose looked amazed. “That’s so fascinating! So it’s because of science? Magnifique!”

“I guess it’s a good thing we came here in the summer, then,” Nick said, looking up at the tall structure. At least, he assumed it was summer. It certainly felt warm like it was summer, anyway.

“Oui, it’s the best time to see it,” Rose confirmed. “Ah, wait. Close your eyes, Nick. It’s better if you close your eyes.”

“Huh!?”

“We’re almost there,” she said adamantly. “I want your first sight of it from the base to be breathtaking!”

“…But I can already see it right-”

“Nick!” Rose’s insistent tone finally convinced him. With a sigh, he closed his eyes, and let her lead the way. He trusted her not to accidentally walk him into a streetlamp or something.

“Okay,” she said finally. “We’re here. You can open your eyes.”

The sight took Nick’s breath away.

“Whoa, I didn’t think it would be so…”

“Big?” Rose laughed, gazing up fondly at the metal structure. “Ahh, it’s magnificent. In pictures and photographs, it always seems to look majestic, but seeing it in person, from the base… The perspective really can’t compare.”

Nick glanced at her and saw her eyes watering.

“Wait… is this the first time you’ve been here?” He guessed. She’d talked about it the whole walk there, so he’d just assumed… but the way she seemed to light up, and now, in hindsight, with how excited she was… she hadn’t spoken like a woman who saw it all the time, she’d been talking about it like it was somewhere she’d always wanted to go.

“N-no!” Rose exclaimed, shaking her head and sending her wave locks bouncing. She glanced away from him and mumbled under her breath, “it’s my second…”

“Aww, and yet you were acting like such an expert, too!” Nick teased her. “Come on, I think it’s sweet, that you were so excited to go you memorized all those facts.”

“Memorizing a script is much more difficult,” Rose huffed. “But… you’re right. It’s always been my dream to come back here…”

She squeezed his hand tightly and glanced at him.

Then she scowled. “…Wait! I just realized-! Your confused expression… You know I didn’t live in Paris, right?!”

Nick glanced away for a moment, which was enough to signal his guilt.

“W-well…”

“Americans-!” She said it like a curse word. “France is more than just one city you know! Sale cochon…”

“Come on, give me some credit!” Nick groaned. “I know that there are more cities in France than just Paris!”

Rose gave him a side-eye. “Name three more.”

“…Well…”

“Name one more.”

“I-I don’t think that’s really the point-”

“Nick!” She swatted at him while laughing her head off. “I can’t believe you! You big dummy!” She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, startling him.

“Wha… buh?!”

“We’ve simply got to educate you more,” she tittered, unlinking her arm and strolling forward. She glanced over her shoulder coquettishly, bidding him to follow her with her eyes.

Nick didn’t like feeling dumber than Rose. It was a bitter pill to swallow. But in spite of the fact that his blonde date was a bit of an airhead, he couldn’t forget that she was an accomplished actress (at least in her own mind, anyway) with all the skills that came with that.

She might not be on Dawn levels in terms of her memory, but he couldn’t just dismiss her as an idiot, either. And for obvious reasons she knew far more about their current locale than he did, that was for sure.

Nick followed Rose to the end of a very, very long line.

She sighed. “This is the one bad thing about the Eiffel Tower,” she said, shaking her head. “On average, the wait can be around 2-3 hours.”

“Seriously?” Nick stared at her in shock.

“It was a long wait back then, too,” she murmured, staring at the slow-moving line. “Of course… now we have a bit of a cheat, no?”

She glanced slyly at him and snapped her fingers. Just like that, everyone ahead of them in line wandered away, as if the sights from the Eiffel Tower no longer interested them.

Nick glanced at her, surprised. “…So you’re fine with that, but you don’t want to just teleport to our location itself?”

“Of course,” Rose replied immediately, staring at him like he was an idiot. “Like I said before, part of the fun of the date is seeing the sights, and that includes the Champ de Mars. …But there’s nothing romantic about waiting in line.”

Again, Nick completely agreed.

With no one else around, they could walk right in.

“We’re not going to take the stairs, are we?” Nick asked, glancing at the stairwell. He was only half-joking. He wouldn’t put it past Rose to find “walking to the top of the Eiffel Tower” to be romantic- and it would also explain why she chose to come so early.

“Of course not,” Rose tittered, putting him at ease. “We’ll be taking an elevator. Come.”

She led him to a private elevator, which began to ascend. Nick’s heart pounded in his chest. The Eiffel Tower… he was actually in the Eiffel Tower!

…Except not really. He needed to remember that this was all a dream, created by Rose’s memories. …Or were they her fantasies? He didn’t know when Rose had been here last, or how the Dream Alley really worked.

He decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Then, the elevator shook to a stop.

“Wait, that’s it?” He asked, looking at Rose in confusion.

She rolled her eyes.

“Yes, Nick, we’re there already. A building that was once the tallest building in the world, and we already made it to the top.”

She pinched his cheek again. “You’re just adorable. No, we’re having breakfast.”

Nick stared at the open elevator door as she walked through.

“…Breakfast?”

Indeed, past the elevator was a restaurant! The smell of food filled his nostrils.

“Welcome to Le Jules Verne,” Rose said, giving him a bow with a flourish. “Normally, the restaurant isn’t open this time of day, but… we can make a bit of an exception.”

She winked at him, and Nick wasn’t complaining. He was just surprised there was even a restaurant here to begin with!

“I had no idea that the Eiffel Tower had, like, restaurants and stuff,” he admitted as the nondescript waiter led them to a table by the window. Nick didn’t even realize it, but his clothes had already changed- he was wearing a fancy suit, the kind of clothing that would fit a place this high-class. Rose, of course, always looked high-class regardless of what she was wearing. (Until she opened her mouth, anyway…)

“What, did you think that it was just an elevator up to the top and that was it?”

Nick’s face lit up with shame. “…Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly, expecting more mocking laughter from his date.

But she just looked at him whimsically.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” she said softly. “I was actually a little afraid that you wouldn’t find a date with me that fun.”

Nick couldn’t imagine why that would be.

“Rose, you brought me to the Eiffel Tower,” he replied. “As far as dates go, that’s kind of hard to beat.”

“Well, only because it’s free,” Rose replied. “Once we get back to the real world, don’t expect a real date with me to be so… glamorous. If you think I can afford to eat in a place like this on a regular basis…”

“Don’t worry, I totally get it,” Nick assured her.

Rose smiled. She’d been doing that all morning, and Nick thought that he might eventually get used to it, but no. Each one seemed more beautiful than the last.

“…Now then,” she said, glancing down at the menu and suddenly feeling very embarrassed. They were the only people in the restaurant besides the staff, of course. “I’d suggest skipping the wine. We’re already over a hundred meters above the ground, and we’re only on the second floor. We’ve still got more than half the tower to climb, and we can’t be getting light-headed!”

Nick glanced out the window, down at the Champ de Mars. It looked so small, and so did the people beneath him.

What would it look like when they reached the top, he wondered?

The elevator ride to the top of the tower was done in total silence. After a delicious “breakfast” of French cuisine, they were both quite full, and only the matching rhythm of their racing hearts filled the air around them.

Then with a ding the elevator opened out, but… not to what Nick expected.

He was staring at a metal wall.

“…Rose?” He turned to her and she rolled her eyes. She’d been doing that a lot.

“The elevator doesn’t open up to some observatory deck,” she replied. “We have to take the stairs next. But trust me, the sight is going to be worth it.”

It had been many years since Rose last walked these steps, but she remembered every one. Her memory of that night was emblazoned in her brain.

Nick followed her up the stairs, and was hit in the face by a gust of wind. “Whoa!”

They were standing on a metal flat, with a large fence in front of them. But through the wide rims of the fence links, was a sight that took his breath away.

“It’s… wow.”

Nick didn’t have the words to describe it. The view from the restaurant window had been amazing, but this…

He could see all of Paris. Heck- it felt like he could see all of France from here! The Eiffel Tower had been an ambitious project to construct the tallest building in the world, and even though it no longer held claim to that title, it certainly deserved to be counted among the greats.

Nick turned to Rose, and saw her watering eyes as she looked out over all of Paris. She shivered slightly, and pulled her shawl over her shoulders to help warm herself up.

…That was good thinking. It was a lot colder up here than he’d thought. “I thought you said this was summertime?!” He asked.

“It is,” Rose replied, not taking her eyes off the city. “Nick, we’re over 950 feet above the ground. Even in summer it’s a bit chilly!”

The cold didn’t bother him though, if he was being honest. He was just lost in the sight.

“If you think it’s cold now, imagine coming up here at night!” Rose tittered. “You might catch frostbite if you’re not careful!”

“Was that when you came here before?” Nick asked quietly. “At night?”

Rose wiped her eyes and turned to him. She nodded.

“Maman… she brought Chrys and I here. Just once. We were very little, but… I still remember it vividly, even now.” Rose reached out and ran her fingers across the fence. She wouldn’t have been able to get away with that in real life, but here it wasn’t a problem at all. “Because I was so tiny back then, she took me in her arms and held me up as high as she could, so I could see everything. And… it was beautiful.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.

“…My maman was a bigger fool than I am, did you know that?” Rose turned to Nick with a smile and wiped her eyes on a handkerchief. “She brought us here because she’d filmed a scene for one of her movies, a love scene against the sunset, at the top of the tower, and she wanted us to see it so badly.”

Nick nodded. He remembered that movie. He’d watched it when he was little, but that scene still stood out to him; it was one of the reasons he’d wanted to come here in the first place.

“Maman said, that viewing the sunset over Paris from the Eiffel Tower was something she’d always remember,” Rose murmured. “And she wanted us to see it, too.”

She sighed. “But it didn’t even occur to her that going to the Eiffel Tower as a tourist would be different from shooting a movie there.”

Rose cracked a smile and shook her head. An incredulous laugh escaped her lips. “It completely slipped her mind that we’d have to wait in a line. So we stood there freezing as the sun went down, and by the time we reached the top, it was already night.”

Nick couldn’t begin to parse the different emotions in Rose’s voice as she recounted that story from her memory. Sadness, joy, regret, fondness, nostalgia, it was all blending together in a strange way that made it clear just how important that night had been to the Frenchwoman.

“I didn’t care that about the sunset, really…” Rose sighed wistfully. “The sight was beautiful all the same… but maman felt so terrible about not planning things out better, so she promised us that next time we went, she’d show us the sunset for real.”

Rose looked down at the city and shook her head. She wiped her eyes again and turned back to Nick.

“I’ve only been here once, but once was enough. This place has a special spot in my heart, thanks to that night, and her promise. And when I was a little girl, I made another promise to myself, that someday, I would come up here with the man I loved,” she said softly. She reached out and ran her fingers down Nick’s cheek. “It isn’t the way I imagined it… it’s not sunset, and you don’t have a dozen roses, or a ring. But we can save those things for the real world.”

Hope ached in her voice as she looked desperately into Nick’s eyes.

“Right now, I know it’s just a dream. So even if you don’t feel the same way… can I have the rest of today?” She pleaded. “Can I have this?”

She leaned forward and planted her lips against his. She sank into him, wishing that he would wrap her arms around her.

And when he did, and when he opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, she lost herself in his embrace, and in the moment itself.

Hugged the Master! +1 VP

But even a kiss could only last so long.

Rose pulled back and looked up into Nick’s eyes. Her own eyes were still watering.

“Je t’aime,” she confessed.

Nick didn’t need to speak French to know what that meant.