Title: Always Friends

Pairing: None really, but it involves Tommy and Kimberly.

Rating: K+

Summary: Kimberly talks to Tommy after the tournament. She explains the letter, and Tommy gets the closure he desperately wanted. Set right after Turbo:APRM Oneshot.

Author's Note: This is my one time dealing with the letter in a canon-sort of way. No fluffy bunnies here people. Sorry. No flames.

Kim had waited until the celebration had died down and walked over to Tommy. "Hey, can I talk to you for a bit, somewhere quiet?" She asked, shifting slightly on her heels. She didn't want to have this discussion with him, but she owed it to him, especially after Kat had took her aside and told her how Tommy had been acting since she'd sent that letter.

Tommy looked around, searching for a way out of it, but nodded, "Yeah, come on," he said leading her to the back of the Youth Center. "What's up?"

"I owe you an explanation," she said bluntly.

"You don't owe me anything, you said exactly what you felt in that letter," Tommy replied, a bit of bitterness creeping into his voice.

"No, I really didn't," she said softly. "Tommy… here me out please, and don't interrupt, please?"

Tommy nodded, even if it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Kim took a deep breath, "The hardest decision I ever made was leaving you, leaving the gang, going to Florida. But I had to do it, it was my dream."

"Kim I…"

Kim shook her head, "you said you wouldn't interrupt." She sighed, "After I left, I was sad. Every night that I'd been gone, all I thought about was packing up, telling the coach I couldn't do it and coming back home, coming home to you."

Tommy watched her; he didn't know what she was getting at, why she was rehashing a wound that was already starting to heal for him.

"I loved you… hell, I still do. I probably always will," she stopped and put her fingers to his lips when he started to say something. "I loved you so much that I'd give up my dreams to be with you. That's not fair to me. I would have done it, in a heartbeat, I almost did. I had my bags back and everything. My dream didn't mean as much to me as you did," she said softly.

Tommy shook his head, "Kim… I wouldn't have wanted that for you."

"I know," she said with a smile. "I was sitting there in my dorm room, bags packed. James…" she winced when Tommy tensed up at the male name. "He came to see me, he sat me down, and he talked to me about things."

She turned away from him and ran a hand through her hair, "Tommy, if I would have done that, if I'd of left and gone back to you. I would have hated myself, hated myself for giving in, hated myself for giving up on my dreams, my goals, hell, my life."

Tommy walked over to her and put his arm tentatively around her, "I would have made you go back. I wouldn't have let you give up," he said softly.

She turned to him, "Tommy, would you really have sent me away? If I came back, confessed how much it hurt to be away from you, would you really have sent me back? Could you have sent me back? Honestly," she asked him.

Tommy thought about that. He hugged her closer to him and she relaxed, her back against his chest, "I don't know," he finally admitted. "I don't know if I could have let you go again."

Kim nodded, "Exactly, you wouldn't have sent me back, and I would have stayed with you. Eventually," she took a deep breath, "I think I would have come to hate you for that. I would have blamed you, blamed myself for loving you, blamed you for being so good to me."

Tommy closed his eyes tightly; the heartbreak in her voice nearly brought him to tears. He just held her close. "That's why you sent the letter?"

Kim turned around in his arms, "Yes. As much as I love you, I need to pursue my dreams, and reach my goals, I couldn't do that, every letter you sent me broke my heart, ever letter I sent, I wished it was me going to you instead of the letter. It wasn't fair. I KNOW I hurt you, I know that, it's incredibly selfish of me…"

Tommy shook his head, interrupting her, "No, it's not. Yes it hurt, but no, you're not being selfish. If you're so in love with somebody that you give up being YOU, to be with them, then it's not right," he said softly. "I don't want you to give up your dreams, even if that means I'm not with you. We were friends before we fell in love; I want to be friends even after we fall out of love. You mean too much to me Beautiful; I don't want to lose you completely."

Kim smiled and looked away, tears falling from her eyes, "Always friends Handsome, always," she said leaning up, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. "Love you."

"Love you too Beautiful," Tommy whispered, holding her tightly. A weight had been lifted off his shoulders, off of his heart. He hadn't done anything to drive her away from him, and now he'd gotten the closure he so desperately needed. And Kimberly was right, they would always be friends.