For Tia--a birthday present and a response to a challenge. You wanted Karne and Connell fluff with a mention of perfume, flowers, a ball, and bridal-style carrying. Don't think I didn't.

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New Year's Resolutions

My phone just had to be all the way across my living room where I'd dropped my gloves and pads. It couldn't be anywhere near me. Oh no. Not on the night I'd blocked with an open hand in kickboxing and then missed a shot to the knee—my bad knee. It rang again. I pulled my foot down from my pile of couch cushions and plopped my towel-wrapped bag of frozen peas on the arm of my chair. It was Karne's ring.

My mother's voice echoed in my brain as I made my way across the room. "Who's this Karne, and why does he have a special ring on your phone? Work doesn't have a special ring. That nice boy—what was his name—Eric?" Jeff, mother. "He didn't have a ring. Are you going to tell me about this one?" He's from work. "Oh. Well. Policemen don't make very much money." I'm doing fine on my own. "Of course you are. Does this Karne have a first name?"

I held my bruised wrist to my chest for a bit, but let it drop when my sports bra repelled my attempts to cradle it properly. Maybe you can't be pathetic when you're wearing a sports bra. I glanced at the tacky contrast stitching curving around the outside of my breasts, and the matching stitching down the sides of my shorts. Scratch that. You can be pathetic. I look like an extra from Tron.

The phone stopped ringing. I cursed. I put my palm to my front door and bent down to get it anyway. I nearly fell when someone knocked, hard, on the other side. I slid the cover to the side of my peephole. It was Karne. I glanced down at my bare stomach and loud toenail polish, and I grimaced. He let himself in as soon as I had the deadbolts unlocked.

"Connell what were you thinking," he snapped. He closed and locked my door as I stood there, leaning near the jamb with one foot raised to keep the weight off my bad knee. If I'd seen me I'd have laughed, probably. He didn't. "You can barely walk," he muttered.

He put an arm around my hips and lifted most of my weight off my feet, then started a slow walk back to my chair. As usual, his quick movement startled me and I grabbed at his shoulder for support. I hissed when the movement sent a shock through my wrist. He gave me an annoyed look.

"Why were you calling me if you were outside?" My voice gave away my tight breathing. Karne peered down at me and mumbled something to himself, then yanked me upward into his arms, bridal-style. He smirked when I yelped. "Karne, I'm too heavy for this," I whined. He set me down in my chair and righted the toppled pile of couch cushions. I busied myself with replacing my bag of peas and tried to stop blushing so much.

"You aren't heavy." He rearranged the remaining cushions on my couch and sat down at the end nearest to my chair. He looked at me for a moment. "You're wearing a different perfume. You visited your mother."

"Yeah. Why were you outside?" And why do you know what perfume I used to wear?

"The Police Ball is tomorrow. I assumed you were invited as well." I was so thoroughly expecting some kind of crisis, and a dressing-down about my inability to help with the crisis, that it took me a long moment to respond. When I finally did, I only managed to nod. "You ought to close your drapes, Connell."

"I usually do," I mumbled. Karne strode over to them and yanked them shut.

"You have medication for you knee?" He stood in front of my pile of cushions, and I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

"In the bathroom medicine cabinet, yeah." He nodded. "Second door on the right."

I could hear him yanking curtains closed in every room along the way, and I was suddenly embarrassed about my housekeeping. He came back with a bottle of painkillers and a glass of water. He settled back on the couch and looked into the middle of the room while I took the medicine. We sat listening to the Kronos Quartet CD I'd put on before he arrived. Between tracks, Karne looked over at me.

"You should hold a fist when you block, you know," he finally said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"How'd you know that's what I did?"

"You've lost your grip." He gestured toward my injured hand. His eyes zeroed in on my other hand. "Show me," he said. I made a fist. He crossed the short space to my chair and moved my thumb, then frowned. He uncurled my fingers and rearranged them to rest more firmly in the hollow of my hand, then curved my thumb lower to the heel of my hand. "Better." He looked me in the eye. "You should not have to think about it."

"My ballet mistress used to say that." I realized I was giving him a really stupid grin. Those painkillers for my knee always do that to me—I don't go to sleep, I get silly.

"From ballet to kickboxing, Connell?" Karne raised an eyebrow. I caught myself before I mirrored his expression.

"New Year's resolution: I wanted to stop being such a wimp." I interrupted myself with a dry laugh. "It's not working yet."

"I believe you've provided me an excellent excuse not to attend the Ball, Connell." Karne's eyes were crinkling at the corners. I was impressed he hadn't laughed openly at me yet.

"No," I babbled, "you have to go."

"Do I?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"DuPret'll be mad. It'll be funny." I grinned. The corners of the room were steadily getting blurrier. I started to wish I'd cushioned my stomach with some food before taking the medicine. I tried to train my wavering eyesight on Karne's face. "You have to go, and you have to tell me about it."

"You misunderstood my proposal, Connell," he said. He was smirking at me now. "I will go only if you will."

"Only if I don't have to change," I blathered, "and you carry me." I heard and processed those words only after they'd left my mouth. My face flamed. "I'm sorry," I mumbled. Karne waved a hand. I blinked hard and squinted in his direction. "Why do you know what perfume I wear?"

Karne ducked his head and his shoulders shook twice. When he looked up his lower lip was red, like he'd bitten it. "Your earlier perfume had a base of lemongrass. This one has a more standard base of lilac."

"You knew it was from my mother," I charged.

"You once told me about her floral print sofa set."

"It's so ugly," I wrinkled my nose. "And she uses rose air freshener, too. Why can't she just clean the cat box instead of spraying air freshener all over the place?" Karne ducked his head again. I heard myself continue. "She keeps giving me these awful sweaters with snowmen and penguins on them—I even have one with kittens dressed as snowmen." My eyes fell shut. "And now this gross perfume. But it's there, so I guess I should use it." At that, Karne looked back up at me.

"I'm going to help you to your bed now," he declared. He was at the side of my chair and reaching for me before I really knew what was happening. I think I meant to protest, but I wound up just leaning my forehead against the side his neck as he carried me down the hall. I latched onto his shirtsleeve as he deposited me on my bed.

"Connell?" He leaned over at an awkward angle and tried to detach my fingers from his cuff. I let go, and turned partway so I could squint at him.

"Key." I tossed an arm toward my nightstand. Karne picked up the new-looking house key I'd indicated. He raised his eyebrows at me. "You can have it. It was my ex-boyfriend's, but I don't want him to come back. You can, though." I closed my eyes against the glare of my bedside lamp.

"Then I'll return at seven." I nodded, sort of, with my face mostly obscured by my pillow. I could hear Karne almost suppress a laugh. He shut the light off, then, and a bit later I heard the front door locks. The next morning I found the bottle of lilac perfume sitting in my bathroom waste basket.