Simplicity

AN: This was born from complete boredom when I was over at my friend's house. She was trying to get the baby to go to sleep so that we could. X.x So, sorry if it's overly romantic and what-not.

Summary: Jimena finds Collin's love to be simple, but on a stormy night together, things might just get more complicated for her. One-shot.

Disclaimer: Le sigh. I don't own DotM. If I did, Chris would live. I LOVE YOU, CHRIS!!!!!!!!!!

With Collin, it was simple. Life was simple. Existence was simple. I was simple again.

I think I began to truly began to grasp the meaning of complexity the first I had a vision and Miranda…Miranda was my complex result. It didn't get easier from there, not with El Nueve and Veto being my number ones—not my older brother and certainly not my poor grandmother.

Then again, if it weren't for complexities, for the evolution of life from a single-celled organism to now, what would we even be?

Would I have even been a Daughter of the Moon, remember being Pandia?

And yet, somehow, it was that boy who was more complex than you can ever imagine that made my life feel simple again. Safe. No fear.

Collin came from a home where his mother had left him, his father stayed absent, and Serena—my best friend and his sister—was off with the bad guy. He lived for the ocean, and the ocean rose just for him it seemed. He was simple.

I think I love him. I know I do. I feel it without reservations, without fears. I feel this love with a sense of calm serenity I believe comes from my past self, this partial goddess, this Pandia. I love him. It's simple and pure, beautiful.

XxXxXx

"You're an idiot," I muttered as he trudged his way back onto the beach towards me, surfboard under his arm and swelling waves behind him. There was a huge storm on the way; I was only a beginner at surfing, and even I knew that you weren't supposed to go out there.

"Don't knock it until you try it," Collin laughed, an obnoxious grin plastered on his face as though he were speaking of something like ecstasy instead of killer thirty foot waves.

"I swear, you have some issues. You get off on getting hurt or something." I remembered when I first began to really noticed the kind of guy Collin was when he was helping me out with Cassandra and her bullshit.

"It's an adrenaline rush. Besides, I get off on you," the boy teased. The skin on his shoulders were peeling as usual, and he was burned again all around his cheeks.

He grabbed me around the waist, leaning in for a kiss. I tasted the salt water on him before his lips even touched mine. With a laugh, I pushed him at the chest, jumping away from him.

"Collin, you're all wet."

"Yeah, I get like that."

XxXxXx

It was storming pretty hard by the time he got out of the shower and was dressed. I watched the bolts of lightning streak across the blackened sky, rain pounding away at the glass doors of the Killingsworth house.

"I'm glad I came back in when I did," he mentioned, wrapping his arms around my waist as he came up behind me.

"You're still an idiot," I told him.

"But you love me, right?"

His smile was warm and charming, and I couldn't help but smile back. Let Serena have her Prince Disenchanting and Vanessa her hunk. I was happy with my reckless idiot.

"It doesn't make you less of an idiot how I feel," I replied.

"Who needs brains when I have you, Jimena, to complete me?" Collin answered me softly, turning me around.

My heart fluttered. Was I breathing? No, I was kissing him, attacking him. Well, not that he minded much.

"Serena's not here, y'know," he mentioned in a low, husky voice.

I paused. I loved him, he loved me. Was there a hint somewhere in those words of his?

"My dad isn't either…"

Definitely was…

"Which is good because I wanted to do this when we were utterly alone," Collin continued somehow, and simplicity took a left turn in the middle of nowhere. I mean, we had talked about this…

He was moving a little now, a little away from me.

"Collin, we can't have sex!" I decided to blurt out, eyes wide as I looked at him, now down on one knew in front of me.

A looked crossed his face as he held up to me a single Hershey Kiss, silver foil glinting softly in the flashing lightning. My left eyes began to twitch. Slowly, a grin broke out on his face.

"What?"

"Eh…"

"Jimena, I know chocolate is awesome, but I'm not quite sure how it brought on these sexual thoughts." He was laughing at me, and I just stood there with a twitching eye and a blush—an uncharacteristic blush that pissed me off—on my face.

"The chocolate is for what?"

"I'm too broke to afford one of those rings. You know, they go on your left finger. The ring finger, particularly. I was hoping a Kiss would seal it for now," Collin answered in such a nonchalant voice, I thought were suddenly talking about homework and not him trying to propose to me out of nowhere.

"You proposing?"

"That's the idea."

I snatched the chocolate from him, clutching it to me. "With a Hershey Kiss?"

He stood up now, an anxious look replacing his calm and collected one. I was making him anxious. "Yeah. Jimena, I love you. After everything we've been through, I couldn't imagine wanting anyone else."

"Collin."

"Yes?"

"I love you, too." I smiled at him, holding out the Kiss.

"Is this a yes?" I shrugged, unwrapping the candy with a devilish grin. My legs shook, my stomach ached, and I think I was about to cry. The little chocolate morsel was sweet on my tongue, a promise of everlasting devotion.

"This doesn't meant I'm going to sleep with you," I answered instead, and he hugged me tight.

And wouldn't you know it, the damn lights went off right then.