Nothing changes. Nita doesn't know why she's surprised by this.
Because nothing needs to change. Just because they're together now, in the sense that everyone always assumed they were, it doesn't mean this is better.
They are what they've always been: Kit and Nita. They can talk to each other about everything, they give each other a good smack if they're annoyed, and they'll always have each other's backs. They are two people sitting on a rock on the moon, watching the earth rise.
If they hold hands on the rock now and again, there's nobody to say anything about it.
It's not even as if things are more comfortable now, to be honest. Because the tension may be gone, disappearing with one sentence (took you long enough- it plays in Nita's mind every now and again, and she can't keep the smile off her face) but it's been replaced by a terrible awkwardness.
They're both in their first relationship, and neither of them really knows how to be a couple. Do they hold hands in public? Do they talk into all hours of the night (they do that anyway, often enough)? Do they kiss? Do they do more than kiss? Neither is sure. And neither of them knows quite what the other one wants. They're afraid to move forward. Afraid to get too close.
After all, they both know that this might be temporary. They don't want to think about it, but it happens. People break up. Partners grow apart. Teenagers change.
And even if they do stay together forever, they're still nervous around each other in a way they've never been before now. Because even as nothing changes, everything is new- everything that isn't just them being friends.
So they mostly stay just friends. Two people on the moon, not saying anything, because they already know exactly what they would say.
In a way, Nita thinks, there's no one else they could end up with. Only she understands exactly how much Ponch meant to Kit. He was the only one there when her mom chose to die instead of living to become something horrible. They had their ordeal together. He's been there when she's paid ridiculous prices for spells. He's the only one who understands why she does it, and he's the one who will always be there to yell at her for sacrificing a year off her life to save her sister. They're partners. They're each other's closest friends (only friends, sometimes). They've discovered another world together.
Ronan may have been her first kiss, but Kit was her first in so many other things, and none of them are even sexual. There's so much of her life that she can only share with Kit.
So if they're taking things slowly, that's fine. All that's really changed is that now, when people assume they're together, they don't deny it.
And they sit on their rock with their fingers just barely touching, silent and content. Nothing changed because their relationship was perfect just the way it was.
