Chapter 9: Part 2 (Kim/Luke POV)

Luke released a laugh, somewhat relieved that they were getting back on track and his words were not thrown back in his face in insulting rejection. "I was gonna say you should do something you've always wanted to do, but never actually did while you were with Daniel."

Kim squinted into the mirror, confused by the suggestion. "What good would that do?"

"It'll get your mind off the bad shit of tonight."

She considered the idea again, warming up to it as the thought rolled around in her head. "So what should I do then?"

"I, uh..." He had not expected that kind of answer. This was merely to distract her from her ex and his new plaything and maybe help her begin to move on, but he didn't know how to provide a step-by-step guide to the process. "That's really up to you, Kim. I mean, have fun and go wild if ya want. Hell, you're completely independent now; no trying to meet someone in the middle if you don't want to. Go out and scream lyrics at the top of your lungs to radio songs, play on all the kids toys at Tate Park, or go cover houses with toilet paper and eggs if that's your thing. Just whatever, ya know? Whatever makes you happy and you didn't get to really enjoy while you were with him."

Kim looked at herself in the mirror for another moment, realizing that she would need more than her reflection and a dry tissue to correct her makeup mess, before silently turning around and walking towards the bed. She sat down next to Luke, pulling on leg up and letting the other one dangle off the side of the bed.

"I dunno," she confessed in a quiet voice. "A lot of the things I liked to do, I liked to do with Daniel, ya know? We were together for a while, so whatever I didn't do around him anymore I just kinda stopped caring about."

"There's gotta be something," Luke nudged, making sure to push her but not steer her in any one direction.

"Well, okay," Kim smiled briefly, "when I was younger, way before I met stupid Daniel, I liked to..."

Luke gave her a moment to continue, but understood she may need a bit more prodding to truly get herself started. "You liked to..."

"Dance, alright?" she answered, looking slightly embarrassed and nostalgic at the same time. "I used to dance a lot before Daniel; and I wasn't good or anything, it was just fun. He never really liked to though, so I just stopped, too. I know it's dumb and girly, but-"

"It's not," Luke encouraged with a laugh. "I mean, I may not go out and boogie down all by my lonesome, but hell, I'll always dance with someone if I can find a partner."

"Yeah?" Kim wore a flickering smile once again. "Maybe I'll go dancing sometime then. Get my mind off all this shit."

They looked at each other for a few moments, eyes zig-zagging all over when they caught sight of one another staring. The silence was awkward and bothersome, as if both were trying to make sure they didn't say or do anything that wouldn't sit right... so they both just stalled instead.

"So, um..." Luke began, somewhat timidly, as he looked down as he feet and nervously shifted them from side to side.

"I had a- a really good time tonight, ya know?" Kim interrupted, his hesitancy making her a bit nervous that he was about to make his exit. After a moment of considering the full extent of the night's events, she added to her remark, "I mean, at least during the times we were together."

Luke looked up at her and smiled; the expression seemed absolutely beaming on him.

"Here," Kim said, reaching her hands behind her neck to untie the cowry-shell choker that was wrapped around it. She held out the necklace with one hand, swiping a lock of loose hair behind her ear with the other. "Think of it as, like, a reminder of me or something, yeah?"

Luke took the object, making sure to run is fingers across Kim's outstretched hand as he did so. "So, a souvenir, huh?" he grinned, looking at the band. "Not so sure it'll fit around my neck," he laughed.

Kim laughed as well, having no doubt that he was correct in that. The thing barely fit around her neck anymore and his was much thicker and fairly muscular.

"But..." He began to whorl the choker around his right wrist, making two full loops before he ran out of material. "Maybe you can help me tie it? Kinda impossible with one hand, let alone my dumb-ass left hand." He knew the seashell necklace would look a little odd adorning his wrist as a bracelet instead, but he really didn't care. Considering how a lot of his peers were dressing to display their connection with and fondness for new wave music, he hardly thought his unique arm band would catch much attention. Besides, it was from a girl he liked. A girl he really liked, so it didn't matter.

Kim smirked and shook her head, taking the ends of the necklace from his grip and stringing them together into a solid knot.

Luke looked at their combined effort, smiling as he turned his wrist over a few times. "Now, I wouldn't feel right leaving your neck bare after that-"

Even though it is sexy as hell.

"-so I have a little memento for you, too."

He unclasped the silver cord holding the feng shui coin and brought it up from under his shirt. He held the piece up for her to see for a moment.

She smiled and turned around in her seat, collecting her long hair and holding it up and to the side to he could put the piece of jewelry on her himself.

He fastened the necklace a moment later, painfully fighting an inner-battle not to lean down and kiss his way down the top of her neck while doing so.

As satisfying as it would have been to hook up and feed his hunger, there was a loud warning bell in his brain that cautioned him that that would only lead to the road of a rebound guy or worse... she might simply associate his actions with her ex. The bell was ringing for a reason, Luke supposed, as he had been in one-night stand situations before and never even batted an eye at pumping the brakes like this.

This girl... she's something special, man.

He realized that she was also a bit of a powder keg, but with how quickly she had calmed after exploding, he also rationalized that her outbursts were more situational than anything. Furthermore, dealing with Keith had given him a plethora of experience in knowing how to deal with those conditions and not crumble under pressure.

It was fascinating to him how she worked that way, being governed entirely from her heart, because he felt he was ruled completely from his head and somehow he wanted to make their contradicting aspects work together.

Kim picked up the medallion and looked at it after he finished and curiosity struck her almost immediately. She had never seen anything like it and wanted to know more about the half-dollar-sized coin in her hand, as well as the other smaller circles surrounding it.

"What is it?" she asked, turning around to face him again, but still gazing down at her new pendant.

"It's a feng shui coin surrounded by the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac. I got it when I was a kid and I swear it had brought me good luck ever since I've had it. I mean just look at tonight- I met you."

Kim could have sworn her heart skipped a beat at his words, and she kept her head angled down to avoid letting him see how much his comment made her blush.

"I know it's ugly as sin, too, so I wouldn't be offended if you hid it under your shirt like I usually do."

Kim scoffed and looked up at him with a bit of a scowl. "I like it! I really do. Not gonna hide it away."

She clutched the ornament in her hand again and peered at it. There were odd characters on both the front and the back of the coin, and the ones on the back had lines above each one, some broken and some solid. "What do all these things mean, though?"

Luke grinned and stared at her for a moment, remaining silent until she looked back at him with a cast of expectation about her face.

"Tell ya what," he offered, "give me your phone number and a promise to come to a party with me next weekend and we can find someplace private for me to tell you all about it."

Kim let loose with an unexpected laugh and felt her face flush again. "Yeah, alright. I'd like that," she agreed and recited her phone number to him. That was definitely the kind of plan she could get excited about for next weekend. She watched him silently repeat the numbers to himself a few times until it seemed they were down pat to him.

Finally finding the confidence to affirm something she was curious about, Kim spoke up. "Did you really-" She stopped herself and looked down at her hands, a rare case of hesitance overtaking her. "Did you really mean that stuff you said about thinking I have more to offer than looks?"

"Every word," he assured instantly, without as much as a waver in his voice. His smile dropped, but the look of sincerity on his face left no room for doubt about his confirmation.

She brought her head up slightly, shifting her eyes up so it almost appeared as if she was sheepishly peeking at him.

"And if Daniel can't see that, if he doesn't care enough to hold onto that, then maybe he just doesn't deserve you."

Kim smiled and lifted her head back up completely. She knew full-well that Luke only had half of the story and she wasn't nearly as innocent and deceived in the relationship as he was making it sound, but he was also doing on hell of a job of building her back up and making her believe in herself again, and there was no way she was going to stop him from doing that... especially after Daniel had so effortlessly broken her.

He smiled back at her, the moonlight painting his face with it's soft hue and, as he shifted his gaze to scan down her body and back up to her eyes.

"And, uh, just who does deserve me then?" she asked, a tinge of flirtation entering her voice at the utterance of the question. She couldn't help herself around him in that regard it seemed, and the fact that he easily made her want to flirt only reinforced her drive to do so. It could've turned into an endless loop that she wouldn't have minded being caught in.

"Someone better... obviously," he replied.

There was a cockiness, an absoluteness to his answer that caused a tingle to grow in Kim's stomach and warmth to radiate through her whole body. While his answer wasn't as straightforward as she would have hoped, she found that she liked it a lot more than what she was expecting.

Her smile turned to a grin as the warmth shifted to a desirous need that swarmed her before nestling in her core. She wanted to satisfy that feeling. She wanted to satisfy that feeling right then and there with him. Thoughts of waving her hands across the comforter and sending all of the glass items to the floor with a crash before grabbing hold of Luke's shirt and pulling him down on top of her ran rampant through her mind. She damn near acted on them (it was all she could do not to) when he grazed her cheek with his hand, softly caressing her skin as his fingers skimmed down her ear to her lobe. It was a sensitive spot for her; one that, if touched right, could send her over the edge just as easily as if someone had nuzzled their lips to the side of her neck. And Luke was certainly touching it right. She tiled her head to the side slightly, gladly leaning into his massaging motion.

Though she tried her hardest to swallow the moan that had instantly worked its way up her throat, part of it still escaped, lightly rumbling off her lips. And then, almost as if he had read her mind (which she had no doubt he honestly could by this point), he let his hand slip down further, touching her neck, once again caressing her with a connotation of intimacy.

The two drew closer to one another, heads almost leaning against one another and lips so near they could just about feel them connect.

This is it! This is what should have happened tonight instead of all the other shit that did, Kim told herself, closing the distance as their lips were mere millimeters apart.

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened, cascading the room in a stream of light and noise drifting down from the hallway. Kim and Luke quickly separated, looking to see who was coming into the room. A short, curly-haired boy turned the corner, clutching a couple of blue glass birds in his arms, and looked both shocked and disgusted to see other people in the room.

"Wha- what are you guys doing?!" the newcomer half-asked, half-accused in a squeaky voice. "That's my parents' bed!"

"Gross!" Kim shouted, jolting from the bed and holding her hands out in front of her as if she was going to push the piece of furniture away.

"Worst timing ever, man," Luke mumbled as he stood up as well, though nowhere near in the hurry that Kim had.

The young, short kid didn't say anything more to the two; he merely continued to wear his look of loathing as he sat the two glass pieces among the others.

A memory sprang forth in her head as she stared at the kid for a moment, one from many years ago when Kim's father had left her and her mother high and dry for some other woman. Cookie, her mother, had said something that had stuck in her daughter's mind ever since she heard it.

"You know, Kimmie, one of the hardest parts of life is tryin' to decide whether to walk away or try harder."

Kim knew what she was going to do without even more than a moment's thought on the matter: both. She folded her hand over Luke's coin, telling herself she was going to walk away from Daniel, and try harder with her next relationship.

Things were going to be different this time around, she decided. She absolutely needed them to be. Different... and slow. Even if it wasn't with Luke, she wanted her next relationship to grow gradually. She wanted to get to know the person and find out if they were actually worth being with before she grew too attached to care... again.

If the situation wasn't so strange already, Kim would have laughed at her sudden shift in thinking, her changed point of view. The geeky little kid had actually just done her a huge favor by busting in on them before things got too steamy.

Thinking quick on his feet, Luke took hold of Kim's hand and began to lead her out of the room. "Com'on."

"Where?"

"Let's dance," Luke smiled, looking back at her and watching a smile reform on her lips as well.

Dance? Yeah, that was the kind of different and slow Kim Kelly could get used to getting used to.

Author's Note: And that is a wrap! I had had something else envisioned for my ending, but once I had written the ending you just read above, I knew I was going to have a hard time topping the feeling of closure to the night that it gave. I did toy around with the idea of another chapter, but I ultimately just took the parts of it that I wanted in my story and incorporated them into chapter 9 (which is why it is in two parts). I hope all who read this enjoyed this side of the story!

I want to say thank you to wolfgirl2001 once again because she's the one who allowed me to come on this collaboration adventure with her and I really couldn't have had more fun with it! It was gratifying, exciting, thought-provoking and sometimes exhausting all at once, but it is also something I look forward to someday attempting again with other authors.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the other half of this night through wolfgirl2001's amazing writing ability: "...and Brassieres"