KP – One Oh One: Part XXXVI – The Future's So Nice

For the couple, it was like taking a step back in time almost a year and a half, to a time that, as memories dulled, became much more about the magic between them. All of the embarrassments, the bad feelings, the missteps, they were slowly washed away by the passage of time until all they could remember were those special moments. So much had gone on in that relatively short time, it felt like it had been much longer than just a little over fifteen months. Both of them were taller (though Kim's single inch was hard to notice) and it seemed like that was a whole other world.

If the town had been quiet during the day, it was utterly deserted that night. For one thing, much to their surprise, the warm day actually did give way to a quite cool night. They were in no danger of experiencing a White Christmas like the rest of their families back home, but it did force them to change clothes one more time, finally opting for their familiar holiday sweaters, Kim wearing her thick, maroon colored wool top with tiny snowflakes and Ron wearing his slightly lighter blue sweater with a series of six pointed starts that looked more like dots at first glance.

Despite the cool, moist breeze coming off the ocean and the utter quiet, they were lost in each other as they walked up the boardwalk holding hands. If they wanted their old bench, it was there for the taking, but they decided instead to simply walk for a time. They stayed up on the boardwalk itself instead of chancing getting their feet wet by a random wave.

Kim got a good laugh as Ron described his 'fishing trip' with Nana's old Navy buddies. Apparently more than just the "anything's possible" attitude ran in her family. That made her think of how she would be if she ever had a daughter. Well, even a son, for that matter. Was she going to be that protective? Or was that going to fall to Ron.

She started humming a song to herself, moving her hips in time. Before long Ron joined in, spinning her in a close approximation of a dance called "Shag," which was perfectly appropriate considering the beach setting, though it would have had a better effect if she was still wearing the pink dress with it's long, full skirt.

Ron pulled her into a hug as they finished the dance. Kim just let him hold her like that for what seemed like a long time. It was getting late, but they were loath to go back to the cottage. Somewhere in the distance they could hear somebody singing Christmas carols, bringing them back to the real season at hand.

Finally she took his hands and led him to one of the benches, sitting across his lap and kissing him fiercely. "I love this place." She said as their lips parted.

"I do too. It makes me think on you." He gave the top of her leg a good squeeze.

Kim kissed him again, forgetting for the moment they were out on a public walkway on a very open beach. Their earlier trip, fuzzy shots of the two of them kissing surfaced both on the internet and in the tabloids. Fortunately, the kissing looked perfectly innocent. There were no unaccounted for hands and at the time she was sixteen and going steady for the first time, though both of them were ferociously glad whoever had taken that picture wasn't privy to the conversation they were having at that time.

Actually, despite Kim's Dad being a little peeved at the whole deal, Kim was quite happy that there was some evidence out there for the whole world to see just what Ron meant to her. Now, if shots of them on the beach in that sleeping bag had surfaced, things would have been considerably worse, especially since what they were doing could have been majorly misinterpreted. Even if they weren't, she didn't want to have to explain that to her Dad at the time. She didn't even want to explain certain things to him now, though he was pretty much taking an 'out-of-sight, out-of-mind' approach.

"We're eventually going to have to go back." Kim slipped off his lap and sat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder."

He seemed to consider for a moment. "Well, Nana's probably already asleep."

Kim sat up and looked at him almost in shock. "I am not sneaking around in Nana's house. You're sleeping on the pull-out and that's final. I so do not want to wake up in the morning with her looking at the two of us in bed, especially on Christmas morning."

"Whoa. I was just going to suggest we curl up on the couch and turn the sound on the TV down really low."

"Good save." She put her head back on his shoulder, staring out at the black water of the Atlantic Ocean.

She slipped her hand around his back and into the band of his pants, though she only rested her fingers on his hips. "Ronnie, why are we waiting?"

He chuckled slightly. "This again? I thought we finally agreed we were going to wait until we got married instead of tempting fate like we have been."

"No, I don't mean that. Well, yeah I do, sorta. I mean waiting to actually get married and all. I know we're still living at home and we don't actually have any jobs, but, if we went ahead and had the ceremony, what does that change?"

"I dunno. I guess I haven't thought of it like that. It just seems like it would change a whole lot more than just whether we could sleep together whenever we wanted to. Being married is a whole lot more than just making love."

"I know that, Ron. But we're already together. We could probably live at one of our places until we could afford our own. Maybe we could get jobs, something part time."

Ron just shook his head. "I don't know if it would feel right living at one of our parent's places. I mean, you said it yourself, you were kind of freaked out by the prospect of making out in their house, even if they weren't home."

Kim nuzzled his cheek. "I didn't seem to have that problem at your house, and your folks even put the bigger bed in your room for us."

"It just seems like we'd be doing an end run around what we already had planned, like making love was so important we'd skip right ahead to it on a technicality."

"Ronnie, all that aside, you still haven't come up with a reason we should have to wait that long. Honey, we're talking three and a half years. We'll be twenty-one, on the verge of turning twenty two."

"KP, listen to what you're saying. Twenty one. We'll barely be out of college. We're eighteen right now, though sometimes I think you're eighteen going on thirty. We don't have to rush this thing, and if it's really important to you, we can always take an extra day getting back to Middleton, if you know what I mean."

Kim let her fingers slip a little deeper. "I like that idea. We were talking a good game about a couple nights not mattering, but they do, baby, they really do. I don't know what it is, but there is something about this place, or there's just something about us." She laid her head back down on his shoulder. "Ron, if I asked you to, would you go ahead and marry me?"

"KP, I'd marry you this minute if that's what you really want."

"But is that what you want?"

"I don't know, Kim. The thought of being married to you is badical. You don't know how happy it makes me feel that you want to do something so permanent, so forever with me, but somehow that feels like we're rushing something. It's like we have to give something up, something I really can't put into words."

"It means we would have to grow up, doesn't it?" She said, frowning.

"Yeah. I think that's it. In fact I know that's it. KP, we spent the last summer almost miserable because we were so intent on reaching eighteen so we could go off and pretty much get to third base with each other. From this perspective, that doesn't look as grown up as it did while we were waiting. It's like tonight…Christmas Eve when we were younger. We just wanted to pass that last little bit of time so we could get to a toy we wanted to play with, only last summer, we were the toys. See what I'm getting at?"

Kim put on a partial puppy-dog-pout, stopping at the eyes. "Wasn't what we did supposed to be fun?"

"Well, it was."

"Don't you want to do that some more?" She walked her finders up his leg.

"Of course I do. I dunno, KP. We're at a point where…gah. It feels like if I want to do something that can make me feel like I don't have to grow up quite yet, it's actually the more grown up decision. Does that make sense?"

"In a way, it does. So you're saying we should wait?"

"Yeah."

"Even wait for…everything?"

"Kim, we've made up our minds, then we've gotten into a sitch like this and we change it, then it bites us on the butt. Everybody has been behind us from day one about us getting married, but that's always been with the understanding we'd be taking our time. Even if we do wait that long, we'll still be getting married pretty young."

"I know, but there is Nana to consider too. She's not getting any younger and I'd hate it if she wasn't around."

"I think she'll be just fine. Bottom line it for me, KP. Do you want to go ahead or do you want to wait?"

"But what do you want, Ronnie?"

"Kim, just for once, take me out of the equation. Do you want to get married now?"

"Yes."

"Would you wait?"

"Yes."

"Okay, now you're just confusing me." He admitted.

Hoping to clear that confusion, she reached for his chin and kissed him, ending it by lightly biting his lower lip. "Honey, it's not possible to take you out of the equation. This is something we both have to agree on and if you really think about it, we've never actually sat down and talked it out. Yes, it would be nice, but like you said, the only benefit we really would get would be in the bedroom. It would make a whole lot of other stuff hard, and on top of all that, there's always the chance we could have a little accident. I haven't exactly been miss-perfect where it comes to taking something."

"I noticed that. What's the deal, I thought you were supposed to be pretty good about remembering that?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, but having a baby now…that might ruin a lot of plans we have for the future, and even if we didn't, you're right, we'd have to get jobs and with school that would pretty much mean giving up missions, probably for good. Plus, you were right about last summer. There were times when all I could think of was getting you alone in a room so we could do 'adult' things. That was pretty childish, no matter how right it felt at the time. Well, maybe not childish in the doing, but in the way we acted leading up to that."

"We're not going to do another one of those 'deciding not to decide' things, are we?" He asked, twisting towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"No. I think we need something definite. Maybe not a specific date, but a real idea of when."

"I say we go for what we were talking about all along. If we get married after school's out, we'll meet all the criteria for my trust fund, so we can get our own place. We'll be pretty much done with school, unless you go to graduate school, so I think that summer is going to be the best time."

Kim reached over and kissed him again, letting her hands drift to other places. "You're sure we can wait that long?"

"I don't know about that, but we can certainly try." He let his own hands drift closer to the 'danger zone,' earning a playful scowl.

Kim stood up, grabbing his hands and pulling him with her. "Come on. It's getting late and the quicker we get to bed, the quicker we get to Christmas morning."

"You know, that logic doesn't always work. It just makes me sit awake in bed half the night, waiting for the chance to get to your house before all the unwrapping starts."

She put an arm around his waist as they slowly made their way back to the cottage. "Then let's take our time going home Tuesday and you can take some time unwrapping another present."

"I like how you think, KP."

"Plus, you have to kiss me goodnight tonight, before you go sleep in that other bed."

"Booyah." He whispered as they made the turn away from the beach.

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