"Mo chara!" Ben, surprisingly, was the one that greeted her as she came back into the kitchen. She'd pulled her skirt and tights back on, but kept Ryan's t-shirt to be a little more modest.
"Hi, Ben," she said, taking the stool next to him. "What does mo chara mean?"
"My friend," Max replied for his brother, pushing his stool over to perch on Alexis's other side. "He needs to start speaking English before he starts school or Sister Maria will send him home with notes. And also, he'll have no friends. No one likes weird kids, Bennie."
"Níl mé aisteach!" Ben pouted.
"Max, don't call your brother weird," Ryan admonished as he poured Alexis some coffee while monitoring the pancakes that were half cooked on the stove. "You used to do the same thing."
"Irish makes more sense than English," Max huffed. "But it's Sister Maria's rules."
"Hey Ben, how about we speak English for do chara nua, so she can understand it?" Ryan offered placatingly to both boys as he set the first stack of pancakes in front of them. Alexis laughed at the pancakes, the M&M's formed bleeding color smiling faces, it was both morbid and hilarious at the same time.
"Ok," Ben replied slowly. "Thank you for pancakes, Uncle Kewin."
"You're welcome, Ben," Ryan leaned over and kissed the top of Ben's head. He handed the maple syrup to Alexis, carefully avoiding Max's reaching hands. "Will you be the syrup monitor?"
"I would be honored," Alexis responded importantly, pouring just a small bit of syrup out onto each of the boys' plates. She watched curiously as Ben leaned down to be level with the counter, trying to scoop the pancake off the plate to slide directly into his mouth. "Do you want some help cutting?"
Ben had stabbed the center of his pancake and just seemed to realize he couldn't fit the whole thing in his mouth in one bite.
"Yes, please."
Alexis leaned over and cut his pancake up into bite-sized pieces. Looking over at Max showed he had a much better handle on the concept of cutting than his little brother.
"Thank you," Ryan said, noticing her actions. He flipped the last of the pancakes onto a large plate, then separated out one for himself and joined them, standing at the other side of the counter to eat his own pancake.
"Pancakes for breakfast, Kev! Really?" Alexis startled from her stool as the door was unlocked and opened. The woman standing on the other side had the same chestnut brown curls and pale white skin as Ryan, but her eyes were much more brown than his. "And you can tell me next time you have a date!"
"She's just a friend, not a date," Ryan corrected the woman quickly. "And I thought you weren't coming to get them until lunchtime."
"Tommy can't stand the silence," the woman rolled her eyes. "Besides, we have chores to take care of today, don't we? Considering someone didn't clean his room before he left yesterday?"
"Sorry, Mommy," Max winced, jumping down from his stool to wrap his arms around her legs, begging for forgiveness.
"Mmhmm, I'm sure," she said, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Why don't you go pack up your things. I know Uncle Kevin didn't do it."
Max nodded and made his way back to the bedroom. Ben seemed to understand his mother's head gesture and slipped off his stool to follow his brother.
"I'm Karen," the woman said, finally turning to Alexis again now that her sons had left the room. "Are you Kev's new girlfriend?"
"Uh, no?" She wasn't sure why she sounded so unsure, but this woman was oddly more intimidating than almost anyone she'd ever met before. "I'm Alexis."
"OH! You're Gossip Girl girl?" Karen's demeanor immediately softened and she took her son's vacated stool.
"Yeah, I was binging, thought it would be funny," Alexis offered her a hesitant smile.
"Why are you sitting?" Ryan pointedly asked, staring down his sister.
"Those boys will take hours packing their things without supervision," Karen replied, leveling Ryan with an amused smirk.
"Fine. I'll go help them," Ryan responded sarcastically. "But no sitting here talking about me."
"You're so vain," Karen shook her head at him, faking a dissatisfied look. Ryan held eye contact with her for another long moment before leaving the kitchen to follow the boys to the bedroom.
"So," Karen turned back to Alexis. "Not a date."
"No, definitely not," Alexis said determinedly. "Some friends screwed me over and I needed a place to crash."
"Kev doesn't have many female friends," Karen replied, watching Alexis carefully, as if looking for something in her demeanor to scrutinize. "Or actually many friends at all, really."
"He's been working with my dad for ages now," Alexis explained.
"So, how old are you?"
"Ummm, 22? I graduate from Columbia next week."
"Ok," Karen watched her a little more closely and Alexis fidgeted as she piled up the syrup-covered plates from breakfast. "Congratulations on your graduation."
"Thanks," Alexis replied trying not to be super obvious about avoiding eye contact.
"Alexis," the softened, yet still commanding tone in Karen's voice made the red-head put the plates down and look over at her. "Be careful."
"I'm sorry?" Alexis frowned; not quite sure she'd actually heard this woman she barely knew warn her with no context whatsoever.
"You have what some would say a call to the Fae about you; it means that you are beautiful, bright, and honest, something that faeries look for when they target humans with either very good luck or dangerously bad luck," Karen's voice turned serious, but somehow not condescending. She offered a small shrug, as if in apology after he explanation. "Kevin is the same way. It calls to my more protective side."
"Thanks?" Alexis said, not quite sure how to take that. Ryan's sister wasn't crazy, right?
"It's not that I believe in faeries, but I have seen many good people get into terrible situations, and there are certain types of good people somehow more vulnerable to it. I would hate to see you as one of them."
Alexis wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, but thankfully she was saved by the sound of the bedroom door opening.
"Oh good, Kare, you haven't scared her off," Ryan came out of the bedroom with each boy carrying his own backpack next to him.
"How could you think so little of me?" Karen pretended to be wounded as she stood to pick up her younger boy. "The sister who raised you?"
"Because I know you," Ryan gave her a perceptive smirk before giving each of his nephews a goodbye kiss.
"See you soon, Uncle Kev!" Max waved at Alexis too. "Bye!"
"Bye, slán," Ben said, waving before wrapping his arms around his mother's neck.
"I hope to see you around, Alexis," Karen said, turning away with a firm hold on both boys. "Stay out of trouble, Kev."
"Yep, say hey to Tommy for me," Ryan closed the door behind her and turned back to Alexis.
"What did she say to you?"
"Something about being careful of faeries," Alexis replied, also getting to her feet, trying not to sound as concerned as she felt about it.
"Oh," Ryan's face relaxed, as if he was expecting her to say something else. "Don't worry about that. She did her whole thesis on Irish folklore and its relevance to the modern preconception of luck. Personally, I think she was just getting pissed off about the whole 'Luck of the Irish' stereotype and she was being particularly angsty that year. Now that she's had the kids though, she sees it everywhere and thinks that by scaring people with Fae stories, maybe the karmic universe will balance out by the time the boys grow up."
"She kind of freaked me out," Alexis scrunched up her face a little, glad to know that maybe Karen wasn't quite crazy, just messing with her.
"Don't let her get to you," Ryan reached across the counter and squeezed Alexis's hand. "I promise you; no faeries are coming to kidnap you or curse you with bad luck. She only does it because she likes you."
Alexis snorted a little self-consciously, when he put it that way, it really did seem like just some hazing nonsense, a roundabout way of welcoming someone new into a close-knit group.
"Do you want to hang around for a bit? I feel like we haven't talked in ages," Ryan offered as he finished clearing up from breakfast.
"Yeah," Alexis replied after a moment or two of hesitation. "I'd like that."
Ryan refilled both their mugs with coffee, handed hers back with a smile, and they walked out to sit on the couch. Alexis set her mug on the coffee table to fold up the blanket she'd used overnight, Ryan took it from her and stacked it on top of the pillow and set them on the recliner near the bookshelf.
"So, what have you been up to?" He asked her as they moved things around.
"Just, you know, studying, making sure I've got everything in the clear to graduate," Alexis replied, settling herself in the corner of the couch with her feet up and knees in front of her to rest her coffee on. "This week is senior week, so all fun and games now before actual graduation."
"Any new boyfriend prospects? I'm assuming no relationship since you came here last night instead of going to someone else."
"Not really," Alexis blushed as she remembered some of her less than stellar moments with guys during the semester. "College guys don't really seem to be interested in relationships. At least not committed ones."
"Hook-ups?" Ryan asked, sitting on the other side of the couch and propping his feet on the coffee table.
"Yeah, a few," Alexis stopped, looking over her knees at Ryan. Kevin. There had been something on her mind for a while now. And she couldn't talk about it with her dad. Ever. And most of her girl friends didn't seem to have her problems with one-night stands, so she'd never really felt comfortable talking to them about it. But this was Kevin. Maybe… "Can we talk about sex?"
"What do you mean by that?" Kevin's eyes slid quickly over to her, an eyebrow raised in question, but not quite accusation.
"I don't know, I'm trying to treat it like just another thing I'm trying to figure out, but all my friends seem to be light years ahead of me, so it's embarrassing," Alexis looked back at her knees again. "But since you already know my general boyfriend experience anyway, it seems less so?"
"Ok," Kevin responded hesitantly, thinking over her request as he took another sip of his coffee. "You're probably not as clueless as you think you are. Being in a Catholic school for 12 years, where sex wasn't even supposed to exist until marriage, I know that it can sometimes take a while to pick up on certain things."
"So, can I tell you that hook-ups suck and the sex is terrible? Or is there just something wrong with me? Something that I'm missing?" Alexis blurted, not wanting to look him in the eye.
"Alexis," Kevin started, then he set his mug down on the table and reached over to grab her ankles, pulling her knees down so that he could see her face and her stockinged feet rested in his lap. "There is nothing wrong with you. A lot of guys, especially young, drunk college guys, are assholes and selfish about sex. That's the way it always has been and always will be. Never be embarrassed about needing more than a hook-up to feel satisfied."
Alexis raised her eyes slowly to him, now that she couldn't hide behind her knees.
"So is that just how it's going to be? That I'll never enjoy one-night stands?"
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life searching out one-night stands?" Kevin asked, reasonably.
"No."
"Then why does it matter?" His question was soft and his hand squeezed her foot in a subtle reassurance.
"I don't know," she whispered. She felt lost, half the reason she'd been so angry last night was the fact that she probably could have pulled a guy for herself, but she just really really didn't want to. She'd already had enough excitement for the night, and yet, her friends were still constantly searching for more entertainment, more sex.
"Being emotionally invested in your partner is a huge part of having great sex, at least, in my opinion," Kevin said, starting to get an inkling of an idea why this was bothering her so much. "Hook-up culture isn't for everyone and most people grow out of it by their mid to late-twenties. You're already far too mature for your age, so it doesn't actually surprise me at all that it's not cutting it for you."
"All my friends are just kind of obsessed with drinking and having sex right now," Alexis sighed, finally relaxing a little about having this conversation. Kevin wasn't judging her and he wasn't making it uncomfortable for her to talk about. He was just being honest, like he always was with her. "And I'm over it. I think I realized that last night, but I don't know how to tell them I just want to hang out with them, minus the clubbing and the partying and the hooking up. But I also don't want them to feel like they have to sacrifice this part of their life to make me happy."
"It could just be a sacrifice you have to make for this week? They feel like they have to get the last hurrah out before moving into the real adult world?" Kevin offered.
"Yeah, I hope so," Alexis sighed again, then wiggled her toes in Kevin's lap, in an attempt to get rid of some of the tension and awkwardness she'd built up. "Do you have a new girlfriend yet?"
"Nah," he replied, chuckling at her toes as he went back to his coffee. "At first it was hard to stop comparing dates to Jenny, and then it was difficult trying to figure out why I was forcing myself through dinners with women I would never trust to pet-sit."
"You don't have a pet," Alexis raised her eyebrow at him.
"I know, that's my vetting system though. If I had a pet, would I want this person to watch it? If not, why do I think I'd want or need them as a fixture in my life?" Kevin shrugged. "It made sense when I first came up with it, so I haven't bothered with a new one."
"It's actually a good one," Alexis said, thinking about it. She wondered if she'd have trusted any of the guys she'd dated or slept with to pet-sit. Probably just Ashley. Wow, maybe she needed to come up with some sort of potential boyfriend screening system. "Would you trust me to watch your imaginary pet?"
"I trusted you with my key for ages," Kevin grinned, a light blush rising on his cheeks. "I think you'd pass."
"I'm touched," she grinned back at him before draining the last of her coffee, setting the empty mug on the table, and leaning back over the armrest of the couch. "So, would you say you are a cat person or a dog person?"
"Definitely a dog person," Kevin laughed, resting his head against the back of the couch.
"Eager to please, boundless energy?" Alexis asked, shooting him a grin.
"I was thinking more along the lines of loyalty and intuitiveness, thought that may be optimistic of me," Kevin responded, shrugging easily.
"Optimism is another dog trait, isn't it?" Alexis wondered aloud. "Yeah, you're definitely a dog person."
"Thanks," Kevin snorted and pulled at her toes as he repeated her question back to her. "What about you? Cat or dog?"
"No idea," Alexis twirled a lock of hair between her fingers as she thought about her answer. "Probably a bit of both. Curling up with a good book and a mug of tea is always a viable option for me, which is more of a cat person trait. But, I also want to adventure, get out and explore the world."
"Yeah, I can see that about you. Both is good."
"Yeah, plus, really anything with four legs, lots of fluff, and adorable-ness is always good in my books."
"True enough," Kevin laughed, finishing his own coffee before readjusting her feet so he could get up. "More coffee?"
"No thanks," Alexis handed her mug back to him and then reached over to the coffee table for her phone. Kevin took her mug and meandered back into the kitchen where she could hear him pouring the last of the coffee out.
Text From: Paige Where r u?
Text From: Alexis Stayed with another friend. Not far from campus.
Text From: Paige We good?
Text From: Alexis Yeah :)
Text From: Alexis Good hook-up?
Text From: Paige 10/10
Text From: Paige We'll get u 1 2nite
Text From: Alexis I'll pass, laying low today. Catch up with you guys tomorrow?
Text From: Paige Sure
Text From: Paige U sure ur ok?
Text From: Alexis Yeah, just figuring things out
Text From: Paige K. C U 2morrow!
Alexis set her phone aside as Kevin made himself comfortable on the couch again, putting his feet up on the coffee table, sinking back into the cushions with the tv remote in his hand. She watched him, sweatpants hugging low on his hips, loose well-worn Beatles t-shirt covering what she knew was a leanly muscled chest. She wasn't quite sure if it was remnants of the conversation they'd had about sex or maybe her haze of hangover, aspirin, sugar, and coffee, but she was hyper-aware of him. He looked good. He smelled good. And maybe the whole 'her dad wouldn't like it' excuse felt like it was running a bit thin. She trusted him and he trusted her. Maybe…
"Everything ok?" He asked, gesturing to her cell phone with his head.
"Yeah," she said, mentally shaking herself. "Just Paige, making sure everything is good."
"And is it?"
"Yeah," she smiled at him, her mind's earlier wandering taking over her brain and her hormones. Alexis changed her own position on the couch so that she could nestle her head onto the junction between his shoulder and chest while he lifted his arm to wrap around her. He flipped channels for a few minutes before landing on a channel showing Angel reruns from 2005, then dropped the remote back onto the coffee table.
Alexis reached over and grabbed his now free hand. His hands weren't what you'd expect from a cop. He had long fingers, neatly manicured nails, and a surprising lack of callouses. Alexis traced her fingers over the bridge of his palm, testing the slightly rougher skin there.
"Something wrong with my hand?" Kevin asked, his voice coming out much softer than he'd meant it to.
"No," she murmured, stretching her fingers out so that they rested flat against his. Their hands were a good match for size, her fingers only slightly thinner and shorter than his. She let her fingers fall gently between his. And waited. She could feel his breath held in his chest. She was holding her own breath. Waiting. There were no lines being crossed. Not yet.
Then his fingers folded around hers, falling into place. Alexis let her breath fall out of her lungs and looked up at him. His eyes were the same bright, dark blue that they'd been on New Year's Eve. She shifted herself ever so slightly, lifting her head just a few inches higher, and closed her eyes. His lips were just as soft and warm as she remembered them. But this kiss felt slightly less sweet and a whole lot more restrained. Strong fingers tightened around hers as those lips parted beneath hers.
"Alexis," he breathed out her name, breath fanning her face. But she knew what it was. It was a question and a warning. She opened her eyes to meet his, their lips still barely touching, but he was staring at her, pupils blown wide.
"I missed you," she felt herself whisper, using that to excuse whatever was happening here. This time when Kevin pulled his face away, his fingers stayed tangled in hers and his arm remained tightened around her shoulders.
"This is a bad idea," he said, sighing, letting his head fall against the back of the couch.
"Why is it such a bad idea? Just because of my dad?" Alexis griped, her whole body was warm, and her head was starting to get slightly fuzzy. Not from alcohol, but possibly from breathlessness, or just being near him.
"No," Kevin replied, though it was in a voice that clearly meant 'yes'. He sighed again and did pull his hands away from her this time, to reach up and drag them through his hair. "At least, Castle isn't the only reason that nothing can happen between us."
"So?" Alexis sat up, forcing herself away from his chest. As delightful as the fuzziness was, she wanted this to be a real conversation. She didn't want to seduce him; they were friends. They could easily become more, but if that wasn't what he wanted, then she wanted to know why. "What are these other reasons?"
"Are you ready to get married? Possibly have kids in the next couple years?" He asked, taking a full deep breath as she moved away. He also needed to do this conversation justice and not be clouded from her effect on him.
"I'm going to be in med school," Alexis responded carefully, thinking about both his question and her answer. "I don't really know what I'll be ready for. But I'll probably want to have a job before kids."
"Exactly," he replied softly, looking over to meet her eyes. "You don't know what you want or what you're ready for. Which is completely normal for your age."
He added this second part as she looked ready to argue with him.
"I do know what I want. I know what I'm looking for and I wouldn't dream of trying to pressure someone who isn't ready into the things that I want."
"It doesn't have to be like that," Alexis tried after a few minutes of letting his words sink in. This wasn't about her father, or even the age difference. It was about what he wanted and what she wanted. Which were different. But it didn't have to matter, right? People got into relationships for a whole host of other reasons than just wanting to share an end goal. There were many relationships that people knew were never going to end well, but that didn't stop them from entering them. For example, her mom and her dad. They still had sex when they saw each other, she wasn't that naïve, but they were never going to get remarried. "What if it was just one day?"
"One day?" Kevin turned to look at her again, after muting the demon gore on the tv to give her his full attention.
"Yeah, we agree on a start and an end and that's that. After that, we go back to being friends. Or not friends and you're just a guy who works with my dad again."
"That sounds like a terrible idea."
"Yeah, but this way, we won't have to wonder," Alexis tried. He was right, this was going to end badly. And yet, she wanted him. She wanted to see, just once, what it was like to not be a hook-up or going to bed with someone with no experience. What it was like to have this emotional connection plus the sex. "One day and done."
"Alexis, I really don't think – "
"Other people date and then realize they're not right for each other. Not every relationship ends in a marriage. This one won't and we already know that, but we should at least get the chance to explore it, right?"
"That doesn't even make any sense."
"Well, we skipped the whole dating/getting to know each other part, where we'd sleep together, but still not actually know that you want to get married and I'm not sure yet."
Kevin stared at her, slight frown marring his face, but she knew that meant he was thinking. She met his eyes and held his gaze.
"This is insane," he muttered, shaking his head slightly, but still not letting his eyes leave hers. She was gorgeous, he loved spending time with her, and the sex would quite likely be fantastic. And really, what man could resist the challenge to get an amazing young woman to orgasm? "We talk about sex once and suddenly you're all over me?"
"It's not that out of the blue," Alexis couldn't help rolling her eyes a little. "I've had a crush on you since I was 15."
"Really?" he snorted in self-depreciation although the wrinkling of his forehead smoothed out. She grinned and nodded at him, unable to help sending a little wink at him too. Kevin held her gaze carefully, observing the soft hopefulness in those light eyes. He could also see the determination. She wasn't going to give up that easily. "Ok."
"Ok?" Alexis's eyes widened as that word sunk in. "Ok as in ok?"
"Sure," he said. "One thing though."
"What?"
"Not today."
"Not today?"
"Nope. Go home, think about it. I'll think about it. Next weekend is graduation, so you should spend that time celebrating, not hiding away in my apartment. So, two weeks from now," Kevin picked up his phone off the coffee table, scrolling to the calendar on the screen. "Saturday, the 4th of June."
"In two weeks? We're going to pick a no-strings-attached sex day for two weeks from now?" Kevin nodded and Alexis couldn't help but feel that their roles were a bit reversed here. Wasn't she the one who overthought things? Wasn't the guy supposed to be so overcome with lust and hormones that he jumped her immediately? Hmm… Maybe she was just horny. Maybe he had a point. If they were going to do this, it would have to be in a way that they wouldn't regret later. Otherwise, their whole friendship might just as well be ruined. He didn't want to risk that. It made her heart ache to realize it, but he was right, he valued their friendship too much to let her do this. "Ok then. Saturday, June 4th."
"Good," Kevin leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She supposed it could have felt condescending or even like something her dad would have done, but it lingered too long and his hand had found its way to wrap itself in her hair, so the pressure changed it, making her blush with heat instead.
She stayed a while longer, resuming her position with her feet tucked into Kevin's lap, as they laughed at Cordelia and Wesley's quips on the show. When she left, she hugged him, thanked him again for letting her stay. He just smiled, wished her luck with her friends for their last week as undergraduate students, and told her not to get too drunk. It was all nice and civil, but on the inside, it felt like she was burning up. Now that she'd had that little taste of him, she couldn't wait for their one day. Two weeks? Psh, nothing to her now, and yet it felt like forever at the same time.
