A/N: The majority of this chapter (everything before the first "line of laziness") was the contribution of guest author, QuinnAbrams! Enjoy! Leave her a nice review ;)

Kitty

"I brought you a coffee," Kitty said as she strode into his bedroom that Saturday morning. "And one of those weird Boston Cream doughnuts that you like."

Artie's face lit up as he shifted slightly in bed, where he was propped up by a mountain of pillows. As the incision on his back continued to heal, Artie had been given the go-ahead from his surgeon and was now able to lay on his back for longer periods of time.

"I should be the one bringing you breakfast in bed," Artie replied, trying hard to suppress the smile that was playing on his lips as he graciously accepted the morning surprise and held his arms open wide for a hug. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Kitty smiled as she leaned over to hug him back, making sure to be gentle to the skin area around his scar. "I'll hold you to that next year," she smirked as she took a seat on the couch beside Artie's bed, taking a sip of her own iced coffee.

"Deal," he agreed, taking a big bite of his special breakfast treat.

The first few weeks of Artie's at-home recovery were rather uneventful, and, for that, Kitty was grateful. Uneventful these days meant that Artie's pain was being managed easily, his incision was healing well, and that his demeanor was returning to his usual witty and charming self.

Kitty had taken a summer job babysitting for her next door neighbor — a single mom with three young kids — from nine to five on weekdays, so she wasn't around as much as she wanted to be for Artie now that he was home. Still, she came over every night and often crashed on the couch in Artie's bedroom for the entire weekend. She could only imagine how bored Artie was, unable to leave his bed with only some books and a PlayStation to entertain himself, and she liked to keep him company.

"Shall we?" Artie asked, holding up the remote control to his television and patting the spot next to him on the mattress, signaling for her to abandon the couch and join him.

Kitty obliged, helping him by carefully moving his legs over to give herself more room on the full sized bed.

When Artie had first gotten discharged from the hospital, the two of them had started rewatching The Office from the beginning. They had made it to the fourth season now, and they both looked forward to watching it together everyday now that it didn't hurt Artie to laugh anymore.

Normally, Kitty was always on the go — whether it was leading the Cheerios, participating in Glee Club, or babysitting — but for once, she was grateful to be doing nothing. Just laying in bed with Artie and watching sitcom reruns on TV was her idea of perfect nowadays.

She couldn't help but glance over at Artie every now and again and think of when he was FaceTiming his former physical therapist, Javier, and nearly introduced her as his girlfriend. There hadn't been 24 hours since his surgery a few weeks before where she hadn't come to sit by his side. He was long past the point where he was embarrassed by any of his bodily functions in front of her, and honestly, Kitty felt that they were even closer now than when they were dating, if that was possible. She had said that they would continue that "Facebook status updating" conversation when Artie wasn't drugged up on high doses of opioids, but ever since he'd been home, she hadn't been able to work up the courage to bring it up.

When they were a couple of episodes into their daily binge, her phone buzzed in her lap. Artie's eyes were still glued to the TV, showing that he hadn't noticed, so she opened the text message from Madison McCarthy:

MM: "Happy birthday! Let's do something fun to celebrate tonight with everyone. How does dinner and TopGolf sound?"

Kitty hesitated before typing her reply. On one hand, it was her birthday. And she did want to see her friends from Glee Club, who she hadn't seen since school let out. Particularly Madison and Mason, the graduates who would be going off to college soon.

But, on the other hand, she felt horribly ditching Artie. She had found out pretty early on in their relationship that golfing was one of the only sports he could participate fully in from the chair, and that he was always up for a night at the driving range. Going to TopGolf, of all places, would have her feeling even more guilty about leaving him. She felt a twinge of regret in her chest as she glanced over at Artie again before typing her response.

KW: "Thank you! I miss all of you so much, but I think I'm gonna have to opt out. Artie's still recovering and I'm staying at his place tonight. We all have to hang out soon though!

She added a bunch of heart emojis before tucking her phone away and turning her attention back to the TV. She looked up and had to do a double take before her jaw dropped and she reached for the remote to pause the show.

"Hey, what'd you do that for?" Artie protested, trying his best to read the look that was plastered across her face.

"He looks just like you!" Kitty pointed at the TV where Michael Scott was getting pizza delivered by a teenager who wouldn't accept his coupon.

Artie scoffed and shook his head.

"Are you high? That looks nothing like me."

Kitty jumped off the bed and walked closer to the screen.

"It does! It looks like a shaggy haired, walking you with an earring!" Kitty was waving her arms around frantically now, trying to get her point across.

"You're going crazy," Artie told her, picking up the remote and unpausing the show as Kitty returned, defeated, to her spot beside him. "I've kept you cooped up for far too long."

A couple of minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Artie called, as the doorknob twisted and Sam appeared holding a box of pizza. He was presumably on his lunch break from work, as he was still wearing his greasy coveralls with the Hummel Tires & Lube logo patched on.

"Special delivery," he announced as he handed the box to Artie. "Pineapple and Canadian bacon, just how you like it."

"I'm going to gain so much weight if I am eating this crap all the time while being bedridden," Artie groaned before taking a bite of his lunch.

"Well, you're the only chef around here, and since you're down for the count, we're all going to gain weight from depending on take-out for every meal," Sam pointed out, receiving an understanding shrug from Artie. Sam then turned his attention to Kitty. "Hey, happy birthday! Finally seventeen!"

Kitty nodded as she took a slice from the pizza box. She was going to hate herself for indulging in this once Cheerios workouts started up again at the end of the summer. But she'd just been named captain, yet again, after no one had even wanted to try out against her. She guessed she owed that to her reputation of being scary.

"Doing anything special tonight to celebrate?" Sam asked. Artie looked over at her too, eager to hear the answer himself.

"Oh, uh, nope," Kitty swallowed the food in the mouth. "Madison had asked if I wanted to do something with some of the Glee kids, but I told her that a later date would be better," Kitty admitted and braced herself for the inevitable pushback from Artie.

"Kitty, go out," Artie insisted. "It's your birthday. You deserve to spend it with your friends."

"I am spending it with my friends," she reminded him. Though I wish we were more than that, she caught herself thinking. "Pizza, and The Office, and you… this is exactly how I want to spend today."

Artie shook his head once more. He was nothing if not stubborn. "You're going out tonight," he told her. "Text Madison and tell her you'll come. Please? Puck said earlier that he wants to come over and play Halo for a little bit, so it's not like I'm gonna be alone. Plus, I have Sam and Amy, if I need help. Seriously, I'll be right here when you come back."

A small smile appeared on Kitty's lips. It definitely helped to ease her mind knowing that Artie had such a good network of friends who were constantly asking to drop by and check in on him as he recovered. She couldn't help but wonder how in the world he did this extensive recovery the first and second times around, without real friends by his side.

With her greatest fear of leaving Artie by himself resolved, she felt a surge of relief as she leaned in and kissed the top of his head. Was it a little too far for the — currently platonic — friendship they had going? Probably. But that's just how they rolled. Even Sam and Amy didn't really bug them about it.

It was nearing the end of Sam's lunch break just then, and, as he turned to leave, something on the TV caught his eye.

"Hey!" he said, using the half-eaten pizza crust in his hand to point at the screen, where Artie's pizza delivery boy doppelgänger was currently being locked in the conference room by Michael and Dwight. "That kid looks just like you!"

"Ha! I told you!" Kitty said, satisfied, as Artie rolled his eyes again.

Thwack! went the ball, as she finally made contact. It was almost a running joke, as to how many missed swings it would finally take before Kitty hit it. Most of her hits missed the targets or flew out of bounds, but not this one. It was her best hit yet.

And Artie wasn't there to cheer her on. Boo. She almost wanted to FaceTime him and make someone hold the phone next time, even though she'd probably never get another solid hit like that one.

"Nice one," Marley said, as Kitty took her seat on the barstool by the brunette again. Unique refused to play golf, for fear of breaking a nail, but she'd come along, as had Mason, Jane, Madison, Jake, Tina, Hunter... and Ryder.

She was more than a little bit uncomfortable about the fact that Ryder had come along, yet Artie was not here, but she saved face, not wanting Ryder to suspect there was any real reason for her to be uncomfortable around him. There wasn't. If she was really honest with herself, she'd just been trying to fill a void in her life with him.

Tina went next and was much worse at TopGolf than anyone else, easily, but she shrugged off her latest foul ball of the night and sat down on the other side of Kitty, even though she'd previously been at the other table.

"So!" Tina began, and Kitty could tell when she was gearing up for gossip. "Kitty, we've been friends for awhile now. So I'm just gonna ask. Are you and Artie an item again?"

An item? Who even says that, in this decade?

"N-no," Kitty said, as Marley leaned in curiously. "I mean yes. I mean maybe? I'm... not sure how you'd really define what's happening."

"But something is happening?" Marley repeated, and now Unique had caught the last part of that, put two and two together, and leaned in to hear it, too.

"Just... me taking care of him," Kitty stammered. "Only, I mean, well, I kiss him sometimes. And he kisses me. But I really don't know what it means right now, and neither does he, and I don't think summer vacation is necessarily the best time to start something, seeing as it's nothing like the rest of the year..."

"And you don't want your heart broken again," Marley, who knew more than anyone, supplied.

Kitty sighed. "Correct."

"If you're getting physical with him, then something's already starting," Tina countered, always the voice of dissension. "You may as well define it, or else you'll probably both end up getting hurt. I know when it was me and Hunter..."

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Kitty interjected. "Tina, you know I'm supportive of you and my brother. At first, yes, I was just tolerant but now I'm supportive. That still does not mean I want to hear about it."

Tina opened her mouth to apologize, but she was interrupted by a group of waiters who approached them, whooping and clapping, before stopping in front of the table. They came carrying a dessert with a candle and announced that someone was turning "Sweet Seventeen," before beginning their song.

It was late, when she dropped by Artie's house after the party, but she knew he would still be awake. Artie stayed up later and slept later than he ever had in his life, thanks to his temporary lifestyle during his recovery. As a result, Kitty knew before she stopped by that he'd still be awake. She'd been given a key, so she'd let herself in.

"I hope you didn't watch any of The Office without me," she said, gently nudging his feet aside, to follow his body as he carefully moved himself over for her.

"Of course not," he assured her. "I watched a few episodes of Drunk History because I know you don't like it as much as I do."

"Thanks," she said, cozying up to him and tucking her head against his shoulder, noticing how the gesture brought a smile to his face.

"So?" he asked. "How was the party?"

"It was good," she said. "Not as fun without you, of course, but good. It was nice of Madison to plan something for me. What about you? Did Puck come over?"

"Um, no, he bailed," Artie said, biting his lower lip. "But it was totally fine! I hung out with Amy and Sam. They came down here, since I can't go up there yet, and we had a good time just talking. I tried to get them to tell me their baby name, but they won't say."

"Why not?"

"Because awhile ago, I handed them Mom and Dad's old yearbook and told them that if they name they picked was in there, they should pick something else, because it's an old person name."

Kitty giggled at that.

"I'm serious," Artie added. "Neither of them had to go through life as they only Arthur in high school. And someday, if I have a kid, I'm going to look up the top ten most popular names for that year and use that."

"I like your name," Kitty started to say, but Artie was already shaking his head emphatically. "Oh, fine, whatever, but popular names are so overrated. I, for one, hope they don't pick something trendy. That would be disappointing."

"So, anyway," Artie said, changing the subject, because he could see that they clearly weren't going to agree on that point. "While they were down here, I got Amy to wrap your gift. I sort of had second thoughts about it, so, in advance, if you don't like it... I'm sorry."

"What?" Kitty stared at him, confused by his nervous rambling. "I'm sure I'll like it."

He nodded at his desk, in the corner of the room. "It's over there," he told her. "Careful, it's kind of heavy..."

Curiously, Kitty rose to her feet and looked under the desk in the space where a chair would typically go. She slipped what felt like a large framed picture, wrapped in Christmas paper.

"It was the only wrapping paper we had," Artie explained, licking his lips nervously as he watched her untie the bow.

She tore the paper off to reveal a split frame with two pictures. One was her senior photo, a black and white print of it, that she'd just had taken a couple of weeks ago. She'd been proud of the results, so much so that she'd shared them on social media, a super rare move for her. Next to it was a picture of Kitty's mother. Of her senior picture.

"I'm sorry if this is too close to the anniversary of her passing for me to be giving you something like this," Artie hurried to defend his choice. "I just, well, I saw your dad's comment online, that you looked just like your mother. So I asked him about it, and he sent me that. And you do. Look just like her. I thought, well, maybe you'd like to have those, side by side."

Kitty was trying to form the words without crying too much. Finally, she leaned the framed picture against the wall carefully and crossed the room to lean over and hug him. "It's perfect," she breathed. "And I love it."

What followed was not one of those "platonic" kisses, if you could even call it that, but rather, something that could most definitely not be considered a kiss between friends.

Kitty took a few steps back, stopping herself long enough to say, "Tina was right."

Artie opened his eyes. "About what?"

She gathered up her courage, for it could go without saying no longer. "About us needing to decide what this is and what we're doing, before one or both of us get hurt." She settled down, on the foot of his bed. "Again."

Artie seemed to select his words carefully, as he always did, in moments like this. Finally, he told her, "I was glad you went out tonight, without me."

"Why?"

"Because," he said. "I just don't want you to ever not do something, just because I can't."

"Well," said Kitty. "I mean, I don't ever want you to do that either. That means, if you can hit the ball into the center, back target at Top Golf, then you hit that ball. Don't hold back, just because I can't..."

Artie smirked, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and looked deeply into his eyes. "Fair enough."

"Have you got this through your thick skull then?" she went on. "That you aren't keeping me from doing anything I want to do?"

"I think it's... sinking in now," Artie said.

"Good." She pouted slightly. "Because I deserve to be loved openly and without condition and I hope you know that I don't intend to keep any of this a secret."

Artie was looking rather smug now. "Well, get out your phone then, woman." He always called her 'woman' when he was feeling overconfident, just part of his charm, she supposed.

"So, as far as my Facebook status is concerned?"

"I say... it's time we went public."