Thanks for the reviews. I think this chapter breaks some kind of record for the most KISS references ever in a fan fic that isn't actually about KISS! I cut a bunch out and I still count at least 7 different songs including the one it was named for which is would be my favourite if I were a fan. It's actually kind of sweet. ;)
Part 2.
The first thing Jack noticed when he opened his door was how amazing Kate looked in the pair of black jeans and green silk top that she was wearing, her dark make in sharp contrast to the lightness of her eyes, her long hair falling in soft waves over shoulders.
He had suggested that they go out for dinner but she insisted on meeting him at his place.
"Hi," he greeted her, unsure what to do with her now that he had her there. He'd always been better at relationships than dating. At least then he knew where he stood.
"Hi," she returned with a tentative grin, catching him off guard when she pushed herself up onto her toes to kiss him.
He was surprised at how familiar the action was, her closed mouth brushing his lightly, carefully but not in a way that he would have considered friendly or chaste.
It was starting to feel like a date. In the back of his mind he was still having trouble believing that it was finally happening. "You look nice," he told her as he let her in, awkward but meaning every word.
He could see how pleased she was when her smile grew and she glanced down at the carpet, a pink tinge creeping into her cheeks.
"Thanks," she replied with a bashful laugh, tucking her hair behind her ears. Her expression turned serious as she glanced back up at him. "I brought you something."
He waited, curious, as she reached into her purse, sliding out a DVD.
"KISSology?" he read as he took it from her, trying not to laugh when she did. "Very funny. Is there some reason you enjoy humiliating me, Kate?"
"Because it's fun," she teased him, holding his gaze as she added, "And because you're cute when you're embarrassed."
He still wasn't sure how to respond to such obvious flirting without knowing what she expected, so he decided to change the subject to something less loaded.
"D'you have any trouble getting a sitter for Aaron?"
"No, not at all," she assured him, her green eyes sparkling with mischief.
Her tone made him wary. "What aren't you telling me, Kate?" he pressed. "Where is he?"
He watched the corners of her lips quirk with amusement as she tried not to laugh. "At your mom's."
His heart sunk when he realised that this wasn't a joke, and he shot her an incredulous look. "Tell me you didn't…?"
"What?" she insisted, feigning innocence, as though she couldn't understand why this would be a problem for him. "She told me I could bring him around any time. And when I explained that we had a date she offered to take him off our hands."
She smirked. "Said I could pick him up in the morning."
He stared at her, horrified, when the implication of her words hit him. "You realise she's never gonna believe that we aren't having sex now?" he complained, bringing his fingers up to massage the bridge of his nose
"Like she does now?" she reminded him, meeting his eyes with the same challenging look as at the wake and he was no longer sure why he thought that this was such a bad thing.
He was trying not to expect too much, given that they still hadn't agreed on where their relationship was headed, but he knew that he would be lying if he told her he didn't have hopes of ending the night that way.
"I… uh… was just gonna order take out," he told her, turning away from her and starting towards the kitchenette to hide his confusion. "Chinese okay with you?"
"Chinese is fine," she agreed, putting her purse down on the bench and climbing up onto one of the stools and he wondered if he'd hurt her feelings. He got the sense that she was disappointed that he wouldn't engage.
He let her make the final selection before phoning it in, fetching a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and leading her back into the living room to wait.
She moved to unpack the bag when the food arrived, arranging the cartons on the coffee table in front them, and he got up to retrieve the DVD from the kitchen, determined to have the last laugh this time.
"You're not really gonna watch that?" she insisted when he popped the draw of the DVD player and put it inside, pausing in what she was doing to give him an uncertain look.
"Why not?" he asked, fighting the urge to laugh at how worried she sounded, less amused now that the joke was on her. "You bought it for me. I think it'd be rude not to."
He flashed her a sly grin. "Unless there's some reason you don't want me to, Kate?"
She raised her hands with a nonchalant shrug. "No. Go ahead," she told him and he hit the play button, refusing to have mercy on her until she agreed to let it go.
She tried to act as though this didn't phase her but as he returned to her seat, he caught her wrinkling her nose in disgust out of the corner of his eye and he turned it up louder in response.
"'I'm gonna bang, bang you, I'll shoot you down with my love gun', Jack?" she repeated with a dubious arch of her eyebrow, reaching over to stick her chopsticks into his carton. She pulled out a mass of noodles, laughing as she tried to catch them in her mouth. "How did they even come up with this stuff? It's awful."
"Are you kidding? KISS rocked," he teased her, helping himself to a piece of chicken from hers, enjoying her discomfort.
He let it play in the background without paying much attention to it until she grabbed his arm.
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'…
"Now this is cool," she said, setting her empty carton aside and stretching her legs, and he couldn't tell if she was being serious or just making fun of him again when, to his surprise, she chimed in on the chorus, leaping up from the couch and head banging like she was at a concert.
"I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
You keep on saying you'll be mine for a while
You're lookin' fancy and I like your style
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy…"
She gave up on trying to sing the verse after stumbling over most of the words, seizing the opportunity to tease him instead.
"You can't tell me this one doesn't make you wanna get up and dance," she insisted, pushing her hair back from her face and he wondered if she had any idea how adorable she was. "I bet you did it all the time when no one was looking, jumping around your room, pretending you were Gene Simmons..."
You show us everything you've got
Baby, baby that's quite a lot
And you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'…
He had on occasion but he wasn't going to tell her that.
"Come on, Jack. Show me your air guitar."
He could see that she wasn't going to give in until he'd made a fool of himself too.
With a theatrical sigh he let her drag him to his feet, grateful for the excuse just to touch her, joining in with her on the next chorus:
"I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day…"
He kept singing until the music faded out and his voice was hoarse, encouraged by her delighted laughter.
"I can't believe you talked me into that," he told her with a laugh, flopping back onto the couch to catch his breath, his heart pounding as though he'd just run a marathon. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd danced like that. Not since college, he decided, and even then he would have needed to be really drunk. She had that effect on him, making him do things that he wouldn't normally do. "I understand if you wanna go call Hurley now so you mock me."
"No, I'm impressed," she admitted, dropping onto the cushion beside him, one leg tucked beneath her as she turned to face him. Her cheeks were flushed and she was grinning and no matter how hard her tried he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her. "Who would've guessed that underneath that straight-laced spinal surgeon was a rockstar waiting to come out?"
Do you love me (do you love me)
I mean like do you
Really love me (really love me)
I want you to (do you love me, do you love me)
I need you to (do you love me, do you love me)
And you know I'm tired of everybody sayin' it
And you know (do you love me, do you love me)
I just gotta know if you really, really, really, really love me…
That was what he wanted to know more than anything, but he was afraid that if he put her on the spot, it would ruin what had otherwise been a perfect evening.
More than that he was afraid of what he might hear.
So instead he just held her gaze, trying to read something in her expression, her eyes, some hint or clue that would tell him how she really felt about him.
"What're you thinking, Jack?" she asked, sensing the change in his mood when moments passed without either one of them speaking, but before he could answer that song ended a new one started up in its place:
So take me any way you want me
Just break me any way you can
Take me any way you want me, now
Make me feel like a man
Make me feel it, baby…
She sucked in an audible breath. "You can tell me…"
A furious blush crept into his cheeks as he found his mind returning to its earlier track and he shifted his attention back to the screen to avoid her eyes, all too aware of her trying to catch his.
Many the miles have come between us
And the days, they come and go
Still with all we feel
It never really shows…
She was waiting for him to make a move.
He sat up straighter, steeling his resolve to have serious conversation with her this time.
"Why did you come here tonight, Kate?" he asked her, refusing to look away this time, even when he saw how uncomfortable this question made her. "You kiss me, you joke about us having sex… You invite yourself over to my place. Why?"
Now that he'd spelt it out like that he was almost certain that he knew the answer, but he needed to hear it from her just this once.
"Why do you think?" she insisted after a moment, her voice devoid of any sign that she was still teasing him, looking surprised as though she thought that this should be obvious. "I like you, Jack. I always have. In fact…" She swallowed, licking her bottom lip and he could see the fear in her eyes as she murmured, "…I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."
He knew that it wasn't an easy thing for her to admit, which is why it was enough for him for the time being. He nodded. "I love you too."
She closed the gap between them, kissing him slowly, gently at first, the passion behind her movements building, and he knew that she was telling the truth.
She did love him, even if she couldn't say it yet.
Each time I saw her I couldn't wait to see her again
I wanted to let her know that she was more than a friend
I didn't know just what to do, so I whispered I love you
She said that she loved me too and then she kissed me
She kissed me in a way that I've never been kissed before
She kissed me in a way that I want to be kissed forever more…
She settled into him when they finally broke from each other, slipping one arm around him and resting her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh.
Without stopping to analyse what he was doing he wrapped both of his around her, his fingers combing her hair.
When a slow, synthetic beat started up, he smiled, catching her eye as be began to sing along so softly that if her face wasn't inches from his he wasn't sure she would be able to hear him:
"Now the day is ending and the night begins to fall
Sometimes I wondered if I'd make it back at all
I gave up everything I had and ever knew
But I finally found my way
I finally found my way
"I finally found my way to you…"
A slow grin spread over her face as she sat up, gesturing towards the doors that lead to other areas of the apartment.
"Which one's yours?" she asked, giving him a meaningful look and in that moment he decided that it definitely didn't feel crazy. It felt right.
"Come on, I'll show you," he told her, dropping short, distracted kisses against her lips while he fumbled for the remote and switched off the DVD.
She deepened the last one, her arms winding around his neck as he lifted her up off the couch, still kissing him on the way to the bedroom.
And now I'll hold you like I never have before
I'll let you go just long enough to lock that door
The words I whisper come so late and over due
But I finally found my way
I finally found my way
I finally found my way to you…
So that's the end for now. Thanks for reading and reviewing. ;)