A/N: The response I'm getting is inspiring, so thank you!!! I know you're probably feeling about as tortured as poor Lucas at this point, and I promise that this chapter is the beginning of the end of the torture. I am going to try to keep things PG-13 to maintain the T rating, but where my head is going at the moment, that may not be possible. I will push as many boundaries as I can without changing to M, but I still may have to change.

I still own nothing and thanks for reading!!! Please review.

Chapter 4

It's All Coming Back To Me

The drive back to the beach house, was filled with tension. It was not a disturbing kind of tension, but the kind of tension people feel when they know something really good and exciting is about to happen.

Lucas and Peyton's hands rested loosely palm to palm over the centre console. Every so often Peyton would dip her middle finger to tickle Lucas' palm. Years ago the group of friends had talked about how tickling someone's palm meant you wanted to have sex with them. Lucas wondered if Peyton remembered that conversation and was doing it on purpose or if it was just a comfortable unconscious gesture on her part.

That they were going to sleep together was a given since it was the whole point of the trip, but the sensation the small circles being drawn on his hand was giving him in his groin was enough to make him fidget in his seat a bit. Lucas turned to look at Peyton for an indication of her meaning, and the darkness of the twinkle in her eyes was enough to tell him all he needed to know.

He pulled the car up to the beach house and once again hurried around to the passenger side to assist Peyton out of the car. As he lifted her by the hand out of the car, they came face to face, their bodies flush with one another.

Peyton looked up at Lucas, their eyes instantly locking, and their lips just inches apart. It took what felt like an eternity for Lucas to close the remaining space between them and gently touch his lips to hers. The kiss was chaste, and soft as their mouths remained closed lipped, but the promise communicated through their lips had both of their heads spinning. First kisses were always the best.

Flashback

In the months after Keith's death, Peyton and Lucas isolated themselves somewhat from the rest of the group. It was the summer after eighth grade, and although there were times when the seven were all together hanging out at the rivercourt where the boys played basketball or swimming in Deb's pool, most of the time it was just Lucas and Peyton on their own.

They would sit in the café, or hang out under a bridge by the river. That was a spot that Peyton had discovered right after her mom died. Now with a shared grief of a lost parent, they went their together. They would talk about their memories from childhood and all the things their families would do together. They laughed about the times when they were really little that they would play mommies and daddies and thought how embarrassing it was.

As Lucas and Peyton spent more time together, so did Nathan, Haley and Brooke. Nathan was realizing that Haley was really a great girl and his feelings for Peyton were more brotherly than anything else. Although Brooke hung out with them a lot, she often felt like a fifth wheel, and had nurtured a whole different set of friends from the Magnificent Seven that she could go to when all the others were busy.

One day Lucas and Peyton were sitting under the bridge talking about a particular joint family vacation they had enjoyed and how they wished they could do that again.

It took surprisingly little persuasion to get Karen and Larry to agree and for one week in July, the four had a great time in a beach house on an island off the North Carolina coast. There was a time when everyone thought that Karen and Larry would start a relationship, but they settled into a comfortable, platonic friendship. Like Lucas and Peyton, they had a shared grief at the loss of a spouse, and that comforted them.

Lucas and Peyton really didn't care where they were. They were with their family at the beach and away from all the things children their age should not have had to deal with.

On their last evening, they had all sat around a campfire down on the beach and when the fire began to die, Karen and Larry excused themselves back to the house. Lucas and Peyton wanted to stay until the fire was completely out and so they continued to sit on the sand. The conversation turned to their friends and wondering what they had been doing.

"Nathan kissed Haley." Peyton suddenly blurted out "she sent me a text yesterday."

"I know" replied Lucas. "Nathan sent me one."

"She said it was kind of gross at first and kind of slobbery, but then it got better."

Lucas laughed.

"Nathan said it was awesome, but kind of awkward when they bumped teeth."

Peyton drew circles in the sand with her finger and stared into the dying embers of the fire. She stopped and looked up shyly at Lucas.

"Have you ever…you know kissed anyone?" she asked timidly. "You know like really kiss, tongues and stuff." She already knew the answer since she couldn't believe Lucas wouldn't have told her.

"No. It's got to be the right person. I thought it might be Brooke, but then I decided it wasn't. I'm sure she's already kissed a few guys, and I kind of wanted it to be a shared first, ya know?" Lucas looked down and began drawing his own circles in the sand. "Oh god, how much of a girl do I sound?" he laughed.

"I think it's sweet." Said Peyton and after a pause continued. "Ya know, I haven't kissed anyone either. Maybe we should just be each other's first and get it over with. I mean we've done practically every other first in our lives around the same time, why not this?"

Lucas contemplated for a moment and then nodded as he moved closer to Peyton. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the sand leaning back on their hands. They each turned to face each other and leaned in slowly closing the gap between them. As they drew closer, Peyton's eyes fluttered shut and Lucas paused for a moment to take in her face. He'd never noticed before how flawless her ivory skin was or how her blonde curls perfectly framed her face.

Lucas leaned in the rest of the way pursing his lips together and touching them to hers. They stayed that way for a few seconds before pulling apart, their eyes opening to look at the other. Peyton smiled shyly at Lucas, and then reached with her right hand behind his neck to pull him in again, this time taking only his top lip between hers and pulling gently. Lucas responded by sucking lightly on her bottom lip. Slowly their advances became less tentative as their mouths opened and each granted the other's tongue access. They experimented with different pressures and techniques for a few minutes until they finally broke apart breathless and Lucas surprised Peyton with a last gentle closed mouth kiss to her lips.

"Not bad" teased Peyton as she smiled at him. "Haley's right, it could get a bit slobbery, but overall I'd give it an 8 out of 10." She was teasing him, but inside her stomach was swimming with butterflies from the best feeling she had ever felt. She had always put the affection she felt for Lucas down to their closeness. They had been practically raised as brother and sister.

"Not bad?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. "At least we didn't bump teeth! I guess I'll have to practice more then" he laughed as he leaned in to kiss her again. He had always had feelings for Peyton ever since he was old enough to recognize what they were. As they finished kissing again, he felt Peyton pull away a bit.

"What is it?" he asked "Am I not improving?" he added jokingly.

Peyton smiled and stroked his cheek. "Yeah, you are" she replied "it's just that I don't want us to change. I like having you as my friend and kind of like my big brother…even though I am older." She teased.

"Peyt, first of all…eww…brothers and sisters don't kiss like that, and second I don't want it to change us being friends either." He was a little disappointed, but knew exactly what Peyton was trying to say. "Maybe we should just call it a night and we'll talk about it tomorrow." He suggested standing up and offering a hand to her.

Peyton nodded as she took his hand to pull her up. They never did talk about it the next day, and they didn't kiss again like that for a few years.

Lucas pulled away from Peyton and moved them from the car so he could close the door. It was very dark so Lucas led Peyton by the hand to the front door. Once inside, Peyton took a moment to look around and felt a sense of déjà vu as if she had been there before. She finally started clicking everything into place.

"Yes." Lucas said simply as he watched the recognition wash across her face.

"It just clicked with me now. This is where we came the summer before we started high school. It was all dark so I didn't recognize anything. Luke, this is amazing. You are a romantic, aren't you?" she blushed.

"I try." He replied walking over to stand in front of her and place his hands on her hips. "So, I was thinking we should probably talk about that kiss." He said cheekily.

"Which one?" Peyton feigned not understanding and put her arms around his neck.

"Ooh, the one out there on the beach sixteen years ago" he dipped his head to kiss the right side of her neck. "The one out there by the car a few minutes ago." He moved to the left side of her neck. "Any, and all of the ones in between" he kissed the tip of her nose and paused for a moment. "And this one…" he finally added and quickly claimed her mouth with his own.

This time the kiss was passionate and hungry their tongues each battled for control of the other. Peyton's hands slipped to Lucas' chest and grabbed his shirt in her fists willing him closer to her. Lucas wrapped his arms fully around her slender frame pulling her as close to him as he could, fully absorbing the sensations her tongue was creating in his mouth as well as the feel of his hands on the bare skin of her back.

A flood of emotions filled Lucas as they stood at the foot of the stairs fully engulfed in each other. It was like he was having an epiphany and everything that he had been trying to fight for so many years was suddenly overwhelming him. Since those first feelings that he thought he had for her to this very moment he had been in love with Peyton Sawyer, and probably always would be. They had told each other they love each other so many times throughout their lives, because they did. They were as close as two people could be, but his urge to say it now held so much more meaning for him. He was just afraid of how Peyton would react. So he just said it how he always had and hoped she took something more from it.

He pulled away from their scorching kiss and held Peyton gently by the arms.

"Peyton, you know I love you, I really do. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't." He pushed a blonde curl back behind her ear. "I just want you to know that I can't wait to have a baby with you."

Peyton was a smart girl and she knew Lucas better than he knew himself most of the time. The tone of his voice as he spoke, the way he held her and looked straight in her eyes, and the way he'd just kissed her told her that he was feeling all the things she'd been feeling for years and pushing away to the back of her mind. She tried to suppress the lump in her throat as her eyes welled with tears.

Her eyes were bright and twinkling as she spoke softly.

"Luke, I love you too, and I think we've waited long enough." She barely whispered. The double meaning of her words was not lost on Lucas as she took his hand and led him up the stairs.