Author's Note: This chapter is the Christmas right before the events of chapter 2 of my story, The Binding of Zack and Kimi, I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 20, Preparing for the Wedding
A lot had taken place over the course of the last year, but the most significant event to take place was the fact that Zack and Kimi became engaged to get married on Valentine's Day, and told their family and friends of the announcement at Tommy's twenty-first birthday in August of that year. Over the past few months, they had been busy with their second to last semester of college, as well as getting ready for their wedding, which would be taking place on the evening of New Year's Eve.
Now, it was Christmas day, just a few days shy of the wedding, and Zack and Kimi spent the majority of their day, cleaning their apartment to make room for the few guests that would be coming up in a couple of days for the wedding.
"Is the guest room bed ready for my parents? Remember, my dad's allergic to feather pillows." Called Kimi from the living room, who was dusting off a bookshelf and going over a grocery list that Zack's aunt had emailed her earlier that day.
"Not to worry Kimi, I made sure to make up the bed with non-allergenic sheets." Called Zack from their guest room, which was their spare bedroom, as he stuffed the last pillow into a pillowcase and placed it at the head of the bed.
He then got started on vacuuming the floor, while Kimi placed the grocery list in her purse, and got started mopping the kitchen. They wanted everything to look perfect, as Kimi's parents and Zack's aunt Celeste would be arriving in two days, and staying through new years for the wedding. They decided to let Chaz and Kira have their spare bedroom, sleeping on the double bed, while Celeste agreed to bunk on the sofa in the living room.
"How are you doing in here?" Zack asked, standing in the doorway of the living room into the kitchen, once he finished vacuuming the guest room.
Kimi looked up from mopping the floor and turned to face him.
"It's fine, but please stay out of the kitchen, as the floor is wet." Said Kimi, as she returned to her mopping.
"No problem. I'll get started on our room and then I'll clean the bathroom." Said Zack, as he went off into their room and got started on the cleaning.
As Kimi continued to mop the floor and clean up the kitchen, she couldn't help but think about how in just a few short days, a day she had been waiting for her entire life, would finally be here. Come the start of the 2033 year, she and Zack would finally be husband and wife, being able to attending their final semesters in college, as a happily married couple. Thinking about this, she started humming every love song she could think of, while finishing her chores in the kitchen.
Meanwhile, in their bedroom, Zack was changing the sheets on the bed, dusting the furniture and vacuuming the floor, as he, too, thought about the days ahead. He remembered that Valentine's day at the Yoga studio, when he and Kimi stayed after class, not only to help him perfect some poses he was having trouble mastering, but to propose to Kimi, something she wasn't expecting in such an odd location, but he felt it was as good a time as any, seeing it was growing late, and once they got home, Kimi would more or less, dive into her studies for the following day's classes, passing out at the kitchen table, as she did most nights at around two in the morning, after she finally finished, while Zack monopolized the bedroom to do his studies, finishing around midnight, unless some computer program he was working on, was taking longer to complete than anticipated. He'd come into the kitchen at around midnight to grab a snack, where he'd check on Kimi to see how she was doing, only to get a simple nod and smile from her, before she quickly returned to her studies, not wanting to forget anything.
As Zack was dusting off some pictures they had on their dresser, he looked at one in particular, taken of the couple last summer when they went to Florida to attend Tommy's twenty-first birthday party, being thrown by his brother Dil and his cousin Angelica, who did it to pay him back for the trouble he went through back at her thirteenth birthday, getting Savanna to move her party so Angelica's thirteenth birthday party could commence. Sadly, Zack was in Wheeling at the time of those events, but he heard about it later on down the road, and thought it was sweet of Angelica to pay Tommy back, seeing that for much of their lives, she was one of Zack's least favorite people on earth. To him, it showed just how much she had matured post going off to college, giving him the reassurance that she was growing up just fine, and would do fine as an adult, in her career as a lawyer post graduating from Harvard Law School. But the picture was even more special, as it showed Zack and Kimi together, right after they made the announcement that they were engaged to get married. All of their friends were so happy for them, and at that very moment, Zack couldn't have been any happier.
"Honey? How are you doing in there?" Kimi asked from the other room, startling Zack from his thoughts, as he was lost in thought, staring at that picture for what seemed to be several minutes.
He quickly jerked away and walked out into the hallway, where Kimi was putting the mop and some dusters away in the closet.
"Fine dear. I'm almost done in the bedroom, and will be getting started on the bathroom shortly." Zack replied.
At that moment, Kimi ran up to her soon to be husband, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Zack spun around to face her.
"Wait a second Zack, I just looked at the calendar, and we've been so busy with getting ready for this wedding, that I completely overlooked the fact that today is Christmas!" Said Kimi.
Zack pulled out his phone from his pocket and glanced at the calendar app, noticing that it was indeed, December 25, 2032.
"Oh my gosh! You're right! And with how busy I've been, I never bought Christmas presents, a card, any food for a feast, or anything!" Zack cried in panic.
Kimi rested a comforting hand on Zack's shoulder.
"Oh now calm down dear, I'm in the same boat as you. I never got you anything for Christmas either, but soon, we'll be getting married, and what better gift could we ask for this holiday season, than tying the knot." Said Kimi, as she gazed passionately into Zack's eyes and smiled.
"You're right Kimi, there's no better gift than our marriage." Zack replied.
"Tell you what. Since it's growing late, and we have to be up early tomorrow to go pick up my parents at the airport, how about if we clean the bathroom together." Suggested Kimi.
"That's a great idea!" Replied Zack, as the two of them headed off to their small bathroom, and got started.
Kimi had already pulled out all of the cleaning supplies from beneath the bathroom sink and placed them on the counter, as Zack came into the room, and put on a pair of rubber gloves, as he didn't much care for cleaning the bathroom with his bare hands. Once they were ready, they got started with the cleaning. Zack cleaned the toilet, while Kimi mopped the floor. Then, they each cleaned their side of the sink, and Kimi wiped down the mirror. Finally, they cleaned the bathtub and shower combo together, Zack cleaned out the bottom of the tub, while Kimi scrubbed down the walls and hosed everything clean with the hand held shower head. Before they knew it, their apartment was sparkly clean, and with doing the bathroom together, they got that room ready in half the time it would have taken for one of them to do it.
"We did it Kimi, we did it!" Zack cheered excitedly, as he gave his soon to be wife a hug.
Kimi giggled and smiled, as the exhausted couple made their way to the living room, and collapsed on the couch. Kimi caught a glimpse out the window to see it was nightfall on Christmas, and Zack saw by the clock on the wall that it was nearly eight o'clock in the evening.
"So what are we going to do for dinner?" Zack asked.
"Well, there's some leftover pecan chicken and grilled asparigus in there from the other night." Kimi replied.
"Let's have that." Said Zack, as he made his way into the kitchen and heated up the leftovers.
Kimi, exhausted, brought herself to move from the couch and set the small kitchen table for two, and within another half hour, the soon to be married couple was sitting across from one another, dining on one of their final meals they'd share as single individuals.
"You know Kimi, your pecan chicken is just as good left over as it is fresh." Commented Zack in between bites.
"Don't thank me, it was Tommy's mom who gave me the recipe." Kimi replied.
"Yeah. Peter tells me the first time I ever ate this recipe, I was barely two-years-old." Said Zack.
"Wow really? Amazing! I can't even remember the first time I ate this meal, but it's all the better when I share it with you." Said Kimi, as she dug into her asparigus.
Zack blushed and smiled.
"And your mom's recipe for grilled asparigus, is to die for!" Commented Zack.
"Thank you." Kimi replied, as they finished up their dinner and cleaned up the dishes together.
Soon, it was half past nine, and the couple was exhausted. In fact, they were too exhausted to stay awake and watch a Christmas movie together on DVD, so rather, they went to bed, and snuggling up in one another's arms, they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.
"I can't believe in just a few days, we're gonna be saying, I do." Kimi thought to herself, as she drifted off to sleep.
"I can't believe in just a few short days, Kimi and I will be husband and wife." Zack thought to himself, as he drifted off to sleep.
It seems that Zack and Kimi at one point during the night, said Merry Christmas in their sleep to one another, but sadly, the other person didn't hear it, because they were so sound asleep, that not even a fire alarm would wake them up.
And this, ends chapter 20. So, how will their first Christmas as husband and wife go? Find out, next time.
Author's Note: A tiny reference to the All Grown Up episode, Lucky Thirteen from season 1, as well as to my stories, Days in the Life of Dil Pickles, and The Binding of Zack and Kimi, were made reference to in this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed this slightly shorter chapter, and, more, will be coming soon.