Authors Note: I own nothing. No ownership rights to Beverly Hills 90210.

Chapter Fourteen

Dylan's energy had been weird all night. He had been highly attentive to every detail of the evening, from vetoing a black dress I was thinking of wearing and insisting a long silver slip dress I had recently bought would be perfect for our night, to checking his grandfather's watch regularly to make sure we were on time. I completely understood the need to check to ensure we made our reservation but I did not understand why he was still obsessed with it throughout dinner. He only seemed to relax some when he received a note from the manager of the restaurant. After reading it Dylan said it was a letter of hello to Jack- he had been a regular.

Once our meal was finished he asked me to go for a walk with him. In was a breezy summer night close to midnight as we walked along the Seine River bank. Dylan had removed his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders, the dress while pretty was made of a thin silk fabric that did very little to prevent the wind rushing through me. I was so distracted in the moment, encased in the smell of Dylan, with his hand in mine, quietly listening to the sounds of the Paris night that I didn't realise our destination until we were almost there.

"Did you get a lock?"

"I did. Well I should say the concierge did. I've made them very busy this afternoon with my requests the lock with the names engraved was probably the easiest of them all." He squeezes my hand as the bridge comes into view. "Have you walked across the Pont des Arts?"

"I've walked to it but no never across. The bridge of locks was something I wanted to wait to experience properly with you."

He pulls me closer to him, wrapping his arm around me as we begin to turn onto the bridge. "It's a tradition that actually started in Italy, where you seal your love, locking it up and then throw the key into the river. The love becomes unbreakable then, no one or anything can come between the two. The Italian bridge and river is off the beaten track so it never became as famous as the Pont des Arts, though I'd like us to put a lock there as well one day."

"I'd like that. Where shall we place our lock?"

Dylan surveyed the bridge and led me over to a section of the bridge that was void of any other inhabitants. Even close to midnight the bridge was a popular tourist attraction. "Here I think would be perfect." He doesn't release me from his hold but moves around so he is facing me with a serious look on his face. "I didn't like it today when you said we were dating. It hasn't sat right with me all afternoon. You being someone I'm just dating sounds trivial. People date for a few weeks a few months-"

"Or in my brother's case a few day's."

He laughs, "exactly. You were my first girlfriend and will be my only girlfriend. I've liked you having that title but I think we have outgrown it. It started I think after we realised that while our connection is unbreakable it doesn't leave us immune to hurting each other with others, when we promised on that couch that we didn't want to lose each other it felt like something shifted. A few weeks later nearly losing you in that hold up… if that guy had pulled that trigger…" he takes a breath to calm himself, that event while traumatic for me was traumatic for both Dylan and Brandon as well. In the aftermath its effects on them have often been ignored. "It solidified that shift. Missing curfew, not wanting to be away from the other, Baja, all of it was because we were growing. Our old relationship didn't fit us anymore. Since I came home to you from your Dad's office and told you everything. Since we've communicated everything, shared every secret, every decision, since we have let every guard down and surrendered to the intensity of this both emotionally and physically I want something more."

He reaches into the pocket of his pants and pulls out the lock and then lifts my hand placing the lock on my palm. "I'd like that to be our new title. Well your new title." I look down and see our initials on the lock well not quite our initials DM + BM.

I remember packing weeks ago for this trip taking his t-shirts so I'd have something of his when I needed him close, we joked about me eventually taking something else. "You want me to steal your name?"

"No I want to give it to you. Though I think from the moment we met it has always been rightfully yours, we were just too young."

"Some people would say we are still too young."

"Jack kicked me out at fourteen though he wasn't around more than a few day's of the month for years before that. For better or worse I've been forced to grow up fast; more often than not unstably but I think this last year and the last few weeks especially have helped me finally find my supports my stability. You are the dichotomy. You can be both the teenager or the grownup, from the moment I met you you were capable of being both. Your life allows you space for both; you can be the impulsive teenager or the wise stable adult. I never want to take anything away from you, so if you think that you want us to be the teenagers for a while longer then we make a promise, agree on a date and seal it with this lock."

"And if I want to be the grownups?"

"Then how far in we jump is something we decide like we have done ever since I came back from that meeting, we decide together- shallow or deep."

"Would you be disappointed if I took the teenager route or scared if I took the grownup path?"

He reaches up and moves the strand of hair that the wind has blown across my face, tucking it back behind my ear. "My mother says we lost our balance before Baja. That's how she refers to it. My father and her reference this type of love being about balance. This morning from when that hotel door locked we were obsessive and possessive of each other physically but we get like that emotionally as well. We can shut people and the world out, our intensity can make our world small to being just you and me, I think that's what scares your parents the most, what upsets Brandon the most- I rob him of his twin, his most important connection. Our balance is key to making sure we stay healthy that we don't get lost in the intensity. That our intensity never becomes a problem for us again. You felt lost in it at the end of sophomore year and left me to gain perspective. I never want that to happen again-"

"Neither do I."

"To keep our balance I think it means we need to always communicate and to be patient with each other. I can indulge and enjoy our teenage romance, feeling more stable with a commitment for the future for a while longer, or I can take the next leap with you and see where we land. Either way you are with me and we are keeping our balance." He leans closer and kisses me and then flips over the lock in my hand, "either way we both know that this will be true one day soon."

I look down and see the lock has Mr & Mrs D McKay on it.

I giggle amused, "D?"

"Our names wouldn't fit, nor Dylan, and with my father slipping and referring to my mother like they never divorced I think we may have competition on who is the real Mr and Mrs McKay. I thought the D clarified that."

"Does that mean I get to have your D nickname as well?"

"No division remember what's mine is yours." He moves closer placing both hands on my hips under his jacket. "Does that mean?"

His eyes are sparkling I knew he'd wait but it was clear he had a preference. "I still get to have a couple of teenage moments. Dancing all night in clubs, excited by prom, going on romantic dates…"

"You can have all of that but I'd like to be by your side, and I insist on the last two I am?"

"I think that's one of the things we are agreeing to. That by my side is yours alone to have, and yours is forever only mine." He leans down and kisses me, it's slow and full of passion. He pulls me closer into him and I can feel against my chest the warmth of his.

He eventually pulls away and rests his forehead on mine. "So future Mrs McKay how big do you want to jump together?"

I lean up and taste his lips again before pulling back and whispering against them. "What are my options?"

"One breast pocket of the coat you wear has one the other has two more. The concierge and hotel manager have used all their connections this afternoon and tonight to complete a bureaucracy marvel if we want." He looks at his watch, "though we may need to decide soon as you will come to realise that even the McKay name while it opens almost every door it does have its limitations on how long those doors can stay open for."

The dress request, his nervousness, his obsession with his watch all become clear. "187 years old was it?"

"188."

"Well I've always wanted to be a part of history and you've always enjoyed it, if I remember correctly you were quite fond on the Louisiana Purchase. So getting married under one of the oldest laws seems to fit you and me well."

He kisses me again but this time picks me up and spins me around, it leaves me giggling when we stop. "Lock now or after?"

"Mr McKay you should appreciate your last views of Paris now as after you'll be busy. There will be no time for locks then, unless it's the one that stops people entering our suite."

He breathes out hard. "Oh god I'm marrying a nymph."

I lean up and kiss below his ear in the spot he likes and then suck and bite gently on his ear lobe, when I feel the slight vibration go through him I release my hold on the delicate flesh and whisper into his ear, "only you and only you will ever know that."

His moan comes from deep within his chest and he pulls me incredibly close to him, thankfully the jacket draping keeps it looking somewhat respectful for public behaviour even if underneath it's not even remotely. After he releases me from his mouth having worshipped my lips and neck he takes the lock from my hand and moves away. As he bends down to look for a place to attach it he looks up at me with a giant smile, his cheeks are up as high as I have ever seen them and his dimples are on complete display. "Here?" Too overwhelmed by all of this information and emotion I simply nod. He quickly attaches our lock to the steal of the bridge and then over his shoulder says, "the key is in the left breast pocket on the outside of the jacket would you do the honours?"

I quickly find it and move to the railing and toss the little key into the Seine. Symbolically locking our love together forever. When I can no longer see the silver shimmer of it dropping into the water I turn and find Dylan still by the lock now though on one knee. In between his fingers he's holding something very shimmery in the pale light of the bridge's street lamps. I lift my brow I thought I had already said yes, "if you don't ask on one knee it doesn't count, and I want this to count." I move closer to him and run my fingers lightly through his hair and the side of his head. I know people are looking but I want this to be as intimate and private as possible. Just ours. I'm possessive that way, he is as well; so he whispers for only my ears, "Baby will you marry me?"

I lean down and breathe a yes by his lips before capturing them again. As our tongues glide against each other in a familiar nerve sparking way I feel something else being glided against my finger. I'm sure it's beautiful and I'll love it because he chose it for me but I refuse to break the kiss to look. I'm not marrying his looks, the reputation, the name, the money, the ring I'm marrying the man. I'm marrying the man who I never want to stop kissing, the man who in sixty years time I'll hopefully still be kissing like this.