The last few minutes of Thursday, in the treehouse

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

After a long and wonderful anniversary day, Jamie and Kitty retire to the treehouse; they are both nervous, they are both thinking about the future . . . and then they find out that they've both been planning to propose. Which pretty much makes the answer moot, but they say it anyway.



So far, the day had been pretty much everything Jamie could have hoped for. He'd woken up to an amazing breakfast in bed (and had quickly cancelled his own plans in that direction; Lockheed had given him a look of dire suspicion but had also accepted the tray.) Then they'd stayed in bed for a little whi--all right, a while . . . okay, most of the morning, technically speaking, and spent the rest of it wandering around the grounds enjoying the nice weather.

Lorna had outdone herself with the picnic lunch. Jamie had actually felt a little guilty about carrying it in a wicker basket instead of, say, the Ark of the Covenant, but presentation aside the food had been an absolute hit. Then they'd gone into the city, some highly nifty concert by a band Kitty hadn't had enough good to say about . .. then dinner, dancing, and home.

And now here they were in the treehouse, a soft breeze rustling all around them, with only--Jamie checked his watch surreptitiously--a few minutes left before midnight and the big moment. Oh hell, he'd forgotten the--no, the ring was in his pocket where it was supposed to be, good. Though if his heart didn't stop making like a bass drum Kitty was going to know something was up.

He smiled at her. "Good anniversary, huh? Even the weather's cooperating, and I didn't even think to ask Ms. Munroe for a dispensation." Yeah. Because the weather wasn't the single most obvious stalling-for-time conversational topic in the entire history of stalling for time . . .

Kit was actually perfectly willing to stall for time as well. She'd set her watch by the atomic clock in Greenwich, and it said there were still five minutes to go. "It's been a perfect day," she told him, snuggling into his arms. "I can't believe you got Lorna to make that lunch..."

"Yeah, it was really tricky, what with the asking her nicely," Jamie replied teasingly. "And what about that breakfast, huh? We owe her bigtime." He rested his head on hers, just enjoying the moment. "Been a pretty amazing three years, hasn't it?"

"Almost feels like amazing isn't even a big enough word," Kitty said softly. "I don't know where I'd be if not here, by you. I don't know who I'd be if I'd never met you."

"Mm. That's one thing I'm not curious about. All I know is I couldn't be any happier. I think I say that every year and it just keeps getting more true." Jamie glanced at his watch again; still a couple of minutes. "And I hope I'm gonna keep saying it for a really, really long time, but--" he grinned suddenly. "Let me know if you start to get bored of hearing it, I do take requests."

"I don't think I'm going to be getting tired of it any time soon, really. I rather think I'm going to want to go on hearing it forever." Kitty smiled, glanced at her watch, and the mentally shrugged. So what if she was a little off. "Which is why I've got a question for you. I know we're both, well, we're both really young. Hell, I've only just turned eighteen, and you've got another month to nineteen, and that's young in everybody's books, but, really, I can't imagine my life without you. I don't want to." She paused, eyeing him to gauge his reaction.

"Exactly. And it doesn't . . . well, it doesn't feel like we're too young to talk about the rest of our lives. Not after everything we've been through already." Jamie smiled. "I mean, if we weren't in this for the long haul, you'd think somewhere between the alternate dimensions and the kidnappings and the evil twins and mind control . . . well, we made it through all that, I figure we can handle anything else. Together." He took a deep breath. "So I kind of . . . have a question for you too. Something I've been thinking about for, well, a while now. But, um, you go first, mine's kind of . . . big."

"Well, mine's pretty big, too, but..." Kitty slipped her hand into her pocket, fingering the little velvet box, then took a deep breath. "I think, because you're right, it's not like we both don't already think of this as long term and committed and everything, and ok, we're kind of young to really go ahead and do it, since, you know, college and what not, and sooner or later I think moving out of the mansion might be an idea, you know, maybe even before any ceremonies and what not, just to, you know, try it, but, I guess, what I mean is..." She stopped herself, and shook her head. "Right, let me try that again. Jamie, I love you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Tugging the box out, she oppened it, revealing a simple gold band. "Will you marry me?"

Jamie blinked at her, dumbfounded, and said nothing for a moment. Then a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You know, young lady," he said, his voice teasing and affectionate, "one of these days we are going to have to have a serious talk about your thing for hogging the big important moments. Between this and that first night on Muir, a guy could really start wondering when it gets to be his turn." He bent to kiss her on the forehead, and brought a little velvet box out of his own pocket; when he opened it, white gold gleamed in the candlelight, diamonds sparkling around the central sapphire. "Kitty, I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

"Er... Liberated child of the nineties and all?" Kitty offered somewhat lamely, eyes fixed on the very, very sparkly ring as she started to blush. "Oh, right. Yes. Of course. Clearly. Um... I've run out of intelligent things to say here, Jamie."

"Well, that's okay," Jamie said breathlessly as his heart started really pounding. "One-syllable words are underrated. Um. Yes from me too." He gave her a silly grin. "Wow. We're gonna get married."

"True, very true," Kitty said then, rather than say anything else, she leaned over and kissed him.

Jamie prolonged the kiss as much as he dared, but finally pulled away and smiled a little nervously. "Erm. Lots more of that please, but can we actually do the rings first? Much more of that and I really am going to drop it somewhere and that'd suck."

Kitty couldn't help the laugh, but she nodded, grinningly somewhat wildly as she offered him her hand. "Given I spoiled your asking, you can at least do this bit first."

"I wouldn't say spoiled. I mean, when you get right down to it, as long as there's the asking and the yes the order they happen in is just details." He slid the ring onto her finger carefully. "Uh .. . do you like it? The ring I mean, apart from the engagement? I know it's a little nontraditional, but I thought it looked nice . . ."

"It's beautiful," she told him, admiring her hand held in his almost as much as the ring itself. "And your turn," she added, clasping his hand to turn it over and slip the far simpler gold band around his finger.

"Perfect fit," Jamie remarked, enfolding Kitty's hand in his own again. "Appropriately enough. Did you do the measuring-tape-in-the-nightstand thing too?"

"Measuring tape in the nightstand?" Kitty looked at him somewhat incredulously. "No, but you have the same size hands as the guy in the shop, it turns out."

Jamie laughed. "Okay, I didn't even think of asking somebody in the store. I, um, waited until you were asleep and measured your finger. It was during midterms, you were out like a light."

Kitty grinned, giggling at him. "See, that seems much more complicated to me. But also, clearly, very effective."

"It was fun. I almost woke you up so you could watch me be the mysterious measuring-tape ninja, but that would've ruined the surprise a little." He kissed her again. "And happy birthday."

"A very happy birthday. And a happy anniversary. And a happy everything."

"Yeah." Jamie sighed happily. "We gonna tell people tomorrow?"

"Sounds good to me," Kitty said, smiling. "Who gets to call Al and tell her?"

Jamie grinned. "Conference call. We tell her together. You think? I mean, otherwise we'd have to wrestle for it, and you'd totally win. Because you cheat."

She laughed. "I would, I so would. So yeah, conference call it is." She paused a second, laying her head on his shoulder. "You know some people are going to make a fuss, right? Cause we're so young."

Jamie nodded, winding a lock of her hair around his finger. "And that's not the only thing. Some people are gonna make a fuss because we're mutants, some people are gonna make a fuss because you're Jewish, some people are gonna make a fuss because I'm not . . . there'll be fuss to go around." He shrugged easily. "But I figure, we aren't under any obligation to listen to most of those people."

Kitty smiled at that. "No, we're not, are we. And there will be lots of people who are un-fussed. Who are anti-fuss, even."

"Definitely." Jamie grinned. "Plenty of people right around here who are gonna be absolutely thrilled, and probably a few who'll think it's about damned time already. And the people who aren't, that we are under an obligation to listen to, well, it's not like we're being impulsive about this, except maybe by eighteenth-century Puritan standards, or something." He paused. "I think moving in together somewhere before we actually have the ceremony sounds like a good idea, too. And if we don't want to actually get an apartment, what with tuition and things . . . I could probably technically put in a claim for one of the staff suites on the third floor, what with being graduated and Mr. Marko's assistant and a trainee and everything."

"Oh, yeah, there's an idea. A good one, I think. And they couldn't exactly give us grief over that. I mean, Paige and Jono live up there together..."

"In sin, no less," Jamie said piously. "We, by comparison, will be the good ones. Properly engaged and everything." He snickered. "Although, y'know, I think I'm not going to say that where either of them can hear me, even just as a joke."

Kitty laughed. "God, no," she said, wrapping an arm around him to hug him. "I like you un-killed, thanks."

"Although if there was ever a time I could get away with it, this is probably it," Jamie said thoughtfully. I mean, during the first big 'ooh, congratulations and let's see Kitty's ring' period, we've probably got a fairly blank check . . ." He nuzzled her hair. "Probably better things we could do, though."

"I'm going to say, let's not risk it, because there are far better things to do, and again, un-killed is good."

"Mm. See, you've got sense, no wonder I'm marrying you. One of us had better."