i dooooooooooooo cherish youuuuuuuuu lmfao no but really

[sciencesaggressively]

It's been a month. Well, give or take, but still at least a month since he and Kate had gone on their first date. It seems like so much longer, after everything that's happened--the casket, the car accident, meeting the surrogate parent, the nightmare--and yet, he's still got butterflies in his stomach as he waits for her on the roof, holding a bottle of champagne. It had taken him most of the day to prepare this date, and she's been working so he wants so badly for this to be relaxing and enjoyable and all those nice words that should be associated with a date.

He'd been very specific. Meet him at his place, no need to knock--not that either of them do anyway. Just beyond the door, he'd placed that little pink flamingo she'd told him about, the one that her friend had put in the casket with her, with a note reading Change of plans. Take the elevator. Inside the elevator, another note: To the roof. The door to the roof has a bouquet of daisies propped on it along with another note: No broken limbs this time. P.S. Don't laugh.

And he's here, on the other side, surrounded by more arrangements of every kind of flower he could get from the shop--carnations, lilies, roses, tulips. He'd had help, of course, especially with dragging the round glasstop table and wrought iron chairs he'd found at the pawn shop up here. Plus another lawn flamingo that he'd strategically placed next to what is now being designated as Kate's chair. He figures he can leave it all, let whoever happens to come up here take advantage of it, but for now there's a lit candelabra on the table along with an ice bucket, two champagne flutes, and two plates of roasted lemongrass chicken that are still steaming under their lids. A portable stereo is playing some soft rock radio, and he's going to be pretty damn broke until he secures a job but he wants this to be special. He wants it to be something she won't forget.

Comments

[sciencesaggressively]

"I'm pretty sure at least half the blame belongs to you," he says, gesturing down at the lower half of his body with a laugh. He opens his palm against hers, fanning his fingers out and marching them against her own. "Takes two to tango, sweetheart." There's nowhere he's rather be, he's certain of that, and he's so pleased that the night has gone so well.

She echoes his thoughts, and he smirks. "Good date indeed," he agrees, returning her kiss and catching her lips for another quick one before she's able to pull away. "I've never said it before," he admits. "Never told anyone I love them before, not like this. He's not sure why he feels the need to tell her that; maybe because he wants her to know just how important this has been to him, even though he's fairly certain they're on the same page here. Still, she's had a serious relationship before, something she's got on him despite his many more years of life experience. "And I can say that this is, without a doubt, the best date ever. Not only because of the sex." He winks. "Promise."

[everyonetakes]

"No, not only because of the sex," she agrees with a laugh. "I mean, don't get me wrong, dude, that was..." She trails off and shakes her head, still smiling, because she's not sure she actually has a word for just how good that was. "But the whole I love you part? That was pretty great, too." And it makes her feel warm when he says he's never told anyone else that he loves them, it's not something she's expected at all. She can't imagine why anyone wouldn't fall completely in love with Newt and it's not like she's given it much thought, but she's just assumed there's been others, people he's been in love with, people he's fallen out of love with, maybe.

And maybe there have been, but he's never said it before. It feels pretty important.

"I've never said it so easily," she tells him with another laugh. "It's never been so easy." It's not like she's said it a bunch in the past, there's only been Harry, but even that hadn't been anywhere near this easy.

[sciencesaggressively]

"Awesome?" he finishes for her, puffing out his chest with a smug but playful grin. "Mind-blowing? Awe-inspiring?" He presses a kiss to her shoulder and murmurs his agreement. "That part was definitely a highlight of the evening." Highlight of his life, if he's honest, because in no way is he exaggerating when he says he's never felt for anyone else what he feels for her. There have been people he thinks he could have loved, had he not been so preoccupied with his research, but he supposes it's all just come down to timing.

"It is so easy, right?" He knows they've had a similar conversation before but it's different now because this time they love each other, and he's still a little dazed at how everything has worked out so perfectly. "I never really thought that it would happen. Not in a sadsack kinda way, I just didn't ever think it would be something I cared about, y'know?" Whether she's fully aware of it or not, she's changed so much about the way he looks at things. He doesn't think there'd been anything wrong with his view on life in the first place, but it's so much better now that he has someone to share it with.

[everyonetakes]

"Mind-blowing, yeah, that one," she agrees and she's laughing at the look on his face, but she means it, too. It's not like she's never had good sex before, but there's good sex and then there's whatever the hell he did to her tonight and there's no comparison. And she knows it's at least partly due to the fact that she's in love with him, that she has been for awhile, that they waited, that he's in love with her, all those things, but it's more than that. Like with everything else, it just feels like they're in sync and she's not sure she's ever had that before.

"Never cared about it and then I came along and everything changed?" she asks, reaching over to smooth her hand down his chest. She can't stop touching him, even now, and her fingertips trace lines of ink, drawing his tattoos over again. She's not entirely serious, she knows stuff like that doesn't just change overnight, but that's sort of how she feels. One moment she'd been complaining to Kurt that she wanted to find someone to date again, but that she didn't want to have to date a bunch of losers first, and the next there was Newt. He changed everything she was anticipating, everything she thought she'd have to do if she ever wanted to find someone like him. He'd made it so easy.

[sciencesaggressively]

"I'll take it," he replies, and he's more pleased about it than he's really letting on. He hadn't seen much action at the 'Dome, a bit when he'd still been new to working with the PPDC but sex had become less and less of a necessity once the kaiju parts started rolling in and the realization had truly hit him that the fate of the world was at least partially in his hands. It's not like he'd been expecting sex with Kate to be mediocre or anything, but the fact that it had been so fucking fantastic--she'd gotten him hard and made him come twice in a stupidly short period of time, for Christ's sake, and he's pretty sure she'll succeed in doing it again tonight--is still rocking him. They just fit, everything about them, it's been a perfect match.

"I know it sounds stupid," he says, tugging at a loose thread he finds on the sheets. He knows she's not mocking him but now he remembers why he's always had a distinct dislike for most romantic comedies. Every line just comes off as so cheesy, so unrealistic because who the hell would say shit like that in real life? Turns out this guy does, Doctor Newton Geiszler, man of science. He's not going to write poetry and recite it to her outside her window--mostly because he could just walk into her apartment and also, she's on the top floor, goddamn it--but she always manages to improve his day when she's with him, and he doesn't think that's just a coincidence. "It's true, though. I don't know. It's kind of hard to put my finger on it because I've never felt this way before, but I wouldn't be able to go back to a life without you in it. Which sounds even more stupid and maybe a little creepy, I should just quit while I'm ahead."

[everyonetakes]

Kate finds herself smiling as her finger moves down a line on the centre of his chest, and she shakes her head before she ducks down to press a kiss against his collarbone. "It doesn't sound stupid," she says, because it pretty accurately sums up what she's been feeling and at the time they'd met, she'd been actively interested in dating someone again, but even that hadn't prepared her for any of this. She'd been expecting to maybe find some guy eventually, go on a couple of dates, maybe get laid, maybe actually like him, but more likely than not, she'd expected everything to fall apart pretty quickly. It's not that she's always a pessimist, she's just dated enough shitty dudes to know that most things don't work out and that sometimes she has a tendency to hook up with guys who aren't necessarily good for her.

But Newt pretty much blew every expectation she had out of the water.

"And it's not creepy," she murmurs, inching her way up from his collarbone to his jaw, smiling against his skin. "I know all about creepy and none of this is creepy. Or if it is creepy, it's my kind of creepy, and I like it and I guess I'm creepy, too, and I've said that word like, way too many times now." It's definitely not creepy. Gene was creepy, breaking into her house after having sex with her one time, talking like they were meant to be together forever and then writing her weird free verse poetry that he'd left her DVDs of in her bedroom. That is what Kate considers creepy.

[sciencesaggressively]

He closes his eyes, smiling contentedly at the feel of her lips against his skin. She's glad that she doesn't find the things he says overwhelming because he knows it could easily come across as just that. He's sure their friends will have something to say about it, whether in a lecture or a tease, because it seems to Newt that being so certain of being in love with someone so soon into a relationship isn't really typical. But he's never been particularly good at typical, and Kate sure as hell isn't a stranger to the abnormal. Besides, why would he even want to be like everyone else? His relationship with Kate is special, different, and that's why it makes sense that they be a little unorthodox.

"Yeah, you have said it a lot, maybe you're the creepy one," he teases. He wraps his arms around her, just reveling in their closeness and how soft her skin feels and how good her hair smells. "But if that's the case, don't stop because apparently it's a turn-on for me."

[everyonetakes]

"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm totally creepy, dude," she says, pulling back a little and tilting her head, her hair falling over her shoulder. "But I'm glad it's working for you, it's not really one of those things you can just stop being if someone doesn't like it." She's never stopped being anything just because someone doesn't like it, which had kind of kept her sane through most of junior high. By high school people had stopped giving her a hard time because of her total dismissal of their bullshit. If she couldn't be ruffled, it wasn't fun anymore, but there had been a lot of cruel comments leading up to that, a lot of places where she could have just tried to fit in, be the normal kid instead of the kid with the freak mother.

But she'd never bothered. And she knows she doesn't need to bother changing now.

"You don't have to go back to a life without me," she tells him with a small shrug and a smile. "I mean... I'm not going anywhere." It's not something either of them can really promise, she knows that. This place might decide to take one or both of them away, but there are some things in her control and she can promise she'll be here as long as the city lets her.

[sciencesaggressively]

"The creepiest," he agrees, nodding earnestly at the assessment. He can't hide his affectionate smile, though, when she go on about not being capable of being something you're not just for the sake of someone else. It's one of the many things he loves about her, after all, that she's so uninhibited around him. No pretenses, no bullshit, no filter, just herself; he's always been the same way, never really putting feelers out when meeting new people to see how he should act. He is who he is, he makes no apologies for it. He thinks that's why it's been so easy to fall in love with Kate, the fact that both of them are comfortable with themselves and with each other. It makes things a hell of a lot easier, he's finding.

"Neither am I," he says softly, brushing her hair off her shoulder and tucking it behind her ear. He'd talked about this a bit with Carla Jean not too long ago, about having plans for the future when the future is so uncertain. It's always uncertain, though, isn't it? No matter where you are, curveballs are possible. Probable, even. Five years is a long time to be stuck in a city with no way out, the mere thought gives him a bit of cabin fever. But it'll be more bearable with Kate by his side, at least he knows this.