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Waking to the bright sun shining in through the windows, the warmth from the bed made it difficult to not return to the state of comfort I was in before, sleep. It was well past morning, in fact it was already past noon, but seeing as Kate and my dad were finally to be meeting me at the family home, after having been gone for a multiple day long mission, I found myself staying up to wait for them to return—Wanting to ensure they got home okay. The result of all of this being that we hadn't gone to bed until late, and thus, we wake late.
Turning onto my left side after having stretched my arms, I turned to see the still asleep Kate Bishop facing me. Her brows curved slightly as she dreamt, her breaths remained deep in her sleep.
Normally, despite the time, I would leave her to sleep while I would get started on my 'morning' or legitimate morning. But since the activities of the day required both of us being conscious, I thought it a good time to finally wake her.
Bringing my right hand to her face, I swept some of her stray dark hair away, the area of her brow I brushed having twitched in the contact. "Kate," I released in a quiet tone, a grumbly hum coming from her as I leaned over to press a kiss to her forehead. "Kate, we have to," I paused, a yawn breaking through my mouth, "get up," I finished. Returning my head to the pillow, my hand on her cheek as I brushed it softly with the pad of my thumb.
She hummed at the action, the crease of her brows releasing as she nodded in my direction. Lifting her head slightly, her eyes still shut, she brought her forehead to the crook of my neck, her breaths tickling as she hid from the light.
Smiling softly at her antics, I brought my hand over to the back of her head, lightly brushing my fingertips through her hair.
Quiet.
For once the house was quiet, aside from the occasional bouts of laughter from my siblings in the living room, and a sudden shouting of one of their names by my mom... It was remotely quiet, peaceful even.
So much so that I even found myself slowing in my action with Kate's hair, and my eyes suddenly closed as I began to doze off.
Inhaling sharply, I turned my head from Kate's direction, causing her face to leave from the tucked-in-position it was against my neck. Squinting, I reached for my phone on the bedside table, my body twisting in the bed as she held onto my torso, still attempting to lay her head on me.
Finally grabbing my phone after a few moments of it being moved around on the tabletop in my attempts at reaching for it, I dropped it in the process of bringing it over to me. Tossing my head back onto the pillow with the release of a breath, I turned my body towards the edge of the bed, straining my arm to reach for my phone which landed a few feet from me.
Brushing the tip of my middle finger to it, the phone was just within reach as I tried to pull it with my finger. Only in my attempts, I forgot to keep in mind the fact that I was on the edge, nearly falling off and would have nearly fallen off had Kate's arm around my body not tugged me back to the surface.
Facing the now awake and smiling Bishop, her tired eyes small in the smile, I thanked her. Simply nodding to me, she brought her left hand to my bare arm, her fingertips grazing my skin as she brushed them back and forth for a moment, thereafter settling her arm to drape over my body. "And you call me 'clumsy'. Pretty ironic," she said groggily, her voice thickened with sleep. Her once squinted eyes now closing as she released a content breath, she nodded her head on my shoulder.
"You are clumsy," I responded dumbly, receiving a soft withheld laugh from her, her arm around my waist tightening in its hold before it loosened gradually. Soon enough, her breaths sounded to deepen and slow at the same time.
"Katie," I spoke aloud, knowing she was falling asleep already since she was never this quiet, and judging by the discontent groan, she knew I had caught on already. Pulling my arms from her, her grip around me only tightened.
With the tightening grip, she released in a breathy groan, "No."
"Katherine Elizabeth Bishop—" I said after the release of a sharp breath.
Her head snapping up, blue eyes fixed on me as she arched a brow, she questioned, "Did you just full name me?"
"You bet I did," I answered, unbothered by the slight sense of challenge in her tone and demeanor as she dropped it along with her head back onto my shoulder, moving to burrow her face into my neck. "Babe, we have to clean, then go into the city for groceries so that the house can be ready for game night."
In another groan, the woman tossed her head back onto the pillow beside her, her arms loosening slightly as her face was scattered with her hair in disarray. "Whose stupid idea was it to even have a game night," she asked through a whine.
Pressing my lips together, I fought my smile, "Yours."
"Oh..." she frowned in thought, the realization quickly dismissed with a shake of her head, "well, you shouldn't have listened to me."
"My dad says that all the time," I chuckled into the kiss I pressed to her forehead. Patting her back once, I broke from her embrace. Pulling the cover off of me, my skin was met with the cold air, the snow outside being the cause for the feeling to fill the home. Swinging my legs off of the side of the bed, my bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor, "C'mon, if we hurry, we might get a cup of coffee before my parents finish the pot."
"Let them," Kate murmured, "sleeping in with you is all I need right now."
"You're adorable," I kissed her forehead, "but a cup of coffee is what I need right now," I winked, seeing right through yet another of her attempts at convincing me otherwise of leaving the bed.
As I moved to stand up, I was only pulled back down, the tug of Kate's hand being the cause of it as she gripped my hand. Having turned in the fall, her hands naturally went to my waist, easing my falling when she guided me to her.
"Kate," I winced, her laughter being too loud for my ears.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she laughed, eyes bright in their smiling expression, one which matched the joy filled smile on her pink lips. "We can go," she nodded, her laughter easing, calming as she held her naturally mesmerizing blue eyes to mine, "I just wanted my morning kiss first."
"And you couldn't get it after getting your ass out of bed?"
Shrugging, she glanced at the ceiling in thought, "I could, but usually we do that before we get out of bed," she said casually, the fingers of her right hand soothingly brushing the area of my back bare of my tank-top.
Humming skeptically, the smile on her pink lips widened as she asked through a chuckle, "What. We do!"
"Well, I know that," I nodded, resting on my elbows which were against the sides of Kate's arms. Brushing the hair from the left of her neck, she tilted her head to her right as I continued, "But I also know you're using it as an excuse to coax me into staying in bed with you—and to avoid chores," I voiced, brushing my thumb over her cheek.
Releasing a soft hum, she leaned her face further into my palm, nodding and speaking softly against it, "That too."
"Yep," I nodded, pressing a quick kiss to her lips, pulling away before she could react or kiss back, something that would most definitely make her little scheme work. "You may be my dad's, super-beautiful, super-sweet, and charming, coworker, but you're not that deceiving, Bishop. Get your ass up."
Pushing myself up from the bed, I walked away and into the joined bathroom to my room, closing the door as I got ready for the rest of the day.
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Walking about the convenience store, I pushed the cart at a leisurely slow pace, my eyes scanning the shelves of chips as I also slowed for Kate to catch up to me from the other side of the store. Seeing as I had returned home for the holiday, and Kate joined me after her mission with my dad for it, we were in charge of preparations for the game night this year—The same game night my family and I stopped doing years ago, but once Kate heard of it, she suggested the great idea of starting it back up again.
Her footsteps automatically recognizable to me, I didn't even need to turn around to know that the running steps were those of my girlfriend.
As were the excited shouts.
"Babe babe babe," she rushed.
My eyes to the list of items on my phone, I asked, "What what what?"
"Look at this," she put a bag of cookies above my phone. "They. Have. Santa."
Attempting to withhold amusement, I failed, "Yeah," I laughed, "yeah they do."
"That's not even the best part," she voiced excitedly, her arms full of different colored, but similarly styled bags, "Check this out. Frosty. The. Flipping. Snowman. He even has the little pipe!! He's a smoker!! Isn't that so cool?! There are five different bags, five different characters, five different flavors! I grabbed a bag of each," she concluded, beginning to put them into the cart. Each bag sounded with their individual drops against the metal grating of the cart.
"Kate," I voiced, looking over the list to see that five bags of cookies was most definitely not on the grocery list.
"Hm?" she hummed curiously, moving to stand by me at the handle of the cart.
Smiling at her, I brought my hand to the back of her neck, a smile coming to her lips before she brought her own arms around my waist, her hips leaning against mine. "I love you," I voiced with an inflection, pulling her closer to press a kiss to her lips.
Humming against my own, Kate also smiled into the kiss, mumbling against them, "Thank you. I love you too."
"Good to know," I voiced, pecking her lips again, "but we're not getting five bags of cookies."
Recoiling, brows curved, Kate posed in confusion, "Yeah we are—I put them..in the cart."
"But they're not on the list."
"But—I..put them in the cart," she nodded dumbly.
"Katherine."
Pointing a finger in the air, Kate voiced, "You know what? You think calling me by that name is intimidating, but it's not."
Grabbing each bag, I shook my head at her antics, putting the cookies in her arms, "You can pick one, but that's it. My mom told me she doesn't want me bringing home too much sugar."
"What if I hide them?" Kate lowered her voice. "In the car."
"We're borrowing my dad's car, remember?"
"Then, in your room."
"My little brother goes in when he has nightmares. And my sister has been coming in more for 'sister-sister talks' because of the stupid guy at her school."
"Then...the shed," she proposed once more.
"Or you can keep one and put the rest back where you found them."
Brows curving, Kate opened her mouth to say more only she dropped her shoulders. "I don't even know who you are anymore."
Turning and heading off in the direction she came from, I rolled my eyes at her antics. Grabbing a bag of pretzels from the aisle, I moved on to the next section of the list.
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"Do you remember which egg nog my mom said to get?" I asked, my eyes on the different brands for the beverage. Glancing down at the list on my phone, I was only met with the note of "egg nog", but alas, no preferred brand.
Arms wrapping around my abdomen from behind, Kate rested her chin to the crook of my neck, "You don't remember?"
"Nope."
"Can't you message her?" she pecked my shoulder, thumb brushing up and down the area of my side her hand was placed as I had begun to answer before the answer to my own question had come to me.
"I remember. It was the green label."
Releasing me, Kate went to the side of the cart, stepping on the railing, craning over the cart with her grip to the edges of the basket. "Oh wait wait wait! Is it the one with the—the cursive lettering?"
"Type-writer font," I corrected with a nod, grabbing the carton of eggnog from the fridge.
"Fuck yeah!! I fucking love that one!" she beamed, her face not not ridden of her excitement even as I approached the cart to put the carton in it.
"You love all of them, Katie," I stifled a laugh at her excitement.
"I know!" she voiced with the same excitement, causing me to roll my eyes in amusement.
My attention reverted to the rest of my list, it seemed that most of the items were crossed off, and as I glanced at the basket, I thought there to be more than I'd put in before. Tilting my head, I leaned to look at the items with more attention before Kate leaned down as well, face in front of mine.
"I ever tell you how pretty you are?" she asked, eyes bouncing between my own.
Stifling a confused laugh, I pecked her lips, "Only when you want something."
"That's not true. That's not true at all," she voiced in a tone of denial and hurt, "why would you say that?"
"Yeah, it is. Believe it or not, it's your go to distraction every time you're trying to either get something from me, or get out of something. And since you're saying it right now," I paused, glancing down at the cart only for Kate to level my eyes with her face. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're trying to get something. And part of it is keeping me from figuring out what it is."
"Are you accusing me of keeping secrets from you?" Kate asked, standing at the side of the cart to block me from taking a closer look at it, since I'd moved from the handle of the cart to, said, side. Her hands on the railings to the cart, she leaned her back over it behind her, legs slightly spread to take up as much space as possible. "Because secrets is something I do not do, Y/N. I am an open book, ask me anything."
Crossing my arms, I nodded, "Alright then. What did you put in the cart?"
Eyes blank, she blinked quickly, "Huh? I—I—I don't know what you're talking about. Y/N. Napkins...?"
"Napkins," I repeated.
"Napkins? Yes. That's what I—yes. Ahuh."
Raising a skeptical brow at her, I watched her expression drop before she stood up right to stop me from approaching the cart. Arms wrapping around me, she tried to lift and walk me away from the cart.
"Kate!! We look ridiculous, put me down!"
"Ah—dah—duh—M—Marry me!"
"What?"
"Ahuh," she nodded, eyes wide, appearing as confused as I was.
Rolling my eyes, I finally got out of her hold, approaching the cart to see all five of the previous cookie bags she'd supposedly 'put away' earlier.
Holding them up and showing them to the currently wide eyed Bishop, she only released 'uh's of contemplation as I walked over to her, handing the bags off.
"So is that a 'no' to marrying me?"
"Go—put those back," I laughed, receiving adamant nods from Kate as she pecked my cheek.
"I love you..."
"I love you too, go," I smacked her arm playfully, watching her run off and disappear around the corner.
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Struggling in unlocking the front door and entering it, plenty of grocery bags in my arms, looped on my arms, I pushed open the door. "Mom! Dad!" I called. With no response, I hobbled into the seemingly desolate house, murmuring under my breath, "Where are telekinetic powers when you need them."
"Ah kiddo!" Coming down the hallway, my dad broke into a slight jog to help me with the bags, "Lucky's in your room. Nathaniel and Mom are taking a nap."
"It's the middle of the day," I exclaimed lightly, "and you scold me when I sleep in?"
"Because you have a license," he teased, helping me with the rest of the bags from my arms—A sense of relief came to them at the ridden weight and handles of the bags.
"Cooper and Lila?" I asked.
"Mall. Friends invited them out for the day. Some, 'Christmas-Giving, Friends-Giving', whatever," he wove his hand dismissively.
"Christmas and Thanksgiving, dad. Two different things."
"Little help here, Barton One, and-super-cute-Barton Two," Kate groaned.
Turning around I was met with the sight of Kate having five bags of groceries sitting on each of her forearms, "I'm 'second'?"
"No, babe, you're Barton One," she attempted to laugh through a groan.
My dad looked at me with a dull expression and Kate's groan rose in volume, "Y/N, I'm kidding, but guys seriously," steps slowing, Kate's stride between steps lessened in distance, "I think I cut off circulation to my right pinkie."
Rushing towards her, I nodded to her quiet 'thank you's while me and my dad took three bags each from her arms. Eyeing me while he grabbed one extra back from Kate's arm, my dad nodded in Kate's direction, "This one?"
"Hey," Kate released in a hurt tone.
"Dad, be nice," I called over my shoulder habitually, beginning to unpack a bag, placing the groceries within it on the countertop.
"The question goes for both of you," he voiced, receiving a light smack of my hand to his arm as he passed me, raising his own hands and sniggering whilst taking a few of the items from the countertop. "Kate, did you know your girlfriend didn't learn to tell time till she was twelve?"
Speaking through a smile, Kate rested her hands on the counter space, back to it as she leaned into me, bumping my arm teasingly. "No, Clint, I didn't."
My face growing red, I turned to my dad who innocently put a few cans in the cupboard, withholding a knowing smile.
"It was confusing!!" I defended myself. "You were the one that taught me in military time with a digital clock!! I didn't even know what a regular one looked like until you finally bought a stupid one to put on the stupid wall."
"Y/N/N," Clint chided, "you had access to the internet, you could have just searched it up."
Crossing my arms, I squinted my eyes at him, "What twelve year old is going to sit and wonder, 'hmm, clocks are so interesting, you know what? I wonder if they look different from the only-ones-I've-ever-seen-in-my-entire-life."
"I did," Kate chimed in.
"Kate, you went to school. I didn't go to a public one literally until university. So, I love you," I kissed her cheek, watching a soft smile fill her lips, her eyes on me adoringly, "but your input doesn't count."
Pointing to my girlfriend, my dad's brows were knit together. Shutting his eyes, he blinked quickly, "Why were you even searching 'clocks' at twelve years old."
"Ah," she pushed air from her mouth in thought before shrugging, "doesn't everyone?"
Exchanging looks with my dad, we both turned to Kate, in unison saying, "No."
Kate's initial confusion displaced by her wave of dismissal, she shrugged with nonchalance.
"You two finish putting away groceries," my dad instructed. "I'll go wake Mom up."
His hand ruffled my hair, pushing my head with a light force. Breathing a laugh at my dad, I could hear his footsteps recede as he departed and went down the hall, leaving me and Kate in a soft silence in the kitchen, whilst the bags crinkled in our pulling the remaining buys out of them.
The quiet in the air soft, nearly as much as the snow that blanketed the property outside, Kate's vibrant voice soon enough broke through it all.
"Hey so, babe, I was thinking about game night later," she voiced, following after my hum and reach to the top cupboard with her own—taking the canned goods and putting them away for me. "Do you guys have games you would typically do? Because if not, I was thinking we could—"
Having begun to pull out the items in the bag on the ground, Kate cut herself off completely. Eyes widened, jaw dropped, she looked at me before turning back to the bag, and hastily back up at me, expression unscathed. "You do love me!" She bent over and pulled the bag from the floor, quickly setting it to the counter before pulling out the five bags of cookies she'd ardently spoken of in the store.
Fighting my own enthusiasm and joy, a natural reaction and feeling to the expressed ones from Kate, I leaned my hip to the counter, smile on my lips as I nodded.
Doing her best to contain her joy, she smiled widely, eyes creasing in her slight squeal and hop before she set the bags to the counter, immediately wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. Her lips peppering my face with kisses, I tried to pull back to make sure she knew of the conditions:
"You don't give any to Lucky. He got more hyper than you last time—my dad still isn't happy about the bean bag he tore up in my sister's room. And if you hear my mom tell my brother 'no more', don't sneak him any."
"Oh god of course not," she agreed immediately, pulling back from the kisses, "those are mine. I'm not sharing." Rolling my eyes at her 'stinginess' she repeated "I'm kidding". Her arms naturally finding their way around my waist, body curved into mine, Kate nodded her forehead to my own, "Thank you."
"Of course, love," I said through a laugh, pulling my forehead from hers to peck her lips.
Bringing her lips to my forehead, she pressed a kiss before quietly posing in question, "As for Lucky..."
"No."
"Not even an itty bitty bit?" she held her index finger and thumb mere centimeters apart.
"Katherine."
Snapping her finger and gesturing in a point, she nodded, "Right."
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A dimness flooding the room, the illumination within it for my family and Kate was provided by the ceiling lights currently on within the kitchen. My ears paining slightly from the competitive yells between my dad and Kate, Lucky held his head on my lap as I remained seated. Petting his head, and brushing my fingers slowly from the top of his head to behind his ears, his blinking slowed.
"No offense, Clint," Kate started, sitting upright as she leaned over her 'Monopoly' money and residence cards, "your eyesight isn't what it once was. So, I'll just inform you, that property you landed on," she pressed her finger to 'Oriental Avenue', "is mine. Pay up, buckaroo."
Releasing a breath of amusement from my nose at the sight of Lucky's eyes closing, a deep and single snore sounding, I pressed my forehead to his, and released a soft squeal, "You're so friggin cute!"
Kissing the space between Lucky's 'brows', I scratched his head once more before he pulled away completely, trotting over to the living room diagonal to me where he jumped onto the couch.
Turning back to the quarrel at hand, I rested my forearms on the table, looking over to my mom on my right who held my sleeping brother in her arms. One hand to his back, the other at the top of his head, from her hold alone, I knew he was asleep. Pressing my lips into an awestruck frown, I mouthed, "He's asleep." It was a sentence of rhetoric question, but my mom nodded and affirmed it no less.
Across from me, my dad's eyes fell on Kate with ease, he himself leaning into the table, tone of unaffected nonchalance, "I dunno what you're talking about, Kate. And my eyesight is pretty damn good–"
"Language," I released in a soft groan, hand to the back of my neck as I rolled it back—an ache filling it from my craning position when petting Lucky.
"Yeah Barton," Kate chimed in, "there's a child in the room. My god, man." A hand landing to the back of my neck, Kate pushed her fingers beneath my hand, pressing them into that area of my neck, massaging the ache momentarily. "You know I bought that property like six turns ago. And–" she voiced with inflection, pulling her hand to lean over the table, picking up and placing down the 'hotels' that were placed on the property. "--I've been upgrading the friggin place this whole time! As far as I'm concerned, I've got stable income flow, you owe me, and you're broke."
"If I were broke, how could I owe you?" he squinted.
Sputtering, Kate waved a finger, proclaiming she would find her "proof of ownership." Eyes widening, she stood up from her chair, eyes to the board before she dropped to the floor, searching for something, "What the–what? Where is it?"
"Okay," I voiced through a yawn, "you all have fun," I pushed myself from my seat, making my way over to my mom to kiss her cheek 'goodnight', and the top of my brother's head all the same. "I'm tired. Kate, your card is under my dad's bag of 'Doritos', he took it an hour ago."
"Y/N..." my dad voiced quietly, disappointment clear in his tone as I rounded the table to kiss his cheek 'goodnight'. "'Barton's have to stick together, sweetheart."
Releasing a tired laugh, I hugged him briefly, about to respond before Kate said, "As do 'Bishop's, Clint."
My shoulders dropping, I could only sigh, "Oh god." Barely pulling my arms from my hug with my dad, it wasn't enough strength or time for me to pull from him entirely, because instead of walking away to say 'goodnight' to my girlfriend, I was pulled back into a tight hug, my dad looking up at me.
"You're taking her last name?"
"What's wrong with 'Bishop'?" Kate asked
Matching her tone, my dad queried, "What's wrong with 'Barton'?"
"Well, Mr. Barton," Kate quirked a brow, interlacing her fingers as she leaned into the table in her seat, "when someone proposes, and the two get married, it's usually–and mutually decided, right babe?" she paused mid statement, looking to me, to which I shrugged, my contribution to the debate being simply to 'not bring me into this'.
"Well," Kate continued, "it's mutually," clearing her throat, Kate's eyes widened, setting on something on the table during her harsh coughs. "Mutually de-CI-DED," she coughed harshly, nodding towards the same area she stared at.
Following her eyes, I saw the bag of chips she was looking at, and nodded to myself in realization. Picking up the bag, I moved it aside before grabbing her property card and handed it over to her.
Beaming widely, Kate thanked me, though my dad released me with a teasing vocalization of the 'betrayal' he felt from his 'first-born'.
Pointing at me as I walked over to her, Kate stated, "And that's reason five-hundred and seventy-two, point b, why I'm going to marry you one day. Y/N Barton: Best 'Monopoly' Con-Thief of all time."
Rolling my eyes playfully, Kate's arms went around my waist, holding me close.
"Bishop, let me get this right," my dad leveled.
With a groan from my mom, she got up from her seat, my brother still in her arms, "Y/N, calling it early does sound like a good idea," she half-joked.
"You come into my house," my dad extended his thumb as he began listing off his 'points', "start dating my daughter–"
"Technically, she uh—dated me," Kate nearly whispered.
"--you talk about not letting my daughter keep her 'Barton' roots–"
"Didn't say that," Kate voiced, her knee bouncing.
"--and now you're talking about marriage when you haven't even asked me or Laura about it?"
"I mean..." Kate shrugged, uncertainty in her voice, or a warble of anxiety. Glancing up at me, she shared, "I'm not proposing–soon soon. I meant, one day. One day, a long day–time! Time, from now. Like...like when we're...thirty–thirty-seven," she nodded quickly.
Interlacing his fingers, my dad's eyes narrowed on Kate, tone serious, "You're going to make my daughter wait fifteen years before you propose?"
Sensing his interrogation and purposely-held intimidation tactics on my girlfriend beginning to nerve her more than before, I pulled my arms from Kate. "Okay dad," I nodded, pulling my hair behind my ears. Reaching over the table, I quickly snatched the property card that was coincidentally making its way back over to my dad's side of the table.
Raising a brow at him, he merely shrugged with a smile, "I'm just proud you caught it."
Shutting my eyes with a withheld smile, I rubbed my eyes, sliding the card over to Kate. "Goodnight to you both."
"Goodnight, I love you," Kate said after me.
"Love you too."
With that, a simple wave over my shoulder, the sound of my mom's footsteps behind me as she too was more than exhausted from the game night, bickers, and snacks from before–I flicked on my light switch, shut my room door and plopped onto the bed.
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A darkness filled my vision, before I realized the moment I'd shut my eyes, I'd dozed off for a solid minute. What brought me to such a realization however was not my own willing consciousness, but the knock at my door before it creaked open.
Squinting my eyes, I turned onto my back, sitting up in my bed to see a cringing Kate entering the room with a tip-toe in her step. Quietly shutting the door behind her, she began to say, "I didn't think you'd be asleep already, I'm sorry."
"No no, it's okay," I shook my head, my eyes stinging, "you okay? What happened?"
"No, yeah," she nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed, hands in her lap. "Yeah, no, everything's–yeah, it's nothing. It's fine."
"Okay, you just contradicted yourself like–five times," I said through a tired laugh, moving from my space over to the side of the bed, sitting on the edge beside Kate now. "What's wrong?"
Her knee beginning to bounce, her fingers picking at the skin around her cuticles, I didn't need to see all the signs: the knee bouncing, skin and nail picking, knit brows, or pressed lips to know what was happening–I didn't need to see it to know she was overwhelming herself with something, because I could feel the sense of urgency to expel whatever was weighing on her mind, all in the air.
"Hey, Katie," I voiced softly, bringing a hand to the pair of hers before she turned to me.
"Are you mad at me?"
A new sense of alertness coming to me, a sense of awareness and consciousness, if I wasn't awake before, I certainly was now. "Love, no," I replied, the confusion which filled me certainly prevalent in my voice. "Kate, not at all... Why would I be mad at you? Did I do something to make it seem like I was?"
Her shoulders dropping, her eyes closed with the release of a breath that seemed to be of relief. A timid smile coming to her pink lips, she began, "I just thought you were because you—okay this is going to sound stupid."
"Kate, I really doubt it's going to sound any stupider than anything I've ever said. Come on," I moved back to the place on the bed I sat before, patting the spot next to me, "what is it?"
Her jaw showing to tense and release, Kate wavered her head—and I assumed it to only match her wavering thoughts.
"Hey," I bumped her leg with mine, bringing my hand to hers before she smiled, taking it into her own, pushing her fingers between mine.
Her eyes set on our hands, she rubbed her thumb to the top of mine. With a sharp release of a breath, she began, "So, every night, when we say good night I mean... We always say it, right?"
"Mm, goodnight?" I tilted my head.
"Yes, and you know, 'I love you'."
"Oh, I," pausing in thought, I thought back to my 'goodnight' earlier. "Did I not say it?"
Nodding immediately, Kate assured me, "No, no, you did, but it was 'love you', no 'I'."
"Oh?"
"Yes and—that's okay," she turned her body to face me, hand still holding my own. "That's fine, I just—it was just because it was that, and then, we also..didn't...we didn't kiss."
"We didn't? I thought I kissed you before."
"Yes, yeah. Yeah you did, but that was before. Usually with 'goodnight' it's three things: the goodnight, the 'I love you', and also the kiss. I just—see?" she pulled her hands, pressing them to her face in embarrassment at my irrepressible smile of amusement. "I told you it was stupid."
Laughing, I shook my head, grabbing at her hands from her face, "No it's okay. I'm sorry. It's cute. I'm sorry, it wasn't stupid at all. Come here."
Waiting for her to feel assured of there being no need for her embarrassment, I leaned for a kiss, noticing a twitch of a smile curving at her lips. My hand to the back of her neck, I felt hers land on my leg in the lean, and I made sure to pause before the kiss. Looking into her eyes, I raised my brows in my slight smile, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," she repeated with a growing smile of her own.
Pecking her lips briefly, I pulled back and said, "I love you."
Through a soft chuckle, Kate's eyes flicked to my lips as she said, "I love you."
Pressing a kiss to her lips, Kate kissed back gently, and while I pulled from it, she seemed to have leaned forward for it to not have ended.
Brushing my thumb against the nape of her neck where my hand rested below, I asked, "You're okay now?"
"Yeah," she nodded, and with that affirmation, I pecked her lips once more before turning my back to her. Going underneath the covers, I assumed she would return to the game in the dining room with my dad.
Only she didn't.
Anticipating the movement from Kate getting off the bed to end with her going to the light switch and flicking it off and leaving, she did do as much, only she didn't leave. Instead, with the pitch dark of my room, I could hardly make out the shadow of her figure before she went to the end of the bed, and hopped onto the mattress.
The comforter sounding as she pulled it, and covered herself beneath it, her chin resting on my shoulder, arms securely around my waist, I chuckled in confusion. "What are you doing?"
Body shuffling against mine, her legs tangling with my own, Kate closed in as much space as possible, kissing the back of my shoulder as she answered, "We also go to bed at the same time." One of her hands found mine, and I naturally extended my fingers, feeling hers push in between mine before I closed mine on them.
"Yeah, but you were playing the game with my dad," I voiced, feeling her shake her head against my shoulder.
"No, he went to bed."
"Ah," I released, only a few seconds loading before we fell into a silence in the room, the darkness within it as succumbing to the night as the fatigue in my body. Thoughts and breathing slowing, I was comforted by the warmth from Kate, the feeling of my hand joined with hers, and the knowing that no matter how uncoordinated or habitual our days were, there was one thing that I knew for certain no matter the day,
"I love you."
Humming against my shoulder, Kate lifted her head, lips pressing a kiss to my cheek, "I love you too."