35. shoulder pads and shin guards

"Thank you!" Kitt accepted the cold glass of frozen cocktail from the waitress. She immediately took a sip before putting it down on the small square napkin in front of her.

"You deserve this." Josie grinned, accepting her own drink.

"I don't know about that, but I am going to enjoy it." Kitt tipped her glass to clink glasses with her friend.

"Good. It has been a super long last few weeks." Josie agreed.

"You got that right!" Liam slid into the booth beside his girlfriend.

"Tell me about it!" Leo joined Kitt across from their friends. The boys had seen an old arcade game near the entrance of the restaurant, they had suggested the girls find a table and order drinks while they checked it out. Kitt and Josie took them up on their offer.

"Why can't I just be the nobody I was last year?" Kitt said, leaning her almost healed cheek on her boyfriends shoulder. He held both his hands around the cold pint of beer she had ordered for him.

"What fun is that?" Josie waved her hand in front of her.

"Ok, I have to admit some parts have been pretty great." Kitt hugged Leo's arm. He leaned against her gently.

"Oh yeah? Like what parts?" He smiled down at her. He moved to tuck her under his arm.

"Like kicking ass against a team of totally arrogant assholes." She peeked up at the two guys at the table to see their reaction to her comment.

"One hundred percent!" Josie offered her hand for a high five. Kitt reached up to meet her hand, but the guys intervened, pushing their hands so they couldn't connect.

"Don't high five that! Not all those guys were assholes!" Liam fained offense.

"But they were all arrogant!" Josie said, swatting his hand playfully.

"Who? Us? No way!" Leo knitted his eyebrows in doubt and shook his head.

"Didn't you offer to teach me to skate when we met?" Kitt asked, looking at him pointedly.

"Ok, so how was I supposed to know you were a super star?" He said defensively.

"Maybe don't assume?" Josie offered with a laugh.

"Look, there was a cute girl on the ice -" He started to say.

"And you wanted to impress her!" Kitt teased.

"Yeah, I did." He leaned down to kiss her.

"So you made fun of her hockey team and assumed she was untalented and easily impressed." Kitt challenged.

"I never!" He gasped with a laugh.

"You were flexing so hard I worried you might break something." She kissed his bicep.

"Oh, come on now." He tipped his chin while his cheeks flushed.

"It's OK. Apparently, it worked eventually somehow." Kitt lifted her chin for a kiss.

"Slow and steady." He kissed her.

"Or always and insistently." Kitt teased. He pouted playfully and she scooped his head down and kissed him.

"Adorable." Josie smiled rolling her eyes before winking at her friend.

"Hey, at least I didn't snake my best friends date!" Kitt teased her friend.

"A date you never wanted!" She defended.

"Hey!" Liam looked at his girlfriend with his hands in the air.

"Seriously though, babe, she was all goo-goo over goofball over here, way before you even entered the picture." Josie said, grabbing his hand and pulling it down into her lap.

"Hey!" It was Leo's turn to be offended.

"Yeah, pretend that you aren't a giant goofball." Josie challenged.

"I won't, but ouch." He clutched his chest.

"You guys are too much." Kitt laughed, draining her glass.

"Could you imagine we would all be sitting here like this at the exhibition game?" Liam asked, sipping his beer.

"The game where we wiped the ice with you? Not likely. We hated you guys." Josie shook her head.

"US? Why? What did we do?" Liam asked, leaning back to see his girlfriends face more clearly.

"How about taking our ice time? How about blow kisses from the Ice? How about calling us princesses?" Josie ticked her list off on her fingers.

"You really hated us?" He asked in a low tone, almost sounding hurt.

"Not as individual people, but as the team? Absolutely. Look at what is happening to Kitt. You, Liam, didn't do that, but you, a male hockey player, contributed to it, intentionally or not." Josie said with a shrug.

"That kinda sucks." He said dropping his arms on the table in front of himself.

"Now you know what it feels like to be judged, it sucks." Josie said finishing her drink.

"Good thing her super understanding, amazing, incredibly hot best friend ALLOWED you to completely ignore her  and let the two of you get to know each other on a personal level. Which obviously worked in your favour. I mean she actually gave you the time of day. You are one lucky dude." Kitt said to Liam.

"Yeah I am." His face broke into a wide smile. He dropped his arm around Josie and pulled her against him.

"You're welcome!" Kit said dramatically.

"Thank you Kitt!" The couple said in unison making Kitt and Leo laugh.

"I still remember Leo's face across the ice when we stood for the national anthem. He was all cocky and smirking, and then he dained to look over at the 'girl's team' and there, across the center line, was the love of his life, the nameless girl from the skating rink. She was dressed in the most ridiculous outfit and he didn't know how to feel about that. But then, all of the sudden this vision, this magical creature, proved she wasn't just some embodiment of perfection. She was also incredibly talented." Kitt grinned proudly.

"Incredibly accurate." He laughed and nodded.

The conversation never slowed as they ate their dinner. They joked and teased and shared stories comfortably. Once their food was done and the table cleared, Liam insisted he pick up the cheque. He gave the waitress a generous tip.

"Ok, ladies, it is time we head back to campus." Leo said checking the time.

"Party pooper!" Josie accused with a pout.

"I have to get up in the morning." Liam admitted.

"For what? Your Russian espionage?" Kitt eyed him suspiciously.

"Jo! I told you! Don't tell! Now I have to throw your friend out of the train!" Liam said in a mock Russian accent.

"Wilhelm! Deflect the inquisition!" Josie answered back in her own silly accent. She grabbed his hand and they ran into the parking lot.

Kitt and Liam put their arms around one another and followed their friends out into the parking lot to Liam's jeep.

***

Kitt sat cuddled up in Leo's lap on the chair outside her room. The night was warm and the sky was full of a million stars.

"What are you thinking about?" He whispered.

"The stars." She said looking up through the night sky to the stars above.

"What about them?" He kissed her shoulder.

"Just that they are pretty." She said turning to smile at him.

"You're pretty." He said.

"Aww, thank you." She kissed his nose.

"Kitt, can I ask you something?" He asked quietly.

"Of course." She waited for him to continue.

"Josie said that you liked me before you went out with Liam." He said.

"That's not a question." She said leaning back again to look up at the stars, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked.

"Because I thought your big dumb ass knew that. You had been trying to get and keep my attention for like a million years before that, and I thought you would just notice when it became easier to get my attention." She said keeping her eyes up.

"But, like you kept saying 'friends' like that." He said like there was a deeper meaning to his line of questioning.

"Yeah, because you did." She admitted.

"But I had to fight with you to get you to even acknowledge me, so "friends" seemed better than nothing." He rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Yeah, that was fun wasn't it?" A smile played on her lips as she remembered his efforts to woo her.

"Actually, yeah, it was, but when it didn't change, I kind of thought you were serious." He admitted.

"I was... until I wasn't." She said pulling his arms tighter around herself.

"I'm not dumb for not knowing that." He said locking his hands together around her.

"I know, but I thought you did." She said curling up sideways.

"But you could have, I don't know, said something, or done something, or like grabbed my face and kissed me." He said with a sigh.

She reached up and grabbed his face in both her hands and kissed him. It was just silly at first, but his hand on her back kept her there. Her light hearted gesture turning to something more serious. He put his hand on the back of her neck holding her close as he opened his mouth to her. She took advantage and deepened their kiss.

Their kiss was soft but demanding. Kitt could feel the shift. She liked to  put her fingers in his hair as they kissed, she slid her hands to the nape of his neck where the curls of his hair met his collar.

She sat in his lap in the darkness, they were the only two souls under the stars that night. The entire cosmos belonged to them.

"It's sooo nice out here! I can't believe you, like never come out here!" A voice said from around the corner of the balcony. It was far enough away, yet it made them both jump.

"Not in the winter! Girl! I do not do cold or wet." A second voice replied sounding closer.

Kitt got up from Leo's lap and scrambled for her keys to open her door. She didn't want to pop their perfect bubble with nonsense. She pulled at Leo's arm to encourage him to follow her inside. It didn't take much convincing before he joined her.

"How come you never kissed me?" Kitt asked, continuing their previous conversation.

Neither of them bothered with the lights as they put their shoes on the mat by the door and their phones on her nightstand.

"Guys can't just kiss a girl." He scooped his arm around her waist pulling her against him.

"Why didn't you ask me out? I kind of thought that was what the night at the pub was you know." She leaned her cheek against his shoulder as they stood in the pitch darkness holding one another.

"You thought our first date was a vague invitation to hang out with a bunch of other people?" He almost sounded like he was going to laugh.

"No! I thought you invited me out so you could ask me to be your date for the dinner in person. Like an excuse to get me to come out." She blushed. Admitting that to him felt like she was admitting that she was still a nieve little girl.

"I mean I obviously wanted to see you." He shared.

"I sound so insecure." She said burying her head into his neck.

"It's fine. We got here, it doesn't matter how, it only matters that we made it." He said before kissing her head.

"Ok, now tell me what you liked about me." Kitt demanded playfully.

"Really? Um, is it bad if I first noticed  your face? I thought you were so pretty." He told her. She gave him a kiss on the neck making him shiver.

"Um Hmmm, go on." She whispered close to his ear.

"You were funny." He said, earning him another kiss on the neck, he shivered again.

"You are smart and creative. You are so talented. You are kind and thoughtful and sweet and generous. You... uh... are... so... strong, like, um, emotionally." With each new trait he listed she added another kiss along his neck and ear. The more she heard the more she did to distract him. She slid her hands up his shirt and made sure to caress the entire expance of skin underneath. She pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his chest and back to her hands for unencumbered exploration.

"Uh babe." He lulled his head to the opposite side allowing her better access to the sensitive areas of his neck. She kissed him gently along his thick muscular neck and shoulder.

"Hum hmm?" She replied distracted by her assault on his senses.

He turned to capture her lips with his. With that he pulled her tightly against him and pulled her with him to her bed.

Kissing him made her mind slow down and the only thing that existed in that moment was the two of them. Her thoughts were warm and gently swirling. Her skin was aware of touch and body was excited for more. She had never wanted to a person as much as she did in that moment.

Something in the back of her mind wouldn't allow her to give herself over to her desires fully. A nagging tiny seed of doubt that he had a secret. Something that could hurt her. Her heart was ready to give in to him fully in every way, but her head had reservations.

She pushed away those lingering thoughts as she pulled him closer. Unfortunately, even though they were quiet, those ideas and worries were still there.