Roswell Fanatics

Not a Question at All

Author(s): Double Trouble



Banner by: Us

Rating: Adult

Category: AU without Alien

Pairing: K&T

Type: Comedy / Smut

Disclaimer: All characters and plot lines that appeared in the series or in the books are not ours. The concept of Roswell does not belong to us either. They all belong to Melinda Metz, UPN, yada, yada, yada…

Summary: Just a little two-part prequel to Mountains So High. In the fic we learned that there was a marriage proposal of some sort for Kyle and Tess, and both of them have their version of how it happened… but as we all know, there are three sides to every story: her side, his side, and the truth.

Author’s Note: This fic was written for killjoy – Happy Birthday, buddy!



Part 1

Tess parked Kyle’s truck in the driveway of the one-bedroom house they had rented four months earlier, dropping down and reaching in to grab her backpack. Her lecture at the end of the day had been rescheduled at the last minute so she had sent Kyle a text to ask if he’d mind if she took the truck and went home. He had replied a minute or so later and told her to go ahead, he’d catch a ride with Max.

She smiled to herself as she unlocked the front door and walked inside, glancing around at their home as she dropped her purse and keys on the hall table. They had been lucky to find the house when the lease on their apartment had been close to the end of its term and they had jumped on the opportunity to get out on their own. It had been the right decision, she thought as she kicked her shoes off and walked into the living room. They both loved their friends dearly, but they were a couple and they needed their own space.

They had been together for almost six years now and they had a good solid relationship that flourished because they knew how to talk and neither of them shied away from dealing with the problems that had a tendency to creep up from time to time. They were dedicated to being together and making their relationship work and while they certainly weren’t perfect, they were giving it everything they had.

She wandered into the kitchen, deciding to get dinner started. She pulled out what she needed to make spaghetti, knowing that him catching a ride home with Max most likely meant that they’d end up with the rest of the gang over for dinner. Not that she minded. They were her best friends too and they all knew each other well enough that there would be no complaints when it was time for the evening to end.

Their friends were very supportive of their relationship and she knew how important that was. Keeping their friendships thriving was good for them individually and as a couple. While the guys would drive her crazy on weekends when they all gathered at the house to scream obscenities at the television or gawk over the cheerleaders, she and the girls would have their own get-together and talk about anything and everything while rolling their eyes at the guys’ behavior.

She knew one day they would be married… if he ever got around to asking. Kyle just tended to do things at his own pace and at times that was good, but at others it just drove her out of her mind. She had thought he was going to pop the question on Valentines Day because he had set the entire evening up and it had been elaborate and romantic. She should’ve known better though because that was just the way he was, especially when it came to holidays, anniversaries, or other special occasions. She smiled. Of course, he could also be spontaneously romantic too, so she had no complaints.

It was after dinner that night while she was leaning against his side on the couch, watching some movie that she had picked out when she decided to ask the question that had been on her mind earlier that day. “Kyle?”

“Hmm?” He was staring at the screen, wondering why he had ever let her choose the movie because this was torture.

“We’ve talked about marriage in the past, right?”

“Sure,” he said with a nod. He turned to look at her, finding her much more interesting than the movie. “Why, are you ready now?”

“Am I…” She stood, hands on her hips as she glared at him. “What do you mean ‘am I ready now’?”

“Well, just that if you’re ready then I’ll go an’ get the ring.”

“You’ll go and get the ring,” she repeated stupidly. “What, you’ve already bought it?”

He shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

“Were you plannin’ to ask me anytime soon?” He was teasing her. He had to be. Right?

“Ask you? We’ve been together for six years, babe. I think it’s pretty much a given that we’re gonna get married, so – “

“You just assumed I’m gonna marry you? How can you be so romantic in every other way, but when it comes to the marriage proposal you just assume I’m gonna marry you?!”

“So, you’re not gonna marry me?” He really was just screwing with her. Yes, he’d bought the ring, and yes, he had planned to ask her, but he had always planned to ask her when the right moment came up. He was not a stupid man. This was not the right moment. He didn’t have a death wish and he knew asking her now was only going to end up being very painful. For him.

*****

Kyle rolled over onto his side, blinking a few times against the sunlight that was coming through the small gap in the curtains. He lifted his head slightly to glance over his sleeping girlfriend where she slept next to him to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

8am, he thought gladly. Tess had some sort of internal alarm clock or something, and on days when they were both off, she would wake up at almost 9:00am in the mornings. It was still a riddle to him how that was even possible, but at least it told him that he had at least 30 minutes to prepare breakfast for her. He leaned in to breathe a kiss against her temple, smiling when she wiggled her nose in response but didn’t wake up.

Rubbing his eyes one last time, he sat up slowly and climbed out of bed, trying to not make so much noise. He grabbed his jeans that he had just dropped the night before on his side of the bed. Tess had been in an awful mood after the marriage talk, he thought in amusement as he slid his legs into his pants. He decided that the jeans were all clothes he needed for now.

Kyle made his way downstairs quietly, stopping at the bathroom for a moment to throw some water into his face and brush his teeth before going into the kitchen to start breakfast. He glanced around the shelves of the open refrigerator for several long minutes before he decided what to prepare for breakfast. Something that would hopefully lighten his girlfriend’s mood again, and quickly. As much as he loved her, a pissed Tess was a bad Tess and the sooner he got back on her good side, the better.

He was just about to take the first pancake out of the pan when he heard the toilet flushing upstairs. “What the hell?” he muttered and leaned back to glance at the clock on the microwave. It was only 8:33am, she wasn’t supposed to be up so early. Something had to be wrong with her.

“Shit,” he muttered when he saw that the pancake had turned out a little bit too dark on one side. He quickly turned it over on the plate so that the more delicious-looking side was facing up. She won’t notice, will she? he thought, before deciding that it would still work and it wasn’t like it was really burnt or anything.

Small tapping sounds on the stairs announced her arrival and he turned around to look at her when she entered the kitchen. He rested his back against the counter and wrapped his hands around the edge on either side of him. “Whatcha doin’ already up, babe?” His eyes went over her delicate, slim body, which was only covered in one of his football jerseys. He felt himself harden just from her looks and wondered if it would still be the same in the next six years.

She lifted one eyebrow, knowing exactly what affect she had on him. “It’s almost 9am, Kyle, when did ya expect me to get up?”

“Well, in about 15 minutes or something…” he shrugged.

She rolled her eyes. “I am not a mechanical alarm clock, goofy. So whatcha doin’ in the kitchen?” she asked, wandering around the counter towards him. “Burning breakfast again?”

“Hey, I can make them,” he told her, pointing at the plate.

“Uh-huh,” she said, leaning down and using the fork to stick the pancake and turn it over. “Cheater,” she accused with an amused smile.

He had to laugh slightly. “It’s not that bad. It’s still good to eat.”

“Hopefully the others will turn out better,” she said, making a shushing gesture with her hand to get him back to work, while she wandered around to pour herself a cup of coffee in the mug that said: I AM FUNKY, I AM SEXY, I AM ON A PUB CRAWL in big letters. They had gotten the mugs a few weeks ago, when they, along with Liz, Max and Maria – thankfully no Mark – had been out on an organized pub tour through the city.

“Wasn’t a bad idea to buy the coffee machine with the timer,” she admitted. Now the coffee was always ready when they got up.

“Uh-huh,” he said, shaking his head. It had taken him several looooong conversations to convince her that it would be a rewarding investment.

She placed her hot drink on the counter and hopped up to sit on it, while she watched her boyfriend fighting with the next round of pancakes.

“So…” she started after several moments of comfortable silence.

“So?” he turned around to look at her questioningly.

“When are ya planning to give the ring to me?”

He focused his attention on the pancake he was trying not to burn to a crisp, biting his tongue as he listened to her nails tapping out a rhythm on the side of her mug. He shrugged one shoulder and flipped the pancake over. A nice buttery golden color, that was more like it. “Um, well… I mean, I didn’t really have anything special in mind.”

“Okay, Kyle, I thought about this for a long time last night,” she said patiently. “You said you’ve already got the ring, right?”

“Uh-huh.” He kept his expression under control and turned his head to look at her.

She huffed impatiently. “Well, if you’ve already bought it you must’ve intended to give it to me at some point.”

“Sure, yeah.”

“Well, it can’t be Valentine’s Day ‘cause that was months ago. Unless you were plannin’ to wait until next year. No,” she said, shaking her head, “a holiday would be too cliché.”

He nodded. That much was true.

“Besides, that’s like more than half a year away. You didn’t intend to make me wait that long, did you?”

He smiled at the suspicious tone in her voice. “Tess, I honestly didn’t have a specific date in mind.”

“So you seriously bought a ring ‘cause you just assumed that we’d get married?”

He slid the pancake onto a plate and held it out to her, holding his other hand up. “Always be prepared.”

“This isn’t the damn Boy Scouts,” she bit out, ignoring the plate.

“Babe, when I saw the ring I knew it was the one. Did I know the exact date I was gonna ask you? No. I just knew that we were gonna be getting married one of these days and I wanted to be prepared when – “

“Okay, this conversation is officially over.” She crossed her arms over her chest and met his humor-filled gaze directly. “I wanna see the ring.”

“What, now?”

“Yes, right now, Kyle.”

“What about breakfast?”

“Somehow I think I can find it in me to wait a few more minutes.”

“Well, alright.” He tore a piece of the pancake off and popped it in his mouth, chewing slowly as he left the room.

Tess rolled her eyes as she crossed her left leg over her right and took another sip of her coffee. She had no idea how he had managed to get this all wrong. Even in high school Kyle had been a big romantic. Okay, back then he hadn’t been as open about it around their friends or his football buddies, but as time had passed he had become more comfortable showing it without worrying who was around.

Kyle hurried back downstairs, catching himself just before he reached the kitchen and slowing down to a casual pace. He walked over to her and held the velvet box out on his open palm. “You’re gonna love the ring.”

She took the small box and lifted the lid, inhaling when she saw what lay inside. It was an elegant engagement ring with a matching band featuring blue sapphires and round diamonds channel-set in 18k white gold with a respectably sized Marquis-cut diamond at the center. “Kyle,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

He watched her face, taking in every nuance of her expressive features. Yeah, the ring was gorgeous, but it couldn’t hold a candle to her beauty. She lifted it up out of the box, sliding it on her finger. He knew it would be a perfect fit, he had made sure of that. “So, I can get down on one knee if you want,” he offered.

“You’re forgiven for your lack of romance as far as the proposal is concerned,” she said after turning her hand back and forth, looking at the ring from different angles. “But now I need to think about the proposal.”

He groaned when she removed the ring and safely tucked it back in place. His mouth dropped open when she closed the lid on the box and handed it back to him.

“You’re givin’ it back to me?” he asked, looking from the box in his hand back to her.

“Of course! You didn’t ask me to…”

“I can ask you now?” he interrupted her.

Tess shook her head as she lifted her mug to her lips to take a sip of her coffee.

“No?” Now he was getting irritated.

“That would be a little bit too easy, wouldn’t it?”

He tried to not roll his eyes. Sometimes she was just so confusing. One moment she wants to see the ring and the next she tells me this would be too easy, he thought, frustrated. “Alright, if you don’t want it now,” he shrugged and shoved it into his pants pockets.

“You know you don’t have to wait for a special day, right?” she said, making sure he understood that since there wasn’t a single special day she could think of in the next couple of months.

“Tess,” he complained. “You don’t want it now, you don’t want it on a special occasion… Ya know...” he grinned, “now I’m gonna decide when I’ll ask you, deal with it.”

Cardinal: Yep, and Kyle certainly has his own schedule.

Alien_Friend: Thanks, we’ll see what he comes up here in this next part.

mary mary: Lol, we don’t think Tess wants to wait that long.

killjoy: We’re glad you enjoyed the ficlet!

It’s crazy how some people have those internal alarm clocks!

Nah, not getting old. Older, perhaps, but not old. There is a difference!

Marsis: We’re glad you stopped by.

You could easily make that substitution, huh? Lol! Kyle definitely handled that one.

Here’s the next update… enjoy!



Part 2

For killjoy

“Are you coming, babe?” Kyle called from downstairs.

“Just a moment,” she called back as she finished her hair in the bathroom. It had been two weeks now since he had shown her the ring and yet… nothing. It was driving her crazy! And it wasn’t like he wouldn’t just not ask. No! He had raised her hopes like ten times now. Just yesterday they’d had a romantic dinner at the French restaurant, the day before he had taken her out on a trip. Just the damn question was still missing. How long was he planning to wait? She had made it clear that a special day wasn’t necessary.

Right now she was ready to just find the ring and put it on her finger itself.

“Tess,” Kyle complained from downstairs. “We’re just going to the supermarket. You do know you don’t have to win a beauty contest there, right?”

“I’m almost done, Kyle. Relax!” She smiled when she heard him sighing. She knew it was driving him crazy to wait. Good, she thought, he put me on the waiting list, now he can wait too.

*****

Around 7pm they stepped into the small supermarket, which was just a few streets from their home. It was a privately-owned shop where you could get all the necessary things for life when you just didn’t want to put up with the bigger, overcrowded stores in town.

The small familiar market always reminded her of the small one she used to go when she was a kid. They had grown up in a small town, the kind that probably had more pets and livestock than actually people living there.

“So, what do we need?” Kyle asked as they slowly walked along the aisles with big shelves on either side of them.

Tess glanced down at the little paper in her hand. “Eggs, cheese, bacon…” she started to read out. “And milk.”

He nodded and pointed to a big stack of milk cartons at the end of the aisle they were on. “Can you grab the milk?” he asked as his phone suddenly started to ring.

She nodded and went ahead to get the milk, smiling when memories caught up with her at the sight of the stack in front of her.

Milk, milk, milk… where is it? 15-year-old Tess thought as she ran through the supermarket to find it. Her mother had sent her to buy some since she had forgotten it earlier and needed it now quickly for the cake she was preparing.

She pinpointed the large stack of milk cartons at the end of the little store and ran towards it. Her best friend was already waiting for her. They wanted to go and watch the football team at the high school.

She stopped in front of the stack, trying to decide which carton she should take when the small dog belonging to Mrs. Brown got her attention. She loved the little puppy and had taken it out several times before. “Baileys,” she said, amused when the small dog greeted her by jumping up and down against her leg. At that moment she wasn’t paying any attention to the milk she was grabbing and in the next minute, the whole stack started to swing until it all crashed down to the floor.

Tess stood there, one carton of milk in her hand as she glanced down at the mess she had just made. Some of the cartons had burst open and now the milk was spreading over the floor in a wide pool. It was awfully silent around her when everyone stopped to stare. In that moment she had wished to be invisible. “Um…” she choked out.

“Let me help you with this,” someone said.

She glanced down to see a boy kneeling in front of her, already trying to clean the mess up. “Uh… thanks,” she stuttered and crouched down to help him. “Do we know each other?” The boy didn’t seem familiar to her, which was really weird in the small town she lived in.

“I just moved here with my family,” he answered and wiped his hand on his jeans and held it out to her. “Kyle Valenti.”

She smiled and took his proffered hand. “Tess Harding.”

With the help of the staff at the market they had cleaned up her mess in no time and she was relieved when the owner told her that she hadn’t have to pay for the damage.

“Thanks for helping me, Kyle,” she said as they started to leave the market. She had to admit he was kinda cute. “What can I do to return the favor?”

“Maybe you could show me around a little? I haven’t seen too much of the town yet.”

It had been their first interaction, but it had taken another three months before they had finally gotten together. Her grin widened when she saw it was even the same brand of milk. She reached out to take one of the cartons on top to be sure that nothing would happen this time. Her small hand wrapped around the package and pulled it towards her. She was about to turn around to go back to Kyle when suddenly another carton fell towards her. Tess tried to catch it with her free hand, but it was a wasted motion because immediately the whole stack started to shift.

With wide eyes she watched as history repeated itself and she was once again the reason for a total mess. “This can’t be happening,” she muttered to herself. How could this happen? She had been so careful. Pulling herself together, she started to turn around, expecting Kyle to be rolling on the floor, laughing like a hyena while holding his stomach.

She actually did find him on the floor… Right in front of her, one knee on the floor, the other propped up, as he held the velvet box out to her. She held her breath as her cheeks started to flush as her brain began to wrap around the situation she was in.

“Tess Harding,” he started with a soft smirk, “it’s been six years to the day that I met you first and I can’t imagine a life without you anymore.” His eyes were locked with hers as he spoke. “I know this might be a surprise,” he winked, “but will you marry me?”

A few customers that had stopped to watch the scene unfold gasped in surprise and smiled at the proposal happening right in front of them.

Of all the possibilities she had never thought he would ask her in a supermarket. Okay, it didn’t sound very romantic, but with the circumstances they had in their past… it was just right. She smiled at him with tears in her eyes while her heart was pounding against her chest. “I will.”

From the look in her eyes he knew he had picked the right moment for the proposal. With a gentle move he slid the ring on her finger and kissed it once before he got up again to wrap his arms around her. “I love you, Mrs. Soon-to-be-Valenti,” he told her, just before his lips lowered to hers for a gentle kiss.

People around them started to clap their hands and shout out encouraging words. Tess giggled as they broke the kiss again. “How did you know today is THAT day?” she wanted to know since she couldn’t say exactly what day their first meeting had happened. She had only started counting from the day they had first kissed.

He chuckled. “I remember it clearly. I was in the supermarket that day because my mother had sent me there to get some things for the birthday cake she was gonna make for my father.”

“His birthday’s tomorrow,” she whispered, finally putting one and one together.

He nodded.

“But how…?” She glanced next to them, where the milk cartons were lying around on the floor.

Kyle chuckled. “Orchestrated. I talked to the owner this morning. There was no way to get the milk without upsetting the whole stack.”

She shook her head, amused. “You’re crazy.”

He took her hand and let his thumb brush over the ring on her finger. “Told you I was gonna ask you sooner or later,” he whispered and looked at her with a smirk.

“Later rather than sooner, huh?” she teased. “We should probably start to clean that up.”

“No problem, Miss, we’ll take care of that,” one of the employees said.

“Everything’s under control, babe,” Kyle said in amusement and wiggled his eyebrows. “We can just go home and celebrate our engagement.”

*****

Kyle found himself pinned to the front door just as soon as they stepped into the house and he was barely conscious of the sound it made as it snapped shut. Her mouth settled over his, their tongues tangling wetly as she pressed as close as possible to him. His hands gripped her hips as to prevent her from moving away when she broke the kiss to tip her head back and look into his eyes.

“I want you so much right now,” she whispered.

He chuckled roughly and rubbed against her as he smirked. He shifted and reached behind him to turn the deadbolt before swinging her up in his arms and heading for the stairs. “You do know this isn’t a habit we’re gonna get into right?”

“I think we’ve already made hot sex a habit, Mr. Valenti,” she giggled, deliberately misunderstanding him.

He snorted as he stepped onto the landing and turned to go down to their bedroom. “That’s one habit I have no intention of seeking help for.” He set her down as soon as he entered their room, his hands immediately moving to start ridding her of her clothes.

Tess unfastened his jeans and shoved them down over his hips as he slid the straps of her bra over her arms. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, tossing it aside while she finished stripping the last of her clothing from her body. His heart beat like crazy when she took his hand and led him to their bed, falling back on it and pulling him down over her.

Kyle’s hands traced over her soft flesh, slipping over her sides before coming up to cup her breasts. He brushed his thumbs over her nipples before lowering his head to lick and suck them. He leaned back slightly to blow a heated breath over her dampened skin, eyes darkening further as he watched her nipples harden.

A shiver raced down his spine when she lightly raked her nails over his muscled chest and abdomen. She traced along the line of hair that ran below his belly button and arrowed down, her knuckles brushing against his erection that was unsubtly demanding attention.

“Somebody’s eager,” she teased, rubbing her thumb over the moist tip. She nudged him over to sit astride his thighs, shuffling back a little so she could lean over to run her tongue along his length.

His hands clenched in the bed covers when she swirled her tongue over and around the head before sucking on it. Her hair was brushing against his thighs and curling under her chin to tickle his balls and she knew the dual sensations would drive him crazy.

She could hear his breath coming in ragged pants as she slowly eased off, releasing him and leaning back to meet his heated gaze. The blue irises were so thin they were barely visible and he followed every move she made as she crawled up over him, rising up and lowering herself down to take him in one agonizing inch at a time. Kyle raised himself up, looping his arms around her lower back and kissing her deeply. His hands slid down to settle on her ass, cupping the supple flesh and squeezing it as she started to move.

He heard her breathing change, felt the telltale signs that signaled her approaching climax and he groaned when she ground herself against him with every downward thrust. Her hands on his shoulders clenched as her head dropped back and she sucked hard on her bottom lip when that jolt of electricity shot through her and she came.

Kyle reached up to brush her hair back, kissing her gently and giving her a moment to recover. It wasn’t long before she shifted against him and nipped his bottom lip playfully before leaning back to meet his needy gaze. “Think it’s your turn,” she whispered with a smile.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, rolling them over and bracing his weight on his forearms as he looked down at her. His hips thrust slowly at first as he found the rhythm that pleased both of them. When he found it he reached down to wrap his hand around her thigh, urging her left leg higher and increasing his pace.

Tess ran her hands over his chest and shoulders, slickened with sweat and making it a challenge to find purchase. She finally slid her hands under his arms to curl over his shoulders, whispering in his ear and encouraging him to just let go. She felt his thrusts gaining momentum as he raced to reach his own climax and she used her fingertips to nudge his head down for another kiss.

Afterwards Kyle collapsed on the bed next to her, his lungs straining to pull in oxygen. He could feel his heart pounding in an effort to escape his chest and it took several minutes for his body to begin to calm down. His muscles felt like jelly and he loved every second of it. He turned his head to the side when Tess came up on her elbow and rested her left hand on his chest.

Her face was flushed from a combination of happiness and satisfaction and he was proud to be the one to put that look there. He glanced down to look at her hand, smiling at the ring she wore. He had never had a doubt that she would say yes to a proposal of marriage, and even though he had been certain they would spend their lives together, it was an amazing feeling to know she was going to be his in every possible way.

“I love you,” she said, smiling as she leaned down to kiss him. “I still can’t believe it took you so long to getting around to popping the question.”

He chuckled and shook his head at her. “I think we both know that question was…”

Tess rolled her eyes and nodded as they spoke at the same time, “Not a question at all.”