Taylor walked in, a towel around his waist. "Whoa, Ky." He halted his steps as soon as his eyes met hers.

"Hey." She smiled, "Enjoy your shower?"

"As always." He reached for the pair of boxers that were lying on the end of his bed. "Um... " His eyes darted around the room quickly. "I'll just go in the closet." He said, going in and closing the door behind him. He slipped his boxers on and walked back out. "Okay. So."

"So."

"Are we doing something today?"

"As far as I know."

He climbed on the bed next to her, kissing her forehead. "What do you feel like doing?"

"Mmm... " She slid her hands down his bare chest and placed her lips next to his ear. "I wanna stay here and play with you."

"Are you serious?"

Kylie backed away and laughed. "Yes I'm serious." She began to pull his body on top of hers, continuing to talk. "I've missed you. We haven't done anything in so long." She raised her head off the pillow and kissed him, sliding her tongue into his warm mouth almost immediately. He moaned in response while his tongue played with her own.

A sudden thought occurred to him and he pulled away quickly. "Wait." He licked his lips and let his eyes travel down her body before continuing. "Maybe this is just me, but this feels a little weird."

"Because...?"

"Because of everything that happened with Zac... whatever that was. You still never told me, and yeah it upsets me, but I know that asking him to stay away from you was a good thing."

Kylie turned her head away from him. "Why did you have to bring that up?"

"Well doesn't this feel even the slightest bit weird to you?"

"No, you're my boyfriend. We've been doing stuff like this for quite some time now." She pointed out. She pushed him off of her and sat up, crossing her legs indian style in front of her.

Taylor sat up as well and sighed, running a hand through his damp hair. "I'm sick of fighting with you, Kylie."

"Are we fighting now?"

"Kind of."

"I didn't think we were."

"Okay fine," He sighed, "We weren't." He got up from the bed and went to grab some clothes out of his dresser. He pulled out a pair of jeans and and a black t-shirt, then began to get dressed. After finishing, he went and stood beside his bed, pulling her forward so he was standing between her spread legs. "How 'bout this," He began, lacing his fingers through hers, "Tonight, I take you out. Just you, me, some nice Italian food, and a moonlit walk in the park by the river."

Kylie's face lit up. "Really?"

He pulled her up off the bed, wrapping his arms around her waist. He rested his forehead against hers. "Really."

"Aw, thank you." She smiled again and leaned up to kiss him.

* * *

Kylie linked her arm in Taylor's as they walked into Bucca's Italian restaurant. He held the door open for her as they entered the dimly lit place.

"Reservation for Hanson." Taylor told the young host.

He checked the list in front of him quickly, then reached under the podium and grabbed two menus. "Right this way please."

Taylor and Kylie followed him to the far corner where a small round table sat, a burning candle and single long stemmed rose in the center. Taylor made sure to pull out Kylie's chair first before taking a seat himself.

The host went over the evening’s specials before leaving them to themselves.

"Oh my gosh." Were the first words out of Kylie's mouth after opening her menu.

"What?"

"These prices!" She said in a loud whisper, "Look at them!"

"I already know, sweetie. Don't worry about it. I told you, it's all on me." He reached under the table and found her hand, giving it a light squeeze.

She looked up and smiled at him, then glanced back down at her menu.

* * *

"Thank you." Kylie murmured over Taylor's lips. "I loved it."

"Mmm... you're very welcome." He replied. "I'll remember to take you out again if I get rewarded with a kiss like that."

"I wouldn't blame you."

They started down the long paved path leading past the river. All the trees were decorated in Christmas lights, something that lighted up the park year-round. The water glistened in the moonlight, just adding to the romantic atmosphere.

Kylie wrapped her arms around Taylor's wait as she walked beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. "How perfect is this?" She asked

"Too perfect." Taylor answered, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and placing a loving kiss atop her head.

* * *

"Which house?" Taylor asked as they stood on the property line between both of their houses.

"Um... " Kylie put a finger to her lips, thinking. "Your house." She decided. "There's still lights on in my house meaning my parents have yet to go to bed. And since I'm not in a real, question answering kind of mood, that's why I say your house. We can watch a movie or something. And hey, if we fall asleep, so be it."

Taylor laughed. "Okay then, sounds good to me."

They headed over to his house, noticing just about all of the lights were off. "I guess everyone's turned in for the night." He observed

"Looks that way." She said, following him inside the house. She took her shoes off and set them off to the side, then led the way into the den.

She stopped short when she saw Zac asleep on the couch, his movie still playing in the VCR. Taylor came walking from behind her.

"What?" He asked when he saw her standing in the doorway.

She merely pointed at Zac, not sure what to say.

"Go wait in the kitchen." Taylor instructed

"What?!" She hissed, "You can't be serious."

"Go!"

"I'm not going to hide in the kitchen just so you can wake him up. That's insane. Besides, what's he gonna do with you standing right here anyway?"

"Just go!"

"No!"

"I'm up, I'm up." Zac sleepily announced. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, his messy hair falling in his face.

"Good." Taylor said, "Then you can leave."

"Give me a second to wake up, man."

"You're going right back to sleep once you get upstairs." Taylor pointed out

"I'd rather not trip halfway up the stairs, thank you."

Kylie stepped passed Taylor and went to sit down next to Zac. He looked up at her and squinted his eyes.

"Ky?"

"Hey sleepy." She greeted, reaching over to rough up his hair even more. "Sorry we had to wake you."

"Nah, it's okay." He gave her a sloppy smile.

She laughed. "Go on. You need more sleep."

"If you say so." He slowly got up off the couch and lightly touched the top of her head. "Night." He said

"Goodnight." She responded. Her eyes followed him out of the room. Taylor glared at him as he left. Zac was still half asleep so he didn't even notice.

"So what movie do you wanna watch?" Kylie asked

"Whatever. You pick." Taylor mumbled. He went and sat down next to her. "What was that?" He asked

"What was what?"

"You know."

"Oh." She suddenly realized, "Tay, it was harmless. You saw."

"Right. Harmless."

She curled up next to him and hit 'play' on the VCR remote. "You mind if we just finish Zac's movie?" She asked

"No, there's about half of it left anyway." He wrapped an arm around her, resting his head on top of hers.

* * *

"Kylie, there's someone downstairs for you." Her dad said, poking his head in her room the next day.

She set her cd's down and left the room. She pulled the cuffs of her light blue long sleeved shirt over her hands as she walked downstairs to greet whoever it was. Her eyes widened and her jaw literately dropped when she saw him.

"What are you doing here?!"

"You wanna go to a movie?" He asked nonchalantly, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his blue jeans.

"No I don't want to go to a movie! I want you to go home before Taylor finds out you were ever here."

"Aw come on." He pleaded. "What's one movie gonna hurt?"

"You do know that Taylor asked you to stay away from me, right?"

"Yeah... so...?"

"And do you remember telling your brother you wouldn't come near me?"

"Yes. Do you have a point here?"

"My point is that you're not supposed to be here asking me to go to a movie! Taylor was pissed enough as it was after you went up to bed last night."

"Why?" He laughed, "I said maybe two words to you."

"Exactly."

"Well Tay can go... " He looked around cautiously, "fuck himself for all I care." He finished, his voice a mere whisper.

"Zaaaac," Kylie whined, "Please don't do this okay? Just go home now so we can forget you were ever here."

"Why are you letting him run your life?"

Kylie was shocked by his question. "I - I'm not."

"What are you doing right now? You're telling me to go home because Taylor doesn't want us to see each other."

"He's my boyfriend and I love him. He doesn't want us hanging out because he thinks we'll be tempted to do something we shouldn't, so fine. I respect that. Even though that's not exactly the solution I would've gone with, but... "

"So then WHY won't you just come to a movie with me? Please?? I'm really bored and Tay's not even home right now."

Kylie sighed and gave him a skeptical look. "I don't know."

"I won't tell if you don't... " He sang

"It's not that, I just - "

"You just can't think of a good enough reason." He smiled at her. "Come on, you know you want to. All the kids are doing it... "

She laughed and reached for her shoes in the hall closet. "I don't know how you do it, boy."

He smiled proudly. "Neither do I. But I sure do it well."