Work Text:
“You know, you do a lot of cheesy stuff, but this is kind of cool,” Rose said, adjusting her position next to Jim. He had sent her a text, saying to meet him at the Tyler Youth Center, and then she’d gotten there and he was nowhere to be found. All she’d found were a bunch of signs with arrows on them, and eventually, she’d found one on the building next to the ladder to the roof that pointed up, and when she’d climbed it she’d seen he’d surprised her with a picnic up on the damn roof. Corny shit, but damn effective at putting a smile on her face. God, she really did love him.
“Well, there’s supposed to be some sort of meteor shower tonight, and I thought this was a better place at catching a glimpse of it than Regina’s place,” he said, reaching over for a blanket. It was kind of chilly so she was glad he’d brought blankets for over them as well as under them. He’d kind of gone all out, but all out in a way that was for them. There was takeout from Coop’s Place with all her favorite, and perfectly chilled vodka in one of those wine chillers with the slightly oversized shot glasses for them. She was fairly sure he wouldn’t let them drink so much they’d get drunk and pass out, but just in case she could have sworn she saw sleeping bags stashed nearby.
“That’ll be cool,” she said, snuggling next to him. She knew her fiancee was still quite attached to all things space related. It was in his blood. It was his calling, and no matter how long he was on Earth, no matter how settled he was, he was always going to want to be among the stars again. She could hear it in his voice when he and Bones and Spock and Nyota talked about old times, old missions they’d gone on, old adventures they’d had. There was this thing in his voice, just a tiny tone to it, that told her he wished he was back up there. Maybe he wished he was back up there with her, but he wanted to be back up in space again, helming his ship.
For now, he had stargazing and meteor showers, but it wasn’t the same.
She reached over for his hand. She wasn’t one for sappy moments, but she wanted to say something. “I should name a star after you for Christmas,” she said.
“Yeah?” he said, shifting his position to lift his head up to look at her. “I think I’d like it. I mean, there’s probably a few already out there that some Trek fans did, but knowing there’s one you did, that’d be cool.
“I could call it something with a mix of James Tiberius Kirk and dork,” Rose said thoughtfully, a smirk on her lips as she settled her head on his chest.
He laughed, running his fingers through her hair. “I doubt a Trek fan would have come up with that combination.”
“Well, then we’ll know it’s all mine and especially for you,” she said.
“If I could ever go back up there I’d try and find my star and take a picture for you,” he said, his laugh dying down to a low chuckle. “Then we can frame it and put it up in our house, wherever we end up living. Blow it up nice and big and put it up over the mantle with a little plaque with the name of the star and its location.”
She felt her smile falter just slightly. “You really want to go back up there, don’t you?”
“I do, kinda,” he said with a slight nod. “I’ll always want to. But there’s a lot here that I love. New Orleans is an amazing city. I have great friends here. And I mean, even in my home universe, I spent a lot of time in San Francisco. I didn’t spend all my time in space.”
“But you could go up in space there. You can’t do that here,” she said, lifting her head up and shifting so she could look down at him.
He shrugged slightly. “If I go back home, I lose you. I’d rather give up space than lose you.”
She grinned at that and shook her head. “You are such a sap,” she said.
“But you love me,” he said, grinning up at her as he tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Well, duh. I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you if I didn’t.”
“Good thing you did,” he said with his grin getting wider. “It would have been really embarrassing if you hadn’t.”
“And we wouldn’t want your pride getting bruised, no would we?” she asked, leaning in.
“Well, my fiancee can already kick my ass, so...” he said in a mock teasing tone. Rose reached over and smacked his shoulder, and he reached up, pulling her down so that she was half across him, half next to him. He looked at her, looking at her eyes sparkling and the wide smile on her face and he reached over and brushed her hair out of her face. “You, my darling, are made of galaxies, with stardust stuck to your ribs,” he murmured. “No wonder I could spend my nights staring into your eyes instead of the sky.”
Her smile became less amused and more sincere as she scooted closer to him, shifting so that she could press herself closer. “Pretty words, Captain,” she said. “You mean them?”
“Every one,” he replied, nodding slightly.
“Well, as much as I wouldn’t mind you staring in my eyes for a while, we’re here to watch a meteor shower,” she said, playing with the collar of his shirt. “But since it hasn’t started yet, how about you kiss me for a little while and then we watch the stars for a bit? Then you can stare into my eyes to your heart’s content until I feel like kissing you again.”
He grinned at her and then leaned in. “Sounds good to me,” he said before kissing her softly. She wasn’t sure if they’d actually pay any attention to the meteor shower or not, to be honest, but she had to admit, this was a hell of a way to spend an evening with this man she loved more than she could really express. She didn’t know how she had gotten so lucky to end up with him in her life, but she just knew she wasn’t going to second guess it anymore. She was just going to be thankful she’d stopped being an idiot and acknowledged that Jim was someone she could love because really, doing that had been one of the best decisions she’d ever made.