Everything Is Blue

Chapter 47

To Bud, the two weeks had dragged on at a painstakingly slow pace.

Dozens of cardboard boxes decorated the living room floor.

He watched as she looked through cardboard boxes, pulling out a few of her belongings and closely inspecting each one. She'd hum a little tune as she dug around each box, only stopping when she pulled something out. Once she thoroughly inspected it, she'd set it down and began humming once again. Her long purple hair had been messily tied up in a bun. A few loose strands hung down to her face. She still had on one of his old t-shirts that she liked to sleep in.

To him, she was perfect, flaws and all.

Bud smiled to himself. He fell in love hard this time. Ever since the night on that rooftop, he loved her. Every day since, he only loved her more and more.

As cheesy as that sounds.

Kimbra caught the hound's lovesick smile. "What are you smiling about?"

"You."

Her gaze flicked bashfully away, but only for a second. "Hope you aren't over there making fun of me."

"I'm just thinking about how lucky I am."

She dropped her head to keep him from seeing her blush. Digging through another cardboard box. "You're such the biggest dork, I swear."

Held up a large blue book. Inspecting it. "Oh, I think I found my high school yearbook." She blew a layer of dust off the book. Which only blew back into her face, causing the canine to cough. She swatted the dust away with a hand.

Bud sat on the floor behind Kimbra and pulled her into his lap. "Where's this ex-boyfriend of yours? The one you said had dumped you in college?"

"Derek? Let me see..." Her finger followed along the page, stopping at a picture of a handsome golden retriever. "Here he is."

Bud made a small noise of disbelief in his throat. "Looks like a fraternity guy."

"Derek has always been a sweetheart, be nice." She laughed lightly, turning a page without looking up. "And he was a jock, he played football. So that's close enough I suppose."

The two had been inseparable growing up. Childhood best friends. Derek moved from Texas to Alaska as a young pup, unsure of everything. Kimbra grew fond of him instantly, eventually gaining a massive crush on him in their middle school years. The two dated in high school, until Derek called it quits their freshman year of college.

Leaving her completely and utterly alone in the city of St. Canard.

Something Kimbra tried to forget.

"Have you heard from him lately?" Bud said finally, a bit more quietly than usual.

"Nah, we haven't spoken since the breakup. I don't have any hard feelings towards him anyway. Would you be jealous if I did?" She cooed, one finger teasingly tapping his chin. Finding it cute if the hound had actually held onto a bit of jealousy.

"No, I don't get jealous." Bud's ears drooped, and he furrowed his eyebrows at Kimbra. Wanting to shift the topic onto something else.

"Oh wait, I can show you high school me!" More quick flips of pages until Kimbra found herself. Pointed at the bottom row. "That's me."

A much younger version of Kimbra smiled brightly in the photo. Light blonde hair pulled back with a headband, fell down her shoulders. She looked less tired back then. Less... broken.

"Have you ever thought about not dyeing your hair?" Bud said, bringing a hand up to run through her hair.

The idea had not entered her mind recently. Sure, sometimes she gave her hair a break and grew it out. But she'd always dye it back purple again. It just suited her. The blonde hair felt like a distant part of her life now.

So no, Kimbra hadn't thought about it. Not at all.

"No, why?"

Bud shrugged, not thinking too much of it. "I think you're cute with blonde hair."

Kimbra looked up at him, eyebrows raised. Teasing him. "I'm not already cute?"

"You know what I mean." He winced, immediately regretting how he worded his previous statement.

"Come on," Kimbra started to stand up, getting out of the water bottle salesman's lap. "I gotta finish unpacking."

"Nooo." He wrapped his arms snugly around her waist. "Stay right here with me."

Another attempt to pull herself out of Bud's arm. "You better let me go."

But the hound was much, much stronger than her. "No."

Kimbra breathed out a sigh. "I did not move in here so you could kiss me all day." Deciding to give up.

"But that's why I asked you to!"

"No, you probably asked me because you're horribly clingy."

"Nah," he gave his head a slight shake. "I just think people should know what it's like to live together before they jump into the whole marriage thing."

And all of that came out of the hound's mouth without him thinking. He promptly shut his mouth, horrified at what he had just said. His face flushed a deep shade of red.

Bud Bernard Flud had just admitted to his girlfriend that he wanted to marry her.

Softened eyes lifted to the nervous man's gaze. Kimbra went silent. "You want to marry me?"

"Some day... oh god, wait... I hope I didn't make things weird." He winced. "I know we've never talked about it in the past three years..."

It didn't have to mean anything. Just a slip of the tongue, nothing more. It's not like the hound daydreamed about marriage during his lunch breaks.

"No, no it's not weird," she finally pulled herself up and out of his arms. "I feel the same way. It's nice to be on the same page about things."

Bud stood as well with a loud groan. "Alright then Wulfe, let's unpack the rest of your stuff, and I'm not touching that Condors crap." He side-eyed a certain box in the back of the room. One he had wished Kimbra stuffed in the attic.

"If you marry me, you're also marrying my Condors crap."

"No, I don't think so." He protested, looking down to give her a half-hearted glare. Because really, could he actually stay mad at her for long?

The answer to that was a definite no.

"I do think so." Kimbra said with a heavy sense of finality. "And you also get to go with me to a bunch of Condors games."

Bud blinked in realization at that. That if he actually did eventually marry Kimbra, she would drag him to every Condors game. Bud would have to go. He'd have to hear about it. God forbid the Condors ever actually won against the Jackals again. Kimbra would never let it go. And it'd be life as they knew it from then on out.

For the rest of their lives.

And he wasn't sure if he liked that or not.