AUGUST, 1991, SEATTLE, WA

"IT'S REALLY NICE," Reagan remarked, sweeping her gaze across the modestly sized living room of Dave's apartment. "And it's so . . . neat."

"Why are you constantly surprised to see that I don't live like a barnyard animal?" Dave chuckled from nearby the kitchen entrance, leaning against the door frame.

For the first time ever, Reagan was getting to see his Seattle apartment. The occasion had been long put off, mostly because she had been quite busy at work since their return home from Virginia. Dave had accepted her unavailability with grace . He'd been driving out to Olympia anyways for practice with Nirvana.

The adjustment of his moving had been surprisingly smooth considering Reagan's initial reaction to the news. As soon as they had come back from visiting Ginny, Dave had begun to pack, nauseating Reagan though she offered to help him as he boxed up all his things.

What hadn't helped the situation was Kurt's perpetual mopey disposition about it all; he had always vouched that he loved to be alone, but seemed deeply bothered that Dave was leaving him to fend for himself. He'd watched as Reagan and Dave had cleared out Dave's side of the apartment, sulking quietly on the couch.

In a way, Reagan had agreed with Kurt and related to the general mood he had sunken into once Dave left. Things felt oddly different without Dave's constant presence and she knew that for her and Kurt both, the lack of Dave in their lives had its strong downsides.

But even worse than Dave moving cities was the misfortune that struck when Kurt was evicted from his Pear Street apartment, left with his belongings stuffed in cardboard boxes and no steady place to live. Reagan had visited Kurt after it had all happened and found him living out of his car. She'd tried to offer help, but a surly Kurt had told her he was fine on his own, though he had asked her to hang out with him to combat his loneliness.

So much for them both having been in it together. As far as Reagan could see, Kurt had it ten times worse than she did. He was homeless. All she could complain about was Dave not living fifteen minutes away from her.

Kurt had asked her not to tell Dave about him living out of his beat up Valiant, but Reagan had done so anyways, unable to hide the news that poor Kurt was without a warm bed to sleep in. Dave had said he was going to intervene, but under brief second thought, Reagan had stopped him. Kurt would have hated her if he'd known that she'd gone back on her word.

Thankfully in spite of all the trouble arising, Reagan kept busy at Wilson's and told herself that with the amount of hours she'd been working, she and Dave would have had little time together anyways. He was prepping for the release of Nirvana's upcoming record, the decidedly named Nevermind, and she was just trying to scrape bigger paychecks each week. As much as it killed her to admit it, Dave moving had not been as dramatic as she'd thought after all.

Finally though, she'd managed to get in her car and drive out to Seattle to see him for a change. She had originally imagined that she would have been at his place more often in that tail end of summer and it disappointed her that they'd hadn't soaked up the gift of alone time. For once, no one was a room over from them.

"I can tell you love it," Reagan said. She walked by the couch, running her fingertips across the back of it. The place was scarcely decorated with hardly any embellishments. Dave was satisfied with its minimalism, claiming he liked it better with random instruments scattered around and a few stray posters on the wall. In Reagan's opinion, it was a very boyish way to live.

"It's nice to have a place to myself," Dave confessed. "And Seattle is great."

"Yeah it is," Reagan agreed, casting a glance out the window and into the sunset streaked sky. There were hues of red and purple dancing in the clouds, creating a dark evening dim in the apartment.

"It would be even greater if you were here permanently," he added, eyeing her conspicuously.

"I think the Seattleites would kick me me out," Reagan said. "I'm bound to be stuck in Olympia forever."

"Not if I have any say in it," Dave differed, striding over to where she stood. "I'll bring you here myself if I have to."

He was close enough to her that he'd cornered her into the rear end of the couch. She felt the small of her back flatten against it and her feet shuffle backwards to accommodate the position he stood in, looming over her with a kind of dominance that made her perfectly fine with their arrangement.

"Yeah? How do you plan on doing that?" she pressed, trying not to let her voice shake with a fast-growing need to reach out and kiss him.

He took a solitary step forward, closing the gap between them so that their chests touched. Reagan's breath hitched in her throat as she anticipated what was going to come next.

"Well . . . I'd do something like this."

In a blur of movement, Dave crouched down and wrapped his arms around Reagan's legs. She screeched in surprise, but her protest did not deter him as he hoisted her into the air and over his shoulder like she was a football. Suddenly, she was upside down.

"Put me down!" she demanded through choking laughter. She delivered a series of harmless blows to his back.

"I'm trying to show you how I'm going to move you to Seattle," Dave explained, laughing along with her. She heard him exhale heavily as he shifted her weight on his shoulder, trying not to drop her head first onto the carpet. He may have been strong behind the drums, but holding all of Reagan over one shoulder was a different story.

"This isn't convincing," Reagan yelled.

Dave collapsed them both over the edge of the couch, dragging Reagan down along with him as he settled into the seat cushions in a giant heap. Through her laughter, Reagan sat up on top of him and pushed the hair that had fallen into her eyes out of the way. When she looked down, he was smiling up at her, amused with himself.

"If you walked into my house and did that to me, I'd punch you," she said bluntly.

"Really? I thought it would work pretty well. I mean, it'd get you here, which was my whole point."

"No it wouldn't. I'd have you pinned in five seconds, before we even got through my front door."

"It didn't look like it just then."

Reagan snorted and rolled her eyes. She'd been caught off guard, that was all. He only assumed that she was too weak to fight back.

"You're not going to get me to move here like that," she told him gently. They both went quiet as soon as she said it. Unfortunately, it was still a subject matter that went beyond fun and games. Since Dave had made his way to Seattle, he'd been reminding Reagan every day that she was free to move in with him.

"I've got other ideas," he promised, sitting up beneath her. With her legs still bent at his waist, he locked his hands behind her back and skimmed his noise against hers.

"Do I even want to know them?" she whispered.

It was a question that came with physical response. Slowly, he kissed her mouth, parting her lips with his and tasting mint on her tongue from the piece of gum she had chewed on the car ride over. Reagan responded accordingly, tucking her hands against his neck and pulling his face close so that he could go on kissing him in that gradual, agonizing way.

A breathless two minutes passed before she felt his hands snake up the back of her v-neck shirt, undoing the clasp of her bra and letting the straps hang loose at her shoulders. She felt his hands on her chest, touching leisurely as if he were savoring every second.

His kiss was transferred to her neck and down to her collarbone. She tilted her head back and exhaled a soft, whisper of a moan that validated what he was hoping for her. She wanted him in that moment too.

Without speaking, Reagan allowed Dave to pull her shirt over her head and discard her bra to the floor. He pulled her close, kissing her face from the edge of her hairline all the way down to her chin.

"We were supposed to order takeout," she reminded him breathlessly, aware of his hands slipping down her back and past the waist of her jeans.

"Later," Dave murmured. "I'm going to try something."

His hand rotated to the front of her Levi's and past the barrier of her underwear. She hiccuped on a sharp intake of air when she felt his fingers, gentle and prying against her.

"It can't be anything that you haven't tried already,"
she said, egging him on.

"I'm trying to show you why you should move here," he replied simply, pausing the deft motion of his fingers to unclasp her jeans. "There's nothing wrong with a healthy reminder of what you're missing."

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm hungry and we agreed to get takeout."

"Are you really thinking about food right now?"

Reagan laughed, leaning her head forward as her hair brushed against his face. He kissed her bare shoulder, inhaling the flowery natural scent of her skin.

"No, I just don't want you to forget."

"I won't. But first, we've got to christen my apartment. I've been waiting to do this."

"You'e crazy," she accused as he laid her down on the couch, hovering over her as he helped tug her jeans off of her legs.

"Look who's talking," he shot back in between kisses down her chest and stomach. "That's why this relationship works, don't you think?"

She didn't get a chance to reply once his mouth found its way past her hips. But it didn't seem to matter, since her thoughts floated far from her mind and all she saw behind her closed eyes was Dave's face.

________

Several hours passed as the night forged on, minutes and seconds slipping by without much notice from Dave and Reagan. After fooling around on the couch, they'd transitioned to Dave's bed before Reagan had called for a time out in the name of being hungry.

They'd ordered a pizza, ate it in bed, and then continued where they'd left off before their normal, human needs had gotten in the way.

A misty summer rain had began to fall against the backdrop of darkness outside. Reagan could hear the patter of droplets against Dave's window as she laid cocooned next to him, warm with the sheets up to her chin. It would have been the perfect moment to fall asleep, an opportunity that Dave was already beginning to seize.

"I don't want to go home," Reagan whispered.

"Hm?" Dave muttered, his eyes closed and his head lolling against his pillows.

"I don't want to leave tonight. I'd rather stay here with you."

This statement somewhat roused Dave from the few seconds of sleep he'd managed to sneak in. He rolled over so that his arm was across Reagan, pinning her into his bed without an escape route to leave. He smiled happily to himself, his eyes still closed as he snuggled into his new position on his stomach.

"So don't leave. Stay with me."

"I've got work tomorrow morning. I have to leave."

"Skip work. Call out."

"And get fired?"

"Sure. Then you'd be in the market for a new job and you'd probably wind up in Seattle looking for one."

Reagan laughed to herself, smiling lovingly down at Dave and his determination to have her all to himself. He had nestled close to her side and was still speaking as if he were talking in his sleep, mumbling words into his pillow.

"It's really flattering to know that you want me to move here so we can play house together," she teased, stroking away a stray piece of his dark hair across his face.

"That's not true," he muttered tiredly. "I'll be touring soon. You'll have the whole place to yourself."

"So what you're saying is you want me to move here so I'll look after your apartment while you're gone?"

"No, I want you to move here so every time I come home, I know that you'll be waiting for me."

Reagan's heart fluttered at Dave's tender implication of what their relationship would be like if they lived together. She never got tired of him being so incredibly sweet to her, especially when it came to his promises of what would be in their future.

"Who says I'll be waiting for you?"

"That's reassuring," Dave responded bitingly, looking up from his pillow with an exaggerated frown.

Reagan chuckled, amazed that she had the capability to set him on edge. It was slightly scary to know how easily they could tamper with one another, all because they loved each other so much. It would have bothered her if not for the fact that she trusted Dave with her heart.

"I'll wait," she said gently.

He sat up and kissed her neck down to her shoulder, leaning his forehead where his lips stopped with a sigh. She tilted her head to the side so that it laid on top of his.

"I already miss you," he declared. "And I already miss this."

"We've got a few more days," Reagan pointed out, toying with his hands in her lap. It brought her great comfort to feel his hand in her own, rough with evidence of his drumming but somehow soft when touching her skin.

"Lets make 'em last a long time."

"Don't you want time to hurry up? You've got a record due for release in a few weeks," she admonished, prodding Dave at the reminder that soon enough, his work in Nirvana was going to be broadcasted to the masses.

"I guess," he shrugged. "We've got to get through this show at the Roxy first. Bunch of label representatives will be there checking us out. And then there's the rest of the touring dates."

"Don't tell me you're nervous," Reagan smiled, nudging Dave with her elbow.

"I'm not. Actually, well . . . I'm kind of excited about the whole thing."

"So why do you act like it's a chore to get it done?"

Dave looked guilty as he nuzzled the side of her face, twisting a lock of Reagan's auburn hair between his fingers. It didn't take her long to decode why he looked so condemned over her simple question. She sighed.

"Are you actually hiding the fact that you're excited because of me?" she asked.

"No! I mean, maybe a little. But not to be a whiny dick or anything like that," Dave explained. "I just feel bad rubbing it in your face that I'll be away, playing shows with my band and doing shit like releasing records while you're here working."

"That doesn't upset me, Dave," Reagan said seriously. "It makes me happy. I'm happy for you. How could I not be?"

"I didn't doubt that you were happy for me. I just didn't want to emphasize that I'll be leaving for awhile."

"Don't worry Grohl. I can take care of myself. I did it just fine before you even showed up."

Dave scowled and playfully rolled over on top of her, tickling the length of her face and neck with a flurry of kisses. She laughed, kicking her legs through uncontrollable squeals. He finally stopped, allowing her to catch her breath as her chest heaved.

While she steadied her breathing, Reagan took notice of Dave's television, which had been playing in the background of their visit. MTV was on, advertising a nightly round of music videos as per usual. She noticed a band on a screen, singing into the camera as it captured their every move.

"Is that going to be you soon?" She gestured towards the television, taken aback by the thought that if Nirvana was lucky, they would be soon having their chance to shine on MTV like other popular bands.

"Me? Nah. You can't even see the drummer!" Dave contended, indicating with his hand that the band's drummer was hardly visible behind the other members.

"You know what I mean. It doesn't matter if they can see you, it'd just be the fact that you were even on MTV."

"Oh good," Dave said, rolling his eyes. "I'll tell them to just cut my upper body out and focus on the lower half. Who needs a head on national television?"

Reagan groaned and sank back into the pillows. Dave grinned and leaned over her, tracing the line of her jaw with his pointer finger as he looked into her mossy green eyes.

"Who ever said we'll end up on MTV?" he questioned, softening his voice.

"Don't you want that? To have a popular music video someday?"

"Hell yeah. But I'm not going to bank on it. It's better to prepare for the worst, or so they say."

"I've got a feeling it will happen for you guys. And my feelings are usually right."

"I didn't know you could predict the future."

Reagan narrowed her eyes at Dave's jest. "You never stop, do you?"

Dave laughed, draping his body over hers and looking up into her face. He reminded her of a little boy when he did that — it was all because of his round, hopeful eyes and mischievous smile.

"I believe you. What's your feeling about us then, since you now can tell fortunes and shit?"

"Hmm," Reagan said through her pursed lips. She pretend to look skeptical, staring thoughtfully off into the distance. Dave raised his eyebrows.

"I'm kidding," she grinned. "It's a good feeling. A really good feeling."

Once more Dave rolled fully on top of her, moving beneath the blanket of sheets so that their bodies touched. His skin was flushed and warm and to Reagan, it felt amazing against her own.

"You know what else is a good feeling?" he asked lightly.

She didn't even have time to give her answer before Dave demonstrated what he meant, taking her by surprise and sending shivers of pleasure down her body.

Needless to say, she agreed with him.