Smiling when he kisses her, Karen leans in close, arms winding around his neck. It's almost strange, really, how steady she can feel here with him when so much about their lives is anything but. They chose that, though. Perhaps more importantly, it's something she thinks they understand about each other and have from the start, both of them the kind of people more inclined to run into trouble than away from it. They'll both always have secrets. They'll just have this, too, something safe and theirs, a trust that doesn't involve needing to know everything about each other.

Sometimes, thinking about the clusterfuck she left behind when she showed up here — and everything she's remembered since — she's not sure how she got this lucky. She does know, though, that she doesn't mean to take it for granted. That includes here and now, with this. Maybe moving in together is a simple, logical step, but it is a big deal, too, and she doesn't see the sense in pretending otherwise.