Author's Notes:

Normally I prefer to put these at the end of the story. However, this time I am making an exception. The reason is this: I am really struggling with my writing lately and while I like this piece, I guess, I just don't feel it is my best work. Nothing I am working on has been making me happy lately, I can't tell you why. Please consider writing a review and letting me know what you think.

Also the premise here feels so extremely familiar that, I am scared for the first time that I might be unintentionally recycling a scene someone else has done and probably done better too. If you see elements of your previously posted work here, please PM me and I will either credit you, or take this down as you wish. I truly do not mean to take from anyone. Honestly I am not sure there is a truly original idea left anymore with the thousands of stories here, still my apology stands if you feel that anything here belongs to you. I assure you that when I wrote it, it all felt like it was coming from me.

On to the epic failure that I have christened...

Summer Daze

A Codename: Kids Next Door Fan Fiction

By

~CallMeButLove~

KND © Mr. Warburton

Summer Daze

Writing Operative: ~CallMeButLove~

"Abby can't believe she's doin' this!"

"Aw c'mon Abs, this is fun and you know it!"

"Fun is definitely not the word Abby would use, baby."

"Oh..."

A somewhat weighty silence descended upon the pair of teens as they sprawled on the warm grassy hill, faces upward framed in the flamboyant emerald only July weather can produce. The sounds and smells, sensations of summer surrounded them and soothed their limbs, tired from a day of 'Fun in the Sun' with Kuki and Wally. No one ever thought he'd EVER be the first one to suggest the beach, not with his hatred of all things aquatic. But Kuki had an altering effect on the Aussie, that no one bothered to try to explain any longer. She simply could get him to do anything, period. What was more of a shock was the fact that no matter what that entailed, the hapless love-sick blonde truly believed that the idea originated with him. He truly was seriously deluded, but he remained happier with Kuki than any of his friends had ever seen him and that was all that mattered really. That and the fact that Kuki was also blissfully content. As sunscreen and heat radiated from the exposed patches of skin the eyes of the two drifted closed in peaceful acceptance of the temperature, the bees, the ants, the flowers, the brightness of the sun baking them where they lay. The girl was just about to dose off when the silence itself suddenly began to encroach upon her peace. Considering the boy beside her, it was too quiet now. Too quiet for too long.

She stole a one-eyed glance at her companion from under the rim of her now famous red hat. As it was the only shade afforded on this hill, also charitably called an oven rack roasting her alive - she had the accessory perched low over her face rather than up where it traditionally belonged on her head. Her body never moved at all save the one espresso hued eye which she used to survey the boy at her side. Her lifelong friend, her partner in crime, the one person upon whom she would admit dependence. He remained still as well, and she might have thought him to be asleep. She might have if she didn't know him so well. His trademark amber goggles were present but currently they were unceremoniously shoved up over his forehead and into the tangled adorable mass of auburn waves that made up his hair. He always looked like that when he had been recently wet, and had not cared to control the mop as it dried. She secretly loved it that way. Mere inches seemed to span acres between them, as she watched him knowing he was closed away from her for an unknown reason. Something had to be done to break this horrid, oppressive, suffocating silence.

"OK. Now it's just too quiet, Hoags. What's up?", she began with a small smirk hoping she sounded relaxed. She did sound it, but she was quickly becoming less so in reality.

"Nothing", he deadpanned.

"Not true, baby. You always talk, especially to Abby. Bet you even talk in your sleep. Somethin's definitely up, so what is it?", she turned her head toward him and squinted in the slowly lowering glare of the late afternoon sun.

"Don't worry about it, Abby".

At that her eyes flew open, her arms raised her torso from the grass on a hastily bent elbow and her ebony locks swished so quickly to the side that her hat fluttered softly to rest in the clover patch behind her. In spite of her mind's protests, she could not fight off the soft grin that crawled over her features and lent an amused sparkle to her dark orbs. His mouth was pressed into a stubbornly thin line, straight and utterly unlike Hoagie. The eyes in the face still lying prone in the grass were screened from her view by lids squeezed tight shut and lashes, enviously long which feathered across his endearingly sun kissed cheeks. All these things she noted with no concern and some guilty pleasure at the beauty of him, but it was the creased brow along with the tiny droplet of moisture collected and trapped at the corner of the left eye that gave her pause.

"Now Abby knows there really is some kind of problem. You never call me Abby when you're doin' OK. It's always 'Abs' or even 'Numbuh Five'... What's wrong with you Hoags?", she let a little apprehension slide into her tone.

"An appalling lack of fun, evidently", he mumbled refusing to be any more helpful than that.

"What? That's ridicul- Oh! You're worried about what Abby said just now", she paused and he jumped in to make a clarification.

"Not worried. Just disappointed. I thought we were having fun here. I'm just sorry you aren't", he sounded dejected, hurt, which somehow frustrated Abby.

"Ugh! That's not what Abby meant at all, Hoags! You should know Abby better than that by now", she fumed just slightly without looking at him.

"I just don't like to see that we don't like the same things, I mean what could be better than layin' here together looking at the sky?", now there was unabashed horror in his voice at her apparent lack of understanding, but he did not wait for a reply before he continued.

"Makes me wonder why you put up with me...", he trailed off and turned his head.

"You really don't know why?", she poured all the incredulity that she could muster into the simple question.

" … "

"Abby 'puts up with you' as you put it (and you're wrong by the way) - Abby 'puts up with you' because no matter how bad the joke, no matter how long the story about your latest invention, no matter how worried Abby gets when you talk to her about the next test flight, no matter what Abby - ", he cut her off.

"Wait, what? You worry about me?" "Of course Abby worries about you, fool! I mean Abby knows you are a fantastic designer and all your aircraft are 'top-flight', but still when you test them for the first time, Abby's heart flips over - every single time", she stopped rather breathless and more than a little embarrassed.

"Wow..."

"Wow, I didn't know the test flights were so rough on you. I never thought you'd feel that way", Hoagie shook his auburn head in genuine confusion mixed with small satisfaction at her underlying confession.

"Yeah, well I do feel that way", she looked toward the sunset over Cleveland and so she missed the startled way his neck snapped her direction and the violent way he flung himself upright at her use of the word 'I'.

Abby had reclined back again, this time with her elbows propping her up enough to see the colors of the sunset as they deepened from pastel loveliness to deep flaming beauty never to be repeated the same way again.

"Why do you feel that way, Abs?", a sly grin began to reveal itself and there was a telltale twinkle in his cerulean eyes as he leaned slowly toward her and his hand snaked to her lower back. As if she wasn't warm enough, now her back was scalding.

Hoagie fought valiantly against the smirk that crinkled his nose as he watched his girlfriend in her flustered state. There was something wonderfully exhilarating about being able to do this to the Supreme Leader of the Teens Next Door and he had hardly started yet. Numbuh Five could handle anything, face any enemy and yet he had managed to render her helpless and practically speechless with a single glance, just one touch. She had never been more alluring to him as she stuttered a bit and blushed scarlet. She stammered to reply with what was left of her dignity.

"Because...", he was closer now and she could no longer think of more words to use.

"Because why?", he whispered, his voice lowered at least an octave. Mere millimeters separated them now.

"Because Abby loves you, you idiot!", she shouted.

Then she smiled almost shyly, if such a thing could be said of Numbuh Five, and jumped slightly at the sensation of his lips as they collided with hers. Neither teen minded the prolonged lag in spoken conversation which followed at all. Eventually, Hoagie broke away and spoke, his voice thick, throaty.

"What about this is not fun, Abs?", he grinned down at her with a prominent blush coloring his own face from more than the heat of the day.

"Watchin' clouds from here while you describe what you see in them is pleasant Hoagie, not fun. Watchin' them from inside one of your planes -while you fly- and Abby can see your dreams lightin' up your eyes - now that's fun...", she replied with honesty and sincerity which was not lost on the listener.

No, Abby's sincerity did not escape him. He did however rudely interrupt her with another kiss, but she forgave the breach of manners quite early into the slow, tender, long, and sweet expression of his feelings. The depth of them astounded her, and often frightened him. Softly his fingers curled in her hair and his strong arm held her close as her own arms had melted into jelly after the first touch of his lips and could no longer support her weight. His other arm he used to brace them both up off the ground.

Hoagie could never, in all his life, explain in words why or how this creature of elegance and sheer blinding beauty had ever become his. For her part, Abby could never explain with words how he could ever doubt his worthiness of her love. To her, he had always been just the perfect compliment to her. He never questioned her, never felt threatened by her strength or her leadership of the massive organization that they served. He always supported her, always helped her up when she was down and always caught her when she fell. All of this and more passed in silent communication between the two until finally the biological imperative demanded oxygen once more and Hoagie took the opportunity to question her again.

"You sure I can't change your mind about cloud-watching?", he asked her as he trailed his fingers across her cheek butterfly soft.

"Well... now that Abby's had some time to think, she might change her mind after all...", now she kissed him back. Thoroughly as only she could. When he had recovered his vocabulary, he decided to preserve some of his ego by proving he could in fact still formulate a sentence despite the effect she had on him.

"I thought so. See? This is why I like summer so much. Lazy days spent in the sunshine with you. I can just lay here and say whatever I think of", Hoagie grinned and interlaced their fingers as they flopped back on the cooling grass in the evening glow. Hoagie picked up Abby's hat and placed it on her head. It slid back down over her face as she spread out next to him.

"Well Abby sees what you mean, I guess. At least she sure does enjoy puttin' you in a daze like that just now", she chuckled.

"Hmmm... 'Summer Daze' courtesy of Abigail Lincoln's kisses. Definitely THE way to spend my school break", he laughed out loud at his pun and she lifted her hat from its perch and swatted him with it.

All was right with the world again.