Sebastian Monroe woke up to the feeling of warmth against his chest and the light tickle of hair against his face. He nuzzled closer, inhaling the familiar scent.
As he opened his eyes, he lifted his head a little and brought his hand away from Charlie's hip to gently brush the hair back from her neck before pressing his lips against the newly exposed flesh.
Charlie stirred a little and rolled over to look at him with sleepy eyes, a lazy smile on her lips.
He smiled back then pressed his lips to her forehead before she snuggled up closer.
Not long after, her steady, rhythmic, breathing gave away that she had already fallen back asleep. He smiled a little to himself as he looked down at her before he too shut his eyes.
When Bass woke up for the second time, he found the other side of the bed already empty.
That seemed strange, so he dragged himself out of bed and walked into the living room, rubbing at his eyes tiredly as he walked out in just his boxers.
"About time that you got up," Charlie commented as she walked over to him.
"I almost missed you apparently," Bass commented.
One of his hands grabbed hers and pulled her closer, while the other moved to the small of her back as he drew her in for a good morning kiss.
"You sure, did," Charlie responded. "I'm just on my way out."
"Can't you be late?" Bass asked in a rumbling growl.
"I already am late," Charlie responded in a teasing tone. "And it's your family that I'm meeting… About your birthday."
"Do I really need another big surprise party?" Bass questioned in a playfully complaining tone. "Do you know what would be a real surprise? If for once my mom didn't throw me a surprise party, or at least had it not on my actual birthday… Three months late, now that would be a real surprise party."
"Oh come on, you know you like the attention," Charlie pointed out with a wide grin.
"True," Bass agreed as he moved a step closer to her, his hands moving to grab onto her hips. "But I also like this attention too."
Charlie laughed loudly before she brought her lips back to his. "I'll be back later. Try to survive without me."
"I can try," he told her. "But if you come back to find my dead body, then that's on you."
She shot him one last grin and rolled her eyes before heading out the door.
Once she was gone, Bass made his way to the kitchen in search of something to eat. He didn't feel much like bothering to make anything difficult, so he just popped some Eggos into the toaster. As they toasted he made his way to the fridge and took a large chug out of a jug of orange juice before he grabbed the maple syrup, along with the juice, and moved them over to the kitchen counter.
He had the whole day ahead of him and a whole lot of nothing to do, so he took his breakfast into the living room and turned on the TV as he ate. He flipped through the channels until he found an action movie that was just starting. He was pretty sure that he'd seen it before, but figured that there probably wouldn't be anything better on during a Saturday morning, so he left it on as he began to eat.
"You look like you've had a productive day," Charlie commented with a smirk when she came home and found him in the living room, still on the couch with a beer in hand. He was caught up in watching the ending of the second sequel to the action movie.
He set his drink down and then turned around to look at her. She quickly hid something behind her back as she continued to stand behind the couch, keeping her body blocking his view of what was in her one hand as she roughly hit him in the shoulder with the other.
"Don't look!" She told him in a tone that would have been a lot more threatening if she didn't have a big grin plastered on her lips.
Bass continued to stare at her with a wide smile for several seconds then looked her up and down one last time before he finally turned his gaze back towards the TV screen. His attention, however, still remained primarily on her.
"Oh sure, you abandon me all day and now I'm not even allowed to look at you," he teased, calling after her as she left the room to go hide whatever had been behind her back. "I'm starting to feel a little abused."
"You're right. You're just a sad, neglected puppy, aren't you?" She taunted back playfully as she returned to the room.
"You think that you're so funny, don't you?" He challenged as he twisted in his seat to look back at her once again.
"You know I am," she responded, leaning against the edge of the couch.
A shriek of laughter emerged from her throat as he suddenly grabbed her waist and pulled her over the back of the couch. As he fell back into his seat, she landed on top of him. His arms were wrapped around her waist and she was still laughing as her head fell back onto his shoulder. He had to grin at her reaction.
"So, do I even get a hint about tomorrow?" He asked, his voice husky in her ear.
"It's a surprise," she told him in an amused tone. "That's kind of the idea of a surprise party."
"An annual surprise party," Bass corrected.
"That just means that you don't have to plan your own party," she pointed out. "…So is this all you did all day? Sat at home watching movies?"
Since Charlie had come home, Bass had all but forgotten about the movie he'd been watching.
"I also worked on my surprised face," he joked. "It's getting so good that I should copyright it."
"Maybe, you should try a new one this time," she commented. "Change things up."
He let out a low chuckle at that before pointing out, "You know, I could just call Miles or Cyn or Angie to tell me."
"We both know that Miles avoids us and our planning at all costs, with the rare exception of submitting the occasional suggestion," Charlie pointed out. "So you wouldn't be able to get much out of him. And neither of your sisters is going to give you any information without some major bribing."
He let out an exaggerated sigh before he told her, "You're probably right."
"You know I'm right," Charlie told him before turning her head to kiss him.
"How in the hell did I get lucky enough to get you?" He asked, more to himself than to her.
"I ask myself that every day," she told him with a laugh.
"And yet I'm the self-obsessed one in this relationship," he commented with a grin.
"We're both lucky," she pointed out in a slightly more serious tone before a smirk crossed her lips. "And your title as the self-obsessed one is well-earned. You take more time than me to get ready in the morning because you're so busy staring at yourself in the mirror."
"And if I looked like you, I'd spend all day staring at any and every reflective surface," he informed her.
"And we'd both look beyond self-obsessed dating someone who looks exactly like us," Charlie responded.
Bass shifted a little, sliding a hand up under her shirt.
"Don't," she warned, but it was already too late.
"I bet that I can make you tell me something now," he said into her ear as he began to tickle her side.
Charlie began to laugh as she tried to shift out of his grip with no success. He only started tickling her harder, causing her to quickly jerk in his grasp. As she did so, she elbowed him in the gut, which effectively stopped him.
He quickly released his grasp on her, moving one hand over to where he had been elbowed. He let out a loud groan, pretending to be in more pain than he really was.
"You are such a faker," she accused, sitting up and turning her body towards him.
Bass leaned forward, bringing his mouth to hers, his lips already parted. Charlie kissed him back passionately, bringing a hand to the back of his head to pull him closer as she opened her mouth to grant him further access.
"I think you're trying to distract me," Bass murmured against her lips as his hands found their way to her hips.
"I think you like it," she purred back at him before her teeth began to tug lightly on his bottom lip as her hands slid down the back of his shirt.
"And I think that you're right again," he responded.
Before she had the opportunity to respond, he pressed his mouth back against hers and she could feel his lips quirking up into a smile.
A/N: Please read and review! :) Thanks for reading!
