I'll address some of the reviews here, individually. Because I'm cool like that and want to acknowledge ppl I've never seen comment before. Lol

Lel: This chapter will address the "Hunter being left out" aspect

Ken: prepare your OTP feels for more mush. Lol

Everyone else: although there's much fluff and cuteness, we are going to start exploring the "Hunter has no relatives" thing in this chapter. I wouldn't say it's drama, per se. Mostly just passing the time with this one but it gives a bit of insight on how Hunter and Stephanie have grown to be more open and considerate with each other. It'll kill the feels, I'm telling ya. I cannot confirm or deny Vince's involvement with Howard at this time. Because spoilers, whether it's a yes or a no. I'm more than happy to give spoilers, but not here where it may ruin it for people. Anyone who has specific questions on future stuff, PM me here or on twitter (ThatSoCalGal). Thanks for the reviews guys (Michelle, Nikki, Britt, I adore you for the consistency!). Enjoy and let me know what ya think!


Stephanie balanced a totally unconscious Karmina against her and used her elbow to push open the door to the kitchen. Thank God she'd chosen to wear a relatively low pair of heels tonight. Otherwise, she'd have to be barefoot for this. She held the door open long enough for Hunter to reach it. He had a sleeping Kaycee and Jackson attached to either side of him.

Needless to say, dinner had gone on way longer than anyone had anticipated. Although the adults could be stimulated by conversation, it was little wonder that her kids were on the verge of being knocked out before they'd even left the restaurant.

They kicked off their shoes in the general area of the closet. As they wandered through the lower level of the house, Stephanie asked quietly, "How do you want to do this?"

"Get Karm in bed then just grab Sam from me. That'll free me up to put the boy to bed."

"I really don't feel like bothering with getting anyone into pajamas," she admitted with a sigh. Not only was it time-consuming, but there was indeed a chance that it would wake up one or more of the kids.

"Let them stay in the clothes. We'll figure the rest out in the morning," he suggested with a light chuckle.

Stephanie mused that they better enjoy this convenience while they could. More than likely, within the next year it wouldn't be such a simple matter to get all their sleeping children into their respective rooms in one trip. There'd be an infant around that time and that would make the task impossible. Either a kid was going to have to wake up and walk or somebody was getting left in the car temporarily. The former idea sounded better to her – she was never keen on leaving any child in the car. Even if it was only for a few minutes.

They reached the twins' bedroom a few moments later. The night light situated by the chest of drawers illuminated the room enough to avoid having to flick on a brighter one. Stephanie adjusted her first duplicate so that she could pull back the covers. Hunter pressed a kiss to the little girl's cheek before watching his wife place her in the bed.

Hunter pressed a kiss into Kaycee's hair and passed her over to her mother. He left the room, carrying Jackson down the hall to his own.

Stephanie walked around to the other side of the bed and easily placed the girl down without waking her. She smiled warmly at the girls, pulling the covers up over them. They were just so cute being totally unconscious in their adorable dresses. She pulled the door shut as quietly as she could and headed down the hallway. The door to Jack's room was slightly ajar. She didn't bother trying to hide her smile. Hunter was without a doubt the most thoughtful man she'd ever been in a relationship with. He knew her and her habits so well that he didn't even bother closing the boy's door because she'd open it right after. Not that having to twist a knob and push was any real effort at all. But that was Hunter where it concerned her: he managed to make simple tasks even simpler.

She walked to the side of the bed that he was – mostly – sprawled across. How the child managed to lie out like a chalk outline so quickly, she'd never know. She pushed the hair out of his face and leaned down to kiss to his cheek.

As she made the somewhat short trek to her own room, she considered. She reprimanded herself for her former thought. To say that Hunter was the most thoughtful man she'd ever been in a relationship with was a ridiculous understatement. None of her former bonds were even on the same planet – let alone the same level – as the one she had with Hunter. Even before they were truly united, she was still deeply in love with him. Perhaps she lacked the ability…or was just plain blind to the fact she wasn't doing all she could to show him that. But the fact of the matter is that the feelings had always been there.

Why else would she have married and had babies by the man? There'd never been any doubt in her mind that he was the love of her life. Her first true love, to be brutally honest.

Honestly, her life was fucking amazing and it had nothing to do with her career in WWE or any of the other external shit going on. Her husband was wonderful, very affectionate and just so happened to be insanely handsome. Their children were spirited, loving and adorable. There was nothing else that she wanted in life, except for her family to continue to flourish. Well…and to add another member to it pretty soon.

Stephanie closed her bedroom door and padded over to the lake-sized bed. She let out a loud, exaggerated sigh and flopped onto her stomach, facedown.

From the chaise lounge, Hunter started laughing at her. "Tired?" He asked.

Stephanie propped her head up using her hands and said, "A little. Mostly I'm being dramatic."

Hunter lifted an eyebrow and continued unbuttoning his shirt. He decided to bite. "How come?"

Stephanie bent her knees and casually rubbed her feet together. "Maybe I want your attention."

"Well…let's assume that's the answer. What else would you want from me?"

"Love," she said cutely. "I like love."

"Hmm," he muttered thoughtfully, getting up from the chaise. "Any ideas on how I could give you both at the same time?"

Stephanie grinned at him brightly and answered, "A kiss might do it." His smile warmed her heart and she pushed up to her knees as he reached her. He lifted his hand and brushed stray wisps of hair from her face. He leaned down a little and she met him halfway for a brief kiss that was still filled with passion.

"Satisfied?" He asked her with a teasing glint in his hazel eyes.

"For now," she answered, extending her hands to him in a silent plea for help getting off the bed.

Hunter chuckled and ignored her hands, instead picking her up by the waist and setting her on the floor.

They continued getting settled for the night in a very comfortable silence. Stephanie's blissfully happy thoughts continued on.

Hunter on the other hand? Well, he had something that he wanted to talk to his wife about. It wasn't an overly huge deal, but he did want to clear the air about it anyway. He kept his eyes away from her while she changed clothes; he didn't trust himself not to become distracted by her. Once she had pajamas on he did allow his gaze to linger. Apparently she'd chosen a camisole and a pair of laughingly miniscule silk, drawstring shorts. It was a matching set and the color reminded him of the inside of a plum.

"Steph," he said to get her attention, scratching at his bare stomach absently for a moment.

Stephanie removed the clip from her hair and tousled it with her hands. She turned around and asked, "Yeah?"

"I know what you were up to tonight."

"With the outfit and stuff? I wasn't trying to keep that a secret from you," she told him with a laugh and sat down at the edge of the bed.

Hunter smiled at her because he'd figured as much. Although it was still pretty amusing to hear her admit it out loud. "Not that. I mean the way you somehow managed to include me in every single conversation you were in."

"Oh," she said, furrowing her brow. "I didn't want you to feel left out.

Hunter sat down on the bed next to her and touched her leg for a moment. "If your parents, Marissa's or…whomever is talking to you about something I have zero interest in or knowledge of, you don't have to redirect the conversation so that I can participate."

"It's just – with so many of my relatives in a closed space…I figured…" she trailed off.

He sighed. "We're coming up on ten years of marriage. This isn't the first time I've been around your family."

Stephanie grabbed his hands in her much smaller ones. She really needed for him to understand why she'd done what she had at dinner. "Hunter, listen. I've openly admitted that before very recently, I often haven't been the best wife to you that I could have been. I really have been trying my hardest lately and I can feel the difference in our marriage. When the Father's Day invite came you didn't hesitate to accept it. I know you did that more for me than yourself, baby."

Hunter shrugged. "I mean...I guess. I'm not trying to keep you from seeing your family. And for the most part I like being around them now," he pointed out.

"They raised me…sort of," she quickly amended. "But you and the kids are my top family. It's you that I'm spending the rest of my life with. I saw how the shit with Howard last year affected you. Now he's popped back up again, basically blowing up your entire childhood. We haven't talked much about it since that day. But don't tell me it doesn't matter because I know you too well to believe that."

Hunter looked away from her, instead choosing to stare at their joined hands. It was either going to be that or staring at the damn wall behind her. Looking at their hands was better; he could focus on the contact, knowing that it wasn't meaningless for them. They actually were joined…as marriage partners, lovers and best friends. The rings on their fingers further solidified that symbolism. When he'd still been a bachelor, bodybuilding and wrestling had begun to turn his life around in a positive way. But honestly, it was Stephanie who had the biggest impact. He just didn't quite realize it until he'd lost her entirely. He had her, the kids as well as an extended family through marriage. Howard was a fairly recent development, but the bullshit he showed up with this time was not. Whatever happened was old news. Over three decades ago to be exact. None of that had any bearing on the man that he was today. "It shouldn't matter," he told Stephanie.

Stephanie remained silent. She simply used her index finger to tilt his chin upwards and make him look at her. In her eyes he easily read the kindness and understanding. But he also saw that she looked just as unconvinced as he felt at this moment. He purposely tried not to think about the topic…but now that his time had seemingly run out for that, it really was useless denying the truth. "I don't want it to matter," he corrected.

"But it does…"

Hunter nodded and said nothing.

"That's normal," Stephanie assured him. "With all the shit going on with your absentee family, I wasn't about to leave you to fend for yourself while I talked to mine."

Hunter raised his eyebrows and was thoroughly tickled. "Fend for myself? You're making dinner sound like a survival show."

Stephanie laughed. "I felt it would have been a 'shitty wife' move if I carried on conversation like you weren't there. Seemed like it would be rubbing the whole family thing in your face."

"I get it. And I do appreciate your thoughtfulness. For the record you're a great wife."

"I try," she said, mildly bashful. She rubbed the back of his hands with her thumbs. "So, are you done trying to convince yourself the Howard/parents thing means nothing to you?"

"Guess so," he acquiesced.

Stephanie nodded and was eternally grateful that they'd finally made progress on the matter. "Even though you probably won't admit it to me out loud…doesn't it feel odd to spend all the holidays with my parents, Shane and whoever else shows up?"

"Well," he started, heaving out a huge breath. "I mean – I don't know…That's how it's always been. It's not like I have a side of the family we can visit instead."

True. She knew that very well. Hell, she knew that this was the case before she'd even married Hunter. Having in-laws was never on her list of reasons for wanting to get married. Wanting to be with the man she was in love with was all that mattered to her. So finding out that Hunter didn't have a family wasn't a factor in her decision at all. It's not like she'd even planned on speaking to her own family again when they'd gotten married. She'd anticipated their reaction perfectly. No one was more surprised than her when her Dad and Shane were the first to accept her marriage and try to repair the familial relationship with her and build one with Hunter.

Hunter had been cheated…just a little. They'd kind of begun their marriage relying only on each other in terms of family. And then hers came waltzing right back into her life. Shane was fine, of course. But her Dad just went right about monopolizing their time, trying to influence and take things over…and just generally being his typical Vince McMahon self. As the unintentionally shitty wife that she'd been at the time, she hadn't ever truly addressed that with Hunter. She did her best to play things right down the middle, but if it really came down to it, she sided with her Dad unless he was clearly in the wrong.

But honestly she was in the wrong for not realizing how her reluctance to support her husband looked. They'd finally had this discussion months ago. Along with a host of other things. Hunter hadn't brought up the fact that they'd started with an "us against the world" mentality only to have it become "Stephanie and the McMahons with Hunter on the side, against the world" mentality. Hell, maybe he didn't even realize that. But she did and she was willing to make adjustments and sacrifices to ensure it wouldn't happen again. "Would you be opposed if I suggested we don't always celebrate holidays with the McMahon clan?"

Hunter looked baffled for a moment before he asked, "Huh? Where would we go instead?"

"We can stay at home, take a trip or whatever. But it'll just be our little family celebrating."

"Baby," he said slowly. "I'm not gonna resent you because you have relatives and I don't."

"I know you won't. But it's not fair for me to have you feeling obligated to attend every last event that makes that fact so obvious."

All right, so maybe she had a point. She never outright insisted that they go to a McMahon function. Then again, she never had to. It was just kind of assumed that they'd attend simply because they had nowhere else to go. He couldn't really recall an occasion where Stephanie had asked him if he felt like or would be comfortable going to some family thing. Instead, he was largely informed of the event and he simply went along with what he assumed the plan was.

Come to think of it…tonight they'd been seated near the end of the table, by Marissa's parents. Hunter had met them dozens of times and thought they were very nice, warm people. Vince had piled all of his grandkids near his end of the table. Which meant that had Stephanie not done what she had, Hunter would have been left to make eventually awkward small talk with the Mazzola's for nearly four hours. No fucking thanks; that was his opinion. "I love you, Stephanie," he told her simply.

She smiled hugely and asked, "Is that a yes to only hanging out with me and the kiddos sometimes?"

"Yeah. I think that'll be nice."

"Good." She kept one hand in his, choosing to toy around with his wedding band. Her other hand made its way to his stubbly cheek. "Remember when I wanted a kiss for love and affection?"

Hunter smirked at her. "You're already unsatisfied?"

"Uh huh."

"You want another kiss?"

"I do," she affirmed, standing up from the bed. Hunter looked at her quizzically, but her movement was explained when she shoved him down on his back. "But," she started while she moved to straddle his hips. "I also want way more than that."

Hunter drummed his fingertips against her thighs lightly. "By all means, take what you want."


If you're not dead from OTP feels, raise your hand. If you're dead, leave a review. LMAO