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Spike and Snake walked into the living room the next morning to find Sean and Emma asleep on the couch, so entangled it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.
As quiet as possible, Spike got her camera from the shelf and snapped a picture of the two of them.
The flash woke Sean, and when he opened his eyes to see Emma's parents staring at him, he realized that Emma was still asleep next him and panicked.
"Em," he hissed, attempting to detangle himself from her.
Emma felt him trying to pull away, and in her half-awake state, she tightened her hold on him to prevent his moving. "Uh-uh." she mumbled and buried her head into his chest.
Sean's entire face was beat red from the embarrassment of Emma's parents catching them in such a tender moment. He attempted again to get loose, shaking her shoulder to rouse her from her sleep.
"What?" she demanded grumpily, her lips forming a pout. It was then that she saw her parents in front of them, both trying desperately to suppress their laughter.
"Oh my … I am so sorry … we fell asleep and …" Emma began to explain, her words becoming jumbled as she too tried to extricate herself from the lock she and Sean were in.
"Em, it's okay. Breath." Spike told her, chuckling a little at her awkwardness.
"Merry Christmas." Snake added, his laughter finally getting the better of him.
By then, both Sean and Emma were crimson and Spike and Snake were out of breath in laughter. Jack calling for his mother from upstairs was the only thing that broke the moment. She headed up to get him, leaving Snake to head off to make breakfast.
Sean groaned in embarrassment, his face still red.
Emma wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. "It wasn't that bad."
"Easy for you to say." he muttered.
She laughed at his expression. Just then his phone rang from inside his jacket pocket. He answered quickly to get out of the current situation.
"Who was it?" she asked once he'd hung up.
"My super. He said the ants are gone, and I can be back in my apartment by tomorrow night."
Emma pouted. "Aw, I was getting used to you being here."
He kissed her softly. "You can still stay over whenever you want."
"I plan to take you up on that." she said teasingly, leaning in closer, just enough to barely brush her lips against his but not enough to actually kiss him.
"You're a bit of a tease, you know that?" he asked huskily.
"You know you love it." she whispered.
"That I do." he said, grasping her shoulders to pull her close enough to finally capture her lips with his own.
"Ahem."
The pair sprang apart, both once again a deep crimson. Snake raised a skeptical eyebrow at them, a grin flitting over his mouth.
"Breakfast." he said.
They were unsure if he had heard what they had said, but wouldn't risk asking him. Instead, they stood up and headed into the kitchen.
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The day before Sean was to spend at the Simpson-Nelson residence was spent helping Snake take down the Christmas lights and repeatedly being roped into playing trucks with Jack. There seemed to be a family conspiracy to keep him away from Emma as much as possible.
The morning Sean was supposed to go back to his place, he ran into Emma in front of the upstairs bathroom.
"Somebody call the cops, we're actually alone." Sean joked, putting his arms around her waist to pull her closer.
In return, Emma placed her hands on his shoulders. "I believe you're right."
He kissed her, letting his hands slide up to tangle in her hair. She moaned in response and tightened her grip on his shoulders.
They pulled apart when breathing became an issue. Sean leaned his forehead against hers.
"I can not wait until you get your place back. We are in serious need of some privacy." she said, and kissed him again, harder this time, forcing him to lean back up against the wall.
Sean laughed against her mouth. "Does that mean I can count on a house guest tonight?"
"I think it's only fair that I return the favor." she said. Feeling a little daring, she let her hands slide underneath his shirt and over his stomach.
Sean groaned and pulled her flush against him. They stayed that way until they heard they heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.
Seeing no other option, Emma ducked into the bathroom, pulling Sean in behind her.
"The bathroom? Em, I had no idea you were into this kind of stuff." he joked.
Turning pink, she shushed him. "If we get caught in here we're so dead."
"Hey," he held up his hands in defense, "you attacked me."
She stuck her tongue out at him and pressed her ear to the door to listen if whoever was in the hall was still there or not. A knock sounded against her ear and she jumped. Sean clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter.
"Em, honey, are you in there?" her mother's voice sounded.
"Um, yeah." she said once she recovered. "Manny's in our shower."
"Okay. Have you seen Sean? Snake wants him to help him take the rest of the decorations out back."
"Nope, not since this morning." she said. "But he said something last night about needing to go to the store."
"Alright." Spike's footsteps headed off down the hall.
Emma sighed in relief. She slumped against the door and saw Sean giving her an inquiring look.
"Don't look at me like that Sean. I hate lying to her, but if she knew we were in here together, you know she would assume the worst."
"That we're in here having a little 'hanky panky.'" he added finger quotes on the words and she laughed.
"Well, yeah."
"That was sort of your intention Miss Nelson." he said, walking over slowly and wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Uh-uh." she scolded playfully. She turned her face when he tried to kiss her, and he exhaled heavily against her cheek. "You need to go find Manny and talk her into covering for me tonight."
"Cover?"
"I can't go up to my mom and say "I'm staying over at Sean's tonight.' Her head would probably explode."
Sean sighed. "Going."
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Manny had arranged a sleepover with Darcy at Chante's in record time, with the story that Sean was driving them over.
But no sooner than they pulled up in front of Sean's apartment, then Emma's phone rang. It was Manny finalizing the details.
"I'll just be a sec." Emma said, flipping her phone open.
Sean headed inside, leaving the door open. He flopped onto the couch, exhaling a deep breath at being back.
"Hey man, have you ever heard of grocery shopping?"
Sean jumped up at the sound of the voice to see none other than his brother walking from his bedroom in nothing but a pair of boxers.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Nice little bro. Just passing through town and thought I'd stop by to see how you've been." Tracker answered.
"How did you even know I was here?"
Tracker shrugged. "I was in Barrie a few weeks ago, stopped to see Uncle Bill. He said that Mom mentioned you were back in Toronto. I had a hunch you'd be back in this building."
"So the super just let you in?" Sean asked.
"What can I say, the guy always liked me," he began smirking, "and by the way, you really need to clean up every once and awhile."
"Like you're one to talk." Sean muttered.
Tracker laughed. "I am because you never found anything like this," he threw something at Sean, "when we lived together."
Sean looked at the object his brother had thrown at him. A pair of panties. He flushed a bright red and Tracker cracked up.
"Those were under your pillow," he laughed. "Imagine my surprise."
"Who the hell said you could sleep in my bed?" Sean demanded to hide his embarrassment.
"You weren't here." Tracker justified.
Just then Emma walked inside, having heard Sean talking to someone. When she noticed Tracker standing there in his underwear she averted her eyes.
"Emma." Tracker said in surprise. "Nice to see you again."
"You too." she replied, her hand over her eyes.
"If you guys need me, I'll be in the shower." Tracker told them. He walked off chuckling.
"What was with all the yelling?" she asked. Then her eyes fell on Sean's hand, and she noticed that he was clutching something pink.
"What is that?"
"Nothing." he answered quickly, stuffing them into his pocket.
"What? Let me see." she made a grab or his pocket and he sidestepped around her hand.
"Sean!"
She made a grab again, and once more he dodged her. That continued until Sean ducked so far back he lost his balance and tumbled onto the couch, pulling her with him when he grabbed her to try and steady himself.
They landed with Sean on his back and Emma on top of him, her legs on either side of his thighs. Sean was so thrown off, that Emma managed to grab his hand and extricate what he'd been hiding from her.
Her face froze in an expression of disbelief. "Sean?!"
"Well," Tracker had walked out of the shower to find them on the couch and burst out laughing, "I guess I can't leave you two alone for too long."
Emma made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat and pushed herself off Sean. "You don't have to worry," she told him, grabbing her bag off the floor, "I'm leaving."
"Emma." Sean jumped up and grabbed her hand. "Please stay. I'm sorry about the … you know. Tracker found them and …"
"What?!" she hissed. "Oh my God."
"Uh, I heard my name." Tracker walked over to them. "Look Emma, if you're upset about the … you know," he gestured to the underwear in her hand, "I'm sorry. I didn't know they were yours. I was just messing with Sean."
She was still slightly pink, but nodded, unable to look him in the eye. "Thanks."
"Listen," he said to Sean, "I gotta be in Halifax by tomorrow night, so I'm gonna get on the road."
Sean realized that his brother was just trying to make the situation easier for Emma, and he gave him a look that said he got it, and was grateful. He hugged him goodbye briefly.
"Emma." Tracker said in way of a farewell.
"Tracker."
The silence echoed painfully throughout the apartment after Tracker shut the door. Emma was still standing completely still, arms wrapped around herself, staring at the floor.
'Typical Tracker.' Sean thought. 'Shows up just enough to ruin my night with Emma then takes off. Hope the ant dust makes him itch for a year.'
"Em," he says quietly. Expressing his opinion of his brother at that point would have been pointless and he knew it. "Are you alright?"
"Oh I'm fantastic." she spat sarcastically. "I walk in here expecting a romantic night with you, but instead I find your brother, in his underwear, and you tell me he found my panties. Yeah Sean, I'm just peachy."
Her face was the epitome of rage, and Sean knew that she was likely to stay plenty mad for quite awhile. Because this wasn't just any little thing that had happened. Emma was especially private and silent when it came to sex. After her mom's feelings and the pregnancy scare, he could understand. And given that he was the only person she'd ever been with, he understood her hesitancy better. He even respected her all the more for it. Guys talked about sex, it was a universal truth. And he had done his fair share of bragging about Amy, and even about Ellie to a point. But only to Jay and nothing too intimate. But he was already set on spending the rest of his life with Emma. That made what happened between them physically off limits. So his brother's actions upsetting her so badly wasn't a surprise. If anything, he'd expected a bigger outburst.
He sighed. "I'm sorry about that. Tracker's an idiot."
"No, it's not entirely his fault." she said.
Sean raised his eyebrows. "It's not?"
"No. We were the ones that left them there." she held her hand up slightly.
"It's not like we knew he would turn up and sleep in my bed. And if the bug gas was so dangerous, why'd the super even let him in?" Sean wondered.
"Still, he clearly didn't think we'd still be together." she said, finally setting her bag down on the floor. She looked at Sean with her eyes huge and full of fear. "What does that say?"
"Nothing. Just that he's never dated the same girl for more than two weeks and that none of them were dumb enough to date him a second, let alone a third time. He doesn't know anything." he told her, pulling her to him in a tight hug.
"Or maybe," he added mischievously, "he didn't think you were the kind of girl to leave her panties under a guy's pillow."
She made an outraged noise and punched him in the arm. "It's not funny. I may never recover from the emotional scars of knowing your brother touched my underwear. Ew."
Sean made a face. "You're right. It is gross."
"Okay, new subject." she said. "We have exactly twelve hours of alone time." She wound her arms around his neck. "And if you apologize really nicely, I may let you use it to make that very embarrassing moment up to me."
"I think I can manage that." he told her, swinging her over his shoulder and carrying her over to the couch.
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