AN: Okeydokey! It's Valentine's Day, and as promised, first thing's first! Here are the results of the poll on whether or not this story should be a harem story or not!
"No I wanna know who the final pairing is gonna be!" : 11
"Yes harem ending!" : 25
As you all can see, harem ending wins with over double the amount of votes, so multi-pairings are definitely now a thing and Jerry will be having children and stable ongoing relationships with multiple women.
Honestly I'm very pleased with these results because I really didn't want to write the scene where Jack's mother dies. It's always been my intent for this to be a lighthearted and fun story, but that would've been unquestionably a horrific tragedy. I would've done it if that's what the votes had said, but the poll's closed now and closed on a very happy note.
For those of you who wanted to know what the final pairing was going to be, take heart, Jerry still gets with her, and I WILL be calling it out when it hits him. I can't tell you who it is right now because it would spoil a hell of a lot of surprises that I've been working very hard to keep under wraps and trust me, you don't want me spoiling this one.
...
Anyway! This week's special as promised last week, reveals who Jerry's final pairing would've been if he'd never been sent to Earthland. Without further ado... Drum roll please! (drums)
...
And the winner would have beeeeen...
CANA
(her counterpart anyway)
This week is the story of how that would've happened and features the counterparts to Gajeel, Juvia, Levy, Gray and Gildarts (mentioned).
(Please note that this is not necessarily indicative of who Jerry's final pairing would've been since he HAS been sent to Earthland and has a chance to meet a lot of people he otherwise wouldn't have. I will go ahead and confirm that Cana would NOT have been Jack's mother regardless of how the poll fell.)
Before we get started though, Reviewer Replies!
DarkDrawerJ: (grins cheekily) As always glad you're enjoying and happy to keep the hype train rolling! Please enjoy the special!
Prometo: Glad you enjoyed! I honestly worried it would be a little too short, but that's just how it played out. Yes, it was Wall Icht (Varu if you prefer, I know him as Wall) of the Spriggan 12, and yes anytime Jerry uses Portal Magic, it's what he learned from Virgo. You're looking forward to the special? Hooray! Here ya go! :D
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==Two Weeks After Jerry Would've Been Sent To Earthland==
…
I stepped out of the meeting, a thirst for travel reignited that I hadn't even realized I had let burn nearly out. I stopped and pulled my phone from my pocket, quickly selecting the number. "Hey Mom? I think I'd like to try this study abroad thing. Brazil sounds interesting."
I didn't even have to see her to know she was grinning smugly, "Oh? Just yesterday I was having to threaten to cut you off to make you attend. I guess the meeting went well?"
I nodded, "Mmm, Doc seems like a fun guy, and even if it's a total flop it's only a week. Regardless of how bad it is, I'm sure I can stand it for a week. It is a few thousand dollars though."
"Don't worry, we can make it happen. You might never get another chance like this, it's best to take it while you can!"
I smiled, "Thanks Mom."
"Did you get an itinerary?"
"Yeah, I'll bring and show it to you next weekend."
"You're coming home next weekend?"
"Thought I might."
"Be sure to bring your laundry!"
"I already did my laundry!"
…
==Six Months Later==
…
Rather than drive five hours to the airport, I rode with the professor in charge of the trip along with an older woman who was also on the trip and a beautiful girl with long dark hair, stunningly beautiful dark blue eyes and a body that would make a succubus feel mildly inadequate, who I belatedly realized I had met before. "Hey, weren't you in that 10:00 Public Speaking I had last semester? Ana right?"
She looked over at me in surprise and then recognition lit her face, "Oh yeah! Jerry right?"
I nodded, "Yeah, that's me! Jerry Granger. You excited?"
She nodded, "Yeah, my dad flies all over the world, but I've never been overseas by myself before. You?"
I grinned, "I've been a few places. My Mom works for a museum, so she's had a few trips to London to help with exhibits and stuff at the British Museum. That's the only place I've been except for that one trip to Japan when I was a kid. Kinda wanna go back there some time, but I've never been to a jungle before, so this little jaunt down the Amazon ought to be interesting. What's your dad do?"
"Funny thing, my dad actually works for a museum too. He's an archaeologist."
"Oh do tell, do tell!"
Doc grinned at us as he walked up from where he'd just finished checking in on the last arrivals, "Alright, ready to go?" He had already checked to make sure we had our passports and everything. We nodded and climbed into the backseat.
As Doc started the car, he grinned over his shoulder at us, "No making out in the backseat you two! Do that in your own car!"
I took a second to register that and then swapped a glance with Ana. She blushed and immediately looked away, going from 'obscenely hot' to 'ridiculously adorable' in the space of two seconds. Thanks Doc, I thought to myself as the thought of making out with Ana incited the natural reaction and I had to shift around in my seat a bit, now I'm gonna think about it every time I look in her direction.
Doc proceeded to regale us with tales of his days as a DJ at a gay nightclub while blasting, 'I want a Mexican radio!' and Queen all the way to Atlanta. It did help cut down on the awkwardness though, even if I couldn't stop myself from shooting glances across the seat every once in a while.
…
...
I was quietly rather ecstatic that Ana got the seat next to me on the flight down. Then it got even better as she groaned, "Ugh, I wish I had brought a pillow. I really wanna take a nap."
I angled my chest towards her, spread my arms and patted my right shoulder. She blinked and then a large grin spread across her face and she proceeded to use me for a pillow for the rest of the flight. Then a voice from behind me mused, "Smooooth bro!"
My head whipped around so hard I almost popped my neck, "GABE?!"
Gabe just grinned at me as Julie leaned around him, "Long time no see Jerry!"
Ana looked over at them in surprise, "Friends of yours?"
"Best friends!" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Do I need to move?" Ana asked politely.
Just then the 'Fasten Seatbelts' light clicked on and I raised an eyebrow, "Guess that answers that." Ana just grinned and made herself comfortable.
"So ya finally found yerself a girlfriend eh Jerry?" Gabe grinned, "'Bout time."
I looked back over at him, "Eh? No, she's not my girlfriend." Yet, I mouthed to Julie's narrowly suppressed squeal of delight. "What about you? You settled on one yet?"
Gabe grinned and motioned for me to look two rows ahead as Julie giggled. I tilted my head and caught a glimpse of sunny blonde hair two rows up which quickly revealed a very cute face to go with it when she turned to look at something her friend across the aisle was showing her. "My Spanish tutor," Gabe declared with a grin.
"Pero porque necesitas un tutor?" I asked. Gabe was better at Spanish than me and my grandpa on my mom's side actually was Spanish.
"No necesita for español…" Julie teased with a grin.
Gabe shrugged with a grin, "Tarea es caca."
"Siii…" I mused with a sagely nod. Homework was indeed bullshit.
Normally I'd sleep for at least a good portion of the flight, but this time I wound up happily catching up with my two best friends. A year and a half without them had left a horrible hole in my life and it lifted my spirits no end to see them again.
…
…
We stayed in a hotel in downtown Manaus the first night there, and the only impression it left on me was 'don't wander around in downtown Manaus'. Of course, it was around midnight when we arrived, so even the airport, which I got the impression doubled as a thriving flea market during the day, was all but abandoned and more than a little off putting. I honestly remember nothing else that happened that night other than me and Gabe finding out we were roommates.
Very early the next morning, we were shuffled off onto a bus and driven out through countryside which Gabe said reminded him of Arkansas but with palm trees. I was quite disappointed that nobody but me saw that sloth on the side of the road. It may seem like a small detail and an odd thing to remember and mention, but I was very excited to see a sloth. If you ever get the opportunity, do not attempt to hug a sloth, because they are not excited to see you.
We arrived at our…I'm not sure what the word for it is. It was a collection of simple small white houses that acted like a hotel with a central building that had a large outdoor dining area next to a small pool.
Gabe and I wound up bunking with a third fellow named Ray Fulton. Ray seemed like a pleasant enough guy, although I did have to question the sanity of a guy who never wore anything but shorts, flip flops, and button down shirts that he kept open at every possible opportunity, including quite a lot when he probably shouldn't. For example, hiking through the rain forest. That's not a good plan in the rainforest! (And we told him so!)
His answer to that was bug spray, which he used like cologne for the majority of the trip. Not that it helped him any, but we'll get to that soon enough. Suffice to say that Julie was not the only one questioning if he was bonkers.
We dropped off our belongings in our assigned rooms and then we were bundled back onto our buses for a jaunt out to a nice little nature reserve about an hour away. We were led along a trail through the jungle and shown many plants. We wound up making our way down to a rather short but wide waterfall which was apparently a popular date spot if the young local couple we saw trying and failing to be subtle about what they were doing a little ways down stream was anything to go by. In a river in the jungle is not the place to be doing that…
Anyway, we were also shown a nice cave, which had an oddly sandy floor and was home to some small bats. I got a picture of one particular bat who I swear looked like he was smiling and screaming, "HIIII TOURISTS!" I showed him to Ana and she found him adorable.
We also saw a small green snake slithering along near the ceiling of that cave that we made a point not to disturb. The bats didn't care, they were just hanging out.
We went a ways further down the trail and passed way too close to an entire cliffside covered in cobwebs. Cobwebs with bulges the size of basketballs in them that I don't even want to think about what might have been in them although I have a pretty good idea. Again, more on that later.
We were going to go even further downstream, but another tour group was coming back up the trail and told us that the bridge was out and we couldn't go the rest of the way down the trail. We turned around and went back the way we came, once again giving the cobweb cliff as wide a berth as we could on the not even five foot wide path that took us right along the base of it. That was a truly terrible place for a path. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.
We were then driven to a restaurant by a different river, thankfully devoid of spiders. I notably got to ride shotgun on the way there, so I had a fantastic view. Brazil really is a beautiful country. Bit of a shame that there's so much of it that scares the crap out of me, but overall it's very beautiful.
Anyway, the food at the restaurant was local cuisine which I recall not really taking to that much. They offered us something called 'Jaguar Milk' which they told us was an aphrodisiac.
"You think we should try it?" Ana asked as we observed the little cups full of well…milk.
"Worst case scenario, food poisoning," I mused, "Best case scenario, we immediately want to jump each other's bones and go at it like bunnies for a while. Most likely scenario, we have a nice drink and tease each other about it for a while."
Ana looked at me like I'd started speaking gibberish and then smirked and gently swatted me on the shoulder, "Pervert."
"That is the definition of an aphrodisiac coupled with the observation that you are an incredibly desirable woman," I replied dryly, "There's nothing perverted about i…wow just going straight for it huh?" Ana just threw hers back like a shot glass and drained it all in one go.
Ana mused over the flavor and then smirked at me, "Nope, no increased urge to jump your bones. We'll have to wait and see about the food poisoning."
"The food poisoning is less likely than the actual hypothetical aphrodisiac effects," I declared, "How's the taste?"
"Try it and find out," she told me with a grin.
I calmly drained my cup and glanced at the ceiling before turning my gaze on Ana. An utterly shocked expression spread across my face as my eyes went wide. Ana recoiled slightly, "What?"
"Nothing!" I told her with a grin, "I just wanted to tease you a little."
Ana swatted me gently and called me a dork, but she was also smiling when she said it.
…
…
You'd think things would be tame and calm that night. Nope. Gabe's Spanish tutor who's name I learned to be Levy and the significantly older lady who'd ridden over to Atlanta with me, Doc and Ana came over to check out our little apartment, house...thing. Ray and I had the front room, and Gabe had the back which was between our bedroom and the bathroom. Ana and Julie showed up as well, but they left not long after arriving, declaring that they'd be at the main dining area.
It is worth noting that all four of them had been drinking. If Ray and I had had any indication of this, we would've followed Ana and Julie to the dining pavilion immediately.
Ray was going to try to sleep. I was going to try to read the nice book I'd picked up at the airport and managed to get about ten chapters into while waiting for our plane. Next thing I know, the older lady and Levy are discussing very private things in the next room and sound an alarming lot like they're taking off their clothes. The standout comment of that exchange was, "Oh you shave yours?"
In Levy's case that situation was not a bad thing, I'm sure Gabe was delighted. In the case of the older woman whose name I have thoroughly forgotten in an attempt to expunge the visuals associated with this memory, it was considerably less of a good thing.
I buried my nose in my book, and I'm certain that I was blushing utterly crimson as I tried to ignore what was going on in the room next door. I succeeded enough that I actually didn't notice the older lady coming out butt naked to inform Ray that they were 'ready for him.' I had my eyes glued to the page and had quite thoroughly tuned the world out.
Ray got my attention though by immediately bolting out the door in his boxers the instant she went back into the back room with a hastily grabbed shirt flapping in the breeze behind him. I looked up just in time for her to poke her entire top half (still completely nude mind you!) back out the door and ask, "Where'd he go?"
"Same place I'm going," I declared as I immediately averted my eyes, set my book down and reached for my boots, "Over to the dining pavilion. Have fun, we'll be back later." The rest of the group found it utterly hilarious. We found it considerably less so.
Ray and I didn't go back for over an hour until we were sure that the woman who we had come to realize was a cougar was gone. We then consulted Gabe about what the exact hell had gone down. Gabe declared that nothing had happened except for him getting a surprise show of mixed quality. "At least you got to see Levy naked," I mused.
"Yeah, that was definitely the good part," Gabe declared, "That never gets old."
Ray and I did a small double take, "You've seen it before?"
Gabe just grinned all smug, "Let's just say the tutorin' is very thorough."
Ray and I immediately congratulated him because Levy was indeed an excellent catch, and we politely kept quiet about Levy sneaking in to, ah, bunk with him every night for the rest of the trip.
…
…
The next morning, we were led down the hill from where we were staying to a much more impressive waterfall which we all agreed rendered the one from the day before completely moot. We wouldn't have wanted to go to the other one if we'd known that that much better waterfall was right down the hill from us. There was a zipline at this one, although they weren't able to get it set up in time for any of us to try it.
Afterwards, it was back onto the bus and back to Manaus for our departure up the Amazon river. We'd been told prior to arrival that we'd be going in basically glorified rowboats and would have to leave the majority of our luggage in a storage locker. This was proven completely false to even Doc's surprise, and we were delighted to find a full size and very nice double decker ferry waiting for us at the dock.
We spent a fair part of the day sailing up the Amazon and then the Rio Negro after passing the famous 'Meeting of the Waters'. Julie described it rather aptly as looking like chunks of peanut butter floating in grape juice. Among other things, we saw two floating gas stations and the end of the rainbow. If we hadn't been acutely aware of what was probably living in that water, we might have been tempted to dive down and find out about that pot of gold. As was, we decided that none of us needed the money that badly.
We wound up spending the next two nights in thatched huts a little ways uphill from the river banks. There was no hot water beyond what the sun heated during the day, and there was only an hour or so's worth of electricity anywhere except the bar. When we got back to our thatched hut that first night, I nearly had a heart attack as I picked up my suitcase to set it off my cot and saw something alive and nearly as long as my forearm under it.
My first thought? SPIDER.
My second thought upon noticing the scales? SNAKE.
My third thought after I was already halfway into a bellow of abject terror? "Oh thank god it's only a gecko…"
I spent the entirety of those nights in the rainforest sitting bolt upright, facing the wall as far away as I could get from it in case something decided to come down it. Ray, Gabe and Levy slept normally, but they had not come within an inch of a heart attack on the first night.
We wound up spending a lot of time in the bar since that was the only place with any light after dark. In addition to the gecko which we never saw again, there were also spiders. Not little spiders, tarantulas, big hairy ones the size of rats with glowing eyes and foamy fangs that apparently made their home in the straw roofs of our huts.
Doc laughed his ass off at us because we had scoffed at the notion of his 'bug tent' which he'd brought to sleep in. Turned out he was completely right to bring it! We all apologized quite profusely for doubting him.
It wasn't all bad though, most of that time we spent at the bar was with Ana, Julie, and Doc, (Gabe and Levy were rather busy) so it was all spent in extremely good company. There was also plenty of booze to help calm our nerves over the spiders, that one fist sized scorpion that Ray and I spotted, the small but poisonous snake our tour guide nonchalantly tied in a knot as he was putting it out of the guest area, and the sounds of what we're pretty sure was a capybara being brutally murdered and eaten just beyond the glow of the electric lights.
Among other things, I am now not nearly so scared of spiders as I was before the trip. It's rather difficult to be scared of something I can crush with one hand when I've seen its cousin which I'd probably be hard pressed to kill with a Brazilian flyswatter (better known as a square point shovel). Why? Because the damn things are the size of fully grown and well-fed cats. Apparently, they are called 'bird spiders' because that's what they eat.
I also got to have a nice hour long chat with Ana between jungle tours about books and we discovered that we have similar tastes in literature. Said chat took place in a hammock which I got to share with her, and that made it just that much better.
Other highlights of that part of the trip include fishing for piranha which were much too good at getting the bait off the hooks, visiting a local farm, and getting within about ten feet of a couple of sloths who wanted absolutely nothing to do with us. That was a bad day for the camera batteries to die. We also managed to spot the fabled neon rainbow acting as a halo around some clouds thanks to an odd quirk of my sunglasses. It looked a bit like an oily puddle in the sky.
…
…
After two days in the jungle, we got back on the ferry and headed back to Manaus. On the way, we were afforded a rare sight: Freshwater river dolphins. They were unfortunately very good at dodging camera shots. That, or I am just very bad at taking pictures.
We spent the afternoon taking a brief tour around Manaus's more historical district and went to a very famous opera house. We didn't get to go in the president's box, because that was apparently not allowed. Ana was a bit disappointed by that because she wanted the best view in the house for a picture. As I pointed out, it doesn't do much good to make the box off limits if the box next to it is less than a foot away from it. A little bit of stretching on my part and Ana got her picture. I don't know if the tour guide noticed, and the way Ana was smiling, I really don't care either.
After the tour, and that's sadly about all I remember from the tour, we went to the airport and sat around for a while waiting on our plane. While we were sitting there, I noticed that my feet were itching like mad. Upon pulling down my boot and sock I discovered that my feet had turned a lovely mottled mix of purple and yellow. To this day, I still don't know what the hell it was. I'm pretty sure it was the fact that my boots and socks were very tight and I was in a very hot and humid environment, but it cleared up after a getting a bit of air at the hotel in Rio where I wasn't worried about jungle parasites burrowing into my skin. (Thanks for the horror stories that made me nervous to even pee in the toilets there Doc.)
I rolled up my socks, pulled my boot back up and pretended nothing had happened. Julie was the one to realize I looked like I was trying really hard not to freak out and when I showed it to her she suggested a foot medicine to get and letting it get some air once we got to Rio. The joys of having a med student for a best friend! Don't know if it was the air or the medicine, but whatever it was it worked.
…
…
The first day in Rio, jet lag hit me like a truck. It's notable because that's the only time I've ever had jet lag. I don't even remember checking into our hotel that morning (granted it was very early…I think).
We were having a meeting with some executive from a Brazilian oil company around mid-morning, and while we waited, I wound up dozing off in the lobby. Ana woke me up when it was time to go in and as cheesy as it may sound, I realized right then and there that I actually wanted her to be the first thing I saw when I woke up a lot more often. That white blouse and black skirt may be a common look, but I've never seen anyone rock it as well as she does. For an emotionally stunted stick in the mud like I had been for the preceding year and a half, that was quite the earth-shaking realization.
The meeting basically boiled down to a presentation and an okay breakfast. I remember the gist of it, but that's about all I got. I'm not sure how awake I was given the whole nodding off in the lobby thing, but nobody had to poke me awake, and Gabe would definitely have thrown a bagel at me if he'd thought he could land that hit. Ray would too, but he didn't know us quite well enough yet to be in on the running gag that was 'The Eternal, Great and Glorious BREAKFAST WAAAR!'.
After that we got on a bus and at some point we wound up at a mall. Ana and I had ice cream from a McDonalds stand which sold nothing but McDonalds ice cream. We were rather confused by that, but it was America food so we were happy to see it anyway. You never realize how much you miss home until you've been completely away from everything that even remotely resembles it for a while and then you find something that reminds you of it.
We actually didn't buy anything, we weren't there long. Afterwards we wound up heading out to a popular board walk, which turned into something approximating a date with Ana since we wound up dancing together to the music of the little band that was there. It was night time, so I couldn't see worth a shit, but Ana wanted to dance and that was plenty of information for me.
We were then bundled up onto our bus and taken to a nearby neighborhood for samba lessons. I learned I am halfway passable with a drum, but Jerry's booty do not shake like dat. Ana's booty on the other hand shakes very much like that, and I like that very much.
The next day we went to see Cristo Redentor. For those of you who don't know, that's a freaking huge statue of Jesus on top of a mountain overlooking all of Rio de Janeiro. It's very impressive and the view is simply astounding, especially on such a clear and beautiful day.
On the way up the mountain, we took a rail car that was almost vertical most of the way up. I could not have given a hoot less about which way the car was going, because Ana was deeply afraid of that hornet on the ceiling and clinging to me like a security blanket. That is the only time I had ever liked anything that stings, but with Ana looking extra gorgeous in that little orange sundress, I could not even begin to bring myself to dislike that minding-his-own-business little bug.
I got several pictures at the top, including a fantastic selfie with Ana which is, needless to say, my favorite of the bunch.
That afternoon we went and strolled down Copacobana beach with Gabe, Julie, Levy, Ray and Doc. Doc bought a hat from a man with twenty hats balanced on his head, and then we found our way over to this fancy little Italian restaurant for dinner. I'm not sure if they were annoyed by us taking three of their very small tables, but Doc shared one with Ray and Julie, Gabe and Levy had one, and I got to share one with Ana.
They had a live band of guys in suits going around serenading the tables. They spent fifteen minutes serenading our three tables. The food was excellent, still some of the best Italian food I've ever had, and the company was of course amazing.
This we later agreed was our first date. I got a goodnight kiss when we got back to our hotel! Over the moon does not begin to describe my elation, and completely smitten doesn't even begin to describe how I was feeling. In retrospect, it makes me even more grateful that she liked me too because she could've smashed my heart like an egg right then.
The next day was our last in Brazil, and we spent it hunting a doctor's office because Levy had a large spider bite that she'd noticed the night before, and given what we'd seen in the jungle, caution seemed the wiser path. So our little group of seven found our way to a doctor, and were in and out in less than half an hour.
On the way there, Ray brought up the odd red marks all over his forearms which had popped up after our stay in the jungle and also resembled bug bites. It took me about five seconds to remember that he'd slept with his arms under his pillow and realize, "Dude, it was in your pillow." Ray went pale as a sheet and then also wound up speaking with the doctor, but the doctor told them both quite bluntly, that if it were going to do anything, it would've done it by then. So our worries alleviated, off we went.
Perhaps we were walking through a bad part of town? I think we must've been because as we were walking back, Doc suddenly yanked all six of us at a dead run down the block to the opposite corner where there was a crowded store. "Did you guys see those guys trying to box us in?!"
I'm not sure about the others, but I about shit bricks as I realized what he meant. Another half a block in that direction and we would've gotten mugged. Between me, Julie and Gabe, we could've probably taken the three we saw, guns or not. We were all very well trained and had trained rather extensively explicitly for beating the crap out of people with guns and not getting killed in the process. That doesn't mean any of us wanted to find out just how sharp our skills still were, especially with Doc, Ray, Levy and Ana there, so we were all very glad Doc had been paying attention.
We were rattled a little bit worse when we realized that we were only a block from our hotel, but since we were so close we just went around the other side of the block and slipped back into our hotel to wait for the bus.
We popped in at one more mall to burn time until our flight home. I got a new coat, and bought Ana a pink stuffed dolphin because she had been so excited about the ones we saw on our way back down the Amazon. I got a kiss on the cheek that had me grinning like an idiot the entire way home.
…
…
After we got back to the States, Ana and I started dating, and over the course of the next three years we fell in love. We had two more trips abroad, and got to reunite with Gabe, Levy, Ray and Julie both times. Ray and Julie had what Ana and I later learned to be their first kiss in a night club in Madrid.
Gabe and Levy beat us all to the punch on getting married. Gabe actually proposed to Levy at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Ana and Julie swatted and scolded me and Ray both for not letting them in on it when we immediately started snapping pictures for our friend because we'd subtly gotten in position ahead of time, but they were both much too excited to be too upset. I would've made it a double, Ana and I were more than sufficiently attached, and we'd been banging like bunnies in heat for six months. My family loves her, consider her the best thing to ever happen to me (I agree), and her dad likes me and approves of our relationship (thank god because Ana loves her daddy), but Ana had promised her dad to not get married until after college.
Gabe and Levy had a lovely wedding that next spring, and the following year's trip to Peru wound up doubling as the second half of Gabe and Levy's honeymoon (they'd gone skiing for the first half). Going by when their baby girl Emma was born, Levy was definitely pregnant by the end of it.
There is one more very important trip to mention though, and that was the trip down to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to visit Ana's father and family. I booked us a room at a very fancy casino for a Ron White show (Ana has an exceptionally raunchy sense of humor and I love it).
After the show…
…
…
Ana kissed me on the cheek, "You go try the slots, I'm gonna go play some Blackjack." Have I mentioned that Ana's amazing at cards? I swear she counts 'em but I can't do it myself so I can't prove it. Doesn't change the fact that she never loses except when we're playing strip poker.
I gently pulled her to me and kissed her before giving her a grin, "Don't worry about the time if you get on a hot streak, we've got the whole weekend."
Ana grinned, "Oh don't worry, I know." She kissed me again and headed for the Blackjack tables. I took a second to watch her go like the lovestruck fool I am for her, because god she looked sexy in that black dress. Then I turned my attention to the bright lights and flashing screens of the slot machines as my brain kicked into analytical overdrive. I'm not nearly as good with numbers as Ana, but I'm very good at paying attention.
This was actually part of the reason I'd booked the whole weekend. Ana deserved the best of everything, and I was no millionaire. Neither was she although I was pretty sure her dad was, and with her being an only child, I knew she'd inherit. I'd known her family had money after about a month of dating her, but I hadn't realized just exactly how utterly loaded she was until she took me home with her to meet him and 'home' turned out to be a mansion with a couple of acres and I shit you not a butler.
I'd taken an experimental practice run a few weeks earlier to a nearby local casino and managed to rack up almost enough to retire cheaply by playing incredibly carefully and paying hawk like attention. I hadn't told her because I wanted to surprise her, but with that extra five grand in my pocket to attempt to multiply, I had enough cushion to try again. It gave me no small surge of confidence that the first attempt had yielded enough for me to consider five thousand dollars an acceptable loss.
After half an hour of careful watching, I selected my target and sat down to play.
…
…
I'm not sure how much time went by, but I know it was a lot. I was in the zone and my method was working like sheer madness. My pocket was filled with a wad of payout receipts the size of my fist, not small ones either!
I was yanked from my focus right as I was about to hit a jackpot by Ana wrapping her arms around me from behind, "Having fun?"
I grinned over my shoulder at her, "Making bank." I reached over, hit the button, and the machine lit up like Times Square. Ana's eyes went wide and I grinned devilishly as I plucked the payout receipt from the machine. I handed it to her, "I think I'm okay to cash out now."
Ana's jaw dropped as she read the receipt and then a big smile spread across her face, "Yeah, I think that'll work." I fished out the wad of receipts from my pocket and waved them at her, "I had one heck of a night, this may take a little while."
Ana smirked and held up a stack of gold colored poker chips to wave them at me, "You and me both handsome!"
My eyes bugged out a little, "How much are those?"
"Ten thousand, each, and I've got more in my purse," she told me with a grin that made that simple fact sound like the most perfect an inviting invitation to bed I'd ever heard. If I haven't mentioned it yet, I am pretty convinced that Ana could talk about gastrointestinal distress and make it sound sexy as hell if she wanted to. Yes, she is that good at dirty talk.
We cashed out half of my winnings and it was so much that the cashier wired it to my bank account rather than make me lug around that much cash. We wound up getting royal treatment with much fanfare, and wound up extending our stay as the casino offered us an upgrade to an exceptionally lavish suite for free. We didn't cash Ana's in just yet because there was something I wanted to do first.
"Sex on a pile of gold?" she teased as we made our way to our room, "What are you a dragon?"
"I have the most beautiful and amazing princess in the world," I told her with a smile as I leaned in for a kiss, "Can you blame me for wanting to ravish her in the most ostentatious of ways?"
Ana smiled, "Well, when you put it like that…how about you let me go get changed so that we can get right on that, Mr. Dragon?"
I grinned and my hand went for what I'd had in my other pocket all night, "Before we do that, there's one more thing I want to do first…" I gave her the very best long, slow 'I-love-you' kiss I could, "I've already asked your dad, and I wanted to surprise you. I actually did that thing with the slot machines a few weeks ago, I won enough that we can both retire before we ever even have to get a job. This tonight was over twice that much. I've got quite a lot of life left to live, and I can't think of anyone in the world I could ever even conceive of spending it with except you. So my beautiful princess…"
I dropped to one knee and pulled the ring out, "Ana Clive, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"
"YES!" I don't think Ana had ever pounced me quite that excitedly before. I know that was about the hottest sex we'd ever had, and yes, we did do it on our pile of gold, a pile of hundred dollar bills, and pretty much every surface in that hotel room except the ceiling.
Julie, Doctor Julia Fulton by then, helped deliver our baby girl Rin (happy, healthy and absolutely perfect) less than two years later, and like something straight out of a fairy tale, we lived happily ever after.
THE END
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NEXT TIME on Mad Little Slice of Heaven...
We found Happy near a river and almost didn't recognize him. He more closely resembled a flailing silver mass of scales than his usual irritating self. It wasn't until Natsu all but nuked Happy's assailants off him and left him quivering in a fine coat of charcoal that we realized what had been on him while Natsu lifted him into his arms and called frantically,
"HAPPY! HAPPY! SAY SOMETHING BUDDY!"
Happy was so traumatized he wasn't even doing his usual tears and whining. Instead he simply collapsed into unconsciousness, "Natsu…the fish…"
I picked up one of the charred fish and shot a glance at the river, "Oh hell…" I tossed the fish back into the river and the instant it sank beneath the surface, the water suddenly came alive like it was being furiously boiled. I'm sure I wasn't the only one staring in horror, "Piranha. Natsu, boil that river."
