And we're rolling right along. I'm hoping I can make today a double upload day so we can get chapter 46 by the end of tomorrow.
Song Suggestion: One Less Day (Dying Young) by Rob Thomas
Disclaimer: I still own nothing lmao these are basically a meme at this point no one really thinks I'm connected to CapCom right? okay good.
Emma smiles as she stirred a cooking pot of boiling noodles. It had been an exciting few weeks up until now. She had occasionally been running off to help Travis prepare for new years. Chris got called in for work, probably to Romania based on the conversation with Wolf Squad back in October. He made it back a few days ago and the two decided they did like the house they viewed in November with the unfinished basement and Chris put in an offer.
"Things are moving so fast," Emma says quietly with a content smile. It wasn't a bad thing in the slightest but between Chris planning some secret rescue recon mission, buying a house, Travis's proposal, Watching the girls every other weekend, and the holidays. Not to mention working full time. It was a lot to keep track of. That didn't exactly mean she didn't have time to think of some small silly antic.
She smiled as she looked at the small Sprig of Mistletoe that she taped to the hood of the stove and chuckled. In her mind, it was just a winter variant of a 'Kiss the Cook' apron. Maybe slightly classier since it didn't have the instructions directly printed out. She nods at that thought. It was still a goofy thing to do and that poor sprig was going to dry out fast from the heat of the stove. Its sacrifice will be remembered.
Eventually, the click of the lock and whine of the door hinges caught her attention. Chris walked into the house with an excited smile rather than his usual tired and done with the week scowl. He closed the door behind him and didn't even bother taking off his coat or shoes before heading over to Emma to put an arm around her waist.
"Hey," he says still smiling.
"Hey, you're in a good mood," She says in response as she leans back into him to try and look at him.
"Yep," Chris replies still smiling "Got a call from the realtor."
"And," Emma asks as he now had her full attention.
"We're moving in, March 20th,"
"You're kidding," She says a bit stunned, she was sure there were at least 3 other offers on the place by now. "They accepted the offer?"
"Yep, standard contingencies, 90-day closing." He confirms as Emma "Inspections and all that will be going on in the meantime, the realtor is taking care of that though."
"That's. Oh my gosh, I guess we have some work to do," She says now with a matching excited smile.
Chris gives a quiet low chuckle, "I thought you'd want to know. I still need to move in the gear for the day from the car."
"Oka-hey wait a second," she says as he gets a few steps away but stops and turns to face her again as she calls for him to wait. Now a bit embarrassed Emma uses her wooden spoon to tap the stove hood by the little plant with white berries. "Pretty sure you forgot something important." No he didn't. She only just put that up today. He just didn't notice the tiny unassuming plant in his excitement, which was fair. She just felt saying anything along the lines of 'I want smooches dag-nab-it' was far more childish.
Chris's smile remains as he gave a small huff of a laugh and walked back over, taking the small plant from the hood to hold over them as he held the side of her face in his other hand and kissed her.
"Better?" He asks as he puts the plant back in its place on the stove hood.
"Yep," She replies happily. "Oh, It's the 18th. The girls are coming over for the weekend. They should be here any minute. make sure you lock the door to the supply room?"
"Right right," Chris says with a nod before heading back out to take care of bringing in the supplies including some rather excessive explosives and a remote detonator. Yeah, he was definitely going to be making sure that was safely tucked away and locked up.
He'd barely just finished Locking up the room when excited knocking could be heard from the door. "I got it," he says as he heads over to answer it. upon answering the door
"Uncle Chris~" Calls Summer and Maurie
"auwnkle Cwris!" says Annie as she echos her older sister. Summer would be 9 in a few months, Maurie had only just turned 7 and Annie was now 3 years old.
"Hey, good to see you" Chelsea greets as the three kids hurry to hug him then run into the apartment. "Thanks for watching them over the holidays like this you guys are lifesavers."
Chris shrugs "you gotta do what you got to do." he admits. He imagined it was probably pretty hard for them to manage even with both of them working. Hell, especially with both of them working.
"Yeah. Oh and just a heads up. I already told Emma but Summer has been on about C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S," The woman spelled out quietly to try and keep from being heard. "She's been getting pushy so if she asks about it just ignore her okay?"
"Can do" Chris says with a nod. This was going to be a long weekend he could already tell.
"Great, okay see you guys on Sunday," She says and the kids were already doing their own thing. Maurie hurried over to look at the shelf of movies while Annie was poking at Duke who had rolled over hoping for belly rubs and Summer took a seat at the table with her plastic art supply box and had already started working on a new drawing. She gives a small disapproving huff. "Goodbye girls!"
"bye mom!" "bye mama" "buhbuyah"
Her expression remained neutral. On one hand, it was a good thing the girls weren't upset she was leaving but dang that was cold. Chelsea shook her head with a chuckle "See you around," she says to Chris who replies in kind while he gives a short wave as she heads out.
Chris closes up the apartment before noticing Annie had started pulling on Duke's face. "Nope!" he says as he quickly hurries over and picks her up to get her away from the fluffy critter who quickly got up to go and find a place to hide. with the lack of access to Emma's bedroom there really wasn't a lot of space for the poor pooch to go so he settled on his favorite place behind the couch.
Annie started to whine and cry as her entertainment ran away. Upon hearing the high-pitched, upset wail Emma dropped what she was doing to head over. "Trade you," she says offering the spoon to Chris who more than willingly nods and hands over the Screeching Siren to Emma and accepts the spoon to head over to the kitchen and finish making what appeared to be 3 boxes worth of macaroni and cheese.
It took a good 5 minutes but Emma managed to get Annie to calm down by handing her a stuffed animal from her overnight bag. Once the screaming was replaced with giggling Emma put Annie down on the couch.
"Auntie Emmy" Maurie asks as she walks over to pull on Emma's jeans.
"Hm?" She says as she looks over to watch as Maurie holds up a DVD case.
"Can we watch this one?" Maurie asks as she holds up Frozen 2.
Lord alive they had to make a second one of those didn't they. "After dinner," Emma says hoping to buy a bit of time before having to watch that one for the millionth time since it came out a year ago. a beeping sound could be heard from the kitchen as a timer went off. "That's for the oven," Emma says as she walks back over to the kitchen.
Chris moved to take a small baking sheet out of the oven and made a slight face as he put it down on the stove. Spam. Definitely not his favorite, he had to deal with it enough with MREs. it was gross and overly salty.
"Don't let the girls see you making that face or I'll never get them to eat," Emma says quietly as she walks over to take over cooking again. Chris gives her a quick kiss before moving to gather plates and cups.
"Eeeww cooties!" Summer says loudly before making a disgusted face and sticking out her tongue. Emma laughs at the exclamation before clearing her throat and goes back to preparing the meal.
Chris chuckles a bit under his breath before attempting to set the table. "Summer you need to pack it up for now," he says as she quickly closes her sketchbook and nods.
"Fiiiiine" she replies. This Lil turd was starting to get sassy when did that happen? All the same, she did as she was told and packed up the plastic box with her art supplies and moved that to sit by her overnight bag by the door.
it only took another 5 or 6 minutes and the table was set with a plate of sliced spam, a bowl of corn, and a large pot of macaroni and cheese. Was it the healthiest or tastiest meal? no. but Emma was tired and it was a meal she could get all three munchkins to sorta eat.
Emma sat at one end of the table between Maurie and Annie to make sure she'd be available to help either with their meals while Summer sat next to Marie and Chris sat at the other end of the table next to Summer.
He quietly ate his meal while watching Summer. She'd cut up a piece of the spam wait for Emma to be distracted then drop it on the floor for Duke to gobble up. Sneaky little turd. he smiled a bit at this but said nothing. Honestly, if he wasn't worried that the sodium levels would cause the old dog to keel over, he'd probably do the same thing... He'd be fine.
Chris slide the last half of his slice onto the floor which landed with a more noticeable slap since it was not cut up. Chris winces slightly but luckily Summer 'Yawned' at the same time to cover up the sound.
"What are you two up to?" Emma asks with an attempt at an unamused stare.
"Nothing," Summer says quickly with a clearly guilty expression. "I finished my dinner can I have dessert please?"
Emma was not convinced but nods, "There are cookies in the pantry, you can have 4 with a glass of milk."
Chris picks up his and Summer's plates "I'll help her with the cup," he says and the two head to the kitchen. Chris puts the plates in the sink before offering a hand to Summer who gently pats it for a subtle High five. Mission accomplished. Chris gets some Decaf brewing for himself before getting the pack of cookies from the pantry and a glass of milk for Summer and putting those down on the table.
Summer wanders back over to her box of art supplies and takes it back to the table so she could draw while eating her cookies While Chris gets his cup of coffee and heads to the living room to sit down and read for a bit while there was peace. Peace didn't last long however as Annie and Maurie eventually finished their dinner and dessert as well and hurried over to the living room and sat on the floor in front of the TV as Emma put on the movie before going back to work on cleaning up the dishes.
Maurie and Annie quickly got distracted and stopped watching the movie after maybe 10 minutes as they started gathering blankets and pillows to make a pile in front of the TV. Meanwhile, Summer walks over to join everyone in the living room and Shuffles over with her sketchbook to sit on the couch next to Chris. She eventually starts to kick her legs and look around which was usually a sign that she wanted attention.
Chris Looks over from the book he was reading before he goes back to reading. If she needed something she could use her words.
Summer frowns as her usual cue was ignored. Instead, she shifts around to sit on the couch upside down while still hugging her sketchbook, so her head was dangling off the end of the couch and her feet were in the air before giving an exaggerated sigh.
The agent forced a frown. The Lil goofball was really pushing for attention. "What is it?" He asks without looking up from his book.
The 8-year-old took the offer to talk hook line and sinker as she quickly sits up so she could continue hugging her sketchbook but look at Chris properly and Chris instantly regretted it. "There's something I really really really want for the holidays but I asked mom and dad and they said no... I made pictures to prove my point and everything."
Well, shoot... Chelsea said he was supposed to ignore her when she asked about this but she managed to trick him into asking her about it first. This. When did kids get so freaking sneaky?
Emma continued to wash the dishes but leans back a bit to call into the room, "Summer, leave Chris alone. He's not buying you a dog," She says figuring that would at least get the kid to stop pesting him and argue with her instead.
Hearing the statement from Emma causes Summer's expression to shift to an indignant pout. "But that's not what I was gonna ask!" She shouts back still pouting. "I changed my mind and I want somethin' else..."
This was not going to end until she got to say what she wanted and he knew it. he already opened pandora's box might as well rip the bandaid off. He gives a tired sigh "What is it?" he asks before taking a sip from his mug. If it was a toy or something maybe he and Emma could use that as an idea for a future birthday gift.
"I wanna brother," she says as she quickly opens her sketchbook to the page she had been hiding before.
The quick and unabashed answer caused Chris to spit his coffee back into the mug as Emma started cracking up. He finally looked away from his book with confused embarrassment to find that sure enough, the picture was one of what he assumed was Summer holding a baby brother. which was indicated by a bow on their neck.
A string of expletives crossed his mind while blanking on how to reply to that. Summer however had plenty more to say on the matter.
"I did the math see," she says as she turned the page to show some interesting attempts at graphs and charts that were definitely not set up correctly by any means. but they did have numbers on them. "Having a brother would mean a bajillion times increase in playtime fun and " the fake statistics continued to spew forth
"That's," Chris eventually cuts in but clears his throat. "You know I think you should maybe focus on asking your DAD on this one."
"I tried that and he said no," Summer says with a defeated frown while nudging Chris with the sketchbook as if getting him to really look at it would change his mind.
"Sounds like that's a no then," Chris replies as he looks for any excuse to leave this conversation. How did this kid even think asking him for that would work? did she expect him to sleep with her mom instead? of course not she's 8 she thinks any adult can just order a baby from the stork in the sky but come on.
"But I really want one," she whines causing Chris to frown while trying to think of an out.
"Try writing a letter to the tooth fairy. I heard she knows Santa" Chris replies before going back to his book and drink, now sufficiently red in the face.
Summer Gasps "Thatsa good idea!" she agrees before hurrying back to the table to try and do that.
Chris eventually finishes his drink and gets up to go wash out his mug to find Emma still chuckling to herself, earning her a hard stare.
Emma waves him off, "Don't look at me like that, it's funny."
"Is it though," He asks unamusedly.
"Yes. Hilarious actually," she replies before giving him a peck on the cheek.
He grumbles a bit but gives one in return before washing out his mug and heading back to his book.
As the fully ignored Movie's ending credits start to Roll Emma walks over "Alright Kiddos it's bedtime" Emma announces as she starts picking up blankets and pillows and receives a chorus of complaints in return. "Now don't give me that. you have all day tomorrow to play, go get your pajamas and change." She says and the three begrudgingly comply.
It took a good thirty minutes but eventually, Emma rangled them into the guest room and got them set up for bed. She ended up having to push the two Single beds together to make one larger sleeping area for all 3 girls to fit on by having them lay horizontally across the two beds instead of vertically. it would have to do for now. She couldn't exactly use her room. The last thing she needed was for the girls to get their hands on a pack of C4.
Speaking of which. She walked over to double-check her door and nods when she confirms it was locked. With that confirmed she smiles contently and goes to sit next to Chris.
"And they're asleep," she says as she relaxes into the couch while Chris instinctively puts an arm over her shoulder.
"Good" he replies with a yawn, having abandoned his book a while ago. "what a day."
"yeah." Emma agrees. "You did pretty well though with the girls all things considered. I really appreciate the help." She replies with a slight smile.
"Eh, they're not so bad," Chris says with a partial smile of his own.
"Especially when they help you get out of eating dinner," Emma says which causes Chris to wince. "Yeah you're not slick I caught that. There was slobber on the floor."
"I don't see why Civilians choose to eat that, it's nasty," Chris replies with a slight sigh.
"To each their own." Emma says as she leans a bit to rest against his side. "it's cute seeing you two get along though, so I can't be too mad." she admits before bobbing her head slightly. "Did you ever consider having one of your own?"
"You're joking right?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow. was this another jab because of what Summer said? It took half a second longer than it should have but Emma eventually nods and laughs.
"Of course I'm joking," she says with an amused smile while giving him a gentle swat to the chest. Hmm no, she wasn't. She internally sighed. she had hoped that whole curfuffle could be a decent lead-in to the topic but she chickened out... again. How was she supposed to bring that up though? There wasn't a graceful way to basically say 'hey yo daddio, knock me up' throw around a few finger guns, Just NO! Frick Just. It wasn't even just that. They were well past the proper time to really have that conversation. They had plans already and that wasn't part of it. She didn't want to jeopardize that by making him think she'd resent him if they disagreed. But she wouldn't know if she didn't ask. GAH! Why is communicating so difficult?! Wasn't it supposed to get easier the longer you know someone? It didn't help that so much was going on around them. Summer, Maurie, and Annie were growing up, Travis and Bastion were going to be getting married, Chris's friend just had a kid She and Chris were moving in together. That should be enough. She was happy. It's not like she wasn't because of one honestly small factor. Stupid hormones. She wasn't sure if that's the actual problem but she was certainly going to blame it.
"Emma," Chris says with a slight frown.
"What?" She asks with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, I was just joking, I didn't scare you right?" she asks with another chuckle as she moves to get back up. "I should walk duke before it gets too late."
"...Right," He replied while she went to get up and leave. She had a horrible poker face.
The calm before the storm~ kinda lol next chapter should be cute too cause proposal X'D love you guys! wish me luck with the double post for today.
Review Responses:
Starrat - yey ^v^ I'm so glad! thanks for sticking around and reading so frequently it's appreciated
Guest1995 - The dream inches ever closer~ a date has been set and the proposal is imminent ufufu. some cute summer and Chris shenanigans as well since those seem to be a favorite X'D