Time for reader appreciation~ who is ready for a chapter chock full of cuteness ^v^/ I'm going to be separating this one out from the usual monthly counter since July is gonna have another important role that wouldn't really fit in the tone of this chapter lol.
Song Suggestion: Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainer
Disclaimer: I own nothing. ovq but hey that's the fun part. Capcom please don't sue k thanks
Emma smiled as she packed up the day bag for Rose, they weren't going to be gone all Saturday but, she still wanted to make sure they had anything they might need.
"Rosey, are you ready?" Emma says to try and get the child's attention. Rose hurries over from the living room wearing only one shoe.
"Yesss," she says happily while making a grabbing motion to signal that she wanted to be picked up.
Oh boy... Emma leans over to pick up Rose before walking over to the base of the stairs for the second floor. "Hey Chris."
Chris jolts awake in his office chair as he hears this. "Yeah!" he replies to show he heard her while rubbing his eyes. He had sat down to check a few E-mails before they left for the day. Rose had been having trouble staying asleep at night though and the two were starting to run on empty.
"Did you put Rose's shoes on?" She asks, hoping he was going to say no and that Rose just managed to put one shoe on by herself.
"Yeah," he confirms.
Uh oh... "She only has one..." Emma says to explain why she was asking.
Chris's expression drops as he hears this. If it wasn't one thing it was another... He shakes his head as he closes up the laptop on his desk. He had hoped to get some work done before they left for the day but it looks like he was going to be hide and seek for the next 10 minutes. After locking up the study he makes his way down the stairs.
"Kis!" Rose says while pointing at him then making a grabbing motion to show she wanted him to hold her instead.
"Very good, that's Chris," Emma says with a chuckle. Rose was continuing to grow and advance at an expedited rate as she was closer to a 2-year-old in nature.
Chris accepts Rose from Emma after making his way over to the two. "Oookay Tiny Terror what did you do with your shoe?"
Rose simply stared confused since she didn't understand the question.
"Do you know where your shoe is?" Chris says rephrasing the question and she shakes her head no. "Of course not," he says as he moves to put her down. "It has to be down here somewhere right?" he asks looking at Emma.
"She's figured out how to go upstairs last month," She reminded him.
"Right..." Well, that complicated things.
"She was in the living room before, it might be there, Can you watch her so we don't lose the other shoe while I go and check?" Emma requests.
"I can do that," he says as he moves to get a hold of Rose's hand so she didn't runoff.
"Thanks," Emma says as she heads back into the living room.
"Let's get you, in your car seat," he says as he leads Rose to the garage. she was starting to get a bit too heavy to expect to be held all the time. Even if he could handle it Emma probably would be at her limit soon and he wanted to ween her off that expectation. He opens up the side of the car and helps her up into her seat to get her buckled in and before long he hears a triumphant call from inside.
"Found it!" Emma says as she pulls the shoe out of the toy box. She walks past Duke who was resting in his usual place on the couch. "Watch the house okay?" she says as she gives him a pat on the head and gets a small huff in response. Emma then heads over to the counter to pick up the packed day bag and smiles. In its own way, it was kinda cute. Rose was learning to put things away on her own even if she wasn't quite putting them in the right places. Once the day bag was over her shoulder, she starts heading back towards the stairs to find that Chris wasn't there.
"Where was it?" she heard him reply from the garage.
"Toy box," Emma states as heads over to the garage as well and closes the door behind her. He chuckles a bit at the answer and shakes his head as Emma makes her way over to the open car door to put the shoe back on the baby's foot. "There we go, much better." She says as she puts the day bag down in the car as well so Chris could close the door.
"Are you good to navigate?" he asks as he gets into the driver's side.
"Yep," Emma replies as she walks around the side of the car to enter the passenger seat. Emma pulls up the address and sets the GPS so Chris was able to drive. It took a good hour but they eventually made their way to the large very full parking lot where half of it had been cut off to set up a summer carnival and flea market combo.
Emma smiles a bit at this, she'd finally managed to convince Chris to let Rose be outside of the house for something that wasn't BSAA related. It wasn't exactly the social interaction she needed for development but, It was at least a start. Once the car was parked the two got out and worked on getting the day bag and rose ready to go.
"It's been a while since we went to something like this," Chris says with a slight smile as Rose held both his and Emma's hand on their way over to the pop-up carnival.
"Yeah, for Halloween a few years ago," She says with a nod, "I think that was our first date?" Emma asks more than she says which causes Chris to give a short chuckle.
"Was it?" Chris asks as he now starts to invest some thought into the question. What was their first date?
"I don't know I'm asking you," Emma says amused as she didn't have an answer either.
"Well," He thinks it over a bit. They never really officially called anything a date. They just kinda. Existed. So it was hard to say.
"Wait..." Emma pauses and starts laughing "Oh my gosh have we never gone on a date? We've been together for almost 3 years."
Chris pauses a bit at that as he thinks it over. "Officially?" Emma continues to laugh at this. "I mean birthdays count right?"
"Sure, birthdays count," Emma agrees as she cuts the guy some slack and her laughing dulls to an occasional snicker. They probably had, they just never really made a big deal about it and treated it as spending time together. She knew that but it was fun to tease him a bit all the same.
Chris shakes his head at this and walks into the carnival.
Rose looked around, observing all the new things with some level of curiosity. So many new sights and sounds with lots of flashing lights. a happy gasp escapes as she notices a stand with a large pool of rubber ducks. "DUCKIES!" She announces as she lets go of the two to run over.
"Rosemary, get back here," Emma says as she hurries after the toddler.
Chris gives a tired sigh as he follows along, maybe they should look into getting one of those kid backpacks that have a leash attached to it. she was growing more curious and willing to explore on her own. Maybe this was a mistake.
Rose tried to reach up but the stand was much taller than it appeared to be back when she was standing by Chris and Emma.
"Afternoon ma'am," says the stand's owner. "Did your daughter wanna play a game? every play is a winner," they explain hoping to get a few bucks. "5 bucks a play."
Emma winced a bit. that was a bit pricey for a game but, she looked to rose who was now jumping to try and reach. "Sure, one play should be okay." Emma agrees.
"Rose, you're not supposed to run off like that," Chris chides as he walks over. this goes in one ear and out the other. Rose looks to him as gears start spinning between her ears. she makes her usual grabbing motion to signal she wanted to be picked up. "Up pease" she says as she stares at Chris. if she was up then maybe she could reach the duckies.
Chris forces a frown as he watches Emma pay the stand owner. they were reinforcing bad behavior but. Yeah, it was kinda cute that she was so excited... Defeated he picks up the child and walks closer.
"Okay so red is a small prize, blue is a medium, and green is a large prize," the stand owner explains as they gesture to the different display ducks that had waterproof stickers on the bottom. small looked like a cheap bulk 10 cent plush, medium was maybe a slightly nicer 50 cent bulk plush and the large ones were actually pretty decent so there was probably only one green duck in the pool of 50. Overall, it was definitely a win for the stand owner and a ripe-off for anyone that played.
Rose was already leaning while reaching out a waving arm to try and get closer and grab at the toys in the water.
"Careful," Chris says as he ends up having to use both hands to support her leaning. She eventually grabs a hold of one and holds it up triumphantly. She did it! she acquired the duck.
"Alright let's see what you got," the stall owner says with an amused smile as they take the rubber duck. "and that would be a blue, very nice that's a medium prize," they say as they put the duck back.
She gave a frustrated cry "Nooo, I wan iit," she says while reaching for the rubber duck again. That wasn't fair she only just picked it up and they took it away. she wanted the duck.
The stall owner seemed used to this as they walk over and pick up a fluffy-looking duck plush toy and offers that to rose. "What about this one?"
It was fluffy. Rose stares at it with starry eyes and quickly accepts the substitute.
"What do you say?" Emma asks Rose who continues to look over the plush toy with interest.
"Dank cue," she says more so as an answer to the question.
"You're very welcome," the stall owner says with a smile. They made $4.50 off the deal. "You three have a nice day."
"You too," Chris says as he moves to put Rose down so they could walk around a bit more. To be honest, Rose was a bit young for all this still. She was too small to go on any rides and the games were either rigged or expensive. Even then Rose happily walked around exploring everything she could with her new fluffy friend.
They at least got to enjoy some of the usual carnival favorites as rose had the addition of a bag of cotton candy to her collection of goodies while walking around and tiring herself out.
"We might actually get some sleep tonight," Emma says with a hopeful chuckle as she noticed that Rose was starting to slow down a bit as they walked around the various flea market stands.
"Don't jinx it," Chris replies with a slight smile before going back to munching on the hot dog he got for Dinner. If they were lucky though she was right. As they walked around, one stand in particular caught his attention.
Sticking out of a large cardboard box was the neck of a guitar.
"Em hold up a second," he says to let her know he was going to check something out.
"Rosey, let's follow Chris okay?" Emma says as she tries to herd the child.
"Kis" she parrots back while toddling to follow him.
Chris walks over to the box and picks up the acoustic guitar to look it over. it was certainly old and it was missing a string but other than that it was cared for well enough and a fender to so a decent entry-level guitar. He gave what strings remained a light strum. hm. out of tune too.
"you play?" ask the owner of the box.
"Used to." he admits "a lifetime ago."
Emma quietly smiled to herself as she watched over Rose while Chris looked at the instrument. Maybe this was a good idea after all, even if Rose was a bit young she was having fun and Chris seemed to be relaxing a bit too if he was considering old hobbies.
"I see, well if you're interested I'd probably be willing to part with it for 40 and I'll throw in a replacement string." the man offers as a sale price.
"Maybe 30 with the string," it was still an old guitar and had some decent scratches from being used.
"ha, Nah put it back. I got that thing for $200 before. I can fix up the string myself and sell it for more on eBay," the stand owner says as he waves off the attempt at haggling.
Chris shrugs and puts the guitar back, no skin off his teeth to keep the forty bu-
"Do you take Venmo?" Emma asks while keeping an eye on Rose who was curiously digging through everything she could.
"Yeah I can do that," the man says with a smile as he shifts how he was sitting in his foldable chair to take out his phone.
"Emma," Chris says with a frown. She wasn't serious, was she?
"Don't Emma me. You haven't shown interest in a hobby that wasn't work-related in the 4 years that I've known you." Emma points out as she takes out her phone as well. "Worst case scenario it's not for you and it collects some dust in the basement, or rosemary plays with it a bit when she gets older. Get the guitar." Wait a second... "Rose don't touch that. it's not yours," Emma says as she quickly picks up Rose to move her away from a lamp that she was poking at.
"Living up to her name as a tiny terror as always," Chris says amused as he shakes his head... Emma had a point though. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. it was a 10 dollar difference.
"What's your number?" The guy asks as he tries to see if he has a sale or not. Emma lists off her phone number for the guy and rather quickly gets the request for $40.
"I can pay for it," Chris says amused.
"I know," Emma replies as she clicks at her phone and pays for it anyways. "But we missed your birthday this year with everything going on with the move and such... There we go."
"Received." the man confirms as he moves to get up. he walks over and digs through another box to get a package that was labeled for a guitar string and offers that to Chris. "Enjoy the guitar," he was certainly going to be much happier with the 40 bucks.
Chris accepts the offered packet before looking back to the guitar and picks it up. "thanks."
Rose started to hurry off again as Emma was trying to keep her out of trouble. the beginnings of whining complaints were beginning. "noooo" she says annoyed.
"Someone is getting cranky," Emma says as she looks to Chris.
"Maybe we should head out," he offers and Emma nods in agreement.
"probably better to avoid a tantrum," She says and he moves to scoop her up in his free arm. it would be easier to get her back to the car without causing a scene this way.
They managed to do so and get Rose buckled in with her new fluffy friend and bag of cotton candy and Chris placed the guitar into the back with the day bag. By the time they got home, Chris and Emma look back to find that rose had clawed the thin plastic bag open and ate half of the contents before passing out, using her new stuffed animal as a pillow.
Emma chuckles at this. "I'll get her washed up and tucked in." she offers and Chris nods. "I'll clean out the car," he says as he gets out to start fixing up whatever mess her cotton candy snack caused. Luckily it wasn't too bad she only got a bit of it stuck on her car seat.
He eventually got the mess taken care of and takes the day bag and guitar into the house. placing the bag on the counter before heading over to take a seat on the couch and get started restringing the guitar. It takes a few tries to get it just right but he gets it attached and Emma comes back down the stairs and sits next to him on the couch.
"The munchkin is sleeping," She says with a chuckle as she listens to him try and tune the guitar. it had been a while so it was a bit more difficult than he remembered.
"Hm, I should put this away than for now, wouldn't want to wake her," Chris says and Emma shakes her head no.
"You're fine it's not that loud," She says which causes a slight smile to cross his face.
Once the guitar was making sound about how he wanted it to he starts randomly plucking at strings to make a bit of a medley and get used to the instrument. Emma smiles as she closes her eyes and relaxes into the seat before humming along in an attempt to harmonize with the notes.
'*'*'*'*'
The weekend, while 3 days long because of the holiday, seemed to pass along quickly and before long Chris was back at work. It was another check-up day for Rose so he had more free time which was appreciated. He made his way to the gym while carrying a clipboard and found the rest of Hound Wolf squad waiting for him. "Hound Wolf Squad, round up," he calls to get everyone's attention so they could go over the plan for the day.
"Shit man you look tired," Lobo says with a sympathetic laugh as he looks over.
"Is the kid still running you up a wall?" Umber eye asks with slight amusement as he joins the lineup with the others.
"Yeah a bit, but the vacation helped some," he admits while rubbing his eyes.
"You went on a vacation?" Canine asks a bit surprised. That was sorta out of character for the guy but good all the same.
"Yeah, nothing special. Just went to a flea market, carnival, thing with Emma and Rose, Anyways we should go over the results from the last training exercises," he says as he looks over a few papers on the clipboard he was holding.
"Okay, so you went to some fair with the wife and kid... That's not a vacation. When was the last time you two were able to just, Chill? You know?" Lobo asks as he moves to stretch out his shoulders.
"We're not married," Chris counters he shouldn't have let them get distracted.
"And?" Lobo says in response as that didn't seem to convince him in the slightest.
"She's not my wife," he says a bit annoyed that this was even a conversation. For heaven's sake. They had work to do.
"Are you guys planning on splitting up?" Night Howl asks a bit surprised.
"What? no," he says further annoyed. How did this turn into rag on Alpha time? He didn't have a wife. He wasn't married. End of story.
"Did you guys start living together because you wanted to be able to spend more time together since being close to each other makes you irrationally happier?" Canine says while jokingly batting his eyelashes a few times to join in on the fun of picking on their tired leader.
"Now that doesn't me-" He starts but gets cut off as Tundra decides to throw in her two cents.
"Is she or is she not helping raise a kid that isn't hers without you even having to ask, after going through literal hell with you because of the whole war crime shit," the woman points out with a confident smile. granted they all almost got handed over to the courts but. hey. the point was still valid. Emma deserved some respect for what she put up with. Tundra was okay with standing up for that.
That one got Chris to pause to try to think of an argument "... Yeah"
Lobo smiles triumphantly thanks to the assists, "Thank you, I rest my case. My original point stands. You need a vacation man."
"Fine, you've had your fun, we have work to do," Chris says with a frown as he was pretty done with this. "Lobo you can start with giving me 30 laps since you want to derail training," Chris says annoyed.
"Sure sure," he shakes his head and hurries off to go and do the laps.
Chris assigns the others their work and Umber eye sets up at the machine next to Chris's. It takes a minute but eventually, he speaks. "He's not wrong you know, you've been looking a little run down lately. you really should take a break..."
"Oh not you too," Chris says with a frown.
"Look, all I'm saying is if you need us you can rely on us. We're all worried, you're taking on a lot on your own," Umber Eye says with a shrug. "Doesn't have to be anything major just see if you can find a place for the weekend and get some sleep. It's going to start affecting your work before long," Umber eye says as he tried communicating what Lobo was really trying to say a bit better.
Oh my gosh have we never gone on a date? We've been together for almost 3 years.
Chris gives a defeated sigh. "Alright. I'll look into it tonight," he agrees as he remembers his prior conversation with Emma. Even if they were both kinda joking, the realization did stick with him that they never actually defined anything in their relationship. No titles or requirements. They just existed. He loved her, She was his Emma, He didn't really know what that meant but he was content. It was enough.
'*'*'*'*'
Emma stretches a bit after getting dinner in the oven. what time was it... she takes out her phone to check.
Tuesday, July 6th, 5:41 PM
Hmm he probably wouldn't be home for another 40 minutes or so... Emma looked around and moves to go and get some cleaning supplies from under the sink. The house could use a bit of work. Rose really did do a number on it whenever they looked away. With the supplies placed on the counter, she dug her wireless earbuds out of her purse and put those in before clicking through her phone until she found a playlist labeled [cleaning the house].
Emma got to work getting flung tidbits of snacks off the wall and picking up baby and dog toys alike to put them in their respective bins. She happily sings along to her music as she cleans and does a grapevine step to the side as she made her way back to the dog toy bin.
Duke watches as she does this and play bows. She was hopping around. that meant play, right? seeing this causes Emma to laugh and she chases the pup around for a bit before he flops over onto the couch as 'base' to show he was done.
She shakes her head and gets back to work listening to different upbeat songs and cleaning up various messes that they'd let go over the weekend. A few songs and messes later a new catchy tune from her playlist started. She smiles at it, it was a fun one to sing along with. Chris and Rose were going to be home soon. Maybe just censor it a bit just in case.
Chris gives a tired sigh as he pulls into the garage and turns off the car. what a long day. he moved to rub his face for a second before looking into the rearview mirror to see that Rose was imitating him. a single short huff of a laugh passes his lips before shaking his head and getting out of the car to help rose out of her seat. "Okay, ready for dinner?" he asks and rose nods energetically before dramatically sliding out of her seat to get out of the car. What a goof. He closes the door once she was out of the way and holds her hand to lead her into the house.
"You gotta know how to treat me like a lady, Even when I'm acting crazy. Tell me everything's alright~" Emma happily sang as she had moved on to sweeping at this point. Duke's shedding was a crime in and of itself. "hum huumhum huhumm Here's a few things you'll need to know if you wanna be my one and only all my life"
Seeing this caused an amused smile to start to form. She always did seem to be so much happier when she had those earbuds in. The smile on his face slowly started to fade, music made her happy. Yet she gave that up and never held that choice over his head. Hell, she didn't even get to go skating as much as she used to, she's been too busy helping him with Rose. not a single complaint or pointed remark because of it.
"hum huumhum huhumm Make time for me, Don't leave me lonely and no we'll never see your family more than mine~" She continued, chuckling at that last bit as she happily makes a not so tiny pile of floof.
He loved her, She was his Emma, He knew what that meant. He had a wife. He wasn't married yet. ... God Damn Bitch Ass Hell Fuck Shit... Really? Really...
"I'll be sleeping on the left side of the bed, hey~" Emma sings along as she nudges the floof pile into the dustpan. "Open doors for me and you might get some"
Chris quickly moves to cover Rose's ears, knowing Head rhymes with bed and he did not need the toddler parroting any part of that.
"Kisses~" Emma sang and Chris's shoulders drop from the unexpected word choice "don't have a dirty mind, just be a classy guy."
At this point, he let go of Rose as he was trying not to laugh since the god damn song called him out. She didn't even know he was listening. "Emma," He calls to get her attention. Luckily it worked.
Emma jolts slightly from hearing him shout but looks over. "Oh, hey you're home. How was work?" She asks as she moves to take her earbuds out and pocket them. "Were you good today?" she asks looking to Rose in particular.
"Yes!" Rose confidently replies.
Emma looks to Chris who shrugs. she wasn't awful but she was with the doctors most of the day so it was hard to say. "Very good Rosey," Emma praises all the same, she'd take the kid's word for it if Chris didn't know.
Rose happily giggles before heading over to the box of toys and started making a new mess.
Emma gives a tired sigh but heads over to the trash to get rid of the mixture of dog hair and abandoned fruit loops.
His partial smile from before returns as he walks over to hold her from behind and give her a peck. "Hey."
"Hey," she replies in return as she returns the affection as she smiles back at him.
"...Do you want to go on a date?" He asks with some amusement in his tone. It took him long enough to ask her that.
That surprised her a bit, "huh? Oh gosh, Chris I was joking about the date thing before," Emma says as her smile was replaced with concern. he didn't think she was actually upset about that did he? she was laughing. She thought he knew it was a joke... "I'm sorry, have you been worrying about that this whole time?"
"No that's not it," Chris says still amused" I was talking with hound wolf and they offered to watch Rose for the weekend so we could get out for a bit and catch up on some sleep," he explains.
"Sleep does sound nice..." she admits as even with her happy cleaning, she was warn out. "I don't know, I mean it's nice of them to offer to watch rose but I'd still have to find someone to watch duke," Emma points out.
"I'll just ask them to house sit then. Rose and Duke can stay here and they can take shifts so no one gets completely burnt out over the weekend," He offers as a suggestion.
She thinks it over before nodding "Okay, I think that sounds like a good plan," She eventually agrees. They needed the rest.
'*'*'*'*'
Saturday morning couldn't arrive quick enough. Chris ran it by hound wolf squad who all agreed that it sounded like a solid plan and that they didn't mind helping the two out. The gears had been set into motion and the two would spend a bit of time each night planning their mini-vacation away from home.
"Try and make sure she's in bed by 9, any earlier and she doesn't sleep through the night for some reason. I cubed up some apple slice ahead of time if she asks for a snack, they're in the fridge" Emma explains "There are gram crackers in the pantry if she doesn't want the apples um. what else." Emma says while running a hand through her hair. It was their first time leaving her alone with someone else since they adopted her so Emma was a bit nervous.
"Relax, we'll be fine, right?" Umber eye says as he looks to Rose who nods.
"Yes," she chirps. though there was a good chance that was a reaction to the question than a genuine answer since she didn't really know what was going on. she did recognize umber eye from going to the office with Chris every day though so it was nice to see her friend.
"If anything comes up just call," Chris says with a shrug and Umber eye nods.
"can do," Umber eye agrees "We'll see you guys tomorrow."
Wait what? Tommorrow? Rose looked between umber eye and Chris then Emma as it started to set in that her caregivers were both leaving at the same time. That never happened before. She quickly hurried over to cling to their legs. "I go too?"
oh her heart. "Not this time Rosey, you get to have a sleepover with friends. isn't that exciting?" Emma offers trying to make it sound fun and not scary.
A quiet whine was heard in response. Umber eye moved to pick up Rose who kicked her legs around to try and get away. "noooo," she says with a pouting frown while reaching out for one of them to hold her instead. she wanted to go too.
"She'll be fine, best you two head out. She'll just get more upset the longer you stay," Umber eye points out as he gently shifts her to hold her so she can't kick as much.
Chris and Emma nod before heading to the packed-up car.
Emma buckles in and bobs her head. "maybe we should take her with." She says as she voices her empathy for the now sobbing child in the house.
"Emma, No," Chris says amused, "You keep saying we need to work on not having her be so dependant on us."
"No, I say we need to let her socialize with other people her age." Emma corrects with a slight frown.
"This is socializing, she's getting the chance to interact with people without us watching." He offers to try and give her some peace of mind.
She was not going to start this argument again before a vacation so she drops it for now. "Fine."
Chris shakes his head and with that starts following the directions towards the rental house only for them to get stuck in traffic.
"The hell? It's a Saturday why is there this much traffic?" Chris asks rhetorically as he frowns at the car ahead of him. luckily they were leaving early but still. he wasn't exactly planning on just getting there at midnight to sleep and drive back.
"Looks like there was an accident. It's backed up for two or three miles based on the map." Emma says while poking at her phone to check the GPS.
"Great..." he says with a tired sigh. at least it was only a few miles but who's to say how long that will take.
Emma notices Chris's hand move for the tiny box in the cupholder. Those things would be the death of him before a bioweapon got to him at this rate. She moved to put her hand over his and stop him as she leans over to give him a peck.
"Red light," She says as she returns to her seat.
The action surprised him at first before he remembered their game from before. it had been a while. He left the Cigarette be and went back to focusing on driving. any time they stopped long enough he'd lean over for a quick kiss or a peck to act as a substitute for the nicotine. whatever traffic would allow.
It definitely took longer than they initially planned but they managed to make it to a cute little rental house in the historical district of the state a few hours away from home.
"Looks like we made it just in time to drop off our stuff and wander a bit to look for lunch," Emma says with a smile. She was still a bit worried about Rose but she did want to try and relax and enjoy their time together.
"Lunch sounds good," Chris agrees as he managed to forget to eat breakfast with all the hustle and bustle to get ready to leave. For now, he turns off the car and moves to get out.
Emma gets out as well and helps with getting the overnight bags into the house and looks around. It was definitely cute but there were a lot of fragile knickknacks laying around that Rose would have broken if she got her hands on them. Maybe it was a good thing Chris insisted that they stick to the plan.
With the bags dropped off, Chris slips an arm around her waist and moves to give Emma a kiss once more. "Ready?"
"Yep," Emma says with a smile as she walks with him back out of the house so they could explore their new surroundings a bit.
Lunch, wandering, visiting different historical markers, local shops, and lots of pictures took the more of the day. After a nicer dinner at sunset, the two made their way to a little building with a sign that read 'The Drunken Palette'.
"I'm pretty sure this is going to be a disaster," Emma says with an amused and relaxed smile. This was nice.
"Pretty sure that's the point," Chris points out with a slight smirk as she nudges him. "What?" he asks amused.
"Nothing," She replies amused as well before they head into the building to find the place was fairly well covered in clear plastic tarps. Couples were standing in front of Rows of plastic tables were set up with various glasses and bottles of alcohol, Canvases, easels plastic paint palette with pre-measured paint dollops though it looked like there were bottled of paint on the table as well in case more was required.
"Welcome," says a woman who walks over to greet the two. "Are you signed up for a class or walking in?"
"Signed up," Chris says in return "Should be under Redfield."
The woman clicks around at a computer system before nodding. "Ah, yep there you are, you're at table 14. your drinks are already there and waiting for you. Do you need smocks or did you wear clothes that you don't mind messing up?"
"I'm fine," Emma says with a shrug before looking to Chris.
"Yeah no I knew what we signed up for," He says with a short laugh and the woman nods again with a smile.
"Alright well you're all set then, have a great time," She says and they two thanked her before heading over to find table 14. Like the others, it was set up with two blank canvases, paint, and two empty glasses for alcohol as they had a bottle of wine and whiskey at their table.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I'm going to absolutely mess you up," Emma jokingly taunts with a playful smile.
"I'm counting on it," He replies quietly as he gives her a peck and Emma nudges him.
"Okay class, welcome to the drunken palette, go ahead and make sure you have your drinks and all the supplies you need at your table. you might have noticed you don't have brushes. for this class, we encourage that you paint with your hands, mess with your partner's canvas, and in general have fun and make a mess." the teacher explains with a smile. they had the best job, they drank all day and taught finger painting. "This is absolutely a hands-on class so go ahead and throw around paint at your partner if they're okay with that. Exhibitionists do try and keep the shows to a minimum till you get home."
the class chuckles a bit at this.
"We recommend having an Uber or Lyft scheduled ahead of time to make sure you make it home safely. With that let's get started," the teacher says as they start painting which is displayed on a large screen. The teacher started showing the process for painting an ocean sunset with a little boat in the distance.
it didn't take long for the two to start flicking paint at each other while enjoying their drinks.
Splat!
"Oh... oh no. Rose how did you get into that," Lobo says as his chest sank when he found Rose gotten out of bed and into the pantry when he wasn't looking. the child giggled happily in response. "Look at what you did, and the dog too?" He says as he gestures to the large puddle she and duke were standing in as she managed to dump out an entire container of ketchup on Duke and the floor which he happily rolled around in to make it much worse. Duke starts to shakes it off causing ketchup to splatter everywhere.
Lobo gives a tired groan before digging out his phone to take a picture. Make a new group chat with everyone, except alpha, and send the picture.
[Lobo] Guys help I messed up.
[Night Howl] How.
[Canine] is that tomato? dude don't let the dog eat that he'll get really sick.
[Tundra] You had the easiest shift. you just had to make sure she stayed in bed.
[Umber Eye] On my way. come on guys.
[Tundra] Fine. my shift was in an hour or two anyways.
[Canine] guess we're having a party at Alphas then
[Night howl] yeah this is definitely not going to get us in trouble.
[Lobo] save me ovq Canine how do I keep the mutt from licking himself he's covered in the shit and if I look away she keeps smearing what's left on the walls
[Canine] Just try and hold on we're on our way.
Lobo pouts a bit as he looks at the mess.
"Shit" Chris curses a bit as he looks over Emma's canvas that now had a very large black handprint in the middle of it. The two were both rather well covered in paint at this point and he had attempted to reach over to pull her closer to him to give her a kiss but he lost his balance and ended up knocking over her canvas as he caught himself.
Emma pouted a bit at that. it covered up the tiny boat she painted and she had actually been pretty proud of how it turned out. She shook her head. no use crying over spilled milk. it wasn't that important. instead, she looked over her own hands for a second. Let's see, his print was with the thumb facing down and fingers pointed to the right, so if she wanted to make one with the thumb up facing to the left, she would need...her left hand okay cool. She dipped her own hand in some red paint and smacked that onto Chris's canvas in return.
"There, now they match," she says with a nod before moving them a bit. "and they kinda look cool if you put them side by side like this," she says as she moves them around so the hands looked like they're reaching for each other.
"You're such a dork," Chris says as he sips at his drink.
"I'm the dork? you smooshed my boat," she jokingly replied as she sipped at her own drink.
"I'm sorry about the boat," He says with a slight smile and shakes his head lightly.
"Okay, well I forgive you," she says and gives him the kiss he was looking for earlier.
"Are you done painting on the walls yet you god damn gremlin," Lobo asks the giggling child as he looks around at the mess. Alpha was going to kill him. Hearing the doorbell caused him to relax. The cavalry was here. "oh thank god." he walks over while holding the messy child away from him to try and not be the next target of her sticky hands. As he got to the door he realized he'd have to put her down to open it or risk getting Ketchup on himself. ... the house was already a mess so he put Rose down to open the door.
"I see you're having fun," Night howl asks amused as he walks into the house.
"Ha. ha. you're a riot," Lobo replies with a frown. "Just keep an eye on the kid while I try and keep the dog from licking things."
"Sure man," Night Howl agrees as he walks in and closes the door behind him. "Hey rose."
"Hiiyee" she says with a chuckle as he moves to sit by the door with her. "can you say Night howl?"
"Nei owl," rose parrots back causing him to chuckle.
"Why is she behaving for you?!" Lobo asks annoyed from the other room.
Night howl shrugs "guess I just have more of an air of authority than you,"
Lobo frowns as he starts trying to clean up the mess with paper towels "you're full of sh-"
"language" Night howl cuts him off.
He grumbles to himself. and gets back to work. Ugh it was already starting to dry and stick. This wasn't good.
"Can you say Lobo?" Night howl asks.
"NoNo" Rose parrots back.
Hearing this causes night howl to laugh. "Maybe that's why she doesn't like you, she thinks your name is nono."
Chris chuckles to himself as they walk back into the house they rented for the night. They were finally able to just act like a couple for the first time since. what, January? maybe December.
"I'm thinking a shower sounds nice," Emma says with a bit of a smile. "Should probably wash off the paint before getting into bed."
"Fair enough," He agrees with a nod. There went that. She's thinking about sleep so.
"Are you going to join me?" she asks with a slight smirk, which got his attention.
Yeah, he could work with that. "Well if you don't mind the company."
"I'm counting on it," She replied while walking away, quoting his earlier statement to show that she got his not-so-subtle hinting from before.
Nope, get back here. He thought as he followed after and catches her waist to hold her close as he moved to kiss her whiles smiling. Affections continued to be exchanged as they undressed and made their way to the shower.
"Damn it Duke stop shaking," Canine says while washing off the dog in the bath. "You guys know just because I'm the dog handler doesn't mean that you can leave me to do this by myself right!" He calls down the stairs to the rest of the house.
"We're busy," Lobo replies annoyed. He, was sleepily scrubbing ketchup off the floor while Umber eye and Night howl were cleaning up the splatters on the furniture and walls. Tundra was tasked with giving the baby a bath in the master bath.
"How did one kid make this much of a mess," Umber eye asks as he used a paper towel to scrub at the cabinets.
"She had help from the mutt," Lobo says annoyed.
"That's rude, Duke is a good boy," Canine calls down. No one was calling a good boy a mutt when he was around.
"He's covered in ketchup how good of a boy can he be?" Lobo shouts back. "he's an accomplice."
"Don't listen to him," Canine says to duke while scrubbing the grumbling dog. "I know you're innocent." Duke continues to grumble, this was the worst day ever, he had to get a bath.
It took a while but eventually Canine was able to get the ketchup stains out of duke's fur and dry the pup off. Duke quickly ran out of the bathroom, down the stairs and jumped onto the couch.
Fwomp.
Chris had picked up Emma and carried her over to the bed from the shower as they continued their affections. The two clung to each other and enjoy the sense of closeness that came from their embrace. Breathless word crossed their lips as racing hearts and gentle hands caress as long-neglected desires were finally attended to. Grunts moans and shifting sheets lead to pleasured calls and relief before the two finally fell asleep in each other's arms.
After a more proper shower in the morning the two packed back up to head home.
"This was a good idea," Emma says with a smile as they head out.
"This was a horrible idea," Lobo says through a tired groan as the group had collapsed on the couch with Rose sleeping in Night howl's arms.
"Thanks for suggesting it," Emma adds as she gives Chris a peck.
"Who's idea was this?" Lobo asks and Umber eye raises a hand. "Never again."
"now don't say that. they do this every day," Umber eye points out.
"Both of you can it, I want to try and get at least an hour of sleep before they show up," Tundra says with a yawn.
Traffic wasn't nearly as bad on the way home which was appreciated by the two.
"We're back," Chris says as he and Emma walk into the house from the garage door. It was almost noon so he figured there was no reason for anyone to be asleep.
"Hey" "sup" "ugh" "how'd it go" "shush you're too loud"
Chris's expression shifted to concerned confusion that was 4 more voices than he was expecting. he looked around more critically. the house seemed fine. "How did it go?" He asks with suspicion as he noticed Rose was still chilling with them on the couch.
Upon seeing him, Rose quickly moved to get down from the couch. "Kis! kis!" she hurried over to cling to his leg.
"Fine," Umber eye replied though he was clearly tired.
"Thanks for watching her you guys," Emma says as she heads over to the kitchen. "Have you had lunch? I can make something real quick," she offers and goes to wash her hands. huh. the paper towels were gone... weird. She walks over to the pantry to look for the pack she just recently bought to find it was gone too. what in the hell. "Hey Chris," she calls over from the pantry.
"Hm?" he replies to show he's listening.
"What happened to the paper towels? I just got a pack of 8 and I can't find them anywhere," Emma asks as she starts moving things around. "Did you move them?"
Chris looks to the group sitting on the couch, who were now quickly moving to get up and head for the door.
"Of course the Frickin card counter keeps a Fawkin mental inventory of her paper towels," Lobo grumbles under his breath as the others ditch him.
"What did you do," Chris asks annoyed as he pinched the bridge of his nose while frowning.
Lobo pats Chris's shoulder as he walks past. "Just don't check the trash can, see you at work tomorrow," Lobo says as he hurried away.
"Bhiye nono!" Rose says while still clinging to Chris's leg which made it pretty much impossible for him to follow after the squad.
Phew, this was a fun one X'D even as an appreciation chapter we got some gears in motion that were fun. The more of the included ideas were key points that most comments focused on from other chapters so for the more of these there isn't one person to credit alone XD but for those that are curious, here are the prompts I dug up from your comments on the last 50 chapters. thanks for making them an awesome 50 and for all your support ^_^
Included Ideas:
Plenty of kisses, || A hint of role reversal and a bit of spice [just a pinch] || Crossed out text / Realization of feelings || Hound Wolf Squad Shinanigans and plenty of them || Something Calm and simple for a vacation / Revival of scrapped Drunk Painting date idea [Vahditar] || Rose officially being nicknamed tiny terror [DianaSeada] || Going to a carnival with Rose [DianaSeada] || Rose Bonding time
things to be included in future chapters:
Bastion's wedding || Heisenberg Hunt || Rebecca Cameo || Rose Meets the family/friends || Bastion continuing to prove he is the GOAT || Emma Vs BSAA || Summer being adorable || Father's day || Family Halloween costume || baby Redfield
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Review Responses:
starrat - always happy to hear that you liked the chapter u
xLunaxNightingalexDuskx - Will do u i'm pretty excited for next chapter XD so i'll probably be BAMFing through that over the weekend to get that up quickly lol. I'm glad you're happy with the addition of some of the older characters u i wanna make sure i get in as many as i can XD Rebecca is going to be a fun one. Tiny Redfield will be around before you know it XD Rose will be the best older sister agreed