Time to take the first step back into Dean's former life then so be prepared for our big burly wrestler to generally be freaking throughout this one...stressed Dean is cute Dean though!

Wolfgirl2013, Thanks, I love writing them being all cute together, especially since things are going to be bumpy coming up, but then when are they not I guess?!

Ohana1337, Haha, we might have to share because it is entirely possible that these sweet moments are a writer trying to live vicariously through her work, but I'm sure if we can get some type of schedule together we can make sharing him work out for us!

Mandy, I have never been camping myself, I'm too much of a wuss for that because I like a nice comfortable mattress when I sleep but backyard camping I could cope with I think! Aww, thank you I'm super happy about my mum too. It's been a long six months here.

ShieldGirlBecky, I figure that when Dean gets insensibly angry and has nothing on hand to hit then he probably swears a lot, so it seemed to fit, glad you liked it. Yep, Stephanie has moved up a step on the prime bitch ladder but at least it means more Dean comforting Lauren, so yay!

Skovko, Oh don't you worry, Dean's mother is going to be quite the complex character and her relationship with both of them is going to be...um...interesting when we get there. Parents. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em I guess!

Moxley Gal1, Poor Lauren is going to feel kind of like a fish out of water in Dean's hometown because it's a little bit different from what she's used to and his mom might not help much with that. More Seth coming later in the story, he's pretty complex and confused in this tale!

Minnie1015, Cuteness between them is very much my speciality (and if you liked the last chapter I think you'll love the final one in this story, which is still a way off but is pretty cool...I hope). Drama coming but because it's me I'll be stringing it out (you knew that right?!)

Labinnacslove, Ah but then she wouldn't be Lauren if she simply went with the flow. Girl has to get her panicking in first and then she can start to get her head around things. Naturally, Dean kisses and reassurance usually helps!

Hometown action coming up then...


Teenage Dream

By the time we hit his hometown the night had given way to morning and the world was being bathed in a warm orange light which reflected off the tall imposing cluster of buildings that rose up before us as we crossed over the bridge.

"Wow."

In the bright light of morning the brickwork showed up yellowed since most of the structures were historic looking beasts but interspersed with the obligatory concrete monoliths of the sixties beside much newer towers clad entirely in glass. Passing on our right there were several more bridges reaching out over the river including one that looked super old and beyond it on the banks were the red painted seats of an arena that I could practically peer right into from the height of the road.

Dean raised a brow,

"I know, pretty crappy right?"

"No," I shook my head, "It looks really nice and kind of old and historic and – ,"

"Rundown."

"Um, I was going to say well kept."

Dean hadn't particularly spoken a whole lot since we'd boarded the plane several hours before and had then become uncharacteristically silent the closer we had headed towards the city itself. Initially I had assumed he was antsy about his mother and her possible poor welcome but it was beginning to seem like more and given the few facts I knew about his childhood I could only imagine that he felt oppressed being back home. I bit my lip and then put a reassuring hand out which I tousled through the loose tufts of hair beneath his hat and which stuck out crazily and made me giggle mildly because as usual he looked too impossibly cute. Blue eyes flickered over at the sound of my laughter and he then pretended to try and bite my hand, throwing in a hungry little growl noise as he did but smiling along too which had totally been the plan.

I hummed across the console,

"Please don't be unhappy, I like your hometown, really I do."

"Yeah well you haven't seen the half of it yet Princess, this part of the place everybody would like, but where we're headin' it isn't so pretty so maybe you should hold off on your judgement for a bit."

I made a noise back at him,

"Nope."

"Why the hell not?"

I continued to run my hand through his locks, teasing the individual curls out into straight lines before letting go and watching the strands wrap back up.

"Because it isn't the buildings that I'm into, I like this place because it's where you're from and because this is where the super cute teen you was and because this city is a big part of who you are. I mean, you like to say that I'm an apple pie or whatever because I come from an apple pie town, but that means that you are kinda like this place, by which I mean big and gruff but a total hidden gem."

Dean smiled back wryly,

"Fuck."

"Does that make you feel better?"

"Not about my childhood no, but maybe about takin' you to the place where we're goin', because Princess, lemme tell you, they won't be sellin' postcards."

Oh.

Possibly because he maybe wanted to remind himself of what his much maligned birthplace was like or else because he wanted to provide me with some sightseeing highlights before we turned off to where he had grown up, Dean seemed to take the long way round the city which I let him do quietly happily taking in the view and in particular loving the cultural quarter where the tightly packed old houses had been painted in reds and blues and which made the neat little streets pop at once with vibrancy and a charm that caught my browsing eye at once. Book shops and cafes and standalone businesses filled my vision and I blinked at the beauty of the place with a covetous need,

"Oooh look, they've even got a market."

I had always been partial to a well-organized bazaar and had spent many long and happy hours with my mother picking my way through craft tables that were covered with homemade stuff or else peppered with antiques and old looking trinkets waiting to be purchased then lovingly spruced up.

Mom.

Uh oh.

I predictably bit a tear back because I could totally see her meandering through it all or else standing talking to some of the local artists and sellers and brimful with things she had fallen for but would never need. It also made me worry again about Dean's mother and the warnings I had gotten about her on all fronts because although he had assured me that people naturally liked me, I wasn't sure if I knew how to act around her.

Mostly I was smiley and open and accepting –

But then why was it I felt like that approach would fire her up?

Ugh.

For the rest of the ride I copied the silence and then watched as the bright colors and glitzy high rise buildings fell away and were replaced instead by square rows of apartments which then became more ramshackle the further we went until we hit the sort of areas that I had only seen in movies or perhaps in animal rescue type shows, where chain link fences flanked every last structure and the houses had shrunk to two storied properties but no more.

Brightly sprayed graffiti seemed to light up the neighborhood and appeared to have left no stone unturned, with the kerbs even spritzed in poorly washed off colors which at least mildly distracted from the pitted and uneven roads. Houses lined both sides of the streets around us but in mismatching shapes and in various levels of repair with trash cans badly overflowing out in front of them beyond overgrown lawns and badly peeling layers of paint.

It felt like being in the sequel to Sister Act and –

Holy crap I loved that film.

Eventually a brightly painted peach-colored building rose up in front of us as we breasted a hill, then followed the slope to where the ground evened out again and at which point Dean pulled our rental car up. He had insisted on hiring the most battered thing they'd had available and in an instant I could suddenly see why that was since the big sleek black vehicles he usually liked to travel in would have probably caught attention or for all I knew have got us shot.

Oh god.

My heart hitched in my chest a little and I hated myself for it because I was silently casting judgements on where Dean had grown up and which was probably another reason that he had been so weirdly quiet because he had to have figured that on some level I would. I was already being a horrible fiancé and so I frowned and tried my best to look bright.

"So this is where you grew up?"

Dean looked over at me and then turned the engine off with a flip and plunged the surrounds into near total silence with the exception of the sounds of loud yelling somewhere near.

He huffed a breath out,

"Princess – ,"

"It's good and central, transport links into the center must be ace."

It was the first time in my life I had whipped the word ace out and it couldn't have been more weird had I said it in a stupid voice and in response to it Dean blinked across at me knowingly and then bit his lip hard and slapped the wheel,

"Fuck, I knew it – ,"

"Huh?"

"This was a fuckin' bad idea, you don't belong in a neighborhood like this, shit, I'm gonna take us back into the city and get us a really nice ass hotel."

He moved to twist the keys into life again and I surprised myself and him by launching over the seats, in a clumsy move that missed the ignition and resulted in little more than me landing in his lap and nearly elbowing him right in the grapefruits which would probably have made everything far more worse.

"No, don't – ,"

"Princess, what's goin' on here?"

Pushing myself up against his meaty thigh purposefully I tried to grope the car keys back from the hole, hooking them up on the tips of my fingers and then pulling them loose and into my hand.

"Aha."

"Lauren?"

I huffed wearily and then tried to push my hair back from where it had been flipped forward to tangle in my face and then emerged back into the sunlight blinking at my mildly annoyed but mostly baffled fiancé, who clearly thought I was having a breakdown but which was actually an epiphany.

"Nope, we're staying here."

"Gimme the keys."

He put his hand out to me and I shook my head again and then squeaked a little bit as his broad and fast fingers flashed in towards me anyway whereupon I panicked and threw the keys between my breasts.

"Oooh crap, cold."

Dean raised an eyebrow,

"Puttin' 'em there won't stop me gettin' 'em back you know, I mean if anythin' I'm more determined to get those suckers out now so that idea hasn't really worked out so great for you."

I caught his fingers in mine and then squeezed them,

"I want to stay here."

Naturally I was lying of course because frankly there was nowhere I would have liked to bed down less than a two level block of apartments that had been painted borderline orange and which had great grills of metal worryingly covering each of the doors and flimsy balconies above that could only be accessed with difficulty by opening the stained and broken windows right out and which was flanked by pipes and imposing looking fencing that was either to keep folk out or keep the residents shut in. But regardless of that and the fact that it frightened me to be in a place where people glared at me across the road, the one thing that I did want was to share his life fully including every single little gloomy and grim part.

I wasn't kidding –

I needed to stay there.

Dean blinked back at me for several seconds longer and then hooked his index finger inside my bra and I huffed a little thinking I had failed to convince him but then frowned as he merely pulled me closer his way and then planted a soft and loving kiss on my lips that grounded me but that mercifully left the cold breast-keyring in place.

"I'll keep you safe, you don't gotta worry baby."

Evidently we both knew each other too well and I pecked him again in quick response then brushed his cheekbone because never once had I doubted that he would do.

"I know."

It turned out that he grown up in the bottom apartment and so after wrestling our stuff from the trunk of the rental, he turned the key in the lock and let us both in, which led us right into an open plan living space with a fan whirring hard in the ceiling above. Inside the room the heat was unbearable which was probably because all the windows were locked tight and the drapes were pulled across which made the place look shadowed and blocked out the otherwise bright late morning summer sun. Dean trudged across and flung them back with a grumble and the entirely of the apartment suddenly fell into plain sight but which didn't take long to commit to my memory because not only was it small but it was also pretty sparse.

Dean turned hotly towards the doors to the bedrooms and then bit out a growl that made me jump,

"Mom?"

Oh lord.

I braced myself for a sudden appearance and then tried to paint on a happy looking face which probably came over as totally constipated since my heart was hammering too hard inside my chest. Rapidly I smoothed out my clothes and then faltered before clasping my hands awkwardly and hovering uncertainly in the space.

Bring it on Mama Ambrose.

I was ready.

But nothing happened in the least and instead of anybody lumbering out from the bedrooms or the bathroom or anywhere we were met by more space and, which the exception of the neighbors still arguing, a healthy dose of silence instead.

Dean grumbled,

"Fuck."

His brow twisted inwards and he strode across the room to step up the hunt, clearly not trusting his parent not to be crashed out and totally oblivious to our being there at all and in the interim I looked at my surroundings a little closer and then tried not to look like I didn't belong.

It was hard though –

Mountains of junk lay piled around me, including comforters, boxes and phone charging leads too which took up corners of the room and the surfaces to the point where I could only see one uncluttered looking chair and which was slightly miscolored and depressed from frequent usage so not too appealing. There were marks on the ceiling and on the walls that looked like pinpricks or like someone had been tossing up knives or more likely darts and there was a big damp patch rising up beneath the window which a handyman needed to fix before it got any worse. In front of me lay the tiny white kitchen which thankfully at least seemed clean enough but which smelt of cigarettes or else something stronger, so that I actually had to fight back a little cough.

Wow.

Dean appeared back out in the lounge again and then sighed pretty heavily before looking at me and probably taking in my awkward little posture and offering me up an explanation of sorts,

"She's not here."

"Um, so where – where might she be instead then?"

Dean flapped his hands,

"Your guess is as good as mine, I mean she could be workin' but that isn't fuckin' likely so she's probably propped up on her elbows in some bar or maybe standin' on some corner tryin' to score a hit from someone or with one of her asshole boyfriends – like – who the hell knows?"

"Hey."

Evidently it was by no means the super big homecoming that he had mentally been busy preparing himself for and as a result was he getting stressed about it and so instinctively I moved in across the space towards him, stumbling briefly on a loose couch cushion before folding in against his broad chest. His arms moved up to pull me closer to him and he then let his lips fall onto my head, holding them there and breathing my shampoo in as I carefully pressed my ear flat to hear his heartbeat.

"Dean?"

"Mmmm?"

"Am I allowed to see your bedroom?"

He raised his brows a little teasingly at me and palmed back my hair with a rough little growl which then tapered off into a husky sounding chuckle that I was glad to hear and which lifted my soul.

"Wanna see where the teenage magic happened Princess?"

"I mean, I figure since you saw mine – ,"

He snorted,

"Yeah but yours was all cute an' whatever an' had photos of you an' all your little friends an' smelt like perfume an' flowers an' all that shit whereas mine is kinda more like a hole."

Nice.

But regardless of what was obviously his embarrassment about his bedroom and the place he had been forced to spend his early life, I unwound my arms with a grin from around him and then led him slowly towards the closed doors, backing up so that I could keep my eyes steadily on him and maintain the smile that promised I wouldn't cut and run and he rolled his blue eyes but then followed me reluctantly with a knowing little smirk.

I walked into a wall.

"Ow."

Dean reached out to lovingly soothe the head knock and then leaned in over me to open the door and I turned into the room with a hand to my cranium but excited to see the teenage lair of my man.

It was –

Um.

It wasn't as bad as he had painted it but all things considered it was kind of a mess yet in an odd way like he was still living there or something and had simply stepped out to go grab a bite to eat. His bed had been pushed right up into a corner to press against the rusted radiator grill and with the window lying brightly on its other side above a cabinet with broken and pretty poorly fitting and filled drawers. Posters had been stuck up on the walls all around us and from what I could tell were mostly wrestling or band based ones and there was also a large but tatty stars and stripes flag pinned up to wall where a headboard should have been. Draped over the bed was a brightly patterned patchwork which was handmade or possibly more likely from goodwill but looked super comfy if not a little ruffled like people in the interim had been sleeping in his space.

He scratched the back of his head and then gestured, clearly thinking the exact same thing.

"My mom probably let a whole bunch 'a people crash here."

"Oh."

"I mean, it's not like I use it anymore."

But in spite of that the place still obviously belonged to him, right down to the books piled on top of the cabinet that were written about conspiracies and other things he liked and which was further underlined by the rucksack on the floorboards which was evidently the one he had used as a through his school years on the fairly rare occasions that he had actually shown up there.

I breathed in deeply –

It actually smelt like him or maybe that was because he was stood alongside me and so untangling his hand I crossed towards the patchwork and tipped myself back on the bed with a bounce, before blinking in surprise as the mattress rose up to greet me like I was getting some sort of warm bedspring form of a hug.

"Ooh, wow."

Dean grinned at me,

"Yeah I fuckin' know right – like – I'm pretty sure that bed is the comfiest one I ever had, which is kinda ironic since I never really had anythin' an' I think it was already there when we arrived, but I had some 'a the best nights sleep of my life there."

I grinned like an idiot,

"Before you met me right?"

"Are you kiddin' me Princess? I barely fuckin' sleep at all now because I'm too busy checkin' you're breathin' an' shit or that you haven't been kidnapped in the middle of the night or somethin' seein' how much of a trouble magnet you are, I mean look at me, I look like I'm fuckin' eighty seven when really I haven't even turned twenty nine."

I rolled my eyes.

He was such a big drama queen and one that loved to lay it on thick but never managed to make it through without grinning which was exactly the look he was flashing across the space and which then grew wider as I pouted a little.

"I have never been kidnapped in the middle of the night."

"What about when your old man drugged you?"

"That was different."

"How?"

"Um, because I wasn't in bed then?"

In response to the hopefulness of my little suggestion, he snorted at me wryly and then peeled his leather jacket off before tossing it with practise across the back of a desk chair that was already piled high with what I assumed were his old clothes. Poking his tongue out in a teasingly little gesture, he moved in close until he was right in front of me and I fell back onto the quilt with a giggle in a hopeful invitation that he leapt on at once –

Literally leapt on.

In response to him suddenly launching towards me I squeaked in amusement then closed my eyes tight as the well used mattress bounced underneath me heavily and hands planted down on either side of my head. Dean was straddling me and grinning like a devil,

"It's still not too late to get a hotel."

"Nope."

Reaching up I looped my arms around his neckline and he lowered himself until his body was lightly pinning mine and then performed an impressive little miniature press-up that brought his lips to within kissing proximity to mine and which also said a million things he couldn't physically say to me, but most importantly told me that he was thankful that I was there and particularly that I hadn't run bawling from the apartment where he had spent his earliest years and so I deepened the lip lock then flickered my tongue through the opening with an actual half-chuckle of pleasure.

"Hmmm."

"Fuck."

Predictably the contact made his loin twitch shakily because he quickly shot a hand down to try and rearrange himself and to which I giggled at then made things worse by lifting my head up and then trying to suck a lipstick smudged hickey onto his neck.

"Whoa – ,"

Dean swiftly pinned my arms to the mattress in any easy little grip that wouldn't let me back up but the movement lifted up the hem of my blouse a bit and so exposed my stomach lying unprotected beneath and which suddenly seemed to strike him with an idea that I could practically see coming from about a mile off and the thought of it made me begin to squirm wildly in his tight hold,

"Don't you dare," I giggled warningly, "Dean no – ,"

But it was too late because no sooner had I said it than my fiancé had lowered his copper blonde head down and then planted his lips across my belly button before blowing a wet breath across it like a child and which instantly made me squeal with laughter.

I hated being a super ticklish girl.

"No, no please – ,"

He kept on going as I writhed and screamed and tried to haul in frantic breaths but finally tapered them off into much more welcome kisses that he traced over my buttons and then up along my neck.

He grumbled against my jawline,

"I fuckin' love you for comin' with me an' for not freakin' out about all 'a this shit."

"Well I love you for wanting me to come with you."

He lifted his brow again,

"We gonna fight about this now?"

I nodded,

"Uh huh."

But my confidence then faded as he promptly released my arms but then flipped me over onto my front and began to apply a very loose and light submission hold as I giggled for a moment and then pretended to tap out.

"Okay, you win."

He nuzzled against my hairline and then pressed a kiss against my earlobe that was tickly but warm, besides being almost aggressively adoring and which meant that I loved it,

"Yeah, but only because of you."


Next chapter Lauren is out on the streets of Dean's childhood and lets just say that things don't go too well, but then we knew that right because when do they ever for her? Hopefully that's why we love her though!