I finally figured out what to write hallelujah. I love writing cute stuff when sinister things are going on in the background. It's fun lmao. We all know the day to wait for.
Song Suggestion: Our Time by Nick Howard
Disclaimer: I own nothing~
Emma Yawns as she sat on her couch and watched TV. It was a peaceful Friday afternoon. She actually got home a bit early which was nice so Dinner was in the oven and cooking. That peace quickly disappeared as a frantic knocking could be heard at her door. She looked over to the door with curious concern as she dug her phone out of her pocket to check the Camera.
Standing outside of her door and nervously shifting their weight from side to side as they looked around was Travis of all people.
"huh," she says as she put her phone away and got up to walk over to the door. Hopefully, everything was okay but seeing him that antsy made her nervous. "Travis?" Emma says as she opens the door only to have him grab her arm and lead her away.
"I'm kidnapping you," he says without any further explanation and starts leading her down the stairs
"What?!" Emma asks now panicking. Travis quickly turns around and makes a hushing motion.
"Shh, not literally. Now come with me I need your help" he says quietly.
"Travis my stove is on and I don't have shoes or a coat," Emma says in a whispering hiss with a frown. he could have just asked.
"Oh... Sorry. Hurry I don't want anyone to see me," Travis says as he puts his coat hood up to try and hide his face.
Lord alive why was everyone suddenly in trouble. She gave a quiet sigh as she went back into the apartment turned off the stove, moved the food from the stove to the fridge since it barely started cooking, and left a sticky note with instructions for how to finish cooking the meal in case Chris got home before she did. She went and grabbed her purse before putting on her coat and shoes. The only other people on the floor were Chris and Bastion. so unless he was avoiding someone on a different floor, which she doubted, he was up to something.
"Alright, Now I can go." Emma says after locking up the apartment and walking out with him as he continued to hide his face all the way to his car. once they got in he finally put his hood down. "What are we doing?"
"I told you, I need your help," Travis replies as he gets the car started and starts driving.
Maybe she should have checked on this before she got in the car. "Help with what? Did you do something Illegal or?" Emma asks concern which catches Travis' attention.
"Illega- what no. Wait you'd help me even if you thought I did something criminal?" He asks with a touched tone.
Emma laughs at this point "Well that's debatable but I'm glad it's not a question of legality. The question remains though..."
Travis continues to drive through his face turns a bit pink before taking a deep breath. "Well, Bastion and I have been together for two years now and I was thinking," his words became more mumbled as he spoke as if they were too heavy and fell flat. realizing he probably wasn't completely coherent he tries again. " I was thinking of maybeproposingduringnewyears," he says quickly before clearing his throat. It was a bit too fast but it was the best the poor nervous wreck could manage.
It took Emma a second to translate the mess but once she understood she smiled from ear to ear "Aw Travis that's awesome, are you nervous?" she asks as she tries to understand why he was having such a hard time saying that when it was something he, assumedly, wanted to do.
"Pfft, Me? Nervous?" he says and laughs "Terrified." he clarifies before giving a quiet sigh. "I mean. What if he says no?" Travis says before his eye.
"Have you guys talked about this?" Emma asks while trying really hard not to laugh. this was serious and he had expressed multiple times now that he needed her help.
"Yeah, a little bit. I donno," Travis says as he keeps one hand on the wheel to continue driving while the other moves to nervously rub his neck.
"If you've talked about it I don't see why he'd say no, you'll be fine," She replies hoping to try and reassure him.
"maybe," Travis quietly says under his breath. "Anyways, you know Bastion pretty well, I was hoping maybe you could help me out a bit by keeping me from chickening out while looking at rings and give some pointers on which one he might like?"
"I can do that," Emma says with a gentle smile, he really was nervous, the poor thing. "Though maybe Chris would have been a better source for that. He's known Bastion a lot longer than I have."
"That's true," he agrees while frowning slightly. "He's a bit intimidating sometimes though," Travis admits with a sigh. "Not that it's a bad thing, I just don't know him that well. We at least see each other once a month for movie night."
That was a fair point, alright. "Okay well gentle but firm Emma support is at your service," She says with a determined nod which causes Travis to chuckle.
"Thank," he says while continuing to focus on driving to the mall. "I think I know what he'd like, I just kinda need the reassurance and the nudge to go for it I think?"
"I can do that," Emma confirms, she was just honored he thought to go to her for this even if the 'kidnapping' was a bit much at first. It kinda made sense now that she understood why he was so antsy though. with that thought she digs out her phone.
[Emma] Hey ran out with Travis to do some shopping for a bit. Not sure when I'll be back. Dinner is in the fridge with cooking instructions if you're up for it.
[Chris] kk. See you later.
With the messages sent and received, she smiled as she listened to Travis continue to nervously chat as they made their way to the local jewelry store. Travis eventually found a parking space allowing the two to exit the vehicle and head inside of the well-lit showroom of glass cases.
"Good afternoon, Can I help you find anything?" asks a sales clerk who rather eagerly walked over to greet the two. Ah, commission-based salary.
"I'm looking for an engagement ring for my boyfriend," Travis says as he kept his hands in his coat pockets so he could fidget with his keys.
Emma slightly raised her hand, "I'm moral support." she explained to try and signal to the clerk that she wouldn't be buying anything while in the store. Hopefully, that would keep any sales pressure away from her. she did not have the money for that right now.
"I see, Well we have an excellent selection of engagement bands so you're in the right place. Did you have a style in mind?" the Clerk asks while motioning for the two to follow them.
"I'm looking for something in White gold?" Travis replies though it sounded more like a question.
"White gold would work nicely," Emma agrees with a nod. "He likes to have his nails done so it will match more of the styles and colors."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too," Travis says as his smile starts to return and the fidgeting lessens slightly.
I see, so would you say he's more on a fashion-forward side or simple and subdued?" the clerk asks as they go behind the counter to start poking around in the displays.
Emma and Travis look at each other before nodding and looking back to the clerk. "Flashy," they say at the same time which causes Travis to laugh.
The clerk chuckles as well "a unanimous answer, in stereo. Got it. Let's see what we can find." They were more than happy to hear that answer since Flashy meant Money.
That one was too thin, that one was too thick. the other one was too plain, the next was just plain gaudy. He was flashy but a classy sort of flashy. They'd looked through Dozens of options before He had it narrowed down to two options. one being an almost bassy white gold with a random bark-like hatched texture towards the outside and a mother of pearl almost opal looking central stripe running around the ring giving it the illusion of 3 stacked bands. According to the sales clerk, the materials were actually Meteorite and dinosaur bones. The other was a more Classic looking White Gold with a similar stacked appearance with a row of smaller chip diamonds around each of the edges and a soft almost felt-looking braided metal center that was a slightly darker gray color but still rather light all the same.
"They're both gorgeous," Emma says, ultimately leaving the choice to Travis.
"Yeah," He says quietly while staring at them.
"What's on your mind?" Emma asks figuring that talking out his thoughts might help him pick.
he quietly hums."The Meteorite ring is certainly unique, I think he'd like it and it's the right width." Travis says before pointing to the other "I think he'd like that one better" he admits as he points to the more classic-looking one "but it's a bit too thick... Bastion works with his hands so having something that bulky would be more of a hindrance for him..."
"Hmm good point." Emma agrees as she looks between the two. Where did they even get dinosaur bones and who thought 'I know let's turn it into a wedding band!' ? She couldn't deny it was unique and Bastion might enjoy the novelty of it but. a novelty wasn't usually the best bet for something like an engagement ring. And, to Travis's credit, the more classic-looking one was a bit chunky.
"Ah, if it's just a matter of the thickness we do offer this design in a 5, 6, and 7 mm variant as well, our display model is the 8 mm." The clerk explains before getting a tool from behind the counter to measure the meteorite ring. "this one appears to be a 6mm, if that helps"
"So I could get one in this style but with that thickness?" Travis asks pointing between the two rings.
The clerk nods "Yes sir, if that's what you'd like to do."
Travis looks to Emma who gives him a subtle thumbs-up, he then looks back to the Clerk and nods. "Yeah, I think I'll go ahead and do that." Emma and the clerk both give gentle applause for the decision.
"Congratulations, sir. Let me go and get the order form and I'll get this written up for you," the Clerk says before walking off.
Eventually, they returned and talked with Travis through the ordering process along with a few up sales attempts that were politely yet firmly declined. The ring was ordered, a payment plan was made and a date was set. December 31st, 2020. he'd have the ring just in time for new years. Travis drove the whole way back, no longer nervously chatting but instead excitedly going over ideas he had in mind for how to go about asking his million-dollar question.
"Thanks again for going with me, you're a life-saver," Travis says as he pulls into his parking spot in the garage and stops the car. the trip had been a full expedition as it was now quite dark out.
"Not a problem, I'm glad I could help," Emma replies with a chuckle. "you made it sound like I was going to have to tackle you to keep you in the store, you did great." she offers which gets him to laugh as well.
"Well there were a couple of touch-and-go moments there where you almost might have had to," He jokes in return.
"All the same, I'm excited for New Years now," She says as they both get out.
"It's gonna be something, are you okay to take pictures?" Travis asks and Emma nods.
"Absolutely," Emma agrees as they walk to the building.
Travis reaches out and pulls her in for a hug "Okay big hug, gaaah! Thank yooou," he says giving her a little shake which causes her to laugh.
"You're welcooome," Emma says imitating his drawn-out tone. With that he let her go, still smiling from ear to ear. "you remember your story right?"
"We went to see if we could find a movie and went to three different red boxes but no one had it," Travis says with a nod.
"good" Emma replies and with that, they made their way into the building.
Emma unlocked the door for her apartment and was happily greeted by Duke as she found Chris sitting on the couch fast asleep. A gentle smile replaced her previously giddy one as she quietly closed the door and slipped off her shoes before walking around the apartment. she found a plate of food waiting for her in the microwave which she elected to eat cold to avoid waking the guy up.
"He must have had a hard day, He's going to hurt his neck if he stays like that though, " Emma whispers quietly while looking over to the sleeping figure who was leaning his head back to rest against the back of the couch which caused him to occasionally snore. She chuckled at this before focusing on finishing her cold meal. Once the plate was clean she put the dishes into the sink and walked over to sit next to him and gently nudges him to wake him up. A deep inhale let her know that the nudging worked as he began to stir. a quiet groan escaped his lips as he sat up and held the back of his neck. Whoops, looks like she was a bit too late to save him from a neck cramp.
"Oh. Sorry," she says with quiet sympathy. "Long day at work?" she asks in a similar quiet voice to avoid being too jarring as he woke up.
Chris Nods in return and yawns. "yeah, nothing too unusual though." he says though it was a bit mumbled.
"Well at least it's the weekend," she offers with a slight smile. "Any new additions to the stash?"
again he nods "Yeah, a few mags. Some flash grenades. And I'm not sure how but I'm pretty sure Lobo managed to get an RPG and marker system into the car. that's probably not going to go unnoticed."
I'm sorry a what now? "Ah," she replies, though her expression is one of concern. "Well, Lobo is the Heavy munitions expert right?"
"Yep," Chris confirms.
"That was probably him then yeah, it would make sense for him to want that kind of gear. However, I'm not going to be sleeping in a bed with heavy explosives under it." She says with a short laugh. Oh gosh, how did this become normal for her?
Chris gives a tired chuckle as well "I see, well. Luckily I think I know somewhere you can stay in the meantime" he says with a slight smirk. "We have to get up early tomorrow anyways right?"
"Yeah, that's right. For the open houses," She says as she had almost forgotten as well. she leans over to give him a peck on the cheek before getting up. "I'm going to walk duke real quick. I'll be over after that. you should get some rest though before you pass out again." Duke quickly wandered off to go find his leash as he heard his third most favoritest word.
"Kay," he says as he gets up as well and stretches.
'*'*'*'*'
A few weeks had passed since then as early November gave way to later in the month. Each Saturday the two would continue their search for a place to stay and this Saturday was no different. They were on the second to last walk-through for the day and they were both a bit tired at this point. It felt like they were going to run out of options at this point and nothing had really struck them even after searching for what. 4 months now?
This one was probably the one Emma was more excited about of the few they visited recently. It looked nice in the pictures but she'd learned that half the time the photos online were taken at Juuust the right angle to make the place look much nicer than it really was and hid imperfections. The Realtor unlocked the house for the two.
"If you need anything I'll be right here," they reply and gesture for the two to enter.
"Thanks," Emma says and Chris nods before walking in. Emma looks around mildly impressed "it looks like the pictures." she says with a chuckle. It was a good start.
"Hmm, let's not get too excited," Chris says in return with a slight smile and the two walked around.
No half torn up floors or missing walls so that was a plus too, it was kind of weird how common that was when trying to find anything in the area. Lots of the listings were from first-time house flippers who realized halfway through that they weren't cut out for the job. The two walk around the two-floor home looking for anything that might be an issue in the long run.
"It might be a bit more space than we really need," Chris says as they look around. 3 bed, two and a half bath. they really only needed maybe 2 rooms at best so Emma could keep a spare room for the nieces.
"If that's your only complaint so far I think this place is doing pretty good," Emma says with a chuckle as they walk around the second floor before giving a quiet hum. "There would be room for you to have a study so that's nice," she says as she gestures to one of the empty bedrooms. "Lock that up when the girls visit so they don't dig through your stuff. The last thing we need is for Summer to decide that handguns are cool and run around with one of those."
"Did we add a gun safe to the list?" Chris asks as Emma made a pretty fair point.
"Already on there," Emma says with a smile as she heads back down the stairs.
"Good," he says with a relieved sigh as he follows her back to the main floor of the home.
they made their way through to the kitchen/dining/ living room area that was painted a less than lovely shade of orange.
"Paint?" Emma says while forcing a neutral expression.
"Paint," Chris agrees as he walks over to get a better look at the wall. "looks like they painted over wallpaper too,"
"Greaaat," Emma says with a slight sigh. "Well, it's nothing a bit of elbow grease can't fix." She adds before chuckling. "Honestly though orange?"
"I don't know," he says shaking his head, "Some people like weird things." He admits before heading to a sliding door to open it. "Huh, I didn't realize this one had a patio."
"Does it?" she asks as she walks over. "huh. guess it does" she says with a note of surprise before chuckling. "Could add a grill to the list so you can practice with that."
"I'm not cooking for your father," Chris says with a slight smirk.
Hearing that causes Emma to openly laugh. "Oh gosh no. I don't even like doing that. Gives me some crazy anxiety that I messed up a step and he'll notice. Not that he'd ever say anything if I did. I wouldn't ask you to do that." "Were you thinking they'd be visiting?"
"Hmm you never know, last year my sister suddenly showed up out of nowhere for the holidays without warning," He says as he closes the door and locks it back up.
"Are you still grumpy about that?" Emma asks a bit surprised though she relaxes a bit as she noticed he was still smiling. He was pulling her leg. She rolled her eyes a bit at that but that did remind her. She took out her phone as he walked ahead of her and snapped a picture real quick to send to Claire.
[Emma] Chris Report: House hunting day ? ? ? This one might be promising
[Claire] Hahaha aww. thanks for the update. good luck!
Emma smiles as they head down to the basement of the house. it had a decent amount of space but it was unfinished. "This could be a bit of work but, it's a blank canvas," She offers while looking around the open space.
Chris walks over to check the Egress window. "No mold," he says with a note of hope. so far this was actually looking like a decent option. With that, he heads back over to Emma. "So, blank canvas. what are you thinking?"
Emma chuckles "We do not have the funds to finish a basement." Maybe if she used her nest egg but she wasn't sure how comfortable Chris would be with her making that much of an investment in the venture. "Hypothetically though," she says while looking at the area before walking forward a bit to gesture around as she spoke. "maybe build back a wall on each side of the stairs to divide the space in half. this side could have another wall going from here to here" she says gesturing to the back quarter of the space. "could put the washer and dryer in there for a laundry room to free up some space in the bathroom upstairs. Less room for water damage if they're down here too." Emma explains before gesturing to the remaining space for the half of the basement she was standing in "We could turn this into a workout area. Get a few real mats for when we're practicing" She explained with a smile as she walked back over to Chris and gives him a few gentle punches to the arm Which causes him to chuckle as he takes a step back and holds up a hand in his usual gesture for a target.
Seeing this causes her to chuckle as she does so. after a few quick training punches and kicks Chris grabs her hand and pulls her towards him with a smile.
"Alright, I think I'm starting to see it." he admits while holding her and looking around before motioning with his head to the other half of the basement. "and what about that side."
"hmmm" Emma says while thinking it over "Maybe card table for when the Squad comes over? could get a dart board as well" she offers as a suggestion.
"Sold" he says with a laugh. "we could probably put in some storage space in the empty area under the stairs," Chris adds.
"Oooh that would be nice." she agrees before chuckling. "we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves though."
"Maybe" Chris admits before giving her a peck on the side of her head. "I think I like this one though."
"Yeah, same" She replies with a content smile.
This week's chapter was eaten by Microsoft updates because Microsoft says screw you, we don't give warnings or ask permission anymore. GAH! so yeah X'D sorry about the delay this is another REDO chapter where I had to fight to get it out lmao.
Review Responses:
Starrat- Always happy to hear you enjoyed the latest chapter ^U^ hopefully this one was worth the wait.
Guest1995 - Thanks so much for the support ovo/ honestly it helped a lot with getting this chapter out to I appreciate it. know I'd add a lil heart to the end of this message if the editing software would have allowed for it lol
Kai - Aw quq Honest to goodness your message made my day. I had a lil extra pep in my step being called an author
