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 smiled 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 Hound Wolf Squad back in October. He'd made it back a few days ago and the two decided they did like the house with the unfinished basement they had viewed in November, and Chris put in an offer.
"Things are moving so fast," Emma said 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' proposal, watching the girls every other weekend, and the holidays her schedule was packed. Not to mention working full time. It was a lot to keep track of. Of course, that didn't 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'd taped to the hood of the stove. 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 nodded 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 would 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 said, still smiling.
"Hey, you're in a good mood," she replied as she leaned back into him to try to look at him.
"Yep," Chris replied, still smiling. "Got a call from the realtor."
"And?" Emma asked as he now had her full attention.
"We're moving in. March 20th,"
"You're kidding," she said, stunned; she was sure there were at least three other offers on the place by now. "They accepted the offer?"
"Yep, standard contingencies, 90-day closing," he confirmed. "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 said with a matching excited smile.
Chris gave a quiet 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 said as he got a few steps away. He stopped and turned to face her again as she called for him to wait. Now embarrassed, Emma used 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 had 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' smile remained as he gave a small huff of a laugh and walked back over, taking the 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 asked as he put the plant back in its place on the stove hood.
"Yep," Emma replied 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 said with a nod before heading back out to bring in the supplies, including some rather excessive explosives and a remote detonator. Yeah, he was definitely going to make sure that was safely tucked away and locked up.
He'd barely finished locking up the room when excited knocking could be heard from the door. "I got it," he said as he headed over to answer it.
"Uncle Chris!" Called Summer and Maurie.
"Auwnkle Cwris!" said Annie as she echoed her older sisters. Summer would be nine in a few months, Maurie had just turned seven, and Annie was now three-years-old.
"Hey, good to see you," Chelsea greeted as the three kids hurried to hug him then ran into the apartment. "Thanks for watching them over the holidays like this. You guys are lifesavers."
Chris shrugged. "You gotta do what you got to do." 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 to keep from being heard. "She's been getting pushy, so if she asks about it just ignore her, okay?"
"Can do," Chris said with a nod. This was going to be a long weekend he could already tell.
"Great. Okay, see you guys on Sunday," Chelsea said.
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 gave a small disapproving huff. "Goodbye girls!"
"Bye mom!"
"Bye mama."
"Buhbuyah."
Chelsea's expression remained neutral. On the one hand, it was a good thing the girls weren't upset she was leaving, but dang that was cold. She shook her head with a chuckle "See you around," she said to Chris, who replied in kind, giving a short wave as she headed out.
Chris closed up the apartment before noticing Annie had started pulling on Duke's face. "Nope!" he said as he hurried over and picked her up to get her away from the fluffy critter who quickly got up to 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 said, offering the spoon to Chris, who more than willingly handed over the screeching siren to Emma and accepted the spoon. He headed over to the kitchen and finished making what appeared to be three boxes worth of macaroni and cheese.
It took a good five 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 asked as she walked over to pull on Emma's jeans.
"Hm?" she said as she looks over to watch as Maurie held up a DVD case.
"Can we watch this one?" Maurie asked, holding up Frozen 2.
Lord alive, they had to make a second one of those, didn't they? "After dinner," Emma said. hoping to buy some time before having to watch it 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 said as she walked 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 said quietly as she walked over to take over cooking again. Chris gave her a quick kiss before moving to gather plates and cups.
"Eeeww cooties!" Summer said loudly before making a disgusted face and sticking out her tongue. Emma laughs at the exclamation before clearing her throat and going back to preparing the meal.
Chris chuckled under his breath before attempting to set the table. "Summer, you need to pack it up for now," he said.
She quickly closed her sketchbook and nodded. "Fiiiiine" she replied. 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 five or six 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, sort of, 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 Maurie and Chris sat at the other end of the table next to Summer.
He quietly ate his meal, 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 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 slid the last half of his slice onto the floor. It landed with a more noticeable slap since it was not cut up. Chris winced slightly, but luckily, Summer yawned at the same time to cover up the sound.
"What are you two up to?" Emma asked with an attempt at an unamused stare.
"Nothing," Summer said quickly with a clearly guilty expression. "I finished my dinner can I have dessert please?"
Emma was not convinced but nodded. "There are cookies in the pantry. You can have four with a glass of milk."
Chris picked up his and Summer's plates. "I'll help her with the cup," he said and the two headed to the kitchen. Chris put the plates in the sink before offering a hand to Summer who gently patted it for a subtle high-five. Mission accomplished. Chris got 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 wandered back over to her box of art supplies and took it back to the table so she could draw while eating her cookies. Chris got his cup of coffee and headed to the living room to sit down and read for a while. 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. They 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 ten minutes as they gathered blankets and pillows to make a pile in front of the TV. Meanwhile, Summer joined everyone in the living room, shuffling over with her sketchbook to sit on the couch next to Chris. She eventually started to kick her legs and look around, which was usually a sign that she wanted attention.
Chris looked up from his book then went back to reading. If she needed something she could use her words.
Summer frowned as her usual cue was ignored. She shifted 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 asked without looking up from his book.
The eight-year-old took the offer to talk, hook line and sinker, as she quickly sat up so she could continue hugging her sketchbook but look at Chris properly. 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. When did kids get so freaking sneaky?
Emma continued to wash the dishes but leaned back to call into the room, "Summer, leave Chris alone. He's not buying you a dog," she said figuring that would at least get the kid to stop pestering him and argue with her instead.
Hearing the statement from Emma caused Summer's expression to shift to an indignant pout. "But that's not what I was gonna ask!" she shouted 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 had already opened Pandora's box, might as well rip the band aid off. He gave a tired sigh. "What is it?" he asked 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 said as she flipped her sketchbook open 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 someone he assumed was Summer, holding a baby brother. Which was indicated by a bow on his 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 said 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 bajillion times increased in playtime fun and… " The fake statistics continued to spew forth.
"That's—" Chris eventually cut in, but cleared his throat. "You know I think you should maybe focus on asking your DAD for this one."
"I tried that, and he said no," Summer said 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 replied 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 was eight and thought any adult could just order a baby from the stork in the sky, but come on.
"But I really want one," she whined, 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 replied before going back to his book and drink, now sufficiently red in the face.
Summer gasped. "Thatsa good idea!" she agreed before hurrying back to the table to try to do just that.
Chris eventually finished his drink and got up to go wash out his mug, only to find Emma still chuckling to herself, earning her a hard stare.
Emma waved him off. "Don't look at me like that, it's funny."
"Is it though?" he asks, unamused.
"Yes. Hilarious actually," she replied before giving him a peck on the cheek.
He grumbled but gave one in return before washing out his mug and heading back to his book.
As the fully ignored movie's ending credits started to roll, Emma walked over. "All right, kiddos, it's bedtime," she announced as she started picking up blankets and pillows. She received 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 said and the three begrudgingly complied.
It took a good thirty minutes, but eventually, Emma wrangled 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 three 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 nodded when she found it was locked. With that confirmed, she smiled contently and sat next to Chris.
"And they're asleep," she said as Chris instinctively put an arm over her shoulder.
"Good," he replied with a yawn, having abandoned his book a while ago. "What a day."
"Yeah," Emma agreed. "You did pretty well with the girls, though, all things considered. I really appreciate the help." She gave him a slight smile.
"Eh, they're not so bad," Chris said with a partial smile of his own.
"Especially when they help you get out of eating dinner," Emma said, which caused 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 grumbled with a sigh.
"To each their own," Emma said as she leaned to rest against his side. "it's cute seeing you two get along, though. So I can't be too mad," she admitted before bobbing her head slightly. "Did you ever consider having one of your own?"
"You're joking right?" Chris asked 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 nodded and laughed.
"Of course, I'm joking," she said 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 kerfuffle 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' and throw a few finger guns? Just NO! Frick. 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 knew 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' friend just had a kid, and she and Chris were moving in together. That should be enough. She was happy. It wasn't like she wasn't because of one honestly small factor. Stupid hormones. She wasn't sure if that was the actual problem, but she was certainly going to blame it on them.
"Emma," Chris said with a slight frown.
"What?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, I was just joking. I didn't scare you, right?" She chuckled as she moved to get back up. "I should walk Duke before it gets too late."
"...Right," he replied. 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
