TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT , cailin

[blake]

close enough to start a war. all that i have is on the floor, god only knows what we're fighting for.

surprises were never really blake's strong suit. he might not ever admit it, but he was like a child on christmas day in both aspects of the metaphor. he sucked at keeping secrets, and he hated waiting for the surprise to be unveiled. it had always been an issue during his childhood, and it was just one of those annoying traits that he never grew out of as he became a teenager and later, an adult. it was just one of those endearing qualities about him. he'd always be a little boy on the inside, depending on what exactly you were talking about. that's why keeping something this big from cailin for so long was excruciatingly painful for blake. he had to admit, he had tried avoiding her the past couple of days purely for the reason that he just couldn't contain himself anymore. but he had to make sure that everything would be perfect before he showed her what was the product of a month and a couple of weeks (give or take) of hard work and secrecy. and after coming off as a complete asshole for the last six weeks, he hoped to god that this would all make up for it. that, and several hours of makeup sex - which would be made much more easier given what the surprise entailed exactly.

blake was the type of guy that, when he felt he could easily lose something, he had to do everything in his power to make that thing his. and in this case, that meant completely and totally spoiling cailin. he hadn't proposed to her yet - he wasn't ready for something like that - but he had something else in store. and he wasn't doing this because he questioned her loyalty, because that definitely wasn't the case. it was just the blatant fact that she could find someone better that stared him straight on every single day when he woke up. he wasn't a complete idiot, and even if he was, he had been told it enough times that he wouldn't be able to ignore it, not no way in hell. and with that being said, his motives behind going all out on buying a place on the beach were obviously clear. he wanted to make sure cailin and their baby had absolutely everything they would ever need, even when he was away during the hockey season, which was still something he oddly wasn't looking forward to. he hated thinking about leaving cailin and not being able to show her how much he really wanted this. at first, he had to admit, he hated the idea of being settled down, and especially despised the word "father" and "i'm a" in the same sentence.

when they pulled up to the house, blake looked over at cailin, who was sitting snug in the passenger side seat, black blindfold tied around her head, covering her eyes and sitting just at the bridge of her nose. he grinned cheekily and reached over, placing a hand on her leg. "so i'll give you one more guess.." he paused, rubbing his thumb across the side of her knee. this was the third time he had asked her about what she had thought the surprise was, and he promised her that he'd only make her guess three times before finally giving the answer to her. cailin hadn't been able to get it right just yet, which was a good thing. blake doubted she would be able to find out on her own, anyways - he had said nothing that evening. he took her out to dinner, then shortly after that, told her to put the blindfold on and sit tight. like all good surprises, there were no warnings, no hints, no heads up - it was just a spontaneous occurrence, made more evident by the fact that her blindfold was actually a tie he had left in the backseat of his car a few weeks ago when he got done with a briefing in charleston. "just one more, then i'll tell you. show you. ask you. who knows?" he chuckled, his fingers gently tapping on her leg as he awaited anxiously for an answer.

mel with cailin // 702 words // FUCKING CLOTHES idk use your imagination // eeeek caike

[cailin]

Cailin was afraid. She was genuinely afraid that the point had come where Blake started pushing away from her. It seemed, with the male, that she just kept on waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop and it seemed as if that time was fast approaching. He'd been avoiding her. She knew damned well that he'd been avoiding her and, honestly, with everything that was going on in Cai's life right now and the million and a half things that she had to worry about, she was a little off her game outside of work. She forced herself to focus on work and work alone while she was at the hospital and, usually, the people around her helped her to that means, but when it came to Blake, getting a read on him while he was playing at his disappearing act was next to impossible. She felt like she was losing him, just as she had figured she would all along. It had been stupid of her to hold any kind of hope to begin with. Maybe Kahlan had been right all along.

And lord, she missed her sister. She missed her so much that it hurt. But all of the things her sister had said and the accusations that she had hurled her way had hurt her even more. She'd spent so long keeping their little two-person family together and being the one that Kahlan could rely on that she wasn't even sure she knew what to do with herself any longer. She hadn't had contact with her sister in so long that she was ready to give up at the breaking point and just call her. Even just to check up on her. Even just to know that she was still alive and well. She knew that this level of stress was never any good for a baby, but Cai couldn't seem to help herself. Nothing was making this any easier on her. Nothing. There were still a million things to worry about before the baby came.

But then, all of the sudden, Blake was coming at her with the promise of a surprise for her. She had to wonder if he wasn't going to roll up in a moving van and tell her that he was leaving or something of the sort. But instead, he took her out for a nice dinner and then he lead her out to his car, blindfolded her and told her to sit tight in the front seat. A nervous set of butterflies filled her stomach and made the little bump of life within her do what seemed like cartwheels. She pressed a hand to her stomach - an action that she did often enough when she thought about the baby within. And now he was giving her her third guess of the night as to what the surprise was. In spite of the millions of worries in her mind, she laughed.

"You know you're driving me absolutely insane, right?" She asked, turning her head in the direction that she knew him to be sitting in. She had no idea what was going on or what had sparked this spontaneous outing - or so it seemed. She had no clue that all the time he'd been avoiding her had actually been him working tirelessly to put this surprise together for her. She had to wonder, for a moment, if his absence in her life these days would be like what him going away for the hockey season would feel like. But she had decided something long ago. Once the baby was old enough and if they were still together in any capacity, she'd take the opportunity to fly out and see him when she had the chance at his games.

There were a million different hopes and dreams that Cailin had for their baby. On one hand, she kind of hoped that the baby would be a boy for Blake to introduce to the wild world of hockey. On another hand, she was terrified that Blake would let their child down in the future when he decided that he'd had enough of playing house. Cailin just had to be sure that she cemented herself against the possibility if she saw it coming. She needed to protect herself and the baby. It was incredible how quickly maternal instincts could kick in for a woman. "You bought an armored tank." She said, knowing that the idea of it sounded completely and utterly ridiculous, but she was tired of the guessing game. She just wanted all of her doubts and fears put to ease at the moment.

[blake]

close enough to start a war. all that i have is on the floor, god only knows what we're fighting for.

blake had to admit it to himself, he had outdone himself this time around. he gave off the exact impression that he wanted to in the first place; or at least so he thought. it might have seemed a little crude to want to seem distant and cold to the only woman he had ever said "i love you" to and actually have meant it, too, but he hoped that the little surprise he had in store would make up for it all. granted, it wasn't that little of a surprise at all. it was huge, actually. gigantic. buying a house with someone was big. it wasn't like renting, and it definitely wasn't like buying a small two bedroom apartment. a house promised a family. a life together. and although the thought still made blake a little queasy, that's exactly what he wanted for cailin, and especially for the little baby inside of her.

"oh, i know," he grinned, and although cailin was still blindfolded, the small gesture was definitely easily noticed in the tone of voice he used. "my goal in life is to drive you absolutely up the walls, don't you know? he teased. he undid his seat belt buckle and turned himself in the driver's seat of the car as best he could so he was facing cailin. his eyes inadvertently went to the small bump, and his throat closed up. he swallowed hard and averted his eyes to cai's face, a sight that, in his eyes, was just as pleasant as the small bump.

"dammit." he cursed aloud, trying to convey a tone of disappointment. "who told you that? it was summer, wasn't it? i knew i couldn't trust her with my secrets..." in fact, that was, however, the complete opposite. summer knew about it, too. so did half of cailin's friends that could still bear to talk to blake. all he could do these days was gush about the baby and cailin, and when he made a life altering decision such as buying a house for the two of them... well, you could imagine that he tried to tell as many people about it as possible without a: looking like a complete dork or b: telling anyone at all.

"cai, before you see this, i just want you to know.." he paused and took a deep breath, his breath hitching. "that i love you. and don't hate me or anything for being the jealous boyfriend without actually being your... boyfriend. or whatever. i don't know." he hesitated again, taking the time to pull the keys out of the ignition. "i just want to make sure you have everything you could ever want. even when i'm not here. even when i'm being a distant jerk.." more pauses. he chuckled inwardly, a wooshing sound that was gone as soon as he exhaled. he began to play around with the keys on his key chain before picking one out in particular. "so i may have went a little on the extreme side when i did this, but..." without saying anything more, he got out of the car and made his way to the passenger side of the bmw and opened the door. he carefully grabbed cailin's hand and helped her out of the car, keeping as silent as possible, although he was really dying inside to just turn her around and rip the blindfold off so she could see the next chapter in their life that they would embark on. together.

mel with cailin // 702 words // FUCKING CLOTHES idk use your imagination // eeeek caike

[cailin]

Of course he knew that he was driving her insane, but did the bastard have to sound so damned thrilled with himself for it? She tugged her lower lip through her teeth and shook her head. "I swear, you're enjoying this just a little bit too much." She commented with a roll of her eyes, despite the fact that he couldn't see it past the blindfold at the moment. But it was all right there, plain as day, in her body language. She didn't like being kept in the dark - literally or figuratively - and in this case, she was both. But she had a feeling that whatever this was all about, he was going to wind up making up for it in spades. He was too excited and this was just too much of a secret for her not to think along those lines. Now, she just had to wait him out and let him have his fun in the moment.

She listened as he unbuckled himself and heard the creak of the leather of the seat beneath him as he turned to face her in the car. She had to wonder what was on his mind and what exactly the hell was going on. She was sitting on her hands to keep herself from reaching up to remove the blindfold. He needed to have his moment here and she sensed that. But she just wished that she understood what the hell the deal was that he had been all but jumping through hoops to avoid her the last little while. And then suddenly he was so damned excited that it seemed he could barely contain himself in the moment. Maybe Cai should have been more worried about all of this than she actually was. But strangely... in an odd way... she trusted Blake. A number of people might have thought her batshit crazy for trusting the man... but she did. He wasn't perfect, but then, neither was she. Not by a long shot.

She had to laugh when he asked if it was Summer who had told her about the fabled armored tank. "Somehow I think if it was really an armored tank and Summer did know, she'd be running for the hills." She commented with a slight smirk on her lips. But this was driving her insane. Cailin knew that Blake was a lot more excited about the baby than he let on a good portion of the time, but the moment that you got him on the subject and actually talking about it, you could actually see the enthusiasm there. And maybe that was what kept Cailin seated right where she was. She knew that, even if she and Blake didn't wind up working out in the long run, the baby would have a father who cared immensely about him or her. She would never try to keep Blake away from his son or daughter. She knew just how important parents were in a child's life after having loved and lost her own...

She only wished they were here to greet their grandchild when he or she made their entrance into the world.

And then he started in on a little speech of his own and she had to wonder what he was on about. Being a jealous boyfriend without being a boyfriend? Have everything that she could ever want even when he wasn't there? She knew damned well that his job in professional sports would take him away from home, wherever that wound up being, a lot, but it wasn't as if she hadn't been expecting any of that. But she offered him a small smile anyhow and put a reassuring hand on his knee across the seat from her. "I love you too, Blake." She assured him. But she still wasn't sure where the hell he was going with all of this...

He got out of the car then and Cailin waited patiently for him to open up the door. The sound of the beach assaulted her senses the moment the door was open. Though it was common to hear the beach just about anywhere in Myrtle Beach, the smell of the ocean was strong on the wind as it carried the scent to her and she knew damned well that they were right near the beach. She steadied herself the moment she was up and on her feet and stood there a moment, trying to get her bearings, though it was impossible at the moment. "Okay... Seriously... Can I take the blindfold off now, Blake?" She asked, her impatience finally showing through.