A/N: If you have not read the first to books in my "A Love Like This" Stauren series, I highly suggest you do that first :)
°•°3rd person°•°
Steven slowly shuffled his way across the wooden floor of his and Lauren's bedroom, trying not to make a sound. The weight of his feet pressing down on the wood made the floorboards let out a tiny squeak
Lauren quickly whipped around at the sound, immediately seeing the small smirk spread across her husbands face. "I thought I heard you," she mumbled, letting one arm snake around his neck. Lauren being slightly shorter than Steven, she had to gently bring his face down towards hers, connecting their lips with a small, but loving kiss. "You're not very good at keeping quiet."
"I know..." he began. "...but I still get to do this." Not leaving another moment to let Lauren speak, Steven sealed the small space between their lips once more. He then stepped back, sitting down on the edge of their bed with Lauren standing between his legs.
"Whatcha doing?" Lauren chuckled, tucking a loose strand of Steven's soft hair behind his ear.
Steven took both of her hands, running his thumbs gently over the top of Lauren's hands. "Just admiring you," he said with a smile. "And realizing that we need a new mattress."
At that, Lauren gave him a confused look. "What make you think that?"
"Because..." Steven lifted his arm up and started patting the large lumps under the covers. "...there's way too many lumps in this mattress."
Then, an eruption of giggled occurred from under the covers, and Emmie, Caiden, and Cleo all poked their heads out from under the blankets.
Lauren quickly began to tickle Caiden and Emmie, making them roll around on the bed, laughing historically. Cleo instantly knocked Steven on his back, climbing on his chest and bouncing up and down. Steven lifted his arms up and gently poked at her sides, earning an adorable smile.
"Daddy, stop!" Cleo giggled, swatting at his arms until he stopped. The little girl continued to laugh and jumped into Lauren's lap, and Steven sat up to kiss Lauren's cheek. She turned her head to look at her husband, flashing him a smile.
He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "You're so beautiful."
Steven's head shook slowly from side to side as he slept on his back on a wooden floor. A small grin appeared in his face while he dreamed, Steven's face scrunching up for a small moment.
Suddenly, he shot up in place, quickly propping himself up with his hands at his sides. "Lauren..." he whispered as he snapped awake. Steven looked around the small office room to find Caiden and Cleo curled up together.
Steven crawled over to the two, smiling slightly at the way they were cuddled up. His fingers gently tucked a loose strand of Cleo's hair out of her face when he noticed her dirt covered shirt was pulled halfway up, revealing the large bullet wound scar on her stomach.
A sigh escaped his lips and he placed his blanket over the two before turning around to find both Lauren and Emmie gone.
"Lauren..." he asked, his voice a bit louder than a whisper. "Emmie?"
Standing up, Steven frantically looked around, trying to think of where they would have gone. He glanced back at Caiden and Cleo once more before grabbing both his knife and gun off of the small desk in the corner of the room.
Steven rushed out of the room and into the hallway of the office building the family was staying in, glancing out the front window. Outside, both Lauren and Emmie were fighting off a group walkers that was curling in on them.
"Oh shit," Steven mumbled before taking off down the hallway, rushing down the stairs.
As his hand reached for the doorknob that led outside, the door was shoved open and Emmie went crashing into Steven.
The girl let out a yelp and out of instinct, Lauren quickly grabbed Steven into a headlock, not realizing that it was him.
"Hey, it's me!" Steven said, putting his hands in the air.
Lauren let go of him, chuckling a bit. "Sorry."
"You guys scared the shit out of me when I woke up and you weren't there," Steven explained, hugging them both briefly. "Come on, I don't like leaving the twins alone."
Emmie went ahead while Lauren slipped her her hand into Steven's as they walked. Steven lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a small kiss on the top of her hand. "I love you," he whispered against her skin.
°•°Lauren's POV°•°
Emme was waiting at the office room door for Steven and I to catch up, holding onto the door handle.
"Took you long enough," she joked, smirking a bit.
"Oh shush," Steven chuckled, walking over to the door, slowly opening it.
Inside, both Caiden and Cleo were standing in the middle of the room, holding hands and gripping their small knives with their other hands. Caiden immediately took off running, gripping onto both Steven and I in a hug.
I glanced back at Cleo to see her quietly crying, her lip trembling. "Cleo," I said softly, reaching out to her.
"Momma!" She cried, rushing towards me, collapsing into my arms and bringing me to the floor. "Momma...I thought you left us."
"Never, baby girl. We would never leave you," I said soothingly, stroking her hair. "Now go back to bed. You'll need your energy."
She nodded and snuggled up into my arms, and took a few minutes for her to finally fall asleep. I reached out to my left and grabbed a blanket, wrapping Cleo up in it before setting her down next to Caiden once again.
"Psst," Steven whispered, making me turn around. "C'mere."
I crawled over to where Steven was sitting and sat between his legs, leaning back against his chest. "Hmm?" I asked. Steven's arms wrapped around my waist.
"Nothing," he replied, his lips gently grazing over my neck, making shivers run down my spine. "You know what?"
"What?" I asked, tapping my fingers on the tops of his hands was they gripped my waist.
Steven kissed my neck this time. "How the hell did I get so lucky to have you as my wife?"
I couldn't help but let a smile tug at the ends of my lips. "I don't know," I joked. My head leaned back just enough for Steven to kiss me with the touch of his soft lips.
A long yawn then escaped me. "Laur," Steven began.
"Hmm?"
"Go to sleep." I shook my head at him, wanting to stay up to keep him company. "Lauren, I can tell you're exhausted. Please get some rest, or at least a little bit."
"No, I've got to stay up to help you keep watch," I answered.
"Nothing's gonna happen. Please...for me?" He asked.
Sighing, I nodded before turning around, lying chest to chest with my head resting in the crook of Steven's neck. My arms looped around his neck loosely and I noticed Steven smile in victory out of the corner of my eye. "I love you," he whispered, kissing me once more on the cheek.
"I love you too," I mumbled against his neck.
I then no longer fought to stay awake mostly because I couldn't. From the second silence filled the small room, my eyelids became heavy, and I couldn't keep them open any longer. Then, exhaustion slowly took over me, bring me into a world of nightmares that I could never escape.
A/N
Chapter question \/please read\/
So I decided to do that other Stauren series story and I have a question about it. Lots of people always tell me how they love Emmie's character and she's in almost all of my books. So would you guys like it if one of Lauren's foster children is Emmie and she's like six and Steven has no clue that she's his daughter and Lauren's been taking care of her the whole time????? I honestly think it would make the story more interesting and dramatic with what I have planned, so I hope you guys will answer this question and let me do it :)
Wow this is shit for a first chapter...but I promise I will try to make my chapters better. I am going to start my new Stauren series soon so I will be posting an A/N about it when I publish it. I really hope you guys will like it cause I like my ideas I have for it :)
Chapter shoutout in the next chapter!!