thecatinahat | (no subject)

She lets him roll them over, snuggling up close and slipping her leg between his so she can tangle them together so he can't leave. "Is it bad that I kind of don't want to find him?" she asks after the kiss breaks, her voice small and unsure. "Like, yeah, of course I want to clear our names, of course I want to make him pay for what he did, of course I want to stop whatever megalomaniac scheme he's brewing, but..." She sighs, twisting slightly so that she's half-rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling and the weird-shaped water stain that she's grown so used to.

"I like our life here. I like being your Jackie and running our tours. I like going down to the market with you and making you translate for me because everyone talks too fast. I like our apartment." She twists back, looking at him with wide blue eyes that seem all the bluer for the tan that's darkened her skin. "Is that bad?"

Edited 2016-07-23 03:36 (UTC)

He shakes his head, because with all her words, she's managed to describe exactly how he's feeling. He knows and wants there to be some justice for the twenty-five little angels he will never see again, but he's managed to find himself a life here that makes sense for him. And now, Jake wants to marry him, for real, and they could just be normal.

He bows his head down and kisses her shoulder. "Not bad," he promises, "but can't be real. Not after what he did."

It would be so easy to just quietly give up searching, to really let themselves live a life here. But that would mean nobody is looking for Max, nobody is trying to stop him, nobody is trying to avenge what he's done.

She sighs. "It's not fair."

Life isn't fair, she learned that very young. But that doesn't mean she can't be upset about it.

"We get our revenge," Cougar says evenly, his voice passionate despite the low volume, "and then we go home. I go meet your sister and niece properly, and we get married. Really married." There's more he wants to say about their home and their happiness, but he thinks this is the best start for now.

Talking about her sister and her niece cheers her up immensely. "Cougar, they already know you," she points out gently, reaching up to stroke his cheek with her fingertips. "And they love you." He's always been so courteous of her family, it's hardly a surprise they took a shine to him. "And I want to get married as soon as possible. Like, tomorrow-soon."

"Not as your husband," he says, because in his mind, that makes the world of difference. He's not just Cougar Alvarez, he'll be the man who's marrying the most important person in the world to them. When she makes her request though, Cougar lets out a wry laugh. "I need to buy you a ring to marry tomorrow. And you will not let me go."

Him being logical makes her whine and struggle impotently beneath him. "I don't want to let you go ring shopping, I want to make out with you!" She pouts, disliking having to choose, wanting the best of both worlds. "But I also want to marry you tomorrow morning, with the sunlight streaming through the windows of the church and flowers in my hair. Do you think we'll be able to find a priest to marry us on such short notice?"

Cougar can't help his grin when she can't seem to decide what she wants to do. He listens patiently, nodding the whole time as he tangles himself with her, careful to avoid the hips, and starts to kiss her in between words. "I have a priest," is what he says. "We can do evening wedding. Need witnesses," he points out.

"You do?" She shouldn't be surprised, Cougar goes to church relatively regularly, and sometimes she even accompanies him. Not often, she can't understand the service and she feels awkward staying in her pew when it comes time for Communion, but often enough that she thinks she's recognized by the congregation. It helps that she's so recognizable here in Bolivia, being nearly six feet tall with her brassy blonde hair. "We could call Pooch, I guess. Roque and Clay."

Edited 2016-07-23 17:08 (UTC)

He gives her a nod, because of course he has a priest. He doesn't think he could ever go to church and not have a relationship with a priest. His, here, is young and understands Cougar a little better than someone older would, which is nice, but at the same time, it's not like he can tell him everything.

"Or we could ask Father Pascal to pick someone from his congregation," Cougar offers, "if you want it to be a surprise to the team."

"It's not that I want it to be a surprise," she says, grateful that Cougar is able to read her half-formed reluctance without her saying much. "It's just...it's ours, y'know? Just you and me. Not Clay, not the team, just us."

"Ours," he agrees with a knowing nod of his head, because he knows what it's like to share in something special. He cups her cheek and gives her a soft, tender-hearted kiss as he thinks about their marriage. "I will ask Father to find someone to witness. He'll do the ceremony. And I need to get you a ring."

"I guess that means I have to let you go," she concedes with a sigh that's only half-played up for jokes. It helps that he kisses her like she's precious to him, that he seems reluctant to leave her even though she knows he's probably raring to go find something he deems acceptable. "Oh alright. Go on, then. I'll have dinner ready when you get home. And no," she adds, holding up her hand to forestall any smart comment he might try to make, "I won't be cooking. I'll probably just go visit the Ortizes down the block."

Cougar still sighs when he has to get up out of the bed, away from her. It's the last thing he wants to do, but if she really wants to be married tomorrow, he'll need to find the perfect ring sometime today. He leans in again and kisses her again, a little harder when she says she'll get dinner from the Ortizes.

"I love you," he says, seriously, and lifts himself up in order to start getting his things together to buy the ring. He hasn't got much money, though, so he hopes she won't mind him digging into the tour funds.

"I know," she replies, pushing up on her elbows to watch him, smiling, slightly overcome by the fact that this man was hers. "I love you too."

He can take whatever money he wants. It's just money, they can always make more. Watching him more around the room, collecting his things, her smile widens. "Go, get out of here. Before I change my mind and make you come here and fuck me already, tattoos be damned."

Cougar tucks the money into his back pocket and slides a knife into his front (because if anyone thinks they're touching the money that he's using for her ring, they're going to be missing a few more parts than they were before). "Be here when I'm back," he says. "And think of something we can do that won't hurt your hips."

"I will," she promises, slithering off the bed and moving to rest her hands on his shoulders so she can kiss him before pushing him towards to door. "Go."

After Cougar finally leaves, Jake makes her way to the bathroom so she can take a brief shower, careful to keep the tattoos dry for as long as possible. After, she stares at herself in the foggy mirror, admiring the way those small little smudges look against her hip bones. In a few weeks, they'll be as perfectly integrated into her skin as the freckles that have cropped up across her face and shoulders.

Setting an alarm for her phone so she won't get distracted, she goes and sits, stark naked, at her laptop to get some work done while she air dries, happily losing herself in the coding she's working on for well over an hour before her chirping phone drags her out of it.

Food from the Ortiz family restaurant is always delicious, but usually slightly out of their price range. Jake tries to save going there for special occasions, really, but there's nothing more special than her engagement in her mind, which is why she suggested it in the first place. By the time Cougar comes home, she'll have laid out plates of steaming, fragrant food, all waiting for him, and she'd have changed into one of her nicer dresses (but not the white one). She can't help the restless feeling in her limbs, the butterflies trembling in her belly. She shouldn't be nervous, she's already agreed to marry him, but somehow, him coming home with a ring for her will make it even more real.

They're going to be married.

It takes him longer than he thinks it will to find the ring. At first, it's finding a store that he thinks he can haggle in and the shopkeeper will let him peruse at his own pace. Then, he comes to the epiphany that he doesn't actually know what he should be getting Jake other than a ring. Too many diamonds doesn't seem right, but he also wants it to sparkle a little -- Jake does like her shiny things.

He knows when he sees the sapphires that it's going to be those.

From there, it takes another half an hour to pick a ring and then another to get it sized, on top of that. He's probably long overdue by the time he has it in his pocket (a few thousand dollars gone, even after the haggling), but he has an engagement ring for her, and it makes it seem all that much more official. It's the first time in his life that marriage and a future has ever seemed truly real and he knows it could never be better than with Jake.

He lets himself back into the apartment, inhaling deeply and showing his pleasure at the aroma. "It smells incredible," he praises.

"Cougar." Jake feels like some kind of bad 50's sitcom stereotype, rushing to the door to kiss him when he comes in, but who can blame her?

She laughs, removing his hat and placing it on her own head. "I slaved over it for you," she teases. "Hours spent in front of the stove, just to get it the way you like."

Cougar snorts at the comment. "If you did, it would be a miracle," he promises, kissing her as he steadies the hat on her head, grinning because he always did like the way it looks on her. He eases back, hands on her elbows, and gives her a curious look. "Well? How do you want me to ask you?"

"Rude," she chides, tapping him on the nose with her finger.

Lifting her eyebrows at him, she gives him as innocent a look as she can manage. "Ask me what?" she asks, guileless. She's not supposed to know about the proposal ahead of time, Cougar, c'mon. And if he looks, he'll notice she's not wearing the fake ring, having tucked it away in her bag to return it to Clay at a later date. All she's got on is her sundress and the bracelet Cougar gave her all those months ago.

He tips his head to the side and gives her an impatient look, sliding his fingers over her forearm and down to her wrist in order to rub his thumb against the bone there. "You're wearing my bracelet," he murmurs softly, curling into her touch as his gaze slides to her very bare hands.

"You look very lovely," he praises, because he thinks he should start with all the honest truths she's owed.

"Technically, I think it's my bracelet," she points out with a little laugh, shaking her arm to make the charms jangle.

His praise has her smiling, a soft tinge of pink washing over her cheeks. You'd think, after all this time, she'd get more used to this sort of thing, but Jake would challenge anyone to get used to Cougar complimenting them in that quiet, sincere tone. "Thank you. You bought me everything I'm wearing."

"The charms were a present for you," Cougar explains, his eyes latched onto each one as he moves his thumb over them. "It's a message for you. That I love you," he murmurs. "That I want you. You were supposed to see and understand." He kisses one her cheeks, then the other, easing back as he smiles and keeps his hand over the ring.

"You could not speak Spanish," he points out. "Had to buy them."

In hindsight, it's ridiculous that it took her so long to notice what Cougar was doing, but she's never claimed to be very perceptive, that's Cougar's job. "I'm sorry it took me so long to understand," she murmurs, her eyes closing as he kisses her cheeks.

"I'm working on it," she promises. Her progress may be slow, but she's better now than she used to be. Living immersed in a culture where most people don't speak any English has forced her comprehension to improve, if nothing else.