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He misses Gwen like a limb that’s been cut from his body, and it’s surprising in so many ways. It’s surprising because him and Miranda had been apart for much longer than four days in the past, and he never missed her like this. Sure, he missed her, and looked forward to when they would see each other again, but it wasn’t this all encompassing, aching feeling that filled his heart now. He’s never been one to need his partner in his back pocket all the time; hell he’s a musician and a singer and he loves touring and doesn’t want his woman to follow him around like a puppy. But everything about Gwen is different. She’s feminine and sweet and gentle in a way Miranda was; she’s motherly and weird and a little nerdy. She’s model beautiful; her pictures look like something out of Vogue magazine, and she’s taller than Miranda was; she smiles more, laughs easily, and cries at everything. She’s different; he misses her with an ache that surprises him even as he’s feeling it.
He loved the first three days of his mini tour, don’t get him wrong. He loved performing, and the fact that his shows were sponsored meant that he got to do things like have a circular television screen up and a circular stage so that he could play to all sides of the audience (he hated the idea of people paying to sit behind the stage and not even see him). He’s seen some of both the official pictures and the ones fans took, and they look awesome. He’s gotten to meet some incredibly nice people and fans had been so good to him; he’s gotten to sing some of the older songs that show off his vocal range (and the fact that his voice was gravely and cracked was so worth it because he missed feeling his voice strain); he’s felt powerful and confident in a way he hasn’t in a long time. But, despite all of these good feelings, despite the fact that he can’t wait to do it again next weekend, he’s not entirely unhappy when the bus takes him back to Nashville and he gets on his plane to go back to LA.
He’s practically fidgeting the entire plane journey there, and his bandmates that are also going back to LA make fun of him for acting like a little kid going to DisneyWorld for the first time. He bounces his knee and stares out the window and sips his water, and he thinks about the presents in his suitcase for all of them (matching hats, one tiny for Appollo, two other kid sized, and two for him and Gwen) and he hopes she’ll let her kids wear them. She’s cognizant of the press and how everyone reads into anything, he knows, but he’s at least hoping that they’ll wear them separately (because something about Gwen and her kids in stuff he cares about, like his hats or camo, just fills his heart with this warmth and happiness that he can’t even put a better name on).
The minute the pilot tells them they can get up he’s up and grabbing his small bag out of the cabinet near the front of the plane, rushing to the door as its opened onto the small private runway near LA. He’s down the stairs the minute the door opens, and his eyes scan around for Gwen, who has said she would meet him here.
Before he can take a few more steps down the runway, right there at the bottom of the steps on the tarmac, his arms are filled with five foot six of punk rockstar, and she’s kissing the breath out of him. Her arms are wrapped oh so tightly around his neck, and her legs are off the floor and he holds her body up with his hands around her waist. She’s pressing against him toe to head, and she's grinning even as she’s kissing him over an over with short, frantic pecks. Intellectually, he knows that he’s probably blocking everyone else from getting off of the plane, and that they’re acting like he’s been off to war instead of just gone for a few days, but he doesn’t care, because he has his girl in his arms again, and that heartbeat skipping thing is happening inside of him like it usually does whenever he’s around her, and he smells cinnamon and strawberries and the slight hint of lemon that’s in her perfume.
Blake sets her down and breaks their liplock for just a second (she pouts and makes a little face and it’s adorable) and he leans down so he can slot one hand in her hair with the other around her waist and kiss her passionately. She’s opening her mouth for him almost before he asks for it, and their tongues stroke each other before she licks the edges of his lips. They’re making out deeply now, he knows, and he also knows the rest of the band members who came to LA with him are probably getting a show with the porn worthy kiss, but he can’t get himself to stop. Her hands come up to scratch lightly through his scalp, pulling his hair ever so slightly in that way that he likes before coming down to stroke her fingertips through the scruff of his beard.
Suddenly, a sharp whistle pierces the air, and Gwen and Blake’s lips separate with a loud pop. Blake turns, his arm still around Gwen’s waist, to see three very amused band members at the top of the stairs to the tarmac, their arms crossed (and Jenelle is actually tapping her foot impatiently even as she’s grinning). “ Hey y’all,” Ben the drummer says, “ Much as we’d like to see ya keep suckin’ face I got places to be,” His voice is good natured and amused, and he feels more than sees Gwen laugh, and when he turns back to her her face is bright red just before she buries it in his neck. He laughs too, also blushing (because hello they’d practically been sucking the air out of each other’s lungs in public) and moves them off to the side so everyone can get on the tarmac. He breaks away from Gwen then to give each of the band members a hug and tell them that he’d see them Thursday (Jennelle winks at him and tells him to not do anything that she wouldn’t do and he tells her “get out of here!” in a teasing tone with a bright red face).
He finds himself surprised again as he watches the band walk away when Gwen practically jumps on him, winding her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She’s blushing even as she’s laughing, and his arms reflexively go under her thighs to support her. She kisses, nuzzles, and lightly sucks at his cheek, her nose squishing against his face. He laughs, biting the corner of his lip and stuffing his nose into her hair for a long breath. “ Sorry, “ Gwen says through her kisses, “ I just missed you. Like, so much,” She sounds self conscious even as she’s doing it and he brings his hands up to her face to cup it, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks. Embarassingly, he finds that his eyes are a little wet, and he has to swallow back the lump in his throat.
“ I missed you too,” His voice cracks and he blushes, because why is he getting emotional over this? “ Like, so much,” He says back, and she laughs too with wet eyes (and maybe she’s rubbing off on him, maybe he’s going to start crying at everything and for the first time he thinks that might be ok because she’ll be there to cry too), and she hugs him to her, sniffling into his ear. He decides to shift the mood a bit (because hello he's a man even if he’s turning into an overemotional sap lately) and cups her ass, squeezing as he nuzzles down into her neck and nibbles on the skin.
The effect is instantaneous. She lets out a breathy little oh and grinds into him the best she’s able, and he feels his jeans fill and his blood start to sing (he’s had more sex in the last months with her than he has in the twenty-four years since he started having sex combined) and he grins into her neck, bringing one of his hands up to cup her breast through her coat. “ Public, Blake,” she says breathlessly, and he grins again. He licks into her mouth, and she tries to lighten the passion for half of a second before she groans under her breath and submits to him. He knows what pushes her buttons, and he’s purposefully hitting every single one. They make out like this for a few seconds, before she gets her strength back and pushes him away just a little, giving him a look even as she’s flushed and arousal eyed. He noses up to her ear, whispering in it as one hand keeps squeezing her ass and the other keeps massaging her breast, and she’s trying to grind into him again before long.
“ Know what the only thing I can think about is?” He murmurs to her, sucking the tip of her ear into his mouth. She shakes her head, whimpering a little. “ How fast I can get you out of these clothes and I can get into you,” She gasps then, a full dramatic thing, before pulling his lips to hers for a desperate kiss. It’s tinged with disappointment and regret, and he’s not surprised when she breaks away from him to give him a guilty look.
“ Oh God baby I want that right now, like, so bad, but…” she pauses as her hands come up to his cheeks, and he nuzzles his lips against one of them, “ the kids were just so freaking excited to see you again. They’re in the car with Jess out in the parking lot,” the words are uttered through a little wince, like she expects him to get a little angry, and he smiles at her wide (even though he loves her kids so so much he’s a little disappointed because that really was all he could think about. but he tamps it down with the strongest mental hammer he can manage).
“ I missed them too!” He exclaims, and he really has. Even though he’s still in that quasi uncle/friend phase with them, he’s looking forward to the day when he can be a father figure, because he’s always wanted to be a father. “ This way I can give ‘em the presents I got ‘em,” He says simply, and she gives him a look that’s half wonder and half happiness, before she hugs him with her face against his neck.
“ You got them presents?” She murmurs into his skin, and he nods.
“ Yup,” he says, rubbing a hand over her back soothingly as he eases her legs off of him and onto the ground, “ Got you one too,” he kisses her nose, and she grins up at him.
“ Yeah?” She asks, and its a little excited and a little like a little kid. He nods.
“ ‘Course,” He says, like it’s a given, and she takes his hand and they walk out to the parking lot.
The nanny can barely get the SUV door open when the kids see them before Zuma is barreling out of it and into Blake’s arms, and he gives him a noogie and holds him upside down by his feet as the seven year old giggles and giggles. he eventually picks him up and cradles him with his head on Blake’s shoulder and sets him in the car, ruffling his hair. From Kingston he gets a meaningful, serious hug, and he smiles at Kingston with a gentle smile and Kingston smiles back (he’s Gwen’s most serious kid and definitely the one most emotionally traumatized by the divorce; Blake’s slowly but surely winning him over though and Gwen’s told him Kingston loves the fact that she’s happier than she’s ever been around her sons). Apollo reaches out tiny toddler arms from his carseat and Blake unsnaps him quickly before cradling him to his chest and hugging him. Apollo sighs a sleepy sigh and nuzzles into Blake’s chest, and Blake gets that overemotional heartbeat stuttering feeling again, because in that moment it feels like he’s family.
Eventually, the kids break away enough to let Blake go into his bag and get the hats,and Zuma whoops and Kingston smiles (because he started to do things to imitate Blake like cut his hair shorter and wear hats) and Apollo giggles as Blake settles it on his head. Gwen laughs too, and he gets a warm nuzzled kiss on his cheek. Blake expects them to take the hats off because of the cameras on the road and wear them at separate times later, but Gwen sits them all in the car and then takes a selfie of the whole car with everyone leaning forward so they can be seen on camera, and they’re all grinning in their matching hats.
To Blake’s absolute shock, she then announces, “ Twitter time!” and posts the photo, showing him the post before she hits it. He can’t help but beam at her, because the picture is there, along with the caption The best squad. #squadgoals #uwishuwereascoolasus and a heart emoji. As soon as she hits post and tags him, he’s retweeting it along with the picture, adding in a couple of sunglasses emojis and a smiling face one. She takes his hand as she pulls out onto the road, and before long Zuma is talking a mile a minute and Kingston is asking Blake if they can go swimming when they get home (Kingston says home like Blake lives there too and fuck there goes his heartbeat again) and Apollo is giggling as Blake reaches his hand back to tickle him.
A year ago, he never would have pictured his life like this. He never would have thought life would be this good; with a family and a girl and laughter. If you’d ask him what he wanted a year ago, he would have said freedom and to stop crying so much and a full bottle of whisky. Now, though, he thinks of the simple things. Things like a ring on Gwen’s finger and calling her his wife and five pairs of shoes in the entryway door, ranging in size. He thinks about talking about his family in interviews and all of them wearing matching hats to Cardinals games. He thinks about mess and noise in his house in Tish, thinks about taking them all to his favorite burger place before swimming in the lake. Things are different than they were a year ago, so different, but he couldn’t be happier about it.