Trouble-Maker

"Att, Wake up. Wake up, Atticus."

I peaked my eyes open and then shut them quickly again. Ronnie chuckled in front of me and I felt his fingers on the skin of my cheek. "I've got a surprise for you," he told me, a little smile playing on his lips.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Where's Nico?" I asked quietly, ignoring his words.

Ronnie chuckled again. "Moon's asleep. In our bed but I piled pillows around her so she won't roll off."

I smiled at him and sat up. I realized that I had clunked out on the couch while watching Ronnie and Nico play little games and color on the coffee table while cartoons played on the TV. "What's the surprise?" I questioned as he sat down next to me and wrapped his arm over my shoulder. I noticed then that his hair was damp and he was dressed nicely, unlike earlier when he was hanging around the house in boxers and a hoodie.

Ronnie scoffed and shook his head. "It's a surprise! If I tell you it'll defeat the purpose and we'll have to call it not-a-surprise."

I rolled my eyes at his logic and got up from the couch. "You'll keep an eye on Nic?" I asked as I headed towards the bathroom to take a shower.

Ronnie grinned. "What do you think I've been doing while you've been asleep for two hours?"

I leaned up and kissed his lips before he diverged off towards the bedroom to check on Nico while I went into the bathroom and got into the shower. I washed my hair with strawberry shampoo and conditioner, washed my body, and shaved a little, before getting out. I wrapped a towel around my body before going to Ronnie's room, sighing when I realized that I was basically out of clothes to wear over here. I had brought a couple things over when I knew that I'd be staying here but I had worn all of my clothes and now had taken to lounging around in Ronnie's t-shirts and shorts.

"Radke!" I 'shouted' in a whisper out to the living room as I stood in his bedroom, staring at a closet full of men's clothing. Nico was asleep on the bed and I glanced back to her, grinning at the fact that I hadn't woken her up.

Ronnie came walking into the bedroom and stood with his hands on his hips as he looked at me, covered by only a towel. "Yes?"

I glared at the look on his face and replied sternly, "I'm out of clothing."

Ronnie just shrugged with a smirk on his lips. "Then go naked."

"Oh, that's a great solution, Ronnie," I said sarcastically, holding myself back from sticking my middle finger out at him.

He just laughed and walked closer to me, wrapping his arms around my toweled waist. I pushed him off of me with the hand I wasn't using to hold my towel up and turned towards his closet, pulling out the first pair of jeans I found and a white shirt. "We have to stop at my house," I told him with a stern look, "Because no matter how much you enjoy it, I do not like wearing your clothes every where we go."

Ronnie grinned. "When you smell like me, it keeps the other dumb-asses away from you. It's like you're marked for life."

I shook my head at him as I pulled on his clothes over my own underwear and bra. Ronnie laughed at me as I rolled up his pant legs, growling at how long they were on me compared to him. I decided to leave my dirty clothes at Ronnie's so I could wash them when he and I went to the laundry mat to wash his.

It only took me about a half an hour to get my hair and makeup done. I was getting my shoes on as I heard Ronnie walking into the living room. I looked up and a smile came on my face automatically. Ronnie held my sleeping sister in his arms as he walked across the floor towards me. Her head was resting against his shoulder and her short brown hair was sticking up in odd places. Ronnie had both of his arms wrapped around her protectively and he was looking at her rosy cheeks as she shifted and her little arms went around his neck, one of her hands resting against the back of his head.

I cooed under my breath lightly. Then I asked, "We can bring Nico to this surprise?"

Ronnie looked up to me and shrugged. "Sure, Moon's a great fucking kid. She can come anytime."

I rolled my eyes at his language and nodded towards the door. "In that case," I said, "Are you ready to go?"

"Sure thing," Ronnie replied as he led me out of his apartment, telling me to lock it behind me. He strapped Nico into the car and then we were off towards my apartment. He was driving since after this he'd be the only one to know where we were going. We pulled up to my place and Ronnie opted to wait in the car with Nico Moon while I went up stairs and changed quickly.

I changed into my own blue tanktop and blue jeans. My feet slipped into a pair of track shoes and I was ready. I folded up Ronnie's clothes and carried then with me out of the house. I threw them over the passenger's seat as I got back into the car. Ronnie grinned at me and started the vehicle, still not telling me where we were going.

The radio was playing quietly. I sang along as Ronnie drove, hitting the highway and heading out of town. I watched every street carefully as we drove on it. I couldn't tell where we were going so after an hour I decided just to sit back and enjoy this time.

Nico woke up about two hours into the ride and I crawled into the backseat quickly so I could feed her some of her snacks and change her diaper before should could get cranky. I strapped her back in as quickly as I could and handed her a few toys before climbing in between the front seats and sitting back down, buckling in too.

"Where are we going?" I asked a little over two hours into the ride.

Ronnie just looked over to me and shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried," I said exasperated, "I just want to know."

"You don't need to know."

I rolled my eyes and folded my arms over my chest. "I hate you," I said like a child, getting a blinding grin from Ronnie as he smiled smugly, knowing I was only kidding around but enjoying it, nonetheless.

The ride lasted a long time longer. About four hours after we had initially set out in the car Ronnie got into the city of Las Vegas. He smiled at me when he realized that I still hadn't figured out what we were doing. We drove for another fifteen minutes before Ronnie was turning onto a residential street. My jaw dropped when an idea popped into my head.

"Ronnie..." I trailed off as he pulled into a driveway that belonged to a little white house that had blue shutters.

Ronnie grinned at me and shut the car off. I was staring at the house but Ronnie turned to me and took one of my hands in his own. "Welcome to my childhood home," he said as he looked straight into my eyes.

My eyes widened when I saw a middle aged man appear from the front door, a smile on his face as he noticed his oldest son holding my hand.