America's Suitehearts

**Hailz’s POV**
After about an hour of wandering around the aquarium, nudging each other every few minutes to point at an animal and go ‘That’s you’ or ‘Look, it me’, we finally made it to the tiger exhibit at the end. When we first got to the exhibit, they were still prepping it for the next tiger to come out. I explained to CC that they only displayed one of the four tigers at a time, putting in that particular tiger’s favorite toys, treats, and such between rotations.
“Hey, what are they spraying in there?” He asked and nodded to the workers behind the glass
“Perfume.” I responded nonchalantly
“Of what? The scent of death?” he scoffed
“It’s Channel no.5, actually.”
“Ha ha, good one!” He laughed
“I’m not kidding, one of the tiger’s caretakers would always wear Channel no.5 and one of them grew really fond of the smell so now spray some for her before she comes out.”
“Are you shitting me? The fucking tiger has a more expensive perfume than most of the women I know!” he said just before they made the announcement to introduce the tiger, Marina, before they let her into the enclosure. Oh my god, the look on CC’s face when that tiger ran into the enclosure and went right up to the glass the separated her from us is something I won’t ever forget. “That is one big kitty.” He mumbled, mesmerized, as we watched her rub her face against the glass where a bunch of little kids were standing.
“She’s really pretty, isn’t she?” I said after a couple minutes of watching her
“Absolutely gorgeous,” he agreed then wrapped his arm around me and looked at me “but not nearly as gorgeous as you, baby girl.”
“Aww, you cheeseball.” I blushed as I leaned my head against his shoulder. We watched Marina play in her enclosure for about another ten minutes before exiting out the gift shop, where CC, being CC, bought himself a green squid hat, which he wore as we walked out. He had offered to get me a tiger hat so we could be hat buddies, but they only had child sizes left so, alas, I was hat-less.
“So, what do you want to do now?” he asked as he pushed a green tentacle out of his face
“Well, there’s the Ferris wheel, obviously, but there’s also a couple little carnival games down those steps over there if you want to check those out first.” I suggested. As soon as I’d mentioned the games he seemed to light up.
“Games sound fun, let’s go check them out.” He said as he grabbed my hand and we started walking towards the game area. When we got down the steps, my attention was immediately stolen away from CC by a huge stuffed bunny that was at least half my height, which was up as the grand prize in one of the games, which looked like a cross between ring toss and duck shooter.
“Look at the size of it!” I squealed excitedly as I pointed it out to him
“That’s what she said.” He joked under his breath while I dragged him along with me to get a better look at it. After I had a chance to look at it up close and ask the employee running the game how to play, CC vowed to win it for me. I cheered for him for his first few tries at trying to throw rings around the moving duck cut-outs and even tried a couple times myself. After the next few he pushed up his sleeves and made me hold his squid hat for him so he could concentrate. Finally, after about twenty-five dollars’ worth of tries I had to pull him away from the game because he was getting too frustrated and I didn’t want him to waste all his money. The employee was nice enough to give us a small stuffed seahorse as a pity prize, but that didn’t make CC any less bent out of shape and he was still muttering about how he could’ve done it if he’d tried one more time as we got in line for the Ferris wheel.
“Babes, it’s okay, chill.”
“No, it’s not! I will not let those quacky bastards get the best of me!” he huffed and crossed his arms. Oh my god, is he really this mad over a carnival game?
“Babe…” he ignored me “Honey?” nothing. “Sugar? Sweetie? Darlin’?” he didn’t respond to any of them. We stood in silence for a moment before I remembered the seahorse I had in my hand. I ever so slowly raised the seahorse in front of his face which made him cock an eyebrow. “Hey there Mr. Grumpy Gills” I said in my best Dory voice. He rolled his eyes. I moved the seahorse closer to his face until its snout barely touched his nose. “Boop!”
“Stop it!” he said as he swatted the seahorse out of his face. Rude.
“No, you stop it! I’m just trying to enjoy my faux-Valentine’s date but your grumpy ass is making it very difficult! If you’re going to keep acting like this, over a god damn carnival game no less, then I’d rather just go home!” That seemed to snap him out of it.
“I’m sorry babe, I just…I really wanted to win the bunny for you.” He apologized as he gently ran his fingers up and down between my shoulder blades.
“You know, if you really wanted to get me a bunny, we could just go to Walmart and get one for, like, ten bucks.”
“I know, but I wanted to win it so it would be special to you.” He admitted
“But babe, why would I need a special bunny when I already have…” I quickly put his squid hat back on him “a super special squid-head AND a little baby sea horse?” I asked as I booped him on the nose with the seahorse again, but this time he smiled. “I mean, what else could a girl ask for?”
“You’re right, what else really matters in life besides squids and seahorses?” he chuckled as we stepped up to get on the Ferris wheel.
“But I’d like you to know that I appreciate the thought.” I murmured as I gave him a quick hug and he returned the favor with a kiss on my forehead before we were directed to our seats.

Notes

Sorry this is so late guys, but you'll be pleased to know that I wasn't entirely useless these past few weeks and have planned out the next 9 chapters which means 1) there's actually going to be more actual plot coming soon and 2) I'll be more motivated to update on a regular basis. YAY!