This is my entry for Crime and Punishment 2024! Hope you enjoy and thanks to
soflabbwlover
for organizing the event! And thank you to my friend and beta reader
elizaloo
, too!
For the folks looking for my usual angstfests, this ain't one of them. It's just a silly, sweet little bit of smut. Don't worry, I'll be back to the misery mines soon!
CW:
mild raceplay
---
There are three things you need to know about Ariel, my wife.
First, she's gorgeous. I mean, she might not be to everyone's taste, but she is to mine. Ari is an absolute shortstack of a woman. She's short even for a Filipina at a smidge under five feet (I'm sure she'll yell, "Four-eleven-and-a-half, Kyle! Round up!" when she reads this), with the missing height apparently deposited in some truly magnificent curves. Add to that her long black hair, adorable round face, mischievous eyes, and an easy, broad smile? I was smitten the moment I laid eyes on her.
The second important thing is that she's always been a good girl. Daughter to overprotective immigrant parents, raised in the Catholic Church, and even more sheltered than those two factors would suggest... Well, let's just say that I proved to be a bit of a corrupting influence on her.
That went both ways, though. I'd been a bit of a player in college; when we met at a party, I was looking for my next one-night stand. Turns out Ariel was looking for her very first one, a 'declaration of independence from the shackles of her conservative upbringing,' she told me later, complete with self-deprecating eye roll.
Things didn't work out that way for either of us. What should have been a night of no-strings-attached fucking turned into conversation that lasted well into the pre-dawn hours and falling asleep in each other's arms fully clothed, followed by brunch the next morning, and gentle, intimate lovemaking for the rest of the weekend. We were a couple by the time Monday morning rolled around. Hell, we were probably a couple by the end of that first night, but we just didn't know it. A long-term relationship followed--the longest ever for me--then moving in together, engagement, and marriage.
Which brings me to the third thing you need to know: Ariel is an absolute goofball. I love this about her, how she's so unafraid to be silly or excited about things. She has none of the ridiculous self-consciousness most of us learn early on, instead enthusing about any topic which strikes her fancy. That's not to say she can't be serious when the time calls for it, but she's helped me see how rarely the times actually do call for it.
I'd say I got the better end of the deal, but I also know she'd disagree. She has in the past, telling me to hush when I suggest it, before settling the point with an affectionate, noisy smooch.
Her goofiness has interacted in interesting ways with her good girl nature throughout our relationship, but especially near the beginning. Sometimes, especially when Ariel wanted to play the brat, she tried so, so hard to be a bad girl, but her behavior barely moved the needle to "naughty." Even when cursing--and she cursed like a sailor, a bad habit she picked up from me--she usually sounded like a schoolgirl watching out for the nuns and their rulers, a mix of paranoia and rebelliousness I still find endlessly amusing.
Here's another example: Ariel turned out to have a bit of a submissive streak. It didn't comprise a huge part of her personality, nor of our bedroom fun, but it did poke its head up every once in a while. When it did--when Ari wanted "Daddy" to come out and play a bit rough with his "little girl"--she signaled this by being "bad."
Sort of.
Her version of "bad" meant failing to do the dishes, then pointing defiantly at the pile in the sink. Or holding my gaze while dropping her socks on the floor in the middle of the living room. Or grabbing my XBox controller and running out of the room; not when I was actually using it, though. That would be mean.
Not gonna lie: the adorable impishness she affected when being "bad" often led me to stifle a laugh before I disciplined her.
Eventually, though, she went too far. On our honeymoon, she committed a truly heinous crime, one which incurred far greater consequences than the usual punishments I doled out.
We'd taken two weeks after our wedding to visit her relatives on the island of Cebu, staying at a beachside hotel just outside Cebu City, although we rarely managed to see the surf and sand up close. Instead, her innumerable uncles, aunties, and cousins took us around to all the sights.
At first, I was a little miffed about having our honeymoon hijacked, but by the end of the third day, I saw the hidden wisdom in the packed schedule they'd arranged. Every day, we had to get up early enough and go to bed late enough that our jet lag probably only lasted about half the time it would have otherwise, even though we were essentially twelve hours off our usual day/night cycle.
More importantly, Ariel was in seventh heaven. She came alive when we visited with her family. A few of them had made it to our wedding, while others she'd only ever talked to online, but every one of them we visited brought a bigger and bigger smile to her face, the kids especially.
Ari absolutely adored spending time with her younger cousins, still laughing even as she helped to change diapers. Every once in a while, she'd hold up one of the babies and waggle her eyebrows at me, as if to say, "Can I keep it?" I always gave a playful glare, and she responded with a pout that was maybe 90% fake and 10% real.
We'd talked plenty of times about when we wanted to have kids of our own. Both of us wanted a big family; that much we agreed on. However, Ariel wanted to start ASAP, while I argued we should spend more time together as a married couple first. She inevitably countered with the argument that we'd had four years as a couple already, before sighing and agreeing when I replied, "And hasn't it been great? A little more time. I promise." I meant it, too; she was going to be a great mom, but I, perhaps selfishly, wanted another few years without the added responsibility first.
That didn't keep her extended family from gently harassing us about having kids. After dinner at one of her uncle's houses, Ari's aunt slyly waited until we were both in earshot before asking, "Mixed babies so cute, dili ba?" The other guests agreed wholeheartedly, each with a grin or a wink for the two of us. Ariel nodded bashfully, the morena skin of her face glowing with a warm, subtle blush. A round of quiet laughs rose from the assembled group.