Of Bunny Feet and Baby Snuggles
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, and I'm pretty sure that the people who do would be scratching their heads over this one.
Summary: A proud big sister announces the arrival of a new family member to her overseas pal. Junior/Maggie Anderson friendshippy, Drake/Wendy heavily implied. For 30kisses theme "cradle".
"Hello?"
"Hi! Is that Yomiko?"
In a tiny house in Tokyo, a smallish adolescent topped in silverblue frowned, bewildered.
"Eh, no; it's Junior."
A horrified squeak from the other end of the line.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! But I swear, you guys sound, like, identical on the phone!"
It was, Junior thought decidedly, just as well that there's no one around to laugh at his disgruntled expression.
"...Thanks."
A brief, sheepish silence, and the faint sound of a baby cooing.
"So, do you have any idea who this is?"
He smiled. She'd been phoning long-long-distance about once a month for over a year now, and sending him letters and funny emails almost every week. He'd long since learned to recognize her voice, and her mannerisms, and her laugh, and was fairly certain he could easily have recognized them anywhere.
"It's Maggie, isn't it?"
"Yup! Margaret Cecilia Anderson, reporting the arrival of the newest itty-bitty little Anderson into the world!"
His tiny smile widened slightly; on him, practically a grin.
"Congratulations, Big Sister."
A giggle.
"Thanks! I won't keep you on long - Dad said I could call to tell you the baby was here, and we're all home from the hospital, but it couldn't be more than half an hour."
He shook his head. Women. Not many men he knew would consider half an hour on the phone keeping it short.
"So, she's healthy?"
"Oh, yeah, she's just fine. Her name is Geneah Savannah, she's six pounds and two ounces, and oh my God, she's so cute! She's got these gigantic blue baby-eyes, and this tiny little baby-nose, and these little tiny hands--"
"Well, she is a baby," Junior pointed out, with no thought of being sarcastic.
"She's not just a baby!" The horror in her protest carried easily despite the thousands of miles between them. "She's the cutest little peanut in the world! I'm holding her right now, and Wendy's got her in this fuzzy pink sleeper with bunny-feet, and this fuzzy little blankie with daisies on it, and she's all snuggled up, dozing away."
"She sounds nice."
"Do you want to say hi?"
"Um, that's--"
"Hi, Junior!" Maggie cooed into the phone in her very best baby-voice.
"H-hello, Geneah."
"Gosh, I sure am lucky to have the awesomest, funniest, smartest, sexiest big sister in the world!"
"You do know that you're strange, don't you?"
"Oh, sure," Maggie replied easily. "We're all nuts here."
A long silence, awkward on one end, and in a baby-induced haze of delight on the other. Finally, Junior spoke up.
"So, how's Drake?"
Maggie snickered.
"Dad's loving this. He's hilarious. He hasn't left Wendy alone for a second since she went into labour. We had to tell him a story about a waterfall to get him to go to the bathroom when he started doing the squirmy gotta-pee dance at the forty-three hour mark. He won't even leave her alone to shower. He's helping her take a bath right now, which is the only reason I'm getting my turn for baby-snuggles, because prying Geneah away from the two of them is almost impossible. But who knows? Hot soapy water, lots of rubbing, I might end up with another little brother or sister in nine months!"
"Maggie!"
"I'm serious! They're hopeless! I swear, the week before Geneah came, she was pretty much too tired to move, and they were still all over each other."
"Thank-you for sharing. I needed some new nightmares."
"How do you think I feel?" Maggie demanded, outraged. "He's my dad!"
"You obviously don't mind too much, or you'd be trying not to think about it, not telling me all the details," Junior grumbled.
Maggie's grin was nearly audible.
"You're so cute."
"Thanks," he muttered, reddening and leaping gratefully at the first subject change that popped to mind. "So, Wendy's okay?"
"Oh, yeah, she's fine. The kid took forever to come, so she had plenty of time to threaten the nurse with bodily harm if he didn't get her an epidural, like, yesterday."
He chuckled softly.
"Somehow, I can't imagine that."
The thought rose, unbidden, in his mind that he also couldn't imagine his former roommate shopping for fuzzy pink sleepers with bunny-feet, or hoarding all the baby-snuggles, or anything else that might exhibit a trace of affection, but he crushed it back firmly.
There was no point in revisiting that train of thought. If the great big hug and plate of cookies he'd received last time they'd all been to visit Drake and his new bride were any indication, she was no more the same person than he was.
Which made it a little silly to feel hurt and annoyed that his friends were so glad to hear that a baby was on the way, when she'd raised him with all the affection one generally showered upon a potted plant.
Meanwhile, Maggie was giggling.
"Oh, it's true. I think she mentioned brutal decapitation with her car keys. But she's good now; she'd probably be up and cleaning the house for Geneah, if Dad would let her. I mean, it's not like Geneah really cares, she's two days old, but you know; Wendy's crazy."
"I know," Junior said emphatically. "I'm glad everyone's okay."
"How are things on your end?"
He shrugged, before it occurred to him that she had no way of seeing it.
"We're alright. Nancy and Yomiko have gone shopping with Michelle, Maggie Mui, Anita, and her friend Hisami, so it's quiet right now."
"But not for long," Maggie added ominously, before snickering again. "When do you think they're going to run out of books they don't already have?"
"I don't know, but I hope it's soon."
"Hey, it makes them happy, right?"
"Well, yes, but Nancy has been talking about buying a bigger house, because we're running out of book space."
Maggie laughed.
"Wow, that's--"
"And when she mentioned it to Michelle, she said we should all buy a hotel together, and fill all the extra rooms with books."
"Oh, come on, Junior," Maggie tsked, rolling her eyes good-naturedly at how such a smart guy could totally misinterpret a little harmless whimsy. "I'm pretty sure they weren't serious."
"I wish I could believe that," the young man sighed. "And I would, if I hadn't found a pile of real estate fliers, most of which were for vacant hotel buildings."
"Well, at least Dad, Wendy, Geneah and I will have somewhere to stay next time we come to visit," she giggled.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Junior grumbled. "Unless you want to try to squeeze in with the books."
"Sure, why not? We can build Geneah a little cradle out of paperbacks!"
In spite of himself, Junior chuckled softly.
"If she ends up reading as much as Anita and her sisters, your father might kill us."
"Junior, she just learned how to open her eyes, like, yesterday," Maggie pointed out patiently. "I don't think she'll be reading for a while."
Junior peeked briefly over his shoulder at the sound of the door opening, followed by the chattering of voices, from the other room.
"It looks like Nancy and Yomiko are back," he told Maggie. "Did you want to talk to them?"
"Oh, that's okay," Maggie replied cheerfully. "Actually, I should probably get going; Baby's looking for a boob, and she's not going to get much from mine."
Amid his wide-eyed, red-faced silence, she laughed, bid a final farewell, and hung up. Brought back to reality by the sound of the click on the other end of the line, Junior did likewise, and wandered out of the den,deep in thought.
And so it was that a bewildered Nancy found herself posed with the burning question that has plagued young men throughout the ages:
"When a girl tells you about her...eh, boobs, does that mean she likes you?"
--
End Notes: Hee! I'm gettin' to like Junior/Maggie A. What can I say? It strikes me as endlessly adorable. And I'm also getting to like Drake/Wendy babyfic. It, also, is endlessly adorable.
Also, Maggie getting all the baby-snuggles in this story is a reflection of all the Sims I've been playing recently, and how unendingly adorable the teenage Sims are when you shove a toddler Sim at them.