Author's note: I'm working on about a dozen other fics, but this one came to me this morning and demanded to be written! I may write another fic explaining how Mr. Sneaky Paws got his name...
It starts off with a sneeze. And then a cough. Pretty soon, little Cassie Lopez-Pierce, Brittany and Santana's youngest daughter, finds herself in a terrible predicament, one of the worst kinds for any child of 4 ¾ years – she has a cold.
"Miss Abby," the little girl tugs on her teacher's skirt, full-on puppy dog pout in place.
When Miss Abby fails to turn around immediately, helping Gabe Turner tie his shoes, Cassie bursts into tears. This is when Miss Abby knows something is seriously wrong. Cassie, just like her big sister, rarely ever cries.
Quickly finishing up Gabe's sneakers, the teacher quickly attends to Cassie, kneeling down beside her.
"What's wrong, Cass?" she asks softly, taking in the girl's appearance.
Cassie's face is bright pink, flushed with the exertion of coughing and crying. Her blonde pigtails have become undone, as only a preschooler's can within such a short space of time. Her little hands are bunched up in her red and green dress, adorned with candy canes and Christmas trees for the upcoming holiday.
Cassie tries to contain her tears, sucking in air through her mouth and making little hiccupping noises.
"I don't feel good and Mr. Sneaky Paws stoled my toast and Sissy pinched me here, see!" Cassie pauses in her stream of words to push up her sleeve and point to a supposed pinch mark.
"And mommy didn't even see and I fell on my bottom before school and I don't feel good and Abe is lookin' at me and I want my momma!" the little girl bursts into tears once more before hurling herself at her teacher.
Meanwhile, a few short blocks away from the preschool, big kid Lavender Lopez-Pierce, Cassie's older sister, finds herself in a similar situation.
The morning had not started out too well for the first grader. Mommy made toast and eggs for breakfast, which Lavender hates almost more than anything (even more than spiders or that weird kid on the playground who always picks his nose). And then stupid Cassie drank all the apple juice so Lavender had to drink yucky grape juice. Mr. Sneaky Paws hid her lucky strawberry scented eraser, and now she's stuck sitting next to smelly Jennie Nelson.
Except that smelly Jennie isn't as smelly as usual, and neither is Lavender's third luckiest (blueberry scented) eraser or the licorice scented marker she's using for her art project. Her head feels bad, too, and she feels icky all over. And before she knows it, Lavender doesn't want to color anymore, even though art is her second favorite class. All she wants to do is go back to sleep (not take a nap like her baby sister, just go back to bedtime).
Mrs. Johnson notices that there's something wrong right away. Normally during her art class, there's one particular student who spends her time utilizing every material available to her. Lavender flits and twirls and buzzes from one end of the room to the other, collecting a vast assortment of crayons, pencils, markers and, of course, glitter glue to create her masterpieces.
She also typically tries to start a sing-a-long with whatever new song they learned in music class that week and has to be told, "Tell your voice to wait for music class to sing, please, Lavender."
Having been a teacher for twenty years, Mrs. Johnson knows when children need to be sent home at a glance. She also knows how quickly viruses spread through their tiny bodies – happy and healthy at breakfast, and absolutely miserable by lunchtime. She gently approaches Lavender, knowing how unpredictable a sick child can be.
"Hey, Lavender, how's your picture coming along?" the woman asks, sitting in the tiny seat next to her student.
The girl looks glances down, her normally gregarious disposition tinged with lethargy and sickness.
"I think Lav's sick, Mrs. Johnson," Jennie speaks on behalf of her tablemate.
Lavender gathers all her strength to roll her eyes at stupid, smelly Jennie who can never seem to mind her own beeswax.
"How about we take a trip to see Nurse Ann? How does that sound?"
Lavender nods and takes her teacher's hand, letting her guide her through the halls to the nurse's office.
It's barely 10 a.m. and already Santana is swamped with paperwork. Literally from the moment she woke up, her day has been going all wrong. She knocked over the alarm clock while trying to shut it off, and rolled out of bed only to step on the cat's tail. Brittany seemed undisturbed by the matter, snoring away under the covers.
Seemed being the operative word. After Santana spent a good ten minutes trying (and failing) to find her contacts, Brittany suddenly appeared next to her in their bathroom.
"You need to apologize to Mr. Sneaky Paws," she had said to Santana, looking pointedly at her.
Santana sighed at this but gave in at once, "I know, babe. Just let me wake up the girls and get them ready. I promise I'll say sorry before we leave."
Satisfied with her reply, Brittany kissed her wife sweetly before going downstairs to start breakfast.
Getting the girls out of bed was easy enough, but getting them dressed was another story. She woke Lavender up first, with a song and a dance, before moving onto Cassie. Lavender insisted she was old enough to pick out her own clothes, but Cassie could not be trusted to select a reasonable outfit for school.
After Santana woke up their youngest daughter with a tickle attack, she set to work on dressing the preschooler. Having picked up Brittany's ridiculous fashion sense and Santana's short temper, Cassie was not easy to get dressed. She whined and stomped her feet until she was satisfied with her ensemble – a Christmas-themed dress, green tights with purple polka dots, pink heart earrings, and a multi-colored dinosaur hat.
Satisfied that her daughter's outfit was at least weather appropriate, Santana and Cassie joined the other half of their family downstairs for breakfast.
The rest of the morning was a blur. It was all kids going back and forth between laughing and arguing about this and that, both Brittany and Santana trying to get the girls' school things ready, and Mr. Sneaky Paws running around the house like someone spiked his Friskey's with catnip.
So now Santana sits at her desk, trying to put a dent in the huge pile of papers on her desk. Before she can even begin, her phone vibrates and lights up, revealing the name of her daughter's school.
Very few people know this, but Brittany is a little bit psychic. Rachel Berry had confirmed Brittany's abilities in high school, and Rachel was super smart so obviously it must be true. Brittany's psychic abilities warned her of this day.
It all came to her last night, in a dream. She, Santana, and the girls were all bunny rabbits sleeping in a field. Mr. Sneaky Paws was there, too, but he was a clover. Santana started to nibble on him, not recognizing him as their pet. The girls started fighting over who could wiggle her nose the cutest (and Brittany had to admit that it was totally impossible to decide which one was cuter). Out of nowhere, it started raining cats and dogs. Actual cats and dogs with some real rain mixed in (but mainly cats and dogs).
Brittany woke with a start, and then nodded knowingly to herself. She was going to do whatever she could to make this day less of a disaster than her dream.
She tried to get Santana to apologize to Mr. Sneaky Paws. She did her best with breakfast, despite the fact that grocery day wasn't until tomorrow and there was not too much to work with. Lavender teased Cassie more than usual, and Cassie was sneakier than usual about getting her big sister back for it. Santana and Lavender left without their goodbye kisses, but of course Lavender had been sure to stick her tongue out at Cassie as Santana rushed her out the door.
So after Brittany dropped Cassie off at preschool (making sure she got her goodbye kiss and a feel better kiss after Cassie fell outside of her classroom), Brittany took a trip to the store before heading to work herself.
She walks down the aisles, waiting for her next vision to come to her. She has hot chocolate with extra marshmallows in her basket, knowing that is a for sure pick-me-up not matter who you are or what's gone wrong. Reaching the medicine aisle, her phone rings suddenly. Brittany nods to herself just like she did this morning, knowing exactly what this phone call will reveal.
The Lopez-Pierce family has had a very long day, although things are starting to take a turn for the better. Cassie had thrown herself at her mommy as soon as she entered the preschool building. She clung to her like a baby monkey when they had gone to pick up Lavender, and both girls had fallen asleep on the ride home.
The rest of their day is filled with cough syrup (blech!), soup (meh), and hot chocolate (yum!).
Brittany and Santana's room is now the sick room. The lights are dimmed, two Hello Kitty humidifiers buzzing away and filling the air with camphor vapors. Santana and Brittany lay together on their bed, their two girls snuggled up between them and nestled in a sea of well-worn quilts.
"This is your fault, you know," Brittany whispers, careful not to wake up the kids.
Santana lovingly brushes the hair out of each girl's face before looking up at her wife with an amused smile.
"And why is that?"
"You never apologized to Mr. Sneaky Paws."
Santana rolls her eyes adoringly, knowing Brittany is only slightly serious. She looks to the end of the bed where their cat is loyally perched.
"I'm very sorry. I hope you can forgive me," Santana keeps her voice low as she addresses the cat, who stretches out and yawns in reply.
"I think you're forgiven."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You know what else?"
"Hm?"
"I love you."
Santana's smile widens to full capacity, as it does every time she hears those words from Brittany.
"I love you, too."