(Part 11 of World on a String series. Around 2037. Shout out as usual to the amazing gleerant and her Sugar from the Future verse. Thank you!)
(Copping to JJ's influence this time. But honestly, if I were to cop to people's influence every time, it would really be all y'all all the time, so. Love radiates round.)
Cozytimes
Two sharp tugs on her skirt pulled Santana's attention away from the screen.
"Hey, Sir Tugs-a-lot, 'sup?"
He held two hands up.
"Baby, you're not a baby, Baby."
She picked him up anyway. She made a sling of her linked hands and cradled him close to her. She touched his face. He touched her face. She kissed his cheek. He kissed hers. She smiled at him. He smiled back. Would she ever regret having held him? No. People told her to her face that she coddled him too much and that was why he didn't bother talking. He didn't have to. Fuck them.
He pointed to the couch. Pointedly.
"Cozytimes?" she said.
He pointed again, nodding.
"Let me close this down first." She started signing off. Two more tugs. "Yeah, Baby?" He pointed. Again. "Yeah, just a minute." Three tugs. "Baby, that's enough." Five tugs. "Charlie, no."
Seven tugs.
Santana took in a deep breath. It was so easy to lose her patience with him. He just wasn't anything like his sister. He just wasn't anything like any of the other kids around. He just wasn't… Wait. What he was, was… What he was, was… he was… like Brittany. Of course he was. Only more so. So. Understanding him should be the easiest thing in the world.
(It wasn't always.)
She stood with him and carried him to the couch, where she sat up against the arm and propped her legs up on the cushions and wrapped herself all around him. Like Brittany did with her. She made contact with as much of him as she could. She listened to his breath, synchronizing her own with him. His muscle tension began to melt. He leaned onto her and wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight, so tight. What if they'd never decided to have kids?
It was hard sometimes, so hard. But the times the kids just slipped their hands into hers… that was worth it. Her friends without kids really didn't get it. Other people with kids, compliant seeming kids, didn't get it. But they had their kids, their kids, and there was nothing on earth like them.
(Sometimes they were exhausting.)
Charlie heaved a deep sigh. His whole body twitched. So the decision: wait another few minutes and slide out from under him? Or just let go… and take a nap? Get up… or nap? Up?... Nap? Nap. Nap. Nap.
Sensing a nap, the pup wandered over and situated himself under the coffee table.
Sometime later, Charlie's sister came home from school. She noticed the soft snoring from the couch and went to see who was there. Quietly, she set her backpack down and set herself at the other end of the couch. Carefully, she climbed onto the couch to join them.
They hadn't moved when Brittany got home. She walked through the entire house looking for them, then spied them on the couch on her way back from the bedrooms. She crossed the room and sat on the coffee table, just looking at them. Just marveling at her incredible family.