Noll liked his routine. He liked knowing exactly was going to happen when he woke up and he liked to know that it was the most efficient way to doing things.

However, recently, everything had changed.

Before this heinous event, he knew that during the week, he would wake at six and go for a run or workout while Mai showered. Then she would make breakfast while he showered and then they would eat before going to work. At the weekends, they would lie in and make breakfast together – which didn't always just include cooking – before getting on with the daily activities.

In other words, his routine was perfect.

The new disturbance kept deciding to wake him up early. And by early, the disturbance thought before five am was a good time.

Noll was vaguely aware that someone else was in his and Mai's bedroom and trying desperately to pull the covered off of him. Mentally, he groaned.

"Himeko, what are you doing?" he whispered.

"Play!" his daughter hissed back.

"How did you get out of your cot?"

"Magic!" she said, waving her hands at her father with a massive grin on her face.

"It's not magic," Noll muttered back. "It's PK…"

"PK magic!" Himeko repeated.

Noll felt Mai shift in her sleep, and even in his half-asleep state, he knew he would do anything not to wake her.

"Go back to bed," he begged of his daughter.

"PK magic play time!"

Noll sighed and forced himself out of his bed.

Himeko giggled happily as he picked her up and carried her back to her own room.

"We'll play later, once everyone's woken up," he said in an attempt to placate his daughter.

"No!" Himeko protested. "Play now!"

When he entered his daughter's room, he grumbled audibly. He had presumed when his daughter had implied she'd used her PK to get out of her cot that she had used it to lower the sides and crawl out.

What she had actually done was blast a hole in the side.

"Himeko," Noll began. "You can't go around blasting things that are in your way, your mother won't like it."

"Oops!" Himeko said with a giggle.

"Do you want to make your mother sad?"

"Mummy no sad!"

"She might be when she sees this," Noll commented.

"Play now!"

Noll sighed and sat down cross-legged on the floor. Himeko crawled to her cot, pulled her blanket out and sat on it. Then she started screwing her face up.

A moment later and some of the brightly coloured building blocks floated over to the space between her father and herself.

"Very good," Noll said. "Now what are we building today?"

"Castle!" Himeko said. "Pwincess Mummy live in castle!"

"A castle," Noll said. He began setting out blocks and Himeko helped him.

"Then Daddy rescue Mummy!"

"I seem to do a lot of that," Noll muttered. "And where are you in this story?"

"Evil magic person!" Himeko said with an evil grin. "And dragons."

"Dragons?"

"In the film! Sleepy pwincess and dragon!"

"Sleeping Beauty?"

"Uh huh!" Himeko agreed as she placed another block on the 'castle'. "Mummy is 'Rora and Daddy is pwince and me is qween!" She cackled in a way that Noll – had he considered the word an acceptable one – would have called 'cute'.


When Mai woke, the first thing she noticed was that her husband was missing. And worse, his side of the bed was cold; he had been gone a while.

"Naru?" she said as she climbed out of bed, but heard no answering call.

She began searching the house; it did not take her long to locate her husband.

As she entered her daughter's room, she took in the hole in the side of the cot, the half collapsed structure in the centre of the floor and her sleeping family. Noll was leant against the wall with Himeko using his lap as a pillow. Noll had obviously covered Himeko with the blanket, but had not wanted to move her.

Mai sighed and then retrieved her phone, snapped a picture and sent it to Luella.

"Himeko," she began softly. "Time to wake up now."

Himeko whined in protest. Mai scooped her up with the blanket and carried her through to the kitchen.

"And what do you think you've been doing? Why weren't you in your bed?"

"Secret play time," Himeko said. "Me and Daddy do secret play time."

"I see," Mai replied as she put the kettle on. "Why don't you do it in the daytime?"

"Secret!"

"I see," Mai repeated. "What about sleeping?"

"Sleepy boring!" Himeko yawned. Mai sat her on the counter as she made tea.

"Do you want to go and wake Daddy up?"

"Yes!"

Mai lowered her to the floor and watched her toddle off before finishing making the tea.

Her husband appeared a moment later looking exhausted.

She handed him the cup of tea, which he accepted gratefully.

"Drink that and go back to bed," Mai said. "I'll watch Himeko for a while."

"No," Noll protested sleepily. "I have to protect my princess from a dragon and an evil queen."

If anyone had told a sixteen year old Mai that she would hear those words coming out of Noll's mouth, she wouldn't have believed it.

"Excuse me?"

"Himeko, explain to your mother," Noll said as he took a seat at the table and nursed his cup of tea.

"Mummy is pwincess in castle," Himeko said importantly. "Daddy save mummy and me is evil qween!"

"And the dragon?"

"I has dragon," Himeko said with a massive grin.

"I see," Mai said, smiling at her daughter. "Well how about, Daddy can go and have a nap while we make a castle and then he can come and rescue me?"

"We made a castle," Noll said.

"You made a tiny little castle; I'll show her how it's really done!" Mai proclaimed. Noll shook his head slightly, downed his tea and headed towards their bedroom.


When Noll woke for the second time, he found that the duvet previously covering his body had been stolen.

He got up and shuffled his way to the living room, where he could hear two giggling females.

But the living room had been taken over by a gigantic blanket fort. He smiled to himself.

"I've come to rescue a princess," he prompted before dropping to his knees and crawling in through the only visible entrance. Two bodies tackled him once he was inside.

"Surrender!" Mai exclaimed.

"We win!" Himeko agreed giggling.

"You're our prisoner now," Mai said.

Noll played along and tried to struggle against the hands holding him down.

"I give in," he said finally. Himeko giggled again.

"We has snacks," Himeko said and pulled him further inside the fort.

Well, Noll thought, maybe this interruption to his everyday routine wasn't too bad.


Author's note: So I think this is in the same universe as the Animals prompt... I just loved writing baby Himeko! Someone pointed out that she had it pretty bad in my stories so... It's nice to give her some fluffy stuff too! Please review :)