Notes: Another Uris Family AU drabble - Abby at daycare!
Leave any disbelief in the marked box by the door, please. :3
"Sharing Is Caring"
K
Abigail Uris didn't need to bring any toys to the daycare.
Or so she had thought.
And now that she found herself 'deprived' of her chief source of amusement, she did the first thing that came to mind.
Sulk.
All too abruptly, the dollhouse before her was of no interest. Barbie and Ken lay neglected and facedown in the front 'yard', appliance-shaped pieces of plastic haphazardly strewn around them on the floor.
Abby sat on her hip and surveyed the crime scene with a scowl, the ruffles of her bright blue dress bunched up around her legs in a most-unladylike fashion. Her black, buckled-down shoes just peeked out from under the hem.
No, those weren't the burning beginnings of tears in the inner corners of her brown eyes.
She didn't dare look back across the room, where the sounds of bells, gentle scuffling, and the laughter of her now-unwanted-daycare mates - the names of whom she had just told herself to forget - were aplenty.
It would hurt more to look that way.
She sniffed sharply, closed her eyes.
Almost as instantaneously, the bells stopped chiming.
Then there was a collective groan as the group of three boys and two girls abruptly found themselves abandoned.
A shadow fell over the dollhouse.
"AbS...?"
Her delay gave one of the other kids time to call out.
"Mr. Penny, come back."
To which the other, slightly-older girl whispered harshly, pacifyingly, "Casey, no. Give them a second."
"Go on, then," Abby snapped, going off like a short-fused firecracker. Her head whipped around to glare at the hunched-over silver figure holding itself poised above her. "You'd rather play with them than me, anyway."
Where once he appeared innocently-bewildered, Pennywise winced, black-rimmed eyes narrowing just a smidge.
He held her accusatory stare nevertheless. He kept his hands clasped before him - not kneading nervously, but not at ease, either.
"AbS."
But his voice, so lightly-lilted and usually-carefree, went a bit stern.
Uncaring of the change in tone, Abby huffed and crossed her arms. She had a right to be upset. "When I said you could come, I didn't mean so they could have you all to themselves."
The clown took an exaggerated glance around the closed playroom. There was little chance of interruption from outside, as the daycare operators were preoccupied with serving lunch to the younger-aged group, downstairs, while the toddlers played.
It had seemed like an opportune moment for the entity to check in.
When he finally looked back, though, he was frowning. Without breaking said eye contact, he gestured back toward the group with a sweeping motion of the arm, palm open. "WeLl! Nothing'S stopping you from joining in."
"I didn't want to join in. I wanted us to play House."
"Abigail."
He didn't lean in.
Abby gasped more out of startlement than fear. She almost leaned over on her hands, scooting back on reflex.
Once held at a safe distance, some two feet away, suddenly his painted face was right up before her own.
It was still frowning, very profoundly, with its navy blue eyes full of silent scorn.
All at once, she felt very foolishly meek and small compared to him.
And Pennywise felt less like a nanny and looked more like a disapproving older brother for it.
As a firstborn like Abby was, that was a very weird thing to suddenly behold.
Just as quickly one of his gloves lashed out.
"You know beTter."
Abby blinked, flinched, and scrunched up her face. The nose-flick he had given with those three words seemed a lot less playful than those he had dealt her in the past. "Penny, I- "
A fingertip resting on her lips silenced her.
"You're no fusSy baby. You can shaRe."
And from that, she knew there would be no further arguing the subject. Shoulders sagging, the girl let her eyes drift sideways to regard the five faces across the room, staring at them with mixed expressions of wonder and uncertainty.
She was... beginning to feel the same.
Daddy told him to say that, didn't he?
Pennywise's shadowed expression gave up its frown in favor of a half-smirk, face dipping lower to press their foreheads together. The fingertip pulled away and he patted her cheek, thumb stroking her cheekbone.
In the process, it caught and soaked up a tear before it could fall.
His steadied voice rumbled with the lowest of compromised whispers.
"You're still my favorite. Just remember that."
Abby scoffed softly, smiling up at him despite her best efforts not to.
Playing favorites.
Huh.
She could live with that.