Day 11 - quilts

It wasn't the first time since coming home that Ben had awoken to the sound of his brother crying during the night. The old wood clock outside of Ben's room held its big hand at the two this time, and while it was just a bit too high for him to read (not that he really could anyway), he could certainly tell from the lack of sun that it was either very late at night or very early in the morning.

With a yawn, Ben shuffled his little feet out of his room and towards the staircase, the velvet plastered on the wooden stairs feeling soft against his smooth skin. Freddybear, naturally, was being dragged along, and thankfully couldn't feel it when his attachment banged him against the stairs as the kid was crawling on all fours. Sure, Ben could walk. That wouldn't help him get there fast, though.

It seemed like forever had passed when he finally made it to the top. Though he no longer heard the crying, Ben knew better than to assume it had stopped. Jack got like that a lot- screaming and then crying really quietly. It was kind of like how Ben cried, only with a loud yelp at the beginning and no pleas to stop. The child rose to his feet, repositioned the Fredbear plush against his chest and carefully ran down the hallway, doing his best to be quiet. Thankfully, no one was there that really cared to catch him, since this was a four-year-old's version of stealthing. He almost ran into one of the nightstands in the hall. ...Almost.

Plushtrap. That's what he remembered Jack calling the little stuffed rabbit that sat at the end of the hall. He also recalled overhearing that it was there to keep Jack safe when he was younger, so maybe it would work again now. He lifted up the golden rabbit from off its unusual spot on the floor and hurried over to his brother's left door, jiggling the knob once more to open it.

Inside, Jackson was once more positioned in front of his bed, flashlight in hand and facing the closet opposite him. Beside him was their father, the more feminine one, with soft black hair that almost touched his eldest son's head as that head lay against his chest while Scott's hand graced his son's back in soothing circles.

"H-hey, Jackie, uh, you're okay… The n-nightmares...they can't get you."

It didn't seem to stop tears rolling out of Jackie's golden eyes, but it at least reduced his quiet sobs to sniffles.

"Jackie?" Ben called as he toddled into the room.

The older of the two looked up to give his son a small smile before waving him over. It didn't take a second thought for the younger to hurry over towards his older brother. As soon as he had made it, Ben crawled his way into his brother's lap to give the boy a nice big hug.

Scott smiled warmly at the sight "See, Jackie? He loves you. D-don't you, Ben?"

Ben reached up his hand, attempting to pull the hair out of Jack's wet face as a sign of comfort. "Me and Freddybear love you this much!" Though it was evident from the lack of hand gesture that Ben didn't quite understand the concept of "this much," it was still a sweet thing to say, and the muscles in Jackson's shoulders began to relax a little.

Of course, it helped that Scott had moved his hands to Jack's neck and tried rubbing it comfortingly, succeeding mostly because of his fatherly status. The teen had leaned into his father's touch, still trying to stop the tears while pulling his brother closer. The fox might get them. The fox might get them if he didn't. And of course, that was all being thought while staring at the Foxy head that he kept in his closet. In the nightmares, it was nothing more than a plushie. He'd given that plushie to Ben, though, and replaced it with a mask obtained at the restaurant and a head from his "purple daddy," who always came home with broken parts.

Actually, there was something else in there- the Toy Foxy plush his sister had left while she was going through his clothes. That was...one of the changes of his nightmares.

That's when the little golden rabbit resting in Ben's arms caught his phone dad's eyes. "Ben, is that, uh…?

"It's Plushtrap," the child said, holding it out for his father to look at, but Jack ripped the thing out of his brother's hands before the exchange could be completed. The older cuddled his plush rabbit tightly to his chest, right next to Ben and Freddybear. He apparently had three things to hug now.

Scott smiled as he saw his eldest son begin to calm down. It was funny, really, that after all those years, a stuffed animal could help the teen, but he wasn't complaining. What mattered was that the nightmare had been subdued for the night and Jack's eyes were slowly drooping shut once more. The phone dad glided his hand over his son's head to pet the boy and stop small amounts of bangs from landing in his eyes. "You'll be okay, Jackie. We...we'll protect you."

"We'll protect you," Ben repeated quite proudly. Though he had no idea what the context of that phrase was supposed to mean, Phone Daddy had said it, so he should too!

A small smile crept over the oldest son's face as he rubbed his hands over both his brother's and his plush's back. The warmth of yet another body had finally gotten to him, and Jack felt himself relax into his father's arms. Similarly to his brother, at that moment, he wanted nothing more than a sense of security, and the two family members combined with his old stuffed animal were more than providing it.

"Okay, uh, we're gonna put you down in bed now." Scott tried to make his voice as calming as he could, and thankfully, the fatherly status once more came into play. Jack released his grip on his little brother (albeit a bit reluctantly) and shifted the entirety of his tired weight unto his dad.

Said man then stood up after his son was positioned in a way that the boy would not fall. It was a bit difficult, sure, but a loving gesture none-the-less and simple enough when the bed was right behind them. He set Jackie down gently against the pillow, running his hands through the boy's hair and planting a soft kiss on his forehead as he would every night that Ben woke up screaming. Only, that was before The Incident. Now it was every night that Jack woke up the same way.

"Good night, Jackie. We're not gonna let those, uh, those things come in tonight. Plushtrap will stop them, too."

Oh come on, now! He wasn't four! He wasn't going to just believe everything his father said, no matter how absurd! There were things he knew couldn't happen and protecting someone from their own dreams was one of them! ...But then again, even as a thirteen-year-old, there was something deep down inside that felt comforted by those words. Half asleep, Jack reached his arms up to embrace his father, but just for a moment. After all, he wasn't a softie or anything. No way!

Ben had shuffled over to his brother's bedside by that point and reached his tiny hand up to grab hold of Jackie's own. Since the hug had stopped shortly after it began, Jack was now back on the pillow and looked over at Ben with just the slightest amount of red on his cheeks.

"I love you," Ben said in his young, high-pitched voice and with the brightest smile he could bear. The latter seemed to be a bit contagious, as it has spread not only to Jack but their father as well, who reached down to smooth over his younger child's bedhead.

If the light were just a little brighter, they could've seen Jack's eyes sparkle as he reached over to wrap Ben up in his arms, too, this time longer than his father. He felt his heartbeat in his chest, but it was going at just the right pace (unlike before) and Jack's smile returned. "I love you, too," he whispered, perhaps with a bit less energy than Ben, but most certainly with the same- if not, more- meaning.

It wasn't long before Jack was fast asleep and Ben was being cradled in his father's arms. He swung his legs a few times, which were dangling over Scott's arm, as the dad used his elbow to shut Jack's door. He then smiled down at his son and would've made some sort of appreciated gesture as they walked down the halls, were both his arms not taken.

"Ben, I-I'm proud of you."

"You're proud of me," Ben repeated with a smile, having little to no understanding of what that even meant.

The phone dad chuckled and continued down the staircase, stopping only upon reaching Ben's bed. The same procedure was carried out with him being tucked in, kissed on the forehead and all. Right as Scott turned to leave, however, the kid stopped him.

"Why does Jackie like Plushtrap so much?" From what Ben could tell, there wasn't a ghost inside the toy or anything. Freddybear didn't tell him anything about talking to the rabbit, and Freddybear told him everything about ghosts...or, at least, everything the ghost knew, anyway (which wasn't all that much despite being one himself).

Scott faced his youngest once more. He had a single sentence explanation for that, but it probably wasn't going to be understood too well by the four-year-old, so he sat down on the foot of the bed, ready to give a somewhat lengthy explanation. "It's the stuffed animal his brother gave him before he got adopted."

What? Adopted? "But I'm Jackie's brother."

Scott sighed. Yup. That's kind of what he was expecting, to be honest. Gently, the phone guy placed his hand around his son's own and pulled it toward him. "You know you're not his biological brother."

"Bio...logeka..l?"

"B-biological brothers are brothers with...with the same mommy and daddy."

That explanation really didn't seem to help, though, if the look on Ben's face was of any signification. "But we don't have a mommy."

"Well...that is true...kind of…" How was he supposed to say this? "See, uh, only a girl and a boy can make a baby. But sometimes...sometimes they can't keep the baby, and they put it in a special house with other babies that, uh, couldn't be kept. Then two boys, like me and Purple Daddy, come along and pick one they want." That made sense, right?

"Ohh…" Apparently it did for the child, or at least, Scott thought so.

"But, uh, someone picked Jack's brother before we got there." In fact, that's kind of why Scott thought the kid had first bullied Ben. Jack didn't really bother his sister all that much, after all, but every time someone called Ben his brother, he'd flip out. That at least implied it.

"Jack had a mommy and a daddy before you?"

The phone dad nodded. "So did Vanessa. So did you."

Ben's shimmering black eyes widened. "I had a mommy?" He didn't really have much of an idea what that felt like or any friends to compare it to, but it sounded wonderful...to have a mother...

His father chuckled. "Yeah." He remembered meeting the parents, as most couples usually did with that particular adoption program. Both Ben and Vanessa's biological parents didn't want to give up their child but simply couldn't afford to keep them. Scott and Mason had arranged to have them visit on holidays and such, but neither of the sets ever bothered to call, and so the children were left with so few memories (if any at all) of their birth mother and father.

Jack, on the other hand, remembered his parents quite clearly despite being about five when they had died in a car crash. His older brother had stuck to him until the age of ten, when someone had adopted the older and Scott and Mason came in a few days later to take poor crying Jack. The kid seemed to actually like them...it was going pretty decently until others insisted that Ben was his younger brother. He didn't have a younger brother!

That being said, the younger brother was left to stare wide-eyed at his father at the very thought of having a female parent. What did she look like? What did she act like? She was nice, right? So many questions swirled around his head, but the one that dominated the others and made its way out his mouth was, "Do I have a stuffed animal from Mommy?"

"No, you don't have a stuffed animal, but, uh, I think there's something around here she left you."

Something? To a four-year-old, anything would've been cool. Benjamin watched intently as his father reached over into the child's dresser to pull out a large, black-and-white checkered quilt. He then turned back to Ben with a large grin on his face.

"This was the blanket you were dropped off in."

Ben, of course, was in absolute awe from the object. His arms extended to grab hold of the quilt, though it was a bit on the big side for his tiny strength and mostly just fell on the floor.

"It's...heavy!"

Scott chuckled. Yeah, it was a pretty heavy quilt. The phone guy kind of assumed he'd end up having to place it on the bed, which he did, and Ben smiled at him.

"And what are you smiling at?"

Ben pulled his quilt up to his neck (completely drowning Freddybear) before answering. "I don't know Mommy, but I love you, Daddy!"

"I love you too, Ben," the phone dad replied, bending down to kiss his youngest on the forehead.


Hey, so, happy New Year's. I guess.

Mine's been mixed. I got my laptop back early :D ...and got five hours of sleep due to vomiting twice ._. I got sick last in our house. It lasted the shortest out of the five of us and apparently was the weakest, so that's good, but it was still freakin' uncomfortable and made my brain go mushy. I tried writing, heh, that sucked. You can thank that for the crap ending in this chapter. I also tried listening to music, which made me want to throw up more. When you're addicted to music, having it cause you distress is not fun ._.

As a side note, I'd like to thank my four-year-old sister for being a great model for Ben's behavior. Though they're two pretty different people (and she'll probably never read this story XD), she's excellent for giving an idea of what four-year-olds can understand and such. Thanks, Shayna!

She also said the most adorable thing after throwing up so much. Shayna toddled up to my dad after about...I think the fourth time? and went, "Daddy, I want it to stop..." It was so freakin' adorable and heart shattering. You better believe that's gonna be in an up-and-coming chapter.

Now, what you guys probably care about, the poll. So far, the total is 8 to 5 with happy in the lead, but three people have used the actual poll on my profile! You guys know you can get two votes if you leave a comment and vote in the poll. Just sayin'. T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶b̶e̶a̶s̶u̶r̶p̶r̶i̶s̶e̶i̶f̶i̶t̶t̶i̶e̶s̶j̶u̶s̶t̶s̶a̶y̶i̶n̶'̶.̶

As for you guys! I want to thank everyone who has read so far. You guys are flippin' awesome! And motivation, too; I hope you realize that (without motivation, I...tend to fall behind...and drop projects...hehe). Every favorite, follow, or just review saying you like it helps!

And last but not least, I know the holidays have passed, but I hope the glow remains long enough for you guys to read 'til the end!

(and I might be thinking about doing an ask account for the characters sooooooo if anyone likes the idea you better freakin' tell me or it probably won't happen!)