hi guys:) thanks so much for the reviews again! To the person asking if little Quinn needs help with going potty, that will be addressed in the chapter coming after this one:) And yes, I have considered including Rachel in this story too, it will possibly happen in a few chapters. Hope you enjoy this one:)
Later that night after dinner the family were sitting in the living room, watching some animated movie that Quinn had picked. Santana and Brittany had decided to be big after dinner so they could take a bath together and had joined Shelby and Quinn afterwards.
Santana ran her hands through Quinn's hair, who was sitting on her lap with her back against San's front watching the movie intently and sucking on the corner of her blankie, something she often did for comfort when she was in her little headspace since she was a little too old for a paci.
Little Quinn would always cling to big Santana and big Brittany when they were out because it was rare for her to see them and she loved the extra attention she got from them. She loved being the eldest during age play but sometimes it was nice to have two older sisters especially ones as cool as Britt and San.
"Hey Mom?" Brittany asked, Shelby drew her attention away from the movie and looked over to Brittany, raising an eyebrow when she saw that glint that she always got in her baby blue eyes when she wanted something.
"Yes babe?" she asked softly, not wanting to disturb Quinn's movie.
"I'm pretty sure I was promised some ice cream earlier when I got hurt" she said cheekily, knowing she would be able to talk Shelby into it.
"No, I'm pretty sure it was little Brittany who was promised ice cream, however she's not here right now" Shelby teased, she loved messing with her girls. Eventually, Brittany won her over with a pout and those award winning puppy eyes.
Brittany leant around Santana on the couch and whispered in Quinn's ear, "hey big girl, you want ice cream?" she asked laughing when Quinn nodded and bounced on San's lap, yelling "yes, yes, yes!" excitedly.
"Only give her a little please Brittany, it's almost her bedtime" Shelby said, not thrilled with the idea of Brittany giving her five year old ice cream right before bed.
"Okay Mom, San you want some?" Brittany asked sweetly, standing up from the couch and scratching her girlfriends scalp with her fingertips, just how Santana loved. San hummed at the feeling but shook her head, "nah I'm okay babe, I'll just steal some of yours" she said cheekily with a wink. Brittany shook her head but smiled fondly before going into the kitchen and filling a bowl for herself and putting two small scoops into a plastic kids bowl for Quinn.
She sat back down on the couch and Santana took Quinn's bowl from her, scooping some onto the spoon and holding it up to Quinn's mouth, who was still sitting on her lap. Quinn whined and turned her head away, "Tana noooo, I'm a big girl I can feed myself" she complained, pushing Santana's hand away.
"Baby, you're right you are a big girl and you can feed yourself at the table but not on the couch and especially not messy ice cream" Shelby said gently, not wanting to cause a tired meltdown.
"Let Sanna feed you or no ice cream" she warned a little more sternly when it looked like Quinn was going to argue back. Quinn sighed but opened her mouth and allowed Santana to feed her, after a few bites and Santana making airplane noises with every bite she decided she quite enjoyed being hand fed.
Shelby glanced at the clock, seeing it was nearing 9pm, she smiled as she watched Quinn's eyes getting droopier and Santana struggling to hold her upright in her lap. Her head fell to one side and she whined tiredly as it shocked her awake, she rubbed her eyes with her fists and reached for Shelby who was sitting in the armchair opposite. Her sisters were great and she had enjoyed snuggling with them all night on the couch, but it was really her Mama she wanted when she was so sleepy. Shelby got up and picked Quinn up from San's lap, holding her close and kissing her head.
"Come on sweetheart, let's get you in bed" she cooed softly, there was nothing she loved more than a cuddly, sleepy little one.
"Mommyyy" Quinn whined as Shelby helped her into her pyjamas.
"I know you're so tired honey, just let Mommy put your jammies on" she pleaded, finding it more challenging by the minute to clothe the girl as she became more rigid the more tired she got.
Santana and Brittany appeared at the nursery door as Shelby finally managed to get her dressed, "we're going to bed too Mami, we just came to say goodnight" Santana explained.
Shelby's house had 4 bedrooms, which worked out perfectly for the family, there was Shelby's room, the girls nursery, big Quinn's room and big Santana and Brittany's shared bedroom, each room except the nursery had an en suite which avoided any bathroom hogging arguments.
Shelby rolled her eyes, "okay but just don't be too loud, I don't want you keeping Quinnie awake" she said with an edge to her tone. Santana immediately blushed whilst Brittany just giggled, "we're not doing that Mom, we're just sleepy from all the early cheer practices" she laughed, wrapping an arm around Santana's waist in an attempt to calm her embarrassed girlfriend.
"Sorry San, I just know what you two are like" she apologised with a kiss to the blushed tan cheek. Santana waved it off and went over to Quinn to say goodnight whilst Brittany said goodnight to Shelby.
"Night night sweetheart" she said with a smile, hugging her little sister close. Quinn pouted, "I don't wanna sleep in here by myself" she sniffled knowing her sisters would be sleeping in their big room tonight and she would be left alone in the nursery.
Santana pouted sympathetically and bent down in front of her, "it's okay, Bee and I will be in here with you tomorrow night" she promised. She would never admit it but she did feel a tad guilty, little San had slept alone in the nursery once before so she knew how Quinn was feeling. Santana had screamed bloody murder until Shelby came in and let her sleep in her bed with her.
"You can sleep with Mommy tonight in the big bed darling" Shelby told her, secretly loving when one, or all, of the girls slept with her. Endless cuddles all night, what more could she ask for?
"Yay! You da best Mama!" she said happily, grabbing her stuffed lamb and blankie from her bed and running into her Mommy's room, her previous tiredness replaced by excitement. Shelby laughed and shook her head, saying goodnight to Santana before going to tuck Quinn in.
"Come on mi amor, I wants to get my snuggles on" Santana said pulling Brittany into their room.
It was about 4 hours later when Brittany jumped awake, sweating and terrified from the nightmare she'd had. No one except her sisters and Shelby knew, but she had horrible nightmares about Santana, Quinn and Shelby getting hurt, sometimes even killed and she was left all alone. Every nightmare left her terrified and shaking. Santana always took care of her and held her tight reassuring her that everything was okay until she could fall back asleep, being patient and never getting annoyed with her.
She tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill and untangled herself from her girlfriends arms, she sat up and shook Santana to wake her up.
"San?" she said quietly with a gentle poke, not wanting to startle her awake.
"Santana, please wake up" she begged again, this time with a more forceful push. The longer Santana wouldn't wake up the more worked up Brittany got until she was quietly sobbing, she was desperate to feel the familiar warmth and comfort of her girlfriends arms.
"Wake up Tana, I had a bad dream again". Brittany sighed a breath of relief as Santana grumbled and rolled over, slapping at the hand that was poking her, "stop B, leave me alone. Go to sleep" she mumbled not awake enough to open her eyes or realise her girlfriend was upset. Well that definitely wasn't the reaction she had wished for, why didn't Santana care that she was crying? Brittany felt her heartbreak a little at the thought of Santana not caring, she wiped her face with the back of her hand, but the tears just kept coming.
She was so scared that she even considered going into Shelby's room, she knew the woman wouldn't mind and would comfort her, but Brittany felt childish and stupid for getting so upset over a bad dream...especially since this was big Brittany, not little.
She sighed and tucked herself back into the sheets, rolling on her side facing away from Santana and curling into a tight ball, she was sure she wouldn't be able to sleep the rest of the night but after an hour or so of shaking and crying the blonde finally tired herself out and fell into a fitful sleep.
Santana yawned as she woke up, opening her eyes just enough to look at the alarm clock reading 8:30am. She groaned at the thought of having to get up and rolled over, blindly reaching out and patting the sheets to find Brittany.
"Britt?" she grumbled finally opening her eyes and looking at the empty space next to her where her girlfriend should be. Okay, now she was pissed, she hated missing out on morning cuddles, they set her up in a good mood for the day. "She must be using the bathroom" she thought to herself, closing her eyes again as she waited for Brittany to return.
After a good 10 minutes and no sign of Brittany, Santana sighed and dragged her tired body out of bed, shuffling over to the bathroom door and knocking lightly.
"Britt baby, you're taking a while, are you okay?" she asked not waiting for a reply before opening the door and seeing that the bathroom was empty.
"What the fuck?" she said running a hand through her hair, Britt never left bed without her, whenever they were both big they would lie in bed cuddling and talking all morning. Walking back into their bedroom she picked up her discarded sweatpants and pulled them on before grabbing one of Brittany's hoodies that she had "borrowed" years before, tugging it over her head. It hung a little loose on her, but she loved it all the same.
"Morning Mami, hey Quinnie" she greeted, voice still laced with sleep as she walked into the kitchen.
"Good morning babe" Shelby replied placing a sippy cup of juice next to Quinn at the table. Quinn grinned and shot up from her chair, leaving her half eaten toast and running over to Santana, "mornin' Sanna! I thought you were never going to wake up!" she declared dramatically, practically throwing herself into Santana's arms.
"It's only 8:45 monkey face" she teased but picked the girl up and span her around, peppering her face with kisses. Quinn giggled wildly which in turn made her smile widely, Santana was a complete softy when it came to her family, if anyone at school found out she would totally go all lima heights and deny it though.
She set her down and patted her butt to send her back over to the table and her breakfast.
"How did you sleep?" Shelby asked as she poured a cup of coffee and grimaced at the amount of jam covering Quinn's face.
"I slept okay, where's Britt?" she asked curiously, "she wasn't in bed when I woke up". Shelby sighed and rolled her eyes, "she's in the living room, she's got a stinking attitude and barely said a word since she came down here though". This confused Santana even more, Brittany was always in a good mood, especially in the mornings so it was weird to hear her normally chipper girlfriend was being so off character.
Santana smiled when she saw Brittany sitting on the couch watching TV and walked over, sitting down beside her before placing a tender kiss on the pale cheek. She had expected a kiss back, a good morning, even just a smile in reply but she received no response at all.
"Hey? Good morning?" she questioned confusingly waving her hand in front of Brittany's face to get her attention. Brittany huffed loudly and turned away, slapping her girlfriends hand away from her face. She hated being mad at Santana, but she was still hurt from being told to leave her alone when she was sad during the night and now Santana was acting like nothing had happened, she just couldn't help being mad.
Santana repeatedly asked her what was wrong but got no response each time, she smirked and leant forward placing kisses to Brittany's neck and soft spot sure that it would get her to react.
"Santana stooooop" Brittany whined, all San was doing was making her more frustrated. She got up and walked towards the kitchen, leaving behind a completely dumbfounded Santana rubbing her temples. God it was too early for this, Brittany was already mad at her for something and they hadn't even seen each other until less than 10 minutes ago. Santana could feel herself getting more and more annoyed, she hadn't done anything wrong so why was Brittany treating her like shit?
She got up and stormed into the kitchen, "dude, what the fuck is your problem?" she yelled not thinking about the fact that little Quinn was sitting right there. Shelby gasped and quickly covered Quinn's ears even though it was too late and even Brittany looked up with surprise.
"Santana Lopez! That is not how you talk in front of your little sister!" Shelby scolded sternly. Shelby didn't mind the girls swearing once in a while, but not in front of their little selves, "spankings aren't just reserved for little San" she threatened. Santana immediately blushed, she had only been spanked once as big San but it was the most embarrassing thing and she swore she would never put herself in a position to get another.
"I'm sorry Mami, it just slipped out" she said guiltily, suddenly very interested in staring at her feet. Shelby gave her a warning look but removed her hands from Quinn's ears and went back to her own breakfast. Santana was about to ask Brittany what her deal was again (this time without the swearing) but was interrupted by Quinn's giggles, "fuck!" she said loudly around a mouthful of toast.
Santana's eyes widened, uh oh, she was almost 100% sure that her butt was in for it now and she could tell Brittany was thinking the same thing as their eyes locked for the first time that day over Shelby's head.
"Lucy Quinn Fabray we do not say that word! I know Santana said it but she shouldn't have. It's a horrible word and if I ever hear you repeat that again you'll get your mouth washed out with soap. Do you understand me?" Shelby scolded harshly before sending Quinn to the time out corner. The five year old burst into tears as she left the table and walked over to the corner in the living room, she doesn't think she's ever seen her Mama so mad. It wasn't fair, she didn't know it was a bad word, she just wanted to be like her big sister!
"Santana, you're grounded for a week. You know better than to use that language around little Quinn" Shelby told her, satisfied when Santana didn't argue the punishment and just nodded and apologised again.
"Take your fight elsewhere, away from little ears" Shelby said, she always tried to let the girls work out their fights by themselves, it was much better for their relationship for them to work together to sort the problem so she only jumped in when it was really needed.
Brittany shook her head and folded her arms, "no it's okay I have nothing to say" she snarked still not meeting her girlfriends eye. Santana couldn't believe what she was hearing, Brittany was always so sweet and never really got mad at anyone, especially not her.
"Just tell me what I did" she pleaded, hating how anxious and helpless this was making her feel. Once again she received no reply so grabbed Brittany's hand and pulled her up from her chair, "come on" she said walking towards the stairs and dragging Brittany into their room to talk.
Meanwhile downstairs, Shelby walked over to the corner where Quinn was still crying, "why did Mommy put you in time out?" she asked gently, wiping the girls red cheeks with her thumbs.
"I said a stinky word, I'm sorry Mommy" Quinn said sincerely, looking at Shelby with impossibly wide puppy eyes that melted her on the spot.
"You're forgiven baby girl, I know Sanna said the bad word first and you didn't know it was bad, but Mama still had to teach you that it was wrong" Shelby explained.
Quinn nodded and wiped her eyes clumsily, "it's all over now, shhh" Shelby soothed, taking her into her arms and hugging her tight.
"My tummy still rumblin', can I have more toast please Mama?" Quinn asked through her tears causing Shelby to laugh. Her girls were always thinking about their tummies, even during a scolding.
"Sure baby, we can't have a hungry Qbear!" she agreed taking her little hand and leading her back to the table.
"Please Brittany just tell me what's wrong!" Santana said gruffly, getting more frustrated by the minute, "you're scaring me" she admitted quietly. She always tried to act like she didn't care about anything but deep down she knew that if she ever lost Brittany, she would lose everything and this fight and the silent treatment was just reminding her of that.
Brittany sighed in reply but Santana could see her wavering so decided to ask yes/no questions to try and get it out of her. Who knew her girl could be so stubborn?
"Are you feeling sick?" she asked first, followed by "did something happen with your Mom and Dad?" and "are you on your period?".
Brittany shook her head no to all of the questions and folded her arms, "it hurt my heart when you told me to leave you alone" she whispered almost inaudibly so that Santana had to strain to hear her.
"What? I've never told you to leave me alone!" she argued, wondering if Brittany had dreamt that had happened and thought it was real like she did once before, she dreamt that Lord Tubbington could fly and woke up thinking it was actually true.
"Uh huh, you did" she replied matter of factly, she wasn't so mad anymore and missed being on good terms with her girlfriend but she was still upset.
"Last night when I was crying" she added, giving Santana a hint to jog her memory. All it did was confuse her further when she tried to remember Brittany crying, the last time she saw her cry was when she had hurt herself on the monkey bars the afternoon before.
"When were you crying?" she asked with a softer tone, reaching forward and taking one of Brittany's hands, smiling slightly when she didn't pull away.
"Last night. I had a bad dream again and I woke you up but you told me to leave you alone" she whispered, happy to finally get it off her chest.
"You didn't care about me" she added, her tone taking an edge again as she blinked back hot tears. The penny finally dropped, Santana vaguely remembered Brittany poking her during the night but she didn't wake up enough to realise that her girlfriend was upset and needed her. She felt so terrible, Brittany gets so scared with her nightmares and all she did was tell her to go away. She's pretty sure her heart shatters when she hears that Brittany thought she didn't care about her.
"Oh my god baby I'm so sorry. I must have been half asleep when I told you to leave me alone. I can't remember it at all" she said desperately pulling Brittany towards her and placing her hands on her cheeks.
"I care about you more than anyone else Brittany, I would never hurt you purposely" she promised, looking deep into the blue eyes she fell so in love with.
Brittany smiled softly, feeling a whole lot better now she knew that Santana hadn't purposely ignored her and turned her away, "it's okay Tana. I know I overreacted but it just hurt me I guess" she mumbled, feeling slightly stupid for being so mad for so long at her for something that Santana didn't even know had happened until 2 minutes ago.
"No honey, you weren't overreacting. You needed me and I wasn't there for you. It was a mean thing for me to say, even though I didn't know I said it" Santana said, "next time keep poking me and talking until I wake up fully okay?" she asked hopefully, not wanting a do over of that morning anytime soon. Brittany nodded and smiled, glad that she didn't have to stay mad anymore.
"How can I make it up to you sweetheart?" she placed tender kisses to Brittany's knuckles whilst the other girl thought.
"I wanna be little today...do you think you could stay big?" Brittany asked hopefully, little Britt absolutely loved big Santana and would cling to her and follow her everywhere, plopping herself down on her lap any chance she got. Not to mention Brittany loved seeing how amazing Santana was with kids, it made her so excited for their future together and the thought of seeing her girlfriend as a Mom to their own kids one day.
"Sure baby" Santana agreed, she knew it would be hard to stay in a big mindset all day but she'd do anything to make this up to Brittany, an upset Brittany has much the same effect of a kicked puppy. Santana linked her arms around the back of Brittany's neck as the latters hands fall to rest on her hips, their bodies fitting together perfectly.
"Am I forgiven?" she asks purposely giving her the biggest puppy eyes she can manage, Brittany giggled and nodded.
"I can never stay mad at you" she whispered before leaning in to kiss plump lips, humming when she feels Santana kissing her back. She let her hands wander a little further down, feeling Santana smile into the kiss when they rest on her ass.
Santana pulled back and broke the kiss before things could get too heated, "c'mon cheeky, let's go back downstairs and get breakfast" she said avoiding the pout Brittany was throwing her way.
"Noooo let's go back to bed for a little" Brittany whined with a smirk and matching eyebrow wiggle.
"Maybe later hottie" Santana quipped with a wink before taking her hand and leading her downstairs, god she loved teasing.
"Everything okay girls?" Shelby asked cautiously as the two walked into the kitchen hand in hand, they nodded and smiled and Shelby released a relieved sigh, glad that it hadn't turned into a screaming fight. Although she knew no matter how many times they fought they would always work it out, they were soulmates for sure.
Shelby was pulled from her thoughts when a small voice belonging to little Britt asked, "what for bwekfast?" as the little one cast a jealous look towards Quinn eating her toast; it always amazed Shelby how quick they could fall into their roles.
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Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be big Santana taking care of little Brittany and little Quinn :)