A/N: Saw a Facebook reel and this popped into my head. Just a bit of plotless fluff!
About halfway through the next chapter of The Sinking! (You're gonna need this fluff to make a sweet lil stuffed scorpion to comfort you).
Xoxo
"Daddy, please can we go? Please!!! I cleaned my whole room, and I made my bed, and I even helped Ralphie do his stinky laundry! Please. Please. Pleeeeaaase?" Megan pleaded with Walter, as Ralph and Paige sat at the breakfast table with them. Ralph shaking his head discretely in an equal plea for Walter to tell his little sister no, while Paige just hid her smirk behind her coffee cup, knowing Walter was a complete pushover when it came to Megan.
"Oh, I'm sure Mommy has things we need to get done today, sweetheart. And Chuck-E-Cheese, though, very intellectually stimulating, and extremely hygienic, as it may be, is probably not on that list." He answered, hoping his wife would back him up. Megan's obsession with Chuck-E-Cheese began a few months back after a classmate's birthday party, and Paige had made him sit in the car after he wouldn't stop pointing out how awful the place was. But then she had wanted to go every single day since. Paige had forced him to go twice, and each time had been worse than the last. Ralph had at least backed him up on it, though, even though Megan worshiped the ground he big brother walked on, she was not seated in her new obsession by any of his attempts.
"Oh, I don't know, that could be a fun family day out, don't you think?" Paige snickered, eyeing Walter pointedly. "I have some energy to burn off..." The fact that Walter had stayed up late the night before working on a coding project instead of joining his wife in bed was now becoming very clear to him as having been a mistake.
"Yeah, Daddy! See! Even Mommy wants to go! Come on!" He hated when Megan begged. She was the perfect combination of his sister, his wife, and his son - all three of which he was helpless to ever deny, making little Megan a force to be reckoned with. While not a genius, she was skilled in her take down of Walter.
He sighed. There had to be a way to get out of this.
"Sorry Meg, I don't think they're even open today." Her face sunk. "But how about we go to the science museum? You love going there?"
"No, I just want to have fun, Daddy, not learn things. That's boring." Megan was definitely more Paige than she was Walter, and while he was thankful Paige had her to even the scales a bit in the house, it also made things challenging. Getting up from her seat, she sulked off to her bedroom.
"Walter! Stop being such a genius grump. It's a couple hours." Paige chastised playfully, stabbing at the fruit on her plate. "You do realize she is always tagging along for your boring genius things, literally, since the day we brought her home." Paige would never let him live that down. Megan went to the Science Museum at three days old, directly from the hospital, before she even went to their house.
The science museum.
"But mom, it's a giant creepy rat. The place is always gross." Ralph whined. Even at seventeen and a genius, sometimes he reminded them that he was still just a kid.
"It's not gross. And you like the ticket catcher thing!"
"I was just proving the point that if you stand properly, and let physics do the work, and stop haphazardly waving your arms around, you can collect as much as ninety percent of the tickets." He countered snarkily, making her smile.
"And you like proving physics. Therefore you liked it."
"Paige, my sweet, anything but that. Besides, I already told her it's closed." Walter interjected, with a case closed tone.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!!!!" Megan came bounding in full of excitement.
"What's up, sweetie?" Walter turned in his chair to see her bouncing excitedly, her soft brown curls jumping with her as she did.
"You were wrong, Daddy!" She beamed, then turned to Paige conspiratorially. "You're right, Mommy, that is fun to say!" She giggled, and Walter shot an impatient look to his wife, who smirked with a shrug.
"What was Daddy wrong about, Nugget?" Ralph asked, and both parents smiled at the moniker he had given his sister long ago.
"He said Chuck-E-Cheese was closed today, but it isn't!" Proudly, she held up her iPad, showing the screen to her family, and Paige laughed into her coffee cup.
"How did you look that up?" Walter was completely baffled.
She held down the circle button to demonstrate.
"Hey Siri, is Chuck-E-Cheese open today?" She asked into the tablet.
"Chuck-E-Cheese is open today from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm." the robotic voice answered her, pulling up the details of the company on the screen.
Paige had to get up and hide her face at the sink to keep from outwardly laughing, while Walter just sat jaw slacked, and Ralph had a cross between pride and regret knowing this meant he'd have to go.
"Oh… that's… truly… astounding… sweetie. I guess we're going to Chuck-E-Cheese… go get dressed." He instructed her through gritted teeth, and she danced excitedly in response.
"Yay!!! Ralphie, we can play the racing game again!" She was so excited, it was hard not to join in, and Paige grinned at seeing Ralph's enthusiasm bubble up. He was a softie when it came to Megan. Both her boys were.
"Alright Nugget, but I'm not letting you win this time!" Standing from the table, he picked her small frame up through her fit of giggles and held her up to pretend she was an airplane. "Let's go get you dressed. Arms out!"
"Like this Ralphie?" She held them straight out, and he jostled her around in the air.
"Excellent thrust, perfect aeronautics Captain Megan. We are ready for take off." With express of their laughter the two disappeared down the hall. Paige loved seeing this side of Ralph. A playful, youthful, childish side that he himself never had as an actual small child. It was as if Megan was not only experiencing childhood, but was also giving Ralph a bit of his own back in the process.
Shaking her head of the thoughts, she looked back to see her husband moping.
"I told you I didn't want her to have that tablet. This is your own fault. You insisted." She playfully teased him, clearing the breakfast plates.
"Yes, because it is a great tool."
"Well, it sure made you look like a great tool today." She laughed, kissing his cheek. "Come on, cheer up. It won't be that bad. I'll even let you use your math powers to win me all the tickets."
"Stupid rat…" he mumbled under his breath, accepting defeat. "You don't even like rats."
"No, I don't. But I do love seeing you get out geniused by a non-genius five year old."