Becky/Seth Oneshots

9. Scream Queens

Jon isn't above bribery to coax his daughter and niece out of a pillowfort.

Pillowfort.social prompt: sleeping in a pillowfort

"God, just looking at them makes my back hurt." Renee put both hands on the small of her back and shook her head as she peeked in on her daughter and Becky's, cuddled together deep inside their pillowfort. "I can't remember ever being able to bend that way."

Becky crouched down to get a look. Nora had one foot hooked up on the couch cushion and was mostly sprawled on her stomach. Each time she breathed out, it ruffled Roux's curls. Roux's face was mashed up against Nora's shoulder, her legs scrunched up at an odd angle. "My hips are burning just looking at them," Becky agreed. Sitting back on her heels, she added, "Should we take them out and put them to bed before they sprain something?"

"I know you're almost out of the terrible twos," Renee reminded her, "but I'm not. When my girl wants her sleep, she wants her sleep." She tried to reach in, but the girls were too far back to grab without tearing down the front half of their beloved pillowfort. "Serves me right for getting all those accent pillows. Now she has too much ammunition."

"Told ya." Jon strolled into the living room, popping half of a doughnut into his mouth. "At least I stopped you from buying in to the whole Lip, Lap, Lop trend."

"Love, babe," Renee said with a chuckle. "It's Live, Laugh, Love."

"Oh. That makes more sense. Also explains why I could never find any of that shit for you on Etsy." Jon backed up and tried to peer inside the pillowfort. "So what are we looking at, aside from a building that is clearly not up to code?" He got down on his knees and scooted closer. "Ah, shit. I remember when I could pretzel up like that. Fun times."

Seth arrived last and raised his eyebrows at the sight of Jon on his hands and knees. "Someone lose a contact lens or something?" he asked.

Renee shook her head. "The girls are sleeping in there, but they're all contorted. If we leave them, they'll be sore and cranky."

"And if we wake them," Becky added, "they'll be sore and cranky and loud about it."

"Ah. Gotcha." Seth walked around the side of the pillowfort. "Can we try anything from a different angle? Try reaching around from the back and... rearranging limbs?"

Jon shook his head. "I got another idea." He sat near the opening of the pillowfort and cleared his throat. "Too bad the girls are sleeping," he said, raising his voice a bit. None of them had been talking particularly quietly, but there was a deliberateness to his volume that the other three all recognized because they had used it themselves. "Otherwise we could have gone for ice cream."

"Ah, bribery," Renee remarked. "Works every time."

Sure enough, some of the pillows in the pillowfort started to move and there was the distinctive thump of limbs hitting the floor. Roux emerged first, her curls a wild corona around her ears. "Ice cream?"

Nora pushed her way out next, rubbing at her eyes. "Where the scream?"

Jon feigned surprise, eyes going wide as he pulled both girls into his lap. "That's where you were? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep. We still got a couple hours until supper is ready."

Roux shoved at his chest, but she was too groggy for it to be much more than a half-hearted pat. "You said ice cream."

"Yeah, Daddy." Nora's eyes were scrunched up when she frowned up at her father, and Becky tried not to laugh, because she had never seen Nora look more like Jon.