Snippet #2271485

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Pheebs had been fast asleep when the sound of her phone buzzing on the night stand forced her to awaken. She was a light sleeper – always had been, so it didn’t take much to get her up. It did sometimes take a lot for her to fall asleep though, especially lately. Having been in a relationship for two years, spending almost every night with that person, had caused it to become habit, so now that she was alone, she simply could not fall asleep. Mostly because thoughts of Dresden kept running through her head, and she’d even sometimes wake up with tears streaming down her cheeks due to a bad dream.

She loved him. She did. And she just couldn’t understand what had happened that month ago. The uncertainty was killing her. Usually a joy-filled, easy-going girl, Phoebe was not accustomed to this level of hurt and pain, so she’d done the only thing she could think of: gone to Charlie. The teacher was like an older brother to her. He had been since she was what? 10? 12? years old. She couldn’t quite recall. She only knew that Charlie had always been close to her, and since he’d gone back, they’d slipped right back into that sibling relationship.

Phoebe enjoyed being the little one again with him, and sometimes he was the only one she felt she could go to. In these cases, when she couldn’t sleep, that was what happened. So yesterday, around 11 pm, Phoebe had knocked on Charlie’s door. She’d had tears in her eyes, her mind occupied with everything she couldn’t figure out regarding Dresden. As usual, Charlie merely opened the door for her, and she’d ultimately managed to fall asleep in his bed, hugging him.

To them, there was nothing strange about it. In fact, Charlie and her had never had any tension, and there never would be any. They truly were like very close siblings, nothing more. Neither would ever think of the other in any sexual way, although at first, when this had started about a month ago, they’d had some questions to answer.

Everyone knew Phoebe though, so she usually got away with things like that. She was considered way too childish to have an affair with a teacher, and she was. She hadn’t really thought of what Dresden might be thinking about her nightly visits with the teacher, mostly because she had no choice. It was that, or never sleep. Charlie was there for her when she needed him more than anything, and she loved him for it.

The female opened her eyes finally, looking at the phone which had stopped buzzing. She reached out, untangling herself from sheets and trying not to wake Charlie up already as she grabbed her phone. She as quiet, carefully checking on the older male. Yep, not a sound. She’d have felt terrible of she’d woke him up before time, so it was quite the relief. She smiled down at him, checking the text she had received.

”Mornaaaain Pheebs!” it said, and the (currently) blue-haired girl grinned, texting a similar good morning back to her friend. Her sadness from the night before had been more or less forgotten after a good night’s sleep. Besides, she would have plenty of distractions all day. That was how it usually went: Phoebe would be miserable in the evening when she was alone, and then she’d wake up at Charlie’s in a good mood the next morning. The girl checked the time out of pure curiosity, her eyes widening slightly as she jumped out of bed. “Charlie!” She gasped, almost squealing the words, gently nudging the teacher. “It’s almost 8 o’clock! Charlie, wake up!”

They both had to be in class in 15 minutes. The same class, in fact. It was a little funny when they could basically walk each other to class like that. Regardless, Pheebs was in a hurry, and so she started skipping around the room, rushing to the bathroom to collect the clothes she had in a duffel bag out there. She closed the door behind her, not wanting Charlie to see her discarding her pajamas. She looked through the bag before quickly deciding on an outfit. She dressed herself in a flurry, not wanting to keep Charlie waiting.

She hurriedly applied mascara and eyeliner around her big, brown eyes, along with a bit of grey eyeshadow and then a touch of transparent gloss to her lips, taking a last look in the mirror before almost running out of the bathroom, laughing a little at how silly the whole situation was. She’d been so busy she’d forgotten to put her pajamas into her bag, so they were just lying on the floor of the bathroom.

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”Ellie!” Nathan calmly reprimanded the toddler fooling around. ”Shhh, don’t wake up mommy.” He elaborated for the third time. But it turned out one year olds weren’t the most considerate of people. He chuckled when she merely looked up at him, wide-eyed, almost like she hadn’t realized how loudly she was talking when she’d called on him to watch her slide from her little chair and onto the floor. He shook his head, crouching down to caress her cheek, whispering conspiratorially, “if you keep quiet now, we can go jumpy-jump on mommy later.”

Ellie giggled, one big smile immediately. “Mommy?” She asked excitedly and Nate laughed. “Yeah, that’s right, honey.” Of course, being one year old, Ellie couldn’t yet say much. Then he stood back up, smiling at his daughter. “Now, what did you want to show daddy?” She grinned widely, her excitement clear as day as she let herself slide down the chair and bump onto the floor, which wrenched a whole bunch of giggles from the little girl. Nathan couldn’t help laughing, bending down to pick her up, one arm beneath her bum, the other keeping a hand on her back.

“Oooh,” he commented, making a funny ‘o’ with his mouth before moving his head down to bring him nose-to-nose with his daughter as he smiled. “Look at you.” He kissed her forehead, glancing at the door to the bedroom as he held his daughter. Ellie leaned her head on his shoulder, yawning. The sound made him smile, shaking his head a little. She had hardly slept at all last night, mostly because Ness was really bad at letting her cry and complain until she fell asleep. Instead the Latina would fuss about, constantly trying to please the little girl. Which in the end kept both of them up, because Ellie had constant attention and entertainment, and when Ness left her, she merely cried. Clever girl.

Of course Nate had tried to convince his girlfriend to let Ellie be for a little while, but it was no use and he’d ended up going to bed. He’d felt Ness crawling into bed sometimes in the middle of the night. And of course Noelle had been awake again early in the morning, hungry, so Nate had gotten up, deciding to let Vanessa sleep in a little. Neither of them had anywhere to be until 10 o’clock anyway. He wouldn’t be surprised if Ellie’s constant giggles and squeals had awoken the young mother regardless though. The joys of small children.

Nate had since 6 am already and so had the small girl in his arms, but he supposed she’d be falling asleep again around noon whether they tugged her in or not. He’d dressed her in a soft yellow summer dress, along with a white, long-sleeved cardigan and a pair of equally white tights. It was still a little chilly, so he hadn’t felt comfortable with the straps of the dress alone. Besides, the cardigan could be easily removed, and it wasn’t thick.

And he’d managed to use a hair clip to hold back her bangs which would otherwise fall into her eyes. She needed a haircut. He was rather proud of the result, honestly. Not that Ellie was the most difficult of children to make pretty. In Nate’s eyes, he had the most beautiful girl in the world. He had dressed himself as well, but he'd gone with a simple pair of dark blue jeans, a black button-down shirt, a pair of black converse covered mostly by his jeans, and of course his trademark hat.

He looked back down at Ellie, smiling. She was completely relaxed in his arms, relaxing, her muscles having turned to jelly it seemed. He hugged her slightly, pondering. Maybe he should take her for a walk? Ellie was already in love with the grounds of the academy. She had been so excited when he’d taken her swimming in the lake. Of course he hadn’t done much swimming himself as he’d been busy holding her, but the way she’d been splashing around excitedly told him plenty. Oh, she was definitely his daughter.

He grinned at the thought. But he wanted to check on Ness first, and so he moved towards the bedroom, poking his head in to see if Ellie had accidentally caused her mommy to stir. Quietly he said “Ness? Baby?”