𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘥 //𝘣𝘢𝘥𝘦

be the one you love❗️

it wasn't unheard of. what she was doing wasn't exactly appreciated, but it wasn't like beck or jade would've expected her not to do it. she was acting like... well, a two year old. which was excusable in the sense that it's exactly what she is.

"no!"

"nina just come to the table"

"no!"

"nina i'm not asking anymore. come to the table."

"no!"

"you have three seconds."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

and that had been the moment that beck and jade had realized this was a new kind of monster. not like logan, who had scrambled to listen the second beck or jade raised their voices at him. sure, he had his crazy days, but for the most part, logan had listened.

but here was nina, sitting with her legs out on the carpet, completely disregarding the discipline that beck was giving her. and worse, she seemed to be not the least bit scared, but almost smug. as if she was mocking them both.

and when becks voice went down to 1 and all nina did was sit there with her arms crossed, beck and jade stole worried glances from each other. and then they looked down at her.

"alright that's it." jade finally spat out, walking over towards nina who immediately appeared to cower as her mom stomped over.

"if you don't want to eat at the table, fine. but you will not sit here and be mean to daddy and me." she explained to the two year old. as frustrated as she was, she knew nina was just that, two years old.

"now, you're not eating on your own. i'm going to tell you one more time, please come sit at the table with the rest of us." she told her, now oldest, daughter calmly. nina looked at her for a second, as if examining her mom. but jade stayed still just staring back. nina wasn't going to be a brat to her, she invented being petty like this.

the child reluctantly stood up, taking jades hand and dragging her feet along as she walked to her high chair. and once she was finally sitting down and eating, jade and beck exchanged another look.

it wouldn't have been that much of a problem, if it hadn't been happening all the time now. it wasn't just not wanting to eat dinner, it was not wanting to put on shoes, or only letting both mommy and daddy put her to bed together. and beck and jade understood the terrible twos, they'd been through them with logan. but this was a different kind of thing. she wasn't just upset all the time, she was upset when she had to do things by herself.

since the arrival of augusta a few weeks ago, nina had been, needier. not in a bad way, beck and jade both fully understood the care required to all three kids, but it was exhausting. it was like she was constantly going out of her way to make things that much more difficult for them. and jade had noticed it was timed, like when she would breast feed augusta, that's right when nina would decide she didn't like the food she was given. or when augusta went down for a nap, nina would decide it was time to wake up the whole house with a tantrum.

so as they sat around the table, jade tried to recognize nina, to talk to her and be there for her. but she couldn't treat nina like an only child, she had two other kids now. and when augusta started whimpering and then sobbing and begging to be fed, jade couldn't just say no.

"i can take her?" beck whispered to jade as she stood up to grab augusta. jade shook her head,

"she's hungry and you can't help with that" she joked lightly and beck smiled, sitting back and trying to engage nina in his and logan's conversation.