Insatiably You | l.s.

Chapter 24

"Sophie, darling, where are you, love?" Gemma's voice rings through the entire house, since after breakfast, Sophie and the girls were nowhere to be found in the living room.

"Here, mummy!" the responding speech echoes, leading to Gemma, myself, and Louis entering the toy room to find Sophie immersed in the middle of the ball pit with Lottie and Fizzy constantly covering her tiny legs, causing her to shriek in delight each time her feet reappear and disappear.

"Oh goodness me! Looks like someone is having the time of their lives, isn't she?" fondly coos Gemma while bending down to lift her daughter out of the pit and puckering kisses all over her rosy cheeks, leading to her erupting into further giggles and gently pushing her mother's face away, after she has seemingly deemed that she has received enough affection.

"Love 'ou, mummy," Sophie then whispers with bright, shining eyes, full of happiness and contentment.

"And I love you too, my little princess," responds Gemma while lightly freeing Sophie's hands, which somehow found their way into her hair, and bringing her to where Louis and I are standing at the entrance of the room, looking at the scene with soft smiles on our faces.

Lottie and Fizzy both then start packing and cleaning up the room as they take note of the time and the fact that Gemma has come to pick up her daughter for the rest of the day.

"Soph, you of course remember—" Gemma starts but is interrupted by the overjoyed shriek and wiggling of Sophie to escape from her arms at the sight of me and Louis.

"UNCLE HAZZY. LOU LOU," she all but screams while making grabby hands towards us as Gemma graciously deposits her into my arms with Louis making his way into her line of vision and starts occupying the majority of her attention due to the silly faces he is making, once more earning ample delightful shrieks and giggles from her.

"Well, then, it looks like I have absolutely nothing to worry about. I'll just—girls, are you both leaving already?" Gemma starts saying but is distracted by the movement of Lottie and Felicite making their way towards us.

Lottie then chooses to respond by saying, "Yeah— Yeah, Gem. Fiz and I both had our first period off this morning, hence why we were idling a bit. Now though we gotta get a move on, next we miss the start of second."

"Do you two need a ride to Q.E.H. then?" Louis questions, finally breaking his attention away from Sophie to look at his two sisters, but still manages to maintain some form of contact by holding onto Sophie's hand to avoid her fussing around.

Felicite responds to him, "Oh no, don't bother on your day off. We'll just ask one of the drivers since it's really just to drop us off and get back here. You'll only be wasting your time if you do."

"Oh, alright, then. No worries... You both have everything you need? Need me to grab anything for you?" Louis further questions while absentmindedly stroking the back of Sophie's head with his unoccupied hand, causing her to preen in response.

"Honestly, Lou," Lottie says with a fond scoff, "we are just going to school. Not to fight war or anything. We'll be fine, and yes, we've got everything we need...Swear to God you're more overprotective than Dad is. Although I have to admit, if you're planning on giving us the Rover or some spare change, we definitely won't be complaining. Right, Fiz?" she questions causing her sister to hum in the affirmative with a shit-eating grin plastered across her face.

"Oi, don't get cheeky, you lot, and I was only asking since I'm barely ever home when you two are off to school, so forgive me if I'm a little out of sorts with the whole routine," he teases, causing his sisters to fondly roll their eyes at him as he continues, "Oh! That reminds me. Do me a favour and don't take Josh as your driver. I don't trust that man one bit," leading to both myself and the girls groaning in response as Gemma quietly snickers while bending down to collect Sophie's shoes and starts putting them on her feet as she remains seated on one of the chairs I rested her on a few moments prior.