𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙤 𝙖𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖 - 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙨

timeout - kamijiro

it was mid afternoon. jiro was little, no older than two, and stationed on the lap of her boyfriend and caregiver, denki.

a pacifier bobbed between her lips and a soft toy was being played with between her hands.

a cartoon played hazily in the background. denki was stroking her hair, hoping she would get tired enough for a nap soon.

when she was this little, she absolutely needed a nap, or else denki was in for a long afternoon.

jiro was a sweet girl, but she had a bit of an attitude sometimes. some may even call her a little bratty.

denki was pretty good at handling her when she got like that, but he was always in favor of avoiding a tantrum when possible.

another few minutes passed and denki patted the girls back gently.

"alright, kyo," he hummed softly, "time for a nap."

the girl tensed. she was NOT ready to go to sleep yet. she still wanted to stay up and play!

she shook her head with a single, defiant huff. "no s'eepy," she whined weakly.

denki rubbed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. this was going to escalate quickly — he knew it.

he hummed. "i know, pumpkin, but babies need to take naps when they're this small."

she whined loudly. "no baby! no needa s'eep, no wan' nap!" she turned away from him.

denki frowned. "ji. please? for dede?" (jiro called him an assortment of names when she was small, 'dede' being one of them).

jiro kicked her legs. "no!" she rolled off of him and onto the couch, clutching onto a pillow. "no nini! no s'eepy! i s'ay here n p'ay!"

denki got up and looked at her. "kyoka. there is no need to throw a tantrum over this. remember what we talked about?"

he and jiro had multiple talks about her tantrums before. it wasn't that he couldn't handle it, but he wanted her to be better behaved. jiro said she would try, but there were still hiccups here and there.

including now.

jiro clenched her fists and spit her pacifier out. her eyes began to well with tears. she didn't want to take a nap! she was certain she wasn't tired and just wanted to stay up with her dede and play for a little while longer.

"kyo. i'll lay with you for a little while. okay? but we need to get up to bed. dede will carry you. come on," he reached for her.

jiro's lip quivered. she looked up at denki with longing eyes, hoping he would let her get what she wanted.

"come on, now," he beckoned for her by moving his hands, offering to pick her up.

"NO!" the girl cried loudly, kicking her legs and pounding her fists against the couch. "NO NO NO NO!!!!"

denki's mouth hung slightly agape. he always found it hard to believe that his sweet little girl could cry out like this.

he knew what he had to do, despite how much he hated it.

"you know how much i hate doing this, kyoka," denki sighed. the boy hooked his arms under the girls' and scooped her up off the couch.

"timeout."

jiro started wailing. she flailed her arms and legs and tensed up to try and loosen out of denki's grip. "NOOOOO!!!"

he carried her over to the designated "timeout corner". he sat her down facing the wall. "five minutes," he told the girl sternly as he stepped outside the room.