Cherry Blossom | TRACOB

Seven

"I'm sorry Joel, but it's just too early for cake," Jacob said. It was six thirty in the morning and Joel had made his way into his parent's bed. Joel pouted, his tail flicking slowly.

"But Daddy said we could have cake!" he whined.

"I did not mean this early in the morning," Troye said with a groan. "We don't even have cake right now Joel, we have to make some."

That made Joel's tail freeze and his eyes brighten. "Oh! Can we do that then daddy?" he asked excitedly. He nudged Troye's hand with his nose when the older neko didn't reply right away, due to the fact that he wanted to still be asleep. "Daddy?"

"Joel, you haven't even eaten breakfast yet. You need to get dressed and Riley needs to get up as well."

Joel just huffed, crawling off of the bed and out of the room with his tail waving in frustration. He crawled back to his room and looked up at Riley's crib, where his youngest brother was standing up with a strong grip on the rail of the crib, talking to himself in his baby language.

"Good morning Riley," Joel said with a sigh, tickling the kitten's bare foot through the rails of the crib. Riley giggled in reply, falling to a sitting position as he accidentally let go of the rail. Joel laughed at the surprised look on Riley's face, shaking his head. "You're so silly."

Riley could stand up and everything, but he could not walk very well yet. He could if he held onto things, but he was yet to take his first unassisted steps. He preferred crawling, just like Joel. Even Troye preferred crawling over walking some days.

"Daddy says we get to make a cake today if we get ready," he informed the baby as he crawled over to Riley's dresser and pulled open the drawers. "So, I thought that I could be a big boy and help you get ready!" He pulled out a cute shirt that had a zebra on it and a little pair of track pants. It looked like something Troye would put Riley in, so Joel decided it would work. He got out a little pair of socks too before walking over to the bed. It was too hard to crawl and carry the clothes at the same time.

Since he was too weak to lift Riley out of the crib, the next best thing was to get in there with him. He threw the clothes in first before stepping onto the stand that was beside the bed and climbing over the rail, pushing Riley's toys out of the way. He sat down and scooted closer to Riley, patting his head gently before picking up the shirt. Troye never put Riley to bed in anything more than a diaper since that was the only way he would sleep, so Joel just had to put clothes on the kitten.

Riley let out a distasteful meow as Joel accidentally pulled on his ear. "Sorry Ry," he said, giggling and petting Riley's small ear gently. He helped Riley but his arms through the sleeves before putting on the socks because they seemed like the next easiest thing. Troye always put socks on Riley and gushed over how cute they were, even though they would be off in half an hour and lost somewhere around the house. "You're gonna have to stand up for this," Joel said as he pulled the pants onto Riley's legs and helped him stand up, pulling them all the way up. "There you go! Now I'll get dressed and I'll get Daddy to come let you out!"

Joel climbed back out and crawled over to his dresser, grabbing whatever was on top and hurrying to pull it on. "I wish I could lift you myself," Joel said as he made his bed quickly, setting his stuffie on top of the sheets. "But I think daddy would get mad at me if I tried, one of us could get hurt. Imagine when he has the baby though, Ry! We are gonna have to help a lot, just like I did when you were a baby. Dad likes it when we help out a lot, especially when there is really little kittens around."

Riley just picked up one of his teething toys and started to chew on it while Joel crawled to Hari's room, pushing open the door and crawling to her bed. "Aunt Hari!" he sang, bouncing on the bed to shake Hari awake. "Come on! I need help to get Riley out of his crib."

"What time is it?" Hari asked, not wanting to get up yet.

"I dunno but Daddy said that once we were ready for the day we could make cake!" Joel squealed, his excitement dissolving when Hari didn't move to get up.

"I'll come help you in an hour kiddo," she said with a yawn. "I just want to sleep for a while longer."

"Okay," Joel mumbled, climbing off of her bed and crawling back down the hallway. He peeked into Jacob and Troye's room, but they were still sleeping, Troye snoring quietly as his ears and tail twitched every once in a while. He crawled back to the bedroom with a pout on his face and his tail waving back and forth very fast. His ears were turned back and his eyes narrow as he set on his bed. "I'm just trying to help everyone and all they want to do is sleep," he whined. Riley just looked at him, wondering why he looked so grumpy.

"If we want to get anything done I suppose I'll just have to get you out myself," he huffed after a few minutes of angry silence. He grabbed one of the little chairs that sat at their miniature table, pushing it up beside Riley's crib. He knew he could easily pick up Riley, he just didn't know how easy it would be to pick him up and out of the crib.

"Come over here Riley," Joel said, waving his little brother over. He was about to pick Riley up when the chair (that was not made for standing on) flipped, sending him to the ground with a sickening crack....

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the male gender is so problematic rip joel lmao