"God. I feel horrible." I groaned, shifting how I was sat on the sofa. Jacob flopped beside me and I leaned into his side.
"Well, that's what happens when you breathe in smoke." He replied, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
"Papa, can you play with me?" Penny skipped into the room, a doll in each hand.
"Not today, baby girl. I'm still feeling a bit sick after yesterday."
"Oh." Penny looked at her dolls and then jumped onto Jacob's lap. "You play with me, daddy?" With an exaggerated groan, Jacob stood up and lifted her into the air.
"Alright, little monster. What are we playing?" Giggling, Penny hugged him as he brought her back down to sit on his hip.
"Can we play dress up? I wanna be a pirate!"
"Uh, sure." I had to laugh at the expression on Jacob's face but he carried her into her room anyway and I listened as they rummaged around for a little bit. There were lots of giggles from Penny and not-so-quiet mumbles from Jacob until eventually, they stormed back into the living room and I burst out laughing.
"Papa! I'm a pirate." Penny announced, bounding over and waving a plastic hook in my face.
"I can see that. And what's daddy?" My eyes were trained on my husband as Penny giggled again.
"Daddy's a fairy princess. And I'm going to make him give me all his treasure. 'Cause that's what pirates like!" Jacob had somehow managed to put on one of her pink sparkly tutus and had a plastic tiara atop his head. In his hand was a sparkly pink wand and he had white angel wings on his back.
"Well then. You'd better get to it. Otherwise he might run away." I warned her and her eyes went wide. Jacob seemed to take my hint and pretended to run away, not quite fast enough that Penny wouldn't be able to catch up. When she did catch him, he fell to the floor and let her take the tiara off his head, holding it in the air gleefully.
"I catched you daddy! I got the treasure!" She cheered, doing a little war dance around him. He pretended to be upset and sniffed a little.
"But, Miss Pirate, that's my tiara."
"Argh! But pirates love treasure. And this is the bestest treasure in the land." Penny cried with a little giggle.
"What about my wand? It has magical powers. Surely that's the best treasure in the land?"
"Oh! Well, yes it is. I'll take that too." She snatched the wand from Jacob's hand and ran over to me. "Here papa. It's the special treasure that I stole from daddy." She whispered in my ear, depositing the tiara and wand in my lap.
"Thank you, sweetie."
"Now I have to tie up daddy so he doesn't get away." I widened my eyes as she pulled a blue ribbon from her pocket and proceeded to tie it in a knot around Jacob's hands. I had no idea where she'd learned that.
"Why are you tying me up? I thought you just wanted the treasure?" Jacob asked her and she looked up at him with a cheeky smile.
"'Cause pirates always kidnap the princesses, daddy. Don't you know that?"
"Oh. Right. Well, what now?" Penny tilted her head to the side to think for a moment.
"Now I make you scrub the decks!"
"But you tied my hands."
"Oh. Well, I make you stay there. I'm going to do pirate things in my pirate ship." With that she spun on her heel and disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her. Jacob looked over at me with a grin.
"Well, that lasted a long time."
"You make a fabulous fairy princess, I must say." I told him through my laughter. He stuck his tongue out at me and got up, the blue ribbon coming undone as soon as he moved since Penny hadn't actually tied it properly.
"It's just what I'd dreamed of being when I grew up."
"Oh me too." I agreed, sarcasm dripping from my voice. He laughed and came to sit beside me.
"You feeling any better?"
"I am, yeah. I think just taking it easy has been good. I'll be right for work tomorrow."
"Good. You have no idea what it was like to watch you just run across the road like that yesterday. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped."
"I was never going to go into the house." I assured him, laying my legs over his lap and letting him tuck me in under his arm. "I love you too much to make you lose me like that."
"I love you too, Connor. "
"Plus, you'd never be able to survive without me." I teased and he pulled back to look at me.
"What? I would so."
"Nuh-uh. You rely on me too much." I was laughing now. "Remember how bad you were at cooking when we first started dating?"
"Oh, come on. I wasn't that bad."
"You burned the chicken!" I cried, my laughter shaking my whole body and his, although he was starting to laugh now, too, at the memory.
"Only 'cause you distracted me. If you hadn't been so intent on kissing me, it wouldn't have burned."
"Hey, I was young and smitten. I didn't know then that I'd have a million more chances to kiss you. I was just making the most of the moment."
"Only a million?"
"Huh?"
"You only got a million chances to kiss me after that night? When does that million run out? 'Cause maybe we'll have to space them out."
"Oh, ha-ha. You know what I mean." I pressed my lips to his gently, feeling him kiss me back.
"Daddy!" The sound of our daughter back in the living room made us break apart. "How did you get free?"
"Uh, a brave knight rescued me." Jacob told her after a moment, gently squeezing my leg where it still lay over his. I smiled and leaned my head on his shoulder.
"Can we watch a movie, daddy?"
"Sure. You pick one and I'll go make some popcorn, how does that sound?"
"Yeah!" Penny cheered and went over to the cupboard where we kept all the movies she could watch. Jacob kissed my cheek and pushed my legs off his. I whined and pouted at him.
"I was comfortable."
"I'll be back soon. Promise."
A/N: Just a little fluffy chapter before the real ~drama~ goes down.
Also if you haven't noticed, I've been jumping the timeline a little. At the end of this chapter, it is Sunday night for Connor but the end of the last chapter is Monday night. After the next chapter, it should all line up again. Sorry about the time jumping. :)
