catfish and the bottlemen imagines for rainy days + mondays

Encore / Van

It was late when you got in, when you let the car door slam shut behind you and ricochet between the houses down the street.

It was raining and you were tired, exhausted from a day out shopping for your mum and your grandma. The two of them liked to walk slowly down every aisle, admiring every display and in the run up to the summer, when they were excited for the holidays they would take you and y/d/n on whilst Van was doing the festival circuit with the band, well, they only got worse.

And walking around at their pace, trying everything on, trying your best to steer them away from the little summer dresses with the pink frills they thought would look gorgeous on y/d/n but that you knew she would detest, was exhausting.

Not to mention the fact that you were carrying baby number two around now and had been for a term and half. That alone was tiring enough.

So now as you fumbled with the keys in the lock at 7:30 pm, later than you'd have liked to be, you could only hope that Van had done as you'd told him to and tucked y/d/n into bed at 6, read her a bed time story and seen that she slept soundly. You were hoping that when you got in you'd be able to drop your bags by the door and collapse onto the settee, simper up at your husband until he brought you a cup of tea, let you cuddle up into his arms half asleep.

But when you opened the door that was far from what you saw. Or heard.

What you saw was red and blue light flashing beneath the living room door and what you heard was giggling, squealing, and star wars sound effects.

And the sqealing was your little girl, the giggling was your husband, Van.

You opened the door slowly, just a peep at first, watching through the crack fondly, a small smile creeping onto your lips when you saw them both cloaked in blankets, toy lightsabers in their hands, flashing in shades of blue. They weren't fighting eachother, but instead fighting together, back to back being circled by imaginary monsters, and every now and then one of them would duck or Van would turn around and pick her up, pretend to have saved her from an explosion or something as they jumped from one settee to another.

You loved watching them like that, when Van didn't know that you were there, when he didn't know he was being watched. He was less self concious, he found it much easier to let his inner child out and play all the inaginary games your little girl would invent. Of course he was always excellent at playing along, but when they were alone like that he was even better.

They didn't notice you until you opened the door a little wider and when you did Van refused to let them break character, darting down to scoop y/d/n off her feet and drop her down behind the sofa all finger to her lips.

"Shhh," he whispered, "did you hear that?" he asked her, your little girls eyes wide and lit up with nerves as she looked to her daddy and gasped, "we're not alone," Van lowered his voice and as he told her to stay hidden, to follow his lead he turned around and shot you a wink.

You bit your lip, biting down on a beaming smile, glowing with the pride you felt for the two of them as you opened the door a little wider, about to take a step into the room, onto the carpet when your daughter stunned you into a smiling silence with a scream.

"Mummy no!" she squealed jumping up out of her hiding place, hands clasped to her cheeks as if she were the little boy from home alone.

You jumped back, hands to your cheeks too, mirroring her adorable expression, wondering what had gotten into her when you saw the panic in her eyes and the grin on Vans lips as he looked between her and you.

"Whats wrong darlin?" you asked playing along too, though you really weren't quite sure what was wrong this time because youd been left out the loop of this adventure.