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Tyler wasn’t introverted, but he wasn’t extroverted either. He got his energy from the people around him, thrived on their companionship - but he also drained quickly.
Jenna knew better than anyone else that this was the case, and after three and a half years of marriage, she knew the signs that he was about to burn out. He’d been stirring his spoon around his second helping of chili for at least five minutes without taking a bite, head slumped in one hand.
Jenna rose from her own chair and came to stand behind Tyler’s reaching over his shoulders and crossing her arms protectively over his chest.
“Good job tonight, baby boy,” she whispered, and then kissed his earlobe softly.
Tyler sniffed. “You’re acting like I played a show or something,” he grumbled. “I’was just fortnite.”
“Mm,” Jenna agreed, pressing a slew of gentle kisses along his hair line. “But, if you think about it... you were still performing for a big audience. It still took energy out of you, and you still deserve praise for it.”
Tyler’s shrug turned into a full-body curl, and Jenna pulled him tighter back against her chest. Somehow, tense as he was, she could feel him starting to get squirmy as well, huffing out a small sigh. Jenna bent down and nipped gently at his neck, just to gauge his reaction - another loud huff.
“Are you my baby boy?” Jenna said directly into his ear, lips brushing the skin.
Another huff, another huff. Tyler shook his head.
“You think you can get away with pretending you’re not 90% of the way to being a needy mess, huh?” she teased him, and he whined in protest, effectively dissolving any possible defense he could have made. Jenna laughed softly into his hair, and then pulled back, placing a kiss on the top of his head and reaching out for his chili bowl, heading towards the kitchen with it. Cleanup could come later. Sometimes, when it came to Tyler, she had to shift her priorities.
A smile crept onto her face at the feeling of clumsy, heavy arms wrapping around her chest from behind.
“Mama,” Tyler whispered, finally surrendering.
Jenna placed her own hands over his where they joined each other on her sternum. “Sweetheart. Let’s get you upstairs.”
She was too small to carry him - one of the only frustrations Jenna ran into when it came to fulfilling this role for him - but as always, they made do. The kitchen gave way to the hallway, and then the stairs, each room ringing with giggles and whines and subdued laughter as Tyler held on to Jenna from behind, dragging his feet, slumping over and letting Jenna pull him along as best she could. They gave up about three stairs in, in favor of Jenna reaching both hands behind her, facing up the stairway and guiding Tyler along, two handed, at her back.
“It’s cold,” is all Tyler had to say when they reached the bedroom, pulling the cuffs of his shirt over his hands and scrunching up his shoulders.
“Mmm,” Jenna agreed. “Good thing I came prepared.
Moving with purpose, she crossed to their walk-in closet, to the set of drawers reserved specially for moments like this one. Two drawers for Tyler, and one drawer for Josh. She found what she was looking for right away, having laid them out in the top drawer earlier that day. Tyler was easy to predict.
“C’mere,” Jenna said softly, gesturing for Tyler to cross the room. “Let’s get you undressed, come on, cutie.”
Tyler huffed in protest. “Colllld.”
He wasn’t wrong - midwestern Indian Summer was giving way to the true crisp chill of autumn night.
“Hence the snowman pajamas, dummy,” she said lovingly, tugging Tyler’s shirt over his head before he had the chance to resist.
Even as he relented, letting her tug the bottoms on, Tyler frowned. “It’s, like, not even snowy yet.”
“You’re talking back quite a bit for someone who was whining and calling me Mama five seconds ago,” Jenna teased him, and Tyler pouted enormously, brow furrowed. “Hmm, yeah,” she amended, grinning. “Thought so.”
In truth, they were straddling a line, dancing in the space between dynamics - maybe Tyler was small, maybe he was just needy, maybe it didn’t matter all that much. Jenna was whatever he needed her to be, and she got more than enough in return.
The blankets were soft, and smelled of lavender. The boy between her legs, with his head rested sideways on her stomach, already smelled like sleep. The boy breathing gently against her wrist where her hand was curled in his hair was full of a love for her that few others truly saw or understood. The boy with his arms tight around her waist was all hers - and neither of them would have it any other way.