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The ninja turtles theme song rang out quietly, signaling the start of a new episode. Pete was sitting on the couch, eyes fixed on the tv as the pacifier nestled in his mouth kept him from seeking sensory input from things that weren’t meant to go in his mouth.
On the floor a few feet away was Patrick, pacifier nestled in his own mouth for the same reason. He was lining up his action figures on the edge of the coffee table, occasionally glancing up at the tv screen. The boys were being supervised by Andy, who was currently in the kitchen preparing lunch.
Most of the time the two were absolutely inseparable, both in and out of little space. However, Patrick’s short temper and Pete’s desire to annoy everyone for attention were also consistent and carried over between headspaces.
Pete glanced over at the other little, snickering to himself as he reached over and nudged Patrick’s shoulder with his foot. In response, Patrick whined and leaned away.
This didnt satisfy pete. Come on, Patrick didnt even turn around! He did it again, this time earning both a whine and Patrick pushing his foot away. It made him giggle, wanting to do it more to see how much of a reaction he could get.
For a third time, pete kicked the back of Patrick’s shoulder. He miscalculated how hard his kick was though, and Patrick’s arm jerked, knocking down all of his action figures.
Patrick whipped around this time, letting out a high and whiny growl. Before pete could even enjoy the reaction he was getting, Patrick jumped up and tackled him, throwing clumsy fists. Pete shrieked and tried to fight back, but it just upset Patrick more, and they both ended up tumbling off the couch, with Pete’s head narrowly avoiding a collision with the corner of the coffee table. He didn’t notice, though, too busy pulling patrick’s hair in an attempt to get him to stop. It wasn’t working.
Patrick rolled the two of them over so that they were facing each other on their sides, then delivered a weak kick to Pete’s stomach, forcing him into the base of the couch. The couch skidded back a few inches and made a loud noise, which happened to grab Andy’s attention.
“Whats going on?” Andy called, but got no reply. Just as he walked into the living room, pete let out a loud cry as Patrick sunk his teeth into his arm. Andy quickly pulled them apart, making them both freeze.
“What is the issue here?”
“He bited me!” Pete shouted, showing Andy the teeth shaped indents on his arm.
“Is that true?” Andy asked, turning to Patrick. “Did you bite him?”
Instead of giving an answer, Patrick pouted. He glanced between pete and Andy a few times as his eyes started to water, cheeks turning a bright cherry red. Andy knew that small Patrick had a habit of lashing out and hurting people when he was angry, then immediately regretting it and crying when confronted, so Andy wasn’t surprised in the least. At least he got an answer about whether Patrick did it or not.
“Pete, what did you do to upset him?” Andy asked, and pete assumed that Patrick wasn’t going to get in trouble because he was provoked.
“But- but he bited me! An’ attack me first, i didnt do nuffin’!”
“I know that, pete. You’re both going on time out. Now answer my question.” Andy said, patient but firm. Pete was quiet for a while, then spoke.
“Was kickin him an’ being annoyin…” pete mumbled, thumb slowly going into his mouth. He didn’t like confrontation, this was making him nervous. “An’ I made him knock over his toys from the table umm… when he was- when he was makin’ them into a line.”
“Pete,” Andy sighed. “You know how he is about those things, why would you do that?”
“Was an accident!” Pete shouted defensively. He knew Patrick was particular about certain things, he would never purposely do that! “Didn’t mean to…”
“You’re both going in time out, just 10 minutes, okay?” Andy said, standing up and lifting pete off the ground first. He didn’t let go of him until he was seated on one end of the couch, yelling and whining when Andy turned the tv off.
Andy then lifted Patrick as well, setting him on the other end of the couch. He was much more compliant, but he did start crying when he realized that he was in trouble.
“10 minutes. No talking or getting up from your spots. I’ll be in the kitchen.” Andy said, then walked away.
The first few minutes went by in relative silence, save for patrick’s muffled cries into his hands. Pete was a little annoyed by it, simply because the repetitive noises were irking him. He wasn’t upset with Patrick.
6 minutes into the timeout, pete couldn’t take it anymore, he hated seeing his best friend upset. He shuffled across the couch on his knees, slowly wrapping Patrick in a hug. Patrick collapsed onto him immediately, crying into his chest.
By the end of the timeout, Andy walked in to find the boys entangled on the couch, both asleep. They had clearly made up, so he couldn’t even be mad about the fact that they didn’t follow the rules for their timeout. Still, they couldn’t sleep on the couch.
Andy gently lifted Patrick into his arms, but pete whined and woke up a little, clinging to him.
“Shhhhh,” Andy whispered, soothing him. “Come, we’re just moving to the bed, grab the pacifiers, please.”
Pete did as told, stopping to yawn a few times. He followed Andy down the hallway while keeping one hand on patrick. He claimed it was for Patrick’s sake but Andy didn’t really believe him.
Andy gently laid Patrick down on the bed and pulled away, leaving room for pete to climb up and immediately cling to the other little. Andy watched quietly as pete nudged a pacifier into the smaller boy’s mouth, then began sucking on his own as well. Patrick had managed to sleep through everything and was snuffling quietly as he breathed, but pete was awake now and Andy was worried he was going to have some trouble falling back asleep.
“Do you want me to rub your back?” He asked. Pete hummed, thinking it over. He wanted to seem like a big boy, but was also really sleepy and wanted to finish his nap. He nodded, and an Andy climbed onto the bed, sitting next to him.
Within moments of Andy’s gentle hand on his back, pete was out like a light. Andy continued for a few more minutes just to be sure, then pulled away and got off the bed. He decided he would finish making lunch and that the boys could eat it whenever they woke up. He left the door cracked open when he left the room.