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“I told you, I have to get this in by Friday!” You pinched the bridge of your nose, trying to keep your voice low. Abby was in her room, probably talking to herself and drawing that yellow chicken again. Nonetheless, the walls were thin, and the last thing you needed was for her to overhear your conversation.
Mike had conveniently dropped a last-minute babysitting job on you, mere hours before you were scheduled to go into the machine shop to work on your final design course project. And obviously, a place where everything had the potential to cut a person in half was not exactly an ideal place for a venturesome 10-year-old to be.
“And I have to go to work,” Mike retorted, his security vest already halfway on. “Just, do it remotely, or something.”
“For the last time, that’s not how engineering works! And you can’t just throw this onto me last second. I thought you were taking Abby with you!”
“Well, I can’t anymore! So can you just be useful for once, and do this one thing for me?”
“Useful for once? What the fuck, Mike?” It took you all the self-control in your body to not throw something at him. “You know I’ve been busy with school.”
“And who’s helping pay your tuition?”
You opened your mouth to fire back, but unfortunately, he was right. Scholarships and grants took a chunk of the burden off, but you still relied on Mike for the rest.
“Y/N, I’m working my hardest to put food on our plates and to keep a roof over our heads. I do this for Abby, I do this for you. So I don’t need you being ungrateful, alright?”
“How am I being ungrateful? I just want to finish this fucking prototy-”
“I have to go.” He stepped out the front door, turning back to throw you one of his signature condescending scowls. “Figure it out, Y/N.”
The door slammed behind him. Without thinking, you threw a punch at a nearby shelf, scraping your knuckle against the corner.
“Fuck!”
Tears welled up in your eyes, your lips trembling as you begged them not to fall. The pitter-patter of footsteps echoed in the hallway before you felt a small hand on your arm.
“Y/N? What’s happening?”
“Nothing, Abby. Just go back to your room and keep drawing.” You kept your face turned away from her, praying she couldn’t hear the tremor in your voice.
“Hm, okay!” She replied cheerily, skipping back the way she came.
Once you heard the door to her room shut, you collapsed on the sofa in the living room, pulling out your phone to inform your shop supervisor of your absence.
You felt helpless. Tonight was the night you were supposed to put some good progress in. What you got on this project would account for a hefty part of your course mark, and your hopes of a high grade were slipping further and further away with every second you lost.
You couldn’t fail. You worked too hard to fail.
Your phone vibrated as a new notification dropped down: Vanessa, or rather, Nessa, heart emoji.
How was your day, baby?
The tears made the text slightly blurry, but a small smile broke across your face from simply seeing her name.
Tbh? Shit.
I’m sorry :(
She paused for a second, then began typing again.
Are you home right now?
Unfortunately :thumbs down emoji:
You chuckled dryly at your own irony.
I’ll see you in 10 minutes?
Liking her message, you slumped down further into the sofa. At least maybe one good thing would come out of this. After all, Vanessa always pampered you extra hard when you were having a bad day.
The sound of a car engine turning off, and subsequently a series of knocks, announced Vanessa’s arrival.
“Door’s open!” You shouted out weakly.
“Oooh, who’s here?” Abby’s head poked out from her room. Taking sight of your girlfriend, her face lit up, and she gave an exaggerated wave. “Hi Vanessa!”
“Hey, Abs,” Vanessa smiled sweetly, waving back.
Abby disappeared into her room, while Vanessa, setting a paper bag down on the kitchen table, found you in the living room.
“Oh, my honey,” she pouted when she saw the miserable condition you were in. “C’mere.”
You shifted to make room for her on the sofa. She sat down beside you, immediately taking you into her arms.
“I’m gonna fail, Nessa.” You felt safe enough in her embrace to let the tears escape. “I’m so scared I’m gonna fail.”
“No, baby. No you aren’t,” she mumbled against your hair, hand gently massaging your scalp. “You’re my smart girl.”
“It’s Mike. He told me I have to babysit Abby tonight, so now I can’t go to the shop and I’m gonna be a day behind on everything. This is my final project, and I need all the time I can get.”
“I’m sorry, love.” She pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “I…I told Mike that he couldn’t bring Abby to Freddy’s anymore.”
You looked up at her, confused.
“Did he tell you what happened?”
“No?” Panic flashed through you, interrupting your sniffles. “Did Abby get hurt? She seemed fine when they got home this morning.”
“It was just a minor accident with the animatronics. They’re a bit…electrically unstable. Don’t worry though, I did a check-up on your sister afterwards, and she was all good, aside from a little drowsiness which—” she gestured to where Abby had been earlier, “—is evidently long gone. But either way, I told Mike he shouldn’t be bringing her around that place anymore.”
“I get it. He’s just trying to financially support us while keeping Abby safe. But it still hurt, you know? H-he said I was useless, and ungrateful.” You hiccupped, wiping your tears on your girlfriend’s sweater.
Vanessa frowned, momentarily ceasing her soothing strokes of your hair.
“I’m gonna give that man a good talking-to, the next time I see him.” She huffed. Her voice warmed as she resumed caressing your head. “Baby, you are the most hardworking, kindhearted, and down-to-earth person I have ever met. He clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Grabbing your hand, she started to fidget with it before a glimpse of the back made her do a double take.
“Shit, what happened here?”
“Hm? Oh-” you caught sight of the raw, red patch on your knuckle. Quite a bit of skin must have came off, as scarlet droplets glistened at the edges. Your gaze fell to the floor, embarrassed. “I uh, may have…punched something out of anger…”
Vanessa winced empathetically.
Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed smudges of fresh blood on her sweater. Your blood, that you must have wiped on her by accident. Frantically, you tried to scrub it off with your sleeve, but Vanessa stopped you.
“Nothing a little hydrogen peroxide can’t wash out.” She shook her head lightheartedly, helping you to your feet. “C’mon, let’s get you fixed up.”
You followed her to the kitchen table, taking a seat while Vanessa rummaged through cupboards and drawers.
“Where’s the first aid kit?”
“Top drawer, by the oven,” you pointed. Noticing the paper bag sitting on the table, you peeked inside. “What’s this?”
“I had your favourite soup for dinner tonight, so I made an extra portion for you.” She set the first aid kit down beside you, pulling out band-aids and antiseptic wipes. “I was planning on coming over later to drop it off anyways.”
You gasped in delight, hugging her, this time being sure to angle your injured knuckle away from her sweater.
“Ah! Thank you so much!”
Pecking your forehead, she gestured for you to put your hand on the table. You hissed as she cleaned your wound with a wipe, staring at Abby’s drawing of you, herself, Vanessa, Mike, and the animatronics on the fridge to distract yourself from the sting.
“Sorry…almost done,” Vanessa unwrapped a band-aid, placing it with expert precision. “There, that should do it.”
You had to admit, watching Vanessa tend to your injuries was a huge guilty pleasure of yours. There was something about her skilled hands, quick and certain from EMT training, that never failed to make your heart flutter and your face heat up.
“Wait! And can’t forget,” she grabbed your hand again, planting a gentle kiss on your knuckle. “For good measure.”
Suddenly, her eyes narrowed in that little squint she did whenever an idea popped into her head.
“Tell you what, how about I watch Abby, while you go in and work on your project?”
“Really?” You perked up in a heartbeat. Your excitement, however, dampened once you remembered that today was one of her rare opportunities to rest. “Baby…but this was supposed to be your night off.”
“Abby’s a good kid, it won’t be much work at all. Plus, not to brag, but I think I’m her favourite.”
You swatted at her playfully, earning a squeal from her. She tickled you back, and you quickly raised your hands above your head in surrender.
“Well, then, why don’t you have some soup, and then head on over?” Vanessa grinned, happy to have cheered you up.
She helped you microwave the soup, and was adamant that she fed it to you because you were “injured”. You let her have her way; everything tasted better when she was the one holding the spoon anyways.
When she walked you to the front door, you pulled her into a long hug, kissing her deeply.
“Thank you. Really. I love you so much.”
- - -
As you stepped inside the house, the only sounds evident were the ambient hum of electrical appliances and the TV running quietly in the background. You beelined for the living room, spotting blonde hair above the sofa’s backrest in the dim light.
Vanessa put a finger to her lips, tilting her head towards a fuzzy brown, black, and white lump beside her.
Upon closer inspection, you realized that Abby was curled up against Vanessa, fast asleep, covered in the Freddy Fazbear blanket that Mike had gotten her from the pizzeria.
“I didn’t want to move her, she seemed so comfortable.” Vanessa whispered.
You, too, curled up against her on the other side. She placed her arm around you, draping her own quilt over you.
“How’s the project coming along?” She kept her voice hushed.
“I think I’m almost done,” you scrolled through your camera roll, showing her a picture of your prototype. “Look! I chose this light green for the finishing, because it reminded me of your eyes.”
You held your phone up to her face for a side-by-side comparison, internally praising yourself for the masterfully accurate colour match.
“You sure do stare at my eyes a lot,” she laughed softly.
“How could I not? They’re so pretty,” you touched your forehead to hers, letting yourself be consumed by her mesmerizing, star-flecked green depths.
“You make me feel so loved,” she closed the gap between your mouths, softly sucking on your bottom lip.
“I should be the one saying that, after all you’ve done for me today.” You breathed out once you had to pull away for air. “I can’t express my gratitude enough. I just…I love you so much, Vanessa Shelly.”
In response, she kissed you again, the tip of her tongue brushing against your teeth.
“Ew, you guys are such lovebirds!” Abby suddenly shrieked, covering her face with the blanket.
“Were you awake this whole time?” You jerked away from Vanessa like you were two teenagers caught red-handed.
“...Maybe,” she peeked out, sticking her tongue out at you before ducking under the blanket again.
You sighed amusingly, snuggling up deeper against Vanessa. Listening to the soft thuds of her heart, you closed your eyes, sensing every last bit of tension leave your body while she ran her fingers over your skin.
As your mind grew foggy with sleepiness, you made a mental note to thank Mike for his poor planning skills.