shimmerandsing | Small surprises.

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Small surprises.

Alison didn't like it when her husband wasn't home. There were a variety of reasons for it, but the main reason was because he wasn't with her when he was gone. She had spent most of the day in a funk, waiting for Longshot and Asuka to return home from a clan mission. She couldn't complain too much when he was sent away. The jonin knew Alison was pregnant and somewhat clingy where her husband was concerned. So, if he had been called away, it was probably very important.

She still missed him, though.

So, she spent most of the day in her music room. Her single had done remarkably well since its release and now she was looking to find more good material to record. She had almost an album's worth already.

She was taking a break from working, having a sandwich for lunch in the kitchen, when she saw the glowy orange light from John's arrival. She hoped Lisa was with him. The girl had not been in her room this morning and that had worried Alison, too.

"Hi, guys!" She called. "Come have some lunch with me."

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John gave the little blond boy a half-amused and half-exasperated look. Yuck. Well, the kid would need cleaning. He wondered if he'd get a chance to do that before Alison killed him?

"C'mon, Daddy! I'm hungry!" Lisa tugged on John's hand and pulled him toward the kitchen.

John followed her in and managed a smile for the woman sitting at the kitchen table. "Hello, Alison. Uhm. We're home..."

Longshot was still chewing cookie but waved excited to Alison. So much so, he almost waved himself right off John's arm. He bobbed his head impatiently as he waited to finish chewing.

"Hiya, Ali! I'm hoooooooome!"

Alison laughed delightedly at the cute blond child John was carrying. She had to give it to the man... he attracted children like no one else.

"Welcome home!" She smiled and looked at John. "Who's your little friend?"

Longshot smiled, his eyes crinkling. Despite not being given a welcome home hug. He wiggled on John's arm for a minute before grabbing it to swing down to the floor. The little Mojoworlder's bare feet padded across the floor as he peeked onto the tabletop.

"Whatcha eatin'?"

Decision time. How best to tell a pregnant woman that her husband had been turned into a four year old. He hesitated and then decided to distract her first.

He scooped Longshot up and dropped him gently into Alison's lap. "Here, hold this for me." He grinned and quickly made his way to the sink. Well out of range of her arms. He'd just have to dodge the lasers.

As he wet a washcloth under the faucet, he took a deep breath and finally said, "That's... um... Longshot."

"Yep!" Lisa smiled and climbed up into a chair opposite Alison. "He got magicked. Want a cookie?" She held out the bowl.

Longshot wiggled in Alison's lap and bobbed his head side to side until he was comfy. Then he tilted his head back and grinned at her.

"Hi..."

Oooookay. Alison looked down at the child in her lap and blinked rapidly several times. This tiny boy was her husband?

"Longshot?" She kept her arms lightly around him. He was so small! How did this happen?

"Magicked? How?"

Longshot leaned back against Alison and poked her sandwich with a finger. "Yep! And you're Ali. And we're married. And this is our big wooden home with lots of stairs. And the stork's gonna come soon and drop off a little you and a little me."

"He told Lisa some little green men magicked him like this." John shrugged helplessly as he brought the washcloth over. He grabbed Longshot's hands and cleaned them first. Then the boy's face.

"I've been working all day, so I'm not even sure where he went."

Cleanliness attack! Ack! Longshot grimaced and tried to wiggle away. Except John managed to get him clean.

"Plech. Washcloth doesn't taste good."

"It's good for you," Alison murmured without really thinking about it. She reached over to her plate and grabbed the half of her sandwich that she hadn't started eating and handed it to Longshot.

"Here, sweetheart." She shook her head and tried to clear it. Alright. Her husband was four. Now what?

Longshot wrinkled his nose and looked up at Alison. "How is it good for me?"

He took the offered sandwich with excited eyes and started chowing down. "Mrafs!"

"So you don't get sick," John answered for Alison. She looked a little dazed.

Lisa figured no one wanted cookies, so she put the bowl down on the table. "Will you make me a sandwich, Daddy?"

John nodded and went back to the counter. The sandwich stuff was still out, so he started making more. Four at least. Alison needed to finish her lunch and Longshot could always eat.

Longshot waited until he finished swallowing before trying to figure out where his Dad got an idea like that. "I think I'd get sick eating a washcloth."

Now that the cookies were unguarded... Longshot snatched one! And hid it under the sandwich half he was eating. He went back to eating his sandwich like nothing had happened.

"It's just for washing you. You don't have to eat it."

Alison watched, bemusedly, as Longshot stole a cookie from the bowl. She smiled and shook her head, reaching a hand around to pluck the cookie from his hand. She set it on her plate and patted his knee gently.

"Eat lunch first. You'll get a stomach ache if you eat so many cookies all at once."

Longshot pouted and ate at the same time. He was talented enough to.

Meanwhile, the front door opened and Asuka stepped in. "Alison? Longshot?"

She did not sound certain on finding the latter.

John set a plate with a sandwich on it in front of Lisa as he passed by the table. He pushed the kitchen door open and called to Asuka. "We're all in here."

"Thank you, Daddy."

"You're welcome, kiddo." John ruffled her hair as he went back to make the counter.

He swapped Alison's empty plate for one with another sandwich on it. He made sure to put the cookie on the new plate before taking the empty one away.

As Asuka made her way to the kitchen, Longshot kept a close watch on John. He almost took the cookie away! He chewed warily until he was sure the cookie was not going to dance away from the new plate. He looked up at Alison.

"How many cookies do I get once I've eated lunch?"

Alison laughed softly as she looked down at Longshot. He was so cute. Well, he was always cute, but he was really cute as a toddler. She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

"How about one of each kind?"

"Is there fifty kinds of cookies in there?" Longshot asked Lisa as Asuka stepped into the kitchen.

The ninja glanced around and looked somewhat confused at the little blond boy sitting on Alison's lap. He looked familiar somehow.

"Did Longshot make it back from Ireland? We got separated and I wasn't sure what Nexus portals to use."

"Nuh uh. Only two. Sorry." Lisa grinned at him and took another bite of her sandwich. Somehow, she kind of thought she was going to be blamed for all of this. It was nice to be wrong. Just this once.

John quirked an amused eyebrow at Asuka and pointed at Longshot sitting in Alison's lap. "He made it back. More or less..."

"Sandwich?"

"Nerts!" Longshot said to Lisa and wrinkled his nose. He looked over at Asuka and waved. "Hiya, babysitter!"

The ninja, for her part was blinking. "He was ... taller ... the last time I saw him..."

The young Mojoworlder straightened up in Alison's lap as he finished up the half of sandwich he had been given. He was tall! See?

"Apparently there were little green men and magic involved," Alison told Asuka. Huh. That just never really sounded right, no matter how many times it was said.

She picked up half the sandwich John had brought her and offered it to Longshot. "Still hungry, cutie?"

"Yes!" Longshot grabbed the sandwich and took a big bite out of it.

Asuka, trained to be unflappable, was at that precise moment very flapped. "No sandwich, thank you," she finally replied to John.

She grabbed a chair and slowly sank into it. She stared at the young Longshot. "I don't... I don't understand. Unless, well, he said he heard giggling. I thought it was just one of those things..."

"He's not usually prone to hearing things," John remarked as he set the last, unclaimed sandwich on the table within Alison's reach and then took his own to another seat. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if there was giggling involved, maybe it wasn't meant to be malicious and maybe it's only temporary."

"Or Longshot'll have to grow up all over again!" Lisa seemed amazed by this. It would be fun to have a little brother to play with, though. She bet her Dad would be spending a lot more time here if that happened.

Small surprises.

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