Chapter Text
There was almost always a calm that would settle in the house following the household bustle which accompanied suppertime. By the time the dishes were at their end of being washed, some certain four Minireenas would be dragging their grandfather into the living room the very moment his tea was poured. All of them politely asking to see more of whatever old photos the elder Marionette still had—or even to see ones they'd already seen, again.
In their case, politeness seemed also to come off as unbridled excitement almost every time. The Minireenas had been asked by their grandfather how they have such bursts of energy after supper, how they didn't want to just cozy up and relax for the evening. To such a question, Tina had kindly explained that it simply must be because they aren't old yet like him.
"Cuz, old people actually get sleepier more right?"
"I... Well, Melys, you aren't entirely incorrect."
Getting to look at old family pictures with their grandpa after supper had easily become one of the Minireenas' favorite time of the day—as the four mutually agreed.
So, as was the new routine, the Minireenas once again found themselves planted on the couch, sitting at either side of their grandfather, who had taken out the small, wooden keepsake box that had been keeping the pictures safe all this time. Now no longer kept tucked away in his luggage, the box had found a new place on a decorative shelf in the living room.
As Py sorted through the photos to find a new one to show his granddaughters, he slowly shook his head a little. "I really must get an album for these..." He quietly commented to himself. At the comment, Rosette and Mina exchanged curious looks with one another.
Though, neither they or their sisters were able to say much on what their grandpa had said, as his shifting through photographs came to a pause. "Hm...?" The four looked down at the photo, a couple small giggles being the immediate reaction. "Is that Daddy?" Tina asked, looking up at Py—who was sporting a puzzled expression. "Yes..."
"Why's he nappin' in the grass?" Came her next question, followed by Lucette's observation of, "He looks teeny in this one! Like he's almost hiddin' in the big blankie!" Py hummed in agreement, slowly adding, "It's called a quilt." The comment was said in a distracted way, as he was pondering something.
Rosette took note of this. "What, GrandPy?" She asked him. Py tutted, shook his head and shrugged. "I have no memory of this photo being taken... I'm unsure what was happening here."
"Um, well, Daddy was havin' a nap in the grass. Duh!" Tina reiterated, seeming genuinely puzzled as to how that much wasn't already obvious. Py quietly chuckled. "Yes, I can see that. I just can't recall why he was napping in the grass... or where that grass even was." He explained. Tina quietly mouthed an 'ohhhh' in answer.
The five of them continued looking over the photo for another minute. The Minireenas were waiting for their grandfather to remember what was happening in the photo, all the while Py was still sifting through his own memory to place the moment in his mind. Yet, his attempts only continued to come up unsuccessful.
Suddenly, the photo was snatched from his hand. Py blinked. Rosette had quickly hopped down from the couch, the photo in her small hand as everyone watched her rushing off into the other room. "Where is she...?" Mina, Tina and Lucette could only offer a shrug of their little shoulders in response as their grandpa gave them a puzzled look.
Rosette made it into the kitchen in nearly no time at all. Where both her mom and dad had been finishing tidying up the supper mess, there now was only her dad—drying off the last plate to be returned to its proper place in a cupboard. Rosette cleverly refrained from sneaking up on him and grabbing his attention by hugging onto his leg until after the plate was put away.
The moment the cupboard door was closed, she hastily skipped up to him and wrapped her arms around her father's leg. Puppet was briefly startled by the gesture, having no realized Rosette had returned to the kitchen. He looked down to be met with a nearly mischievous grin looking back up at him. "Oh...! Lovebug, you scared me for a second...!"
"Heh, sorry, Daddy!"
"Sure you are...." Puppet joked, reaching down to scoop Rosette up into his arms. "What's this you've got?" He wondered, as he noticed something in Rosette's hand. She gladly showed him. "It's a picture of when you were just little, see?" Puppet laughed a little. "You're's takin' a nap in the grass under a comfy quilt blankie!"
"I sure am," He agreed. Rosette then gave her dad a pointed look. "GrandPy can'ts remember when he taked this photo, though, soooo...." She then nodded at him. Puppet easily took the hint. "Well, it's because he didn't take the photo." He answered simply. Rosette blinked. "Wait what?" Puppet nodded. "I didn't think I had."
Puppet and Rosette looked to the kitchen's living room doorway to find that Py, Mina, Tina and Lucette had caught up after Rosette. Py leaned against the frame of the doorway, giving his son a curious look. "Mom took this picture." Puppet said to them.
Making her way up to her father's side, Mina asked a question which Py and Puppet easily expected next. "Do's you remember when she took it, Daddy?" She wondered. "How can's you remember a picture if you were's sleepin' in it?" Tina asked next, looking about as puzzled as the rest of her sisters did. Puppet chuckled.
Slowly lowering Rosette back onto the floor, Puppet then said, "Here, let's all go back into the living room and I'll tell you all the story."
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He'd been outside since finishing his last bite of lunch. Simply eager to go exploring while the sun was out and shining brightly over everything, keeping him warm while he took off on his own little adventures.
These little adventures of his were usually much more fun whenever he managed to convince his big brother to join him. Being the taller of the duo, he'd be able to reach higher tree branches, or test how deep a puddle of water or small pond were. And being two, meant more little treasures could be carried back home between them.
Today wasn't one of those days, and so, after getting a kiss on the top of his head, Puppet had taken off outside—a place set in his mind to explore.
He'd spent the entire afternoon simply exploring every inch of what to him looked like a large, rolling field of grass with a few towering trees here and there. He hadn't even managed to cover all of it before suddenly catching a few tired out yawns.
A cool breeze was creating a gentle rustling of leaves and branches in the trees which surrounded him. And as he sat down in the shade of one tree to look for any acorns in the surrounding grass, that rustling sound above him was slowly becoming an almost soothing sound.
His eyelids had started to become heavy, focus on acorns fading as he listened to the rustling leaves above. Another small yawn. Little, striped arms reached towards the sky in a stretch, before loosely landing back down onto his lap.
His little body begun to sway a little. Next thing he knew, he'd laid down on the lush and soft grass. The odd leaf would occasionally float down from the branches above, landing on his shoulders, and legs.
Eventually, the small leaves that had been landing on his little form now felt like one big and heavy leaf. Slowly drifting off to sleep, he didn't question it. Puppet remained in the grass, blissfully unaware of the world around him as he napped in the shade of the tree.
• • • • •
Puppet's nap quietly came to an end, as he was slowly awakened by someone's gentle hand caressing his rosy cheek. He began to blink away the sleep, all the while another yawn escaped him again. He was disoriented for a moment as he woke up, no longer in the same place which he'd fallen asleep.
The lush grass beneath him was gone, along with the little leaves which had blanketed him. The tree was gone, but not the shade. And there was no breeze anymore, the familiar melody of a music box taking the place of the rustling leaves.
He sat up where he'd been laying, the gentle hand lowering from his face. For a moment, Puppet was glancing around with a puzzled look on his face. The expression elicited an amused giggle from someone who's lap he realized he'd been snuggled in. He promptly looked up to be met with an amused, yet loving smile from his mother.
"Not where you fell asleep, hey?" Puppet blinked. He shook his head 'no'. His mother gently stroked her hand over his little head. "I found you taking a little nap under that tree, just out there," She pointed out the window towards a tree that was across the way from the house. One that was still clearly in view, but from the distance, looked only a little bigger than his brother.
She looked back down at her youngest son. "You looked very comfy," She continued. "Momma didn't want to wake you up just yet. Do you wanna know what I did instead?" With a curious look in his still-a-little-groggy-eyes, Puppet nodded eagerly.
"Here," He watched as she reached for something on the end table beside the recliner—next to where the music box was sitting. A photograph. "I took your picture!" Puppet looked at the photo as his mother held it carefully in front of him. He blinked, slowly smiling. "Hold, please?"
"Sure, you can hold it, baby." His smile widened more as his mother let him hold the photo. She watched as he seemed to practically be analyzing every detail in the photo, being the ever curious child he was on the daily. She gently rubbed his back while he looked at the photo.
Then, her son let out a surprised gasp. "What is it?" Puppet was pointing to a spot on the photo, looking up at his mom with widened eyes—any lingering sleepiness now gone. "Bug!" He was smiling excitedly. "Oh? Where's the bug?" Puppet held the photo up for his mom to see, still pointing at where he'd seen the bug. "Look!"
"That's not a leaf?"
"Nuh-uh!" Puppet adamantly shook his head 'no'. "Leafy bug! It has 'tennas!" His mother took a closer look at his insistence. "Oh, I see it now," She smiled. "Good eye, Pup'!" Puppet was proudly smiling at himself, lowering the photo back down again to continue looking at it. As he did, he felt Sana give him another kiss on top of his head.
"Love you." She told him. "Loves you, Momma!"
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"Here," The four of them all looked at where their father was pointing. "Ooh, I sees it!" Rosette exclaimed. In the photo, the leaf bug had been resting on top of Puppet's shoulder, looking as though it had just began to scurry off just as Sana had taken the photo. "That's silly!"
"It looks like its runnin' away," Mina noted. "Well, you'd probably get spooked, too, if you were a little bug and some big creature with a loud camera sneaked up on you like that." Puppet said, to which Mina nodded. "Oh yeah, right!"
Briefly, Lucette looked up from the photo and towards her grandfather, just long enough to notice the warm smile on his face. "Why's you smiling about, GrandPy?" She asked him. "I was just thinking back to something your Grandma Sana loved to do, Eirin." He began. "Whenever your father and uncle would go out to play, she loved just watching them from the house. She always told me how much joy it brought her just seeing them having their fun."
"Grandma sounds like she was sweet!" Tina said, to which her grandfather nodded. "Yes... She was, very much so." Py answered, quietly sighing a little at the thought.
Though, his granddaughters didn't leave him much time to linger on the feeling of ennui that would've quickly come over him again. The Minireenas had silently exchanged a knowing look among themselves, before all four of them slid down from the couch.
"Where are you girls off to, now?" Puppet asked them, both he and their grandfather giving them curious looks. "Our room!" Lucette stated, as Rosette took the photo from her father's hand—causing more confusion. The four of them were giggling with each other, as they took off in a rush for the stairs. "Careful in the-"
"We know!" Mina and Tina jinxed, as their rushing slowed while they climbed up the stairs.
Once at the top, the four all lingered a moment when they heard speaking in the living room again. "They're probably up to something." Their dad said, with a reply from their grandpa being, "Your little ones make me think of you, in a way, when you were that age." The four of them exchanged small looks of intrigue with one another on hearing the comment. "With how they 'busy' themselves in whatever activity they happen to be in the middle of."
"I definitely see what you mean, Dad." Their father agreed.
Then, the conversation quieted down.
The Minireenas continued away from the staircase, heading for their bedroom door—hearing the sound of a music box from their parents' bedroom as they passed it by. A couple of them glanced towards the somewhat-ajar-door as they walked, though the four of them didn't stop their stride in making it to their own room.
Hearing their mother's music box was, after all, a relatively common occurrence whenever she was getting some teacher work done.
As Rosette pushed open their bedroom door, her and her sisters promptly went into different directions within the room in search of their various craft supplies. Before closing the door behind herself, Rosette took a quick peak out into the hallway. She spotted no surprise guests to their room.
Nodding to herself, Rosette closed the door just enough to keep anyone from peeking in without pushing the door open. And with that, she, too, went to join her sisters in the start of their new craft idea.