#but i don't think it's. too distracting? so i'm not gonna fix it ahgkldsjfkl

[marshmellowtea]

what's this?? marshy actually finished a fic for the first time in ages??? no fuckin way—

anyway hi i forget how i usually intro these tumblr fics of mine gjdskfds but going by my writing tag it looks like i usually just wing it so uhh here! have some domestic age regression fluff between caregivers!tanya and mike and little!lila (with a liiiight sprinkling of angst and hurt/comfort in the middle there because i just couldn't help myself, lmao). small warning for a reference to will and lila's mothers and what that entails, ie emotional abuse, though it's not super explicit. if there's anything else i need to warn for, lmk!

super special thanks to @whenthedeeppurplefalls for betaing this fic, literally idk if it would've gotten done without you so i super appreciate you looking at it hglkdsjf 💞 tysm pal seriously :') /gen

as per usual with these fics, eventually this'll get posted to ao3 as well and i'll reblog this with a link when that's ready, but for now, without further ado, here it is please enjoy <3

"Babe, why is William in timeout?"

Tanya huffs out a laugh as she makes her way to Mike over at the door, greeting him with a kiss to his mouth and taking the grocery bags out of his hands. "That's Lila, honey," she says, moving aside so he can step inside the apartment and shut the door behind him.

"Ah. That makes more sense," he says, turning his gaze to the girl currently pouting in the corner of the kitchen. "Hi, sweetheart. What have you done this time?"

Lila turns to him, her arms crossed over her chest and her cheeks puffed out adorably. One leg is crossed over the other, giving her the air of an offended little lady, and Mike has to bite back a laugh. Her and William are both so cute—equally so, of course, given the fact they share a body, but they both have their own unique little quirks in the way they carry themselves that are absolutely precious in their own little ways.

"You can tell him if you want to, honey," Tanya says, putting away the groceries Mike had brought home. "I won't add time to your timeout."

Lila huffs, pout increasing somehow. "Mama's being unfair," she says, shooting a withering glare in Tanya's direction. "It was an accident."

"Ohohoho, no it was not," Tanya says, shaking her head with a click of her tongue. "You wanna actually tell him what you did?"

Lila glares at her for another moment, before turning back to the wall. Mike actually laughs at that, taking a few steps further to stroke her hair lightly.

"Well, now I'm curious," he says. "What'd you do to earn the timeout chair?"

Lila huffs, hunching in on herself a little. "You're on her side," she accuses, her cheeks reddening.

"Well, honey, I can't be on your side if I don't know what you did," he says, shaking his head slightly.

Lila stays silent, her eyes fixed on the ground. She almost looks embarrassed, an expression that's very rare for her. Mike ruffles her hair, before moving his hand to squeeze her shoulder lightly.

"I guess she doesn't want to tell me," Mike says, shaking his head. "What'd she do, Mama Bird?"

Tanya turns to him, her eyes alight with amusement and irritation. "Well, she almost burnt the fucking house down," she says, shooting a half-smile in Lila's direction.

Mike's eyebrows raise. "Oh? How the fuck did she do that?" he asks, absentmindedly rubbing circles against Lila's shoulder with his fingertips.

"Put a fork in the microwave," Tanya says, shaking her head. "She's very lucky I caught it before it started sparking."

"It was—it was an accident!" Lila protests suddenly. She looks up at Mike with pleading eyes, leaning against him all cutely in that way she does when she wants something. "This isn't fair!"

Mike hums, turning his eyes toward Tanya. "If she just left her fork in her food, I don't think it's fair to—”

Tanya shoots him a pointed look. "It was just a fork in there," she says, turning her eyes to Lila and adding, "and I'd just told her about how putting metal in the microwave is dangerous."

"Oh. Hmm." Mike looks back down at Lila, giving her shoulder a light pat. "Yeah, I don't think I can defend you, sweetheart."

"Not fair," Lila mumbles, kicking at the air helplessly. "It was—I just wanted to see what happened."

"I told you what happens," Tanya says, pulling out a pot from the drawer. "There was no reason to try it out, my sweet girl.”

“What if I didn’t believe you?” Lila protests, looking up at Mike pleadingly again, as though he’ll somehow be able to help her.

“Well, then we have a bigger problem then,” Tanya says, shaking her head. She turns around then, holding the pot out in front of her and turning her attention toward Mike. “How do we feel about spaghetti for dinner?”

��I brought the meatballs,” he says, shrugging lightly and moving his hand to rub Lila’s back soothingly. “I say go for it.”

“Dada—” Lila starts pitifully, presumably to plead for help or mercy.

Before she can finish, or Mike can say anything, however, Tanya interrupts. “Ah ah ah. No talking rule is back in effect.” She looks over at her, her eyes softening sympathetically. “Only a minute left, little one.”

Lila whines, her eyes dropping to her feet. Mike smiles at her, also sympathetically, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head.

“Sounds like you’ll be free soon,” he says, giving her a light pat. “Hang in there, sweetheart.”

Lila huffs, kicking her feet frantically. Mike steps away from her, then, making his way over to Tanya’s side, watching her as she puts a pot of water on.

“Once you get that on, can we talk for a minute in the other room? Real quick before little one gets free?” he asks lowly. Then, not wanting to worry her, he adds, “Nothing bad, just…caregiver stuff.”

Tanya nods, a slight look of relief falling across her face, before flicking the stove on and taking a step back. “Lila, we’ll be back soon, okay?” she calls in her direction. “We’re just gonna be in the other room for a minute, we’re not leaving, sweet pea.”

Lila turns to look at them, her eyes round and brow furrowed. She opens her mouth as if to speak, but then realizing she can’t, she huffs, turning back to the wall.

Mike snorts softly at the sight, shaking his head slightly and leading Tanya out to the living room. He looks through the doorway, and once he’s certain Lila’s not trying to snoop, he turns back to Tanya with a curious expression.

“How long you put her in for?”

Tanya shrugs. “Just ten minutes,” she says, running her fingers loosely through her hair. “She got it bumped up to thirteen, though, as she usually does.”

Mike hums, nodding thoughtfully. “Kind of a short time for almost burning the house down,” he remarks with mild amusement.

Tanya laughs quietly, shrugging a little. “Yeah, maybe…I don’t know,” she says, letting out a soft sigh. “I think she was just acting out for attention rather than trying to get on my nerves like she usually does. I mean, I was kind of distracted today…I feel bad about it, so I didn’t want to punish her too harshly.”

“Hmm, alright…it does sound like she didn’t add as much time as she usually does, huh?”

Tanya snorts. “Yeah, I think she’s feeling neglected, poor girl.”

Mike coos sympathetically, shaking his head slightly in the direction of the kitchen. “Yeah…poor girl.” He tilts his head then, regarding Tanya with a soft gaze. “What about you? You said you were distracted, are you alright?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m just…” Tanya frowns, waving her hand lightly. “Looking for a job has been…stressful. But it’s not anything more than that.”

Mike nods and reaches out, wrapping his arm around her and giving her a comforting squeeze. “Alright, I get that,” he says gently, rubbing her arm soothingly. “Hey, you’re gonna be okay. It’ll happen eventually.”

“Yeah…I just…I feel bad that you and Will are the ones supporting us, especially with the baby expenses, and—”

Suddenly, Tanya’s phone goes off, the sound ringing out through the apartment. She blinks in surprise, and she fishes her phone out of her pocket, turning it off quickly.

“Oh. Lila’s free,” she says, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips.

Mike smiles as well, despite his lingering concern. “You think she heard it?”

In answer to his question, they’re suddenly greeted with a shout, and the sound of little feet rushing in their direction. They turn to see Lila pausing just in the doorway, her eyes wide and round.

“Mama? Can I…” she starts, rocking back and forth on her heels.

Tanya chuckles softly, giving Mike a squeeze before pulling away from him to go to her. “Yes, baby, you’re out of timeout,” she says affectionately, reaching up to cradle her face. “Is the water boiling, honey?”

“Ummm…” Lila tilts her head, or at least, as best she can while still pressing her face into Tanya’s palms, anyway. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay. I’m gonna go continue making dinner,” Tanya says, squishing her cheeks gently and earning a squawk of indignation in return. She chuckles, kissing her forehead gently and asking, “You wanna hang out with Mike while I do that?”

Lila looks at Mike over her shoulder, her brow furrowed and lips drooping. “Um…okay,” she says, her voice sounding hollow.

Tanya frowns, regarding her with concern. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I mean…Mike usually makes dinner,” she says, huffing lightly. “And ‘m not allowed in the kitchen when you guys cook.”

“Ohhh…” Tanya says, shooting a frown in Mike’s direction. “You wanna be with me?”

Lila shrugs, and then, hesitantly, she nods. She’s very pointedly avoiding looking at both of them—the embarrassed look is back on her face, too. “Somethin’ like that,” she mumbles.

“I can take over dinner if she wants to be with her mama,” Mike says, shrugging a little.

Lila’s face turns even redder, a pout coming across her face. “You’re making it sound so—I just have somethin’ I need to say to her, okay?”

"Awww, baby, it's okay if you wanna be with me sometimes," Tanya coos, thumbs rubbing lightly at her cheeks. "There's nothing wrong with needing that."

Lila huffs, squirming out of her palms and crossing her arms over her chest. "It's not like—" she starts, before her eyes dart from the floor to Tanya's face. She flushes harder, somehow, her whole face pink, and suddenly races away from Tanya to throw herself onto the couch, curling into herself against one of the arms, making herself small in that way William usually does.

Tanya's eyebrows raise at the sight, and she turns to Mike, shooting him a look that's equal parts amused and concerned. He shoots her a matching look in return, pointing toward the kitchen.

"I'll go take care of the boiling water now," he says, voice wavering somewhere between light and uncertain.

"Sounds good to me," Tanya says, lips twitching slightly. They settle on a smile as she passes Mike on her way to the couch, however, and she keeps her expression soft as she settles down on the cushions next to the now pouting little girl she calls her own, carefully reaching out to stroke her arm. "Hey, sweetie. You doing okay?"

Lila mumbles something unintelligible into the arm of the couch, her face smushed up against the fabric. Once again, Tanya can't help but think of it as a very William move—she can't help but wonder how many traits they have in common that she's just never seen because Lila tends to be less openly vulnerable around them.

"I didn't catch that, little girl. Can you repeat yourself?"

Lila huffs once again, sounding entirely put upon. She looks up at Tanya, her face still smudged with a pink blush, her eyes oddly sad, and murmurs, "I'm sorry I'm such a bad girl, Mama."

The concern already bubbling up in Tanya's stomach suddenly spills over in the form of a coo falling from her lips, a frown falling over her face. "Oh, Lila, honey...come here..."

When it comes to William and Lila, bad isn't nearly as strong a word as naughty—naughty, for both of them, is a sign they're in a very, very bad headspace, naughty means that something has set them off in a very real way, naughty means that they're thinking about their respective mothers again, and that's never a good thing—but it still isn't good to hear, either. Especially not from Lila, who most of the time, refuses to acknowledge that the thing she's done wrong is, in fact, wrong.

Tanya's worries are only further confirmed when Lila crawls all the way into her lap, wrapping her arms around her neck and clinging to her tightly, like she's terrified of being let go of. Sure, Lila's become a lot more comfortable with being touched or physically coddled as of late, even going so far as to enjoy it (which she had admitted to them one afternoon in a very roundabout way), but she's still not much of a cuddler, and she definitely doesn't cling like this unless she's in a mood. Not necessarily in a bad mood, sure, but, well...right now...

"You're not a bad girl, honey," Tanya murmurs, wrapping her arms around her tightly and kissing her on the top of her head. "I mean, sure, you do bad things sometimes, but we all do. I mean, I've fu—messed up things more often than I can count, especially with William and Dada. That doesn't make me a bad person, does it?"

Even as she says it, Tanya has to choke back the uncertainty rising in her throat. She's gotten better about not thinking of herself as the certified worst person in the whole entire fucking world, but god, it's hard not to fall back to hold habits sometimes.

Apparently, Lila knows that too. "But you still feel like a bad person sometimes," she mumbles into her collarbone, clinging a little tighter. "S’okay. I do too s’metimes. 'm sorry. Sorry I do bad things."

Tanya swallows thickly, unsure of what to make of all this. "It's okay, sweetheart. I forgive you," she murmurs. "What brought this on, little one...?"

Lila's quiet for a moment, playing with the fabric of her shirt. "You seemed mad at me today."

"Mad at you...?"

"Mhmm." Lila sniffles, and Tanya's heart breaks as she realizes she's holding back tears. "You didn'...didn' really look at me, or wanna play with me, an'—an' then when you were makin' your tea you told me 'bout the spoon, an'—an' I dunno, I was stupid, an' I wan'ed you t' look at me, 'nd you got mad at me—"

"Oh, honey, I only got upset cuz you were doing something dangerous, I wasn't upset with you before that, promise," Tanya soothes, running her hand up and down her spine lightly. "I...I was a bit distracted today, and I wasn't paying as much attention to you as I should have, and I'm sorry. Did it feel like I was ignoring you? Is that why you thought I was mad?"

Lila whines a little, nodding against her shoulder. Tanya hums comfortingly, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't mad, and I wasn't ignoring you. I was just spacey today. It had nothing to do with you, I promise I would never ignore you on purpose, okay?"

"...mmkay," Lila mumbles, and to Tanya's relief, she sounds less upset than she did before. She does, however, sound a bit embarrassed.

"My little girl. It's okay. You can want attention from me, there's nothing wrong with that."

Lila makes a grumpy noise in response (and oh, Tanya can't even pretend not to chuckle at that, it's just too adorable), lifting her face from Tanya's shoulder. Her flush has gone down a bit, but she is still visibly pink, which is just unbearably precious.

"Hi, sweetie," Tanya says, reaching up to stroke her hair lightly. "How're you feelin'?"

"...better," Lila mumbles, her eyes darting downward, one of her hands reaching up to play with the necklace Tanya's wearing. "I'm glad—glad you weren't mad at me. At least 'til I tried to burn the place down."

"Yeahhh, never do that again, little love," Tanya says with a laugh, still carding her hands absently through her hair. "I wasn't kidding about it burning down the place."

A tiny smile appears on Lila's face at that. "But I still wanna see that!"

"Oh, do not even think about it, little missy," Tanya scolds, but her tone is still more light than actually angry. "We look up videos of microwaves catching fire on Youtube if you want, but don't you dare even think about trying it at home or you'll be getting more than a ten minute time out."

"How much more?" Lila asks, her voice lightly curious. "An hour?"

"Lila," Tanya says, fond and exasperated.

"...two hours?" Lila prods, finally lifting her eyes. As soon as she meets Tanya's dryly amused gaze, she bursts into giggles, bonking their foreheads together. "Three hours!"

"It'll be more like forever, Lila," Tanya says with a huff of a laugh, rolling her eyes fondly. "I don't think we can afford a place other than this. Or to replace all our stuff."

"Mm...William would be mad if I destroyed his toys 'nyway," Lila agrees, rolling off of Tanya's lap to settle at her side instead, still cuddled up close with her head resting against her shoulder and one of Tanya's arms still wrapped around her. "Fine, I won't burn the house down."

"Thank you baby," Tanya says with a chuckle, rubbing her arm lightly. "That's what every Mama wants to hear from her little girl."

Lila giggles at that, nuzzling further into her shoulder. Then, she falls quiet for a long moment, aside from humming contentedly as Tanya strokes her hair. Tanya almost thinks she's gone nonverbal, before Lila suddenly speaks up again, her voice going soft.

"What were you distracted by, Mama?"

"Oh," Tanya says, swallowing back a wave of anxiety suddenly rising up in her. "It's just...adult stuff, honey. I don't want you to worry about it while you're small, okay?"

Lila looks up at her with a scrutinizing stare, as though Tanya's a puzzle she's trying to figure out. "Mmkay...if you say so..."

Tanya smiles at her comfortingly, rubbing her arm lightly. "If you're still worried about it later, we can talk about it when you're big, if you want. But right now you're just a baby, so don't worry about it, okay?"

"I'm not a baby. I'm not William," Lila says, a very adorable pout coming over her face. "But...okay...if you're sure..."

Tanya's smile widens a little, and she chuckles softly. "Are you worried about your mama, Lila?"

Lila flushes, her nose scrunching up a little and her cheeks once again turning pink. "I just don't want you to ignore me again," she mumbles, turning her face away so Tanya can't see her.

"Aww, honey..." Tanya reaches over with her other arm, wrapping it around Lila and giving her a tight squeeze. She presses a kiss to the back of her head, smiling a little at the lightly pleased huff she receives for it. "I can't promise I won't get spacey again, but I promise I'm gonna try to do better, okay? And sweetheart, if it does start to feel like I'm ignoring you again, it's okay to ask me for attention. In fact, please please please tell me if you feel ignored, and I'll make sure to give you the attention you need. I love you to death and I don't want you to feel unloved. Okay?"

"Mmph...okay. Okay, Mama, I will," Lila mumbles, squirming a little in Tanya's embrace. "Thank you. 'n...'nIloveyoutoo. Now get off me."

Tanya chuckles, pressing one last kiss to her curls before drawing back, finally freeing Lila from her lovingly crushing embrace. Lila straightens up as well, lingering close but no longer trying to squish up against her side like she was before, and that combined with the fact she doesn't seem actually seem very irritated about being snuggled makes Tanya figure that she probably was just starting to get a little overstimulated by all the touch. Probably best to give her a bit of a cool down on it—she'll have to let Mike know when they go in for dinner.

"Hey, girls, spaghetti's ready!"

In speaking of the man himself. Tanya smiles, turning to Lila and gesturing back toward the kitchen. "You ready to eat, baby?"

Lila turns in that direction, staring at the doorway with a scrutinizing expression. "Yeah," she says, surprisingly casually for what an intense look she was giving the kitchen, and hops up to her feet. She lingers, however, watching as Tanya gets to her feet, tilting her head a little once she's standing. "Um. Mama?"

Tanya looks at her, another wave of concern washing over her. "Yeah honey?"

Lila looks at her for a moment, rocking back and forth on her heels. "...after dinner, can we watch microwaves explode on Youtube?"

Well, that's not what Tanya had been expecting. She can't help but laugh a little, shaking her head in amusement. "Yeah, honey, of course we can. Just me and you, or do you want Dada there too?"

Lila shrugs noncommittally, her eyes already lighting up in excitement with the yes she's been given. "He can watch too. I don' care, 'long as you're there." She then grins broadly, before turning on her heels and sprinting toward the kitchen, where Tanya can hear her calling, "Dada! Guess what me and Mama are gonna watch!"

Tanya can't stop the fond smile that spreads across her lips at that. She follows after Lila, readying herself to explain to Mike why they're about to spend their evening on Youtube watching cutlery spark and set fire to appliances, and knowing damn well she wouldn't want it any other way.