Page 9 of Daddy’s Little Chaos Gremlin (The Lactin Brotherhood)

9

TRISTAN

All right, boys, I need you to wake up and focus on me, come on now.

Daddy’s voice dripped into my dreams, melting the naked image of Zephyr with his legs wrapped around the moon as he dangled from it, holding a star out to me.

“Don’t wanna,” I grumbled, trying to tug the blanket over my head only Daddy yanked it away.

Evil Daddy.

There was no light streaming in through the windows when I cracked one eye open, which meant it was nighttime already, which was sleepy time and I was sleepin’. Couldn’t Daddy see that? We were fine right here on the pillows, even if we didn’t have as many as when Daddy had laid them down for our movie time. Zephyr was all warm and soft, clinging to me like a contented little koala, we’d be fine spending the night this way.

“You might not want to, but you are going to get up and go get your things together so we can meet the plane.”

“But I don’t wanna go anywhere, ‘specially not nowhere we gotta fly.”

“Tristan, you will get your behind up this instant and do as I say, please,” Daddy said, scowling at me as he gently shook Zephyr, who slept far more soundly than I did.

“Come on now, baby boy, time to get up. That’s it, open your eyes for me.”

I was still pouting about having to move at all as I watched Zephyr stir and blink sleepy, confused eyes at me.

“Is it morning?” he murmured as he clumsily tried to brush the hair from his eyes.

It just made a bigger mess when I tried to help, but I wanted to remember that soft look on his face for the next time I was sketching, because tousled, sated and sprawled out with ropes still coiled loosely around his body was a look I was going to have to capture, and soon.

“No, but I still need you to get up and go put some clothes and essentials in a backpack, please,” Daddy explained. “We’re taking a very unplanned excursion that I am not happy about and I’d like us to be in the air within the hour.”

His little mouth formed an ‘o’ before he scrambled to his feet, naked with a corner of the blanket stuck to his belly.

“I- I-I’m a mess,” he stammered, but instead of waiting for Daddy to tell him what to do, he whirled around and raced for the shower, the water coming on almost as soon as he’d gotten the door closed.

“Now why aren’t you moving?” Daddy asked when he turned back to look at me.

“Because I don’t wanna go,” I declared. “I want to stay here.”

“Now when have I ever left you alone when I’ve flown out of the area?” Daddy asked.

“But I wouldn’t be alone, Zephyr can stay, too,” I explained. “We can start on our moon series and our scary movie marathon.”

“You can have your scary movie marathon in the hotel room, where the both of you will be staying until I fix this shitstorm Ryan has unleashed with Katana’s management team,” Daddy snapped in that fierce, no-nonsense tone that I almost never argued with.

Almost never.

Today I wasn’t feeling very compliant. I was still getting a feel for where all my stuff was here, now he wanted me to figure out what to bring and what to leave behind when I had so many ideas running through my head that I needed all of it and my studio back home.

“But why can’t Zephyr and I stay here?” I whined, clutching my pillow to me since he still had hold of my blanket.

“Because this isn’t our home, for one thing, and I don’t have time to remedy that little issue while I am dealing with this one,” Daddy growled. “Nor am I about to leave the two of you here without my supervision, so one of you can overdo it again and it won’t necessarily be him. So no. That is not what will be happening. We will be getting on the plane and we will be flying to Manchester together, as a family, the way you and I always have in the past. Now that is the last time I am going to tell you to get your ass in gear.”

I scowled my hardest scowl, until my face hurt, it was so scrunched up from glaring at him. Arms crossed, I adamantly remained in my spot on the floor, stubbornness having made me brave and even a little foolish to think that my refusal would mean that I’d get my way. In the four years we’d been together, Daddy had never flown off and left me, even just for a weekend to go touch base on a few things and make sure proceedings were up to his exacting standards. Clearly, he was done trying to reason with me, because his eyes narrowed more and he nodded, then stood and began gathering up my sketchbook, colored pencils, and the notepad on the desk. He only glanced back at me once before heading into the bedroom to grab the rest of my stuff, and though I knew resistance was futile, I stuck my nose in the air and turned my face away from him. I peeked when the door to the bathroom flew open and Zephyr rushed out in a towel and hurried into his room. Opening my mouth to call out to him, I was stopped by the furious look on Daddy’s face when he poked his head out to still see me sitting there.

Maybe I’d pushed my luck as far as I should, but coming here had been enough change, and it was only the second night. If I couldn’t wake up in my own bed then at least there was enough of my stuff here to make it feel sort of homey, or at least familiar enough to me that I’d started settling in. I’d flown with him to Manchester before. It was long, long, long and the last time we’d gone, we’d had to get a train and sit on that for another hour before we got to Blackpool where a member of his staff had somehow managed to get arrested along with their principal and created a bit of an incident in the process.

I hated trying to get set up in hotel rooms, even posh ones. I always had to move the chair around to find the best spot for drawing beside the window and even then, there were times when the natural lighting was weak. Plus there was the headache of getting my supplies laid out just right so I wouldn’t keep getting pulled out of what I was working on in order to find what I needed. Traveling overseas meant the plugs were different and I didn’t have my little kit here with all the plug-ins so I could use my drawing tablet. That meant I’d have to limit how much time I spent on it until Daddy could get me one. The last time it had taken two whole days before he’d remembered.

I was still in a huff when he emerged with two backpacks over one shoulder and nearly collided with Zephyr as he came out of his room with a bag that was practically bursting at the seams, and almost as big as he was.

“Good boy,” Daddy praised. “Go get your shoes on and wait for us by the door.”

My eyes met Zephyr’s right before he hurried to do as he’d been told, and in them I’d seen nervousness and confusion, and with good reason, considering that I was still sitting there naked and pouting on the pillow. Not that it deterred Daddy any. He dropped the bags on the floor beside me and snatched up the blankets, winding the first one around me so tight I couldn’t squirm. He added a second before tossing me over his shoulder, snatching up the bags and stalking to the door with long strides while I dangled there, too stunned to pout any longer. He carried me outside that way, silently heading down the walk on the way to the parking lot.

“Get in and put your seatbelt on,” Daddy instructed Zephyr after he’d unlocked and started the SUV with his fob. Zephyr ran around the other side and did as he was told, while Daddy pulled open the door, plunked me on the seat, and buckled me in so tight that if I hadn’t already been wrapped up like a butterfly in a chrysalis, I still wouldn’t have been able to move.

Then he slammed the door and rocked the whole vehicle in the process.

Rude much?

All I could do was huff and kick my legs, which were so tightly encased in the blankets that it was like having a mermaid’s tail. How cool would that be? I’d never lose a race to cross the pool again. Could have been in the pool too, if he’d let me take Zephyr home if he didn’t want to leave us in the apartment. I’d have explained everything to him on the way, and we’d have been super good and even cleaned out the apartment so he wouldn’t have to do it when he got home. I’d have been the bestest big brother ever and gotten him all settled in and everything. At night, we’d have played with the moon and my toys and watched all kinds of movies with Reece’s Pieces and caramel corn and everything.

We’d have been so good, and we wouldn’t have had too much candy either.

Now I was pouting again, and steadily kicking a beat on the back of his seat which I knew had to be annoying him, but I was annoyed, and I wanted him to know it too.

Daddy said nothing all the way to the airport, and he left the music off too, which made it a long forty-minute ride to the airport where his company jet was kept. It was waiting for us, and I felt a small measure of satisfaction at seeing that it was thirteen minutes past ten.

So much for leaving within the hour.

Okay, so maybe I was feeling naughty and mean and needed to rein it all in before Daddy unleashed the most dreaded punishment of all and assigned me to weed all the flower beds on the front lawn, and there were a lot of them. He usually took care of those, since he said it helped him think and he could snarl curses at the weeds for invading his flower beds without worrying about me thinking I could get away with cussing, too.

My kicking had pretty much slowed to nothing as we pulled up, and I stopped completely when I saw the wide-eyed, slightly-panicked look on Zephyr’s face.

“I’m scared,” Zephyr whispered, tears shimmering in his eyes. “I’ve never been on a plane before.”

I couldn’t even hold his hand, I was so bundled up in blankets as Daddy turned to look at us and reached back to cup his cheek, cradling it against his hand as Zephyr nuzzled against it.

“There’s nothing at all to worry about,” Daddy told him. “There’s a big, comfy seat waiting for you right next to Tristan’s and plenty of movies on board. Can you be a big boy and get your bag and wait for me at the bottom of the stairs so we can all go up together?”

“Uh-huh,” Zephyr replied, nodding despite still looking terrified of the plane waiting for us on the tarmac.

He licked his lips and took a big breath, turned those azure eyes on me and nodded. “I-I can do that.”

“I know you can, sweet boy,” Daddy said. “So, hop to it.”

He scrambled to do as he was told while I sat there feeling guilty for being disobedient and not being able to hold his hand when he was trembling. Only after Zephyr had closed the door and was several feet away from the car did Daddy get out, dragging the bags off the passenger seat with him, so he could open my door, unbuckle me, and drag me back out and over his shoulder like a flour sack. This time he’d thrown our bags over the shoulder first, pinning them in place with my body, which unfortunately left his other hand free to swat my bottom all the way to the plane.

They weren’t nice swats either. They stung even through the blankets. I’d feel those when I was sitting in my seat, and I knew he knew it, too.

Evil Daddy.

The only time he stopped swatting was as we headed up the stairs, so he could hold me steady, but once he’d set me back on my feet, he delivered three more swats, each one harder than the one before.

Talk about ouchie.

Tears sprang to my eyes and ran down my cheeks as he turned me around to face him.

“Now, what are you going to do the next time I tell you to get your ass up and get packed?” he asked, face still stern and furious as he glared down at me.

“Do it, Daddy,” I murmured.

“You’re damn right. You will do it and without kicking the back of my chair the whole way here. That’s what those last three swats were for in case you were wondering. Now, are you ready to put some clothes on and behave?”

“Yes, Daddy,” I said, eager to rub my sore behind.

“Good. That’s what I was hoping to hear out of you.”

The only problem was that I was still all wrapped up too snugly to free myself with the way Daddy had tucked the ends of the blankets beneath other layers so they wouldn’t unravel. I had to stand still and wait, backside warm and stinging as he opened my bag and took out the sleep pants and t-shirt he’d left on top. He unwrapped me in a swirl of material that distracted me from my aching backside, for about a second, until he delivered the hardest crack yet, right on my naked behind. Now that one was gonna leave a handprint. I yelped and covered my butt with both hands, backing away a half step when Daddy held my clothes out to me.

“That was the last one,” Daddy said, so I accepted the clothes and scurried away before I did something to earn another swat.

I was done being bad, though. Not being able to hold Zephyr’s hand when he’d been scared and near tears had reminded me that part of being a good big brother was setting a good example and I hadn’t done that with the way I’d acted. Time to do better and be the good big brother I’d promised to be.

I quickly slipped into my outfit and hurried to get buckled in before takeoff. Daddy had closed the windows beside our seats as well as the ones across the aisle for us and tucked one of the blankets around Zephyr. The other he tucked around me the moment I sat down. He kissed my forehead and buckled me in the way he always did, and I knew everything was forgiven. The moment we started moving Zephyr laced his fingers with mine and pulled the blanket tighter around him, the large, thickly padded leather seats nothing like the ones you’d find on a commercial airline unless you had a first-class ticket. We had plenty of legroom, wide armrests, and movie screens that pulled down from above like the visors in a vehicle.

“You can start your scary movie marathon now, if you’d like,” Daddy offered, while Zephyr yawned beside me, curled on his side and rested his head against the plush leather. “Or not.”

“We can wait, Daddy,” I said, feeling contrite about earlier and extremely tired myself. “It’s sleepy time now.”

“In that case, I’ll say goodnight,” Daddy said.

“Night, night, Daddy,” I said, while Zephyr gave a little wave before burrowing his face in the blankets.

“Dream well, little ones.”

I smiled at that and snuggled down to go back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that Daddy still loved me, even when I was being chaotic evil, like the characters I loved to play in our Dungeons and Dragons games, which made it so much easier to want to do better. I’d find a way to make it up to him, too, I always did. Sometimes I was just too stubborn for my own good. Change always seemed to trigger me to dig my heels in, but I’d been doing better about not giving in to the temptation. Until tonight. When he’d needed me to be on my best behavior and do what Zephyr had done. Yawning, I grimaced at the crusty feel of my skin as I twisted in my seat. Guess I hadn’t wiped off well enough in the bathroom. I should have jumped in the shower with Zephyr. No. Bad idea. That would have gotten both of our butts smacked when one or both of us gave in to the temptation to go to our knees and give the other suckies. Okay, to be fair, it would have totally been me initiating it. I’d seen the look on Zephyr’s face when Daddy had started getting pissed with me. My little brother wasn’t the sort to poke the bear, or in this case, the Daddy the way I had done and I shouldn’t have been disrespectful and done it when it wasn’t okay. Especially when Daddy was stressed. Closing my eyes, I vowed to wake up in a better mood with a much better attitude, as well as a plan for how I was gonna say sorry with more than words.