Little Tiger (pt. 2)
“There are my best girls.”
Casey blinks open her half asleep eyes at the sound of her wife’s voice as she enters their apartment. “Hey, babe,” Casey greets, voice hoarse. She clears her throat, and Veronica grumbles as the comfy chest where she’s been resting moves. “Mama’s home,” Casey murmurs to the girl. Veronica just mumbles and burrows further. “The little one’s having a bit of a rough day,” Casey says, rubbing Vera’s back.
Rita kicks off her heels and tuts quietly as she approaches the sofa. “Are we a little under the weather, sweetheart?” She murmurs, brushing Vera’s hair out of her face.
“She’s warm. Not feverish yet, but definitely a bit too warm.”
Rita places the back of her hand on the girl’s forehead, or as much as she can reach that isn’t hidden in Casey’s neck. “Did she eat?”
“Barely. She picked at the pizza, I convinced her to get down some applesauce.”
“Did you eat?”
“Hm?”
“You, my… my taller tiger. Did you eat?”
Casey blinks. “Your taller tiger?”
“Casey. Food.”
Casey sighs. “Sort of. She just wanted to be held, so I gave up on dinner and we ended up… here.”
‘Here’ is snuggled on the sofa, watching Moana on low volume.
“I’m going to get out of…” Rita gestures broadly at her clothes. “And then I’ll take the baby and you’ll eat some food. Got it?”
“You’ve been working all day…”
“All the more reason to snuggle my girl. And you’re looking a bit touched out.” Rita’s already moving for their bedroom.
Truth be told, Casey is feeling a little touched out, and when Rita returns in a band shirt and leggings Casey does not argue when she wraps Vera in her arms and gently tugs her away. Vera whines in protest at being pulled away from her mommy, but once she realizes who is lifting her she decides that it is an acceptable swap.
Casey stands and stretches, wandering back to the table where she grabs Vera’s abandoned plate of cut up pizza squares and half empty apple sauce cup to discard. She then returns to her plate to scarf down the rest of her now cold slice of pizza.
“What’s the show with the dogs?” Rita asks from the sofa as Moana finishes. “The tolerable ones? That aren’t public servants?”
“Uh,” is Casey’s intelligent reply.
“The— they’re Australian.”
“Bluey?”
“Yes, that, thank you. Disney plus?”
“Should be.”
The Bluey theme song seems to wake Veronica up a little bit, who has her dazed attention on the screen. Casey finishes her food and heats some up for Rita, leaving it on the end table of the couch before dropping into a chair across from them.
“You probably like this show more than she does,” Rita says in between bites of pizza and salad.
“Bluey is a great show,” Casey insists. “Fully deserving of its Emmy.”
“It won an Emmy?”
“I don’t appreciate how judgemental you sound of Bluey. Would you rather Paw Patrol?”
“Bingo!” Vera cheers quietly along with the song from Rita’s lap. Her normal enthusiasm sounds dampened, and it worries Casey slightly again. “Bluey!” She wiggles a little along to the music.
“Want a tomato, love?” Rita asks, spearing one with her plastic fork.
Vera considers, attention torn between the animated dogs and her mother. “Coo–cumber?” She eventually requests.
“You can have a cucumber,” Rita agrees, popping the tomato into her own mouth to grab a cucumber and feed it to Vera.
“Work okay?” Casey asks, now observing Rita and Vera more than the TV.
“Mhm. Though the SVU squad still seems to think I’m their enemy.”
Casey smiles. “Give them some time, they’ll come along.” Sometime after Veronica’s adoption Rita had a bit of a crisis of conscience, because ‘Everybody’s entitled to the best defense they can afford’ didn’t hold the same weight when you realized the powerful man you got off a rape charge on a technicality would be walking the same streets as your little girl.
With Casey’s enthusiastic (and not–so–secretly very relieved) support, Rita had made the switch to immigration law with the occasional pro–bono defense.
“I’m helping their witness stay in the country, you’d think they’d relax a bit,” Rita complained, before swallowing an olive. “And I’ve defended their squad before.”
“Liv still has it out for Langan, and he defended her. Don’t take it personally.”
“I do enough favors for Barba and maybe they’ll chill out,” Rita mutters.
“Bingo,” Veronica says again, reaching for Rita’s salad. Rita feeds her another cucumber.
“Bluey,” Casey finishes the song as Vera’s mouth is full.
“Bedtime,” Rita mimics, pushing away her salad and kissing Vera on the cheek.
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“‘Nother,” Vera sleepily demands.
“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Casey says with an amused smile, shutting the picture book.
“Please?” Vera asks with big, pouty eyes and Casey defaults to Rita because there’s no way she can say ‘No’ to those eyes, so may as well leave it to the expert.
Casey is convinced that if you didn’t know Veronica was adopted, you’d think she is biologically Rita’s from her facial expressions alone. Rita and Veronica both know that they can get Casey to do practically anything by giving her doe eyes. They both have the same devious smile they get when they’re plotting something particularly nefarious (Rita: legal loophole. Vera: Sneaky cookie heist.) And (Casey’s personal favorite) they both get the same grumpy little scowl when things aren’t going their way. It’s the cutest thing in the world, but Casey can never tell Rita that, because Rita would probably bite her.
“Mommy and I have unionized,” Rita states, taking Casey’s spot on the bed. “Our contract reads one bedtime story per night, two on birthdays.”
Vera takes a moment to process that, blinking blearily, before asking, “Lull-bye?”
“Lullaby,” Rita agrees. Casey hangs back and leans against the door, listening to Rita quietly sing in Portuguese, feeling rather doze-y herself. Rita’s voice is soft, and low, and this is the only way Casey can ever hear her sing since she refuses to in any other circumstance.
Vera is fast asleep very quickly, and Rita leans in to kiss her forehead— and Tiger’s, of course— with a whispered, “Goodnight, my little tiger.”
She steps back so Casey can swoop in with a “Sweet dreams, babygirl.”
Rita shuts the door quietly behind them. “If she doesn’t sleep the temperature off, I’ll work from home tomorrow and call the doctor,” she says. “You have office hours, right?”
“Mhm.” Casey wraps her arms around Rita and rests her chin on her shoulder. “Hi.”
“Hello there.”
“I missed you.”
Rita rolls her eyes fondly. “You ran into me in the middle of the day.”
“I did. And then I had to take care of the resulting tears that came when Vera realized Mama wasn’t coming with us. She made some very convincing arguments about why you should’ve come home early, I think I missed you more than she did by the end.”
“That was probably because you were dealing with a sick and overtired toddler, dear.”
“That might have had something to do with it.” Casey pulls back to kiss her sweetly. “But can’t I just miss my wife for the hell of it?”
“Flatterer.” Rita rolls her shoulders and relaxes. “Have any student gossip for me?”
“Oh, do I,” Casey groans and Rita laughs, taking her hand to pull her to the bedroom.
— — — — — —
Casey jolts awake, Rita already slipping out of the bed, to the sound of wailing. She quickly follows her wife to Vera’s bedroom.
“Oh dear,” Rita murmurs as she reaches into the bed to pick up a crying Veronica. “Oh, I think there’s been a little accident. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Casey tugs the sheets of the bed and bundles them to throw in the wash, grabbing some fresh pajamas and following Rita into the bathroom.
Rita had gotten a still crying (but no longer wailing, thank God) Vera cleaned up and into a pull–up by the time Casey enters, and they switch spots so Casey can get Vera dressed into new pajamas and perched on the counter, stuffed tiger beside her. Rita rummages through the cabinet for children’s Tylenol.
“Alright, my little tiger,” Rita says soothingly, brushing the tears off of Veronica’s cheeks as she sniffles. “You have a temperature, but this will help you feel better, okay?”
Vera whines and shakes her head. “Mommy,” she says pleadingly, making big eyes at Casey in hopes that she’ll swoop in and rescue her from having to take her medicine.
“Sorry, kid,” Casey says apologetically. “I’m with Mama on this one.” She leans over to take the spoon from Rita, and they switch spots, Rita slipping out the bathroom door. Casey hears the microwave start up a moment later.
Rita may be able to convince a jury of practically anything, but nobody can convince a stubborn toddler to do something they don’t want to do like Casey can. She thinks it comes from years of being surrounded by kids— brothers, nieces, nephews, coaching, camp counseling. She has a very refined skill set.
“Okay, baby,” Casey murmurs, crouching in front of where Vera’s perched on the counter. “Can you tell me what doesn’t feel good?”
Vera’s bottom lip is quivering and she’s very close to crying again, but she’s making a clear effort to hold back the tears. “Not sick.”
“Not sick?” Casey gently prompts when Vera doesn’t continue.
“I don’ wan’ medicine. Not sick,” Vera repeats, crossing her arms.
Casey thinks back to the few times Rita insisted vehemently that she doesn’t get sick, pushing through to work until Rafael physically dragged her home after she collapsed or fell asleep at her desk.
She decides she needs to have a discussion with her wife about modeling self care.
“Then why were you crying, sweetheart?” Casey asks. Vera clearly has a fever, but she really needs to coax the girl into telling her what’s wrong. She’s not throwing up— thank God— and she’s not coughing either. But that just leaves Casey scrambling for answers.
Vera looks rather lost for an answer to that, rubbing her eyes. “Tiger feels yucky,” she finally landed on. “Tiger had a— a bad dream.”
“I see.” Casey nods sagely. “Tiger must have been really scared.”
Vera nods quickly. “I was so bwave, though,” she informs her, and Casey feels her heart explode with love and protective urges and all the maternal instinct she had been scared she might not have, until she held her little girl in her arms for the first time and realized oh, shit, that’s what it feels like to love something more than anything in the entire universe.
“I bet you were,” Casey murmurs, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Sometimes feeling yucky can make us have bad dreams,” She adds. “Can you show me where Tiger feels icky?”
Veronica nods again, pulling Tiger to her lap. She pats his head.
“Tiger’s head hurts?” Casey clarifies. “Does Tiger hurt anywhere else?”
Vera hiccups a little, her breath shuddering as she points at Tiger’s throat.
No coughing, no sneezing, sore throat. This was looking like strep, in Casey’s opinion, which meant antibiotics and another fun week of convincing a toddler to take her medicine.
“Okay. Let me consult with Tiger for a moment,” Casey says, picking up Tiger and earning a giggle through Vera’s tears. Casey nods and ‘mhm’s very seriously as the tiger ‘speaks’ in her ear. At some point she starts feeling eyes on her back. She knows Rita is standing just outside the door, watching amusedly but not entering in hopes of not breaking Casey’s little routine.
“Thank you, Tiger,” Casey says, putting him down on the counter. “Vera, Tiger’s a bit sick, and he has to take some medicine to help make his head and throat feel better. But— I have a secret.” Casey gestures Vera to lean in and drops her voice to a whisper. “Tiger’s a little bit afraid of taking his medicine.”
Veronica looks up at her, wide eyed, then to Tiger, then back to her mommy.
“I think Tiger needs a little help being brave,” Casey starts, then feigns having a brilliant idea. “Since you’re my brave girl, do you think you could take the medicine with him? To show Tiger how to be brave?”
Vera hesitates. “Tiger feel better?” She eventually asks.
“Yeah, baby, you’ll help Tiger feel much better.”
“I help Tiger feel better,” Vera says decisively, reaching to grab at the spoon.
Casey laughs. “Woah there, Ronnie Rabbit, let Mommy measure the medicine.” She pours out the purple liquid into the measuring spoon, holding it out so Veronica can open her mouth and have it tipped in to swallow. Vera then holds out her tiger, waiting, and Casey pretends to pour a little more of the medicine into the spoon to ‘feed’ him.
She thinks if you told her five years ago that she’d soon be feeding a stuffed tiger children’s Tylenol in the middle of the night, she would’ve called you crazy.
“All better,” Vera says, hugging the stuffed animal close. “Tiger’s so bwave.”
“That’s right, darling. You and Tiger are both very brave.” Casey feels Rita slip in behind her, holding a sippy cup. Veronica had outgrown sippy cups fairly quickly, but the poor girl is shivering, and Casey assumes that Rita’s preemptively avoiding spillage. “This tastes better than the medicine,” Rita promises, handing her the cup. “It’s apples and honey, it will feel very good for your throat.”
Vera takes the cup by its handles and starts sipping on the straw, observing her mothers with wide eyes as Casey leans back against the wall and Rita steps up on her toes a little to whisper, “You’re a miracle worker.”
“I know,” Casey murmurs back, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to the top of her head, which makes Vera giggle.
“Getting sleepy again, baby?” Casey asks Veronica, who’s back to rubbing her eyes with the hand not holding the sippy cup.
“Cuddle?” Vera requests, and how can Casey say no to that? She gathers the girl up in her arms, Rita swooping in to grab Tiger before he could fall when Vera lets go to wrap her arms around Casey’s neck.
“Bedtime, little one,” Casey murmurs, nudging the door open to bring her to the bedroom.
Rita climbs into the bed behind Vera, snuggling up to wrap her arms around her. “She still warm?” She asks, already drowsy again.
Casey presses her lips to the girl’s forehead. “Not as bad.”
“Mhm,” Rita hums. “I’ll make an appointment for the morning.”
“We’re both gonna get strep, aren’t we,” Casey mumbles.
“I don’t get sick.”
“Sure, baby.”
Rita shoots Casey an unimpressed look from above Veronica’s head, reaching around to detach Vera’s thumb from her mouth. Vera sleepily whines in protest, but grabs at random until she’s clutching at Casey’s shirt, which seems to soothe her equally as well.
“You alright?” Rita asks after a moment, when Casey doesn’t close her eyes to try to sleep.
“She’s so tiny,” Casey whispers, somewhat in awe but also mildly terrified. “She’s so small, and so good— but the world is so big and can be so awful…”
“Visiting SVU again freaked you out?”
“A little.”
“She has two parents who love her to the ends of the Earth, grandparents and an honorary abuelita that would sell their soul for her, and now that she’s met Benson, she has the entirety of the NYPD at her back. I think I trust that woman with our kid more than anyone.”
Casey sighs. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
But all she can do is gaze at that tiny little hand, holding onto her shirt like her life depends on it, Tiger tucked between them, one of Rita’s arms protectively over Vera’s waist.
“Casey,” Rita whispers. “She’s going to be fine. She’s going to be amazing.”
“I know.”
“Then go to sleep.”
“I love you,” Casey says instead. “I love the two of you more than anything.”
“I know,” Rita parrots back at her teasingly. But then, “I love you too.”
“Goodnight,” Casey murmurs, finally easing into the mattress. “And sweet dreams, my little tiger,” she adds to an already fast asleep Veronica.
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Tenipuri Complete Character Profile - Shinji Ibu
[PROFILE]
Birthday: November 3rd (Scorpio)
Blood Type: AB
Relatives: Father, Mother, Two Younger Sisters, Younger Brother [23.5]
Father’s Occupation: Public Servant
Elementary School: Fudomine Central Elementary School
Middle School: Fudomine Junior High School
Grade & Class: 2nd Year | Class 2-2 | Seat 2
Club: Tennis Club - Regular
Committee: None
Strong Subjects: Physics
Weak Subjects: English (hates pronunciation)
Frequently Visited Spot at School: Tennis Club Room area
Favorite Motto: “Make good on your promise.” ➜ “Be grateful for the blessings, and thankful of the virtue.” [TP]
Daily Routines: Singing lullabies to his sisters, talking to Kamio over the phone
Hobbies: Listening to music, LexiData ➜ Watching foreign dramas, nukazuke (pickling) [TP]
Favorite Color: Grey
Favorite Music: Folk music, Rock
Favorite Movie: A certain splatter film about a doll “What’s the title again…”
Favorite Book: TV magazines ➜ Salaryman Senryu books [TP]
Favorite Food: Pickled vegetables, pot-au-feu [TP], Captain Tachibana’s spring rolls [TP]
Favorite Anniversary: The day he met Captain Tachibana
Preferred Type: A cute girl (with beautiful teeth) ➜ A foreign person [23.5]
Ideal Date Spot: Going to the movies
His Gift for a Special Person: “A relaxing time or something…”
Where He Wants to Travel: Moscow
Thing He Wants Most Right Now: Star projector
Dislikes: Loud people, people who can’t read between the lines ➜ People who sing to themselves out loud, people who point their camera at you without your permission [TP]
Skills Outside of Tennis: Writing, flower arrangements, making apple rabbits [23.5]
Spends Allowance On: CDs and renting videos
Routine During the World Cup: Cleaning his room (he doesn’t want the hotel staff in his room)
[DATA]
Height: 165cm ➜ 166cm [23.5]
Weight: 55kg
Shoe Size: 27cm
Dominant Arm: Right
Vision: 0.9 Left | 0.6 Right
Play Style: Counter Puncher
Signature Moves: Spot, Kick Serve
Time Spent Fixing Up His Hair: Two hours and forty minutes
Favorite Brands:
Racquet: TOALSON (EZ-122 TITANIUM)
Shoes: NIKE (Air Clutch Extra II PLUS)
Overall Rating: Speed: 2 / Power: 3 / Stamina: 3 / Mental: 2 / Technique: 4 / Total: 14
Kurobe Memo: “In Ibu’s case, both his strength and weakness lies in his mental capabilities. If he can maintain an equilibrium with his mental state, his play style would be more consistent. There are no problems in terms of his techniques.” [RB]
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