𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒 - jj maybank

- 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

𝗞𝗮𝗰𝗶 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 puked at the taste of her sandwich, hating the way the texture of it felt in her mouth. From his dadʼs lap, Kaz smiled at her, finding her disgust amusing.

"What?" asked JJ, his own mouth full of the food as he secured his son with only one hand. "Peanut butter was your favourite, like, last week."

The girl shook her head, forcefully downing a glass of beer John B left out overnight to wash away the taste. She wiped her mouth and turned back to JJ, catching him trying to feed the toothless child crunchy spread. "I've literally never liked that shit," she denied.

"No, no, no — you're not right about this one," said JJ defensively. He turned around on his seat, throwing a book Pope left over at John Bʼs bedroom door, opening it a little to see the boy bearly awake in bed, snuggled up to Sarah. "Hey, JB, back me up on this one. Wasn't Kaci horny for peanut butter last month?"

"You said week," said Kaci, but the boy ignored her.

John B nodded from his bed, causing Sarah to groan tiredly at the movement. "I swear, Kace, I heard you moaning over it once."

JJ threw his hands out.

Kaci rolled her eyes at their dramatics. "It was probably just a pregnancy thing," she gave in, voice low.

The rest of breakfast was taken over by JJ grinning and boasting to Kaz over the fact that he was right and Kaci was wrong. In the end, the girl playfully slapped him in the face with her sandwich, which he then eat himself.

𖧷

𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 way to the nursing home, the pouges filled in their long, tiring morning by screaming the lyrics to upbeat, 1989 Taylor Swift songs, occasionally playing pass the parcel with Kaz as they hyped him up to perform his own solo, which didn't go down so well considering he couldn't yet speak. However, JJ swore he could see some ʼshark swordsʼ peeking out of his gums.

Which he could not.

Eventually, Kaci took her seat beside Sarah, who spent most of her time glancing at the mirror that sat in front of John B at the driverʼs seat. She was going to ask what was going on, but didn't want to in front of all the boys, knowing the three of them together are as dramatic as the Marauders.

"Guys, the thing that Limbrey said, I don't think she meant to let it slip," said Pope, really thinking long and hard about this whole thing, playing with the key in his hands. "She said the key leads to the Cross of Santo Domingo."

"Wait. Can I see that?" JJ questioned, turning around in the passengerʼs seat to face the others, baby on his lap. Pope nodded and handed him the key.

Kaci shook her head. "JJ, don't let —"

"Kaz, man, you're gonna break your gums. You need those babies — all right, all right, eat what you wanna eat, dude."

Kaci sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Are we supposed to know what that is?" asked Sarah, referring back to the Cross.

"I'm guessing it's some sort of historical artifact of great importance," shrugged Pope.

"I'm not going on another wild goose chase for some shitty, old thing people want in a museum," Kaci stated boredly. "Seriously, we never win, and I can't be bothered doing it all again. Y'all are way too optimistic."