Benson has Skips watch Stella when something unforeseen arises.
Trade with @tr85n
Skips leans against his van and sips at a cup of coffee that is slowly but surely going cold. He looks up to see his boss approaching him hurriedly, holding his daughter’s hand. The yeti raises his index and middle fingers in greeting and places the empty cup on a nearby workbench.
“Skips,” Benson addresses him, sounding slightly out of breath, “can you do me a favour and watch Stella today? I know it’s short notice, but something’s come up and Mordecai and Rigby both have plans and–”
“Yes.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll look after her, just go do your thing, Benson,” Skips puts a large hand on his boss’s shoulder and offers a small smile.
“You sure? You’re not too busy?”
“Yeah, I’ve got nothin’ goin’ on.”
“Oh. Okay. Thanks, Skips.”
With that, Benson crouches down to give Stella a kiss on the cheek, then leaves, offering a “bye, Pumpkin!” as he goes.
—
“So, what’d you wanna do, Sweet Pea? D’you need to eat or has Dad taken care of that already?” Skips gets down on one knee to be slightly closer to her eye level.
“Yeah, I just had breakfast,” Stella bounces on the balls of her feet as she speaks, tone of voice much more cheery than that of most people he talks to at work. He can’t help but smile at that.
“And what’s the plan for today?”
The little girl looks at the ground for a moment, appearing deep in though, before the answer flies out of her.
“Blanket fort!” she shrieks, throwing her arms up into the air.
“Blanket fort?” Skips can recall Mordecai and Rigby mentioning one of those before, can form a vague image in his head of what it might look like, but is otherwise lost, “care to explain?”
“It’s a fort made of blankets and pillows and stuff! And you sit in it and it’s fun!”
He supposes that makes sense.
“So, all we need’s a few blankets and pillows?”
“Oh, and a couch,” Stella draws a rectangle in front of her with her index fingers to illustrate this.
“Oh.” Skips blinks. He doesn’t have one of those.
She seems to notice, because she becomes silent and thinks again for a second.
“Follow me! I know the perfect place!” the little girl grabs his finger and starts walking, to which the yeti responds by skipping slowly behind her.
—
Soon, they are standing in the living room of the house in the middle of the park, surrounded by a large pile of seemingly every pillow, blanket, throw rug and stuffed animal in the vicinity.
Stella stands back as Skips moves the coffee table out of the way and pushes the armchair up against the couch. When he is done, she starts laying pillows down on the floor, taking care to layer several on top of each other for maximum comfort. The yeti tosses the blankets over the couch, leaving a large gap between the ones at the front to serve as a doorway.
Stella finishes the project by placing two plushies in front of the fort, “so they can be the greeters,” she explains.
—
“Gah!” Stella cries, “Unc-ie Skips — I mean, princess! Help, the tiger is attacking me!” She rolls around on her back, holding a plush cat to her face, simulating an attack.
“Don’t worry, princess, I’ll save you!” Skips simply grabs the toy with one hand and puts it in a corner, then places a cushion in front of it to prevent any possibility of escape.
Stella sits back up, breathing heavily, “thanks. You’re… really strong.”
They both burst out giggling.
—
“Have you been in love before?” The question comes out of nowhere and catches the yeti off guard.
He is silent for a second, but decides to answer truthfully, “yeah.”
Stella stares up at him and settles into her spot on the floor, quietly prompting him to elaborate further. Skips sighs. As painful as it is to think about, maybe sharing the story with her would help some.
“Her name was Mona. We met at school. And, yeah. I loved her a lot.” He gently pulls a gold chain with a locket out of his back pocket.
“What’s that?”
The yeti carefully opens the locket to reveal an old picture of himself, whom Stella recognises, and a woman, whom she doesn’t.
“Is that her? She’s really pretty.”
Skips nods sadly.
She stares at the pictures, “can you tell me the whole story?”
And so he does. He tells her the same story he told Mordecai and Rigby all those years ago. He talks about how he’d been expelled from every school he’d attended up to that point, about meeting his immortal friends and the first run-ins with Klorgbane. He talks about meeting Mona, their connection, the skipping and planning of the prom. The Fists of Justice. How pretty Mona looked in her prom dress. How much fun they had that night, the way they danced.
As he’s recounting every little detail, Stella listening intently through it all, he feels tears brimming at his eyes, but refuses to let them spill out.
He takes a short break to breathe before talking about the fight. The next part he doesn’t mention in detail. He simply says, “and now she’s… gone.”
By this point, the little girl is looking up at him in awe, holding one of the plushies to her chest.
“Wow.”
—
Skips eats a pudding cup and makes a big show of listening as Stella rambles about whatever comes to her mind. He nods, shakes his head, mumbles in agreement, exaggerates his facial expressions and occasionally replies to her. He isn’t even sure if she’s actually talking to him, but he does it anyway. It’s the polite thing to do, he thinks. From what he can see, from where he is sitting, she’s having fun. And he has to admit to himself that he is too.
“Anyway, there was a shark in the lake but that’s okay because Applesauce got into a fight with him and saved us!” She waves her arms around excitedly as she tells this totally true story that definitely happened.
“No way!” the yeti places his hands on his cheeks and widens his eyes.
“Uh-huh! And there was a rainbow and it was really, really pretty and then we all walked off into the sunset. But Daddy said it was too early for a sunset and we turned around and it was actually a explosion!”
“What?!” Skips gasps, “you must surely have the most exciting life of all, Sweet Pea.”
“Yeah!” Stella bounces up and down on her knees, “but you have stories too. I bet you’ve got like a gazillion of ‘em!”
“Oh, no, none as exciting as yours.” He chuckles.
—
After his long day away, Benson approaches the house. He stops when he hears the sounds of giggling and chatting coming from inside. One of the voices is obviously his daughter, the other much more gruff.
He sneaks into the living room and stands there for a few seconds before taking a peek into the fort. It surprises him to see his employee sitting next to his daughter, Skips’ head partially obscured by a blanket, both of them wearing princess dresses and pretending to sip from tiny teacups. A few stuffed animals have food stains around their mouths.
“Oh, Mrs. Bear, you are so right, this has been fun!” the yeti says to one of the plushies, poorly faking a British accent.
Benson snorts. Neither of them seem to notice him, they’re clearly too busy.
“Hey, you guys!”
His boss’s voice prompts Skips to jump and drop his teacup.
“Daddy!” Stella cries, at the same time Skips yells “Benson!”
“You’re back,” it’s just the yeti’s voice this time. He clears his throat.
“Yeah, I’m back,” Benson chuckles, “can I come in?”
Only if no one ever finds out about this, Skips thinks, but his mouth simply says “yes.”
