The Wheel and the Butterfly
A Dan X Pinkie Pie saga
Part 6 Pinkie & Dan Vs. Camping
Chapter 34 Pinkie Vs. Idaho
****
Elise sighed contently as she walked along the paved trial path with her husband, his hand firmly held in hers. To their left was a small road sitting next to a long stretch of grass and a canal with a series of hotels on the other side of it, to their right was green shrubbery, trees, and a large river that shimmered in the morning sun
“So nice of Pinkie to get us our own suite.” She said looking out across the river at the trees and houses on the other side.
Chris chuckled. “Hard to believe we actually got some peace and quiet on this trip.”
“Heh, Yeah.” Elise agreed as she looked up towards her husband. “How long do you think it’ll last?”
Chris smiled down at her. “How long do you think Dan and Pinkie will sleep?”
*
“Pinkie?” Dan growled out in an irritated tone of voice.
“Yes, Dan?” Pinkie responded sweetly.
“This is a king sized bed, is it not?” Dan continued in his same grumpy tone of voice.
“That’s what the nice lady downstairsees said!” Pinkie responded cheerfully.
“Then why, pray tell, do I find myself at the edge of the bed with your arms wrapped around me?” Dan demanded as he found pink, pajama clad arms surrounding his bare torso.
Light eked in from the thin, white shades over the hotel window into the room, covering it with masked daylight; light and dark brown curtains hung like a ruffled frame around it. Dan laid down facing away from the window getting a wonderful view of the lamp sitting next to him on a nightstand, a digital clock that read out 8:04 on the same nightstand, the beige wall, and a serene, framed picture of a farmhouse sitting next to a lake.
Pinkie gave her roommate’s question some thought. “Hmmmmm…You’re very cuddly.” She offered, smiling and rubbing her face against the back of Dan’s head. “And you smell nice. Also, Mr. Mumbles has the other side of the bed.”
“Meow.” Mr. Mumbles replied.
“I am not cuddly!” Dan insisted. His eyes narrowed as he saw a grey mass of fur led by large, green eyes approach along the edge of the bed. Mr. Mumbles nuzzled his chin and purred, curling up next to his neck.
Pinkie giggled. “Looks like you were just outvoted.” She said, tightening her grasp on Dan.
Dan frowned. “I’m going to start wrapping myself with barbed wire before I go to bed. How does that sound?”
“Ermmm…painful.” Pinkie replied. “For all three of us.”
Dan furrowed his brow. “Grrr…fine! No barbed wire. Just…just go back to your side of the bed. It’s way too early for your huggy nonsense.”
“Hmmmm…nawww.” Pinkie said. “I’m happy like this.” She said with a huge grin.
“Well, I’m not.” Dan insisted. His eyes went wide as he felt Pinkie pull him closer towards her and her head shift from behind his head to the side of it. Dan’s heart started pounding in his chest as he felt Pinkie’s breath against his ear.
“Liar.” She whispered softly, the tips of her lips lightly brushing against his earlobes and sending shivers down his body.
Dan swallowed as he felt Pinkie’s fingertips lighting curl against his skin. “Pinkie, what..?HeheheheHAHAHAHA, STOP THAT!” Dan demanded through a fit of laughter as Pinkie took full advantage of her position and subjected Dan to a relentless tickle torture session.
Mr. Mumbles took this opportunity to hop off the bed.
“I told you what happens to liars, didn’t I?” Pinkie said with a mischievous grin.
“HAHahah…you…weeze…said that was in the…hahahaha…apartment!” Dan argued.
Pinkie’s grin widened. “Oh! So I did. I guess that just means you’ll have to fight back.” She said as she continued her light, frantic, touching assault.
“HEheheHahahaOUCH!” Dan exclaimed loudly as he doubled up on his ribs.
Pinkie stopped her attack. “Dan?! What’s wrong?!” She asked with no small amount of concern in her voice.
“One of my ribs you hit with the crowbar, I think you may have actually cracked it.” Dan said in a pained tone of voice.
“Oh no! Dan I’m so sorry, let me have a look!” Pinkie said as she quickly moved her hands off of Dan.
Dan breathed in and out deeply and rolled onto his back as Pinkie moved her face in closer to examine his ribs.
“Dan, I don’t see any…” Pinkie trailed off as she noticed Dan’s mischievous grin, but it was too late. A flash of white collided with her face as Dan quickly wiped the pillow up from under his head and smacked Pinkie with it. The next thing she felt was Dan rolling over onto her and pressing down with the pillow on her face with one hand as his hand made its way under her pajama shirt and found its way to one of her sides.
“Hahahehehehe…mghpghmpgh…heheheHAHA! Good…mmmpghg…Good one!” Pinkie said as she struggled to keep the pillow off her face and Dan’s hand from her side. “HAHAHA…mmffghgh…Alright! Alright! HAhahahehehe…I give…mfffphghffmmm…Uncle, already!”
“Mercy is for the weak!” Dan declared as he moved his other hand to the pillow and pressed down.
“MMMMFFFFGHGHG!” Pinkie said in alarm as she tried to remove Dan’s arms. Finding them quite unremovable, she reached out towards the other side of the bed. Feeling a pillow, she crabbed it, and swung it with all her strength, clocking Dan with it.
“Gah!” Dan exclaimed from the surprise attack, giving Pinkie the opportunity to throw him off of her towards the foot of the bed, and roll off of it, pillow firmly in hand.
“You want to play rough, roomie?!” Pinkie asked through a giant smile as she wielded her pillow in both hands. “Then, let’s play rough!”
Dan grinned as he jumped off the bed and likewise held his pillow aloft with both hands. “En garde!” He declared as he lunged towards Pinkie, holding his weapon high.
Pinkie likewise lunged and raised her pillow, bringing it down towards Dan as his pillow rapidly approached her.
*Several minutes of close quarter pillow fighting and attempted tickle combat later…*
Dan and Pinkie sat on the floor, backs against the foot of the bed. Both in hysterics as feathers continued to fall from the sky and land on them in a thin cover of white, downy snow.
“Hehehe…whoops. I guess I better tip the hotel well…” Pinkie commented, blowing feathers off her nose.
Dan stood up and brushed feathers off of himself. “I have to admit, I’m far less tempted to burn this place down than usual.” He held a hand out to Pinkie who happily accepted it as Dan helped her up to her feet.
“Feel better?” Dan asked with a slight smile.
Pinkie smiled. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Dan stretched and yawned. “Good. I’m looking forward to kicking your butt at more video games and not suffering a concussion for my efforts.”
Pinkie giggled. “I think pillows are more fun than my crowbar, anyways.”
Pinkie walked across dark red and white checkered carpet and out of the open bedroom door. She walked into the living area of the suite. It looked much the same as the bedroom, though much larger and with cherry wood colored furniture. She walked past a dresser with an LCD TV sitting on top of it, an office chair in front of a desk, made her way over to the sliding pane glass door, and opened the shades to the balcony. “Oooooooo…” She uttered staring over the railing and out at the shimmering river below and the large, white church that towered up towards a point high above the tree tops. “Hey, Dan. C’mere a second, will you?”
“What?” Dan called in a mildly irritated tone as he pulled a black ‘JERK’ shirt over his head and peaked out into the room.
“Just…come here, okay?” Pinkie asked, turning her head over her shoulder towards him with a small smile.
Dan wordlessly made his way across the room and stood next to Pinkie, looking out the window and at the river and church across it.
“Yeah?” He asked. “It’s…nice, I guess…peaceful.”
Pinkie smile and nodded. “I known.” She replied simply.
Dan was surprised to feel a hand reach out for his. His face flushed as he glanced at Pinkie, her smiling, sunlit face transfixed on the river across and below them.
Pinkie turned to Dan with a content smile.
Dan pulled his face back ever so slightly as her sky-blue eyes seemed to pierce into his green eyes as if they were searching for something.
“Dan?” Pinkie asked softly.
“Uh…yeah, Pinkie?”
Pinkie’s content smile gave way to a full, grin. “Do you think we could reach the river from here?” She asked.
Dan blinked a few times attempting to reconcile the sudden shift in mood and looked back out the window. “…What?! Like…if we jumped?!” He asked with a raised eyebrow.
Between the balcony and the river stood a large lawn for the hotel, some wild flowers, a canal, more lawn, a small road, even more lawn a paved trail and a final bit of lawn and shrubs.
“Of course not, silly!” Pinkie insisted. “What if we used the rest of the dynamite we brought for the trip?”
Dan’s left eye twitched a bit. “You want to explode us…out of the hotel room…and into the river?” He asked quizzically.
Pinkie brought up her free hand and waved dismissively. “No, no, no, no, no. What if we used the gunpowder to make some rockets and say…attach them to something, and then we can ride that thingy.”
Dan looked back out the window. “Hmmm…well….if we made a ramp to go over the railing…that would at least send us upwards.” Dan frowned. “Though, I don’t know enough about rockets to actually make one…”
Pinkie grinned a sweet, but evil smile as she let go of Dan’s hand and brought both her palms together just slightly under her nose. She rubbed them together as she looked outside. “I do.” She cooed.
Dan put on a surprised expression and turned to look at her. “You do?!”
Pinkie cocked her head slightly and gave Dan a small grin. “Yep. I told you I was born to party, and the best parties always have fireworks.” She explained.
Dan turned back to the river as his surprised expression gave way to a creeping, toothy grin that slowly established residence across his face. “Alright, let’s get cleaned up and grab some breakfast downstairs.” Dan suggested. “We can talk it over then.”
“Yay!” Pinkie said victoriously as she turned towards her pink luggage bag for a change of clothing.
**
Elise looked at her watch and frowned as Chris and she returned to the hotel. “It’s getting kind of late. Do you think they’re still asleep?”
Chris glanced up at the hotel and examined one of the balconies carefully. His lips pulled and scrunched to the side of his face as he noticed a large dining room folding table was set up against the railing at an angle. “No, they’re definitely up…to something” Chris said, pointing at the balcony.
Elise followed the finger to the table. “It looks like…a ramp? Oh dear…that can’t be good…”
‘BOOOOOOOOM’
“Wheeeeeeeee!” Pinkie exclaimed as she hung onto metal, yellow bars at the front of a long, flat luggage cart that had been turned into a rocket cart.
Dan, also clinging to the bars, laughed maniacally as the cart propelled forward, onto the table ramp that had been setup and off into the sky.
Chris and Elise looked up with wide eyes as the cart sailed overhead, casting a shadow over them briefly as it soared four stories high and began to descend.
‘SPLASH’
Chris and Elise looked out into the water with concerned expressions, large ripples radiated from the spot where the cart had crashed, with small bubbles surfacing in the center.
Soon, the water’s surface was disturbed again as Dan and Pinkie emerged, laughing and giggling to themselves as Pinkie wiped her soaked hair back off her face.
“Nailed it!” Pinkie declared triumphantly throwing a fist into the air.
“Hehehe…you’re a mad genius, Pinkie.” Dan declared.
“Aww, I couldn’t have done it without your work on the ramp.” Pinkie replied with a smile.
The two exchanged a quick high five.
Dan shivered slightly, “Gah, could this water be any colder? Let’s get out of here.”
Pinkie nodded happily and the two began swimming back to shore.
Chris sighed. “Good thing we packed and checked out early.”
Elise matched his sigh. “Yeah, definitely don’t want to go back to the hotel after that.”
Pinkie looked towards Dan and giggled. “Good thing we packed and checked out early.”
Dan chuckled. “Yeah, definitely don’t want to go back to the hotel after that.”
“Don’t worry, I left them two of those bundles of cash anOUCHIE!” Pinkie exclaimed as Dan and she approached the shore, still a few feet out into the water.
Chris and Elise turned with a concerned look at the two swimmers.
“Pinkie? Are you alright? What happened?” Dan asked, with a noted amount of apprehension in his voice.
“Something cut me!” Pinkie cried, lifting up her chin to show a long, jagged cut across her neck.
“Here…” Dan helped Pinkie to the shore and helped her out of the water. Her red, floral shirt clung to her body and, much like Dan’s, her jeans had turned a darker shade of blue after being soaked. “Let me look…” He said as he and Pinkie climbed to their feet.
Pinkie gritted her teeth and lifted her chin up further.
“Huh…it’s shallow, and it doesn’t look like it was made with a blade, or anything.”
There was a splash from the river’s edge, and Dan and Pinkie looked out to see a foot long fish jump and slap its tail on the water disapprovingly at the two.
“Uh…A fin?” Dan suggested, looking at the fish. Dan narrowed his eyes at it and angrily pointed at it. “YOU’LL GET YOURS, FISH!” He shouted angrily. “You’re going on the list!” He threatened angrily.
Dan felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and turned to see Pinkie smiling weakly as she rubbed her fresh cut. “It’s okay, Dan. Maybe we wrecked his home when we crashed into the water.”
Dan sighed. “Fine, let’s just get back to the car.”
“Are you two alright?” Elise asked.
Dan and Pinkie turned to see Chris and Elise standing a few feet away from them.
“That jerk trout gave her a nasty cut on the throat.” Dan explained.
“It’s not so bad.” Pinkie said with a small smile.
“Here, let me see.” Elise said walking up to Pinkie.
Pinkie removed her hand so Elise could get a better look.
“A cutthroat trout, huh?” Chris mused.
“Chris, I don’t think that’s why they call it that.” Elise said as she leaned in towards Pinkie’s wound.
“It’s just an interesting coincidence, is all.” Chris responded with a shrug.
“Coincidence nothing!” Dan retorted. “That fish was out for blood!”
“Ow, ow, ow…” Pinkie muttered as Elise lifted her chin up, examining her wound.
“Well,” Elise began, “It didn’t get much. Let’s get some disinfectant on this and get you patched up.”
Pinkie smiled weakly and nodded.
“Did you two check out yet?” Chris asked.
“Uh-huh!” Pinkie answered with a slight nod, finding her normal vigorous head bobbing a little more painful than usual. “We even loaded Mr. Mumbles and our stuff into the car, already and left a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig tip!”
Elise paused. “Wait. How? We have the keys.”
Chris sighed and raised a palm to his face. “Dan has a spare…or several.”
Dan chuckled to himself with a small grin.
“Oh, well…that’s disconcerting.” Elise said leveling a small glare at the short man.
“Hey, can we talk about this later? I think I’m turning my red shirt redder…” Pinkie said, clutching a hand against her neck. “Whoa…” Pinkie felt a tremble that started at her backside and a pinchy feeling at her knee. “Uh-oh…” She murmured.
“Pinkie?” Dan began. “What’s wro…”
‘HOOOONK, HOOOONK’
The four turned their heads to look up the embankment towards a rapidly approaching large truck that barreled down the road, hauling a load of long, thick trunks of lumber secured by several thick strands of rope in an open trailer behind it. They collectively shot it a worried expression at the swift speed the driver was taking down the small, single lane road.
There worry was not unfounded as the truck clipped the small, concrete edge of the road and bounded up, then down hard as the driver turned the truck to round a corner.
The stress took its toll on the ropes and they snapped sending half a dozen large logs off bounding and rolling towards the group at the river’s edge.
“Look out!” Elise shouted, quickly reaching for her husband and running towards safety.
Pinkie and Dan began to follow, but Pinkie quickly found something large and round under her foot. Her leg slipped out from under her. She landed face first on the ground. She quickly sat up and turned to see the massive logs quickly approaching down the hill.
She closed her eyes and screamed.
Adrenaline coursed through Dan’s body as he turned, sprinted towards Pinkie in a couple quick steps and bent down to scoop her up in his arms. He pivoted and kicked down hard with his leg, propelling himself into the sky and out of the way as a giant log passed under his legs and over the spot Pinkie and him and occupied mere moments before.
The two hit the ground hard as Dan extended his arms as far as they would go. Dan landed face down in the grass as Pinkie landed on her rear and sprawled her body out, face up at the sky.
“Hey! Those are western white pines.” Chris stated informatively, holding up an index finger as the logs rolled into the river.
“Uh, Chris?” Elise said. “Not really important right now.”
Chris blushed slightly. “Sorry…” He said sheepishly.
Dan looked up and spit grass and dirt out of his mouth. He wiped the back of his hands over his lips. “You’re heavy.” He griped at the pink haired girl laying a foot in front of him.
Gentle sobbing was the response. A sounds that immediately blasted away his feeling of irritation and cut into his heart. “Pinkie, I’m sorry, I didn’t meaGAHK.”
Dan was cut off as a pink blur sprung from her spot on the ground and buried her face into his chest, arms wrapping around his torso tightly.
The sobbing was joined by the quiet murmur of “Thank you. Thank you sooo much.”
Small tears formed in Dan’s eyes as he wrapped his arms around Pinkie, placing a comforting arm on her back and another on her head. “Sure, Pinkie. Anytime.” He responded softly.
Elise and Chris bounded over to the soaked and dirty pair. “Are you two alright?” Elise asked in a concerned tone.
Dan shot her an irate raised eyebrow from his spot on the ground as he held the crying Pinkie Pie. “Define, ‘alright’.” He responded irritably.
“Uh, I’ll settle for not needing to go to the hospital in this case.” Elise responded.
“SNIFF…” Pinkie unburied her head from Dan’s chest and looked up. “I’m okay.” She said weakly. A small smile finally returned to her face. “Thanks to Dan.”
“Heh.” Dan replied with a small smile. “Alright, don’t get all mushy on me, you’re getting blood on my shirt.”
Pinkie smiled at Dan as the two rose to their feet.
‘Crash’
“What the heck was that?” Dan asked as everyone turned towards the road and looked down it.
“Yeah…the road the truck was on sort of ends in a concrete barrier…” Chris stated.
“I wonder why the truck was even driving down it in the first place.” Pinkie said.
Dan sighed. “Who cares?” He raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “What’d you trip on, anyways?” Dan asked. “I thought you were Ms. Perfect Balance.”
Pinkie pursed her lips and looked over to the spot that was almost the site of her brutal crushing. A brown, oval object sat embedded into the ground. Pinkie walked over taking Dan with her and bent down to dig the object out of the soil. She lifted the misshapen, brown object for everyone to see.
“That’s a potato.” Chris stated informatively, holding up an index finger.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” Dan replied snidely. “We don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“Just trying to help.” Chris responded.
“Could you maybe help by stop talking?..And maybe breathing while you’re at it?” Dan retorted angrily.
“Alright, Dan. I’m going to let that one slide because you just went all superhero on us and ran in front of giant logs to save Pinkie.” Elise stated. “But we should really get you two cleaned up.”
“CHEEP, CHEEP” Without warning, an angry, small bluebird dove from the sky and began attacking Pinkie’s wet, curly hair.
“WHAAA!” Pinkie exclaimed, breaking from Dan and flailing her hands about at the attacking bird.
“Oooo, that’s a mountain bluebird.” Chris stated informatively, holding up an index finger.
Dan vainly swatted at the bird as it angrily called out at Pinkie and flapped about, just inches out of reach. “Chris, when I catch this bird, I’m going to feed it to you to plug your word hole.”
Elise reached into her pocket and pulled out a penny. She carefully placed it on her forefinger and held it level as she raised her fist up. She held her hand in front of her eyes and looked out at the erratically flapping bird. Elise flicked her thumb and the penny shot out, clocking the bird which gave one more alarmed “CHEEP!” and flew away.
“Nice shot.” Dan commented. “Very accurate.”
Elise smiled. “Thank you, Dan.”
“Can we go now?” Pinkie enquired. “I’m not sursees why everything is out to get me today, but I’d like to be in the car before...Oh! Hello!” Pinkie smiled as a black and gold butterfly fluttered over to her and perched on her outstretched index finger.
“Uh…Pinkie?” Dan called out pointing off into the distance.
Pinkie looked up from the butterfly with a smile. “Yes Dan?” Her eyes went wide and her smile dropped as she noticed a swarm of black, gold, and orange butterflies quickly closing on her position. “CAR! NOW!” She shouted frantically flailing the hand the butterfly was resting on and breaking towards the hotel in a sprint.
The trio of friends quickly followed, putting some distance between them and the angry gold and black cloud that gave pursuit. Soon all four were inside the relative safety of the car.
“Merow?” Mr. Mumbles mewed in a concerned sounding tone as Pinkie and Dan sat down in the backseat.
“It’s okay, Mr. Mumbles.” Pinkie assured in an uneven tone, reaching down to pick up Mr. Mumbles in both hands and raise Mr. Mum. “I just almost died and was attacked by a swarm of pretty butterflies.” Pinkie’s eye twitched as lips pulled to a side of her face and her teeth gritted rapidly for a second.
“Monarch Butterflies, to be exact.” Chris stated informatively from the passenger seat, holding up an index finger.
“SHUT UP, CHRIS!” The other occupants of the car commanded harshly.
“Right, shutting up now.” Chris said, turning towards the front.
Elise quickly started the car, and drove off as the swarm of butterflies rapidly approached it.
Dan looked towards Pinkie, “So ummm…how are you feeling, now?”
“FINE! Just totally, absotively FINE!” Pinkie stated, setting down Mr. Mumbles on the seat next to her, and stressing just how absotively ‘FINE’ she totally was.
“Oh…Okay, I only ask because you look like you’re a few seconds away from freaking out on me.”
“Uhhh…” Pinkie forced a crooked and twisted smile on her face, and cocked her head while lowering it so she was looking up at Dan with blue, wild, worried looking eye. “Permission to start totally freaking out on you?”
Dan nodded. “Granted.”
Pinkie’s smile broke as tears shot from her eyes and she buried her face in Dan’s chest again. “SOB…Oh Dan! I don’t know what’s going on! One second we’re having fun and sailing through the air then swimming back and then this fish cuts me on the neck and next thing I know there’s this truck and giant logs coming towards me and I trip on an errant potato on the ground and you saved me and I’m really, really, really, super-dee-duper grateful for that but then this bluebird attacks me out of nowhere and then these butterflies try to kill me! And I’m just so scared and confused and I just kinda wanna stay here forever except you’re really wet and smell like river right now.”
“Uhh…there, there?” Dan offered confusingly, lightly patting Pinkie’s back.
Pinkie shot back up in the middle-backseat of the car. “Thanks Dan!” She said wrapping her arms around Dan’s shoulder and hugging him tightly. “I feel a lot better.”
“Hmmm…” Chris said, rubbing his chin.
“Chris, if you say just one more stupid thing, I’m going to take Pinkie’s chef knife and give you a cut to match hers. Except MINE will be deep enough to give you a Columbian necktie.” Dan threatened from behind Chris.
“What’s a Columbian necktie?” Pinkie asked, buckling her seatbelt and nudging Dan so he did the same.
“You don’t want to know.” Elise responded.
“It’s just that everything that attacked Pinkie was from Idaho.” Chris stated.
“Chris, I’m going for the knife.” Dan informed, reaching towards Pinkie’s bag on the car floor.
“No, wait! They’re official things from Idaho.” Chris stressed.
“The knife is out of the bag, Chris.” Dan informed, as he pulled out a chef’s knife in a plastic sheath.
“I mean, they’re official state things from Idaho.”
“The knife is now unsheathed, Chris.” Dan said, as he took the plastic sheath off.
“NO! I mean, the cutthroat trout is the official state fish, the western white pine is the official tree, the potato is the official vegetable, the mountain bluebird is the official bird, and the monarch butterfly is the official state insect.”
Dan sheathed the knife. “Wait, so you’re saying Idaho attacked Pinkie?”
“Yep.” Chris stated.
Dan sighed. “Figures.”
“Wait…Idaho? Like…the state? The state we’re in...” Pinkie asked. “States attack people, here?!”
Dan and Elise nodded somberly.
“Pretty much.” Elise added.
Pinkie’s smile dropped. “Dan, can I please go back to freaking out?”
Dan lifted his left arm giving Pinkie a clear shot at his chest. “Have fun.”
Pinkie smiled. “I will!” She answered cheerfully, before breaking down into sobs and cries as she reburied her face in Dan’s chest.
Dan sighed, and patted Pinkie’s back with another “There, there.”
Pinkie looked up briefly, “Anyone want to freak out with me?” She asked cheerfully. “It’s fun!” She insisted.
Mr. Mumbles jumped on top of Pinkie and bounded over to Dan’s shoulder. She began frantically howling as she rubbed against the stubble on his face.
“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie said with a big grin as she returned to tortured sobs on Dan’s chest.
Dan sighed as his roommate and cat freaked out all over him. “Please just find a place where we can change and get cleaned up.” He said to Elise. “I’m not sure how much freaking out I can take.”
Elise smiled. “Sure, Dan.”
*Some driving, wound dressing, and a change of clothes later.*
Pinkie and Dan sat quietly in the back. Pinkie had changed into her red and white striped shirt and a dry pair of jeans. Dan simply changed into a drier, less blood soaked ‘JERK’ shirt and jeans. Pinkie opted to sit in the middle-seat, resting her head against Dan’s shoulder. Mr. Mumbles opted to sit curled up on Pinkie’s lap.
Elise continued driving the group towards their destination and out of Idaho.
“So…” Chris began. “What should we sing next?”
Pinkie yawned in reply. “No singing for a while, please.” She smiled contently with her head resting on Dan’s shoulder. “I think I’m happy like this.”
She closed her eyes and relaxed her body.
“I also vote for quiet.” Dan yawned out, resting his head against the pink mop of curly hair resting on his shoulder.
Mr. Mumbles mewed quietly from Pinkie’s lap and closed her eyes.
Soon the trio was quickly snoozing away in the backseat.
Chris turned to glance at the sleeping residents of Casa Paradisio room 8 and grinned turning to his wife. “Alright, I admit. They’re pretty cute when they’re not wrecking stuff.”
“Yeah.” Elise agreed with a smile. She turned back to the road. “Let’s see how long it lasts…”