Luke & Liam: Time to Get Up

"Luke! Wake up! We're gonna be late, sleepy head!" Luke snapped awake, but that still did not make him quick enough to avoid Liam, who lifted him out of bed. "Give Teddy a good morning kiss."

"What time is it?" Luke squirmed in Liam's arms. Liam snapped the waistband of Luke's briefs.

"Give Teddy a kiss." Luke groaned and kissed the stuffed bear. "It's time to leave for soccer practice. It starts in like ten minutes."

"What? I overslept? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"It's my responsibility to wake my big brother up?" The way he said 'big brother' left no doubts just how much he doubted Luke's big brother status.

"You know what I mea" before Luke could even finish his irritated sentence, Liam had pushed a pacifier into his mouth.

"There's my baby brother." He cooed and kissed Luke's bare chest before blowing a raspberry into his tummy. "Ooh, what a happy, ticklish baby boy I have!" Even after however long it had been, Luke still could not get used to Liam cooing over him and holding him in nothing but his underwear. "Alright, we'd better hurry, hmm?" Luke gave only the slightest nod, not daring to talk around his pacifier. He hated his pacifier and he knew everyone in his family knew it, but that never stopped them. The slightest outburst, the even most vague hint of an attitude meant shoving a pacifier into Luke's mouth. He could not prove it, but he swore he had more spit in his mouth now that he almost always had a pacifier in his mouth.

"Let's go potty." Liam said. How had they reached the bathroom, Luke wondered. Had he been that out of it, lost in his own mind?

Luke bit the bulb of his pacifier irritably as Liam set the Mickey Mouse potty training seat on the toilet. Of course he would have to use that. Why did he expect any different?

"Now do you need to go pee-pee or poo?" Liam asked.

"Pee-pee." Luke tried to enunciate around the pacifier, but that did not change that he was being treated completely like a baby. Liam tugged down his briefs and set him on the Mickey Mouse seat.

"Hold onto the handles." Liam instructed, even though Luke had done it out of habit. Ever since that thunderstorm where Luke had accidentally walked in on him, this had been how Luke used the potty each and every time. Liam wondered if Luke even could pee standing anymore. He was pretty sure he could, but he did not want to find out. This was just too fun.

"All done?" He asked, as if he could not hear Luke's pee stream stop. Luke nodded. "My baby boy doesn't even try to use his big boy words, does he?"

After washing Luke's hands for him, Liam carried him back to his bedroom, where he wasted no time changing Luke's underwear.

"Good baby, not trying to cover your doodle." Liam praised, holding out Luke's soccer briefs. Luke usually wore white since they reminded Liam of diapers, but for soccer practice, only soccer undies would do. In no time, he had Luke fully dressed in his baby blue peewee soccer uniform. Thinking back to how Luke used to be, Liam could not help wondering how he would feel if he saw himself all dressed to play soccer with literal preschoolers.

"Alright, we should make it in time. They can't start without their star player!" He smiled and, taking Luke's wrist, made him high five. "I still can't get over how tiny your hands are, Lukey loo." Liam said. "Aren't they tiny?" He pulled the pacifier from Luke's mouth, wiping the string of drool off of his chin after it disconnected from the bulb. "So tiny, hmm?" Luke knew what Liam wanted him to say. He had drilled it into him about a million times.

"I'm tiny because I'm a baby and big brother Liam and Mommy and Daddy helped me accept it."

"That's good." Liam said softly, returning the pacifier back to Luke's waiting mouth as he picked him up. "We gotta get going, silly baby! You're distracting me with how cute you are!"

Carrying Luke, Liam bounded down the stairs. He had put the Paw Patrol backpack by the door with Luke's socks and shoes in it. He had contemplated taking Luke all the way to the park in just his undies and dressing him there, but figured that might be too much. He smiled as Luke did not even try to get out of his arms as they stepped outside.

"I think we'll take our bikes." Liam said. "That'll get us there real fast." For a moment, Luke mulled over the word 'bikes'. That was plural, which meant he might just get to look big again, riding his bike. As they entered the garage, however, his face fell. There was Liam's bike and on the back, there was a little grey seat, almost like a car seat. He sighed into the pacifier. "Isn't it great? You'll have to thank Daddy for putting it on my bike for you. You'll be arriving in style, baby!" Luke bit the bulb of the pacifier again. He was a teenager, that was meant for a baby. Against all odds, he knew he would fit even before Liam lowered him into it. The last few months - years? - however long it had been, he had learned quickly just how many baby things fit him. He had made the mistake once of letting Liam overhear his disbelief.

"That's because you're a baby." Liam had cooed to him. "And you'll be my baby boy for a long, long time." Luke lifted his chin to allow Liam to buckle the strap of his new Winnie the Pooh helmet under it, the memory of Liam's words echoing in his ears. "You'll be my baby boy for a long, long time."