Steph's P.O.V

Right now, the sun is peering in through the windows and there are a bunch of feathers all over the room. Why? Oh, that's because Carter decided to smack me in the face with a pillow to wake me up, so I hit him back. Resulting in what we have now, a full blown pillow fight.

"Surrender!" Carter yells

"Never!" I say, hitting him square in the face with a pillow.

Back and forth we were hitting each other with the pillows. However, luck was really never on my side, so my last pillow burst while Carter's was still perfectly fine.

"Shit." Was all I could say

"Your dead now," he says, launching towards me.

"Abort mission! Abort mission!" I yell, running out the door. I run down the stairs, Carter still within my sights and hide in a near by closet. I wait a little while and slowly climb back up the stairs and head back to our room. Not even a second after I feel a hand on my mouth, muffling my screams.

"You should have known you wouldn't have gotten away so easily," Carter says, lightly throwing me on the bed.

"Payback time," he says

"No, please I'll surrender." I say

"Too late for that princess," he says and starts to tickle the life out of me.

"M-m-mercy!" I manage to get out

"I'll need something in return for letting you go," he says

"Deal," I let out, trying to catch my breath.

"Fine," he says, getting off of me

"Jesus you're heavy," I say

"What was that? You wanted me to tickle you again?" He says

"N-no. Did I say you're heavy? My bad I meant umm 'are you hungry?' Yea. That's what I meant!" I say, quickly trying to save myself before I get killed again.

"Mhmmm," he says, clearly knowing what I actually said.

"Come here," he says, arms wide open.

I was hesitant at first until he said, "I'm not going to tickle you." With that, I gladly make my way over to him.

"So, are we going to clean up this mess anytime soon or..." I say, breaking the silence.

"Babe, what do you think I have maids for?" He says

"Uhhh, to clean up after you?" I say as more of a question than an answer.

"Exactly," he says

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Come in," Carter says

"Steve!" I say happily

"Good morning Ms. Ryder," he says

"I told you to call me Steph," I say

"What's your reason for bothering us Steve?" Carter says

"Don't be so rude," I say

"Sorry," he replies, rolling his eyes

"Right. I just wanted to let you know that breakfast is ready downstairs," Steve says

"Thank you, now leave," Carter says

"Right away sir," and with that, Steve leaves

"You know, I might end up firing him," Carter says

"What? Why?" I ask

"I don't like that he talks to you," he says

"Jealous much?" I reply

"Shut up," he says back

"Oooooooo. Someone's jealoussss," I say

"You want me to tickle you again?" He says

"God no. No sir," I say

"Then shut your mouth," he says

"Fine. Can we go eat now?" I ask

"Yea, hop on," he says getting up, gesturing for me to hop onto his back.

We head downstairs and find our breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles and so much more. And even though I LOVE food, it just seemed to never disappear.

"I'm stuffed," I say, yes pushing my chair away from the table a little bit.

"Me too," Carter replies

"What are we doing today?" I ask

"Well I have one idea, but I don't know if you'll be open to it," he says

"Spill!" I demand

"I'll give you a few hints. There are gonna be a lot of pillows and blankets, and it definitely involves a lot of screaming," he says

"Oh my God! We're gonna build a fort?!" I nearly scream

"There was so much innocence in that answer. But yes, we're building a pillow fort," he says with a chuckle

"What do you mean?" I ask

"Nothing. Never mind," he says

"Ok," I say brushing it off. "Can we build a fort though? I really want to build a fort," I say

"Sure, whatever you wanna do." He says

"Yayyyyy. Can we pretend to be pirates? And fight each other for control of the fort and the loser has to do whatever the winner wants." I ask

"Yea. Sure," he says with a laugh

"Yayyy. But no tickling, that's cheating." I say

"Awww, fine," he says

"Good. Now let's get to work." I say, dragging Carter with me.

———————————

To say building the fort took a while was the understatement of year. Plus we got distracted easily with all the pillows. By the time we had finished, it was already 6. But I was pretty damn proud of us for the fort we made. It was facing the T.V and was pretty fucking huge.

"Here," Carter says handing me a plastic sword

"I'm not going to even ask why you have plastic swords lying around." I say rolling my eyes. All he does is laugh

————— 1 hour later —————

"Surrender!" He yells

"Never!" I yell back

Then we hear the phone ring.

"Hold on. Let me get that." He says

Carter's P.O.V

As we were fighting each other, we hear the phone ring.

"Hold on. Let me get that." I say going to get my phone

"Hey dad. What's up?" I ask

"Nothing son, just wondering how you're doing?" He says

"Doing pretty well actually. I'm messing around with Steph right now." I say

"Son, are you sure Steph is who she says she is?" He asks

"What do you mean?" I ask

"Well your mother and I were looking into her and-" he starts

"You were what?!" I ask angrily

"Son please just listen to us," I hear my mother's voice say

"We we're looking into her background and it says she adopted. Did she ever tell you that?" He asks

"What the hell are you on about? If she was adopted I'm pretty sure she would have told me." I said

"Son, I'm not sure she is who she says she is. We just want you to be careful, that's all. Her biological parents are out living their lives just fine, but her adoptive parents aren't the nicest of people. We just want to make sure she isn't using you." He says

"Wherever you got this information from, it must be wrong. And the next time you want to look into my girlfriend, you take it up with me!" I say angrily and hang up the phone

"You ok, babe?" Steph asks

"Yea, just work stuff," I lie.

"Ok." She says with a smile, grabbing her sword and aiming it towards me

"Now where were we?" I ask, picking up my sword and chasing after her.

I couldn't help but wonder though, are my parents right? Is Steph hiding something from me? Hiding the fact that she's adopted? She wouldn't lie to me, right? You could see she doesn't look anything like her parents, even if they are her biological parents like she says, but that happens, right? Pushing the thoughts out of my mind, I chase after Steph.

Steph's P.O.V

After Carter's phone call, you guessed it, I was pinned under Carter begging for mercy as he, of course, tickled the life out of me once again.

"M-m-mercy! Mercy! I give u-u-up! You w-win!" I yell

"Yes! Victory is mine!" He says

"Thought we said no tickling mister?" I said

"Baby, you should know I don't play by the rules." he says, giving me a kiss. "Now for my prize." He says with a smile.

"Oh God, what do you want?" I ask

"Hmmmmm, I'm thinking maybe a movie and some cuddles for now." He says

"Are you for real right now?" I ask

"What? You rather me say I wanna tickle the fuck out of you until-,"

"NO!" I yell. Not wanting to be tortured by Carter.

"Ok then. So I'll go make some popcorn while you pick out a movie and sit your cute lil ass right there ok?" He says

"Yepp," I reply

"Good. And no 'Kissing Booth' please. I don't need to sit through that again." He says

"Yes sir," I say saluting him as he leaves to go make the popcorn.

I pick out 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' because cmon, that movie is fucking hilarious. Carter comes back with the popcorn and I snuggle up next to him as we watch the movie. After, we started watching some of the Rocky movies, but I fell asleep in the middle of the 3rd one.

But here I was with Carter, and nothing and no one could ever make me happier.

Unknown's P.O.V

I watched them through the window for a second time. She was all snuggled up next to Carter after their pillow fort fight and asleep peacefully. Taking her from Carter would definitely hurt him. Neither one of them would know what hit them.