"I'm back homeee hehe!!" said Lulu as she walked into the living room with a smile.
"Aunt Lulu!!" said Joy as she ran to Lulu excitedly and Lulu carried her.
"Oh hello my wonderful niece, how are you and what were you up to?" asked Lulu with a smile.
"I am very good Aunt Lulu and I was watching tv" replied Joy as she giggled.
"Oh that sounds nice my wonderful niece, but guess what I have for you" said Lulu with a smile.
"What??" asked Joy in curiosity.
"I bought ice cream for everyone!!" declared Lulu happily as she showed Joy the bags she was holding in her left hand.
"Yayyyy" said Joy happily, she had not taken any ice cream in such a long time.
"I knew you would be excited" replied Lulu as she smiled happily and Joy giggled.
"I got vanilla for me, chocolate for you and your daddy, I got ginger for your mommy, I got strawberry, mint and blueberry for your uncles, today is a nice ice cream day" said Lulu happily as Joy giggled.
"Lulu you are back, I thought you would stay out till 8?" asked Natasha as she walked into the living room and saw Lulu there.
"Well I was going to, but my stickler of a friend didn't seem to have any interest in hanging out with me, so I had to come back early" said Lulu in annoyance as Natasha laughed knowing fully well who that stickler friend of hers was.
"You know he might have enjoyed it if you didn't force him to go anywhere" said Natasha as she laughed.
"Hey I didn't force him, me?? I wouldn't force anyone" said Lulu as she feigned innocence, even though she knew that Natasha was right.
"Right…" said Natasha with a knowing expression on her face.
"I know you Lulu, and you can be very relentless when you want something, and what you want right now is his friendship, which won't happen" said Natasha.
"You can't force anyone to be your friend Aunt" said Joy in her cute little voice as both Lulu and Natasha turned to look at her, finally remembering that she was here listening to their entire conversation.
"Well aren't you a nosy little cutie??" asked Lulu as she laughed and pinched Joy's cheek as Joy giggled and Natasha laughed.
"Well I mean I can't blame you, it's not like we were talking in another language" said Lulu as she laughed, not believing what her little cute niece had just said about not forcing anyone to be your friend.
"That's true, but you know what Lulu, my darling is right, you can't force anyone to be your friend" said Natasha as she laughed and carried Joy from Lulu.
"Yes Aunt Lulu, to be someone's friend you have to be nice and sweet, and truly want to be their friend" said Joy as she took her mother's agreement with her as a go ahead to continue speaking.
"Yeah, yeah I know" said Lulu in a bit of annoyance.
"How nice, my little niece is teaching me how to make friends, but you are right Joy, I can't force anyone to be my friend if they don't want to" said Lulu with a smile as Joy smiled.
"But that's different when they don't know that they want to be friends with you" said Lulu with a smile as Natasha shook his head.
"You better relax Lulu, you might end up chasing him off, I know Benjamin if he gets tired of your bullying, he will totally resign" said Natasha.
"He wouldn't dare, I would end up chasing him down anyway" replied Lulu smugly as Natasha shook her head and subtly gestured to Joy who was obviously hearing their conversation clearly.
"Yeah, but at the same time, it's not good to stalk people, Joy never stalk anyone or be a bully okay? That's not nice" said Lulu as she smiled and Joy nodded.
"Okay Aunt Lulu" said Joy as she giggled.
"That's my girl" said Lulu with a smile as she gave Natasha a thumbs up as if trying to say that the crisis was averted, to which Natasha just shook her head, what a leader of example Lulu was.
"Anyway I got ice cream for everyone!!" said Lulu excitedly.
"Which will wait until dinner, Joy just had lunch not too long ago, and I don't want her getting too jittery" said Natasha.
"Awww" said Joy and Lulu in unison with the same sad expressions on their faces.
"Don't aww me you two, the adults are allowed to have ice cream, not you my darling, not until after dinner" said Natasha as she looked at Joy who looked sad.
"I don't want to leave me beloved niece behind, so if she can't have any, I won't have any" said Lulu as that brought a smile to Joy's lips.
"Well that's good, so you don't tempt her, anyway I have to get back to work, my darling do you have any homework today?" asked Natasha as she looked at Joy who shook her head.
"In that case you can watch tv for another hour" said Natasha.
"Can I go outside and play with Maggie in the park?" asked Joy with a smile.
"Sure but you can't go alone, you need an adult to go with you" said Natasha.
"That is not a problem at all, I will go with her" said Lulu with a smile.
"Yayyyyy" said Joy excitedly as Natasha put her down and laughed.
"Alright then, have fun you two, and I trust that neither of you will disobey me" said Natasha with a smile.
"Of course not Natasha don't you trust me? I would never undermine your authority that's just wrong" said Lulu.
"Thank you for your consideration Lulu, I will see you later my darling have fun" said Natasha as she gave Joy a kiss.
"I will mommy" replied Joy with giggles as Natasha left the room.
"Well let me go put these in the freezer then we can go to the park" said Lulu with a smile.
"Okay, I will go change into my sneakers" said Joy as she giggled and skipped happily up the stairs as Lulu smiled.
…
Dom yawned as he sat down lazily on the living room couch, to say that he was exhausted would be an understatement, he was stressed out, there was just so much work to be done, he hadn't even changed from his office clothes yet, he just wanted to relax and catch his breath for a second.
"Daddy you are back!!" said Joy as she rushed into the living room excitedly and Dom opened his eyes and smiled at her.
"Yes I am princess how was your day?" asked Dom with a smile as he helped her climb onto his lap as she was struggling.
"Very good daddy, but I missed you, and I didn't see you all day, and you also missed dinner" said Joy as she gave him a hug and Dom felt himself getting way less stressed out.
"I missed you too princess and I'm sorry, I was just so busy that I couldn't come home for lunch, and I had work left over that I had to finish today to send out tomorrow" said Dom as he explained gently, he could tell that she was upset, prior to this he had always tried to make sure he could spend lunchtime with her, but with Nine helping him out by picking her at school, he had let his work overwhelm him.
"I'm very sorry princess do you forgive me?" asked Dom.
"Yes daddy I forgive you, it's fine, I know you are very busy" replied Joy as she looked at him.
"Thank you princess, but I promise you that I will get back home early tomorrow" said Dom with a smile.
"You promise?" asked Joy as she looked at him.
"I promise, and you know that I never break my promises to you" said Dom with a smile as Joy hugged him and he gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Daddy have you ever broken your promises to someone else?" asked Joy as she stopped hugging him and he caressed her hair.
"I mean yes my princess, I'm not perfect, I'm only human, and sometimes even though we don't want to we do break our promises and I have done that some several times" said Dom.
"Like to mommy?" asked Joy as Dom was surprised by what she had asked and he could not say anything as he nodded stiffly.
"Why do you ask princess" asked Dom as he managed to push past his surprise.
"Because today at school we had a puppet show and the two puppets were getting married, and the priest puppet was saying the vows and one of the vows was that they promised to love each other forever no matter what, but you and mommy broke that promise" said Joy certainly as Dom could only look at her and blink, as she was getting older, she was becoming much more wise and aware, and he didn't know if he could handle that right now.
"Daddy are you hungry?" asked Joy as she changed the subject seeing that her father was in silence.
"Umm no my princess, I will eat later" said Dom as he looked at her and she got off his lap and walked back into the living room with a glass bowl of ice cream.
"Aunt Lulu bought ice cream, here taste some" said Joy as she scooped some ice cream and brought the spoon to his lips as Dom tasted the ice cream and Joy smiled.
"How does it taste daddy?" asked Joy with a smile.
"Very good my princess, but you know the rules no heavy liquids in the living room, you could spill some on the rug or couch" replied Dom as he smiled.
"But you are here, so I won't spill anything" said Joy as Dom laughed, knowing her words meant that since he was an adult he was allowed to break the rules.
"Joy come on time for your bath, I need to wash your hair it's sticky for some reason" said Natasha as she walked into the living room to see Joy with Dom and a big bowl of ice cream in her hands.
"I got jam into it when I was making a snack" said Joy.
"How did that happen?" asked Dom in amusement.
"I don't know" replied Joy as Dom laughed.
"Well whether you know or not, it needs to be washed go upstairs and run the bath I will be with you soon" said Natasha.
"Okay mommy, daddy are you going to read me a bedtime story tonight?" asked Joy as she looked at Dom with a smile.
"Of course princess" replied Dom as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and she placed the bowl of ice cream on the coffee table and rushed upstairs as Natasha shook her head and walked to the coffee table.
"What happened to the rule of no heavy liquids in the living room?" asked Natasha as she looked at Dom expecting an explanation as he just smiled guiltily and she shook her head.
"If she knows she can get away with anything when you are around, she will try anything" said Natasha as she picked up the bowl, it was way too cold for her liking.
"It was just this once, it won't happen again, I assure you" said Dom as he knew that he could be a little bit too soft with her, but she was his princess, but that still did not make it acceptable for her to develop bad habits and behaviours.
"Mhmm" replied Natasha.
"Natasha can we please talk about what I said?" asked Dom as he quickly went straight to the point, he knew that once Natasha walked away he wouldn't have a chance for them to discuss this.
"There is nothing to talk about" replied Natasha simply.
"No there is, I am sorry for my words hurting you, I wasn't thinking at that moment, but that's no excuse, because I know what I said hurt you, and I didn't mean for it to" said Dom.
"I'm sorry for ruining things when we were making some sort of progress with relating with one another normally for a change, I truly am sorry" said Dom as Natasha just looked at him, the Dom she knew and hated would never apologize in succession like this, to him, he was always right in his own eyes.
"I wasn't hurt by it, I hold no grudges, you were just saying what was on your mind, and I always do that, so no hard feelings" said Natasha.
"It's better for us to communicate like mature adults rather than hold unnecessary grudges like kindergarteners who by the way get over their misunderstandings almost instantly" said Natasha as Dom looked at her.
"So you aren't upset with me and what I said?" asked Dom as Natasha shook her head.
"Water under the bridge, it's nothing new and it will never be knew, we will fall into disagreements here and there, but that doesn't mean that I will hold a grudge against you, we share a daughter and also live in the same house, I don't want Joy feeding off negative energy, it's best we be mature about things like this and move past them" said Natasha.
"If you promise to do the same I promise to do it too" said Natasha.
"I promise, thank you Natasha" said Dom as he smiled, he did not expect it to go this well, maybe she had a good day today, regardless he was glad that she was calm while he had been stressing for several days.
"Don't thank me, real adults know when to move past things, and I've gotten to the age where petty meaningless disagreements are not worth it, life is too short to be wasted on fighting unnecessarily" said Natasha.
"I agree with you" said Dom as he nodded.
"Glad you do" replied Natasha as she placed the bowl of ice cream in his hands.
"Get rid of it or something, Alfred left your dinner in the microwave, reheat it if you want to, and you have 20 minutes before Joy goes to bed" said Natasha as she walked out of the living room and Dom smiled, he would take her being directing over angry any day.