Breaking barriers

7- Color

Luke sighs at the whiny little girl who can't seem to go without his attention for so much as five minutes while he makes lunch. It's absolutely adorable, he knows, but not the most convenient thing ever when he also has to feed the girl at some point.

"Here, princess. Stay in your room, and.... ooh! You can color, isn't that fun?" He kisses her cheek as he sets her down in front of the coloring books and markers, and she gets right to work scribbling the pages in and giggling.

Luke sighs in relief and he's back to the kitchen to finish the little girls and his lunch, mac n cheese with cut up hotdogs.

Delilah sighs as she finishes the third page of coloring kittens and puppies and fishes and ponies and whatever else baby animal the book provides.

But she doesn't want to color anymore. She wants her own picture. She looks around for some plain paper, but when she can't find any, she huffs and stomps, before getting a new, fun idea.

She grabs the purple marker and goes to her wall, which is a nice pale pink.

She begins making her beautiful masterpiece, smiling as she gets different colors and adds them to her work.

"Baby- Delilah Rose Hemmings!" Luke scolds as he enters the room to see her pretty walls all painted with marker.

"Daddy!" The raven haired girl giggles, pig tails bouncing.

"No, Delilah! Bad!" He scolds, standing towering above her.

How rude, Delilah thinks. Even if it is bad, he could still pretend he likes her artwork.

Delilah huffs and stomps, chuffed at her daddy's rudeness, and turns back to her work, scribbling some more.

She squeals when met with a smack on her backside, spinning angrily to Luke and glaring.

"No!" She protests, stomping her foot again. Luke holds out his hand for the marker, glowering at the small girl as they have a standoff.

"Give it to me, Delilah." He growls, reaching for the marker. She pulls away and turns back to the wall, scribbling angrily. How dare he.

"Delilah!" Luke says as he lays another smack on her bottom, and she makes a sound between a scream and a growl, spinning back to Luke and chucking the marker at his angry face.

Why is he acting like this and how can she make him stop is all she can wonder. She recalls the time she hit him and was met with a "bad! No hit!" So why is it any different for daddy?

"Delilah rose hemmings! Absolutely not ok!" He grabs her arm and pulls her struggling body towards him, laying down another three smacks over her skirt, and the little girl's lip trembles, tears streaming down her face at the stinging in her behind and her daddy's harsh tone and angry face.

She breaks out into sobs and Luke sighs and picks her up, bouncing her as he carries her down the stairs, kissing her head comfortingly.

"Yes babygirl, I know, you're okay." Luke comforts, sitting her in the timeout chair against the wall.

"Stay there." He points sternly at her, and she pouts up at him, wide green eyes twinkling pitifully.

Obviously she didn't understand the meaning of the timeout chair quite yet, so Luke only made her sit there on her sore bum whining while he heated up their food, and then took her down and sat her in his lap while he fed her and himself.

"No hip, daddy..." Delilah pouts as Luke looks down at her. He tries not to chuckle, and thinks of a response. She wouldn't be able to understand his explanation any way.