All My Days

cheryl, toni, and their daughters

With a sigh, Cheryl knelt down to her level, letting her hold the puppy out to her and giggling a bit when he licked gently at her nose. "If I say yes to this," she started, "I expect you both to keep your rooms clean, take him for walks, feed him. Don't leave all the responsibility on me and Mama, like what happened with Bear." She was gentle in bringing up the hamster, knowing how hurt the girls still were. "A dog isn't a toy, it's a serious responsibility that we're all gonna share, understand?"

The girls (and Toni) nodded eagerly before Cheryl scratched behind the dalmatian's ears. He was really cute.

"Can we name him Cash? Like Johnny Cash?" Addie smiled, crawling over to where her sister and mother were sitting. Toni was glad they had raised the girls on good music.

"Well, you got to name Bear, so maybe it's Rosie's turn to pick a name," the older redhead suggested, thankful that her oldest daughter was such a devoted older sister. They tried to make everything fair for the girls like that, and thankfully Adeline was very understanding.

"What are you gonna name him, Rose?" the eight year old smiled.

"Pickles," Rosie giggled.

"Why Pickles?" Toni came over with a chuckle, kneeling down with the rest of her family.

"Cause I love pickles," Rosie just giggled some more. She seemed aware of the fact that it was a silly name, but she was still serious about it.

"Looks like Pickles Topaz is our newest family member, then," Cheryl smiled as their daughters cheered, dancing around the room with their new brother.

"Go give Pickles a tour of the house and then go back to doing your homework," Toni instructed, smiling as the girls ran off, giddy over the puppy. She was a little afraid to look over at her wife, scared to see her signature icy stare. Just because she said yes doesn't mean that Toni got off easy for bringing a puppy home.

"He's not sleeping in our bed," was all Cheryl said, knowing already that that was Toni's plan for tonight, "He's not even allowed in our bedroom."

"Oh come on, you know you're gonna be singing a different tune once you find out how much of a cuddle bug he is."

"I still can't believe you actually brought a dog home," she shook her head, still unable to keep from smiling.

"Hey, it's not my fault that my little vision is all coming together," the brunette smirked.

"What vision?"

"In college, when we were talking about what we saw for ourselves in the future," Toni reminded her of the FaceTime call that was the first of many discussions of their future and what they wanted, "I told you I saw us in a cheesy subdivision, living in a house with a porch swing and a fenced in back yard so the dog could run around."

"And I told you we weren't getting a dog," Cheryl cocked an eyebrow at her, her arms folded over her chest.

"Cher, I'm willing to bet you're gonna be thanking me a couple months from now."

"Don't count on it, Topaz."

Cheryl ended up proving Toni right not a few months down the line, but a few days. Only problem Toni had with Pickles was that Cheryl was too busy cuddling him in their bed to even pay attention to her.

xxx

"What is going on?" Toni looked around incredulously as she entered the principal's office. Cheryl was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the large wooden desk, looking back at her with a look of concern and a shrug as their eleven year old daughter sat slumped beside her, arms folded across her chest as her red hair fell in her face.