"Are we doing anything for Halloween?"
Cleo laughed, "You're into that?"
"I don't know, maybe the children would be."
"I'm sure Theo doesn't want to go out and see his sister with a bag full of candy she's so excited about, but something that he can't have any of."
She brought up a good point, and truth be told, I'd thought about it. But I figured talking to her about it would solidify everything a little more.
"Well...we don't have to do any normal things, subjectively. Maybe we could...I don't know, paint pumpkins, or something."
She thought for a moment, considering the idea before a small voice spoke up.
"Pumpkin."
We both automatically turned to the voice, because it wasn't Melanie's, she wasn't even home.
Theo was busy staring at us from the sitting room carpet. His hands were still glued to his plushies, but his face, built with chubby cheeks and big, dark eyes, was completely bland.
Cleo let go of me and headed over to him, immediately sitting down criss-cross next to him. She ran a hand through his deep brown, nearing black hair, "Would you like that?"
"Pumpkins," he repeated calmly.
"He's said it plural," I snorted.
Turns out, that extraterrestrial-like hearing wasn't for nothing. He had been constantly listening to the world around him, but he'd finally felt safe enough to say something about it other than five different words. Pride from just being there to hear it made my heart swell.
The point was just the pride of being a parent, so the other thing that made my heart swell was the little ruffly pink dress I'd put him in.
"That's right," Cleo cooed, kissing the top of his head. "We're going to paint pumpkins this year."
"Mamama..." He went back to playing as if she'd never talked to him.
"Theo?" I spoke up, my voice a slightly higher pitch. He responded, quickly looking over at me.
"What's going to be on your pumpkin?"
He tumbled into his mother's lap, and she just snorted, patting him on the head.
"Wawawawabit."
I gave Cleo a look.
She looked somewhat puzzled as well, though. "A rabbit maybe, kiddo?"
He sneezed in response. The only valid reply.
~October 13th, 2028~
It was 8 am, and I was busy decorating over the kitchen cabinets with streamers, while Cleo was still wrapping Melanie's birthday presents.
"I think I'm gonna cry," I said.
She snuck up behind me and grabbed my waist, pulling me into her and kissing my neck.
"Cleo, god!" I laughed.
"I just missed you so much, babydoll." She whispered as she kissed my neck again.
"I was about thirty feet away from you,"
"Mm, sometimes you need to tell that to yourself."
I paused.
"Shut up."
She let out a happy snort and kissed me for the third time.
Regardless, it was Melanie's third birthday, and I was going to make sure everything was just how she wanted it.
Number one, making sure every decoration in sight was pink.
I'd already checked it off.
"You can cry, babydoll. It's okay, it's a lot."
"It's really cheesy. I never believed parents when they said their kids grew up quickly."
I could hear her smile in my ear, "Me neither."
We set up the finishing touches, and soon, both fridges were covered in pink decals, little crowns and unicorns. The white kitchen cabinets had pink streamers thrown over them, and an assortment of different colored balloons was tied to the sink faucet, floating up to the ceiling.
"Be honest, we could have done better," I said, glancing at Cleo.
"She's three, Marine, I'm sure it's fine."
"I don't care how old she is," I hissed, "part of this is for me."
I acted like I was going to go post it on Facebook or something. But I didn't care, I wanted it to be perfect.
"Damn it!"
"Wh-what?" She asked.
"We should've gotten confetti cannons!"
"Okay...Let's go wake her up," she quickly changed the subject, dragging me upstairs.
We waddled up to her door and slowly creaked it open,
"Mommy! Mama!" Her little voice still had hints of sleep in it.
"Good morning, baby," Cleo's voice softened as she gingerly stepped inside.
I followed her, then gave Cleo a quick glance.
"Do you know what today is, lovely?"
"Uh..." she stood up and began to attempt to climb up the bars of her crib. I noticed drool seeping past her lips.
Cleo quickly lifted her out before she hurt herself.
"It's your birthday, baby!" She said, holding her up to the ceiling and doing a little airplane motion.
She giggled. I just hoped her drool wouldn't fall onto Cleo's face, because it would be hard not to laugh.
At her, not with her, in a nice way.
"Are you so excited? Mommy's even going to make the best breakfast ever."
Okay, wow. What a way to throw me under the bus.
I shot her a look, and she just gave me a small smirk. Always competing.
"That's...right, Mel!"
"Yay yay yay!"
"Let's go downstairs, lovely,"
Cleo put her down and she grabbed my hand. We walked to the stairs while she was getting Theo. I kneeled down with her at the top of the stairs.
"Close your eyes, no peeking!" I told Melanie.
She did as I said, although very reluctantly.
"You close your eyes, Mommy!"
"Okay..."
Hesitantly, I put my hands over my eyes. Because she was going to check to make sure I'd actually done it.
And I was right. Slowly but surely, her hands came off her eyes and I could see her stern, very focused face through the cracks of my fingers.
Once she was done inspecting and went back to covering her eyes, I put my hands down.
I stood back up as Cleo snuck up behind us, Bun-Bun was in Theo's hands, all gently bouncing in her arms. You'd think he hated walking by how much we held him.
"You can open, now, baby," she said.
Melanie tore her hands off of her eyes like a rabid animal and squealed, immediately running down the stairs.
I had to run, too, getting in my full week's workout going after her.
Cleo just snorted and was quietly and calmly coming down with our other child, who quite honestly, always looked halfway dead when he was sleepy. I mean, I guess he technically was, but still.
"Mommy, Mommy!" She ran over to me, grabbing my leg and clinging on, "It's pink!" Her ecstatic eyes were as big as saucers as she stared up at me.
"I know, lovely, we made it all pink just for you!"
She ran laps around the kitchen island, continuing to squeal, meanwhile, I was trying not to cry on the spot.
"Mommy,"
I heard Theo try to speak over the heaping loads of spit bubbling from his mouth. He had been generating a lot more saliva since he got his fangs in. Apparently, according to Cleo, it was natural and had healing qualities after his fangs had rooted.
It was kind of nasty, but also kind of cute hearing his little gurgles. Sometimes, it depended heavily on the context and how far away the collar of my t-shirt was from him.
"Good morning to you too, sweetheart," I softened my voice as I gently took him out of Cleo's arms.
"Bah," he giggled, spit flying from his mouth.
There went another T-shirt.
It was Cleo's actually, but I was hoping she wasn't recognizing it.
"Is that my shirt?"
Fuck my life.
The rest of the day was spent with Melanie smashing Theo's face in cake, and him proceeding to pick it from off his face and glob it onto hers.
The tub had a rim of frosting residue around the edge.
~October 31st, 2028~
"Mommy! Look!" Melanie giggled.
"Oh wow, that's beautiful," I snorted as she turned her pumpkin towards me.
It was painted with random swirls of green, purple, pink, and yellow all over it, some spots where the colors met had turned slightly muddy.
"That apron was a good idea, huh?" I looked over at Cleo. Melanie was covered in paint from head to toe.
She nodded, distracted. She was on her knees behind Theo, helping his little hands hold the paintbrush.
"How is it looking?"
"He's quite artistic."
Maybe martial arts hadn't been his goal.
"Mommy!"
"Yes, lovely?" I looked back over at Melanie.
"Mine's the best!"
I laughed, before beginning on mine again. I had little to no artistic ability, so I was just painting simple blocks of color. "Are you going to tell that to your friends at school?"
"Mmm...no."
Well, at least she was honest.
"This is probably the best thing we've ever created, Marine."
"Oh, you're taking credit now?"
"Obviously," she scoffed, "this is beautiful."
"I hope when you call me beautiful you're not comparing me to a pumpkin."
She just laughed and ignored the rest. Which was almost more concerning.
"Mommy," Theo grunted.
I looked up from my mess of paint that had been splashed over the counter and turned to him.
"How's it going?"
He leaned forward, forcefully turning the pumpkin around to face me.
"Oh...wow, sweetheart. That is really something you've got there."
Cleo's bragging hadn't gone to waste, although she could've laid off a bit. It was a smiley face, the eyes big and round. The eyebrows were thin and jagged and had definitely been done by Theo himself when he'd pushed her away from him.
"It's great, honey."
Cleo's face showed horror, I wasn't sure if it was playful or not.
"That's so rude!"
"What?"
"You're faking!"
My face straightened out as I stared at her. "I am not!" I lied.
It was special in its own way.
She scoffed, and then I knew she was just joking around. "I can't believe you."
I rolled my eyes.
"Look at you over there, messier than the damn dog."
She would have said "fucking" if the children weren't around. It was actually surprising she'd grown a filter.
"We don't have a dog," I reminded her, as if I needed to.
"Exactly."
"C-Cleo...that doesn't make any sense."
"It does to me, now be quiet."
"Y-you were the one who-"
"Shh."
Two hours later, once everything was cleaned up and the pumpkins were set up to dry, Melanie brought the pet up again.
Well, not the dog, specifically.
Once again, she was playing on the floor with her dolls. I wasn't sure when she'd grow out of the phase, but I wasn't upset.
Theo plopped down next to her, he'd been playing with his animal veterinarian kit. There were buttons on each of the little plastic tools that played music, and Cleo had been looking up every two seconds from her laptop whenever it played.
Usually, she was more focused on work, but she hadn't wanted to work, her father had forced her to this time. She was trying to finish things up as quickly as possible so she could focus on us.
Melanie looked up at Theo and extended her legs out, immediately pulling her dolls closer to her.
He gave her a stern look, reading her mind, and pointing to one with blue hair.
"No!" She yelled.
He let out a cry of rebuttal.
Melanie scowled and turned to look at us.
"Give him the doll, baby. He's not going to hurt it." Cleo said.
She looked back at him, seemingly eyeing him up and down. She handed him the doll.
I looked over at Cleo, trying not to cry. She just shook her head and gave me an amused smile, before going back to what she was doing.
I gave Melanie a small nod and smile, "Good job, lovely."
She went back to him and they both began to play. Theo usually tended to keep to himself, so it was nice to see him being so interactive in pretend play with her, it only happened occasionally.
A sigh of relief hit me as I leaned deeper into the sofa.
Minutes passed before Melanie got up and tugged on Cleo's arm, usually it was a sleeve for me, but it was rare she wore long sleeves.
Theo quickly followed after his sister.
"Mm?" Cleo quickly looked down at them.
"We want a kitty,"
"...Why?" She asked, distracted and beginning to go back to clicking.
"Because...then we can have kitty!"
"That's a very good reason, I might have to consider, think about it."
"Really?!" Melanie quickly climbed onto her lap.
She hesitantly nodded. Melanie clearly didn't understand her sarcasm.
She was also three years old.
Theo climbed onto my lap and put his head on my chest, I gently ran my fingers through his hair. It was a dark brown, and beginning to grow much longer.
Using my other hand, I lightly squeezed Melanie's arm. "I'm proud of you, lovely."
She tilted her head at me.
"You're sharing your toys," I reminded her.
She just giggled and dug her face into Cleo's chest. But it only lasted for a minute, because she began to mess with the keyboard, and Cleo had to grab her and set her back on the floor.
"Mama! Play!"
"I will soon, baby. I'm busy now," she then nodded towards me, "Mommy will play with you."
Melanie just grumbled, crossing her arms in frustration. "Busy, busy all the time."
It was quiet and hidden deep under her breath, but it was clear that Cleo had heard it because she slammed her laptop closed and immediately sat on the floor.
It made Melanie giggle and topple onto her, instantly fixing her mood.
As she gave one of her dolls to Cleo, I looked down and realized Theo had fallen asleep on my lap.
"I'm going to go take the little man up for his nap," I said quietly, slowly scooping him up and taking him up the stairs.
Every time I picked up either of them, I forgot how big they were getting. It made me wonder when the last time I would hold them would be, and how I would never know it would be the last. It was a horrible thought.
Once Theo was in his crib, unless he woke up because of a loud noise or sudden movement, he looked pretty much lifeless when asleep.
"Sleep well, sweetheart," I whispered, running my fingers through his hair one last time before heading back down.
"I bet Mommy would love to join us," Cleo said to Melanie as she saw me come down the stairs.
"Oh, I'd be just delighted."
Melanie was past her nap time, but sometimes things like that had to be skipped. As long as she didn't get fussy, there was little reason to put her in her crib.
The next hour was spent with a surprisingly blood-filled story with dolls skydiving from the top of Burger King rooftops.
Melanie's idea, not ours.
Respectably, she loved her Burger King. Although, all of the characters had died by the end.
Cleo said it had given her a moral. I wasn't sure what moral death was supposed to give a three-year-old, but whatever kept her happy, I guess.
As long as it wasn't Cocomelon.
(A/N, i literally just forgot everything i was going to put here.
oh yeah, i have another chapter coming out tomorrow or sunday :))