“No, Clementine, come back!”
Violet groaned in annoyance, getting up from the couch and chasing after the child. “Don’t go into Omar’s room! Clem-” Violet grabbed Clementine by the feet, swooping her up and into her arms, sighing. “I said no. Do you know what that means? It means don’t do it.”
Clementine merely laughed, flailing her arms as Violet tried her best to keep her grip. “Stop fucking wiggling…”
“Fucking!”
“No!”
“Are you okay…?” Tenn questioned Violet as she walked into the living room.
“Fucking!” Clementine repeated, only for Tenn to raise his eyebrows.
“What…?”
Violet set Clementine down on the couch, closing her eyes and rubbing them. “No, I am not okay. My girlfriend is a fucking toddler and a little shit, too.”
“Shit!”
“I think maybe you should stop cursing,” Tenn advised, getting a death glare from Violet.
Violet turned her head to look back at Clementine, kneeling down and setting her back up from where she had started to roll around. “Clem, listen to me, don’t say those words, okay…? They’re bad.”
“No bad!”
“Yes, bad,” Violet protested, furrowing her eyebrows. Why the hell was Clementine so difficult? “Don’t say them, okay? Those are for grown ups to say.”
“I g’own up.” Clementine smacked her hands together again, getting a shake of the head.
“Not any more you aren’t. Until you’re back to full sized-” “-fun sized-” “-Clementine, no more cursing. Okay?” Violet scolded, ignoring Tenn’s interruption.
Clementine pouted, her shoulders slumping. “Okay…”
“Thank y-” “-We’re baaaack~!”
“Oh thank fuck…”
“Fu-” Violet glared at Clementine, immediately silencing the child. Her gaze shifted to the doorway as Louis and the rest of the crew walked in, several bags in their arms.
“What the hell took you so long…?” She sighed, moving out of the way as Brody practically threw the bags down and ran over, picking Clementine up and into her arms.
“We wanted to get some stuff.” Brody grinned, slightly bouncing as Clementine grinned in her arms.
“Check it out!” Mitch grinned, Marlon holding open the door for him as he carried in a rather large box.
“What the hell is that…?”
“One of those drivable kid cars.”
Tenn cringed, tilting his head. “Clementine can’t drive when she’s normal sized, you think that’s a good idea?”
“Nope, but it sure as hell’s gonna be funny,” Marlon laughed, Mitch high fiving him.
“Oh, my god…” Violet sighed, rubbing her forehead again and letting out a frustrated groan. “When are we gonna try to find whoever the hell did this so we can reverse it?”
“Actually,” Aasim spoke up, opening his bag and setting out several large books on the couch side table. “I picked up these. They have a bunch of stuff about curses, and how to break them. Things like that,” He explained, Violet glancing over and reading the title of one.
“Snow White and the- Really Aasim?”
“What! It’s got a curse in it,”
“Yeah, but that curse was broken by true love’s kiss,” Ruby cringed.
Louis grinned. “At least we won’t have to try to find out who her true love i-”
“-I am not kissing a fucking child! Stop it! That’s sick, Louis!” Violet scoffed in horror, shaking her head. “Seriously, please, stop making those jokes…”
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” He sighed, seemingly taking something serious for once.
“Thank you,” She sighed, before turning to Ruby. “Please tell me you actually got something useful,”
“Hey,” Mitch frowned, not even getting a glance from Violet.
“Well, Brody picked out some pretty cute outfits for ‘er, and I got some diapers. I didn’t know how many we’d need so I only got a box. I figured we ‘an go back and get more if we need any,” She shrugged, setting down her bag with wipes and the box of diapers.
“Guess what I got!”
“Oh no…”
Louis grinned as he turned his bags over, dumping them onto the floor and letting dozens of toys spill from them.
“What did you do?” Violet sighed.
“Toys! I figured she was gonna need stuff to play with,” Louis grinned, Violet picking up one of them.
“Louis, this is an inflatable punching bag,”
“Exactly! I wanna see if baby Clem is a mean, clean, fighting machine just like the real one!”
“She’s not a toy,” Brody scolded, cradling Clementine’s head.
“I didn’t say she was! All I’m saying, is that this Clem is more fun than adult Clem,” He defended, getting more than a few eye rolls with the group.
“Y’all?” The group turned to Ruby. “Who’s gonna change her?”
Violet looked to Brody with pleading eyes. “I trust none of these shitheads-” “-hey-!” “-to do it, please, Brody?”
Brody sighed, shaking her head. “Okay, fine.” Brody then turned her attention to Clementine who was still being bounced in her arms. “Is that okay with you, Clem?” She pouted, talking in a childish voice and earning a giggle or two.
“How’d you hold up while we were gone anyways?” Mitch questioned, now sitting on the floor and unboxing the toy car.
“Fucking!”
The group turned to Violet with horrified eyes, Tenn quickly shaking his head. “Clem heard Vi curse and wont stop saying it.”
“Oh,” Brody sighed, Violet frowning and shaking her head.
“You guys are disgusting. I’m moving out. I’m leaving all of you.” She grumbled, shaking her head and crossing her arms.
“You even gonna leave Clem?”
“No,” She quickly defended,”I don’t trust her with any of you. You’ll get her killed.”
Louis placed his hand over his heart, gasping dramatically. “I would do no such thing!”
“Yeah, okay,” Marlon laughed.
Brody grinned at the group as she bounced the baby in her arms, turning and walking over towards where most of the group was standing. “Ruby, you wanna take her so I can get out the diapers? I’m pretty sure Vi’s had her fair share of baby Clem,”
“I am officially off baby duty until further notice. Leave a message after the beep.” She huffed, sinking her head into the side of the couch and earning a disapproving look from Louis.
“You’re supposed to say beep afterwards,”
Violet looked up with tired eyes, giving him the most deadpan look she could muster. “Beep.”
Louis shook his head in disappointment, the group averting their attention to Clementine once more as she spoke. “Wha’ you name?”
Ruby glanced over to Aasim when he looked up, raising an eyebrow.
“Wha’ you name??” She asked again, furrowing her eyebrows.
“Aasim.” He answered.
“ ‘sim!”
“No, Aasim.”
“ ‘sim!”
Aasim slumped his shoulders, the rest of the group laughing as he went back to reading one of the books. “You better hope you’re back to normal soon…”
“I Vi,” She spoke up again, reaching her hands out in Violet’s direction and grabbing the air.
“Huh?”
“I Vi!” She whimpered, grabbing more enthusiastically.
“Clem, you can’t be with Vi all the time-”
“-I Vi!” She cried, Violet slumping her shoulders sadly.
“Please don’t start crying-” It was too late. Clementine’s whimpers turned into soft cries as she grabbed the air needily.
“I Vi! I ‘un her!”
Ruby gave Violet an apologetic look, walking over to Violet. “You good to take her…?”
“I guess…” She sighed, glancing down to Brody who was still going through bags. “Brody, are you almost done?”
“I’m getting there! I’m tryna’ find this one outfit I got her…” She hummed, grinning as she pulled it out. “Here. See?”
Violet gave Brody an unamused look. “Oranges? Really?”
“Yes, really! It’s Clementine wearing clementines!”
“That’s so lame…” Mitch trailed off, earning a glare.
“I think it’s adorable. What d’you say, Clem? You wanna put it on?”
Clementine didn’t respond, instead leaning onto Violet and gripping her tightly.
“It’ll only be a minute, Clem, just go with Brody,” Violet persuaded, hoping desperately the baby understood what they were saying.
Brody grabbed Clementine from Violet’s arms slowly, Violet sighing and sinking back into the couch. By now, Tenn had moved to helping Mitch, Marlon, and Louis unbox and hook up several toys. Meanwhile, Aasim and Ruby were flipping through books to the parts they thought were most helpful. Violet heard Brody cooing to Clementine as she walked into the other room, and closed her eyes tiredly, only to open them again and frown as the door creaked open, Omar’s voice signalling that he was home from work.
“What’d I miss?”