"Dad. Dad. Daddy. DAD."
Polly wakes you up in the morning the same way she had the night before when complaining about nightmares, only now she's throwing pillows at you as well as dragging the covers off the bed.
"Hey, I'm up," you groan, your head hazy and dizzy from having such a bad night's sleep. "What's wrong, sweetie? It's Saturday, why're you awake so early…?"
"Thundercats is on TV," she grumbles, now pulling your arm violently. "S'on TV right now."
"Oh snap," you cry, turning to jump out of bed in an instant. In a way you don't want to, considering it makes you feel even dizzier as all the blood rushes to your head and it makes all of your joints feel like they're going to collapse, but the giggles she gives you before she charges back to the living room make it so worth it. She plants herself down in front of the TV, and you call to her that you'll only be a minute as you get her some breakfast - same as every Saturday, you think. The pair of you cuddle up together, Polly sat on your knee on the floor as you lean against the couch. She slops milk and cereal all over the leg of your pyjamas as she stares intently at her cartoons, not watching where her bowl is going, but you don't really mind. When she's finished, she hands it over, and you try to remove her from your leg… But not before she leans over and plants a big kiss on your cheek, making a grin stretch across your face. Polly laughs and points at your singular black tooth, falling all over you and placing her tiny palm over one lens of your glasses, leaving a huge mark on it.
Helping her get dressed, you can't help but notice just how giddy she is this morning, laughing and singing at everything. It's wonderful, because her laughter is incredibly infectious and seems to light up the room no matter where she is. You can't stand seeing her in a bad mood, knowing that such a bright, vibrant young girl is bubbling just under the surface, ready to tell you stories about monsters that she's invented at any given moment. When Transformers starts she's wailing along with the theme song, and you join in, the pair of you taking a ten minute interlude to act out Optimus Prime and Bumblebee taking out Megatron. Of course, Megatron's pretty small considering he's only an action figure, but Polly feels accomplished all the same, still telling you little stories about Autobots as you help her button her shirt.
"Okay, next mission," you tell her in hushed tones, as if it's top secret. "We're gonna go to the store. Think you can handle that, Bumblebee?"
She nods eagerly, stomping her feet in a little dance like she's prone to do when she's excited. Neither you or her mother are comfortable with the notion of taking her out on your Vespa at three years old, so a walk to the supermarket begins, Polly reaching to clutch your hand as soon as you walk out the door.
Polly kicks her legs as she sits in the shopping cart, content with trying to read out the list to you as you put food down around her. She actually does shockingly well, only struggling with one or two words, and you're so proud with how well she can read at her age that you don't even care how loudly she's actually yelling them.
"Bird," she calls after a minute, and you stop, confused.
"I don't remember writing 'chicken'…"
"No, bird," she repeats, getting frustrated. You huff slightly, reaching over to try and look at the list, and notice that she's pointing and gesticulating wildly down the aisle. "Beans."
Squinting over the frames of your glasses, you look where she's pointing, seeing a familiarly lanky figure. You start to laugh, pushing the cart closer towards him and encouraging Polly to keep calling him "Beans". When he doesn't notice at all, you creep closer - Eaglebones seemingly lost looking inside one of the freezers - and shriek a bird call at the top of your lungs. He immediately darts upright, looking so shocked it's as if you'd smacked him in the back of the head, and turns on his heels to give you a dirty look as you smirk at him.
"Commander-"
"Hey 'Bones," you interrupt, leaning on the handle of the cart. "How come it's not your dad shopping for you guys again today?"
He grumbles something about not letting Condor go out in just a dressing gown again after what happened last time, and while you're frightened to ask, you can't help but laugh as your friend leans down to ruffle Polly's hair and greet her warmly.
"Heya Beans," she calls back to him, making you chuckle even more.
"Eaglebones," he says, trying to correct her.
"Igglybeans," Polly offers in response.
The pair of you do the rest of your shopping almost entirely together, gossiping and chattering the whole time, still letting Polly read out your shopping list. Eventually, the cart gets a little too full for her to sit there any more, and you pull her out of there, Eaglebones offering to hold her hand for a minute as you finish stocking up, he already having grabbed everything. Polly demands to be picked up, and you can see he's actually struggling to lift her - half because he's such a weakling, but also because she's such a fidgety kid. He doesn't look half as happy as you usually do when she repeatedly baps him in the face with her uncontrollable arms, but he looks even more miserable when she starts to tug on the feathers around his face. When he offers that the pair of you come to the store after and catch up for a while, she bounces around in excitement in his arms, and he looks like he's about to drop her. You tell him to put her down and have her follow you closely instead as you leave the store, Eaglebones offering the pair of you a ride home first.
He helps you drop off the groceries to the best of his ability - not much really, because you think Polly has actually lifted more bags than him by the time it's done - and then the three of you ride back to his store in the van, your daughter sat on your lap and actually making you nervous for the safety of the ride for once. If someone had told you years ago how much you'd be worrying about another person, you don't think you would've believed it. But when she toddles into the store, the pair of you laughing at her grabby hands as she looks at all of the shiny instruments, you see exactly why you treasure her so much. Condor smiles from behind the counter, giving her a little wave as she flaps at him, yelling about birds again. There's a gentleness in his face that you're not used to seeing, a sort of wistful look in his eyes as he looks down at her beaming, pudgy face.
"Maybe you should get her an instrument," he tells you, chuckling at the way she admires every single one. Nodding, you notice that where she used to just admire the colours and the way she could see her reflection in some of them, she now appears to actually be fawning over the instruments themselves. Maybe it's how much you've talked about music with her, or how many bands you've shown her on TV, but she's certainly developing curiosity towards the actual idea of music.
"What would you even get her to play, if you were gonna start?" asks Eaglebones, jumping to sit on the desk, close to his father.
"Bass," you mumble, smiling at her softly. "Definitely bass."