Prompt: Tea.

Rating: K

Helga sighed as she dropped the bags of groceries on the counter. Her entire day had been one awful moment after another. First she woke up late because she forgot to set the alarm on her phone. That made her miss breakfast, which made her exceptionally hangry, which gave her awful road rage. Then she had a bicker-fight with her boss, which really wasn't her fault (honesty, when would she not have to pull up the slack for her co-workers?) that left both of them in an even fouler mood for the rest of the work day. She barely got anything done.

Then the line had been so long at the grocery store, she thought she lost a year of her life. Then she got into a fight with the person who cut in front of her when they opened a new line. She had been waiting first, and way longer than that jerk. Who the hell did he think he was? She had had enough of dealing with shitty people for the day.

And normally she wouldn't have even needed to go to the grocery store. She hated shopping. That was her husband's job. But they only had one car right now because a punk teenager had been too busy texting or chatting on the phone or whatever and had rear-ended him the other day. The shop said it would take two weeks. Fan-flipping-tastic.

Could life deal another low blow?

It was then that she realized things were quiet in her house. A little too quiet.

Helga stopped dumping things out of the bags for a moment and tilted her head to listen. Silence. Frowning, she looked around for the first time and realized that toys were still tossed around the living room. Paint was uncovered on the kitchen table and a thin, dried layer was on the top of the liquid. It was cheap - Ellie was only four-years-old, after all - so that meant that it had to have been sitting out for at least a couple of hours.

Her heart dropped to her stomach at that realization and Helga cautiously walked out of the kitchen. Food was left out from lunch, the windows were open despite that it was raining outside, and clean laundry was waiting to be folded on the couch. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but when Arnold had decided to be a stay-at-home dad after his layoff a year ago, one thing he kept pride in was how everything was put away after use and that everything was kept neat and tidy. Of course, he wasn't psychotic about the house needing to be constantly a model home, but it looked like this was just a disaster.

Silently, not trusting herself to speak, Helga walked down the hallway. Slowly. Cautiously. Just in case... She ignored the fear that seized her, knowing that she was exceptionally irrational right now.

She went to Ellie's room first since the door was wide open.

The scene that she was presented with made her want to bust out laughing out of sheer relief and the ridiculousness of it all. Her awful day was immediately forgotten.

Arnold was sitting on a tiny wooden chair that belonged to Ellie's table set, his long knees practically up to his shoulders. Around his neck was a bright pink boa that completely clashed with the red hat that was falling off his oddly-shaped head. Ellie was dressed in her Thor outfit.

One hand held a plastic saucer and the other, complete with an erect pinky, lightly clasped the handle of the matching tea cup. His slurping was obviously trying to get Ellie riled up. It worked.

"Mrs. Fox! Don't be so wude. That is not polite manners."

"Oh, excuse me!" was Arnold's elaborately high-pitched response. "Dearest Thor, I do declare I was enjoying this tea so much that propriety just flew out the window!"

Ellie sniffed in 'Mrs. Fox's' direction and proceeded to sip her own apple juice tea.

Helga didn't hold back the snicker and laid a hand on her three-month belly. For Arnold's sake, she hoped this one was a boy.