Macy sat at the kitchen table, kicking her feet while she scribbled in another drawing in her coloring book. The table was a mess with papers, crayons, and an empty plate once containing cookies and her sippy cup of milk.
"Daddy!" she called to her father, home from work on his day off as the cafe was closed one day of the week.
"Daddy I drew you something!" She dropped her crayon and ran into the other room where her dad was busy folding laundry.
She held it up for him, a picture of the two of them together holding hands in a spaceship.
Jeremy smiled at her as he tried to look at the unsteady drawing in the infant's hands. "That's great sweetie! Look at the talent you have!" He praised, "I could never draw something like that" He rubbed her head lovingly.
"Yes huh, maybe maybe you can draw with me later and I can teach you!" She stood up on the step stool beside the washer and put it down on the lid.
"Can we have macaroni for dinner please please?" She leaned over, on the tip toes of her pink socks, her frilly tutu sticking out in every direction.
The request of him drawing made him a little uneasy. He never really was able to draw.
Nonetheless- "Whatever you ask for m'lady" he playfully bowed to his little princess Macy.
She smiled and bounced a bit while he folded some of Curtie's uniforms. Her face burrowed.
"Why can't Pau Pau do his own laundry when he doesn't even live here?" She stopped her bouncing and her tone become a bit more sour.
Namey sighed and continued to fold as he talked, "because, Macy, it's ..it's just a nice thing to have someone you care about do it for you." He mumbled something about softener. "It makes him happy, don't you want him happy?"
Macy mumbled a quiet no.
"He doesn't do nice things for you."
Nameless gave an awkward chuckle, "What are you talking about, princess? He does nice stuff for me all the time." He booped her arm, "and for you too."
She was quiet for a moment while he stacked the folded laundry in a basket. "Those ladies that come to the shop and buy sandwiches said that when two parents don't live together, it's cause they don't like each other anymore."
"Oh, well, um." He stumbled on his words, "well t-that's different than the situation we have. Why are you talking to those ladies? They're strangers to you. And what did we say about strangers?"
"Not to talk to someone you don't know." She said proudly. "But I wasn't talking to them, I was listening. She said her Pau Pau left her and now he's asleeping with another girl. Do you think our Pau Pau does that too?"
He stopped folding for a moment before resuming, "No, i'm positive he would never do that" he said even though names floated through his head.
Steve, Peepers..
Macy sat up on the washer. "I can call Uncle Peefers and ask him. He knows everything."
Nameless shook his head, "T-that's not necessary, er.." He paused trying to put it in simpler terms, "You don't have to do that Macy."
Freddy, Teddy..
"Okay…can Pau Pau come over for dinner?" She had plans to ignore him, but it was hard to ignore someone who wasn't there.
He finished up the rest of the clothes and told her the truth, "probably not Macy." Jeremy sighed, he had no call about the requested short leave yet.
"Tell him I'm dying and see if he'll come then." Macy remarked.
The former watchdog laughed at her effort despite her attitude. "I can't do that sweetie but I will ask him when he can come down." He gave her a kiss as he went to go get the phone.
Macy watched him leave and returned to her drawings at the kitchen table while he got the phone in the other room.
He dialed curtie's cellphone, hoping he wasn't interrupting anything important
Curtie was finishing up a batch of reports when his personal line began to ring on his headset. The personal ringtone of his husband send his heart in a bit of a flutter as he pressed a button on the side and spoke into the mouthpiece.
"Y-ello~?" he tried to sound casual, despite how tired he was from working all night the night before.
He perked up at the sound of his lover's voice, it felt too long since he talked to him, "h-hey Curt! Uh, h-how's it going out there?" He smiled over the phone nervously.
Ivan, Moose..
"It's going good. Peepers just planned up a new invasion, and we're going in full force next month. Just got done with the paperwork when you called. How are you? Is anything wrong?"
"Um.." He glanced at macy from the other room before closing the door, dividing them. "Everything's great. Macy's drawing again and the cafe's going steady." He didn't want to worry him. He looked around at the lonely room and felt a little shamed in himself.
"That's good to hear." He paused, feeling a little lonely as well, looking around his empty room. "..You know…umm…if you guys aren't busy or anything, I could see if Peepers can let me come visit for the night.." Without hesitation he answered, "that sounds amazing! How close are you to home?"
"About a dozen or so galaxies away, but we got a new trasporter that should get me home in no time!" he walked over to the closet to pull out his already packed suitcase in case of emergencies. "I-I can probably be home before supper if you haven't started cooking yet"
Jeremy had lit a pure smile, "Anything in particular you want ? So far it's just mac and cheese."
"Macy's favorite huh?" he smiled. "You can surprise me, I'll go ahead and talk to Peepers. I'll be home soon, I love you."
Peepers.
"Okay love you too..um, tell peepers i said hi." His smile became worrisome again.
"I will. Tell Macy I'll bring her a present"
"I will.." He said as he hung up the phone and opened the door to tell Macy, who was humming to herself, drawing another picture of her as a princess. When the door opened she looked up. "Hi Daddy."
"Pau pau's coming home with a present!" he eye grinned expecting the same amount of excitement from her. But she didn't smile back. She instead just turned back to her picture. "I'm still getting Mac and Cheese." she said bluntly.
Nameless frowned and was left with confusion. He sighed in frustration. "I'll get started on it."
Macy smiled, drawing a tiara on herself before starting another picture of her half sister.
Meanwhile, Curtie skipped his meeting with Peepers, knowing full well even if he said no, he'd go anyway. He got into the transporter, knowing he'd be home in only a few hours..