A/N: Okay, if anyone's been paying attention, then they would have noticed that my chapters are kind of short, some never getting over 3,000 words.
Well, buckos. Got some news for you. Guess how many pages are in this one?
TWELVE. I'm proud of myself, though most of it is just babble in a few places lol
Paul: Congratulations, you're ready for an award.
Me: Do I detect a hint of sarcasm in that statement?
Paul: Oh, no. Not at all.
Dawn: Paul, leave her alone. She could have made it worse for you, you know.
Paul: Yeah right.
Me: Don't tempt me pulper hair.
Paul: What the hell is pulper?
Dawn: On with the chapter! Before these two fight to the death ...
"One little, two little, three little, four little, five little, six little, seven little, eight litte. Nine little, ten little, eleven little, twelve little, thirteen little in my basket," Arisa sang.
She skipped, the woven basket that held her eggs swinging at her side as she frolicked through the wildflowers. Spinning around, she saw her parents following her slowly, and she raised an arm above her head and waved, calling, "Mommy, Daddy! Hurry, come see how many eggs I have in my basket!" Even after saying this, she scampered back toward them, the eggs in her basket bouncing enough to where if they hadn't been hard-boiled, they would have cracked long ago.
There were kids of all ages in the field, even some that were probably close to eighteen. But Easter was an all-age holidy (sort of), so why couldn't the older kids enjoy it too?
As she reached her parents, Dawn leaned over and held her arms open for Arisa, which the child promptly jumped into. The young mother held her daughter in both arms, smiling down at the indigo-haired child. "How many eggs do you have, sweetheart?"
Arisa held her basket toward her father instead of counting them out again, so Paul counted them instead. Pointing to each in turn he counted aloud. "One, two, three, four … ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Looks like our little chick has thirteen eggs of her own." He reached over and ruffled her hair, smiling slightly.
Arisa went to say something but she stopped, blinking for a moment as she stared at something over her mother's shoulder. Then her eyes widened and she smiled. Almost scrambling out of her mother's arms, she dropped to the ground, setting her basket down before racing off in the direction she had stared.
"Arisa?" Dawn cried, starting after her daughter, but stopped by Paul grasping her wrist. She looked back at him, but he only shook his head, saying, "Just wait."
She looked back in the direction that Arisa had run, and after a few moments of searching, spotted her dark hair a few meters away. She was dancing around in circles with another child who was older, maybe about twelve, with dark green hair. He laughed as Arisa held her arms out to him, and Dawn and Paul could hear her begging for a piggy back ride, even from as far away as they were. He obliged, kneeling to the ground so she could jump onto his back.
Arisa was giddy as he started walking toward her parents, kicking her legs gaily back and forth, pointing at eggs they passed, each a different color ranging from red to blue to purple to green, even to a light magnolia. She squealed when she saw one the color of fusia, making the boy lean over to pick it up.
Holding the egg as the approached, she called, "Mommy! Daddy! Look at the pretty egg Rudy picked up for me!" Dawn and Paul laughed as she hugged the boy around the neck, but Paul sputtered to a stop when his daughter said, "I'm marrying Rudy when I grow up!" and pressed a kiss to the boy's cheek.
Rudy laughed awkwardly at the situation, saying to Dawn, "Sorry Aunt Dawn. She never leaves me alone about this."
Dawn chuckled. "Don't worry, Rudy. I'm sure this is a phase for her. She'll probably grow out of it."
The boy looked at her. "When do you think that'll happen?"
Dawn looked away, bringing a finger to her lips like she was thinking, and said, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe when you leave for college?" Even that was a long shot.
Rudy hung his head, laughing weakly. "Oh man. I don't think it's ever going to happen if it takes that long."
The young mother smiled, patting Paul on the arm. "I'm not sure if this one could take it either. After all, she is Daddy's little girl, hmm?" Paul shot her a look, but she just brushed it off with a laugh.
"Anyway, I'm pretty sure you don't want to become married at such a young age, right Risa?" Dawn leaned forward, poking her daughter's cheek. But Arisa just giggled at her mother's touch, releasing her grip on Rudy and reaching her arms toward Dawn.
Smiling, she lifted the girl off Rudy's poor back. He straightened, pressing the heels of his hand into his lower back, popping his vertabrae into a more comfortable position. "Oh man, now I know how Uncle Paul feels when she has him carry her around all the time."
Paul chuckled at this. "Builds stamina," he said, taking Arisa from his wife's arms, setting her on his shoulder. "See? I can do this easy now. Back when she was five, I couldn't get her to sit still for even a moment."
This set Arisa into a fit of giggles, clutching at her father's hair and squirming around until she had a foot settled on either side of his head. Content with her new seat, she leaned against her father's head, her arms resting on top of his hair. "I like sitting this way better," she said, a smile splayed across her little face.
Her father just sighed, taking hold of her hands so she wouldn't fall off. Arisa kissed her father's hair, burying her face in its softness and saying, "I love you, Daddy."
Hearing these words, Paul's features softened as he replied, "Love you too, sweetheart."
Touched, Dawn cooed, "Aww!" in a very loud and annoying voice. "You see this Rudy? The man is a cupcake when his daughter says it, but when I do he's still a rock!" She reached forward, pinching both of her husband's cheeks lightly. "You show more love and affection toward your daughter, I swear!" she pouted.
Paul, sighing, released one of Arisa's hands. He grabbed Dawn's wrist and tugged her forward to where she stood closer to him. Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear. Arisa tried to listen by also leaning forward, but by the time she'd gotten close enough to hear, all she could catch was affection and later. She was still too young to piece it together, even after her mother straightened, her cheeks red. Paul smirked at this, he was glad he still had that affect on her.
Their little moment was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. The young couple looked up the see a man and woman standing on either side of a blushing Rudy. He'd managed to figure out what they were talking about, but he wasn't very good at hiding it.
"I see you still whisper things in each others ears like teenagers," the man said. He had hair like Rudy's, but a shade lighter. "Really, Paul. This isn't high school."
The woman smacked the man in the back of the head. "Oh, be quiet Drew. Rudy, cover your ears." Rudy listened to his mother, plugging his ears and humming to himself to shut out any noise they might make. "You can't say anything. What was it you said a few nights ago? Oh May, I can't believe you've still -" she started to say, but was interrupted when Drew hurriedly covered her mouth, blushing furiously.
"May! What do you think you're doing?" He didn't dare uncover her mouth for fear of what she just might spout. "I can't believe you'd say that with Rudy and Risa right here!"
But May just laughed, swatting his hands away. "Drew, Rudy's ears are plugged, and I'm sure little Risa has no idea what we're talking about." She looked towards the little purplette, smiling sweetly. "Do you sweetheart?"
"Nope!" the little girl chirped, swinging her legs lightly back and forth.
"You see?" May said, looking back at Drew, Rudy's humming hanging in the air as he continued to try and not hear the conversation. "Okay, Rudy. That's getting annoying dear." She pulled his fingers out of his ears, snapping him out of his semi-vegetative state.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Mom. Didn't know you were done." He looked to his father. "I'm guessing grown up stuff?"
Drew sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You guess correct, son."
Rudy laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I kinda figured."
May smiled and wrapped an arm around her son's shoulder. "Don't worry. Come high school, you'll learn about it," she said, poking fun at him. She sniffed as if she were about to cry, and said, "But then my baby boy will be grown up and won't need his mommy anymore." She emphasized this by rubbing her cheek against him, embarrassing him thoroughly.
"M-Mom! Leggo!" The boy tried to push his mother away, but she just laughed, releasing him to allow him the time to rub away her mom cooties from his face.
Laughing, Dawn said, "How about we let these two see if they can find Alexius and Reese? I'm pretty sure they're here with they're parents."
"Glad to," Rudy said. Drew reached forward and ruffled his son's hair. "I'd love to get away from this. Too much affection for my taste."
"Watch it, mister," May said, poking her son in the back. "If you don't pay mind to what comes out of that mouth of yours, I could do worse."
But Rudy just brushed her comment off with a "Yeah right."
She raised an eyebrow at him. It was almost like a dare. "Do you think I won't do it?" Rudy just snorted at her in defiance. This made her look at her husband and say, "He really thinks I won't do it."
Drew sighed and put his face in his hands. "Son, please. You know how your mother is. She will do it if you push her too far. Do you not remember last time?"
"Last time?" Dawn looked at Drew. "What happened last time?"
"Let's just say that we're never allowed back into the public swimming pool near our house. Ever."
At the mention of this, Rudy paled. Thoughts of girls laughing and him sinking below the water in shame made him remember just how horrible his mother could be if she wanted to. She had enough dirt on him from over the years to ruin his whole life, scare away any girl, and scar him forever.
This made his ego deflate enough to where he muttered, "I'll just go find Lexi and Reese. Come on Risa."
Paul set Arisa on her feet and watched as the two headed off across the field in search of the other two children, hand in hand. Shaking his head, he looked back to Drew, saying, "What did May do that was so horrible?"
Sighing again, Drew rubbed his forehead, ignoring his wife's pestering as she kept telling him to tell them. Frowning, he started recalling the events of that day to his childhood friends.
The sun was shininig like any other normal day at the public pool. May, Drew, and Rudy walked in through the front gates, a gaggle of giggling girls rushing past them in little two-pieces that could barely be passed off as bathing suits.
Rudy's eyes followed them as they raced by, but was brought back from his oggling by a sharp pain in the back of the head. His mother had whacked him with her bag.
"Don't you even think about it, young man," she said sternly. May was easy going most of the time, but when it came to her son and girls, oh boy did she go into hyper drive Mother Mode.
"I was only looking, Mom!" he claimed, rubbing the sore spot on the back of his cranium. "I mean, besides, I'm only ten! I don't even like girls yet."
May shared a long look with Drew. They knew their son was putting up a front. He was just like his father when he was his age. Even at ten, Drew had an interest in girls, but it wasn't as large as Rudy's. Except when it came to May, but it took him a few years to admit it.
"Son, trust me," Drew said, clapping his son on the shoulder in sympathy. "Soon enough you're going to take a greater interest in them. But try not to let it show. Or else you might end up like your mother and me."
Rudy looked at his father in confusion.
Drew sighed. "Let's just say that one thing led to another on prom night, and nine months later, you were born."
The boy looked at his father, his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what he meant. When he finally pieced it together, a look of horror crossed his face. He rushed past his parents, his face burning red as he sat down on one of the pool chairs.
"Think we should have told him later?" Drew looked at his young wife.
She shook her head, saying, "No, he probably would have figured it out sooner or later. I mean, who has a ten year old at twenty-seven without the child having been born during or right after high school?"
Her husband nodded. "True."
He paused here, running things over in his head. Dawn took this time to ask questions. "So Rudy is becoming like you Drew?"
Drew puffed his chest out, holding his head high in pride. "Like they say, apple from a tree."
May rolled her eyes at her husband's pomposity, causing Dawn and Paul to chuckle. "Yeah, well. I think the apple's either rotted or rolled too far away from the tree, dear. We really don't need another one of you. One's bad enough already."
He huffed at May's comment in indignation, looking away and glaring at the trees that sat on the other side of the field. May laughed a little to herself, then wrapped her arms around her husband's waist and rested her chin on his shoulder.
"Why don't you finish the story, hm? Faster you tell it, the faster we can get home and … you know." She winked at him for emphasis, a blush creeping across Drew's face at the concept of what awaited him at home.
Clearing his throat, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, picking back up where he left off.
Walking over to their son, Drew and May plopped down on either side of him. May patted him on the head, smiling at him when he looked up. "Hey, sorry about that. You okay?"
Rudy looked between his parents, his eyes finally coming to rest on his mother. "Did you finish high school?"
May wrapped an arm around her son's shoulder, pulling him close. He didn't move away, just let himself be close to his mother. She rested her chin in his hair, saying, "Yes, I finished. But barely. It was graduation, and as I was walking up the steps to the stage to receive my diploma, I started going into labor."
Rudy shivered at the thought of how he almost ruined his mother's graduation. "But," she continued, "I had your father here carry me across the stage to get my diploma, whether I was having a baby or not. Nothing was going to keep me from graduating when I had gone that far for that long. On the way to the hospital, I told your dad, 'I am never going through this again. I swear, you can never, ever, touch me again, so help me.'" May chuckled. "I blamed the whole thing on your father."
"Which it was rightly deserved, yes, I know dear." Drew sighed. "She hasn't let me live this down for ten years. Forget one thing and something else happens."
The young boy looked at his dad in confusion. "What did you forget?"
A blush formed on both parents' faces. "W-we'll tell you when your older," Drew managed to stammer. His son stared at him. "Really."
Seeming to believe them, the boy nodded. He stood. "I'm gonna go get in the pool. Try not to do anything to kick us out," he said while pulling off his shirt and kicking his shoes beneath the pool chair.
His mother tsk-ed. "You know, Rudy. You should never say something like that to me. Especially when there are so many pretty, pretty little girls around your age running around here." Smiling at him knowingly, chills crept up the boy's spine
"You wouldn't." He glared at her. She just shrugged him off.
"Oh, you don't want to tempt me, my dear. You never know what I just might do when someone doesn't believe me when I say I'd do something."
Scoffing, Rudy walked off, mumbling, "Yeah right," as he jumped into the water, sending chlorine-filled drops of water in the direction of his parents. An especially large amount landed on May. She sat still for a few moments, drenched from head to foot. She was still in her clothes, so that made it worse.
Finally, after a little while, she stood. Walking over to the edge of the pool she cleared her throat, and before Drew could stop her, she began to yell. "Hey, everybody!" All eyes turned to her as she planted her hands on her hips, feet spread. "You see the young boy with the green hair and blue eyes, around ten?" She shielded her eyes from the blaring sun, searching for the one she called son in the large cluster of people in bathing suits.
Ducking behind an extremely large man, Rudy tried to drop underwater to avoid attention. But as the crowd searched for the boy May had described, Rudy heard the giggles of girls not too far away from him. Looking over, he saw two girls in similar two-piece bathing suits huddled together. He instantly knew they were laughing at him.
"Ah, there he is. There's my boy!"
Freezing, Rudy didn't dare turn around. He felt the movement of water as the man behind him moved, exposing him to the rest of the pool-goers. He couldn't have been more embarrassed by his mother in his life.
"Girls, I'd like to say something to all of you. My son here is just getting interested in girls, and I was hoping one of you would be happy to help him with that." When snickers were heard around the pool, May laughed. "No, no, not anything like that. The boy's only ten. But, I'd still like for him to learn something, say, how to kiss for one."
Mortified couldn't even express how Rudy was feeling then. He was beyond it. May kept going on, about how he was such a sweet boy and a good catch for any girl, but to just watch out. He might be taking after his father. This caused a riot of laughter around the pool, which just made Rudy sink even lower beneath the surface of the pool, just wishing that he could drown himself then and there and escape from the humiliation and embarrassment he was feeling.
"And so, basically, the lifeguard who was in charge at the time asked May to bring her little pity party for our son to come to an end. Then they asked us to leave." Drew sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. Sometimes, his wife just amazed him with how just one thing could set her off to do something like that to their child.
Silence hung around them as all this sunk in. Dawn felt sorry for the poor boy while Paul just shook his head, unbelieving someone could actually do that. Their thoughts were interrupted when May said, "He said I wouldn't do it. I proved him wrong."
Dawn sighed and said, "May, I think you went a little too far with that."
The brunette raised an eyebrow at her childhood friend. "He jumped into the pool and splashed water all over me. He also didn't believe I would embarrass him. As his mother, I had to prove the boy wrong."
"True …" Dawn agreed. She held up a finger. "I do agree with you on the embarrassing part, but to that extent?"
Shrugging, May turned her attention to her husband, wrapping her arms around his waist. "He has learned not to push me too far now, as he should have known then. I mean, I even warned him, did I not?" She directed this at her husband.
He sighed, saying, "Yes, you did." She nodded, finally satisfied.
They got to talking about other things, how Arisa's birthday was coming up in a few months and how Rudy was so close to becoming a high schooler. May got teary when the subject of her son graduating from middle school came up. She was as attached to her young son as Paul was to Arisa. They both brought the best out of said attatched parents, as Dawn had mentioned earlier about how Paul was a cupcake to little Arisa.
When Rudy and Arisa finally came back, two children trailed along after them. One was a boy with dark brown hair and green eyes, the other a little girl with black hair and brown eyes. They were all singing a song as they walked, something that sounded like "Once Upon A Dream," a song from the movie Sleeping Beauty, but the other version by Emily Osment. It was one of Arisa's favorite songs, so she had to be the one who had taught them.
"Once upon a time, once upon a night, once upon a wish. Once upon a dream," they sang, managing to keep time between the four of them. They all laughed as they drew closer, the two other children having to take larger steps to keep up with Rudy's long stride. Once they were a few feet away, Arisa raised her arm above her head and sprinted toward her parents, tugging Rudy along by the hand. The boy and girl tailed them, and by the time they'd reached the grown ups they were all out of breath. Except for Arisa of course.
"Mommy, Mommy!" she called, running up and latching onto her mother's leg. Rudy stumbled to a stop behind the young purplette, almost tripping over his own feet. "We found Alexius and Reese just like we said we would!"
Dawn laughed at her daughter's enthusiasm, picking her up off the ground and holding her close. The child was small compared to the other three. "I can see that. Hello Alex, hello Reese," she said to the boy and girl as they sat on the ground, panting.
"H-hi Aunt Dawn," they puffed together.
All the grown ups laughed, except Paul, who just smirked. Reese laid back in the grass, his breathing steadily slowing until it was back to normal. "Okay," he said. "I'm good."
"Then how about some of this?" Reese looked up just in time to see Alexius stuff some grass into his face, causing him to splutter and try to scramble away, but she just jumped onto his back, giggling. This made the all the adults sweat drop. The two were closest in age, being nine and a half and ten, and the two teased each other constantly, like a brother and sister would. Or, to be more precisely, like May and Drew from elementary school all the way through high school. The violence was toned down a bit, but it was still there.
They rolled around on the ground for a bit, grass sticking to their clothes and hair as they tussled. Dawn and May smiled at their playfulness while Drew chuckled and Paul just shook his head. Arisa laughed, Rudy just sighed. "All right you two," the young green-haired boy said. "Time to break it up." He leaned over, grabbing the two by the back of their shirts, managing to pull them apart.
"Hey! Lemme go Rudy!" Reese cried.
Alexius laughed. "Reese is being man-handled!" she said, pointing at the boy.
He just kicked grass at her in retaliation.
As they laughed, the ringing of a cellphone started to play. The grown ups looked between themselves, since they were the only ones who had them. After fishing around in their pockets for a few moments, the ringing stopped. No one moved, waiting. Pretty soon it picked up again.
"It's mine!" Dawn cried, holding up her pink cellphone. Even in adulthood she liked the girlish color.
As she pressed the phone to her ear, all hell seemed to break loose between the children. Reese kicked Rudy in the shin and tackled Alexius once he'd managed to regain his footing. Falling to the ground in front of his mother, Rudy growled and started to stand up again, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Looking up, he saw his father shaking his head. "Just wait. He'll get what's coming."
Frowning, Rudy turned to watch as the two children wrestled. It wasn't very playful anymore, and Reese seemed serious this time, as did Alexius. The older boy seemed to be getting the better of young Alexius, but the girl managed kicked him off her and send him sprawling on his stomach. Before he could get up again, Alexius sat on Reese's back, digging her knees into his shoulders and pressing her hand into the side of his face.
"Do you give?" She was panting, though not unused to the fighting that Reese started. They were like brother and sister after all, of course there was going to be some fighting between them.
The boy just glared up at her, his green eyes flashing in anger. This made Alexius push harder, until he started crying, "Okay! Okay! I give already!"
Satisfied, Alexius nodded. She got off of him, skipping her way back over to the adults. Latching herself on to Dawn's leg - who, by the way, was turned away from the slight mayhem the entire time - the girl said, "Is that Mama or Papa?"
Looking down at the girl, Dawn smiled. "Yes sweetie, it's your mama. She wants you to head over to the sycamores." Shifting her eyes over to the pouting boy still sitting on the ground, she said, "She wants you to bring Reese too."
Nodding up at the older woman, Alexius released her leg and skipped over to May. Tugging on her shirt she said, "Aunt May?"
The brunette smiled down at her. "Yes sweetheart?"
"Can you help me drag Reese over to the sycamores?" She smiled, showing a gap where she'd lost a tooth recently. "Pleeaassee?"
May laughed. "Of course." Taking the little girl's hand in hers, she told Drew and Rudy she'd be right back, then went and literally dragged a grumbling Reese across the grass and over toward the tall trees not even a quarter mile away.
Shaking her head, Dawn said into her phone, "They're on their way with May right now." She laughed at something Misty said. "Yeah, she's dragging him while he pouts the whole way."
Frowning for a moment, she looked off in the direction in which May and Alexius had just walked. She shielded her eyes from the sun, and finally seeing what she'd looked for, waved an arm above her head. In the distance, a certain red-headed woman and black haired man were waving back, waiting on their child to return with her friend and May. A little ways behind them, Dawn could see Leaf and Gary under the tree, most likely laughing at how May was dragging him against his will, if the slight echo of their laughter was any indication.
Smiling, Dawn looked to her husband. "Paul, wave at them."
He frowned at her. She knew he wasn't really the friendly type, never really had been, but there had been moments where she'd forced it out of him. Like singing to Arisa, although that wasn't exactly something she forced him to ever do. She knew he enjoyed it.
"Why should I wave?"
Dawn raised an eyebrow, as if saying "Oh, you did not just say that."
"What?"
Putting her free hand on her hip, she turned away from him, saying into her phone, "Sorry Misty, apparantly, Paul is going to be rude today." She paused. "I know right? It's almost like we're teenagers again, except this time it's not outside my house -"
"All right already!" Paul cried, bringing his hands up to his head, tugging on his hair. "I'll bloody wave at them, if it'll get you to stop talking about when we were teenagers."
Victorious, Dawn said something else to Misty then goodbye, snapping her phone shut and sticking it in her back pocket. Wrapping an arm around her husband's waist she said, "Good. Now come on, Mr. Rock. Wave at your friends from childhood."
Paul rolled his eyes. As he was about to raise his arm, Arisa jumped up and down, grabbing at his shirt. "I wanna wave too, I wanna wave too!"
Chuckling slightly to himself, Paul leaned over and picked his daughter up and set her on his shoulder. Once she'd gotten a grip on his hand, she brought an arm above her head and waved wildly. Dawn laughed at her daughter's energy and Paul smiled slightly.
Looking over at Drew and Rudy where the boy still sat on the ground, Arisa said, "Uncle Drew, Rudy, you two wave too! We can all wave!" Then, looking down at her mother and smiling, she held on to her father's hair to stay steady so he could wave with them while his other arm wrapped around Dawn's waist. They could all see their friends now, all of them beneath the sycamore trees as they waved. May stood next to Misty, Ash, and Alexius, and Leaf and Gary stood behind their son. They all raised their arms above their heads in waves, each of them smiling.
A cloud rolled over the sun then, casting a shadow over the field. This made Dawn look up. Drew followed her eyes, frowning when he saw that the white fluffly cumulous clouds had been twisting and turning until they'd become dark and uniformly gray. The rain in them just seemed to be threatening to fall. No sooner had he thought this, cool drops began to hit his forehead, Arisa crying out when they landed on her head. Before it could start to pour, Drew called, "Head for the sycamores! They should be able to shield us from the rain, even if everybody else from the egg hunt decide to hide under them."
Pulling Rudy to his feet, they took off in the direction of the tall trees, the people and families around them getting the right idea. Little kids yelled and screamed around them as they made it to cover, either in fear of the sudden clap of lightening, or in elation as the rain picked up to where they could run around in it and splash others.
Once they reached safety beneath the trees, they were all panting, Drew and Dawn doubled over from the running. Ringing out her shirt, Dawn cried, "I'm completely soaked!" Beside her, Arisa shivered on her father's shoulders, her little face buried in his soaked hair. Managing to pull his jacket off, Paul draped it over his daughter, picking her up off his shoulders and holding her instead.
"M-Mommy, it's cold," she stammered. She wrapped her arms around Paul's neck in what felt like a chokehold to him, but he kept his mouth shut.
"I know baby, I'm sorry. The weatherman didn't say anything about rain today." Dawn frowned. "Mom always told me to never believe them."
May stepped over to Dawn, still completely dry. She grinned, saying, "Have a nice bath, Dawn?" Their girlfriends behind her laughed softly. They knew what May had coming for teasing Dawn.
Glaring at the older girl, Dawn smirked, mimicking her husband's ways. She edged toward May ever so slowly, flexing her fingers at her side. "Hey May," she said teasingly. "Why don't you come over here and give me a hug?"
May edged away, one foot shuffling behind the other as she tried to creep away. When Dawn tried to pounce on her, she scuttled away, kicking up grass as she turned tail and ran. "Get back here!" Dawn cried as she chased after her.
Embarrassed beyond belief, Paul smacked his forehead, hoping that this was just some some of bizarre dream, and any second now he would wake up and have a normal wife with a normal personality. Yeah right.
As Dawn continued to chase her childhood friend, the grownups stood by, grinning as they acted like children, while those under thirteen laughed at the absurd actions taken by the parents. Paul just shook his head and held onto the now-asleep Arisa.
A/N: Woo! Chapter four, only three to go, plus even some bonus chapters coming up in between. Like Risa's birthday, and something real real significant and life-changing for our little Shinji family ^^
Paul: ... What the hell was that about me being a cupcake and being a "pupler hair"?
Me: Dads are always bakery goods around their daughters, especially when they're the ones who spoil them the most!
Paul: ... I resent that statement.
Dawn: Paul, just cut it out. Admit it, you love our daughter.
Paul: ... I admit to nothing.
Dawn and me: PAUL!