Joey had slept peacefully for the rest of that night, and woke up the next morning full of ideas for that day.

As he got dressed, he wondered how it was going to be today. Obviously his parents had made up, but, as both Joey and Serenity knew, there was no guarantee that it wouldn't happen again today.

When he was ready, he made his way into his sister's room. On the way across the corridor, he noticed his mother and father were still fast asleep.

Joey smiled as he pushed open his sister's door and saw her sitting up in her bed, playing with her teddy. Serenity looked at her brother when he came in, and smiled her innocent smile. "Good morning, Joey."

"Good morning, Serenity." Joey kept his voice low, so as not to wake his parents up. "C'mon Serenity, get dressed."

She looked puzzled. "Why?"

"We're going out!" Joey said.

Serenity jumped out of her bed and busied herself around her room, getting ready.

"I'll wait for you downstairs." Joey said as he left the room and crept downstairs, noticing the mess from the argument last night had been cleared up. Even though it was over now, Joey could still see the argument playing out in front of him, hear his mother's tears ringing in his eardrums, smell the drink on his father and feel the tension in the air.

Joey fixed his gaze straight ahead and tried not to look around in case any traces of the argument still lay around. He walked into the kitchen, over to his mother's handbag on the table. He reached inside it and pulled out his mother's purse. He opened it and stared inside. Hardly anything. His father must have spent what was in there last night. No matter how hard he tried to forget, Joey knew that it was wrong to steal. But it was only a little bit, she wouldn't miss it. Joey reached inside and pulled out a few notes.

Just as he slipped the purse back into his mother's bag, he heard Serenity coming into the kitchen. "Ready to go, Serenity?" Joey grinned, stuffing the notes into his back pocket hastily.

Serenity nodded and smiled happily, her eyes filled with love for her brother. No matter how hard it gets for him, he always has to make sure everyone else around him is happy; that's what made Serenity look up to him so much.

"Let's go." Joey lead the way to the front door, allowed Serenity to walk out, then shut the door quietly behind them both.