Author's Note: Okay so you know how I said that this would be a sappy fic? I've definitely done it here. This is ridiculous and fluffy and fun and… just everything. And I kept writing dialogue and it just kept going so… enjoy!
A Magical Vacation
It had all been Mia's idea.
Her carefully thought-out, plotted and executed idea.
And of course, once she'd mentioned the idea to the kids there had been no escaping it.
They were going to Disney Land.
It only made sense, Mia had said. Every child should get the chance to experience the magic of Disney! Letty had rolled her eyes at her. But it was so close, only about a half hour drive away, and Mia said all they had to do was pull the kids out of school for a few days and go off season. They could even avoid the bulk of the tourists and crowds.
It hadn't been hard to convince Dom, especially once his daughter had started talking about it excitedly. After school Mia would let the kids get on the computer at the garage and pick out all the rides they wanted to go on. With the littlest one now at the age of ten, there shouldn't be much she wasn't big enough for.
Brian seemed amused by the whole situation while Letty said that taking their children to Disney Land was the most cliché thing in the world.
Mia had just laughed. "Cliché or not," she said. "Every kid deserves to go at least once. And we've already taken them to Mexico and to Brazil to visit Rosa and Nico. Not many kids can say that."
Of course, while Letty had laughed about it, she had already arranged for her daughter to have the days off of school, and helped Mia rearrange the schedule at the garage so they could close for half a week. However, when Mia had suggested renting a van or something else larger so they could all car-pool together, Letty had flat out refused.
"Mia it's a thirty minute drive. We can take our own cars."
"You just don't want to be caught dead in a van," Mia laughed.
"Yeah well… I don't. And neither will the boys. We're not soccer moms here."
Mia had relented and they'd arranged to meet up at the hotel on Wednesday morning. It was mid-October when they went and Letty watched her daughter race out the house in the morning with more enthusiasm than she'd seen in years. The ten-year old settled herself in the back seat of Dom's car, started up a racing game on her tablet and announced she was 'Ready to go'.
LA's morning traffic turned the 30 minute journey into an hour and a half one, and Mia texted her constantly along the way.
Now don't you wish we'd brought the van?
No, she typed back.
Aren't you bored? Dom isn't really chatty in the car.
Neither am I. You're thinking of yourself. Read a damn book or something. I thought you were always prepared.
Mia had sent only ':P' in response and then fallen silent, presumably getting out a book she really had been prepared with the whole time.
Thankfully road trips were never difficult, and hadn't been even when their daughter had been smaller. She loved the car, and had always been content in her seat as long as she could watch out the window. Now that she was older she had other ways to entertain herself, sprawled across the back seat with her bare feet up against the window, ear buds in as she watched a movie on her tablet.
Kids these days were so spoiled.
"You know," she commented to Dom, shifting in her seat as the endless lanes of traffic stretched out in front of them. "I almost think your sister is more excited than the kids are."
"She might be," he replied, laughing. "If she starts stopping to ask for Mickey's autograph we can stage an intervention."
Once they were outside the city limits the traffic cleared and it wasn't long before they were arriving at the so-called "Happiest place on Earth". Even their daughter abandoned her tablet, pressing her face against the window in awe as they drove through.
"Are we staying in a hotel in the park?" she squeaked excitedly. "Aunt Mia said it was really expensive."
"Yeah well we worked something out, so what do you say?" Dom asked.
"Thank you Papi!" She paused. "Do I get my own room?"
"You and Vince are sharing," Letty said. "You get your own beds, but your room is attached to ours and to Aunt Mia's and Uncle Brian's, so that doesn't mean you can go crazy in there."
"We won't break anything," she promised, grinning excitedly.
They pulled into the parking lot about a minute ahead of the other couple and Dom went around to unload the trunk as Letty helped her daughter gather all the stuff she'd scattered across the back seat.
"Where the heck is your other shoe?" she asked the girl who got down on the floor and stuck a skinny arm under the seat.
"Found it!" she announced, slipping on the sandal and then running over to her cousin.
At thirteen, Vince seemed to have inherited his mother's sunny personality and hadn't yet descended into the pit of teenagedom that made him too cool to hang out with his family. He wrapped his arm around his cousin, and then tickled her while she screamed with laughter.
"We're sharing a room!" she told him.
"That means we're jumping on your bed first!" He told her and raced for the hotel lobby with her hot on his heels.
"There will be no jumping on the beds," Mia scolded as she hurried after them.
Letty only grinned and shook her head, as Brian shut the trunk of his car and they all followed after them.
Mia dealt with the check-in process as the kids explored the lobby, peering into the gift shop and quickly scoping out the arcade.
"Can we have some quarters?" Vince asked.
"No you can't," Brian told him. "We're going to put our stuff in the rooms and then go to the park. You don't want to waste your time in the arcade. You can play video games at home."
Vince groaned at his father. "We can play tonight? The park closes at like nine!"
"You're going to be too tired for video games," Mia told him, passing out the key cards for their rooms.
"No way!" Vince shook his head, then grinned as he grabbed his key. "Race you upstairs!"
He took off. "Vincent Jesse, no running in the hotel!" Mia shouted after him.
His cousin grabbed her own key and raced after him.
"You expected this, didn't you?" Letty asked as they headed for the elevator. "Those kids are wired on a normal day."
"I guess so," Mia agreed, looking over a pamphlet in her hands. "Oh there's a spa… we should go."
Letty wrinkled her nose. "When are we going to have time for that?"
"We can go in the morning before the park opens."
"You want me to wake up early on vacation so that I can let someone put mud on my face?"
Mia sighed at her, then eyed her husband. Brian held up his hands. "Oh no… I'm not into facials either."
"It's fine," Mia said airily. "Letty will come with me."
"You really need to work on your bribery technique," Letty told her drily.
"Just you wait," Mia replied. "You'll definitely agree to come."
The elevator stopped, sparing them from further debate and they walked down to their rooms. Surprisingly, the children hadn't wrecked their room yet and as soon as their bags were stowed in the rooms they headed back down to the lobby to head to the park entrance.
Vince unfolded the map as his cousin peered over his shoulder. "Oh look!" she pointed. "There's the car ride! Can we go there?"
"Let's go that way and go on the other rides we want to do on our way," Vince suggested and the adults let the children lead on.
Letty was holding onto Dom's hand as she looked around. "So many strollers. Why would you even come here with an infant? They can't go on the rides even."
"For their older kids or maybe they live in the area, I guess," Mia said. "But there are an awful lot of them." She looked at her friend. "You seriously never wanted to come here when you were a kid?"
"Of course," she muttered. "What kid didn't? My Dad said we'd go when he got back from tour but… that never happened. And after that I just didn't really think about it again, you know?"
She leaned into Dom who wrapped his arm around her, pressing a kiss against the top of her head. She slipped her arm around his waist and smiled. "So I guess I'd better try to have fun, huh?"
He laughed softly, squeezing her shoulder. "Hell, try. You're going to forget about yourself and have fun."
"Yeah," Mia said with a smile. "C'mon. We'll be like kids again. I'll even go on the rides that make me scream."
"Just no teacups," Brian insisted, putting a hand on his belly. "Those things make me barf."
"How do you have a weak stomach O'Connor?" Dom asked. "You've flipped plenty of cars."
"Yeah but not around and around and around… Oh god I'm getting sick just thinking about it."
"Dad, don't be lame!" Vince said. "The teacups are for girls anyway!"
"Oh I see how it is," Mia said. "Apparently they're not that girly if none of you are man enough to go on them."
"I am!" her niece announced, then smiled brightly. "I'll go on them with you Aunt Mia."
"Thanks, Sweetheart."
"If you'll go on Splash Mountain," the girl replied.
"Does that one get you wet?" Mia asked.
"Mia," Letty laughed. "It has 'Splash' in the name."
"And," the ten-year-old continued. "You have to sit up front with me."
"That means you'll get really wet," Letty supplied.
"Don't think you're sitting that one out, Letty," Mia muttered.
"Please," she rolled her eyes with a laugh. "I'm not afraid of getting water in my hair."
"Oh look!" Vince interrupted. "Star Tours! Oh! Mom can I build a lightsaber?"
He ran ahead, his cousin charging after him excitedly. Brian looked back towards Dom. "Good thing for the Rio job huh? This place is going to cost us some money."
Dom laughed. "Chill out, O'Connor. It's worth it."
They followed after their children's laughter into the shop where Mia supervised and got wrangled into helping to assemble a light-up sword. Dom bought Brian a Yoda hat complete with green pointy ears and a man in a long brown robe kindly informed them about signing up for a 'Jedi-training' class.
The morning was spent on various futuristic rides and a trip around a track in a car that their youngest member complained 'didn't go fast enough'. They took her on Space Mountain and she insisted on riding it twice more before hunger forced them to seek out a place to have lunch.
They ate burgers overlooking the water as the kids battled with their lightsabers and debated on which part of the park to visit next.
Mia smiled over at them. "You guys having fun?"
"Yeah!" they chorused.
"It's awesome Aunt Mia," her niece said. "Thanks everyone for taking us."
Dom reached over to ruffle her hair. "We're just glad you're having fun, baby girl."
"I am. I like the rollercoasters the best. They go fast!"
"They sure do," Letty agreed with a laugh. "Of course that's why you like them."
"I got fuel in my blood, Mami," she said seriously.
"Where'd you hear that?" Dom asked her.
"Uncle Brian told me, but I know it's true. I'm like you and Mami. That's why things don't scare me easily and I love cars and I love to go fast."
"Yeah, mija," Letty said, wrapping her arm around her. "That's right."
"But I'm different too. I'm me. I got you guys for parents. I got Uncle Brian and Aunt Mia and Vince. I got to grow up around cars but I also got to go to cool places like Mexico. And I like school so in that way I'm kind of like Aunt Mia, even though I sometimes get into fights. And sometimes I do things I don't like to do, but no one else has parents that are cool like you guys. And you still do normal Mom and Dad stuff like take us to Disney Land."
"That was quite the speech there," Dom said, smiling at her.
"Yeah well… don't go getting all mushy on me, Dad," she told him, standing up. "Let's go on the Matterhorn next."
"Another rollercoaster?" Mia asked, grabbing their tray to throw away. "Can't we do something tame after lunch? Like 'It's a Small World'?"
"No way in hell am I going on that," Letty said, then started laughing as Mia began singing the song right in her ear. "You're terrible!"
"You guys are embarrassing," Vince complained.
"What do you know," Dom said. "Apparently we can act like normal Moms and Dads."
"The horror," Letty deadpanned.
They followed their kids off to the next adventure, all of them feeling a hell of a lot more 'normal' then they had before. But admittedly, it could be fun.