JENNIE

"Shit." I jerks awake.

I had been sleeping on Lisa's chest, hand thrown over Lisa's waist. I smacks Lisa awake, I was slowly panicking.

"Hmm?"

"We didn't use a condom!" I practically screamed, causing her to become more alert. I tried to get off the bed when Lisa pulls me back onto the bed.

"It's going to be fine."

"What if I get pregnant?" I asks, looking right at Lisa.

"Then we have a fifth child."

"Lisa, be serious."

"I am serious. I don't know about you but I do know we have four amazing kids right now and adding one more wouldn't hurt." She says, softly stroking my back. "I also don't think you'll get pregnant just because we forgot to use a condom one time."

Her words spun around in my head. She had just said another kid wouldn't hurt. Were we in that secured in this new found relationship? Was she that sure about our future?

There was a thirty percent chance I wasn't pregnant but I couldn't risk it could I? If we had another child, what were we going to do? We didn't live together and I would be damned if I could cuddle with her or just have her close in general, when I was pregnant. We still had things to sort through and maybe this wasn't the right time to have a child but if in fact, we do, then we would love the child and raise him/her up to be just as wonderful as his or her siblings.

"You're thinking."

"I have to. We still have things to sort through."

Lisa squeezed my waist a bit and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "We'll be fine."

"How are you so sure?"

"Because when we are together, you, me and the kids, we can do anything." She replies like it was that simple. I knows it isn't but with Lisa, with our kids, anything seems possible.

I smiles at her and closes the distance between our lips. We kiss softly, I feeling myself go warm all over like I was melting. I don't think I would ever go tired of kissing Lisa. The rush of feelings, tingles and how it always felt like coming home. Yeah, i'll never get tired of it.

When we break for air, I turns over to check the time. I pull myself off Lisa's body, walking over to where my shorts, underwear, shirts and bra had been thrown. I could feel Lisa's eyes on my ass as I bends over to pull up my shorts.

"Stop staring and get up. Our kids will be home soon." It was true, it was quarter past three and the kids would be home at any time.

"It's not my fault. You bent over and I just had to look." She replies as she gets off the bed. Pulling on clothes wasn't the hard part, the hard part was them leaving the room once we were dressed. Lisa had pushed me up against the wall and kissed me again and again until we heard the familiar sounds of the kids in the house.

"The last thing I want is for the kids to find us like this. Lego is going to be making puns for a long time." I says to her who just cackled as we walk out of the room.

We find the kids camped out where we had left the food. Lego was on the ground, a large bag of chips opened in front of him. Lily was holding peanuts and was seated beside Kuma who was feeding Luca some of the truffle.

"So you just see food and eat?" I asked as I walked closer to the kids.

"We figured you were busy." Lego replies, arching a brow at me and Lisa, I resists the urge to smack him upside the head.

"What if we spit in it?" Lisa asks as he ruffles Kuma's hair, earning a look of displeasure from her teenage son.

"We are part of you. I think spit isn't something we are worried about." Kuma replies.

"I think Kuma meant, we were made from You two." He says, raising his hands up for a high five which Kuma indulged.

"Dada, tell them to stop being ewwieeee."

"You both heard your sister. Stop being ewwwiiee." I said, voice stern despite my red ears.

Lisa looks over at me and winks at me. I smiles shyly. Our kids were just going to have to live with the fact that their parents were gooey and deliriously happy.

"I say we go out for dinner. All of us." Kuma pipes up. Lisa lifts Luca off Kuma's lap, Luca wrapping his arms around Lisa's shoulders.

"KFC!" Luca yells happily, causing Lisa to wince a bit because his little one had screamed right in her ear.

"I say he new fish and chips restaurant that opened a

couple streets down." Lego says, pausing n mind snack.

"I want the Olive Garden. My friend Cindy ate there last Sunday with her parents and she hasn't let me forget." Lily says with a sigh. I watched fondly as my daughter shakes her head. I knew only half of Lily's friends and it seemed like she was makin new ones everyday.

"I vote for Chu's Chicken." Kuma says and the kids make an oooh sound. I looks over at Lisa who was plain laughing. Chu's were the Manoban's family soft spot. We had this rice and chicken special that the siblings all loved. Plus it was spicy.

"Raise your hand if you want Chu's."

Everyone raised their hands including Lisa and me. It was decided then. I peeps over to where the clock was hung. It was just five minutes to four. We still had a couple hours before dinner. And I thinking about asking Lisa to sleep over.

"We still have a couple hours to go. So everyone hand andshower, homework should be done on the kitchen table so I can supervise and then we can go for dinner."

Lego groans as he gets off the floor, taking the bag of chips with him. Kuma follows afterwards while Lily walks shyly towards me.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Is dada going for dinner with us?"

"Of course." I replies.

"Is she going to sleep here too? I want to see her in the morning, like before."

I gently places Luca on the ground, so he could go after his siblings. Luca stops to hug my legs, running away and giggling when he did.

Lisa walks over to me, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me close, close enough that all I had to do was lean down and she whisper in my ear.

"Lego is a menace."

"He is your child." I giggles, playfully smacking her arm.

"Of course. He looks like the dark haired version of me." Lisa says and then adds. "I miss his blonde hair."

"I miss it too."

Kuma was the first to join them in the kitchen, dumping a comic book on the table. He was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a baby blue shirt.

"No homework?"

"All done. I did it on the bus ride home." He Says as he flips open his issue of Sensational Spider-Man and began reading.

Lisa who had gone to the living room, comes back holding the leftover take out that we didn't eat and hands it to me who pushed it into the oven. I stared at my son, his adorably smart son.

"Remind me again why we didn't send you to one of those schools for the gifted?" I asked.

Kuma doesn't look up from his comic book as he replies.

"Because I attend a private school."

"And also because he didn't want to. Remember how he went on a strike and shut himself in his room for a day?" Lisa adds as she takes a seat beside our son.

Kuma doesn't look up from his comic book but his cheeks flame red. I swears all my kids were precious.

Lily walks in next, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail and she was dressed down to a hoodie and leggings.

Knowing we were still going out to eat, I places small portions of the fried rice in flat plates and added a couple spoons of noodles to the side while Lisa gets up from her seat to take the carton of juice out of the fridge.

It felt good for us to do this again. It felt better than I has ever felt in the last two years.

"Miemie..."

"Yes, my baby."

"I still want a dragon." Lily says with a shrug and I was so startled, I almost tripped. I stabled by Lisa holding me by the waist.

"We might have found one."

"I did not just hear you say, you found a dragon." Lego said as he walks into the room, Luca on his hips Luca wiggles and goes over to me who instantly picks me up.

We knew we shouldn't be carrying Luca like this. He's four. But he's still our baby so anyone who had anything to say about it can suck a rock.

"But we did." Lisa says and Lily's face was so bright, it rivaled the sun.

Lily turns to Kuma glaring at him as she says. "And you said it wouldn't happen."

Kuma had placed his comic book onto the table and was staring at Lisa with wide eyes. Our kids were all staring at Lisa and me like we had just sprouted horns.

"What the hell!"

"Language, Lego." Lisa And I chorused.

"I'm just trying to figure out how you guys found a dragon because, forgive me if I'm wrong, they are a myth." Lego says with a shrug, running his hand through his hair as he stared at us.

"It's an Axolotl."

Out of the four kids, only Kuma seemed to know what Lisa had said. He just nods and picks his comic book back up. Lego slyly pulls out his phone and checks. Lily still looked as happy as a clam.

Luca on the other hand had stuck his thumb into his mouth as he watched all of us. He looked content and I could understand that.

"When do I get it?"

"I don't know. Lets see how it goes first." I says as I takes a seat, putting Luca on my lap. Luca grabs a spoon and began eating. "How are you, baby? You're quiet."

"I'm not."

"Sweetie..."

"I like today." He says before pushing a half filled spoon of rice into his mouth. That was all Luca had to say and again, I gets it. I looks around the kitchen counter, everyone was seated and we were all laughing and smiling and talking and I missed this. I had missed this so much.

And I feels so good, knowing that I has this back. I had tried looking for happiness elsewhere, when it had been there already. Yes, we had parted ways on reasons that hurt but we were trying to work past that. We were trying to be a family again.

To be completely honest, it doesn't even feel like we're trying. It's coming to us like it was natural, like it was effortless. We were ready to fight for so many thing. Our kids, our love, our happiness.

Kuma, Lily, Lisa and Lego began arguing about what Justice League superhero could rival Iron Man. I personally thinks Tony Stark was in a league of his own and so does Lego. But Lisa, Lily and Kuma think otherwise.

I looks over at Lisa who was still saying Bruce Wayne could rival Tony. I reached for Lisa's hand, our fingers locked. She looks at me, my smile wide and eyes bright and seeing her here, with me, with the kids. Feeling my heart swell and the warmth settling in my skin, I mouths at Lisa...

"I love you."

And it's... simple.

~~~~~~~~~~