Author's Note: It's not all fluffy bunnies like the ones I've written recently. Warning. Also, if you want to picture Ari as anyone, make it Maddie Ziegler, because I can totally picture her being the FC for a Spencer and Toby's daughter.

Day One-Hundred Seventy-Five: Cry by Alexx Calise

It had been a while since he'd seen his son and daughter really truly happy. Ever since Spencer brought up the topic of divorce and insisted that she wanted one—and to be more exact, when they told their children—it had been a nightmare.

He wasn't sure why he wasn't happy. He didn't know if it was because he didn't want the divorce or if it was just because he didn't like their children's reactions. They were his sunshine—and hers, too—so seeing them upset made him even more upset.

Come to think of it, he couldn't remember the last time he had smiled. He sort of forgot what it was like to really be happy.

Most of him wanted to ask Spencer if she realized what she was doing to all of them. A small part knew that was really selfish and if she was unhappy, it was his fault. But to be honest, even though he wanted to tell her all of this—and there was once a time where he would've told her all his innermost thoughts—he just couldn't articulate them. He, who was so well-versed and eloquent with his words, could not find the words to say what he was thinking. He just felt empty. There was no word that described him or what he wanted to say.

"Daddy?"

He looked up to see his six year-old daughter standing there. Their son was probably tucked away, upstairs. He seemed to be a bit more annoyed with him. Then again, he and Spencer always said that their son was really more like her son—they were probably closer, anyway—and that Ari—short for Arianna—was Toby's daughter and Spencer just carried her for nine months. She was just like Toby.

She was standing timidly in the half-darkness. She was dragging her pink blanket and scraggly-looking cow—which Toby had run out to get for her soon after she was born—by the hoof. Her light brown hair was in a messy, haphazard braid off to the side and her nightgown—which he was still convinced was a little too big for her—hung just slightly off her shoulder.

"What's wrong, Ari?" he asked.

She sniffled a little, but she wasn't crying. "I can't sleep," she insisted. She stayed exactly where she was.

"Well, why don't you come over here?"

After a brief pause, she walked over and jumped onto the couch with him.

"What's wrong, Ari?"

She sighed with a shrug. "I don't know…"

He didn't pry any further, but he was unconvinced.

"Why are you and Mommy getting a d-div…div…div—" She struggled with saying the word properly.

"A divorce?" he asked.

She nodded. "What does that word even mean?"

Toby sighed. "It's just a big word meaning that we're not going to be married anymore. I don't know what's going to happen yet. Sometimes, it ends badly and sometimes, that means that children can't see their mommies or daddies very often, but I'm not going to let that happen."

Ari looked like she was trying to understand all of that. "So are you leaving?"

"I…I don't know, Ari," he answered truthfully. If there was one similarity between her and Spencer, it was the fact that they were both mature. Toby had never treated her like a baby, sometimes venturing off into the questionable land, where Spencer had to remind him in a warning tone that she was still only five or six.

Well, they shared that and the fact that Toby could never really lie or say no to either of them.

"That makes me sad," she said as she held the cow closer.

He nodded in agreement.

"Daddy, are you crying?"

He wiped away a silent tear. "Um…I think you need to go to sleep now, Ari. Maybe you can ask Mommy about it in the morning."

"But I don't want to ask Mommy. And I don't want to live with her, either. I want to live with you. Mommy doesn't know how to make angel sandwiches!" she said with a slight pout.

Even though he was (rather obviously) crying, she never ceased to make him laugh.

"Come on, Ari. I'll bring you back upstairs and tuck you in, okay? I'll even lay with you until you go to sleep," he assured her before picking her up.

Ari giggled and yelled slightly, as she wasn't at all prepared for that. "Daddy!" she squealed. "Aren't I heavy?"

"You're light as a feather."

"And stiff as a board!" she added.

"Are you trying to tell me you're dead?" he asked jokingly.

"Yup. I'm a zombie, Daddy," she replied. That made him laugh. When they finally reached her room, he tucked her in. "Daddy, are you going to stay here with me?"

"Do you want me to?" She nodded eagerly in response.

"Well, since your bed is too small, I'll lay down here, okay?"

She hesitated before nodding. "And Daddy? You can stay here as long as you want," she said with a little smile as he got up to get an extra blanket from the hall closet, along with an extra pillow from his son's room (he slept on his bare back without any pillows, which concerned Spencer at first, but she became unfazed by it eventually).

Even though that was a kind statement, simple and well-intentioned, it still hurt a bit. It just reminded him of everything and how scared he was. He didn't like that he just had to go through the motions while Spencer filed for divorce. It was so painful to the point where he felt a little pang in his chest just thinking about it. He just wanted to escape it all for a while.

He went back into the room to see that Ari was already sound asleep. He smiled slightly before making his own bed on the floor. Just as he was starting to settle so he could sleep, he heard Spencer walk upstairs. She sounded like she was on the phone with someone. She was laughing and happy. Then he heard her mention a guy's name—one she assured him was just another business partner. She was talking about a date with him.

The more and more he heard about it, the sadder he grew. He just wanted to leave the house, but had nowhere to go. It felt like rock bottom.

He looked over at his daughter, one of the two most precious things Spencer had ever given him. He just knew he had to keep the two of them as happy and as safe as possible. Even though it seemed to suck when taken at face-value, they'd be happier this way as opposed to having two parents in a one-sided marriage.

It was one-sided. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew it was true; he was still completely in love with Spencer. And it made him want to cry.

Sarah: I think I know what the beep test is. Is that where you stand on one side of the gym while the teacher runs a tape and you have to make it to the other side before it beeps? And then you see how many laps you can do before you lose? I was only able to do like 9 when I had to take those. I sucked at them. I still haven't had PE; my first class is Tuesday. I think I should write more Jealous Spencer and Jealous Toby. Maybe I should do it more often.

AL3110: Toby is a total package, idk what you're talking about, Audrey. Sometimes I like that, but when I'm writing it at the eleventh hour, I need to do something quickly without thinking about it very much.

Alright, so tomorrow's one-shot will be Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine. Idk how I feel about it. The lyrics were taken more literally than figuratively. I don't know, guys. I'm dying from all the school and the actual thinking. Ugh. Thinking. -Kayson