“Hey Jason?” Amelia asks quietly, her voice gently rousing me from whatever probably mediocre dream I had been having moments before.

  “Mmmm?” I say, nuzzling closer, not bothering to open my eyes yet. It’s still not time for me to get up yet, my internal clock can tell me that much.

  “Do you want to go on a date with me tomorrow?” She asks as she attempts to squirm closer.

  “Mmmkay,” I agree.

  Amelia gives me a quick kiss. “Great, now it’s like one in the morning babe you should go back to sleep.”

  “Amelia?”

  “Yes?”

  “Did you wake me up in the middle of the night to ask me out?” I ask, finally cracking an eye open, though besides a shape in the darkness I can’t see shit.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  “Phew, now I can go back to reading now that I’m not stressed,” Amelia giggles as she strokes my hair.

  “I love you,” I mumble.

  “I love you too,” she coos before I drift back to sleep.

  When I wake up, my bed is warm, which means that somehow Amelia got out of bed before me. Which also must mean the world is ending or she couldn’t sleep at all.

  Once I’ve mostly remembered what happened last night, I decide that it’s option three of Amelia just willingly got up early.

  It’s rare, but it’s not as if it hasn’t happened before.

  Just to make sure, I check my phone to make sure it’s my ordinary wake-up time.

  I decide to ?get myself dressed before leaving to face the world, so a quick moment later I am fully dressed and ready for the day.

  Leaving the room, I discover the war zone that is Amelia and Bianca working together to cook some kind of breakfast, yet both freeze upon the sight of me as if they’ve been caught filching ice cream.

  With a glance towards the sink where several spoons sit, that might not have been entirely wrong of a guess.

  “Morning?” I greet, leaning against the counter.

  Bianca bounds over and leaps into my arms, so I give her a hug and hold her in my arms before she squirms, indicating that she wants to be put down in which I oblige as soon as possible.

  “Breakfast will be ready shortly, so do you want to help or do you want to watch?” Amelia teases before coming over to kiss me before she goes back to cooking, this time adding a sashay to her steps.

  “Do you want me to help?”

  “Nope, I have this whole dance routine I’ve been practicing to cook seductively.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Amelia in fact, did not do any dancing while cooking, but the conversation was easy enough and Bianca seemed to be perfectly content being up this early though if I’m to be honest part of me is a little apprehensive about whatever the day could entail.

  I don’t remember the last time I went on a date with someone, and I also know the types of stuff Amelia has done.

  Though, unless the plan is to take Bianca with us, I imagine whatever we’re doing is going to be after we drop her off for daycare, which gives me some time to mentally prepare at least.

  “Hey Bianca?” I ask the question suddenly striking me as I watch her twist some wires together to form stars.

  Bianca looks at me before looking back to her stars and summons a few more wires to make some more.

  “Does Cass still help you out with your class, or does she not do that anymore?” I ask, deciding that was enough acknowledgement that I’m sure she’s paying attention.

  Bianca gets a happy grin on her face as she nods excitedly. Though I don’t know if that means she’s working there or not. Entirely my fault, I suppose.

  “Cass still helps out, yeah. It’s been her main job when she’s not out kicking ass like an absolute legend,” Amelia calls back as she uses her powers to chill a pan before beginning to wash it so that no steam accosts her.

  “You think either of us should get normal jobs outside of all of that?” I ask both voicing the question to Amelia, and confronting myself about it.

  It is not good for me to do nothing. I’m painfully aware of that, but the idea of doing a normal job or one of my usual contract gigs and being unable to go out and help people is even worse.

  On the other hand, do I really want to just fill all of my time being a caped crusader? How does one handle that type of work-life balance I’ve got no clue?

  “I was thinking you should be the sexy house spouse and I’ll be the breadwinner. It seems like a fair division of labor considering our respective strengths,” Amelia says, placing a plate of waffles in front of me.

  “You just don’t want to do dishes. Or laundry.” I point out picking up one waffle and blowing on it gently before taking a bite.

  “No, I really don’t.” Amelia agrees deciding to sit in my lap instead of her own chair as she pours syrup onto the plate now that I’ve taken what I wanted.

  The waffles are delicious, though I don’t know where she got the chocolate chips or the bananas as I am pretty certain we didn’t have those as of last night.

  “Breakfast tastes amazing.”

  “As it should, you got food, a show, and affection. What could there be better than this, hmmm?” She asks, eyes sparkling with a joke that I’m sure will amuse her greatly.

  “Nothing,” I agree, going in for a kiss.

  Amelia had other plans, mostly involving dodging the kiss and stealing a bite from my waffle and laughing maniacally as she tries not to choke.

  Once she’s done writhing in my lap, both of us return to eating breakfast, though I steal one of her waffles since she stole both my plate and a bite of my first one.

  “It’s not fair. How am I supposed to defend my waffles when you can just stick yourself inside me!” Amelia whines as I grab a waffle through her.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “I’m sorry?” I try. “But also I’m really pretty confident you meant through you. Not in you.”

  “Welllll, the first one was funnier, so that’s what I said because if I don’t put the effort into comedy, how are we going to laugh?” Amelia asks, and I resist the urge to make the joke.

  I will lose, I’m sure no world she left it that open-ended without having a rebuttal.

  “Just phrasing, please?”

  “Fine, no barely disguised innuendos before or during breakfast.” Amelia agrees after I stare her down. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

  “I love you,” I reply instead.

  “As you should, I’m hecking adorable.” Amelia agrees. “Now what were we talking about?”

  “That I was sorry about stealing your waffle?”

  “Right!” Amelia exclaims before giving me a mock pout. “You better be. I put so much effort into making us breakfast, and I even put together a cute couples plate for us to share!”

  “I thought you said that they were your waffles though?”

  “They are. We divided the waffles equally among the work done cooking,” Amelia nods, bopping me on the nose.

  “Makes sense.” I agree, resting my chin on her shoulder. “Does that make you breakfast?”

  “No, I’m dessert, so that means you have to earn it.”

  “I promise I won’t steal any more of your rightfully earned waffles.”

  “That’s a good start, but I want a kiss.”

  Not that I promised it, but I oblige before turning my attention to finishing the waffle I stole.

  “You know how is it fair that you taste like cinnamon all the time? Do you just eat cinnamon gum when I’m not looking?” Amelia complains having finished her food and gone back to just lounging in my arms and fiddling with my hair.

  “That is exclusively what I’ve been doing.” I lie. “So what is the plan for the day?”

  “It’s a surprise, so you better be excited, but you mind playing and helping B get ready for school while I shower and get ready?” Amelia asks quietly.

  “Enjoy your shower.” I assure her kissing her cheek. “I would think of nothing better to do than spend time with our daughter this morning.”

  Amelia giggles at the word our before rocketing off to get ready.

  “So all done with waffles, B?” I ask, moving towards the girl only to see an unrecognizable creature. Outside of her eye and eyepatch.

  I hadn’t realized Bianca had gotten free reign of both the maple syrup and the whipped cream, and it showed.

  Bianca looks at me confused before I go to a knee laughing.

  “Did you enjoy your waffles?” I ask, grabbing a washcloth and slowly going through the process of getting her face clean.

  Bianca gives me a brilliant smile and a happy nod.

  “Guess we gotta do your hair and change your clothes before school, right? They got a little dirty, huh?” I ask once her face is clean.

  Bianca looks down at her shirt curiously before placing a hand on it and pulling it away to reveal her shirt stuck.

  Be that because of syrupy hands or the shirt, I’m not sure.

  “Let’s get all clean!”

  The two of us go through the process of getting Bianca clean and picking out new clothes before she ends up in my lap as I brush and do her hair.

  Bianca, endlessly entertained by both our conversation and the show we’re watching, doesn’t exactly make it easy to put her hair into the fun buns she wanted, but I manage somehow.

  Once she’s fully done, I send her on her way to get her backpack ready, which seems to mostly involve her trying to decide what stuffed animal is the most fitting.

  When I focus for a moment, I can hear Amelia loudly singing in the shower still so I still have some time before it’s time to drop off Bianca. Presuming she set an alarm.

  At that thought, I bother to check to actually make sure that we are in the clear before I go about cleaning up the apartment, making sure the whirlwind of it all doesn’t overpower my capacity to clean.

  “Come on, B, it’s time to get going!” I call in a singing voice as the small girl runs by me, backpack bouncing. “Amelia, we’re going to be heading out soon!”

  “I’m almost done getting ready, Jason, just wait a bit!” Amelia complains. “You think all of us can just roll out of bed, floof their hair and be ready for the runway!”

  Without too much hassle (besides Amelia asking me to phase her so that her hair dries faster) we are in the car and make it to the drop point.

  I still don’t know if it’s odd or not that we drive somewhere else every day to drop off Bianca so a teleporter can take her to daycare/school but uh I’ve seen the people she works with so I have full confidence Bianca will be okay.

  At least long enough to alert myself and Amelia. Combine that with the fact that she can summon razor death wires that could tear apart anyone, well, I’m truly not that worried.

  As I unbuckle her from her seat, Bianca pouts at me, and I relent, picking her up and slinging my backpack over a shoulder as I look around to see where exactly Warp could be.

  Is she late?

  As the thought crosses my mind, as if summoned by it, a Warp crackles into existence breathlessly. She holds up a hand, signaling I should wait before saying anything, and I oblige.

  Though as we are waiting for Warp to catch her breath, Amelia slinks over to give both Bianca and I a kiss while also stealing my keys from my pocket, though if she wants to drive I don’t see any issue with that. Though she could have just asked me for the keys?

  “Sorry about that.” Warp says finally her breath recovered. “Picking up the triplets was a lot harder than usual, so I was running behind.”

  I elect not to say anything. It’s not my place to say anything, nor ask about another group of super powered children. Though whatever powers they do have, it must have been a harrowing experience.

  “You ready to go to school, B?” I ask gently.

  Bianca looks up at my face before nodding.

  “I’ll miss you too. It’s okay. When you get back, maybe we should set up the Christmas tree.” I suggest as I slowly transfer to the arms of Warp.

  I have never seen someone look both so excited and so upset at the same time though she holds out a pinky for me with a pout.

  “I promise we’ll do it with you when you get home from school and after your nap, okay?” I say, taking her pinky in mine.

  Warp mouths thank you as a portal appears once more.

  Bianca gives a big wave as the two step through the portal, vanishing, and I can’t help that first instinctive desire to just lunge through the portal and follow them.

  It’s good for me that I didn’t, though.

  “Alright, so where are we going?” I ask, sliding into the passenger seat.

  “Well, I still don’t have any date ideas, so I was just going to wing it up until like a minute ago, but now I do have plans!” Amelia says, driving away the instant my seatbelt is done.

  Amelia is certainly a better driver than I, but it is incredibly stressful if we’re going to be entirely honest.

  “And what is that?”

  “I thought we should relive our younger and dumber days and go to the mall!” Amelia explains.

  “I never went to the mall.”

  “Well, I hung out there with my friends constantly as we window shopped everywhere until my willpower broke down entirely and I bought food for everyone.” Amelia shrugs. “I tried inviting you, but no, you didn’t want to!”

  “I’m not going to apologize for the fact that I had no interest in going out with a bunch of theater kids to loiter around the mall for hours before inevitably bumming a ride off of one of them only to accidentally end up at your place.”

  “I…” Amelia trails off and at the next stoplight she turns to level a glare at me. “Why does that sound like something that actually happened that I don’t remember?”

  “Because it did happen, and you don’t remember.”

  “Fair. Well, this date is going to be different. It’s not loitering if we have cash to spend! And it’s a different mall!”

  “Anything you want to shop for, or do you want to just see the sights and hang off each other like newlyweds?”

  “You underestimate my ability to multitask, loverboy. But I also wanted to pick your brain about Christmas presents. This is B’s first Christmas, our first one together together instead of together separately, our first as a family. It’s a lot of fucking firsts, and I want to make sure that everything is perfect, so I wanted to make sure that everything is!” Amelia explains, grabbing a hand in mine as she pulls into a parking space.

  “We will figure it out.” I assure her as I stand up and begin extricating myself from the car.

  It’s only once I’m standing in the parking garage that I realize I don’t have my sunglasses with me and that my creepy void eyes are entirely on for display.

  “So what do you think of my outfit?” Amelia asks, walking in front of me and striking a pose before doing a spin into another pose.

  I take a moment to appreciate the sight, marveling at what my world has become before smiling.

  She looks absolutely enchanting.

  “You look amazing,” I say, wrapping an arm around her and giving her a gentle kiss.

  “Phew, it was a pain in the ass to do these waterfall braids and find a skirt that matched my sweater.”

  “You look absolutely radiant,” I reiterate.

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