This morning, I woke to the familiar sound of a baby crying.
I woke Flynn up, and he rolled over to give me a kiss.
"Do you hear that?" I asked him.
"Wh-" he started to ask 'what', but I put a finger to his lips to silence him. "I hear...a baby crying? No, two. Why do they sound familiar?"
"Allie and Hallie familiar?" I asked, not noticing that my finger was still to his lips, until he kissed it and nodded. I pulled my hand away and got up. "I'm going to check stuff out. It sounds like they're up somewhere on this shelf."
He sat. "Well, be careful. I'll stay here, I guess."
I nodded, and slowly got up. After I braided my hair, Jase ran over to me. "Where're you goin', Momma?"
"Just gonna look around," I said, hefting her up onto my hip.
"Can I come?"
I hesitated, afraid she'd get hurt or something. But then I nodded. I told Flynn I was taking Jase with me, and then I turned to go.
Merida was standing on the alarm clock. "You going to check that out?" She gestured towards the direction the sound was coming from.
"Yes. Come with?" I asked.
She nodded, hefting her bow up across her shoulder.
We started to climb upwards. Merida helped me carry Jase up across the shelving unit, and we had quickly found the source of the crying.
We met a Barbie doll face-to-face when we popped up on top of the shelving unit. She was like any other Barbie doll - made up to the hilt, pretty blond hairdo, blue eyes, long eyelashes and a huge, poufy dress. I sucked in a breath when I realized Allie and Hallie had been adopted by her.
"H-hi," I stammered.
Merida slowly brought her bow down and held it in her hands, as if she might have to use it. That didn't help anything!
I came to stand beside Merida, and Jase buried her face in my shoulder when the doll turned towards us.
"Who are you?" she asked. Those blue eyes were icy and piercing.
"I'm Merida, this is Rapunzel and her daughter, Jase."
"Oh really. I've never met any of you. You look pretty weird to be one of us, though."
"We're Disney." Merida bristled, and I did, too.
"Who are YOU?" I threw her question back.
"I am the Happy Birthday Barbie. You can call me HB. Or Barbie." She looked at her fingernails.
The babies still wailed during all of this.
I almost said how original when she said to call her Barbie, but I held my tongue.
"Hey, over here!" I heard a jovial voice boom out.
I turned to see a HUGE version of me, a porcelain doll with - I sucked in another breath - NO ARMS, and another doll. The huge version of me waved and motioned me over.
I slowly wandered over with Jase.
"I can watch this cutie for you!" the huge Rapunzel smiled. She looked so beautiful and sweet.
Jase smiled at her and scrambled to get out of my arms. I let her go and she ran over to the huge Rapunzel.
She looked soooo teensy beside her that I was hesitant leaving her with them, even for just a few minutes.
"I'm Rapunzel, by the way." she smiled.
"Me too!" I laughed, shaking off my concern.
"Everyone calls me Punzie, though. Oh, and this is Saige and Tinkerbelle."
I smiled in hello and then the babies started screaming louder, if at all possible!
"You'd better go tend to those poor things. HB doesn't care for them hardly at all, and I have no clue as to why she was even allowed to adopt them!" Punzie shook her head before continuing. "I'll take care of this little one!"
I smiled politely again, before I marched over, stepped over HB, and scooped Allie and Hallie up. I handed Allie to Merida.
Merida's face dawned a huge smile when I handed Allie over. Allie almost immediately quieted. I bounced Hallie in my arms to try to get her to calm down.
"You need to take care of Allie and Hallie, you know," I said, trying to calm the hot fury that was growing in my stomach and throat.
"I do. I make sure they have a home and that's the most important. They're fine by themselves. By the way, I don't really like you just marching in and grabbing them up like you did. You'll scare them." When she looked up, she gave me a cold look.
I snapped. "You'll scare them! I know these two babies. I fostered them! They were fine for me. If you just hold them, they're fine. See?"
"I might ruin my dress, and I can't. My boyfriend will just die if I ruin it!"
"You're not even married?" I asked. Tangled Fan would never adopt out to someone who wasn't married, right?
"No. But see, I said we were married. She never pays any attention to what I do; just what you Disney princesses to! So she didn't even notice anything was amiss."
My mouth was hanging open, and Merida's face was as red as her hair.
"Y-you..." I trailed off. "You shouldn't even be allowed to adopt." I finally spat it out, and Merida sided with me.
"You don't know me." She rolled her eyes.
I raised my eyebrows, and started to lose my temper on her. But before I could loose a single insult, Merida stepped forward and reamed her out.
As she was - calmly! How did she do that?? - throwing insults at her, Flynn suddenly came up.
"Everything okay?" He glanced around, saw Jase was with Punzie, and took Hallie from my arms.
He smiled down at Hallie with such a goofy look on his face, Hallie immediately smiled at him.
And then HB noticed Flynn.
She looked up with a sly smile on her face.
"Who are you? I haven't seen you around. You're really good with kids, aren't you?"
Was she seriously flirting with my hubby? I raised my eyebrows and sidled closer to Flynn.
He was completely stone-faced and didn't get what she was doing. He put an arm around my shoulder.
"I'm Flynn, and this is my gorgeous wife Rapunzel - but you've met already, right?"
"Yeah. And that's too bad...I guess love is blind." She said.
I glanced up at Flynn's face. He was staring at me with love in his eyes - probably because he'd just gotten to introduce me to someone as his wife.
I gave him a quick smile and turned back towards HB, an idea forming in my mind.
"We could...you know, babysit them whenever you have, like, a date?" I half asked, half offered.
"I leave them up here all the time - they're okay."
My eyes widened. Didn't she know that either one of them could fall from the shelf?!
"But they'd be happier if they had.." Merida trailed off as HB held her hand up.
"Just leave, please." She said.
Flynn reluctantly put Hallie down, and Merida handed Allie over to him so he could lay her down, too.
As soon as the three of us walked away - I ran over to grab Jase and thank Punzie, making a mental note to come visit her again - anyway, as soon as we left, the babies started wailing again.
Jase looked shaken up. "HB's mean, Momma. You have to get Allie and Hallie away from her."
"How do you know that, sweetie-pie?" I asked, touching my forehead with hers.
She clammed up.
I tried to act normally, but I was concerned. We went back to our shelves, and Flynn took Jase.
"Why don't you try to talk to her, honey? She seems like she's hiding something that includes HB." I said quietly.
He rubbed a thumb over my forehead, and nodded. "Don't worry. Why don't you go talk to Rayne and Blondie? I'm sure you and Merida are about ready to start a riot." He added jokingly.
I rolled my eyes at him and thanked him before turning to gather up my friends.
We all decided to go to the chair, sit, and talk.
Merida and I narrated what happened with HB, and meanwhile, Rayne and Blondie were sitting in front of us, listening with growing anger.
When we finished, both Rayne and Blondie shared their opinions.
"I'm so mad, I don't want to call myself a Mattel doll! I don't want to be made by the same brand as what SHE was made by!" She yelled. Although it was kind of confusing, I took it as that she was really mad.
Rayne, on the other hand, was more serene - as always.
"Why don't we talk to Tangled Fan about the problem? I'm sure she'll take them away or something."
"We should talk to her now!" Merida turned towards me. Rayne stood.
"Let's raise a ruckus to get her attention! We'll get her in the room now!" Blondie said.
"Where's a plastic bag? If someone rattles it, those guinea pigs will start squealing really loud - I bet she'll come then!" Merida exclaimed, and she almost bounded off to do so, Blondie hot on her heels, but I grabbed her wrist.
"No! Just...wait, guys. Let's think this through for a second." I said quickly, and Rayne nodded.
Rayne slung her arm around my shoulders. "If we talk to her, I'm sure we'll be able to adopt them, even though she's got that 'married couples only' rule."
Merida followed suit, slung her arm around my shoulders as well, and stood on the other side. "But Rayne, I still think we should raise a ruckus so we can talk to her NOW!"
Blondie came in beside Rayne and nodded in eager agreement.
"She'll be in soon enough, I'm sure. If she isn't in by 11:30 PM, we'll raise a ruckus then." Rayne said.
"But that's FOREVER to have to wait!" Blondie wailed.
"Hey, it's just that much longer to think up what we'll do to HB!" Merida said with a mock-evil laugh.
"Okay, you're starting to scare ME!" I giggled, and Merida gave me a pretend-insulted-shove. It knocked me into Rayne, and then Rayne into Blondie, and all four of us ended up toppling over onto each other into a big mound of laughter and rustling skirts.
Once we'd gotten back up, our laughter subsided, and we continued talking about what to do. Finally, I said I should probably go back up. It was starting to draw towards night, anyway.
We all left to our respective shelves, Merida promising she'd make a ruckus if necessary. :P
When I came back, Jase had fallen asleep, obviously played out - seeing as she was sprawled all across Flynn's lap.
I smiled to myself when I realized that Flynn had nodded off as well. Must've been a tiring day, because it was only around 8PM!
I silently scooped Jase up, kissed her forehead, and laid her down behind the alarm clock. She didn't even twitch, and was soon snoring quietly - sort of quietly, anyway! ;)
When I turned back towards Flynn, I brushed the hair from his face and wondered how he could possibly sleep sitting up, without leaning against anything.
I plopped down in the wicker chair, and started thinking about today.
How lucky was I, to have a husband who wasn't distracted from his own wife, by a Barbie that was nearly perfect on the outside? I felt a sudden pang of guilt. I knew I wasn't the prettiest, and I didn't have a perfect complexion, I didn't wear makeup, and I didn't even have an extra dress! Meanwhile, most Barbies have whole wardrobes, perfect complexions, and are made to be 'drop dead gorgeous'. I chewed on my lip and wondered if Flynn minded about any of those things.
I was so lost in thought that I didn't even see Flynn wake up. I jumped when he leaned over the back of the chair to kiss my hair.
"What're you thinking about? I'm sure Tangled Fan will take care of getting the babies away from HB, so don't you worry about that."
I shook my head and smiled. "Nothing," I faltered, though. I felt kind of guilty and embarrassed to admit my other concern.
"Come on, I know that look." He gave me his crooked, cute little grin.
"It's..nothing, so don't worry about it," I said quietly.
"Then why are you worrying about it?" he asked me.
Ooh. Should've known he would do that.
I shrugged, and he took me by the hand, led me over to behind the lamp - so we weren't right beside Jase and talking - and sat down.
He patted his lap, but I sat beside him so I could look him in the eye.
"Tell me."
"I..." I trailed off, unsure of how to explain it. "It's just that..never mind. It doesn't matter, and it's dumb." I turned my face away from him.
He pulled my chin back around until I faced him again. "No matter how dumb, I promise I won't laugh and will consider your concern in all seriousness."
I sighed. "Fine. I just..after seeing HB, I feel kind of ugly. I mean, I feel bad that you're stuck with me, and not someone prettier or someone who can actually change her appearance once in awhile! And just...I dunno."
Flynn stared at me with such concern, yet love was pouring from his eyes. "Honey, don't you dare ever think you're not beautiful! You're gorgeous! And I'm not concerned with outward beauty - more like inward beauty. And HB...she wasn't even really that stunningly gorgeous! More like a catty 'mean girl', to me. And besides-"
I grabbed him up into a kiss before he could finish. When I finally pulled away, I said, "Have I told you how much I love you lately? Good grief, most guys would probably be drooling over HB and having misgivings about being married to whoever they were married to! And all you did was stare at me lovingly when we were up there. And even while she was flat-out flirting with you! Or at least, trying to flirt with you."
He gave me a teasing smile and said, "I only have eyes for you, gorgeous." I rolled my eyes and jokingly punched his arm. "Ow!" he said, playfully snagging the hand I'd punched him with.
"That did not hurt." I laughed quietly at him, trying to wrestle my hand from him.
He took my other hand in his other one and pulled me in for a kiss. I kept wrestling with him in an attempt to free my hands, and when he took his lips from mine, he finally loosened his grip and I slipped my hands away, giving him a shove.
"One... of these days, I'm gonna... grab your hands... first." I said between gales of giggles, and he shook his head.
"You're funny." He gave me a teasing, wet kiss on the cheek before putting his arm up and silently inviting me to sit beside him.
Even though it was unbearably hot this evening, I still cuddled up against him and put my head on his chest. "I'm so glad you're back to yourself." I whispered, and he said the same to me.
I'll keep you guys posted on the situation with Allie and Hallie...and with our weird antics :P But for now, it's awful hot and I need to get off the computer so Flynn can type his post =D
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