Chapter13: Moving Forward
"Do your Bane voice, baby."
Mini squeals and slaps her fingers against my face angrily. We watched The Dark Knight, which I've watched at least 50 times, and Mini decided that she actually did fear someone in this world.
Since, you know, she's not afraid of me.
Everytime he said something on the screen, she'd freak out. It was adorable.
"Da." she complains when I cover half of my face like a mask.
"Stop picking on her and help me put this stuff away." Elena rummages around in Mini's toy box, pulling out the items that Mini threw around in a fit of rage.
I bring Mini close to me and kiss her chubby pink cheek. "You're getting me in trouble." I whisper with a grin. She giggles and begins to bounce up and down using the force of her bum.
I snicker and settle her on the couch to help Elena. My smile instantly fades when I see what's in her tiny pink toy chest. "Is that my conditioner?"
Elena snorts and pulls it out. "Well, what do you know?"
I grab it and cradle it to my chest. "This is getting out of control."
"You're telling me." Elena grimaces, pulling a pair of her underwear from the chest.
Mini can crawl now. I guess I expected her to start doing childish shit because she is, in fact, a child, but I didn't expect her to be so adult about it.
It all started when I put her on the floor to go shower. When I came back, she was crawling around, pulling things off of shelves. I was a proud dad, you know? So I let it slide and figured she'd be set as long as I stayed out of her way.
But then things started to come up missing. Like my car keys, which I found nestled in Mini's shirt, and Elena's earring that we found in her crib.
Elena made the mistake of opening up her toy chest and lo and behold, everything was in here. Everything.
"She is getting to that age..."
"The age of theft?"
"No, asshole, the age of curiosity. It's human nature."
I roll my eyes. "Human nature or not, the only one who should be holding onto your panties is me."
She shoves me with her arm. I grab her hand before she pulls away and kiss it firmly. "So, what do we do?"
She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "We should be more careful and make sure she's not getting into things. No more leaving her on her own for even a second."
I pout and turn my scowl on my daughter. "Why can't you be a good girl for daddy?" She giggles as if it's the funniest thing and pokes my arm over and over again.
Elena snickers at Mini's persistence to poke holes in me before picking her up and rocking her in her arms and moving her toward her bedroom. With an exasperated sigh, I slam the toy chest shut and fall onto the couch, blindly reaching behind me for the remote.
Elena saunters back in, taking a seat on the couch next to me. I feel her stare on me, but she doesn't speak for a good minute or so.
Shoulders squared, she leers over at me and purses her lips. "Can we talk?"
"About what?" I ask, totally prepared to get my ass kicked. I figure it's just one of those days where I'd have to suffer through her irrational anger. Hopefully she'd save some of it for later. It can be a total turn on.
