Family Name

Six

Coming home to a clean house was so rewarding after the long flight we had. A long lay over in California this go around and I could tell Prince was exhausted. Andre was asleep on the sofa, but the first thought on Prince's mind was seeing the boys. "Where are they?" He whispered to me. "Check their rooms, goofy." I whispered as I followed Prince upstairs. Prince checked Richie's first. "Nope." He whispered before turning and checking Jay's. I saw a smile on his face and he waggled his finger to call me over. I walked over to him and saw Richie's head resting on Jay's shoulder and Jay with his head tilted to the side. Both of them were out cold and Richie still had his clothes on. Prince looked down at his watch. "Do you think we should send Jay to school?" He asked. "No. Let him sleep...but they need to sleep comfortably." I carefully stepped in and noticed the keyboard on Richie's lap. Prince came over to gently lift the keyboard off of him and put it to the side before I held Jay's cheek. "Baby, wake up." I whispered to Jay. Jay's eyes opened before looking around frantically. Prince was different waking up Richie as he practically pulled him up until he was standing. Jay was watching Richie go before processing that he needed to lay on his side. Prince took Richie to his room as I was tucking Jay in. "Happy birthday." Jay said tiredly. "Sweetie, my birthday isn't for a long while." Jay was blinking slowly. "Oh...Merrrry Christmas." He said closing his eyes. I knew what he was trying to say so I kissed his forehead. "Thank you, baby. Merry Christmas to you, too." I left the room and turned out the light before seeing Prince sitting on Richie's bed. Richie was lying down with his keyboard and pressing the notes slowly. I stood still until I didn't hear the notes and Prince stood before meeting me outside. He gently closed the door and was smiling at me. "Let's get some sleep, baby." He said before giving me a kiss. I couldn't have agreed with him any faster.

I opened my eyes and Aleena was asleep on my chest. The ring looked beautiful on her finger and the diamonds were flickering in the sunlight. I turned and kissed her forehead softly before sliding out of bed to see Andre had made his exit. Richie was sitting on the couch with Jay still in their pajamas so I looked at the clock above the couch to see it was ten in the morning. At least we got a little bit of sleep. "I guess you realized you aren't going to school today." I told Jay. He nodded. He hadn't quite woken up yet. They were both watching the documentary channel and Richie was timing a key press on every fourth word. Usually it was sixth. I made some tea and damn the house was spotless. Andre did an amazing job. I walked into the living room and was letting them speak to me first. They were just like their mother in the morning. Richie was lightly touching his head again and Jay had a MASSIVE bowl of cereal he was slowly eating as he was staring at the TV. Richie's curls were a mess and Jay's afro was flat in the back. "We sent Uncle Andre home." Richie spoke first before yawning. "I can see." I said looked around. It was just a waiting game at this point. "Mmm, this documentary is over. You can turn the TV." Richie said to Jay. I was watching them behave like I had never seen before. They were sharing the remote and sitting right next to each other.

Jay was now surfing through the channels before landing on the Minneapolis news. "Whoa, dad. You're on TV." Jay said. He turned the volume up. "In other news, the artist KNOWN as Prince is currently working on a short film. Nothing is known of it as of yet, but Prince wants to base it off of his new album. Again, nothing is known of either." Jay turned the TV down before I felt the boys staring at me. "And when were we going to know of this?" Richie asked crossing his arms. "Uhhh, right now. I was actually wondering if you two would like to help me work on it." Jay seemed surprised while Richie seemed confused. "You don't know how to make a movie, though." Jay said. "Actually, your father has made a couple of movies in his time. He had just made one when we met." Aleena sat on the arm of the sofa I was sitting in and leaned down to kiss my forehead. "Wait, how would we help?" Richie asked. "Weellll, it's entirely up to you two. I'm not going to force you to help me do this, buuuut it could get you guys outta school for a while and get you into private tutoring. Your mom and I discussed this while on vacation." They were quiet as I think they were still processing it. "Your dad and I think Jay would play a younger version of himself and Richie you could help your dad with the music." Jay cocked his eyebrow. "Me...an actor?" He asked. I moved over so Aleena could sit with me.