Barbara Dunkelman x Reader

Part 3

-Flash-forward 6 years and nine months later Barbara Pov-

Sitting in the car, I wait for Sophie to get out of school. The bell should ring soon, and I smile. Sophie is such a ray of sunshine, and I love her so much. (y/n) is at work, but he'll be home for dinner. He and I each take alternating days at Rooster Teeth, that way one of us can always pick Sophie up.

She comes to the car, and smiles brightly. I open the doors, and she steps in. Her ( your eye color) eyes sparkle, and her blonde hair is in a ponytail. Every time I see her, I'm amazed by the life that (y/n) and I brought into this world. He's such an amazing father, and I love him all the more for it.

We drive home, and talk about her day. When we get home, I ask her if she has any homework. " Yes. But I need you and dad to help me," she says. " I have to do ask you guys questions, and then tell the class about how you got together."

I freeze. The story of him being beaten by Margaret until I helped him still haunts me, and (y/n). While not as common, he has nightmares about it occasionally. " I'll talk do dad when he gets home," I tell her, trying to be cautious. " It is a very personal story, but he and I will do our best to help you with the assignment."

Her smile never fades. " Okay. Can I go play with my friend Conner?" I tell her she can, and Sophie dashes out the door. She stops in the doorway, and turns around. " I'll be home for dinner."

She rushes out, smiling with joy. Her smile is her father's, which makes me smile in turn. Eventually, (y/n) comes home. He smiles at me, and I give him a kiss. We pull away after awhile, and continues to smile at me. I ask how his day was, and he just answers simply.

" I mean, I got asked by Screwattack to play Madara in the new Death Battle with him and Aizen. That was pretty exciting," he tells me. I nod, and smile. I don't understand who either of those characters are, but I know he enjoys that kind of thing.

" Sophie has a project," I tell him. " She has to tell the story of how we got together. I didn't know what to tell her, so I just told her to wait until you came home. What should I tell her?"

He thinks about it. " We can tell her," he says. " She's older now, and there will come a time when she's old enough to realize this for herself. Eventually, she'll figure it out. We don't have to go into specifics. Just enough she can get a good grade."

Eventually, Sophie comes home. She and (y/n) greet each other happily, and then she asks us for help with her project. (y/n) sits her down. " It's a serious story," he tells her. " I need you to pay attention, and take this seriously."

She nods, and the most serious look a 6 year old can make manifests on her face. " Your dad and I were friends for a really long time," I say to start. " We went to similar schools, and spent a lot of time together. Eventually though, he started dating this other girl named Margaret. She was mean to him."

Sophie's eyes widen with shock. " She hurt him," I say, wincing when I remember just how badly. " And he was trapped with her. Eventually, I learned he was being hurt, so I helped him out of it. Then, I realized my feelings for him. We've been together ever since."

" Did you not know you loved him when we were younger?" I shake my head, and she seems surprised. " I thought married couples always loved each other," she says. I chuckle. The innocence of my daughter still surprises me sometimes.

(y/n) chooses this moment to jump in. " Sweetheart, people fall in and love with each other," he says. " It takes a lot of time for people to fall in love. So, I was lucky when I fell in love with your mother, and she was in love with me. And I'm lucky that we stayed in love."

Sophie just writes this down on her paper. She looks up. " What it's like to be in love Dad? And you too Mom. There's a question here for it." (y/n) and I look at each other, and smile at each other, although we're a little bit curious. We never asked each other this question.

He goes first. " Love is when you just enjoy being with a person. You just accept everything about the other person completely. You don't want them to change, or would ever ask them to. Like your mom's puns. I don't want her to stop making them, even though they drive me crazy. It's thanking God for every mistake that ever let you to that person. You wake up next to them every day, and just...thank God."

I kiss him, and Sophie pretends to be disgusted with our display of affection. I give an answer similar to his, and then we walk upstairs. " Do you really thank God for making all the mistakes you did," I ask. " Even Margaret?"

" I wish I hadn't been beaten every day," he admits. " But...it was what brought me to you. And every day with you...I'm okay. It doesn't matter how we got here. We did. And that's good enough for me."