"Ey, Rue, I'm trying to make this verse on this song work. Can you please sing it, niñ?", I heard Lin shout at ten o'clock that morning, as I was reading through a case that, to my surprise, had to be done after Christmas.

The blinking Christmas lights lit up our apartment, making it feel rather cosy.

Rue came into the kitchen, and I couldn't help but notice her four taps before sitting down on one of the six chairs, right next to Lin, who were making scrambled eggs for breakfast on the stove.
"Why? I'm no singer-", she answered, in such an apologising way. She rearranged the order of the books and plates, making me raise an eyebrow at Lin.
"I don't care, my wife's refusing to do it!-"
I cut him off, laughing at his comment.
"Hey, I'm just saying that I'm not a Disney princess!", Rue smiled.
"To me you are!", Lin exclaimed, skipped over to me and leaving a kiss on my cheek. I couldn't help but blush at his weirdness - yet, this was cheesy.
"What?! You're writing a Disney song?!", her surprised exclaim made Lin broke out in laughter.
"Yep! And for now, you are a singer", he calmly replied.
"Oh my life, you are! Gotta tell Carson this", she said, picking up her phone. "He'll be out of his mind"
Lin snatched it from her, with the spatula in his left hand.
"Will you sing it, though?"
Rue rolled her eyes at his childish behaviour, trying to find sympathy from me.
I giggled.
Making a decision, she tapped the table for a few seconds.
"Okay, then!", Rue exclaimed and reached for the papers at the other side of the table. Lin hummed the melody for her, as she read through the sheet music and Lin's, sometimes unreadable, notes for the lyrics. He put her phone down. "Here goes nothing then"
She took the first tune, quietly singing through the verse, not missing a single note.
I calmly stopped reading my emails for the case, looking up at Rue, who seemingly were emerged in the notebook.
She finished, looked up, unsure about our reactions.
"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you niñita, I'mma just change this word here...", he scribbled down something, as he excitedly cheered for himself. "And you, are most definitely a singer", his happy, high-pitched tone, making Tobi wag her tail as she patiently stood right next to him - hoping that some crumbles would fall down.
Rue blushed, and went back to texting Carson. I was so happy that she had someone to talk to outside me and Lin - and the cast, of course. And, on a good note, his dog was rather adorable, as I'd had the pleasure to meet him when me and Rue walked Tobi the other day.
"-Can you sing it again?", Lin asked, out of the blue, handing back the notepad. She looked at him, rolled her eyes. "Please?"
She grabbed it, read through and took the next take. Such a quiet - yet beautiful voice. I was stunned.
"Yes!", hyped cheering from Lin, "Okay, lemme tell ya, you are an astonishing singer. And it seems to me that you can read sheet music too, one point to Rue! Zero points to V for not even trying"
"Hey, actual-five-year-old, you're the broadway nerd here", I jokingly snapped back at his comment. He smiled, confident, his eyes saying; 'proud to be it too', "And Rue, yes, you can sing. Fantastic too"

Sebastian came running in, his favourite train in his right hand, talking about everything. Non-stop.
"Ruuuuuthh", he shouted.
"You did it! High five, Seb!", Rue exclaimed, in surprise. She sat down to his height, holding out her hand as Seb clashed his on hers. My heart melted, proudly smiling as my two beloved children chatted.
"Train?", he asked, now holding onto two of her fingers, dragging her back to the living room. Rue giggled, and nodded as Sebastian ran out of room, still holding her hand as she, giggling, would step right next to him.

When they finally weren't in the kitchen anymore, I let out what had made me feel down for the past week.
"I feel so bad that I couldn't make her Christmas any better", Lin stopped patting Tobi for a moment.
"-Hey, any better? What? You made it go from a week to three days", he kissed my cheek, as I, a bit stressed, scrolled through my emails. "You probably made it hella better"
I kept on reading them.
"-But"
Lin cut me off by smashing my laptop together gently, after removing my hands from the keyboard.
"-No. You're the best", he exclaimed, whispering. "And you're off work. Please, go and enjoy the holidays and do this case when you get back to work"
I laughed at his determination, nodding as he narrowed into my eyes.

We literally always did the same thing to each other when stuff like this happened - but neither of us realised we were actually doing it. When I overworked, he took my laptop away. When he overworked, I took his laptop away.
When he needed inspiration - I dragged him away to a nice spot in the world, to do touristy things.
Which he was happy about, because that meant that I got time off.
Everyone's happy.

Lin snatched my laptop from me, running out of the kitchen, Tobi jumping around him wondering what was going on.
Later, he came back with a satisfied face expression.
"So, it's hidden somewhere you'll never find it", I laughed, and rolled my eyes.
"It's behind the founding fathers' biographies in the left bookcase in the living room, right?", I blurted out, serious.
He gave me such an annoyed, yet surprised, face that would make anyone revengefully laugh.
He turned around, quickly walking back, leaving me with the scrambled egg, still on the stove. They seemed to get burnt, and I mentally face palmed at Lin's decision to walk away.
He came skipping back.
"Now I've hidden it somewhere you'll never find it", he announced, happy with himself - only to jump in surprise as he realised that I'd taken the scrambled eggs off the stove, slightly burnt. "Oh gosh, I didn't even manage to make scrambled eggs and bacon"

Lin had left for the theatre right before the late breakfast, and after approximately 2 cups of coffee and shoving a little of the burnt attempt of a breakfast into his mouth. And for some reason, I suspected him to go and buy another cup of coffee on the way.
"Seb, Rue?", I called, and soon both of them came, Rue carrying Sabastian, still having his fave train in his right hand. She placed him in the chair, and sat down herself as she rearrange the order of the books again.
We were introducing Seb to new foods at the moment - and Rue found it hilarious. Me and Lin too, for that matter.
Today - scrambled eggs.
He was definitely a fan.
"So, um Rue, you can read sheet music?", which, according to me, was an impossible task. She nodded, looking at Sebastian, who definitely enjoyed the attention he was getting.
"Yeah, I used to be in a choir in middle school - but my biological parents took me out, since they thought that it took up too much time and, um, Tim's opinion 'a waste of time on a stupid hobby'. But my lovely music teacher, ms Fletcher, would give me private classes after that", she casually told me, looking like she was concerned about something, tapping the table.
"That's amazing! She must've been great, right?", I positively said, trying to not focus too much on her somewhat strange behavior. Rue brightened up.
"She really was - but I quit after a while, I got too worried"
That last word really got to me. Worried? Was that the reason to her rituals? Worrying?
"Oh. Well, maybe you can join the choir in your current school?", I asked, trying to lighten up the subject.
Rue shrugged her shoulders and twitched a few times - repeatedly over, and over, again.
Sebastian squeaking for more burnt eggs.
Tobillo looked up on us with puppy eyes, begging for a tiny bit.
I giggled and threw her a bit, which she ran off with. Only to come back a few minutes later, wishing for more.

We casually kept on chatting, Sebastian mostly doing noises that wasn't quite understandable.
"So, I thought, since you were suspected to be a team mate of Lin in e-sport, what do you say about a portal tournament?", I suggested, as Rue put the plates in the dishwasher.
"Yes!", she excitedly answered, quickly hurrying to get it done - the Rue way.
I picked up Sebastian.
"What do you say, lil pal?", he clapped his hands, as any one-year old would. "I take that as a yes"

I put him on the sofa, with his trains in front of him, Rue grabbing one of the Xbox consoles.
I opened up the game, keeping an eye on my two lovely children - intensely playing, Sebastian deciding the rules, telling Rue how it was going to be done.
Which, was adorable.
"Are you ready?", I asked, getting her attention.
"To... RUMBLE!", Rue jokingly, yet sarcastic, whispered as she leant forward in a ready-position.
I let out a laugh.
Soon she was playing with him between breaks, as we were both hunting for the first place.
When Rue won a round, she'd high-five Sebastian; which I managed to capture on tape for Lin when he got home.

"Ruuuuuuth?", Sebastian questioned as he skipped from room to room about a few hours later. He was still quite proud over his new pronunciation.
For the past days he'd discovered the great game of hide and seek - and a day hasn't past without a few rounds.
He looked around hyped, in every little space that she might be.
Suddenly he looked behind her room's door, revealing a hiding Rue.
"Gotcha!", she jumped out, Sebastian running out, happily giggling. "-and he's hiding again. The circle of life", Rue laughed - running after him.
I smiled at their tiny bodies, disappearing into the apartments many rooms.
I closed my eyes to count to 20.
I just loved them so much.

-----
Heya💐
Thank you so much for sticking around for 20 chapters - and here we are, 5k later. How the actual fluff did this happen? Why do you even read this?👀

From Vanessa's point of view this time, how did you like it?💓
Her noticing those little things, always being kind and caring.
I just love Vanessa sm.
There's more to come, I can tell you that.

The next few chapters are going to be intense. Because stuff's about to get worse.

Also, did you catch that Tangled reference? aka my fave Disney movie🌈
(And Carson's twitter name from last chapter?? Anyone noticed what I did there??)

Thanks for reading, maybe give it a vote or a comment?💕
Keep on sharing the story!

Sincerely,
C

Published: 3rd of March 2017