The New Ginger Princess

Alan knows that his greeting was anything but happy, but he also knows that a cheerful greeting would make no difference in how this phone call is going to go.

A sigh resounds through the phone, "Really Alan," his mother says, and Alan can practically hear her rolling her eyes.

"What are the chances that I'm not in trouble?" Alan jokes.

"It depends. When did you adopt your new daughter?" she asks.

Knowing it would be bad to lie, Alan admits, "We adopted her on the 19th, so about nine days ago." At this point Alan accepts the fact that his mom is about to give him a lecture, and a guilt trip along with it.

"You are definitely in trouble. I would have understood if you adopted her over the weekend and you guys were still just settling in, but you have had over a week to call me. Don't even try to make an excuse because you promised you would call me when you finally adopted a child. I called so I could check in on how everything is going and I find out that I have a granddaughter." Alan listens to his mother's lecture, knowing that if he doesn't she will be even more upset.

"I'm sorry Mom," he apologizes sincerely.

"You know this means I expect to meet her really soon," she says.

"By soon you mean Thanksgiving, right?" Alan asks.

"You know fully well that's not what I meant! I know it isn't polite to invite myself over to your home, but it isn't like you'll be able to come here for a visit. You guys have your shop and you have a new daughter, so preparing for a trip right now is just unrealistic," his mom babbles, confusing Alan.

"Mom, what are you talking about?" he questions.

"I was wondering if we could arrange it so your father and I could come up for a visit," she explains.

At this Alan starts searching his brain for a way to get out of this, or at least delay having to make actual plans and get him off the phone. "I will have to discuss this with Austin so I will call you back later tonight," he says.

"Alright, you better call me back. I'll let you go. Tell Austin I said hi. I love you Alan," his mom says.

"Love you too Mom, bye," Alan says, finally hanging up the phone.

He lets out a sigh of both exasperation and relief as he un gracefully slumps down on the couch next to his daughter. The room is mostly silent, drawing Alan's attention to the quiet humming coming from Marissa. He listens to his daughter, who is sitting on the couch with her eyes closed, and he recognizes the tune, having been playing it earlier on his guitar.

Alan picks up his guitar from where he left it on the floor, leaning against the couch. He holds the acoustic in his arms, taking a moment to just enjoy the feeling of having it in his grasp. He takes a deep breath and starts to play the tune Marissa is humming. With the strumming being second nature, Alan closes his eyes and uses the muscle memory in his fingers to continue playing. This provides Alan relief from the stress brought on by the phone call with his mother, even if the relief is only temporary.

The music pulls Marissa out of her own little world, her humming goes silent and she opens her eyes. She sees her father playing his guitar and moves closer to him, now sitting in the middle of the couch instead of leaning against the arm. Alan feels the movement beside him so he opens his eyes while he continues to play.

"You can sit closer if you want," he tells his daughter. She scoots closer to her father, stopping when she is slightly leaning against his side, not wanting to make it hard for him to play. Alan lets her know that she can snuggle into his side if she wants, that it won't bother him. She snuggles closer to him, closing her eyes as she listens to him play. Alan has no trouble playing while she is there because he has a habit of curling into his husband's side while he plays the guitar. Alan takes comfort in the warmth of having his daughter curled against him.

This continues for a while until Alan's stomach growls, causing Marissa to giggle. "I guess it's lunch time," Alan says as he stands up, setting his guitar down. The two of them walk into the kitchen, both of them wanting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Marissa goes to the fridge to grab the strawberry jam while her father grabs the bread, peanut butter, and a butter knife. They sit at the table and make the sandwiches, Alan spreading the peanut butter and jelly on the bread and Marissa putting the sandwiches together. Alan cuts the sandwiches in half diagonally, forming little triangles that they eat along with potato chips and apple juice.

When they finish eating Marissa decides that they should play a game, running over to the board games and grabbing Chutes And Ladders. Alan agrees, having realized last week that he actually enjoys playing the game. The two sit down on the floor of the living room and spend the next half hour playing the game, Alan eventually losing.

"We should have a dance party," Marissa says.

"Alright, give me a minute to find the right music," Alan says, going through the music on his phone. Deciding that none of his music is what his daughter has in mind for her dance party, he just goes into Pandora and makes a Taylor Swift station. Plugging his phone into the speaker, some Taylor Swift song starts playing that Alan finds no major interest in, but it earns an excited squeal from Marissa, which makes him happy. He watches his daughter dance along to the music, occasionally twirling her around just to hear her laugh.

The only time he actually dances with her is when Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars starts playing. At the beginning of the song Marissa goes up to Alan and takes his hand. He moves to the center of the room and sets her feet on top of his before making small steps to the beat of the song. When the song ends he sits back down on the couch and watches Marissa's dance party continue.

A few songs later the front door opens and Marissa runs to greet Austin as he comes in the house. "Daddy," she calls out and wraps her arms around him.

"Hey kiddo," he says, closing the front door and giving his daughter a hug. She runs back into the living room while Austin takes his shoes off and puts his keys up. Austin takes a seat on the couch next to Alan, watching Marissa dance around, and says, "Did the princess have a good day?"

"Yeah, she had a good day. I set up a Taylor Swift station so she could have a dance party," Alan replies, gesturing to the dancing child.

"That's good, but I was referring to you, Princess," Austin chuckles and points to the top of his head.

Alan reaches up to feel the top of his head, finding the plastic tiara, which he quickly removes. "She wanted to play princesses and I guess I just forgot that I was wearing it," Alan explains.

"So you had a good day," Austin says.

"Yeah, except my mom called and was upset that I didn't call her to tell her about Marissa. Now she wants to come up for a visit and I can't think of a good enough excuse to keep her from visiting," Alan complains.

"I don't see why your parents can't come visit; she should get the chance to meet her granddaughter," Austin reasons.

"You honestly want to have my parents stay here? What about Marissa's uneasiness with new people?" Alan points out lamely.

"Well she has to learn to meet more people and her grandparents are included in that list of people," Austin says to his stubborn husband.

"You just want my mom to come here so she will cook and bake things," Alan grumbles, earning a grin from Austin.

"That's also true. You need to get over the stupid issues you have with your parents and tell them that they can come for a visit some time next week," Austin says.

"Fine, but it's not like your dad is planning a visit right away. You haven't even told him about Marissa yet either," Alan argues.

"I sent him an email about her last week, with a picture and everything. Also, my dad is working in Ohio right now, whereas your parents live in Anaheim. Call your mom and let her know she can visit," Austin tells his husband, nudging him to get up.

Alan goes into the kitchen to grab the phone and call his mom while Austin picks up the child dancing in the middle of the room. He turns the volume down on the music and sits on the couch with his daughter so she can tell him about her day. Austin smiles at how amazing Alan is with their daughter, having gone through a day of tea parties, princess lessons, and dance parties. To make it even more perfect, Marissa recalls her day in a way that makes it obvious just how much she loves her father.

When Alan returns to the living room he slumps on the couch and releases an exasperated sigh. He scowls at his husband and says, " There, my mother said they will be here on Sunday, and that she will bring brownies. I hope you're happy." Austin smiles and chuckles at Alan's childishness. 

Mittens walks into the room, greeting Austin and Marissa but making a point to ignore Alan. "Alan, what did you do to piss off Mittens?" Austin wonders aloud as he pets the cat.

"I gave him a bath," Alan says, giving the cat a dirty look.

"New question; what did Mittens do to piss you off?" Austin asks.

"Mittens ate my toothpaste and made a mess that I had to clean up," Alan grumbles.

Austin snickers before saying, "I'm glad it wasn't my toothpaste this time. You can just share my toothpaste for the time being." Upon seeing the clear exhaustion of his husband, Austin picks up Marissa and heads to the kitchen to let Alan have a break while they figure out dinner.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The next few days Alan tries to not even think about his parents coming to visit, waiting until Thursday to start any sort of preparing. Not so coincidentally, Thursday is Austin's day to stay home with Marissa. The two of them work on picking up little things around the house while Austin answers all of Marissa's questions about her grandparents.

It seems that she is more comfortable about meeting them than her parents expected. She is still quite nervous but she is handling it better now that they have been working to help her get over her fear. They talk as Austin works on the laundry, sorting the clean clothes into the wearer's pile. Well, Marissa has a pile of her clothes, while her dads' piles were sorted separately except for shirts, which were all thrown into one pile of their own.

"Why are the shirts in a different pile?" Marissa asks.

"Because neither of us remember which shirt belongs to who anymore since we own similar clothes. That and Alan used to wear my shirts all of the time, and I would sometimes borrow his, so at some point we just stopped caring whose shirt it was," Austin explains with a smile. It had been like this for so long that Austin didn't give it much thought anymore.

Marissa picks up a t-shirt and looks at it, taking a moment to hold it up to herself so she can see how big it is. Austin smiles at how the shirt seems almost giant compared to the child, watching as she feels the fabric and lightly nuzzle it against her cheek. He notices her sniff the fabric in a way that she probably intends to be discrete, her eyes are full of fondness and it is clear how hesitant she is about having to part with it.

"You can keep it if you want, so you can wear it as a nightgown," Austin tells his daughter. He knows that Alan won't mind, the t-shirt is just an old plain gray that is so worn that the color is faded, and they have about five others just like it. Marissa happily throws the shirt into her pile of clothes, which Austin plans for them to put away when they finish sorting.

When the clothes are sorted and brought to their designated areas Austin and Marissa start to put away the little girl's clothes. Marissa puts things in the dresser and puts things on hangers, then Austin hangs them up in the closet since Marissa can't reach.

With the clothes put away the only real task left is enrolling Marissa in kindergarten, which Alan agreed to do on his way home from work. In other words, at the end of the day, Alan is just left with dreading the next two days until his parents show up.