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It was a wonderful morning. The sun perched in the window, shining its golden light into the kitchen, and the beautiful colours of dawn splashed across the sky. Birds were chirping and the warm smell of tea wafted in the air.
Lloyd was in heaven. Until suddenly...
“Give it!”
“No! Is mine!
“I wanna turn!”
And life had gone back to normal. Lloyd sighed and left his unfinished tea on the table, getting up to go see what his kids were fighting about now. It didn’t take him long to find them.
Sakura and Emily were fighting over their favourite stuffed wolf. Ren was standing beside them, not exactly in the fight, but he clearly wanted the wolf too.
“Is mine!” shouted Sakura, yanking on the wolf’s tail.
“No!!” cried Emily, loud enough to burst some eardrums, pulling on the wolf’s ears.
“Guys, I wanna turn!” Ren said, jumping impatiently.
“No!”
“Mine!”
“Girls, stop it!” Lloyd exclaimed, arms crossed.
His daughters paused to look up at him, but neither loosened their grip on the wolf. Ren’s bottom lip stuck out in a pout and he whined loudly at his sisters.
“Daddy, Emily steal wolf!” Sakura claimed.
“Nuh uh! You steal wolf!” Emily argued, yanking the wolf by the ears again. Sakura yanked back on the tail.
“Guys! I want wolf!” Ren cried.
“No!!” both girls shouted.
“Enough!” Lloyd demanded. He couldn’t even have one peaceful morning. He sighed. “Who had Wolfie first?” he asked.
“Me!”
“No, me!!”
“Me!!!”
“Stop,” Lloyd said sharply.
“But Daddy, I have wolf first!” Emily said.
“No, you didn’t! I did!” Sakura shouted, smacking her sister’s arm.
Emily gasped. “Ow!” She retaliated by smacking Sakura’s head.
“Hey! I said stop it,” snapped Lloyd, “or else no one gets the wolf.”
“No! I want wolf!” Ren cried. He tried to get in between his sisters to stop them from hitting each other. But then, he accidentally got hit.
Then they were all hitting and yelling at each other.
Lloyd pinched the bridge of his nose, his patience running thin. “Stop it, you three.”
They didn’t listen.
“Kids. I said. Stop. It.”
They still didn’t listen. That was the last straw.
“Stop it right now, or I’ll sell you to the gypsies!” Lloyd exclaimed angrily. Of course, he didn’t mean that. It was just something he had vague memories of his mom yelling at him whenever he got on her last nerve.
The triplets stopped. Sakura looked confused. Emily looked insulted.
And Ren started crying.
“Daddy, what’s a gypsy?” Sakura asked curiously.
“I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!” yelled Emily, stomping her foot angrily on the floor.
Ren just cried and cried and cried.
Lloyd groaned. At this rate, he was going to have grey hairs in his thirties.
_______________________________
After taking care of the wolf incident, the rest of the day went by smoothly. There were a few more fights that day, but none as bad as the wolf one and had easy solutions.
When it was time for bed, Lloyd tucked the triplets in their bunks and read them a bedtime story.
“Daddy?” Ren asked quietly, gripping Lloyd’s finger in his tiny hand.
“Yeah, baby?” responded Lloyd, running a hand through Ren’s unruly blond hair.
“You won’t sell us to da gypsies, right?” he asked with a pout.
Lloyd smiled and kissed his son’s forehead. “No, I won’t,” he said.
Ren eyed him skeptically. “You promise?”
Lloyd nodded gently. “I promise.
Ren smiled. “Good,” he said simply, then yawned.
Lloyd gave all three of his children goodnight hugs and kisses, then flipped the light switch off and left the room.
He shut the curtains on and plugged the nightlight into the wall in the hallway. He brushed his teeth and slipped on his pyjamas. By the time his bedtime routine was complete, Lloyd was exhausted.
He turned his lamp off and fell on his bed. He was asleep within seconds.
A moment later, the patter of little feet woke him.
Lloyd sat up. Sakura stood in the middle of his room.
“What do you need, honey?” Lloyd asked.
“Kiss,” Sakura said.
Lloyd was certain he had already given each triplet a goodnight hug and kiss. But he gestured Sakura over anyway.
His little girl climbed onto his lap, grinning up at him. Lloyd placed a kiss on top of her blond hair.
Then Sakura held out her arms. “Hug,” she said.
Lloyd chuckled and gave her a hug.
“Luv you, Daddy,” Sakura said against his shoulder.
“I love you too,” Lloyd told her before putting her down. “Now go back to bed.”
Lloyd was woke up four times that night. Once, by Emily because she didn’t want to go to the bathroom by herself—then she decided her hair needed to be brushed again, so Lloyd combed her black hair again. Then she wanted him to carry her back to her bed. Ren woke him up because he was hungry. Then Sakura woke him up once more because she was cold.
He couldn’t have a peaceful morning, he couldn’t have peaceful night, he just couldn’t win. But... Lloyd wouldn’t trade his babies for the world.