This morning as my eyes flutter open, my first thought is that everything is wrong. I’m not in bed, the ceiling is not the ceiling of my bedroom, and I’m not laying down. I’m actually sitting up.

  More or less, I woke up feeling incredibly confused about what all was going on.

  There were a few things happening that I did understand. The TV was still playing sounds of some show quietly. Though it wasn’t the show that I had been watching before I had fallen asleep.

  Could it have been finished at some point so it auto-played something else?

  I couldn’t tell.

  There were the sounds of two other people breathing around me. And one of my sides was substantially colder than the other.

  Lifting my head to look around properly, the situation is now making sense with what I’m seeing and what I am slowly able to remember of what happened. We were watching movies together, and all three of us had managed to fall asleep.

  Bianca was in her onesie and in a bundle of blankets in my lap with one of my arms holding her close, while Amelia and I were in our own blanket beneath her at Amelia’s request so that she didn’t accidentally chill Bianca at all.

  Not that she has any qualms about making me feel cold, though she would if she knew I was just as affected as everyone else.

  But I’ve always loved the cold; snow has always been my favorite type of weather, and my tolerance for it is better than most. Though just because I like the sensation of it doesn’t mean I’m not actually a little bit cold.

  I pull both members of my family closer as Amelia begins to stir ever so slightly, curling against me as her eyes flutter open. “This isn’t how I remember my bed to look like,” she mumbles before closing her eyes once more and nuzzling her face against my shoulder seeking more sleep.

  “That’s because we didn’t fall asleep in bed,” I point out, resting my head against hers, nose buried in her hair.

  Amelia doesn’t respond to me, having already fallen back asleep again, so I gently run a hand through her hair as I rub Bianca’s back.

  Today’s the twenty-first which means we have two days before the super Christmas party, the day after that folks are going to come here for dinner, and on Christmas they’ll come by that night or whenever they get bored for a Christmas Party. Then I’m free from any social obligations till New Year’s Eve.

  I also do still need to do at least a little bit of my patrols for superhero stuff otherwise I’m going to feel guilty about the whole situation, though Asher has yet to complain about it he seems to be enjoying the new drones we got him.

  I also bet that he is getting closer to getting his own powers, cause he hasn’t talked about it since besides some substantial interest in Caleb and that whole group.

  Unfortunately, none of us have been able to get close enough to get a better idea of what all is going on over there, so I’m still in the dark.

  I try to find the remote, though as far as I can tell with my normal senses, it’s nowhere to be found, meaning it’s somewhere I can’t see or I’m just blind.

  Both of those entirely reasonable and at least somewhat expected responses if we’re going to be frank.

  Amelia’s love for sleeping in holds strong as she’s not the one who begins to stir awake next but Bianca as I can feel her breathing change as her fingers unclench the blankets she was holding as she stretches a little.

  She raises her head, though her features are almost entirely disguised by the hood of her onesie as she looks around.

  Even if I can’t actually see it, I have no problems imagining the look of absolute confusion on her face as she tries to figure out what’s going on and where she is.

  Eventually, she looks up at me at least; I believe so. From my perspective, the hood blocks her eye, leaving me entirely in the dark.

  “Good morning, Bianca. Did you sleep well?” I ask as I tug the hood of her onesie off so I can better see her face as she smiles up at me.

  Bianca gives me a happy little nod as I smile back. “Do you want breakfast, or do you want to watch more TV and cuddle?” I ask, running a hand through her hair as she thinks.

  It’s an important decision after all.

  Bianca twists in my lap so she can see the TV as she leans against me, though she does raise her hands to grab my own and holds it in her lap, playing with my fingers as we watch.

  “Watching sounds good to me. I’m happy to spend it with you.” I agree.

  “It is not fair how good you are with kids,” Amelia yawns, revealing that she may have been up at least some of this time.

  “When did you wake up again?” I ask, turning to meet her eyes, more than happy to stare into them as she blinks the sleep out of them as she slowly focuses on me.

  “Somewhere around spend it with you.” She admits leaning in for a quick kiss. “Lazy mornings are the best, but I gotta be honest, I think I got like several cricks in my body from sleeping on the couch curled up like a spider.” She laughs.

  “Next time we’ll watch movies in bed.” I shrug. “So, do you know where the remote is? I can’t find it, and if everyone’s up, I would like to be able to hear the show a little bit better.”

  Amelia grumbles a bit as she looks for the remote before finally shifting herself more on top of me so that she can grab it from where it had ended up.

  “Did you end up falling asleep with the remote there?” I ask, eyebrow raised as she settles back down, adjusting the volume and changing the show so that it’s on the first episode of the first season.

  You know, having it from the beginning would probably help me significantly with trying to understand what in the world was going on with the show.

  “No, I had woken up earlier and decided to watch some anime, and I didn’t want to lose the remote in the dark, so I sat on it instead so that I couldn’t lose it. And at some point I fell asleep like that.” Amelia explains. “I probably have the remote imprint on my thigh to prove it.”

  “So yes?”

  “So, no, I napped on the remote, very different.” Amelia disagrees, poking me.

  “And when you woke up and watched anime for a bit, you didn’t think to consider if maybe you should move us to actual beds?”

  The moment the statement is out of my mouth, I know I must have screwed up royally because Amelia looks at me with a wicked grin.

  “Except I know you were still awake when I fell asleep the first time, and you didn’t move us either mister I was just following your lead.” She laughs. “Besides, it was nice to do something different, and I didn’t want to mess it up.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  With one hand occupied with Bianca playing with it, I trace a small pattern on Amelia’s side as I kiss her again trying to find the words that work for me. “While there’s a lot of things in the world that can be messed up. I don’t think you can when it comes to showing your love. I have never once doubted it.”

  Amelia, being perfectly satisfied with that response, goes back to resting against me, one hand playing with my hair as the other hugs me.

  “Bianca, do you want to do anything today, or does just spending the day at home sound good?” I ask gently, leaning over so I can look at her face.

  She pouts ever so slightly as she looks away from the TV to consider my question before indicating that she would want to spend the day at home.

  “Also B, you’re allowed to stay in your bunny onesie till we’re done with breakfast, and then you have to put on clean clothes, okay?” I say, holding up a pinky for her to shake on. “You can just change into a different fluffy onesie, but the bunny one needs to be cleaned.”

  Her pout is much stronger as she shakes my pinky promising to change.

  “Don’t worry, sweetie, I have to change too, so we both don’t get to be bunnies.” Amelia says, consoling our daughter. “If only there was a handsome, strapping man willing to help me out of this tight top.”

  “Amelia, you're perfectly capable of getting out of your outfit by yourself.” I laugh.

  “Sure, but what’s the point of wearing sexy cosplay if not to try and fluster you at least a little bit. Wouldn’t it be fun to help me?” Amelia asks in a sultry whisper.

  I turn my head, my nose almost brushing against hers as I stare into her ice-blue eyes. “It probably would be.” I agree finally. Her expression changing from flirty to joy is wonderful to see, especially when I know what I’ll say next. “As long as it’s nothing like your latex era.”

  And her expression falls, morphing to one of absolute horror as she physically recoils at the memories.

  “I am a changed woman; there’s a zipper in the back. And you promised you wouldn’t bring it up with anyone!” She complains, poking me in the ribs as I shake with laughter.

  Amelia is about to start her whole tirade as Bianca distracts her, standing up in my lap to throw her arms around Amelia, either to hug her mom or to get to more stable ground as I shake with laughter.

  The morning continues before Bianca finally indicates that she’s hungry, and that means it’s time for me to get up so I can actually be a good influence and all that other important stuff.

  Though more than a small bit of me is glad that we’re finally going to get up because I really need to stand up and stretch my legs along with do every other part of my morning preparations.

  I’m ready to get the day started. Even if the content of the day is probably going straight back to what we were doing earlier.

  “But I don’t wanna!” Amelia complains as she tries to stop me from getting out of the blanket nest.

  Bianca looks at me perplexed cause she managed to escape just fine, and she had been told that we would get breakfast as soon as I got up.

  “Amelia, don’t you want breakfast? And to get out of the bunny girl outfit?” I point out doing the bare minimum to try and pull myself out of her grasp.

  “I mean I do but that means I have to try and get it off and none of the glitter I put on is going to ever come off either so what if I just became one with the couch today instead?” Amelia complains.

  I give her a quick kiss, distracting her for the moment I need to free my other hand. “Well, if you become one with the couch, you’re not getting any more kisses or breakfast.” I tease, pulling away.

  As Amelia gasps in horror, I scoop up Bianca, holding her in an arm as I begin cooking pancakes.

  It doesn’t take too long for me to hear the sound of a shower running and the corresponding off key singing to know what Amelia is doing so I mentally schedule myself to shower since I didn’t last night sometime after Bianca has been changed into new clothes for the day.

  And at Bianca’s request, I agree to make chocolate and blueberry pancakes just for her cause she asked so nicely.

  As I’m serving pancakes to the table so Bianca can start eating, I hear Amelia calling for me.

  “You called?” I ask, heading to the bedroom, to see that she’s not here, meaning she’s still in the bathroom.

  “I am lazy, so can you use your powers to phase me so that I can be dry instantly instead of having to use a towel?” She asks, poking her head out of the bathroom to give me puppy-dog eyes.

  It doesn’t take that long for me to phase her so that the water all falls onto the bathmat and to help her pick her clothes for the day.

  Much to my surprise, she opts for normal clothes instead of some other kind of cosplay.

  But with me still feeling grimy mentally from the previous day and Amelia ready to face the world, we return to the table for family breakfast.

  It’s nice. The conversation mostly carried by Bianca and Amelia, who is puppeting small ice sculptures recreating an anime battle with sound effects included just for the truest experience.

  “Do you two have the dishes?” I ask as I stand up, taking my plate to the dishwasher.

  “Yup, though you should probably shower fast if your plan was to have me start the dishwasher.” Amelia winks.

  Laughing, I return to the bedroom quickly, getting out of my dirty clothes before hopping into the shower.

  One of the biggest gripes I have with having super powers is that I now have to wonder what it would take for me to feel like my shower was actually hot.

  Getting it to warm is easy. Warm and chilly are more or less minimal effort to get to. But the range of what is considered that has expanded greatly.

  If I got the water to boiling in the shower I bet it would feel pretty warm at that point but I’ve spent too long being human to have ever thought about trying to just stick my hand in a pot of boiling water to check if I’m resistant to its temperatures or not at this point.

  But even if it’s no longer the heat of purification as it cleanses my mind and body, I can still enjoy the warmth and the time to myself where nobody will ever bother me.

  …only one person will ever bother me.

  But this time my shower is unaccosted as I make my way through the rest of my morning routine without incident, not seeing hide nor hair of my family till I’m fully dressed and heading back to the front room.

  Amelia is looking at clothes on her phone, which makes me greatly paranoid, while Bianca is set up at the coffee table once more, markers and her coloring book out as she scribbles with the red marker.

  “And the chosen hero has returned.” I quip sitting down on the couch and starting the TV again since they were both waiting for me.

  “Well, I’m glad you finally showed up; otherwise, who was going to save me from feeling unattended to all day?”

  “Unattended?”

  “Well, I was going to say bored, but I’m not bored yet cause I’m actually doing something. And I was going to say lonely, but that’s not true cause I’m with Bianca, so yeah, here we are.” Amelia explains, swinging her legs across my lap.

  “That makes sense,” I agree, following my own thought process to fruition as I gently begin massaging her legs.

  Bianca gives me a wave, having found a good spot to pause her drawing to look up at me before twisting back around to watch the TV show and color simultaneously.

  “So, do you think we need to go out and buy some outfits for the Christmas party?” Amelia asks, sitting up as the thought strikes her.

  “If you’re going to say we don’t have outfits for the party, I’m going to say we do. And I will call Travis to prove that we don’t need to go shopping.” I say, crossing my arms, doing my best to stand firm against Amelia.

  “Oh, so Bianca has a formal, cute, little dress?” Amelia asks, going right for my argument’s jugular.

  “We don’t know if it’s a formal thing?” I try.

  “You just really don’t want to go shopping.” Amelia laughs, patting me on the arm.

  “No, I’ve done all my shopping for the year. I will not be going out to buy things till next year.” I pout, hoping that my argument will work to even some ?small degree.

  “Well, we’ll split the difference.” Amelia says with a heavy sigh. “We can order some outfits online, and you can call to ask Travis if this is a more formal super party or if it’s going to be completely ordinary and we can show up in jeans and Christmas sweaters.”

  “You don’t wear jeans.”

  “But you do. So you’ll wear the jeans and I’ll wear the Christmas sweater. I bought some really silly ones last year in preparation for all of this.” She grins, eyes practically sparkling with the opportunity to cause mischief.

  “I hope it’s not super formal. I don’t want to have to tie a tie.” I complain.

  “Jason, if you think for a second that people who spend their whole day in spandex fighting crime want to wear formal attire, you’re drunk as hell. But even if we don’t need it for the party, Christmas family photos could be cool.”

  At the word family, Bianca looks up from her coloring book, eyeing the both of us, and I know she’d enjoy the family photos too.

  “Order the clothes you want. I won’t fuss. I just don’t want to go out today.” I say, admitting defeat.

  “That’s the spirit.” Amelia says, giving me a quick kiss.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  That romantic moment over, I lean over to kiss Bianca on the crown of her head. “I love you too, Bianca.”

  She lets out a silent giggle, hugging me before going back to her drawing.

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