Lulu groaned as she moved from left to right on her bed. She knew that she had to wake up, but she just did not feel like waking up yet.
She continued to move from side to side until a sharp ray from the sun shone directly on her eyes as she yawned and instinctively rubbed her eyes.
Lulu groaned once more before lazily opening her eyes and getting out of bed. She stretched and walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
She walked out of the bathroom while drying her face with her towel when she realized that it was morning.
She threw her towel on her bed and looked around. She could see the bright sun shining outside her window where the curtains had been drawn back for some odd reason. She could not remembering drawing back her curtains.
Lulu looked around as she felt weird... she felt seriously strange... It was morning, it was actually morning and instead of feeling like a heaping mess of rubbish, she actually felt fine, she felt so nice and warm on the inside.
Lulu was not aware of when a smile crept up on her face, but it did. She slowly reached up to touch her face and she stood up in front of the mirror to see that she was smiling... she was actually smiling and it was not in any way forced.
She just felt so free, she just felt so happy, as if this was her first day on earth. She was overjoyed, she felt like jumping around for joy, so she did.
She squealed in delight as she giggled and fell on her bed. She could no longer feel the depression, the pain, the hopelessness she felt so strongly yesterday. It was all gone, and she felt like she could not even remember it no matter how hard she tried.
Lulu just took a moment to bask in the extreme peace that she was feeling. She just felt so at peace with herself, with the world. She felt like no one could take away her happiness.
...
"Good morning daddy." said Joy happily as Dom walked into the dining room.
"Good morning princess." replied Dom with a smile as he sat down.
"Good morning Natasha." he said as he looked at Natasha.
"Good morning." she responded as she continued eating her breakfast.
"How was your rest my princess?" asked Dom with a smile.
"Very nice daddy." responded Joy happily.
"You really gave your mommy and I a serious scare last night, we did not know where you were, luckily we found you in Lulu's room." said Dom as Joy giggled.
"I'm sorry for making you worry daddy, but you seemed very upset yesterday." said Joy as she smiled.
"Well I was." he replied.
"Why? What happened?" asked Joy in curiosity as Dom did not think that she needed to know something as scary as that happened.
"It's not really important my darling, please finish your breakfast." said Natasha as she quickly changed the subject.
"Okay mommy." said Joy as she smiled and nodded, she did not really care if they told her what happened or not, all she cared about was that her aunt Lulu felt better. She really loved her, she was so fun, and she was always there for her.
"So how was your aunt this morning?" asked Dom as he poured himself a cup of tea and Joy drank her orange juice. He had not seen Lulu this morning simply because he wanted to give her the space she demanded for.
"I don't know daddy, she wasn't awake when I woke up and I didn't want to wake her up because she looked so peaceful." said Joy as she smiled.
"That's good, if she's still asleep it's alright." replied Dom as Joy nodded.
"Mommy, may I be excused?" asked Joy as soon as she was done with her breakfast.
"Of course darling." replied Natasha with a nod.
"Thank you." said Joy as she quickly ran out the dining room as both Natasha and Dom chuckled.
"She's always so energetic isn't she?" asked Dom as he stirred more sugar into his tea and decided to add some more tea in his mug.
"That she is, I would be worried if she wasn't." Natasha replied as she turned to look at him and her face contorted when she saw Dom pouring more tea from the teapot.
"Since when did you start drinking tea?" she asked in annoyance.
"Since yesterday." he glibly replied as Natasha narrowed her eyes.
"It's clear you intend to finish all the tea that I prepared for myself and no one else." said Natasha her displeasure clear.
"I did not intend to do that, what can I say? It's very calming." he admitted calmly as Natasha scoffed and shook her head, regretting that she had introduced him to the fine life of tea yesterday.
She had no intention of sharing her tea with anyone.
"Don't worry, I won't finish all your tea." he added.
"Mhm right..." Natasha said with a scoff.
"I'll be back to my coffee ways in about three days, give or take." Dom said as he sipped his tea.
"Make it two, because at the rate at which you are drinking my tea, you might as well finish my entire month's supply." she said as she emphasized the word 'my'.
"I won't." he responded with a smile causing Natasha to scoff.
...
Joy walked up the stairs as she stopped in front of Lulu's room and knocked, but she did not receive any reply so she just entered.
"Aunt Lulu, are you awake?" asked Joy as she saw Lulu on her bed and without warning Lulu got up and carried her.
"I am very much awake my sweet little niece, good morning." said Lulu happily as she ticked Joy who laughed.
"Stop, stop aunt Lulu, I just ate breakfast, I might throw up." warned Joy as she laughed, she could already feel the orange juice making its way back up and it would be far from pleasant.
"Oh alright, alright." said Lulu as she laughed and put Joy down.
"You look very happy aunt Lulu. Do you feel better now?" asked Joy as she smiled.
"Much better my love." replied Lulu happily.
"I feel like I can climb a mountain right now." giggled Lulu as Joy giggled.
"I am happy that you feel better Aunt, I was really worried about you yesterday, everyone was." said Joy.
"Well I feel like a billion dollars, so there's no need to worry." said Lulu as Joy smiled.
"Oh my, you're already dressed for school, what time is it?" asked Lulu as she noticed that Joy looked ready to go to school.
"Well it's almost eight a.m., school starts an hour late today since they had to deal with an ant problem yesterday." said Joy.
"Gosh, it's so late, why didn't you wake me up when you woke up?" asked Lulu.
"Well I did not want to disturb you Aunt Lulu, and you looked so peaceful." said Joy as Lulu laughed.
"Oh you're so sweet, seriously, I am so lucky to have a lovely niece like you." said Lulu.
"And I love having a wonderful aunt like you." said Joy as she smiled.
"Awww, you're saying such sweet things, I love you." said Lulu as she hugged Joy.
"I love you too Aunt." said Joy as she smiled and Lulu felt like she was extremely loved, although she already knew that, she just felt much more appreciative of the wonderful family that she had, and she was so grateful.
"I think you should come downstairs and have breakfast Aunt Lulu, everyone is very worried about you." said Joy as Lulu nodded.
"You are right, very right about that Joy, in fact let's go now so everyone can stop worrying." said Lulu as Joy nodded.
...
"Joy, where did you go? Come down you're going to be late for school." called Natasha from the dining room as she stood up.
"I'm coming mommy." replied Joy as she rushed into the dining room and Lulu followed after her.
"Lulu." called both Dom and Natasha in a chorus.
"Good morning guys." said Lulu as she smiled.
"Good morning Lulu, how do you feel?" asked Natasha as she smiled. She took one look at Lulu and she was certain that she drastically felt better than she did yesterday.
"I feel great!." replied Lulu happily as she smiled.
"Oh that's wonderful Lulu, you really got all of us seriously worried yesterday." said Natasha as she smiled and Lulu smiled
Lulu looked at her big brother who looked seriously relieved that she felt better this morning. She could see that he wanted to say something, but he restrained himself as he just smiled in relief.
"Hey." she said as she smiled at him.
"Hi." he replied as she sat down beside him.
"How do you feel?" he asked carefully, he did not want to sound too concerned, neither did he want to sound like he did not care, because he cared a lot.
"I feel terrific." she replied with a bright smile.
"That's good." said Dom.
"I have to go to school now, Uncle Nine is already here, so bye Mommy, bye daddy, bye Aunt Lulu." said Joy as she gave Natasha a kiss on the cheek and then Dom and then Lulu.
"Bye my darling." replied Natasha.
"Bye princess." said Dom as he smiled.
"See you later Joy." said Lulu as she smiled and Joy ran out the dining room happily.