Work Text:
Juniper and Dagwood’s 3rd birthday was in 2 days.
Cheryl has had full custody of her niece and nephew for a year and a half, and the spoiling hasn’t stopped for, well, a year and a half. Every time Cheryl drove by a Toys R’ Us, she just had to go inside to get something for the twins. By now, Thistlehouse has become any child’s dream home. The once gothic mansion is now filled with stuffed animals, dolls, toy cars, and everything else almost 3 year olds could ask for.
Well, almost everything.
An idea occurred to Cheryl as she watched Toni pull into the driveway on her motorcycle. Within seconds of Toni walking through the door, Cheryl pounced on her with the lightbulb above her head still hot.
“June and Dag need bikes!” Cheryl barely let Toni take off her helmet before she shouted her idea.
“Bikes?” Toni raised an eyebrow, “I know I joke about bringing them on my bike—”
“Not a motorcycle, ma petite motarde,” Cheryl cut her off, “Tricycles, you know the little plastic ones. Oh, TT, think of how adorable my darling niece and nephew will be riding outside on their little tricycles.” Almost as if it was right on cue, Juniper ran into the foyer towards Toni, immediately clutching onto Toni’s leg. Dagwood followed, doing the same to Cheryl’s leg. It was quite clear who their respective favourite’s were.
Toni reached down and picked up Juniper, holding her on her waist. “Junie, what do you and Dag want for your birthday?”
"Cake! I want cake!" Juniper squealed in Toni's arms.
“Vanilla cake!” Dagwood yelled from Cheryl feet. Toni put Juniper down and took off her Serpent jacket, hanging it up on the coat rack.
“The people have spoken, babe, and the people demand to be heard.” The pink haired girl said as she walked past her girlfriend and into the kitchen, “And besides, Cher, we already got them presents for their birthday. A lot of presents."
Cheryl looked almost hurt. “TT, there is no such thing as too many presents.”
“Yes, but there is such thing as spoiling them too much. We have to humble them out, keep them grounded.” Toni wrapped her arms around Cheryl’s neck and pressed a fast kiss to her lips. “I didn’t have any of these things growing up and I still turned out fine—”
“—You turned out perfect.”
“Exactly. So don’t think you have to spoil them just to prove some kind of point. You know they love you, you’re the closest thing they’ve ever had as a mother,” Toni held the redhead’s face in her hands. “You don’t need validation from 3 year olds.”
Cheryl smiled, knowing her girlfriend would time and time again always say the right thing to make her feel better. “You’re right, but I’m still buying them bikes.”
Toni groaned, “I’m really not going to be able to stop you, huh?”
“No,” Cheryl sang. “However, you can help me pick them out tomorrow.”
“Sorry, baby, no can do. I’m banned from every Toys R’ Us in the state of Vermont.” The serpent said almost proudly.
What? Cheryl was surprised. She would bet her life that she knows everything about Toni, from her favourite colour to her favourite type of camera, but how could she not know her girlfriend was banned from a children’s store. “Why, pray tell, are you banned from every Toys R’ Us in the state, my love?”
Toni laughed to herself and sat down at the kitchen table, Cheryl followed. “When I was younger, when my parents were still alive, I really wanted to learn how to ride a bike.” Toni looked at her fidgeting hands before continuing, “I would always see kids on the Northside riding them during summer, and in my head it was one step closer to riding a motorcycle, just like my dad's. Obviously my parents couldn’t afford to buy me a bike, and any money that did come in went straight into helping the Serpents. You know, my dad being Serpent King and all, it’s what he did. One day, my parents decided that they would take me to Toys R’ Us, the one on route to Greendale, and I would ride the bikes there. My mom would tell any employees that bothered us that we just wanted to test ride it before we bought it. We were never going to buy them, I knew that. So, I would ride up and down the aisles until management finally caught on and threw us out.”
“And that's how you got banned?” Cheryl asked.
“That's how I got banned from that location,” Toni smiled from the memory. “My parents were very persistent people, maybe that’s where I got my stubbornness from, and they wanted me to learn how to ride a bike.”
Cheryl reached over to hold Toni’s hand. “Why did they want you to learn so badly?”
“Because they knew that I really wanted to,” Toni felt a tear threatening to fall and wiped it away. “They took me to every single Toys R’ Us, and at every single one we'd do the exact same thing until we were banned from coming back. They’re lucky I learned how to ride before we had to cross state lines.”
The redhead, who was now tearing up, laughed at what her girlfriend had said. It was a well known fact that Toni didn’t have the easiest life growing up, but Aliyah and Tommy Topaz gave their little girl everything they had until the day they died.
“Thank you for telling me that, Toni.” Cheryl sighed, “I know it’s not easy for you to talk about your parents.”
Toni squeezed her girlfriend’s hand a little tighter. “You know what, you have my blessing to buy June and Dag tricycles for their birthday. Learning to ride a bike with my parents was one of my favourite memories of them, and I want the twins to have that same sort of thing… with us.”
“I’d love that, TT.”