To Be A Warrior

Chapter 30: In The Dark Of The Night

Sam and I burst through the door, giggling madly as Adora squeals in joy. Sam drops the small bag of sweets down on the coms desk before taking off his wizard hat and running his hand through his hair, making it even more wild than it was before.

"I think this was the funnest Halloween I've had in a while," He says, and I quirk a brow.

"Funnest?"

He rolls his eyes. "Don't give me that. You say 'ain't'."

"And I say it with pride," I reply, setting Adora down and watching her trod over to her toys, her little tutu bouncing as she does so. "But you're right. This Halloween was fun. Can you believe we had enough produce in the farms to make candy apples? And do pumpkin carving?"

"Don't mention the pumpkin carving. Adora nearly stuck her head inside the hole of a pumpkin like, twelve times."

I smile knowingly. "I told you to hold her and just let her watch while Phineas was working on getting the inside of the pumpkin scooped out, but did you listen? No."

"Well, she kept giving me those sad little eyes, especially since Maxine was letting Sarah help scoop out her pumpkin," He whines. "And I mean, we're probably going to spend the next three days getting that pumpkin goop out of her hair, but she looked like she was having so much fun and I couldn't just hold Adora and not let her have any fun."

I roll my eyes at his dramatics, heading into the next room to find the basket where I keep Adora's clothes. I grab a soft nightshirt and pants and head back into the main room. Heading over to the corner where the redhead sits with her toys, I squat down and hold up the nightshirt, which is enough to tell her it's time to get dressed for bed.

She pouts, but still stands and starts to pull off her shoes, socks and shirt and then shimmies out of her tutu and leggings. She's learning. She can get out of her clothes now without needing my help. I can't exactly consider it a good thing since there have been multiple times she's decided she suddenly wants to be without pants and then takes off running when I notice.

I think she uses it as a distraction because it happens most often when I'm watching her and Sarah, and Phineas is in the room playing with Alejandro. I swear those two have an obsession with the chinchilla and I'm most certain they'll be asking for a puppy when they're older.

I help her into her night clothes before lifting her up and into her crib. She'll be two in about two months, and while I know some children don't move from a crib to a toddler bed until three and a half, I'm beginning to wonder if we should start looking into one. Of course, by then there should be more buildings up for children and residents to stay in. We started clearing out an area of the town for a building yesterday, and we're looking into making one of our old dormitory buildings into a two story, so less space is taken up.

Still, I don't think it would hurt to look for one just in case.

Sam and I both change out of our costumes, which were the same as last year and the year before that. My Rapunzel costume only comes out during this time of year before I throw it into a corner to stay for the next many months.

"It's always a shame to see you change out of that. You look pretty," Sam says, and I roll my eyes.

"You only say that because I don't have my wig anymore."

He grins slyly before sighing in a dreamy tone. "Oh, how glad I was to see that thing look so ratted when you pulled it out. That thing was not that great even before you had no choice but to throw it away. You look better without it anyway."

I playfully place my hand to my heart, my face twisting a bit. "What? Did I not look good as a blonde?"

"Not really."