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Will was lounging while watching TV, his head in his husband’s lap and his legs dangling off the arm of their couch. While the couple on screen fight for what feels like the hundredth time, Nico slowly pets his golden curls, which, as his husband has pointed out many times, have started to go grey in some places.
Gods, grey hair? And he thought he wouldn’t survive the Battle of Manhattan.
A loud thud sounds from the floor above them, causing Nico to jump and tug a little too hard at Will’s hair. Will shakes his head, moving to get up, “we can’t ever get a moment of peace in this house can we?”
”Nope, now go figure out what Rue has done this time,” Nico says while moving to lay where Will was.
Will mumbles something just quiet enough in order to ensure he won’t be sleeping on the couch tonight and starts moving up the stairs. “Ruella, what on earth are you doing in there?” He shouts once he reaches the top, moving to Rue’s room and knocking, making sure to wait for a ‘come in’ before opening the door.
The room, just recently painted dark purple, had been torn apart. Every single one of Rue’s dresses and her shorter skirts were in a pile on the floor. She had stripped her pink and blue sheets and removed all of her bed’s throw pillows, all of which were also in that pile.
Her Barbie dolls (which Will and Nico had never really liked, their body standards were much too unrealistic,) joined the clothes and bedding. Thankfully her (now vintage, can you believe?) Calico Critters were carefully removed from her closet, and set off to the side.
Will peaked into her bathroom, and yup, that was also destroyed. All of her bows and headbands were lying on tile, joined by her cheap makeup pallets that she got from gods know where.
“Ruella, honey, what is going on in here?” Will asked. He made sure not to act like he was mad, he sensed something was up and he didn’t want to frighten his daughter.
Rue peeked her head out of her closet, quickly tossing a frilly shirt into the pile and shouting an ‘it’s Rue dad,” before rummaging through her drawers again.
Will picks up a dark green dress, it had been Maria’s back in the day. “Rue, why are you getting rid of this one? It’s very pretty on you.”
Rue makes a gagging noise from her closet, “yuck dad. I’m not pretty, and that dress is ugly.” She tosses another shirt from her closet, this one is a tank top with little rainbows on it.
Will, ignoring the fact that Rue had said she ‘wasn’t pretty’ mock-gasps, “Rue! You wore that to pride this year! Are you homophobic now? If you are, you're taking that up with your Papa, I’m not dealing with that.”
Rue snorts and Will can practically feel her eyes rolling even if her face is stuffed in her closet. “Dad, how can I be homophobic? I have two dads, Michael is gay, and I swear Maria and Polly have something going on. I just don’t like the shirt.” Rue steps out of the closet, her light brown curls all frizzy and starts to bag all of her clothes and toys. When she raided their cabinets for trash bags, Will doesn’t know.
Will moves from the doorway and begins to help, and after around ten minutes they finish, instead of two piles of crap, there are now five trash bags. Will moves the bags out of Rue’s room, and shuts the door. He pulls out his phone and texts his husband to come up here then quickly pockets it, joining Rue on the now stripped bed.
“So are you going to tell me what’s up?” Will asks, ruffling his child’s hair and adjusting Nico’s old Fall Out Boy shirt that she stole and is now wearing.
Rue sighs, “I don’t know dad, I just don’t like that stuff.” She shuffles in her seat, her hands fidgeting with the mattress protector under her.
“Okay,” Will starts. Just then Nico knocks at the door and lets himself in. Joining his family on the bed, sitting down on the other side of Rue.
”So is there stuff you do like? I’m assuming you don’t feel pretty, what about lovely?” Will looks to his husband, who seems to understand and is nodding along to Will’s words.
”Yes, that's fine. And I don’t want to be Ruella, ever. Even when you’re mad and want to use my full name. And I want new sheets, I only want long skirts, no dresses, and no frilly tops. I want more of Papa’s shirts and I want more jeans. Maybe ones that don’t show the shape of my legs so much.”
Nico nods and holds his arms out for a hug, which Rue gladly accepts. Nico pets her hair and begins to speak, “we can do that, Rue. We can run to the store tomorrow, and I can grab you spare sheets and some more of my old shirts. Does that feel nice?”
Rue nods and removes herself from her papa’s grip, “really nice.”