#rory's birthday parties | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

total-lunareclipse4 · 5 months ago

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🌜I know you better than anyone🌛

pairing: five hargreeves x female reader

summary: it’s been a long time since you last saw Five. due to your nieces’s birthday party, you’re forced to face him again. you can’t help but be surprised when instead of being met with hate, you realize the only thing he wants to do is help you.

genre: angst with a happy ending!

warnings: manipulation? cursing perhaps. nothing major

word count: 4k

notes: this is a little bit based on the gilmore girls scene in which jess confronts rory for dropping out of yale. i saw someone use that audio for a tiktok pov and wrote this. here’s the link to that.

It had been twenty minutes already. Two cars had tried to take your spot during that time and you’d had to awkwardly let them know that you were not leaving. You tried to do a couple of breathing exercises you vaguely remembered Klaus teaching you at some point, but this was something that could not be solved by just taking a few deep breaths in and out. After a couple more minutes had gone by, you decided it was time to put on your big girl pants and get the evening over with.

You got out of your car and opened up the trunk to pull out the gift. Needing both hands to carry it, you struggled a little bit to get it inside. The sound of screaming children filled up your ears, and you could not think of a worse place to be at right now. You spotted a few familiar faces and decided to make your way over there. After having taken a few steps, you tripped over a plastic ball from the ball pit you’d failed to notice and began stumbling as you tried to regain your balance. Mentally having prepared for the fall, you were surprised when it never came. Instead, a firm pair of hands managed to catch you, one of them holding you by the back of your head and the other pressing against the lower part of your back.

“You okay there?” He asked.

You’d known he would be here, but you certainly did not expect him to be the first person you encountered at your niece’s birthday party.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” The uncomfortable silence was soon to settle in, and you had to fight back the urge to run back to your car.

Luckily, your attention was caught by the birthday girl herself sprinting towards you after noticing you had arrived.

“Auntie!” Grace yelled, her arms open waiting for you to hug her. You got down on your knees after setting the gift next to a nearby table and embraced the little girl tightly.

“Happy Birthday, Gracie,” you spoke next to the girl’s ear, kissing the top of her head before standing back up to retrieve the big box.

“Is that for me?” she inquired excitedly as her eyes rested upon the gift.

“Of course it’s for you! I think you’re gonna like it a lot.” You winked at her.

“Do you want some help taking it over to the gifts table?” The man who’d saved you from falling asked.

Before you had the chance to answer, Grace seemed to realize something and interrupted you.

“Look Uncle Five, she’s here!” You were a little confused by the statement, given that Five had been standing there the whole time, so it was obvious he knew you were there. However, you figured your niece was just excited about your presence and wanted everybody to know about it.

“Yes Grace, I see her.” Five replied. Based on his tone and demeanor you would’ve guessed he was embarrassed by the situation. But that didn’t make any sense to you.

The little girl turned to you and signaled for you to get on your knees again. Following suit, she cupped her hands and held them to her mouth before getting closer to your ear.

“Uncle Five was asking about you a lot before you got here,” she whispered. Your eyes instantly went to meet Five’s, and by the look on his face you could tell he had some idea of what Grace was telling you.

“I uhm, I’m gonna go get a soda,” he said before walking away. You felt utterly confused by his attitude, not understanding why he was acting the way he was. Why had he been asking about you? Based on the last time you two saw each other, his current actions were nonsensical.

Puzzled but not really being able to do much about the situation, you hugged the little girl once more and went over to the gifts table to leave the heavy box you had been carrying. From behind you, you recognized the voice of the reason why you were even here in the first place.

“That better not be another one of those loud ass toys that lights up and blasts up annoying music.”

You turned around and smiled at the man before you.

“No, this one just barks and shits.”

You enjoyed watching as the color got drained from his face by your response.

“You didn’t,” he said, more of a threat than anything else. You laughed, giving yourself away.

“No, I didn’t. Lila said no dogs. She doesn’t wanna be juggling three kids and a puppy.”

Diego let out a sigh of relief, “Good, I did not want to have that fight today.” He gave you a smile and a quick hug to welcome you.

“It’s been a while,” he said.

“It hasn’t been that long, we saw each other for the twins' recital.” You knew he didn’t mean it as a personal attack, but you couldn’t help but feel bad by what he’d said. You tried to be there as much as possible for your family, but things were different now.

“Yeah, that was two months ago!” He laughed, but you knew he didn’t find the situation funny, he was just trying not to come off too harshly.

“I’m sorry.” You shrugged.

He noticed the hint of sadness in your eyes and his own expression softened.

“It’s fine, I wish we saw each other more often but we all understand.” You chuckled a little at his lie. Certainly they didn’t all understand.

“You have no idea how much I wish that were true.” You were both quiet for a minute, mutual understanding flowing between the two.

“His hair’s gotten longer,” you spoke, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, he’s become more of an asshole also.” You both laughed. Diego moved closer to you and gave you a half hug.

“It’s going to be fine. Give it time and you’ll see.” You closed your eyes and let yourself give into his embrace. You doubted time would be able to solve anything, but it didn’t hurt to hope.

…

You didn’t speak to Five again for the rest of the evening. You’d caught him looking at you from a distance a couple of times, but you hadn’t been able to look at him back. After cake, you made the round of goodbyes and left the building before he got the idea of speaking to you. Back in the safety of your car, the tears came rolling down your face before you could do anything to stop them. The memories of your last encounter with Five came flooding back, and all of those times you had repressed them only worked to make them stronger now.

You had just gotten out of the shower, which you had cut short after the hot water had run out. You got dressed quickly and cursed at yourself for choosing such a cheap place to stay at. It would not surprise you to find all kinds of stains if you were to use a UV light in this room. Repulsed by the thought, you grabbed your toothbrush with the intention of cleaning your teeth when you heard a loud persistent knock on the door. You were reluctant to open up at first, but when the knocking didn’t stop, you figured it was the only way to get them to stop knocking.

Grabbing one of your knives, you made your way to the door and through the peephole noticed who the person on the other end was. You unlocked the entrance and allowed him to come inside.

He looked agitated, his brows furrowed in a prominent frown. His hair was all over the place, drastically different to how it usually looked.

“So, you weren’t going to tell me that you were leaving?” Of course you hadn’t told him, you knew this was exactly what he would’ve done if you’d told him.

“I knew you would try to stop me,” you spoke softly, not wanting him to get any more agitated than he already was.

“What kind of idiotic response is that? Of course I would’ve tried to stop you.” His words stung.

“I can’t do this right now, Five. I’ve already made up my mind and I’m at peace with my choice.” You tried to sound as convincing as possible.

“It’s a stupid decision you’re making and I’m not gonna stand here and let you make it.”

“It’s already done, there’s nothing I can do about it,” you felt your voice getting weaker, but you didn’t want to break in front of him.

“Of course there is, I’ll help you get out of it. I’ve done it before.” He didn’t understand any of it, and he could certainly not fix it either.

“Five…” you began.

“Look, I know you, I know you better than anyone. This isn’t you.” Of course he was right, but you couldn’t admit that to him. Instead, you chose to remain quiet.

“What are you doing? Living at this cheap motel, working for The Commission, leaving us behind- why did you leave me behind?” He looked away, not being able to hold your gaze at the moment. You knew that what had hurt him the most is that you hadn’t told him you were leaving. You hadn’t come to him to let him know you were going back to the place you both had tried so hard to escape from in the first place.

“It’s.. complicated,” you said.

“It’s not! It’s not complicated,” he yelled.

“You don’t know!” You wished you could explain it all to him, but he couldn’t know the truth.

“This isn’t you! This- you going back to working for The Handler. We did the impossible to get away from her.”

“She’s not the same woman she once was…” You tried to defend her, not even believing it yourself.

He ran his hand through his hair with anger, frustrated by your answers.

“This isn’t about her, screw her! What’s going on with you? This isn’t you, you know it isn’t. What’s going on?” He walked closer to you, watching you intensely.

“I don’t know,” you admitted.

“Come home. To hell with all of this! Just- just come home.” He took your hands in his, silently pleading with you.

Knowing there was only one way out of this, you decided you had to do this in order to keep him and the rest safe.

“Home? What exactly is home? This is your family you keep talking about, not mine. The Handler is the one who took me in and gave me a place to live when no one else would. Grow up Five! You think this is how I wanna spend the rest of my days? In this fucked up timeline where we don’t even have our powers? No way I’m staying here, so I would appreciate it if you stopped claiming to know better than me and left me alone for once.” You broke your hands free from his hold and walked to the entrance to hold the door open for him. He hesitated for a few moments before following you to the door.

“So what? You and I- none of it matters anymore? You’re just choosing to throw it all away?”

“This has nothing to do with us, nothing to do with you. I can’t always put you above everything else.” Knowing that was exactly what you were doing was the worst part of this.

“I always have,” he said, sounding defeated.

“Well I guess that’s the difference between you and I.” You put the last nail on the coffin.

With that, Five left the room and stood in the hall.

“When you regret this, and you will regret this, don’t come crawling back to me or my family,” he said before walking away. Based on his words, you knew you’d managed to hurt him a great deal. He was not going to come back now, which both relieved you and made you want to crawl into your bed and cry for hours on end.

That was the last time you had seen Five before today.

A couple of years after The Handler had taken Lila in, she found you under similar circumstances and chose to raise you as well. The two of you grew up as sisters, carrying out all sorts of missions for the woman you learnt to call mother. Soon, your power began showing and you realized you had been blessed with time control, which came in handy as it meant you didn’t need to use a briefcase for your line of work. One day, you’d chosen to visit the world post-apocalypse, something you knew your mother would never approve of. As you walked through the ruins of what used to be planet Earth, you noticed there was someone else here with you. At first, you thought it must be someone from The Commission, as any other answer was simply not possible. However, upon closer inspection, you realized he wasn’t someone who you’d seen before. That was the first time you’d met Five, and after almost being shot by him, you managed to strike a conversation with him. Soon, you two became close, and after a couple of times of visiting him, you decided to bring him back to the headquarters, risking your mother’s rage.

She wasn’t thrilled about it at first, and threatened you in multiple ways after finding out what you had done. But after watching Five successfully accomplish his first mission, she allowed him to stay. When you’d met him, he’d confessed to having spent six years already surviving on his own, and you could only imagine how much longer he would’ve spent there if you hadn’t found him.

He also told you about his family and how he wished he could get back to them, which is how he slowly began convincing you to help him out. It wasn’t easy, as you hadn’t been on board with the idea in the beginning, but after working together and earning each other’s trust, you had agreed to help him.

You sneaked out one day and left alongside Five to get him back to his family. That was the first time they failed to stop the apocalypse. The second time, Lila was involved, and after getting over her initial anger at you for leaving her behind, she joined you and the others.

You thought you had managed to leave the life you had once led behind. That you were safe now with Five and your newly found family. However, you were proven wrong when one day, The Handler appeared inside your own home, sitting on your couch.

“Long time no see.” Her voice made your blood go ice cold.

“What are you doing here?” You asked.

“Is that the proper way to greet your mother?”

“What do you want?” You insisted.

“You didn’t think I would seriously allow you to walk out with two of my best agents, now did you? I would’ve thought I raised you to be smarter than that.” You knew at that moment that whatever this was, it wasn’t going to end well for you.

“I didn’t take anyone with me, they chose to leave on their own.” You clenched your fists, ready for whatever was about to go down.

“Well, in that case then I think I’ll just go then. Thanks for clearing that up.” She stood up and prepared to leave, but you knew it was not going to be this easy. Right on cue, she turned towards you and spoke again.

“Before I leave though, I thought you should know I have agents right now placed all over to take shots at that precious little family of yours.” Your jaw clenched.

“I don’t believe you.”

She smiled at you, “That is up to you, sweetheart, but do you really want to risk baby Grace taking a shot to the head because her aunt didn’t do anything to protect her?” You wanted to strangle her, but you knew that wasn’t going to fix anything.

“What do you want?” You asked for a second time.

She faked thinking about it for a second, as if she didn’t already know exactly what she wanted from you.

“I want you to come back to work for me. I want you to do it today without telling anyone, especially that little special friend of yours.”

“Who? Five?” You didn’t like that she was paying special attention to him during this conversation.

“Bingo! You speak a word of this to him and he gets a bullet in the brain. And now that he doesn’t seem to have his powers anymore, don’t think he’s gonna be able to get out of this unharmed.” You felt shivers run down your whole body at the thought.

“What do you even gain from this? I can’t even travel through time anymore, I’m useless to you without my powers.” You didn’t understand why she’d want you back specifically. Both Lila and Five were far more skilled than you.

“You need to learn there are consequences to your own actions. This is your consequence.” You could hear the satisfaction in her voice.

“There’s a briefcase waiting for you at this address. Don’t be late, your first assignment is tomorrow morning.” She handed you a piece of paper you shoved into your pocket, knowing there was no way out of this. Maybe, if you all had your powers, you could figure out a solution, but in the state you were all in, the only way to keep everybody safe was to do what The Handler wanted you to do. You could already feel your heart breaking, hating her even more for doing this to you.

…

You jumped when you heard a knock on the window of your car, being too lost in thought to notice someone had been approaching you. You quickly wiped your tears with the back of your hand and tried to look presentable before rolling down the window.

“You left without having any cake.” Five was standing outside your car, two paper plates with servings of chocolate cake on them.

“I needed to get back to work,” you lied, hoping he would leave you alone.

“Well, I’ve been watching you sit in your car ever since you left so I’m not buying that.” Of course he’d been watching you cry pathetically all this time.

“Open up?” he requested. Knowing that he wasn’t going to leave until he got what he wanted, you unlocked the doors and allowed him to get into the passenger seat. He handed you one of the plates and you rested it on your lap, knowing you weren’t going to be able to eat it without making yourself sick given the situation you were in.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he blurted out. You opened up your mouth to deny it but he beat you to it.

“Don’t try to deny it. For the past year everytime you find out I’m gonna be somewhere you suddenly have to cancel. Happened with Claire’s science fair, happened with Luther’s barbeque and it happened with Grace’s play,” he listed. Of course he was right, but you weren’t going to admit that to him.

“I’ve just been very busy,” you said.

“Why didn’t you want to see me?” His question took you by surprise. You thought that after your last conversation he was the one that wouldn't want to see you again.

“I think it’s best if we keep our distance from one another.”

He looked taken aback, hurt, even. Great, you were causing even more damage now.

“Best? Best for who? You or me?”

“You said not to come back looking for you.” You didn’t want to throw in his face the words he’d spoken in a moment of anger, but you needed an excuse to get out of this.

“You and I both know I didn’t mean any of that. I was angry that you were choosing to leave, but I didn’t want things to end up like this. I’m sorry.” He stared at his plate, toying with the fork. You could only imagine he couldn’t stomach taking a bite as well.

“Things are complicated, Five. This is how they need to be.”

“Then explain them to me. I’m not an idiot, I know you’re doing this under some sort of manipulation from The Handler, I just can’t figure out what she has on you that made you go back.” He stopped staring at his cake to shift his gaze towards your face. He looked broken, almost as broken as you.

“I can’t- I can’t tell you anything.” You knew that by saying that you were admitting to not doing things freely, but you hoped it would be enough to get him to understand your motives.

“Whatever it is, I can help. You need to trust me.”

“How will you help me? What would you do if she sent people here to kill you? How are you going to defend yourself?” You were growing more agitated.

“Is that what this is about? She’s threatened to hurt me?” You stayed quiet, giving him the confirmation that he needed.

“I can take care of myself, or are you forgetting that I managed to survive years on my own in a post-apocalyptic world? None of that had anything to do with my powers. I understand that you’re scared, but that’s what we’re here for.”

He always oversimplified things. Made it seem as if you were the one exaggerating, as if he could just make everything better.

“Maybe you can take care of yourself, but what about the kids? What about Klaus? Have you seen him lately?”

He chuckled at your words, lightening up the mood.

“Okay, maybe you’re right, but you should’ve come to me first with all of this. I’ve been taking care of my family for years, and will continue to do so considering how stupid they constantly prove to be.”

It was your turn to chuckle now.

“I promise you we’ll figure something out together. Key word being together.” He took one of your hands in his.

“I’m not gonna let you continue to deal with this on your own.” He looked determined to keep his promise, which is why you allowed yourself to feel a glimmer of hope.

“If something were to happen to any of them, then it would be on me,” you said, staring at your lap in shame.

He used his free hand to cup your cheek and force you to look at him.

“Nothing’s going to happen. We’ve survived worse. And if something were to happen, it wouldn’t be your fault. None of this is your fault,” he reassured you.

“Please trust me, love,” he said, the nickname slipping out, taking you back to better times, easier times.

“I really want to,” you admitted, tears welling up in your eyes.

“Then do.” He moved closer to you, letting go of your hand to grab your face with both of his hands. He put his forehead to yours and allowed you to stay like that for a second.

“I don’t think I can tolerate losing you a second time,” he whispered against your lips.

“You won’t,” you whispered back.

Soon, his lips were against yours, falling back into routine as if nothing had happened between you two. One of his hands moved to your waist, tightening his grip on you. The kiss turned more intense as he began moving with more force, showing you how much he’d missed you. Your hand got lost in his hair, enjoying the new length. He pulled away and smiled against your lips.

“I missed you so much,” he said. You shared the feeling, regretting how you’d chosen to handle things. There was a lot at stake, a lot you needed to figure out, but what mattered is that you would do that together. No matter what happened from now on, you had each other to fall back onto.

#five hargreaves x reader #tua five #five x reader #five fanfic #five hargreeves #five hargreeves x you #five hargreeves angst #five hargreeves fanfiction #the umbrella academy 4 #the umbrella academy

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starlighttsv · 30 days ago

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Day 6

December Baby - pazzi!moms

Sum: celebrating Rory’s first birthday with the UConn team

Warnings: fluff, talks of death,a little bit of sadness maybe?

Note: this was so cute to write 🥹 I hope you guys like it

Happy Holidays!! I hope everyone has safe travels

Pair: Pazzi x daughter!oc (Rory)

Wc: 2.5k

My masterlist Rorys masterlist

Rory’s now been in Paige and Azzi’s care for 1 month and a few days, it’s definitely been an adjustment but they’re getting the hang of it. Geno and CD made some adjustments with the team dorm rooms so Paige and Azzi could have their own with Rory, and it’s been amazing not having to worry about waking up Jana, Allie, Ice, or Morgan when Rory was having trouble sleeping or waking up with nightmares.

Although they are in a separate dorm they’re still in the same building as the team, so the team comes to visit basically every day or p & a goes to one of their dorms with Rory. They are all basically raising Rory and Paige and Azzi couldn’t be more grateful and blessed to have this many people willing to help them with this new adventure.

See Rory is their goddaughter, p & a share a mutual friend - Kayden. Her and her husband sadly passed away in a car accident in October, and with p&a being her godmother’s they were to get custody of Rory unless they said they couldn’t do it - which wasn’t an option. Yes Paige and Azzi are public athletes with huge followings and eyes on them but they were not gonna let Rory go into the system, but they also weren’t gonna let the internet get to her.

Yes the internet knows she’s their goddaughter and p&a have and still do occasionally post her same with all the UConn girls - the only rule is that they all cover Rory’s face. Paige and Azzi want to be able to control what the internet sees of Rory and currently they themselves aren’t comfortable posting her face on the internet so no one does - and if anyone does they always use an emoji to cover her face.

Today is Rory’s first birthday and it’s already a special day, but Paige and Azzi are also gaint sentimental people and are trying their absolute hardest to make it more special even if Rory won’t remember it - and it just so happens to also be the teams annual christmas party at Genos.

So the plan is to eat breakfast, open the gifts that p & a bought for Rory, then just spend time together for a few hours before they start getting ready to leave for Genos at 4:30. Paige and Azzi decided to let Rory sleep in a little as she had a rough night but it’s currently 10:45am and breakfast is fresh off the stove - which leads us to now.

“Good morning princess, happy birthday” Azzi says while rubbing Rory’s stomach trying to wake her up. Rory just grumbles in her sleep putting her fists to her eyes and rubbing and then starts trying to turn around “baby it’s time to wake up. I made your favorite breakfast and Paigey is in the living room with a few surprises for you.” Azzi says now rubbing Rory’s sides knowing Rory always has a tough time with waking up.

Rory grumbles again and slowly opens her eyes “There’s my beautiful princess, hi” Azzi says picking Rory up and holding her to her front. Rory just cuddles closer to Azzi wrapping an arm around her bicep and the other gripping her shirt. “You wanna go see Paigey? She has some surprises for you.” Azzi says already starting to walk to the door not awaiting Rory’s response because she can’t talk yet.

“Hi baby” Paige says standing up as Azzi walks into the living room and starts walking towards Azzi to meet her in the middle. Rory lifts her head up from resting underneath Azzis chin and un grips Azzis shirt, reaching that hand out to Paige.

Paige took the hint and picked Rory up from Azzi’s arms “good morning sweetheart, happy birthday” Paige says kissing Rory on the forehead and starting to rub her back. Rory just snuggles into Paige’s neck with her hand also gripping onto P’s shirt.

“Let’s get you some food hm?” Azzi says rubbing Rory’s back when she passes Paige to get to the kitchen - making Paige follow behind her and sit down at the dining table holding Rory on her lap.

“Here ya go” Azzi says placing two paper plates in front of Paige - one for her and one with food cut up into tiny pieces for Rory. “Thank you mama” Paige says leaning up and kissing Azzi “mhm you’re welcome” Azzi responds while going back to the kitchen to get her own plate, before sitting next to Paige at the table.————————————————————-After breakfast Paige and Azzi helped Rory open her gifts from them - which Rory was not impressed by that whole ordeal, she just wanted the toys immediately.

And once that was completed they all played with Rory’s new toys for a little bit before turning on a Disney movie, deciding to have a movie marathon before they have to get ready to go to Genos house.

When it reached 3pm that’s when they ended the movie marathon, deciding on Paige giving Rory a bath while Azzi picks up their mess and then also takes a shower and gets dressed into grinch pj pants and a black shirt - then switching off with Paige getting Rory dressed into a fuzzy bear onesie while Paige takes a shower then gets dressed in the same pjs as Azzi. —————————————————————They have now been at Genos for around 25 minutes. Geno immediately took Rory once P & A walked in and took her to the kitchen letting her try so many different desserts his wife had made. Paige and Azzi knew she was gonna get a sugar rush but decided to let Rory have fun - but they know they will definitely regret letting her eat so much sugar later.

After around another 20 minutes or so everyone has finally arrived. The team decided to do Secret Santa this year so they didn’t all have to buy 16+ gifts each - but apparently that rule didn’t apply to Rory because they all walked through that door with at least two presents each for Rory - not including geno, cd, and their spouses. Using the excuse “we’re celebrating Christmas and her birthday, we get to spoil her”

Dinner came first, Genos wife made a delicious lasagna with a salad and breadsticks. Geno & CD have been taking turns with Rory all night and completely ignoring all the other UConn girl’s asking to hold Ro.

Rory was currently sitting on Genos lap at the head of the dining table with him carefully feeding her “Are you sure you don’t want me to take her? Your foods gonna get cold” Azzi says towards Geno making him look up from feeding Rory a small piece of a breadstick. “I’m sure. Eat your food. I got Rory, she’s fine.” Geno says while Rory slaps his hand (more like taps his hand) telling him that she wants more food, making Azzi, Paige, and everyone laugh at Rory’s way of telling coach to shut up and feed her. ————————————————————-After dinner was presents. Paige, Aubrey, and Ayanna volunteered to pass out all the presents with Rory having two separate piles of gifts. 1 wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and the other wrapped in birthday wrapping paper. Both piles were giant - actually giant doesn’t even describe it. Blame Geno and CD there the rich ones.

“Guys…” Azzi starts in a disappointed voice “This is to much, we can’t accept all this” Paige finished for Azzi, both looking at the giant piles of gifts in front of them all for their goddaughter.

“You can and you will, or you can run laps at practice for 4 months” Geno says looking at them and then shrugging. Paige and Azzi look at each other communicating with their eyes on what to do in this situation - deciding they’d rather not run laps for 4 months on top of their already grueling practices.

Everyone took turns on opening their gifts, lots of laughs and cry’s and eventually hugs once the secret santas came clean about who they got. Then it was Rory’s turn - automatically meaning Paige and Azzi’s turn because Rory does not know what’s happening right now.

Opening all of her gifts took at least 2 hours alone and P&A are extremely grateful for it to be over. Rory got a lot of clothes she can grow into along with shoes, toys, books, Jana made her two blankets, basically you name it and there’s at least one of that thing…thanks Geno,CD, and UConn Girls

Paige decided to load up what Rory wasn’t playing with in the car now so she didn’t have to do it tomorrow morning, after she came back in from the second trip she saw all the girls starting to pick up Rory’s gifts and start walking towards the front door “thank you” Paige says gratefully while they walk to her car

“I mean it is all of our faults she has this many gifts in the first place” Aubrey says walking past Paige. Paige laughs at that and grabs more gifts takings them to the car. ————————————————————-After some time of just talking, playing games, or playing with Rory’s toys, CD and Geno get up randomly and just walk into the kitchen without saying anything making everyone stare at the kitchen entry confused.

Geno eventually comes out carrying Rory’s high chair that he bought for Rory back in October when she was first put in P & A’s custody, and a table cloth. He spreads out the table cloth on the floor and then puts the high chair right in the center - all with every UConn girly staring at him like he’s crazy.

He then turns off all the light’s making the only lighting be the Christmas tree, candles, and the random Christmas lights hung around the house. “What is happening” kk whispers to Ice making her just shrug

CD then starts walking back into the room carrying a small cake with a number 1 candle, lit up and starts singing happy birthday with geno also starting to sing the song.

All of the UConn girls quickly jump in making Paige and Azzi look at each other knowing what’s about to happen and sigh. Paige grabs Rory from in front of her feet and sets her on her lap, quickly unzipping her bear onesie to leave her in her diaper. Paige then stands up placing Rory on her hip - making Azzi also stand up and they walk around the couch and to the high chair. Paige places Rory down in the seat and buckles her up and then steps backwards a little bit to Azzi.

All of the girls also made their way around the couch holding up their phones and recording - p&a doing the same. Once the song concludes CD places the cake on the tray in front of Rory - her immediately sticking her hand into the side of the cake and bringing it to her face. CD immediately grabs the burning candle out of the cake and blows it out so Rory doesn’t get hurt.

They all record Rory punching the cake with her fist and then bringing her fist to her face, making an absolute mess all over her, the high chair, and the table cloth.

After some time Rory seems to be not interested in the cake anymore so Paige lifts the messy baby out of the high chair and starts carrying her to the bathroom to wash Rory up.

While Paige is doing that the UConn girls decide to tag team the mess and all pick it up together while the adults go and pack up the leftover food and clean up the kitchen. ——————————————————————It’s now 12:30am, Geno and his wife went up to bed hours ago and CD and her husband are in one of the guest bedrooms but all the UConn girls are in the living room talking. Rory’s asleep on Azzi’s chest hugging onto her while Paige is sitting next them with her arm wrapped around the back of Azzi’s neck. “You guys are good at this” Jana says after a few moments of silence “for real bro, your guys lives changed completely one day and you guys have just been handling it like it’s just another road to cross” KK cuts in

“Right?! I thought you guys would’ve been panicking and not know what to do when she got here, but here you guys are” Ice say’s with Aubrey and Ayanna cutting in with their agreement to that statement

“Couldn’t have done it without you guys” Paige says looking at the girls while her head is tilted on Azzi’s “yes you could have, you guys have gone through so many things together, I didn’t have any doubt that you guys could be the best family for this grieving baby” Caroline said making all the girls say some sort of agreement

“I speak for all of us “freshies”, we haven’t personally known you guys as much as the others have, but your relationship is one of the most beautiful stories and strongest too. I full believe you could have done it without us, but we will never know because you’re always gonna have us. “ Kaitlyn says with Sarah, Allie & Morgan nodding along

“They’re all right, you guys are great at this whole parenting stuff - even when you had to do this during such a hard time for the three of you.” Ashlynn adds in “what did we do to deserve you guys omg” Azzi says freeing one of her hands from Rory’s back and lifting it to her face and wiping some tears

“You guys deserve the world and more” Ayanna says with the girls agreeing with her.———————————————————Everyone’s asleep now minus Paige and Azzi. They’re laying on the bed in their guest room on their sides facing each other with Rory asleep in between them “I can’t believe she’s one.” Azzi starts saying “I can’t believe she’s one and Kayden and Max aren’t here to see where she goes in life” Azzi says drawing slow shapes on Rory’s stomach

“I get it. I’ve been struggling with the fact that they weren’t gonna be able to celebrate her first birthday since they passed. Actually it’s really more of ‘all the milestones they’re gonna miss’ that I’ve been struggling with.” Paige starts “They’re never going the hear her talk, see her walk for the first time, celebrate her birthdays with her, watch her do something she loves, watch her graduate, watch her fall in love and get married, watch her be a mother. They won’t get to know anything about their daughter or what she looks like, and that fact is absolutely devastating to me.”

Azzi doesn’t know how to respond to that so they both just sit in silence watching Rory sleep peacefully “We need to tell her about her parents as soon as she understands the words we’re saying” Azzi says still watching Rory and drawing shapes on her stomach “as soon as we can” Paige promises leaning over and kissing Azzi