Been a while

Joy placed her breakfast on the dining table and pulled out the dining chair, she was about to dig into her breakfast when she heard her mother walk in.

"Would you like some juice?" Natasha as she she walked into the dinning room with her own breakfast in hand. Now that Joy was awake, they would definitely have breakfast together.

"Yes please mommy." Joy replied nodding her head with a cute smile.

"Alright darling, I'll be right back." she replied as she placed her food on the dining table and left to the kitchen.

...

"Joy is really energetic this morning madam." said Alfred as Natasha walked into the kitchen and laughed.

"Of course she is, every child is suddenly energetic when they don't have to go to school in the morning." she said as they both laughed.

"Oh, she's such a darling." said Alfred as he smiled, he was really fond of Joy, just like he would be if he had a granddaughter.

"I tell you." replied Natasha.

"Madam, I hope you do not take this as me not minding my own business, but I was really shocked to see you and the young master together this morning." admitted Alfred. Natasha just laughed.

"Yes Alfred, I could tell, your eyes looked like they were about to pop out." she laughed.

"Was I that readable?" he asked.

"Very much so, but I don't blame you, it's not everyday you see us peaceful with each other." she answered.

"So..." asked Alfred.

"So nothing Alfred, if being civil with each other already gives you some ideas, then I hope you won't share them." she replied nonchalantly.

"I didn't mean it that way, it's just that you know... all we truly want is for you to be happy." he said.

"And we are happy like this. Gosh, everyone truly has an opinion." Natasha said, she did not sound annoyed, but rather amused that so many people thought the same way.

"You have to admit madam, things were in pure bliss when you two were together." he replied.

"And they are even more blissful now with Joy." said Natasha.

"You really do seem happier nowadays." he had observed her change in mood, and she was happy to see her happy.

"Why wouldn't I be happy? Life is good, I have a wonderful daughter, family that true care for me and most of all, I am at peace with myself, and that's the most important." she replied.

"I really like seeing you like this madam." said Alfred as he smiled.

"And I like how much you truly care for this family. You do know that you're practically family at this point right?" asked Natasha.

"Right." he replied as Natasha poured grape juice into a glass.

"I will see you later Alfred." she replied as she smiled.

"See you later madam." he replied smiling.

...

"I guess we're going to have breakfast together." said Dom to himself as he walked into the dining room and sat down with his food.

"I don't remember the last time we all had breakfast together." Joy said, her mouth full of delicious pancakes, but Dom was able to make out what she was saying.

"Don't talk with your mouth full princess, you might choke." he said as she nodded.

"And yes, you're right, it's been a while since we all had breakfast together." he smiled.

"Maybe we'll get to do it more often during the summer." he said as he smiled. Usually Joy would be awake before seven so she could get ready for school, and he and Natasha would be on their way to work, and on Saturday's everyone had things to settle, so they rarely sat down together in the mornings.

"Yesss." she said nodding her head.

"Here's your juice darling." said Natasha, she walked into the dining room and handed Joy her juice.

"Thank you mommy." Joy smiled instantly taking a sip.

Natasha smiled at her daughter and sat down and took a sip of her tea.

"Daddy and I were just talking about how nice it is that we are all eating breakfast together." said Joy.

"That is true... we rarely have breakfast together my darling." Natasha smiled as she poked Joy's nose.

"I know, and I like that we can." replied Joy as she smiled, she was truly happy to see her parent's together this morning, even though they were arguing, or not, she was not sure, but either way, she liked it when they were all together.

"So princess, do you have any plans for today?" asked Dom.

"I want to go visit Ethan today so I can play with Pluto, I haven't seen her in a long time." Joy laughed.

"Oh, about that darling, Ethan's mom texted me yesterday that they left on vacation." said Natasha, she knew that this news would upset Joy, Ethan was technically the only friend she saw frequently.

"Aww, so quickly?" asked Joy as she frowned.

"What do you mean?" asked Natasha.

"Ethan told me that he was going to go on vacation during summer break, but I didn't think that he would just leave so quickly without saying goodbye." said Joy sadly. She really thought that they would play together for a while before he left.

"Oh, I'm sorry darling." said Natasha as she caressed Joy's hair.

"What's the rush, why did they leave so quickly?" asked Dom as he stifled a laugh. As much as he felt for his daughter, he kept on thinking of how hilarious it was that Neil, Chloe and Ethan just packed their bags instantly and left without any hassle at all.

 He wondered why they had left so quickly. Natasha who noticed that he was trying his best not to laugh glared at him.

"What?" he chuckled.

"Stop laughing." she replied.

"I can't help it, I just wonder why they left so quickly as if they had been chased away." he laughed.

"Well they didn't necessarily leave in a rush. Chloe told me on several occasions that they always have plans to travel during the summer. But I have to admit, they were really ready to leave." Natasha replied, seeing how the situation was funny.

"They really love their vacations then. I can't just up and leave whenever I feel like it, unfortunately." Dom said.

"How about we go on vacation as well mommy and daddy?" asked Joy, her eyes lit up at the thought. It seemed that everyone was going on vacation. Clarita told her that she would be going on vacation, Prince and Leon were travelling as well.

It would be so cool if she could travel with her parents so when they all got back to school she also had interesting stories to share with her friends about their summer break.

"I really wish we could princess, but your mommy and I were discussing that yesterday and we concluded that right now is not a good time for a vacation." Dom replied swiftly, he could see Natasha looked sad, she probably felt guilty.

"But why?" asked Joy.

"Well darling, your mommy just opened a new store and she can't leave it unsupervised right now, and I have to focus on work." he explained softly.

"But I promise you that very soon we'll go on a family vacation to someplace exciting." he said smiling.

"You promise?" she asked him hopefully.

"We promise darling." said Natasha as she held Joy's hand and kissed it.

"Okay, I can't wait for then." she giggled as both Natasha and Dom laughed.

"Thank you." Natasha mouthed to Dom, she felt herself unable to answer Joy's valid question considering Dom had thought of this situation before she ever did, and she was the one that said no.

She just didn't want to break her baby's soft heart with disappointment. She knew how it felt to be left out, and she didn't want Joy to feel the same.

Dom just smiled, they were a team in raising their daughter, even though they didn't see eye to eye in most things, they clearly did when it came to their daughter. It wasn't the duty of a sole parent to be the one to enforce discipline or break bad news, it was a joint effort.

"Since Ethan isn't here I'll just play with Maggie all day." said Joy.

"That sounds nice my darling, have fun." said Natasha as she smiled.

"I'm all done with my pancakes, can I go and play now?" asked Joy.

"Of course my darling." said Natasha as she smiled.

"Thank you." Joy laughed as she rushed out the dining room.

"I think that even though we can't go on vacation, we should take her somewhere special soon." he said.

"I absolutely agree, she will truly get bored cooped in her the entire day." said Natasha.

"So where should we take her?" asked Dom.

"I can't think of somewhere right now, how about you come up with a place?" she asked.

"Sure, we should both think of places and when we find somewhere suitable we'll discuss it." said Dom as Natasha nodded.