Madison stayed in the desk chair for another minute or two, feet still propped up in front of them, absently scrolling through Shard while Greg and Cindy kept working.
The room had gone quieter again except for the soft drag of cloth over canvas, the occasional tap of Madison’s thumb against her screen, and the faint hum of the house settling around them. Greg had just gone back to working at a stubborn streak along the edge of the sole when Madison made a small sound under her breath.
“Oh my God.”
Greg did not look up.
Cindy did, warily.
Madison sat up a little, her entire posture changing with sudden interest. “Wait. No. This one’s cute.”
She scrolled back, then watched the clip again, one foot slipping off the desk to bounce lightly against the chair leg.
Onscreen, some girl around Madison’s age was doing a dance Greg vaguely recognized as one of those endlessly recycled social media trends, all quick shoulder pops, easy swagger, and confident footwork repackaged as something new because the sound underneath it had changed.
Madison’s face lit up.
“I can do that,” she said immediately.
Cindy closed her eyes for half a second.
Of course she could.
Madison was already standing by the time either of them processed what was happening. The desk trembled lightly under her shifting weight as she crossed back toward the center of the room, still staring at her phone, replaying the clip and mimicking bits of the movement under her breath.
“No, wait. Hold on.” She angled the screen toward herself and tried the steps once, then again. “Okay, that’s actually easy.”
Greg looked sideways at Cindy.
Cindy looked like she was trying very hard not to say anything at all.
Madison turned back toward the desk with sudden purpose.
“Okay,” she said brightly, “we’re taking a little break.”
Neither Greg nor Cindy moved.
Madison made a face. “Why are you both acting like I said something insane? This is a break. You want to help me don’t you dad?”
“well of course honey. Its just we’re trying to clean this for you to show how important you are to me, to us.” Greg said.
“I know but i dont want you overworked and I need you.” Madison came closer and picked up her phone, already switching camera modes. “Dad, I need you to hold this.”
Greg looked up at her. “Hold it?”
“Yeah.” Madison leaned down and set the phone carefully in front of him, camera already open. “Steady. Don’t be weird. Thanks dad you’re the best. Love you.”
Cindy let out the smallest, disbelieving breath through her nose.
Madison noticed immediately. “Mom, you too. Don’t start. You’re both getting, like, a five minute pause. Dad needs your strenth. He can’t do it all himself. This is like what you’re here for. Perfect dad you’re like the best. I’ll bring you treat tomorrow after school. Dont look at me like that mom I’m literally being nice. This is like family together time. We’re making a shard.”
This was her version of generosity.
She adjusted the phone’s angle, frowned, then repositioned it in Greg’s hands with the careful confidence of someone arranging a tool she fully expected to obey.
At his size, the phone was enormous. Not impossible to brace if it was leaned correctly, but heavy enough that he had to widen his stance and set both hands against the edge of the case just to keep it from tipping.
“There,” Madison said. “See? Easy.”
Greg said nothing.
Madison pointed at Cindy. “Mom, help stabilize it from the side if he starts shaking. I’m not posting something crooked.”
“So this,” Cindy said carefully, “is the break.”
Madison rolled her eyes. “Yes. Oh my God. You guys are so dramatic. You were just complaining five seconds ago, and now I’m giving you a little break from shoe duty and somehow that’s also a problem.”
Her expression brightened again almost immediately as she stepped back into the open space in front of the mirror.
“Okay. Watch this.”
She replayed the clip one more time, set the sound, and then started. Madison wasn’t just messing around.
She had real rhythm, real training behind it. Between being on the dance team with Brooklyn and years of classes, movement came easy to her in a way that she didn’t have to think about anymore. Even now, there was a looseness to it, a practiced control underneath the casual confidence, like her body already knew where to go before she fully decided.
She hit the shoulders and bounce of the dance routine first, clean and deliberate, then flowed into the sequence with smooth precision, adjusting mid-step without breaking pace when something felt slightly off. It wasn’t perfect in a technical sense, not the way a recital routine might have been, but it didn’t need to be. This wasn’t about perfection. It was about presence, and flare.
And Madison had that in abundance.
Greg held the phone as steady as he could.
From where he stood, the experience was deeply surreal. Madison filled the frame and the room at the same time, her body moving through the steps with casual confidence, socks sliding lightly over the floor, hair shifting against her shoulders as she hit the beat. Every movement read as normal from her perspective, ordinary even. At his scale it felt overwhelming.
“Don’t tilt it,” Madison said without breaking rhythm.
“I’m trying,” Greg muttered.
“I know,” she said, not unkindly. “Just… try better.”
Cindy reached out and put both hands against one side of the phone to stabilize it further.
“That’s better,” Madison said at once.
Then she flashed them a grin halfway through the next sequence, entirely too pleased with herself.
By the end of the run she was laughing.
“Oh, that ate,” she declared, hurrying back toward the desk. “Wait, let me see.”
Greg and Cindy carefully lowered the phone, and Madison scooped it up immediately.
She watched the take once, then again, already smiling.
“That’s actually really good,” she said. “Like… weirdly good.” Her eyes flicked down to Greg. “Dad, you did nice.”
The praise should not have felt as relieving as it did.
Madison glanced at Cindy too. “You helped. Good assist.”
Cindy said nothing.
Madison didn’t seem to care. She was too pleased with the video. She trimmed the front of the clip, adjusted the timing, and watched it one more time with the smug concentration of someone already imagining the response.
Then, without looking up, she said, “Okay, break’s over.”
Cindy stared at her.
Madison looked up then, blinking at the expression she got in return. “What?”
“You mean that was the break,” Cindy said flatly.
Madison gave her a baffled look. “Yes? You weren’t cleaning shoes for like five whole minutes.”
Greg actually closed his eyes.
Madison huffed. “Honestly, I don’t know what you want from me sometimes.”
She set the phone down on the bed and leaned over the desk again, voice softening as her attention shifted back to Greg.
“And Dad?”
Greg looked up warily.
“Thank you,” Madison said, and this time she sounded sincere. Still bratty, still completely herself, but sincere under it. “I know this probably isn’t your dream night or whatever, but cleaning the shoes actually means a lot to me.”
Greg didn’t answer right away.
Madison tilted her head. “I’m serious.”
Her fingers brushed lightly through his hair once, then withdrew.
“It’s special because you decided to do it,” she said. “Like, on your own. You took initiative. You were trying to make it right without me having to tell you to.”
Cindy looked at Greg sharply.
Madison either missed it or ignored it.
“That matters,” she said. “It’s sweet.”
Greg’s throat tightened a little, not because he believed the version of events she was describing, but because Madison clearly did. Or wanted to.
She smiled at him, softer now than she had been a moment ago while dancing.
“So yeah,” she said. “Thank you.”
Then, almost instantly, the softness tipped back into that casual, smug Madison tone.
“Also, keep going. I want them clean enough that I can actually wear them tomorrow without being offended.”
There she was.
She grabbed her phone again, flopped back onto the bed, and started editing the Shard draft while Greg and Cindy returned to the shoes.
Behind them, the music from the clip looped faintly as Madison fine-tuned the post.
On the desk, Greg resumed scrubbing with slower hands, the cleaner sharp in his nose, Cindy beside him silent again, and both of them trapped inside the strangest possible version of a family evening: shoe cleaning, social media, little breaks that were not breaks at all, and Madison above it all, bratty and pleased and impossible to separate from the room she had turned into her own world.
It’s like she’s trying to suck up to Greg in her own bratty way
Well she does love her father. So while she is bratty she still does want him in her life and cares about him. She is maintaining her prior relationship with him.
Where Cindy really went all in on littles are dehumanized so becuse she is honoring that she looks at Cindy more
Though that lens as that’s what
Her mom wants from her perspective
I’d love for her to have a real conversation without Cindy’s rules in her mind, would she be like McKenzie? Maybe? Who knows
how heavy is that phone to a little? Like Google AI says The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra weighs 214 grams (approximately 7.55 ounces), so i’d imagine the phone in the story must be hella heavy, like i’m thinking it’s like a tall empty fridge
Madison has to know that and that this wouldn’t constitute a break. i’m pretty sure she heard them talking but not all of it, and this was just something to get them to change what they were thinking about and to dish out immediate praise.
Also wondering how Madison would react to her mom and dad fighting as littles, would it concern her? Cause from here Greg looks like he’s had enough of Cindy’s shit! His line about how she treated McKenzie is really coming from a place of hurt and he wanted to sting her there
I never really thought about the weight of the phone. It seemed manageable for the two of th and it seemed fun to put into the story.
I also just liked the idea of it as it seemed like something Madison would do.
oh lol yeah stuff like that just pops in my mind, cause why would holding a big ass object be a break. It’s definitely manageable to the two of them, i ended up chatgpting it and it says its manageable
In Madison’s mind it’s a break from cleaning to do something together as a family. So it’s a break.
But it’s not a rest period lol.
Ahh that makes sense actually. Too bad it wasn’t just chilling with her and talking freely, or as freely as she allows lol
This little girl ….she so….gaaaahhh words can’t describe my rage for her I’m at the point where Cindy’s teaching can be the excuse for her behavior because she has the choice damn it!!!!
She can have the choice but the culture and how you are raised are a large factor in what you view as right or wrong. Madison does have choice but someone where Cindy is her parent and teacher of life and morality.
So why would she think it’s wrong to have her littles hold her phone as she makes shards because what would have told her this is wrong?
Beyond the house, what at school? What in the city? What in the US?
Removing our world but what within Madison’s world is telling her this is wrong?
A) I don’t look at Madison as a kid , or her friends because at least where I grew up we were already living our young life our way and I like when Madison shows her own personality for having fun with littles and not Cindy’s and trying to keep a little Dad relationship going with of course her in full Control.
B) I hope Greg is able to forge his own new little dad , Giant daughter relationship by going shopping and school with Madison and convincing her to let him speak freely and that he will do what she says not because he has too but because he loves and trusts her to keep him safe. They will be alive together for a long time and don’t have the baggage that a Little Cindy has with the girls.
C) I think Cindy will stay a bonded Meek little doll that both girls an knowledge as their mom but don’t go out of their way to treat her like their dad because of her teaching history with them. She will just be put in their laps at family times and just let her chill. It will be an interesting little parenting, giant daughters relationships going forward because it sounds like Kenz will be relying on Madison to keep their dad the same but manage the house and littles moving forward.
1) “I can do that.” It’s a social media dance trend; they tend to be simple choreography anyone can do, and Madison’s a trained dancer.
2) ““Why are you both acting like I said something insane? This is a break. You want to help me don’t you, Dad?” Not really a break if you’re just replacing it with other work
3) “Mom, you too. Don’t start. You’re both getting, like, a five-minute pause. Dad needs your strength. He can’t do it all himself. This is like what you’re here for.” Damn, her whole life’s purpose reduced to “help Greg”, lol
4) “This was her version of generosity,” about what I’d expect from her
5) “You were just complaining five seconds ago” Oh shit, she was listening
6) ““Just… try better.” Gee, what a helpful piece of advice
7) “That’s actually really good, like… weirdly good. Dad, you did nice.” I feel like the same could have been achieved by leaning her phone on something inanimate, like her shoes
8) ““Honestly, I don’t know what you want from me sometimes.” Yes you do, you manipulative bitch
9) “I know this probably isn’t your dream night or whatever, but cleaning the shoes actually means a lot to me.” He is so lucky she fell for that.
10) ““Like, on your own. You took initiative. You were trying to make it right without me having to tell you to.” That almost sounds like actual gratitude
11) “Cindy looked at Greg sharply.” someone’s jealous
12) “Also, keep going. I want them clean enough that I can actually wear them tomorrow without being offended,” she wouldn’t have been offended if she’d worn them uncleaned