The room stayed quiet for a few seconds after Madison left.
Then the sounds of her morning picked up outside the bedroom. Footsteps in the hall. Her voice calling something downstairs to McKenzie. The front door opening. The muffled overlap of two sisters leaving for the day in their usual rush of bags, keys, and last-minute comments.
Then the door shut.
And the house exhaled.
Before she left, Madison had scooped Greg and Cindy up one at a time and set them back inside the habitat with her usual brisk efficiency, already mentally halfway into the school day. She had reminded them to rest, told them not to make a mess, and then gone, bright and polished and pleased with herself in the shoes they had cleaned for her.
Now Greg sat on the little couch while Cindy stood near the clear wall, arms folded tightly across herself.
Neither spoke right away.
Greg could still feel the afterimage of Madison’s thumb brushing his hair.
Cindy, meanwhile, looked like she had been holding something in since the moment the bedroom door closed.
When she finally turned toward him, the anger in her face had a rawness to it that made Greg sit up straighter.
“You need to say something,” she said.
Greg frowned. “About what?”
Cindy let out a short, incredulous breath. “Seriously?”
“Cindy—”
“No, Greg.” She crossed the small space of the habitat and stopped in front of him. “You are getting specialized treatment and acting like it’s just… normal now.”
Greg stared at her.
“You have McKenzie,” Cindy went on. “That was the whole point, wasn’t it? The whole reason you wanted to get in good with her. So maybe she could help us. Maybe she could soften things. Maybe she could be an out.”
Greg opened his mouth, but she kept going.
“And now what?” she demanded quietly. “Now you’re getting in good with both of them.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Cindy laughed once, with no humor in it. “Really? Because from where I’m standing, McKenzie still barely wants anything to do with me, and Madison treats me like I’m literally her Little who just happens to also be her mother.”
Greg flinched slightly.
“And you,” Cindy said, voice tightening, “you get held up in front of everyone like you’re Simba.”
That made him blink.
Cindy gestured sharply toward the space where Madison had stood earlier.
“She praises you differently, Greg. She shows you off. She pets your hair, thanks you like you did something adorable, talks about you like you’re some special little dad project she’s proud of.” Her expression hardened. “Meanwhile I get graded.”
Greg looked down.
That was not entirely unfair.
Cindy saw that he knew it and pressed harder.
“I don’t get McKenzie,” she said. “I don’t get the softer version of Madison. I don’t get any of it. I get to be honored through obedience and corrected like some kind of doctrinal case study while you’re getting one on one time, emotional reassurance, and offered sports nights.”
“That’s not fair,” Greg said quietly.
Cindy stared at him. “Exactly.”
The word hung between them.
Greg ran a hand over his face. “You think I wanted any of this?”
“I think you’re adapting better than I am.”
“That doesn’t mean I like it.”
“No,” Cindy said. “It just means it’s working better on you.”
That one landed.
Greg looked at her for a long moment. “You think this is easy for me?”
“I think it’s easier,” Cindy said. “For you. Than it is for me.”
She turned away and paced the tiny length of the habitat, which really meant taking three frustrated steps, stopping, and turning back again.
“Do you know what it feels like,” she asked, quieter now, “to watch my own daughter become the center of my emotional life? To feel her approval matter? To know she knows it matters?”
Greg said nothing.
“To hear her say ‘good job’ and feel…” Cindy stopped herself, jaw tightening. “Whatever the hell that is.”
Greg lowered his eyes.
“She loves that,” Cindy said. “You know she does. She loves that her praise means something now. She loves that I care.”
Her voice thinned slightly around the last word.
“And maybe I could tolerate some of that if there were any balance at all. But there isn’t, Greg. You’re becoming something else to both of them.” She turned back toward him. “You’re useful to McKenzie because she still sees you as Dad. You’re precious to Madison because she still wants you as Dad. And me?”
She let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
“I’m just proof that her methods work.”
Greg stood up from the couch.
“Cindy.”
“No,” she said, not angrily this time. More tired than anything. “You need to hear this.”
He hesitated.
“The whole point of you getting close to McKenzie was supposed to help us,” she said. “Us. Not just give you somewhere better to land while I stay here and get turned into exactly what Madison thinks I’m supposed to be.”
Greg took a slow breath.
“I’m not trying to leave you.”
Cindy looked at him with a kind of exhausted disbelief.
“You keep saying that like wanting it is the same thing as preventing it.”
That hit harder than the rest.
Because Greg had no answer ready for it.
Cindy saw that too.
Her shoulders sagged slightly, some of the anger draining out and leaving something worse in its place.
“I know you love both of them,” she said. “I know that. I’m not saying you don’t.” Her eyes flicked toward the closed bedroom door. “But love doesn’t change the way this is sorting itself.”
Greg leaned back against the habitat wall and looked at her.
For a moment, she looked smaller than he had seen her in a while. Not physically. Emotionally. Stripped of posture. Stripped of the brittle certainty that usually held her together.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked at last.
Cindy was quiet.
Then she said, “Say that you see it.”
Greg swallowed.
“I see it,” he said.
She looked at him carefully, testing the words for weakness.
“I see that Madison treats us differently,” he continued. “I see that McKenzie treats us differently too. And I see that none of that is equal for you.”
Cindy’s face changed slightly, though not enough to count as relief.
“And I see,” Greg added, more quietly, “that the version of this house that might still have somewhere else for me in it doesn’t have somewhere else for you.”
That was the first thing he’d said all morning that seemed to reach her.
Cindy looked down at the floor.
“Yeah,” she said.
Just that.
Yeah.
And in the tiny stillness of the habitat, with the girls gone for the day and the morning finally over, Greg felt once again the shape of the truth settling over them both.
Yes but he needs to hit back at her! Needs to say McKenzie is that way because of how you treated her and Madison sees her as a little because she indoctrinated her into Cindy’s view of littles! It’s not Greg’s fault! I was sorry for you but fuck you cindy!
fuckin hell lol that was a rough way to end the week XD
Man, Greg should have saved calling out Cindy’s views/teachings of littles for this moment.
Cindy created this world for herself when she was big by how she treated the girls & the same could be said for Greg who went to dances and tennis practice while Cindy was doing anti little projects.
I really expected Greg to ask her what she expects him to do about the situation. If she expects him to “talk” to either daughter, then she needs to wait for his position to become even better than it currently is. At some point he will need to play the matrimony card with his daughters. They will need to either concede that they are husband and wife or that they are simply Littles that happen to cohabit at this time.
If he gets into a better position with both daughters, he might be able to insist that they treat Cindy the same as him. That could backfire if they start treating him the same as Cindy.
Unless Cindy and/or Greg take some sort of initiative, then the only way things will change is if Madison has some major change of attitude brought on by some reason that I cannot foresee at this time.
Fair point it’s a very difficult situation for both sides her and Cindy clearly isn’t taking this reality well and seems emotionally unstable with the way things are going
Idk this is a very hard land mine Greg has to cross because he loves his daughters and his wife and doesn’t want to leave either ones behind but has to figure out how to support all them in his current position
He is just a little to both daughters also so not much he can do because they don’t look at him a being a real dad just a little dad that needs to be treated like a baby.
Damn this is one way to end the week with both sides airing out what’s on their minds and how things are moving
Cindy – unloading anger and frustration while also showing the fear of being alone and feeling lost within her own emotional state which seems like it will crack and minute
Greg – clearly doesn’t want to leave Cindy alone and feeling like she has no place in the family while knowing that she did bring this on herself and doesn’t know how to ease it but at least there for her being the good husband that he is
Both sides have some valid points and Cindy is clearly breaking probably feels lost and scared about what her future looks like
I know everybody will want Greg to fire back at her with the whole “this is all your fault not mine” but I think it’s good he didn’t do that as a first reaction and response. He probably knows that yelling at each other won’t help and rather her let out and handle it calmly and understand that Cindy emotionally weak right now and doesn’t want to make worse than it already feels like for her right now
He’ll probably bring up the point this is what she wanted for Littles and she no different and how she treated McKenzie before but more calmly.
Either way I’m interested in seeing how this goes
This might happen if Cindy grew a-little lol
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MrtWqrHciMpObzyr7yrmyrC7zzihgFc1/view?usp=drivesdk