Life has sucked a lot less for Hailey Harper since moving into the Weiss household.

Kind of hilarious that that means more nightmares. Like a pressure valve able to vent now that external circumstances have improved.

She presses in against Cyra and breathes, squeezing her tightly.

"Uncle Michael again," she murmurs. "He'd got you, too, this time."

She blows out a slow breath. One hand buries in Cyra's hair. "But you're here. I'm here. He's across the damned city."

Cyra sighs and squeezes her close, arms pressed in tight to Hailey's back.

"He can't get me. If he even had the balls—hell, knew where we are and had the balls—that's what we've been training for. He can't hurt us."

"Yeah. He doesn't train, just counts on bulk and intimidation. We'd knock him on his fat ass."

Cyra grins, a small chuckle escaping her lips.

"We would."

Hailey leans up to press a kiss to Cyra's cheek, then rests her head back down on her chest.

She's probably not getting back to sleep, but this is a nice way to spend the early morning either way.

It is. They enjoy the time nestled up against eachother, watching as the sun rises and the room begins to slowly brighten.

Eventually, the alarm on Cyra's phone begins to chirp above her bed, and she reaches up to tap it off.

"Alright cutie. Breakfast?"

"Heh, yeah. Probably wise."

She gives Cyra a kiss and rolls out of bed to shower and get dressed, picking out black jeans, a band tee, and combat boots.

She lies in bed for a few moments longer, watching her girlfriend dress before getting up herself, throwing on a white blouse and black skinny jeans, and strolling out to the kitchen.

Throwing an oiled cast-iron skillet into the stove and turning on the heat, she begins mixing eggs in a bowl, adding salt, pepper, freshly-shredded cheese, paprika, and a few shakes of hot sauce. Once the pan is hot, she pours the mixture in and begins whisking it with a fork.

Soon enough, Hailey steps out to join her, wet hair hanging messily about her face. "Thanks for getting it started for me, babe." She throws a few slices of bread into the toaster, gets out a couple plates in advance, then gives Cyra a kiss as she takes over the pan.

"You're very welcome!"

Cyra smiles back at Hailey, then waltzes off to the bathroom, careful not to make too much noise, lest she wake her younger sisters early.

Nothing like cooking for her girlfriend and foster family. These fuckers actually appreciate her efforts in the kitchen.

Eggs get scrambled, toast gets buttered, and everything gets plated up with preferred drinks in glasses.

She sits down with a hot mug of black coffee and grins at Cyra.

Hair now wet from the shower, Cyra grins back.

"Thanks, babe."

She begins eating her breakfast, occasionally taking a sip from her tea.

Before long, the girls can hear the sound of a door closing and the shower turning on. A few minutes after that, Cyra's mother emerges from the hall, yawning.

"Aww, you made breakfast! Thank you girls!" She smiles and takes a sip from the cup of tea at her place.

"Do you want to go wake your sisters up, or should I?"

Hailey shakes her head with a grin as she stuffs her last bite of toast into her mouth, swallows it, and stands. "I got it, Mom. Chill, get some food in ya. I'll go get the brats."

When Hailey creeps into their room, Mae and Emi are snuggled up under the covers of Emi's bed together. There are two beds in the larger room, but the two girls still share a bed more nights than not. These days, Mae mostly only sleeps in her own bed because their parents won't let her sleep naked when someone else is in the bed with her.

The small girl is snoring gently, head tucked up under her older sister's chin.

Emi has her arm over her sister and is smiling contentedly. Her eyes flutter, opening at the door's creak, and she smiles up at Hailey when the older girl enters their room.

"G'morning," she says softly, hoping not to wake her younger sister yet, "breakfast already?"

"Yep," Hailey whispers back. "Breakfast-time, brats. Cyra and I made scrambled eggs and toast. Get some before it gets cold."

She reaches down and ruffles Emi's hair.

Emi grins up and gently shakes her sister awake. "C'mon Mae, time to get up!"

The small girl is roused without much trouble, and before long the girls are munching away at their breakfast, mumbling their thanks around forkfuls of egg and bites of toast.

Their mom smiles.

"So, any fun plans for you all today?"

Emi perks up and sets her food down for a moment.

"I've got gardening after school again! We're gonna start planting lettuce and radishes for the year, so we're all really excited!"

"Right little farmer, ain'tcha?"

Hailey's been sipping her coffee and watching everyone fondly, and adds, "Meanwhile we're learning a new routine in dance."

"That sounds nice! You'll have to see if you can record it and show us once you get it down!"

Ami smiles.

"We'll have to."

An alarm goes off.

"Oh—hurry, hurry! Don't wanna miss the bus!"

"Shit, you're right."

Hailey knocks back the last of her coffee, sets the mug back down, and stands up. A quick lunge to the corner of the room gets her backpack, then she gives Sara a shoulder-squeeze and Maeve a hair-ruffle on the way to the door. "See you!"

Cyra hurriedly finishes her food while Emi scarfs down the last of hers, and the older girl hurries her younger sister out the door, grabbing her bag for her as they go.

"Yikes, I thought we had more time! Thanks!"

And off they head to the bus stop. Luckily, it's not far from their building.

Only a minute later, the girls make their way onto their bus and Cyra sits down, breathing out a heavy sigh of relief. That was a lot closer than she likes to call it, but sometimes time just slips out from under you.

Hailey relaxes a bit against Cyra as they settle onto the bus, but her eyes still track the motions of all the other students, subtly guarded now that they're in public. 

"Wha'cha think the new routine's gonna be in dance?"

She threads an arm around her girlfriend's waist and hums thoughtfully.

"Mmm… Good question."

Cyra looks back to her other side, quickly checking on her sister while she thinks.

Emi is happily scribbling diagrams and details in her notebook. She looks happy, and only occasionally annoyed when the bus goes over a particularly egregious bump.

"We've got a few big options this year—I know we're doing more Jazz soon, but maybe not this soon. I kind of hope they touch on classic partner dancing again a bit, even if it isn't really what our class is focused on."

"That would be fun. Sweep you across the room in a waltz or something."

She throws Cyra a grin, eyes continuing to dance across the entire population of the bus, including Emi. Guard coming down is a thing for environments she controls, and this sure as shit ain't that.

"I'm personally really looking forward to the final project this year. Definitely pairing up with you."

Cyra grins back at Hailey. "Sweep me? Who says you'd lead~?" she says teasingly.

Then she pauses and giggles, giving away the joke.
"I'd like that too though. You'll be fun to work through the choreo with, and there's nobody I'd rather plan a routine around."

Hailey snickers. "Maybe we'll trade off. Or maybe we'll dance a duel for it."

Cyra grins again, leaning over in her seat and pressing a kiss to her girlfriend's cheek.

"I'd like that."

Hailey blushes very faintly and smiles, bringing Cyra's hand to her lips and pressing a kiss to the back of it as she keeps an eye on everything.

The bus ride passes uneventfully, and soon all the teens are exiting the buses and heading up to the doors of the school.

The morning bus from the girls' end of town arrives 15 minutes before the school doors open, so while Cyra and Hailey are waiting out front, Emi gives her sister a quick hug and hurries off around the building to check on the garden out back.

Cyra leans against the doors and smiles at Hailey. It's annoying that they have this wait, but she's not going to complain about time she gets to spend with her girlfriend.

Hailey leans against Cyra and watches the world cautiously. Other students mill about, and her eyes track them. A little smile curls her lips, through the guard. These little moments with Cyra always bring that out in her.

A black Impala pulls up in the student lot a few minutes later, and a blonde gets out, laughing. "Okay, we definitely can't let him cook for at least a week."

"Hehehe, yeah, it was so bad." A shorter, black-haired and red-tipped girl gets out of the passenger side, throwing a backpack over her shoulder. The pair head over toward the doors. "Hi Hailey, Cyra!"

"Hey girls, how was the weekend?"

Cyra sighs. "Exhausting! Some of the adoption paperwork got misfiled and we had to go in-person to get it fixed. Mom helped, but they needed a bunch of things from Hailey or else it was going to be a problem."

She sighs again, letting her head fall back against the glass door of the building.

"But we got it done before the end of Sunday, so we at least got some peace and quiet to ourselves."

She looks over at their friends.

"How about you? Anything notable, beyond the apparently terrible food?"