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Mikey came in a while later, around five. He spotted me first, came over and kissed the top of my head.

"Hey, Mikey."

"Hey, big bro," he said.

"Hi, sweetheart," Daddy called from the kitchen.

"Hi, Daddy! Where's JJ?"

"Upstairs mopping the floor. His chore for today."

"He's actually doing it?" Mikey asked, visibly surprised, because that was genuinely unusual.

"We're waiting to see," Daddy said. "But if everyone's very good and well-behaved, we can do a scene together after dinner. What do you say, princess?"

Mikey lit up completely.

"I'd love that, Daddy."

"Good. Go change into something comfortable. Dinner's almost ready."

"Is there anything I can help with?"

"You can unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher," Daddy said, "but only once you're in comfortable clothes. Then you can play with your toys until dinner."

"Yay," Mikey said, already heading for the stairs.

Daddy watched him go, then turned to me with a specific look. The kind that meant something was coming.

"For the scene tonight — I want you helping me with the discipline. What do you say?"

I raised an eyebrow, surprised and immediately very interested.

That was a reward. I hadn't even thought I'd been good enough to earn it, but I wasn't about to argue.

"Yes, Sir," I said, without hesitating.

Daddy got that satisfied look on his face, the slightly dangerous one. I loved when he looked like that.

"Start thinking about what you'd like to do."

I nodded, already planning, and had just started running through the possibilities when I heard Mikey calling me quietly from upstairs.

I went up.

Mikey was standing in the hallway, eyebrows raised, guilty expression on his face, pointing toward JJ's room.

I looked.

JJ was asleep on the bed. The bucket and the mop were sitting completely untouched beside him.

"Typical," I said, and rolled my eyes.

I picked up the bucket and the mop and did the job myself.

About fifteen minutes later, Daddy came upstairs to check on things. I showed him JJ still asleep.

He shook his head, but there was a smile at the corner of his mouth.