Roman frowned at the feeling of small hands lightly hitting his face, and he internally chuckled once the owner of those hands blew raspberries on his cheek with her mouth.

"Daddy are you awake yet because I have to ask you something?" Kaiya used her thumb and pointer finger to open one of his eyes, causing him to swat her hands away while she laughed.

"What, girl? You up thirty minutes too early." His voice rasped, trying not to wake all the way up because he didn't want to get out of the bed yet.

"Can me and Ray Ray stay home, please? Please daddy it's Friday and we went the wholeee week." She laid her face against his, sitting against her legs that were folded on top of Roman's chest.

"Nah yo, y'all n-,"

"Pleaseeeeeeee daddy I'll stay on green for the rest of my life I'm just sooo tired." She dramatically wiped fake sweat from her forehead with an exasperated voice.

"It's just one day, please?" She then put a pout on her face, looking just like her mother in the moment that she did it.

"Aight man. Get out my face." He flicked her bottom lip, and she screamed in excitement, then immediately shushed herself when she remembered her GG was asleep.

Roman watched her happily trot out of his bedroom, and a few seconds later she ran back inside to give him a big hug and a quick kiss to thank him for letting them stay home.

"Bye daddy, thank you. Love you." She ran out of his room again, and he chuckled, hearing his door shut.

He had told himself they wouldn't be staying home unnecessarily this year, but honestly, how could anyone say no to a puppy dog pout from a seven year old? He definitely didn't have it in him, and Kaiya already knew that.

It was just a day. One day wouldn't hurt.

Turning over against his mattress, he attempted to doze back off since it was only seven in the morning, but couldn't get comfortable again. He wasn't ready to get up and start the day either, but the taste of morning breath was aggravating him and he knew he would have to soon.

Flipping back over to lay on his back, Roman put his hand in his shorts at the same time that a small yawn left his lips. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, he did just that.

He didn't get up again until almost noon, being awoken to the sounds of commotion happening upstairs. He just knew Raelle and Kaiya were arguing about something that probably made no sense at all.

Before going up there, he brushed his teeth and washed his face-hoping that they'd be calmer by the time he went up there. Hopefully they hadn't gotten physical yet because it was bound to happen with them; he figured they hadn't though, since neither of them had came down to tell on the other.

"Yo, why can I hear y'all from all the way downstairs?" He made his presence known, standing in Kaiya's bedroom.

"Granny told us to clean up and Kaiya not helping. And she keep taking my shit out my r-,"

"Raelle," Roman warned, not appreciating the way that she cursed at him when he hadn't done it to her.

"Well tell her to stop touching my stuff! She can't even do makeup she just be taking stuff just to aggravate me. And she don't listen, Roman, look at her!" She gestured to Kaiya who laid unbothered in her bed, watching TikTok on her iPad.

Roman walked over to her bed to take the iPad out of her hands, and an immediate mug plastered on her face. He tossed it on the dresser, thankful that it had a case on it because it hit the top of it harder than he'd intended it to.

"Get up and go ask yo' granny what you need to clean Kaiya. If she already told you then why you laying here like she didn't?"

"I didn't do that stuff, Ray Ray did. Why I have to clean up her mess?" Her frown remained, and she didn't get up from her bed like he told her to.

"Don't matter. You ain't running nothin', so go do what I said." He pointed to the door, and she huffed, walking out of her room with an obvious attitude.

"Gon' Raelle." He gestured for her to leave too, and she carried her makeup products with her on her way out the door, going back to her room.

"Kaiya!" He called out, just now noticing how dirty her room was. There was toys and shoes scattered everywhere, and it looked like she was doing some sort of arts and crafts from how cut up paper was all over the floor.

"You just told me to come down here and clean daddy what you want?!" She yelled back at him from downstairs, and he couldn't help but to laugh at how frustrated she sounded. So much attitude from such a little person.

Roman walked out of her room, heading downstairs to go see what Faye was doing. It was just like her to make them clean up on the day they stayed home from school-gotta' give something to get something, as she liked to say.

The stairs were shiny as he walked down them, as if they'd already been swept and mopped clean. The house also smelled of fabuloso and lemon drop essential oil, meaning everything else had probably been mopped too.

On his way to the kitchen, he saw Kaiya near the backyard door, doing one of her chores that consisted of feeding the dogs. He could hear her giggles as they nuzzled their noses against her in a playful way, their tails wagging forcefully behind them.

Once both dogs sniffed him out, they ran in the house to get to him, and he chuckled, leaning over to give them ear scratches and belly rubs.

"Ermias I just mopped these damn floors. If they get even a dust particle of mud on them, you gon' be licking these floors clean, you hear?" Faye fussed from the kitchen, letting him know that she was serious by the way she used his middle name.

"Outside." He clicked his teeth twice, causing the two of them to run back out the door, immediately getting the zoomies around the large backyard.

The oldest dog was a seven-year-old dark coated Cane Corso, weighing in at almost one hundred pounds and was taller than Raelle's 5'6 height if he stood up on his back legs. His size was pretty intimidating, but he was actually really sweet.

Kaiya had chosen the name Pinky for him when they'd adopted him from the shelter four years ago, though Roman and Raelle wanted to give him a name that was a little more masculine like Beast or something.

The second was an Agouti Husky that was almost three years old. She had ice cold blue eyes and was dark in color too, but had some white facial hair to match her white underbelly with ice cold blue eyes. She had a wolf-like appearance, and all of her body hair made her seem bigger than she actually was.

Raelle got to name her, and she'd chosen the name Blu because of her eyes, of course. Both dogs were professionally trained and overprotective as hell, especially over Faye-even though she didn't really like them, or at least tried not to. She wouldn't ever admit it out loud that she considered them to be her babies too.

Blu and Pinky were the only pets that they had, not including the fat neighborhood cat that seemed to make a corner of their backyard her home. They'd tried to bring her inside, but she would just stand right at the back door and always refuse to come all the way in. The dogs loved to play with her and she was surprisingly cool with them, so Roman didn't mind her staying.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Roman reached down in his pocket to grab his phone at the sound of it ringing, and read over one of his closest friend's contact as it covered his screen.

"Wassup wit' it," He put his phone to his ear, continuing on his path to the kitchen to see if his Nana had cooked breakfast or brunch.

"Nigga wassup with you? I ain't heard from you in mad long."

"Bitch it's been like two days. Shut yo' gay ass up." He shook his head, leaning over to greet Faye with a kiss on her cheek, chuckling as she did a hand motion to tell him to move.

"That's mad long, like I said. Got me hanging with Duello and Jon stupid asses. All these niggas do is get high and talk about bitches. Tired of being wit' they ass." His friend, Isaiah, said back, and Roman could basically hear him shaking his head.

Isaiah and Roman went way back, literally all the way to the 90s. Both of their grandmothers had went to church with each other for decades, and of course forced them to tag along. They were some of the only kids of their age there, so it took them no time to become friends.

Though they grew up the same way, the two of them were on two different paths of life now. While Roman was a registered nurse and real estate investor, Isaiah was more interested in the fast life of selling drugs, selling CPNs, and scamming. After a talk with Roman about what his future would look like, Isaiah had adapted a new hobby of making music though, so at least that was good.

At one point of time Roman had also got swept up in that life, but quickly refocused the moment his daughter was born and his little sister moved in with him. The fast life got you killed or thrown in jail-and everyone knew that. Roman had too much to live for to end up as a statistic.

He was hoping to get his best friend away from all of that, like completely, but it was a work in progress. Even with plenty of their friends ending up on the wrong side of a gun, Isaiah still hadn't grasped the better mind to leave that shit alone. Roman wasn't rushing him, but hoped it would happen soon.

"Yo' old ass don't never pop out. The scene don't even get wild no mo' without you." Isaiah sucked her teeth, upset that Roman was staying in on a Friday night.

"Maybe I will..ion know. I'm a hit you later if I feel like coming."

"Aight then. Love you."

"Love you too shorty." Roman pulled his phone from his ear, pressing the red button to end the call after spending almost twenty minutes on the phone with him.

He stood up with his plate that was now empty, carrying it over to the sink where Faye was washing dishes. He didn't know why she still did that when the brand new dishwasher's wash cycle worked perfectly fine.

"You going to church tonight Nana?" Roman asked, walking over to the chalkboard on the fridge that usually had a chore list and the day's activities written on it.

"Yes. I won't need a ride, Pam's coming to get me. We might go for drinks after so I will probably be late."

"Drinking after church? Ass backwards." He shook his head at her, and she laughed since that was kind of true.

"Kaiya is going over Breanna's house today for that sleepover. I talked to Bre's mom already and she asked if you could grab some drinks for the girls. She has everything else." Faye informed him, drying her hands off with a paper towel.

"What time?"

"She said you can drop her off whenever 'cause Bre didn't go to school today either. They been decorating all day. The rest of the girls won't come until like six though." She picked up her phone from the counter, using her pointer finger to push her glasses up on her nose.

"Ight. I might take her now 'cause I know she bored." Roman scratched between the parts of his braids, heading for the stairs to go tell Kaiya to get ready to leave.

He knew that Faye had already packed her a bag because she did it every other Friday. Twice a month, Kaiya would go over to her best friend Breanna's house, and then the opposite Friday's, Breanna came to their house. The two girls had been best friends since pre-k and took their sleepovers pretty seriously.

Roman was good friends with Breanna's parents, and he trusted them to care for his daughter. Her parents felt the same way, and sometimes even took Kaiya on family trips with them. She loved her second family, and Roman loved them for loving her.

While Kaiya got dressed to leave, Roman went to his room to put on some casual clothes as well. He didn't have any other plans today, so he just threw on a random pair of dark colored jeans and a tan Essentials hoodie with a matching pair of Balenciagas.

He sprayed a few pumps of his cologne, and then opened his safe to grab a stack of cash. He only pulled a few bills off to put in his wallet since he hadn't stopped at the bank to grab cash in a while.

Once he was finished getting ready, Roman headed to Raelle's room to see if she had any plans today. It was Friday so it was rare that she would be staying home. She and her friends could pull plans out of thin air, even with no money and no cars.

"Come in," She called out after he had knocked, and he opened the door to see her sitting on her floor, painting her toes with a white polish.

"You look good twin. Where you going?" She looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows after scanning over his outfit.

"I'm finna take Ky to Breanna house and then I might go chill with Zay. Where you going?" He returned the same question.

"Asia brother taking us to a car show at six and then one of his friends throwing a kickback. Can I go?" She asked, knowing he didn't really like when she went to parties.

"You ah' send me the lo' when you get there?" He referred to her location, and she nodded her head. She always did, just in case some shit popped off and she needed him to pull up.

"Yeah, you can go. Take yo' taser, ight?" He passed her two hundred dollar bills, and she nodded again, reaching up the put the money on her dresser.

"Do you need something else, punk?" She chuckled since he hadn't left yet, and Roman sat down on her bed, making sure not to step on her fur carpet with his shoes.

"You wanna tell me why you sneaking and fucking niggas in my house?" He leaned over to rest his elbows on his knees, fixing the watch around his wrist.

Raelle stopped dipping her brush into the nail polish, trying to find something to cover her ass. She thought her granny would've covered for her, but honestly, she wasn't even mad that she hadn't. She kind of deserved it.

"I swear I didn't know granny was up." She told him, not denying having sex or sneaking the boy in, causing Roman to run his hand down his face.

He knew she was a teenager and was engaging in activities like that, but to hear her basically confirm it caught him off guard. He couldn't believe she was actually getting older. He wished kids could remain kids forever.

"Raelle why is you doing shit I told you not to do? Why you won't just let me meet him so you don't have to sneak and do nothin'?"

"Because I love him and I know you won't like him." She answered truthfully, her tone dropping a bit.

"He in the streets?" He asked, and she nodded her head, finally shifting her gaze to look at him.

"It's not his fault Ro. His step-daddy makes him and his mom just lets it happen. He doesn't like being at home because they not no good to him so he comes over here to be with me. And I know I shouldn't be having sex but I-I don't know. I don't even know how to excuse that," She shook her head at herself for getting caught.

"He's really sweet and he's a straight A student in school too. But he's really heavy with the drugs and stuff and I don't want you to judge only that side of him." She finished, going back to her toes.

Roman stared at her for a minute without saying anything, letting her words marinate so he could find the proper way to respond.

His little sister was a good kid overall, and her head was on her shoulders good enough to where she wouldn't involve herself with anyone who would purposely or even accidentally put her in harms way. Roman had taught her better than that, so hearing that she was with someone in the streets kind of surprised him.

Once upon a time he was that same kid, so he didn't have any plans to judge the boy as if he was any better than him. If Raelle loved him, he had to be a good kid too, and there really wasn't anything Roman could do to stop her from seeing him.

"I want to meet him. No more sneaking, and Nana bet not hear no more fucking, you understand me?" He told her, and she immediately nodded her head, relieved that he didn't make such a big deal over this. Plus, he never said she couldn't have sex. She just couldn't be loud.

"Do you need to get on birth control, Raelle?" He followed up with a question, though it made his stomach turn to even ask.

"Granny taking me to get some on Tuesday." She chuckled, knowing how awkward this had to be for him. She was glad that him and her granny were cool though. They handled this better than she'd expected.

"Good. So, no more sneaking around, foreal. We better than that and I don't want you to feel like you gotta hide nothing from me, aight? I love you." He stood up from her bed, leaning over to kiss the side of her face while she smiled.

"I love you more Ro. Thank you." She gave him a brief hug, and he kissed her cheek again before leaving out of her room.

He was glad that was now settled.

Roman knew that he wasn't the greatest parental figure, but he tried his best with both Raelle and Kaiya. Everyday they showed him that he was doing a good job, even when they had attitudes with him.

He loved them more than anything.

Slay