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Caroline had never heard her dad sounds so... angry. She looked at him, sort of in shock, and started crying. The little girl crawled over Sage to Aria, and sat in her lap, looking away from Sage. Aria stroked Caroline's dark hair soothingly and grinned at Sage softly.
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Sage sighed slightly and rolled his eyes when the girl got upset. He hadn't even yelled at the girl. "I'm not mad, sweetheart, but you have to clean up your messes," he told the little girl gently. "So do mama and I," he hummed.
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Caroline peeked out at Sage, listening to what he said. She didn't want to get up, but she slid down onto the carpet and grabbed the fruit, dropping it in the trash. Aria turned back to Sage. "Sage... she's not even 2 yet. You can't expect her to clean up after herself." The girl noted. She wasn't trying to argue about this, she just hated seeing Caroline so sad.
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Sage nodded his approval and then scooped the little girl up so she could see the pilot of food they had on the table. "now, what would you like to eat," he chirped before looking over at Aria and shrugging. "if she learns now, she'll be better later," he pointed out. "She has to clean up after herself eventually." Then he glanced over at the girl, who was reaching for a fruit and handed it to her. "Besides, she's perfectly happy now, and it's not like we're making her mop the floor too, I can do that," he chuckled slightly. "I don't expect her to do the whole thing...but starting to ask her to do what she can is what I'm saying I guess," he hummed.
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Aria looked down. "Okay." She whispered. "I was just saying that." She said quietly. Caroline seemed to like the new fruit she found. Aria smiled over at the little girl and sighed softly, getting up to grab some food herself.
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Sage cocked his head slightly when she got so quiet. Was she upset? He hadn't yelled or anything....and it hadn't really been an argument. But now his stomach was churning and his mind was racing and what if she was upset? He'd feel awful if he'd hurt her...really awful...and he'd feel even worse knowing he didn't know what to do about it, or what to change. So he sort of just curled up dinti himself, suddenly nervous she'd change her mind about him.
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Aria grabbed a few pieces of pineapple and sat down on the edge of the bed. She laid her head back on the bed and sighed softly. Caroline came over to her mother and dropped a strawberry in her mouth. "Try it!" She said, giggling. Aria chuckled. "Okay. Thank you Caroline." She said, smiling at the little girl.
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Sage chuckled lightly at the little girls antics, though he was admittedly still nervous that he'd said or done something to hurt aria, chiding Caroline like that. And then having a slight disagreement over it. But Caroline needed to learn, and he hadn't been mean about it. Ugh, how he wished his father had been good. He really was lost right about then.
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Caroline sat, perched over Aria, watching her eat away at the strawberry. The little girl clapped and giggled excitedly. Aria chuckled softly and sat up. She glanced over at Sage and her smile fell. She didn't know exactly, what even happened. She just hated seeing Caroline being told what to do, at such a young age. But... Sage was also her husband. She could trust him.
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Sage watched the girl laugh happily, glad that she had been so good about his reprimand. He was still nervous about what Aria thought, and if she was upset about it...but he didn't know what to change. And Caroline did need to behave.
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