Jr did not give her room to think, no he hung around her for the rest of the day, and when they drove home after the park he followed Thalia and the children into the apartment, and suggested how about they order pizza for dinner. Thalia was still trying to wrap her mind around, "I like you and i'm not going anywhere", that she did not have the presence of mind to tell him no. She kind of didn't really didn't want to,. And yes, she knew she was contradicting herself. 
 

She sat down on the couch while they waited for pizza and watched him playing on the carpet with the children. And despite everything she had said to him, she was glad he was there. Someone rang her door bell and assuming it was the pizza, she told Jr she'd get it. 

It was their Pizza, but it did not come with a delivery man, it came with  Youngjae, Soo, Jackson and Mika, Mark, Tj, Jb and Lina. 

" Oh hi," Thalia said looking at the four.

" Hi, didn't Jr tell you we were coming?" Soo asked.

Thalia shook her head, " we can go if you want," Youngjae offered. Thalia shook her head, she would enjoy the company, it had been a long time since she'd had adult company, excluding Jr of course, although looking at him now one could easily mistake him for one of the children.

" No come in, I was just surprised is all," she said letting them in. " Where's Matt?" she asked Tj as they walked in.

" Yugyeom and Bambam are babysitting for us, "Mark answered. That explained their absence, Thalia though to herself.

" Oi, Jr, why didn't you tell the lady we were coming?" Soo yelled at him, picking up a cushion from the couch and throwng it at his head. He threw it back, and Terry crossed her arms and glared at Soo. How dare Soo abuse her hero.

Youngjae giggled, " Soo I think you just made an enemy, " he whispered to Soo, as he set the boxes of pizza down on the table. And by the look that Terry was sending her way, Youngjae just might be right. 

"Ah, every relationship needs a little spice and drama, " she whispered back.

Youngjae just shook his head at her.

Soon they were all comfortably seated and enjoying the pizza. Thalia made the children eat at the table, because she really didn't relish the idea of having crumbs all over her floor, and it was also the only way she could ensure they would actually eat. Soo and Jr sat at the table with them, and Thalia watched in amusement as Soo and Terry bickered over Jr. Soo was delibarately riling the little girl up, but all in good fun, and it was funny watching Terry come to Jr's defence every time

" So how are you and how have you been?" Lina asked, distracting her from the children.

Thalia turned around and brought her attention back to the discussion. She was sitting in the living room with the rest of the adults. At some point during the night, the children returned to the floor and obviously Jr went with them, and they continued playing with their toys, and Thalia had to smile when Jackson, Jb and Youngjae joined them on the floor.

Soo flounced down, and parked herself on the couch, between Lina and Thalia. Then she took Thalia's hand in her own and gave her a pitying look.

" Oh you poor woman, having to deal with four children" she consoled her.

Thalia stared at her in confusion, she only had three children, and then it hit her, Soo was including Jr in that equation, and she laughed. "He is a big Baby isn't he".

" They're all big baby's" Lina added and Mika had to agree.

" We heard that," Jackson said from the floor,. 

" It's ok, babe, I love you anyway," Mika called back to him.

" Are you her boyfriend?" Terry asked him all of a sudden. 

" Yes, I am, " Jackson replied proudly. 

" Do you kiss her?" Thad wanted to know. And Jackson laughed and said that yes, yes he did.

Thad looked at Lina then looked and Jb then looked back Lina.

" Uncle Jb, if you kiss a girl then is she your girlfriend?" Jb simply nodded at him and that was enough for him.

Thalia had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she silently willed her children,don't do it, don't you dare do it.

Her children  did it.

Theo looked at his mother and very innocently asked," mama, is uncle Jr your boyfriend,"

Jr looked up and grinned at her. 

" No baby, he's not, " she replied and she felt she should get a medal for keeping her calm.

" But you kissed him," Theo said,. 

Thalia nearly had a heart attack. When had she kissed him?! Well she knew when she had kissed Jr, and lets get the facts straight here, he had kissed her, she had simply reciprocated,. But the children had been in bed, they shouldn't have seen her kiss him.

How had Theo seen Jr kiss her? 

She implored Jr to save her, to say something like " no Theo I didn't kiss your mama, I just gave her a very tight hug, " but no such luck. Jr had kissed her and he wasn't about to deny it.

Thalia could see the looks of amusement from the adults around the room. And she sighed. And then she lied to her children.

" No Theo, uncle Jr wasn't kissing me, he was giving me a hug, that's all, it just looked like he was kissing me,. Now do you want ice cream?"

All three children nodded, and Thalia stood to go get them some from the kitchen. She wasn't fooled, she had distracted them for now, but they were five, they forgot nothing. They would be back with questions of boyfriends and kisses, only this time when they did she would be much better prepared.

Jr smiled to himself as he watched Thalia flee to the kitchen. He had to hand it to her, she had deflected that very well. He was kind of proud of her, he was also extremely amused.

A hug. Right. He supposed that was good for him though. He could hug her all the time now, and she'd never know if he was asking for a hug,or a hug. So much fun.

What Thalia and Jr did not know was that, Thad Theo and Terry had decided that they wanted Jr to be their dad. They had had this most serious discussion last night after Theo had caught Thalia and Jr kissing, and had immediately reported his findings to Thad and Terry.

So their five year old diabolical selves had discussed it and come to a decision, Jr was the perfect candidate for a dad. Now they just had to get mama to agree. 

" But if they kissed then doesn't that mean they're already boyfriend and girlfriend?" Thad had asked his siblings.

Neither one of them was sure about that, to their limited knowledge, a kiss did indeed signify that you were now girlfriend and boyfriend. Mimi had told them so. And Mimi was the authority of all things girlfriend and boyfriend Theo insisted. Mimi was his girlfriend, she had told him so, right after she had kissed him.

And then of course uncle JB, had confirmed for them that if you kissed a girl then that did indeed make them your girl friend.

Theo didn't believe his mother,he knew what he had seen, and while his mother went to get them ice cream he crawled into Jr's lap,and pulled his head down so he could whisper into his ear.

" Did you kiss mama?" he whispered, " I won't tell anyone I promise."

"yes, but your mama doesn't want to talk about it, so you have to keep it a secret, can you do that for me?"

Theo nodded and Jr wondered if it was strange that he trusted the five year old. Had it been Thad or Terry that had asked him he would have deflected and not answered, but Theo, Theo he knew he could trust, crazy as it sounded.

Thalia and the other women eventually found their way to the dining room table with cups of tea, while the children watched , wait for it, Aladdin, with the men.

" So I need to ask, but do you not like Jr?" Soo asked Thalia.

Lina swatted her, " forgive my daughter she has no manners,."

Thalia looked up in surprise, " your daughter?"

Lina smiled and Soo shrugged, " yeah, her daughter, I actually am, but stop trying to change the subject, do you not like Jr?"

Thalia wondered if she could lie her way around the question.

" Your best bet is to just be honest, Soo is like a pitbull she never lets go, and she's like a bloody owl she sees far too much" Mika advised.

Thalia grinned, she could see that. Soo did seem like a force to be reckoned with.

" It's not that I don't like him, it's just that it would never work," Thalia explained quietly.

All the women snorted. Where had they heard that before? Oh yes that's right, they had all said the same thing.

" I'm pretty sure I already know what you're going to say, but why? Why can't it work?" Soo asked.

 Thalia shifted a little uncomfortably, then decided oh what the heck, it's not like she was being unreasonable.

" Well for starters i'm older than him, like ten years older than him,"

" Nine!!" Jr called out from the livivng room.

" And I have children, three of them," Thalia continued ignoring his outburst.

Mika and Lina smiled in sympathy, and Soo just shook her head. If those were her only reasons then Thalia was fighting a losing battle. 

" You know my ma's like eight years older than the old man, Mika's like six years older than Jackson, and Tj's like what five, six, seven,i'm not quite sure which, but she's older than Mark, so I should probably warn you, that reason is not going to deter Jr," Soo said.

Thalia sighed, " I know, he pretty much told me the same thing," 

The women laughed at how dejected she sounded.

" I should probabaly also warn you that, Jr is a very persistent man, so you've already lost this battle, you should just stop fighting, " Lina added. 

She saw Jb smile to himself as he heard her offer the advice he had countless number of times given her when he was trying to get her to stop fighting the attraction between them.

Thalia sighed,.

Then looked at Jr and saw that he was grinning at her, and she sighed again.

Soo patted her arm, " oh i'm sure it's not all bad, he's probably a pretty decent kisser, ." 

Why yes, Yes he was. But she was not going to think about that right now.

So instead of thinking about Jr's kisses she sent her sleepy children to go wash their faces and brush their teeth and then sent them to bed. But of course they wouldn't go, not without uncle Jr. So she sent him to bed too. And it was only when he saw the smirk on Soo's face that it occurred to her how suggestive that sounded.

Because seriously, if, " Jr would you please go to bed, " didn't sound like an invitation, then what did.

She slumped back down on the couch while Jr put the children to sleep and mutterred to no one in particular, " I'm doomed aren't I?."

And everyone nodded.

" You've already lost love, it's just a matter of how long you can hold out," Lina said lovingly patting Thalia's arm.

Thalia burrowed her head into Soo's shoulder and Soo her hair.

" I'm betting she lasts, oh say three months," She said.

" If Jr, is on his A-game, then I'm betting on one month" Jb countered.

" Wait what exactly are the terms of this bet before I give my two cents?" Youngjae wanted to know.

" Three months, before he has her doing the bedroom tango, " Soo clarified.

" Oh my God, I  am too young for this," Thalia said burrowing her head further into Soo's shoulder.

" You still standing by one month old man?" Soo wanted to know, Jb amended.

" I'll give him a month and a half," he said.

Soo smiled wickedly, " You're on old man, "

Jb smiled just as deviously. Soo might be the mother of all insight, but he knew his bestfriend,. 

" Y'all should bet something," Mika suggested, "it's no fun if there are no stakes."

" I'm game if you are old man," Soo said, and Jb nodded, and they eventually decided that if Soo won, she'd give her win to her mother and her mother could ask Jb for anything she wanted, and if Jb won, then Jb would give his win to Youngjae and Soo would have to do whatever Youngjae asked.

" Are you and Youngjae dating?" Thalia suddenly asked.

Both of them shook their heads, " no, " and the way they said it, so very calmly no overreaction of any kind, you couldn't help but believe them.

" He just happens to know a lot about me," Soo said. 

" And she just happens to know too much about me, what's the proverb, ?keep your friends close, keep your enemied closer," Youngjae added, " I keep Soo very very close."

" Why do you two know so much about each other anyway?" Jackson wanted to know, and Thalia was grateful for the change of subject because just then Jr returned from putting the children to bed.

" You were gone a while," Mika commented.

" Read them a story," he said taking a seat on the carpet by Thalia's feet and layin his head on her knee. She narrowed her eyes at him.

" How many stories?"

" One.. ok fine two, well technically it was one and a half, Terry and I never got a chance to finish ninja turtles the other day so I finsihed that after I read them the other one."

Thalia just sighed.

" I still want to know why you and Youngjae knw so much about each other" Tj said, and Mark seconded that.

So Soo told them about how being the alcohol s that they were, she and Youngjae had made an agreement that they would get drunk in the presence of each other and then they would tell each other what kind of a drunk the other was.

So Soo had gotten drunk first, while Youngjae stayed Sober and watched out for her, and made sure she stayed safe. And then the following weekend she had returned the favor, it turned out they were both talkative, touchy feely, philosophical drunks. They had spilled all their secrets with very little prodding.

And this of course, led into a discussion of what kind of drunks everyone was.

" I've never been drunk, " Thalia said when all eyes turned to face her.

" Oh wow, we absolutely have to rectify that, " Soo said, " one day, soon, one day." she promised,. 

Thalia was too worn to argue, her new friends were tiring, fun and loving, but absolutely tiring. She was too old for this.