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We didn’t know what to expect when we woke up because we had never celebrated Father’s Day as actual fathers before (unless you count Dil and Tabitha as our children). Normally, Phil and I would go and visit our own families and see our own dads, but we decided that this year we would stay home because of Vi. We were excited and anxious to see what she had planned for us, but we got a very strange surprise.
Phil woke up first, letting me sleep in for another few minutes before finally placing small kisses all over my face to wake me up. I giggled and playfully batted him away as I stretched. “Good morning, happy Father’s Day,” he said softly, his eyes bright with ecstasy. “Same to you,” I beamed, leaning in and kissing him. When he pulled away, he wrapped me in his arms. “This is so weird. I wonder what Smol Light has in store for us today…” We sat in bed, proposing possible things that could happen. After a while, Phil said he thought he heard something coming from Vi’s room, so we went silent to see if we could hear anything that could be a hint.
I could hear her phone ringing as she waited for someone to pick up, “Rita? Ohmygodyouhavetohelpme! I’m screwed! I forgot about Father’s Day!” My heart skipped a beat- she forgot? But she would never do something like that, she never forgot important days! I looked over at Phil, who was frowning a little and very clearly confused, slightly hurt, and disappointed like me. We continued to listen to her side of the conversation…
“God I’m the worst! I-I don’t know what to do! I realized about an hour ago when I woke up and went on google and saw the doodle thingie, so I started looking up quick ideas but they all seem too thoughtless… Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re still sleeping… No, I don’t think I’ll have enough time to make them breakfast or anything… I’m too bad at art for a card… Gah! This is hopeless! I’m such a shitty daughter… Yes I am!- a good kid wouldn’t forget Father’s Day, Rita! And they’re the best dads anyone can ask for, too…” She sounded like she might begin to cry, and I could feel the tears forming in my eyes as well. I didn’t know how to feel at this point.
“…You wanna know how I forgot, Rita? You wanna know how I fucking forgot?! Because I never celebrated it, ok?! How could I remember a date that meant nothing to me?!” her words were rushed and a little hysterical, but I understood… It was really sad, and it only got worse the more I thought about it. I felt my throat getting tight and my tears threatened to escape with each passing second.
“I wanted to make this the most special day for them because they mean everything to me. They’ve never done anything but love me and this was my biggest chance to show them my appreciation and gratitude, and what do I do? Nothing. I’m such an idiot…” her voice was quivering and she began to sniffle. “P-piano? Yeah, I-I guess that could work… I just hope I don’t end up disappointing them or completely failing their expectations… Thanks, sorry for bothering you, I’ll let you get back to your own dad now… Love you too… Ok, bye,” she sighed as she ended the call.
Phil and I just sat there, bewildered and unsure of what to say. I finally looked over at him to see him wiping away a stray tear. “I-I don’t know how to feel right now,” he mumbled when he felt my eyes on him. “Me neither…” I looked down awkwardly, “Do we go out and tell her it’s ok?” Phil shook his head, “No, she already feels really bad. I say we giver her time to get whatever she ends up doing ready. She doesn’t need to worry about us finding out- it isn’t her fault.” I sighed heavily, “Ok, ok. It didn’t even occur to me that it was her first Father’s Day, too.” “Yeah…” Neither of us spoke for a while. We listened to Vi shuffling around and muttering to herself and snuggled, but we had nothing to say, so we didn’t say anything.
After about half an hour, Vi quietly knocked on our door. I looked at Phil for a moment before saying, “Come on in, Smol Light!” She slowly opened the door, balancing two bowls of cereal precariously on her arms and holding two mugs of coffee. She had a small smile on her face and giggled as she carefully made her way to the bed. “I can’t make real breakfast, so I figured this’ll do- happy Father’s Day!” she said as she placed everything on the bedside table. “Aww, thank you, love!” Phil grinned. “It-it’s the least I could do…” she blushed and shuffled her feet shyly. I laughed, “C'mere, you!” Phil and I both opened up our arms. She crawled into bed and sat in between us.
“This is our first Father’s Day as fathers, so thank you very much, Vi!” Phil kissed the top of her head before reaching for the cereal. “Well, it’s my first time doing anything for Father’s Day, so sorry if it’s kinda shit,” she chuckled nervously. “Nonsense, it’s lovely,” I copied Phil’s previous actions. We laughed and talked as we finished our breakfast in bed, but I could sense that something was still up.
“I should probably come clean,” Vi said timidly after a while. Phil and I exchanged glances, “Oh? You didn’t kill anyone did you?” I joked, trying to make her a little more comfortable. She gave a quick laugh and shook her head, “No! I um… Well today didn’t really turn out the way I had hoped it would.” “How? I think everything is going great! We get to spend time with you- that’s all we really ask of you today,” Phil pulled her little hand into his. Vi drew a shaky breath, “But I wanted to do more to show you guys how much you mean to me. I wanted to do more than ‘make’ you ‘breakfast’. I love you more than that. But I…” she trailed off. “You what, sweetheart? It’s ok, you don’t have to worry,” I wrapped my arm around her. She looked at the blanket and said quietly, “I forgot that it was Father’s Day today. I’m really sorry, guys- you deserve so much more than this. God I can’t believe myself right now…”
“Oh, Vi,” Phil scooped her into his lap and I shuffled closer, taking her hand in mine, before he continued, “It’s alright. Did you think we wouldn’t love you anymore or something? Because if you did, then you’re mad!” She shook her head, “No, but I still feel bad. I could’ve done better than this. I know you would love whatever I did, but I want to feel like I did enough. I want to know that I put in enough effort and feel good about it. I didn’t get you anything, I didn’t plan anything, I didn’t even realize what today was until this morning and-” “And it’s ok!” I cut her off, “It isn’t your fault it slipped your mind- you didn’t have a reason to think about it before this year. We couldn’t ask for a better daughter,” Phil and I sandwiched her in the biggest hug possible. I could feel her body shake as she began to cry. “There is one more thing, though,” she sniffled after a minute or so. “What’s that?” Phil asked gently. She pulled away and looked at us, “Come with me.” Vi scrambled out of bed and took us each by the hand and led us into the lounge.
“Ok, what now?” I chuckled once she dropped our hands. She looked at us and smiled softly, but said nothing and kept walking towards the piano. We watched silently as she sat down on the bench with her knees tucked beneath her. Then she began playing "Ingenue", just like the first time we met. Phil and I grinned uncontrollably, remembering how we first heard her play, how we accidentally scared her, how we got to know each other, how we sang and played together, how we learned about her childhood, how we became her fathers. We both held onto each other, tears rolling down our cheeks as we relived every moment of that day. As she came to a stop, we all began to laugh from the pure joy. She got up and we rushed over to each other, hugging in a little heap on the floor.
After a while, I snickered. “What? What is it?” Vi asked defensively. “You didn’t fall off the bench this time,” I said slyly. “Hey! Shut up!” she shoved me playfully. “I love you too, Smol Light,” I responded. She huffed and rolled her eyes, but her smile didn’t fade. “This was the best Father’s Day gift ever, Vi! Thank you very much,” Phil ruffled her hair. She kissed us each on the cheek before saying, “Happy Father’s Day guys, I love you. You are the best Papa and Dad that anyone could ever dream of, and I’m lucky you guys liked me enough to choose to be my dads. So thank you. And thank you for everything you’ve done for me and for dealing with all of my bullshit and being there for me. Sorry for being a crybaby and for making your life a little more complicated, but I hope that it isn’t too bad.”
Phil and I were a mess. He hugged her all over again, fresh tears falling. She just smiled and hugged us back. “Ok, now what do you guys wanna do? It’s your day! We can do whatever you want,” Vi looked between us eagerly. “Why don’t we stay in, watch TV or anime or whatever, play video games, and remember all of the fun times we’ve had!” Phil said happily. “Ok I like that, but I also had a great idea- we could film a video where either Vi sees how much she knows about us or vice versa, or maybe some sort of game to see who the ‘better dad’ is,” I proposed my plan excitedly. “Well we have all day, so we can do that, too! It’ll be awesome!” Vi exclaimed. “Alright sounds like a good day to me. Let’s take a picture so we can post it,” I said as I pulled out my phone. I snapped a pic of us huddled together with Vi squishing our faces and posted it with the caption “first father’s day! vi made sure today is gonna be a blast ❤”. The rest of the day was spent laughing together and having fun. It was hands down the best Father’s Day ever.~