"Mommy, Mommy, when can we eat the cake?" A little girl with blue eyes and black hair tugged on her mother's pants leg.

"In a minute, Abby," her mother chided. The crowd of kids circled around the kitchen table let out a chorus of "Aww"'s.

A dark-skinned man chucked. "I hope Zia and I can have a kid as cute as yours someday."

"Oh, shut up, Carter. She's cute but she's a little monster. She can hardly control her magic."

"Well, Sadie, that's what she gets for being the daughter of a god," Carter teased.

"Oh, shut up. If you and Zia ever have kids, I bet they'll be just as hard to handle."

A chant of "Give us cake! Give us cake!" was building up amongst Abby and her friends.

"Okay, okay!" Sadie shouted over the chaos. The children quieted. "I'll get the cake." She walked over to the kitchen counter and muttered various curse words in Egyptian under her breath.

Next to her, a woman smirked. "Rambunctious kids, eh?"

"Tell me about it, Bast." Sadie rolled her eyes. She rolled up the sleeves of her black shirt and grabbed the cake plate, which held a pyramid-shaped cake that Bast had insisted upon. Actually, Bast had insisted upon everything. The party was so Egyptian-themed that Sadie seriously wanted to take all the decorations down and have a normal birthday party for her daughter. One where the decorations were plain and the cake was square-shaped, and her father was around…

Sadie sighed. Her husband Anubis was in the underworld all the time. She was lucky if they got to meet up every few months, and Abby was always in school. How could she raise this child who didn't even know her father?

Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door.

"I'll get it," Sadie said automatically. "Bast, cut the cake for them, please."

Sadie walked towards the door. It couldn't be Anubis. She wouldn't get her hopes up.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by a tall, pale man. He ran his fingers through his wild, black hair and smiled. "Hello, dear," he said, giving Sadie a quick kiss.

"A…Anubis! You came."

"There is no way I would forget. I managed to get a thirty-minute break from working and rushed over." He smirked. "Also, I've studied up on to the human birth-celebration ritual."

Anubis held up a small plush animal. Sadie eyed it carefully, then laughed. It was a toy jackal.

Sadie turned to the kitchen. "Abby! Someone's here to see you!"

Abby ran up to her mother. "What is it, Mommy?" She peeked around Sadie and gasped. "'Nubis!"

"Remember, call him Daddy," Sadie reprimanded.

"Daddy," she repeated, going over to her father.

"Abigail," Anubis smiled, kneeling down. "I have a present for you." He shook the little stuffed toy in his hand.

"A little doggy!" She jumped up and down, grabbing the toy and hugging it close.

"A jackal," Anubis corrected, ruffling her hair. He got up off the floor and turned to Sadie. "I heard that many birth-celebration rituals include cake of some sort?"

"Oh, believe me, there's cake," Sadie groaned. "Pyramid-shaped cake."

Anubis raised an eyebrow. "How peculiar," he said.

Abby held on to Anubis's hand. "How long is 'Nubis gonna stay?"

"Not for long, I'm afraid. But I promise I will see you again as soon as I can," he replied.

Sadie grabbed hold of Anubis's hand as well, savoring the short moment they had together.