Phenomenal

3~ All I Ever Wanted

Clarissa sat on the garden chairs with her three new neighbours around her.

Triplets. Of course triplets, why not?

Identical triplets to boot.

How embarrassing!

She looked at them and they gave equally charming smiles - clearly trying to play down the faux par. Had everyone else known!? Had others in the complex met them all?

"So," she said slowly, eyeing Darcy who had known right off the bat that she'd been confusing him with his brothers and played up the part. Of course, Dante hadn't exactly helped either. She pointed at Darcy. "Darcy," she said, knowing him because of one: his clothing, and two: his daughter. So he was the one with the kid.

"Darcy," he confirmed, holding out a hand and flashing a grin that was more amused then anything else.

She glared at him and he relented.

She then pointed at the next one. "Dante."

"I'm the oldest," Dante said, not showing any amusement at the whole situation but he also didn't seem irritated that she hadn't told them apart, assumedly used to it by now.

"And..." she looked at the last one.

"Damien," he filled in for her, leaning forwards, "I'm the one you live next door to and I didn't get to thank you for your help earlier, so thanks."

"No problem," she said.

He smiled. "You don't have to be embarrassed, no one realised we were triplets. Sasha got one hell of a shock when she saw us all together."

"She could have mentioned it," Clarissa muttered, glancing over to Sasha who was chatting to her boyfriend.

"Perhaps she thought it'd be funnier to let everyone find out tonight?" Darcy said with a grin and Dante gave him a look that told him to shut up, so he buried half his face into the back of Violet's hair, hugging her like a teddy as she sat on her lap, perfectly content to ignore the four adults around her as she looked at the others around them.

"So," Clarissa said, looking at Damien, "Who lives where exactly? You live next to me, are you sharing with each other?"

"No, we all have our own apartments," Dante replied, "I'm the floor above Damien, Darcy is the floor below."

Clarissa nodded as she looked between them, from identical face to identical face, trying to find the dissimilarities that had to be there.

She'd never met triplets before - let alone identical triplets. Twins, sure, lots of twins, a few identical twins but no triplets.

At that moment, Violet yawned and Darcy turned her towards him. The shift in his facial expression was instant. One moment he was grinning at Clarissa, the next, all his attention was on his daughter, expression attentive and serious.

"Ok, bedtime I think," Darcy said, adjusting Violet in his arms and standing up, the other three standing as well. "It's been a big day for her and she starts school on Wednesday."

"Busy week for a little girl," Clarissa said, looking at Violet and Darcy smiled.

"Yeah, but she's handling it much better than expected."

"Of course she is, she's more reliable then her dad," Dante said and Darcy frowned at him.

"Rude," he said before holding a hand out to Clarissa again. "No ill will about today?" he said, smiling again.

"No ill will," Clarissa said with her own smile, taking his hand.

"It was good to meet you, thanks for talking to Lettie; I think it helped her relax today."