Life Without Them (On Hold)

Chapter 23: Nerf War!

~Sang~

Luke takes Cole, and Gabriel to do their floor, while Morgan and I go back up to wake their uncles. This is going to be a happy, fun filled family day, even if it kills us. No working, no trying to find Volto, no strenuous activity that does not involve lifting a nerf gun. The kids need to have fun celebrating one of their father's birthday for the first time, and I need to relax before I trade my nerf gun in for a real one and go hunting.

Stupid menstrual cycle. Stupid fathers waking me up at five in the morning. Guys have no idea what kind of pain we women have to go through every month, just to have the ability to bare children. And then we have to hold the little buggers for nine months, and then push them out of a hole that I'd rather have stay small. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies, but why can't we breed like seahorses!? Male seahorses are the ones that carry the babies. In my next life, I wanna be a seahorse.

Through my internal rant, Morgan and I actually managed to wake her uncles up. I may have had her stay in the hallway while waking up Raven, Corey and Axel, but we got them up, er, so to speak. After waking Marc, the last on the list, Morgan and I bounce back into our apartment and I send her off to go set the table. Gabriel and Luke come back in with Cole a few moments later, and send him off to help his sister. After making sure that all of the food is still warm, they help me bring everything into the dining room.

As we're moving back and forth, the rest of the guys trickle in, helping where they can, or taking seats at the table. Silas and North grab two of the chairs from the kitchen table to bring into the dining room so that the twins have their own seats.

"Sang Baby," North calls. "Come sit next to me."

North sits at the head of the table, an open seat right next to it. I finish placing the last plate of food for us in the center of the table before walking over and taking my seat next to him. The rest of the boys take their seats around the table, while the Toma's fix their plates in the kitchen before going to eat in the living room.

Looking around the table, I wonder if this is how birthday breakfast's will be from now on. Next to North, Cole sits between him and Kota, both of them fixing his plate of food. Next to Kota, is Victor, Nathan, Owen and Sean at the opposite end of the table from North and I, then Gabriel, Luke, Silas, and Morgan between us. As Silas piles Morgan's plate with food, I smile to myself, it may have taken us awhile to get here, and we may not be where we should be, but it's a start. Sean catches my eye as I'm doing one last sweep of the table and sends me a wink. I feel the blush start on my cheeks as I shake my head slightly before leaning forward to fix my own plate.

Breakfast is a lively affair, with the twins talking to anyone who will listen about their time in daycare yesterday. Apparently, one of the other nurses brought their nephew in and he was hogging all of the lego blocks for himself. As much as I wanted to hear the rest of the story, I tuned out once North's arm wrapped around the back of my chair. I continued to eat my food as if it didn't affect me, but that was a lie. North always affected me. His presence was too big not to.

After finishing his bite, he leans over and whispers, "You know, you didn't have to go through all of this trouble."

"I didn't go through any trouble," I reply, looking down at my fork as I push the food around my plate. "I just supervised."

"If you think I've forgotten how your food tastes, you're wrong."

I say nothing as he straightens back up to finish his food. Truth is, I did think he'd forgotten. I haven't cooked much since they've been here, what with them trying to get me to forgive them, and Marc picking up my cooking slack, I haven't really needed to. After breakfast is over, Axel and Owen put Marc and Victor on cleanup duty before I herd everyone into the living room to explain how today is going to work.