Ludwig stepped into the new house and nodded before turning back to the moving van and his own large van.
"Sound off and state what you're carrying as you step through the door!" he called.
"Beilschmidt 1, Heinz with backpack and kitchen appliances." The 17 year old announced calmly as he walked past his father.
"To the kitchen then." Ludwig nodded.
"Beilschmidt 6, Kole with backpack and book box."
"Why are you carrying something so heavy?" Ludwig frowned.
"Because Adele promised him candy if he would." Keme responded, "Same with me. Beilschmidt 7, Keme carrying backpack and book box sir."
Ludwig sighed.
"Book boxes down and just go inside cadets."
"Aye sir!" both boys shouted and put the boxes down racing inside.
"Adele!" Ludwig shouted looking around for his teenage daughter and finding her leaning against the moving van on her cell phone. He sighed again and shook his head as his other daughter came forward.
"Beilschmidt 4, Elsie carrying backpack and sporting supplies. Vater when will soccer season start?"
"Same time as any other place I should assume." Ludwig nodded and ticked off Elsie's name from the list on his clipboard.
"Beilschmidt 5, Sebastien carrying backpack and box of awards. If I complain enough will you get so frustrated that you take us back to Connecticut?" his 10 year old son asked.
"I wouldn't count on it." His older brother sighed coming forward, "This is our 12th move in my lifetime and no amount of complaining has ever done any good."
"I admire your record keeping ability son now please sign off." Ludwig sighed.
"Beilschmidt 3, Laszlo with backpack and clothes." His 14 year old responded rather disgruntled as he and his brother went inside.
Ludwig's eyes trailed after them with slight guilt over making them move so much and have to adjust. He decided he would need to do something special for them all to make up for it as he felt a tug on his pants leg. His youngest son was looking up at him without speaking, as usual.
"Sign off please soldier." Ludwig smiled and patted his head.
The boy remained silent but held up 8 fingers before pointing to himself, his backpack, and the teddy bear in his arms.
"All right go inside Michael." Ludwig smiled and shooed the little boy through the door before turning back to his last and most problematic child. Teenage girls were very difficult to deal with.
"Adele let's go!" he shouted and clapped his hands. Instead of his daughter three dogs came racing past him through the doorway.
"No!" he shouted whirling around, "No dogs in the house yet! Who let them out of the van?"
"I think it was the twins. They felt sorry for them being cooped in the back of the car and thought they might need to use the facilities." Elsie responded coming back out for more boxes.
"Make sure they find their way to the backyard then!" he called back into the house and was given affirming "Aye sir" from several of his children, "And Elsie..." he turned back to the girl, "Get your sister off the phone would you?"
"Aye sir, will try." Elsie nodded and ran over to start poking her sister until a very annoyed Adele slapped at her hands and hung up. She started yelling at her sister but Ludwig shouted out to her to stop.
"Adele! Get up here and do your job! Don't make your younger siblings do all the work!"
Adele came forward grumbling and picked up one of the boxes of books.
"Beilschmidt 2, Adele with backpack and box of books sir." She said sarcastically and walked inside.
Ludwig stood outside for awhile surveying the rest of the moving as he nodded.
"Yeah that went pretty much like expected."
*~*YMO*~*
And this was pretty much like he had expected as well.
"Again? And both of you this time?"
"I'm not unpacking until you promise that this is our last move." Laszlo sat on his bed with his arms folded.
"What he said." Sebastien nodded and also folded his arms.
"Ok look..." Ludwig sighed and sat down next to Laszlo, "This is the way my job works. As part of the coastguard I get moved a lot. You're military brats. I'm sorry but that's the way it is. And someday when I'm the Commandant of the entire US Coastguard we'll have a permanent home in DC and you will be so proud of your old Vater that it won't even matter anymore."
"We're already proud of you." Laszlo shook his head and laughed, "But I understand what you're trying to say. This isn't our last move and we have to accept that and unpack anyways."
"Fine but I want two times the amount of ice cream tonight than usual." Sebastien stated with a slight smile.
"Agreed. Now unpack. I have to go check on the new academy and my cadets."
"Aye, aye sir." Laszlo grinned and began to unpack with Sebastien.
Ludwig nodded in satisfaction and walked out of the room to find Michael just outside the doorway.
"Oh Michael was there something you needed?" he smiled and knelt down to his littlest son's level.
Michael pointed at his Vater and then out the window and then at himself.
"You want to come with me instead of staying here?"
Michael nodded and clutched his teddy bear tighter.
"Well all right then. But be on your best behavior and listen to what I tell you ok?"
Michael nodded again and reached out for his Vater's hand.
Ludwig smiled and took the little hand in his as he started down the stairs.
*~*YMO*~*
It was when they were passing by a particularly interesting house on route that Michael began tapping on the window to get his father's attention.
"What is it Mi...what in the world?!"
A small Italian Greyhound was racing across the yard with something in its mouth, being trailed by three cats, a parrot, a tiny pig, and a boy and girl. The yard itself looked like a daycare facility but with the group running across it the whole atmosphere resembled chaos.
"A nut house." Ludwig shook his head
"Fun."
Michael rarely spoke and when he did it was usually a single meaningful word. Ludwig always took note of these words and determined what his son was trying to convey. In this case he assumed it meant that the boy thought the chaos looked liked fun and probably wished for something similar. Ludwig sighed, it wasn't that fun wasn't a familiar concept to him, it was just a hard one to figure out what was actually fun and what he thought would be fun. To him...that didn't look like fun.
But to the residents of the house it was fun, and it was a common everyday occurrence. The dog, named Giovanni, was quite fond of pizza, and finding a whole one left unattended on the table had been a stroke of luck. But for Julius and Arianna, who had been planning to share said pizza,which they had worked hard to make themselves, with their entire family, it was a stroke of misfortune.
"Giovanni come back!" Ari shouted as she raced around the corner of the house and nearly bowled over her older brother as he was spray painting on a white board canvas.
"Hey watch it!" Lorenzo shouted jumping out of the way as Julius came tearing after her.
"Drop it Giovanni!" Julius shouted as well.
"It's your fault he's got it in the first place I'm sure." Juliet shook her head as she lounged against the side of the house and strummed her guitar. Her family was so wild and chaotic, but she wouldn't want it any other way. And she knew that her papa felt the same way.
Feliciano was zipping about his studio inspecting the different paintings and trying to figure out which ones to give to Mei.
"I'm just so excited you got me this opportunity to display my work before such important people. If things go well I could get a show. Imagine that! My own gallery showing!"
"Yes, I can see you're excited. Um why does your daughter have her camera in my face?"
"I'm his niece actually, and I'm documenting the moment." Roslyn snapped.
"Then why have you not panned out and shown your uncle at all?" Mei asked with a nervous smile.
"Don't ask so many questions." Roslyn responded simply.
Feliciano laughed.
"Ros dear, let the poor woman breath."
"Oh all right." The 14 year old sighed and took a few steps back but the camera remained fixed on Mei.
"Papa!" Juliet came storming into her father's studio, "Lor just spray painted my new guitar."
"Oh not another one." Feliciano sighed but continued to smile as he went over to the window and opened it.
"Lorenzo?"
"Yeah?" His eldest son called back. Feliciano did a double take and changed what he was about to say.
"Wh...what are you doing?"
"He's painting our roses red!" his twin daughter's Bambi and Kiara whined at the same time, stamping their feet.
"White's too plain. This is art." Lorenzo shrugged.
"What papa does is art." Julius chuckled running by, "What you're doing is just tagging."
Lorenzo glared after his adopted brother as his twin adopted sister's grinned.
Feliciano shook his head, still smiling, and closed the window again. He really needed to get back to figuring out which pictures to give but his dashing was interrupted again by another of his kids.
"Uncle Feli I think there's something wrong with my sax." Serefino said sadly as he entered the studio.
"What do you mean?" Feliciano blinked in confusion.
Serefino blew into the instrument like he normally would and a horrible screeching sound came out.
Everyone in the studio covered their ears and Feliciano nodded.
"I see what you mean. We'll take a look at that as soon as I'm finished here."
"Actually I think we basically have enough to make a good presentation for them so..." Mei tried to insist but Feliciano shook his head.
"No I really feel like there should be one more. Hey Sienna do you have an idea of which painting I should send?"
"Ummm..." his youngest niece sat on the table in the middle of the room, kicking her feet, and looked around before she pointed, "That one. It's got the most dynamics. A great focal point. Perfect color usage. And uniqueness."
"You take so much after me that it's scary." Feliciano laughed and Sienna grinned.
"Well she certainly didn't take after our papa." Roslyn grumbled, "Nor did my stupid brother for that matter."
Serefino stuck his tongue out at his sister before trying the sax again. He blew so hard that a little furry ball came flying out and landed in Mei's hair.
Mei caught her breath and tried to keep calm.
"What's on my head?"
"Hey Julius we found Topo!" Juliet called out laughing.
"What's Topo doing in here?" Julius came in through the door just as Mei was starting to panic and would have shaken the hamster onto the floor before he could scoop him off of her head. The older boy was followed by Giovanni, still with pizza in jaws, and Arianna yelling at him to drop it.
"This is fun!" another little boy called from his perch on top of a high stool. Arianna came running by too fast and her foot caught on one of the legs of the stool and tipped it over. Spilling the little boy off onto some freshly used palettes.
"Oh Davide! Are you ok bambino?" Feliciano rushed over to make sure his youngest was ok and to help him up.
"I'm colorful papa!" the little four year old laughed as a palette fell off his shirt into his hands.
"Yes you are, and in need of a new shirt for the day and a bath." Feliciano laughed and ruffled his little boy's hair.
Mei couldn't help but smile. Despite all the chaos she could tell that the man loved all of his children very much. She very much hoped that someday she would be able to experience that same feeling with somebody.
"I'm sorry Mei." Feliciano laughed as Arianna took charge of her little brother and led him out of the studio back to the house to get cleaned up, "Things get a little crazy around here sometimes."
"Sometimes?" Juliet raised her eyebrows and grinned.
"All the time." Feliciano corrected with his own grin and went over to the last painting that Sienna had indicated. He gently lifted it and handed it over to Mei, "Here we are."
She accepted it into the bag with the others and shook her head.
"I don't know how you manage 10 kids Feli, but they're all incredibly unique and talented, just like yourself."
Feliciano blushed and rubbed his hair nervously.
"Ah, grazie Mei." He kissed her on both cheeks and waved as she left, "Ciao."
He gave a sigh and turned back to the crowded room where all eyes were on him.
"Che cosa?"
"Will you please explain to us why you let that very beautiful and available woman walk out of here with barely any flirting and no set date?" Lorenzo spoke up first. The other older children nodded and the younger just looked curious.
Feliciano shook his head and leaned back against the wall laughing.
"Who in the world would possibly be crazy enough to willingly deal with all of this?"
"Apart from you you mean?" Roslyn smiled.
"Of course apart from me." Feliciano chuckled, "I am more than willing to deal with this life. I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"Not even for your first love?" Juliet asked teasingly. She had found her papa's high school photo album from when he was a senior and under the cutest couples heading he was standing looking up lovingly at the taller boy who had his arms around him.
Her papa blushed and tried to look anywhere but at his children before he shook his head and smiled.
"No Juliet, because then I wouldn't have had you."
"You still could have adopted us though which is all that matters." Julius grinned and avoided the mock punch from Lorenzo.
Feliciano laughed and just continued to shake his head as memories filled it. He had loved his wife very deeply but he probably would never forget those high school years and those dazzling blue eyes. Briefly he allowed himself to wonder where those blue eyes were now and what they were doing. He felt a slight pang at the thought that they were probably looking down into someone else's eyes now. Someone they loved more than they ever had him.