Walking out of the doctor's office one mid-spring morning, the first words that came out of Severa's mouth once the door had closed behind her and Brady were words of worry that she'd had been voicing every so often since it had become incredibly obvious she was pregnant. "What do we do about telling Luna?" she asked, placing her hand over the two little decorative handprints on the stomach of the shirt she was wearing. "I'm not surprised she hasn't figured it out yet, but she…"

"She needs to know, yeah, I hear ya on that." Brady took in a deep breath, adjusting how he was holding an envelope up against his leg. "Bet now's the best time to tell her, anyway, now that we can tell her not just that it's a baby, but that it's a—" He was stopped from speaking not by Severa (because she was nodding in agreement with what she knew he was about to say), but by someone loudly yelling his name from down the street. His head turned in that direction and he sighed. "—damn it, so much for having a little alone time right now to figure this all out," he grumbled, shaking his head. "Looks like we've gotta tell them all right now instead of waitin' to know how we're gonna manage it."

"Oh good, I'll come up with something to make it easy." Rolling her eyes as she looked in the direction of the quickly-approaching group that had spotted them, Severa went from being slightly bothered by them to disgusted in a matter of seconds. "Are they…they're making Luna walk with them? Hold the fuck up, that wasn't part of the agreement here."

Brady reached out to grab Severa's arm before she could try to charge at the people as they came to meet up with them right there outside the office. "Don't do anything, Sev. I'm sure there's some reason they've got her walkin', I mean, there's not much they can do about carrying her when one of them's gotta push that stroller, you know?"

"There's two of them, whichever one wasn't pushing the stroller could carry her." Her eyes narrowing as she watched her daughter struggling to keep a good pace alongside the two adults and the large stroller she was currently with, Severa had to resist saying something spiteful when they all stopped, even though she knew she was more than capable of jerking out of Brady's grasp to start a physical altercation.

"Man, we thought we had enough time to go around the block again, you guys sure got done early, didn't you?" Sounding slightly out of breath, as if he'd been running for a while, Owain smiled at the couple, not even noticing that Severa looked like she was out for his blood. When he saw Brady give a small shrug while he lifted up his hand holding that envelope, his smile got bigger, but before he said anything about that he turned his attention to the little girl who was doubled over and gasping for air next to him. "Sorry we couldn't find what you wanted today, Luna. We sure did try, though, didn't we?"

The girl's response was barely eked out, her words punctuated with her heavy breathing, and just hearing it made Brady lower his hand a bit. "Uh, yeah, you weren't makin' her run, were ya? She's not exactly built for running faster than her own pace, makes her foot start botherin' her and…" His voice trailed off as he watched Lunabel stand back up straight, her face completely red from exertion, just for her to give two thumbs-up as she continued struggling to breathe. "You did, you really did. Gods damn it Owain, we put her in your care for an hour and you tried to kill her."

"Don't put your daughter's decision on Owain's shoulders," Noire said, not sounding winded at all even though it was her hands on the stroller that carried the two sleeping twins in it. In fact, she sounded like their bout of physical activity hadn't bothered her at all, which allowed for her to get rather forceful with what else she had to say. "I offered to carry her, she refused, please don't get mad about us not forcing her to do something."

"Luna would never refuse to be carried. Something here's not addin' up." Passing off what he held to Severa, her close to losing her restraint and lashing out of the two, Brady opened his arm up for her daughter to run into, which she did. As he picked her up, he noticed that she smelled all too strongly of frosting, and judging by how she was glancing around and seemed to be unable to get still even though she was being held, he knew what had happened. "You gave her something sweet to eat, didn't you?"

"She might have found some cookies I'd brought with us, yes, and I might have given her a couple before we went on our walk. Is there a problem with that?" Keeping a peaceful smile on her face, Noire waited for someone to claim that there was a problem with that decision, something that didn't come.

It only didn't come because Severa heard the word "cookies" and immediately went from being livid about what had happened with Lunabel to really wanting a cookie for herself. "You, uh, didn't give her all the cookies, did you?" she sheepishly asked, feeling the strong desire to have one overtake her, and when Noire shook her head her face lit up. "Mind giving me one, or two, or the rest? I could really use them."

"Sev, you don't need any cookies at all. Luna havin' them is bad enough, but she at least was runnin' around after she got them. All you're doin' is making things harder for yourself." Even with Brady saying no, Noire was still digging through the back pouch of the stroller to get the rest of the cookies out for Severa, and once she had them for herself she was never going to let them go. "Y'know what, when you've managed to eat yourself out of all the clothes you've got, I'm not going to listen to your complaining about it."

"I'm not going to do that, don't worry. I know my limits." Smirking as she popped a cookie in her mouth, Severa gave Brady a quick wink, trying to convince him to believe what she'd just said. When she got a slow shake of the head as a response, all she could think of doing was proving him wrong, but in this situation proving him wrong would be to only have the one cookie and she just couldn't do that. There was something about Noire's baking that was still irresistible, and because she was baking so much less because of having to take care of her own kids, it made the times when she had treats to share that much more special.

"Anyway, not trying to distract from Severa stuffing her face, but do we want to find somewhere to hang out that isn't, uh, right here?" Owain was looking towards the office building they were standing in front of as he spoke. "I don't think all the people who'd be coming here want this group out here blocking their way, you know?"

The general consensus was that he was right and that they should move elsewhere, but the question of where to go was raised and no one had an answer for that, until Brady had a moment to think about where they were. "We're close to downtown right now, so we could always head down to the flower shop to see if Inigo's there. Bet he'd love to see his friends all out like this," he suggested, but as it was the only suggestion actually made that became the plan, and after figuring out what direction they needed to head in they all started for their destination. "Okay, but while we walk, I think there's something that we need to tell everyone here," he said, after glancing towards Severa and watching her continue with eating those cookies. "Sev, cookies down, we're going to tell them."

"Why're we doing that now?" she asked after she swallowed down her last mouthful of frosted cookie. "I haven't thought about how we're going to break the news to Luna yet, wasn't that important?"

The girl, at hearing her name, cocked her head to one side as she looked to her mother. "What, Mama? News for Luna?"

"Yeah, news for you, sweetie. Just let me…ugh, fucking hell I need another hand for this." Severa was currently holding both the envelope and the cookie bag in one hand, her other hand covered in frosting she was having to resist licking off her fingers. "Anyone want to help me out so I can do this?" After halting all forward progress for a minute or two so Noire could take her cookies back from Severa and then Severa could go ahead and just lick her fingers to make sure they were clean, they were back on track and she was tapping that envelope against her now-clean hand. "Okay, so I haven't put a bit of thought into this, because I have no idea how you're supposed to tell a kid this, but…"

"Mama, please be okay," Lunabel quietly said, before kicking her father as hard as she could with one leg, causing him to yelp and stop walking to drop her onto the ground. She glared up at him, not having wanted to have been put down, but she made her way to her mother's side and started reaching up for her to pick her up. "Hold me, Mama, please?"

"Luna, I'd love to, but you see…" Smiling down at the girl and trying to make it look at least mostly genuine, Severa motioned towards her stomach with the hand that was still holding the envelope. "It's not exactly going to work out right now. If you want to be held, your dad can do it."

Lunabel jutted her lower lip out, eyes narrowing as she began glaring at her mother. "Mama's hands still do hold-y-ing, Mama can hold me," she defiantly replied, balling one hand into a fist and swinging it at her mother's leg, hitting her and making her quickly go from smiling to returning the glare in an instant. "Please Mama, hold me."

"I just can't, Luna. Not right now." The words were spoken with disgust, Severa not liking at all how Lunabel was acting, and when her refusal sank in, the girl was lashing out once more, aiming to swing that fist again. The target, had she not been scooped up by her father before she could do anything, would have been right in the side of Severa's stomach, which gave the woman the idea she needed for how to break the news to the girl. "I'd love to hold you, if you were behaving and if I wasn't so busy already holding someone else," she explained, watching as Lunabel went from trying to resist her father's grasp to slowly trying to make sense of what she'd just heard. "You can't really see her right now, but I'm—"

"Hold on a second, did you say her? As in, another little girl to add to the collection our group of friends seems to be making?" Even though he was a few steps ahead (and was making sure to remain so, just in case the family behind him had to stop walking for whatever reason), Owain had heard what Severa had said and was grabbing onto Noire to get her to stop walking as he turned around to face the other two adults. "That's awesome, you two! I bet Luna's going to be great to a little sister!"

"Sister…?" Having stopped fighting her situation entirely, Lunabel was quickly looking between her parents, entire jaw trembling as she spoke. "Why a sister? Sisters are icky!"

"Trust me, we were hoping it would be a boy so we could name him after his grandfathers, but a sister's not that big of a deal." Now that they'd all stopped walking once again, just in the middle of the sidewalk somewhere on the way to their destination, Severa was focused enough on what she was talking about to open the envelope she was holding to pull the pictures out of it. "They gave us a good look at her, said she's definitely a she and that both her feet seem perfectly normal, and that she's growing like a fucking weed in there, but she's, well," she offered the pictures over to Owain, who grabbed them like a kid would grab a favorite toy, "she's real and she's going to be joining us in a few months' time."

"Now you know why your mama's not been picking you up so much lately, right Luna?" Brady asked his daughter, who was still in a state of trembling at the news. "And why she's been eatin' all the sweets in the kitchen before you get any, but that's for the best."

Blinking, a few tears rolled down onto Lunabel's cheeks as she started rapidly shaking her head. "I don't wanna get a sister!" she shrieked. "No sister! No babies! Please no!" She was once again trying to get out of her father's arms, but he was pulling her in closely to tightly hug her, the way she was so upset starting to upset him as well. "Dada, make it stop!"

"I can't do anything about it, Luna. It'll be fine and you'll love her, just like we'll love you and her both." He was choking up as he tried to be reassuring, causing more of a scene there on the sidewalk than there needed to be. "Please don't cry, dear, it's all okay."

"If you ever want to borrow one of my kids to let Lunabel experience what it's like to have a baby around more and more, I will gladly let you," Noire offered, after she got to look at one of the pictures Owain was shoving in her face. "They've both gotten to be rather well-behaved, so letting her sit with one wouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm sure you'd want to use Ophelia to get the actual 'sister' experience, but either one would work, I think."

"No offense, Noire, but I don't think letting Luna be around either of them would really work right now," Severa replied, taking the kind gesture to heart but knowing all-too-well that it would just end up going over very badly, given how against the whole situation Lunabel seemed to be. "Maybe in a couple months, after we've convinced Luna there's no other way but to get this little sister, but not right now."

It was a gentle way to reject the offer, but something didn't sit right with Noire, leading her to snap back with, "Well good, I didn't want to let a bitch like you or your demon child watch either of my babies to begin with," before she started pushing the stroller down the street again unprompted.

"I, er, I think I should follow her. Meeting at the flower shop, right?" Owain didn't even wait for an answer before he was dashing off after Noire, her picking up speed with every step, and he didn't even have the courtesy of handing back the pictures to Severa before he left. He didn't take them with him, however, as they flew from his hand when he turned to run, the papers hitting the ground in front of them.

"What did I even say to piss her off this time?" Severa asked, looking down at the pictures she was now expected to bend over and pick up. "I don't think I can get down low enough to get those for myself right now, either. Damn it Owain, why'd you marry a psychotic freak who loses her mind at the slightest things?"

"Don't worry, I've got it," Brady assured her with a sniffle, setting Lunabel down to get the pictures for himself, but he forgot that setting the child down was not going to end well in this situation. She saw that she was on equal footing with whatever it was that had been passed around that was about the sister she didn't want, and without giving it a split second's thought she was jumping onto the closest of the pictures, grinding it into the ground with her feet.

Both her parents, caught by surprise by her behavior, called out her name to reprimand her, but she smirked at them for it. "Bye-bye sister," she said, grinding the picture into the ground a bit more. "Not having a sister today, nope!"

"Luna, get off the picture, we're supposed to take that to your grandparents so they can all see it." Brady was looking at the girl with pleading eyes, hoping that his calm and steady voice, despite being quite upset with her at what she'd done, would convince her to behave again. All it accomplished was getting her to leave that particular picture alone, just to go to the other two that had been dropped, picking them up, and ripping them both in half with that same smirk on her face.

"I'm going to kill her," Severa said, her voice nowhere near steady as she stared wide-eyed at what her daughter had just done. "Those were the visual proof we had for everyone to see the new baby we made, and they're ruined. All of them."

As he was picking up the image that had been stomped on, Brady sighed. "There's only three of them out here, and they gave us four, so I think ya managed to save one after all, but knowin' our luck it's going to be the worst quality one of them all. Mind checkin' the envelope to see if there really is one there?"

"Yeah, sure thing," she replied, reaching into the envelope and indeed finding one last sonogram picture that she must have missed when she'd grabbed the other ones. "Huh, looks like it's a pretty good one. Don't have a clear view of what makes her a her, but you can see her hand in this one, kind of like she's waving at us."

He was still looking at the one he'd picked up, all while Lunabel continued ripping the other two into smaller and smaller pieces. "This one's got some footprint marks that won't go away, but I think it's salvageable. Put them away before Luna decides she's ripping them up too." Handing the picture over to Severa so she could put it and the one in her own hand away, Brady then turned his attention to the gleeful ripping that Lunabel was partaking in. "As for you, little girl, what are we gonna do with you? You're being really bad right now."

"Not bad, I am a good girl," Lunabel said in response, throwing her now-shredded papers above her head and letting the bits fall all over her while she laughed. "Dada, please no more about the sister."

"You see, there's really nothing we can do about her existing at this point, Luna. It's just kinda a thing that's happening." He glanced towards Severa, who was looking at the girl with disgust while resting her hand on her stomach, her palm covering the little handprints on her shirt once more. "If you want, maybe after we've punished ya for what you've done, we could let ya feel your sister move or something, but right now you're gettin' nothing close to that. You're in big trouble, kid."

Lunabel's face went from proud of what she'd done to scared for her life in a flash, her starting to shake her head and repeat that she was a good girl over and over, while her father picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "Dada, please! It wasn't a bad, it wasn't!" she screamed, beating on his back with her fists. "I am a good girl!"

"Right now I prefer your sister to you, and she's not even born yet," he told her, trying to ignore the fact that her screaming made him feel horrible inside. "She's at least not actively destroying things because she's not getting her way."

"Someday she will, if she ends up being anything like Luna is." Severa rolled her eyes, casting one last glance at the ripped-up pictures that she'd been accepting the necessity of before she started walking in the direction they'd been going in before. "Come on, let's just see if we can catch up to Owain and Noire before they forget they've got some of our stuff in their stroller and ditch us completely."

After Brady did the same thing regarding the mess left behind, he was following in his wife's footsteps, making sure to keep the still-screaming Lunabel out of her reach in case mother or child decided they wanted to pick a fight. By the time they got to the familiar street that he'd spent a lot of time on walking to the flower shop, they could see the people that had left them behind earlier, standing outside the rather plain exterior of the shop. "What took you so long to meet back up with us?" Owain asked, noticing that Lunabel was throwing a fit as she was being held. "Is she getting restless? Does she need to nap? I mean, I'm sure we could get one of the twins out of the stroller if we really need to so she can sleep."

"She ripped up pictures you dropped, asshole," Severa bluntly told him, making Owain cringe at the way her tone was attacking him. "She's not taking this 'little sister' thing well at all, and I bet it has something to do with you and your kids."

"I don't know how that would be possible, she's only ever had great times with them! Like, oh! Like today while we were waiting for you to get done, she seemed to be having fun talking to them even though they were asleep." Pausing to think, Owain brought a hand to his chin and stroked it gently. "Or maybe she was having fun just yelling at someone. Does she like doing that?"

Blankly staring at Owain like he'd just asked the stupidest question possible, Severa flatly said, "No, she hates yelling at people. She's a pure and innocent child who'd never do a damn thing—yes she likes just yelling to yell, you dipshit! She probably thinks that her sister's going to be just like your babies, and therefore just someone else to yell at when she's feeling obnoxious! Ugh!" Having already shoved the envelope and what remained of the pictures within it into her pocket, she put both hands to the sides of her head and ran her fingers through her loose hair, dragging them through it to try calming herself down. "I hate you so much right now, Owain."

"Hate me? I didn't even do anything!" Now it was Owain's turn to get frustrated at what was happening, not sure why Severa was lashing out at him so harshly and completely unconvinced that he deserved it. "It's not my fault that your kid doesn't get along well with others, that's all on you."

"Stop fighting, you guys," Brady interjected, trying to make himself be heard over Lunabel's continued screaming. "This isn't the time or the place for that, if ya want to argue we can just head back to someone's place and do it there. We're here to see if Inigo's around, right? Even if everything's gone to shit otherwise we can still keep with that plan."

"It would be better if he was actually here, though." Looking at the darkened entrance to the flower shop, Noire was keeping herself calm and as removed from the arguing as she could after her earlier bout of anger. "The sign on the door says they're closed today due to 'unforeseen circumstances', whatever those might be."

The looming fighting subsided as Noire quoted what the sign said, because at the mention of something being "unforeseen" Severa was beginning to grow worried as to what could have happened. "I…don't like the sound of that," she said, as she gestured towards Brady with an outstretched hand so that he could give him her phone from his pocket, but as he was busy trying to get Lunabel to stop crying he didn't see the motion. "Someone should check on Cynthia, see if she's okay. I'd hate for us to all be out like this and for her to be suffering."

"It's not Cynthia, I already had that thought and called her, she said it was something to do with the dance studio." Noire turned to face her friends, her eyes closed as she smiled at them. "So clearly it's something to do with Inigo's mother, if not him himself."

"Then why are we still hanging around here?" Owain asked after clearing his throat, letting the last words of his argument go away unsaid. "We've got to go see what's up, don't we?"

"Yes, because that's exactly what we want to do when we've got a screaming three-year-old with us," Severa sarcastically replied, but Owain was once again getting ahead of himself and running in the direction he felt they needed to go, his phone out in his hand in front of him. "Great, he's gone already. So much for telling him to chill the fuck out."

"Knowing him, he probably started his game and wants to get everything he can between here and there," Noire suggested, as she turned her attention back to the stroller she was in charge of, getting it faced in the correct direction before heading off after Owain. She stopped after a few steps, laughing as she did. "You might want to get that game for yourselves, it made walking with Lunabel a lot easier than you'd expect. She would do anything to chase down some of the cuter monsters."

As Noire resumed walking, Severa looked to Brady with raised eyebrows. "You hear that? She thinks that we're going to want to waste our time doing that stupid shit just to amuse Luna. I love the girl, but only good kids get that kind of treatment."

"Don't say things like that when she can hear you, Sev, it's only going to make everything worse." True to the point Brady was making, Lunabel had been calming down slightly when she heard her mother grumble something about how she was a bad kid, which made her pick up crying once more. "See, look at that, she's cryin' all over again. And who's job is it to make her stop? Mine. Since you can't be bothered to carry her right now."

"What did I say before? I'm already carrying one kid, I don't need to have to carry her too." He rolled his eyes at her comeback, which had her starting to laugh at how funny she felt she was. Since he wasn't amused, though, she stopped herself relatively quickly and, after coughing to muffle the last stray giggles, she said, "Let's go see whatever shitshow's happening at the dance studio, I suppose. Do you think everything's okay?"

Brady shrugged, not really listening to her anymore past her suggesting that they get going. When she didn't get her response, she started walking off without him, leaving him to trail behind her at her pace, watching the slightly exaggerated sway in her body as she kept moving forward. "Ya know, you're already startin' to walk like ya did in the last few weeks before Luna was born," he remarked, watching as her whole upper body stiffened at the words. "I'm not sayin' that's a sign or anything, but it might be a sign that something's different this time."

"Nothing's different, aside from us already having a kid to take care of," she replied, letting her body relax once more. "If something was different, we'd have been told about that today. But nope, it's all exactly the same as last time."

"I'm just sayin', you're pretty big already and—"

"Brady, do not talk to me about how big you think I am." Anger at that topic of conversation was rising in Severa's chest, and despite knowing that she needed to focus on where she was walking she stole a quick glance down at herself. She was sure her mental image of what she'd looked like the last time she'd been pregnant was skewed, but she was also sure that the way she looked now wasn't much different from it. "I've been doing relatively good this time about everything. Like, I haven't gotten nearly as many sweets as I did last time." To keep herself from losing her temper because of the accusation, she added, "I'd say, unlike last time, only half this weight is cake weight. I'm doing better, really."

He waited until he knew she was done defending herself before he said anything else, not wanting to cut her off and start another argument. "I get that, but it seems like, to me, something here's not right about how you look." She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to give him an icy glare, which he sighed at. "Not saying I don't think you're still great-looking, because you are, but I just don't think you should be lookin' like this already."

"Your opinion is invalid because you don't know what it's like to be pregnant, jerk." Sticking her tongue out at him, Severa turned back to focusing on walking, seeing a gathered crowd up ahead that was blocking the sidewalk. She was trying to place where they were and how far from their destination they still were, but as she wasn't sure how many blocks they'd gone, or how far the dance studio was from the flower shop, she wasn't of much use.

However, Brady had made the walk between the two places many times and was hesitantly looking at the crowd in front of them. "These don't look like people from around here, but why are they hangin' around outside the studio of all places?"

"This is where the studio is?" Severa asked, sounding genuinely surprised, and when Brady gave a small grunt in reply she looked at the crowd with a different mindset, trying to reach a conclusion that explained what was happening. "Huh, how about that. Maybe someone there did something to piss every single tourist in town off. Sounds like an Inigo thing to do."

"No one seems like they're raisin' pitchforks at the place, so I think you might be wrong on that one, Sev," Brady said with a laugh, stopping to stand right beside Severa as she continued looking at the crowd. "Besides, if they were here to cause problems, I think we'd see our friends in all of it trying to get them to stop. But I don't see a hair of Owain or Noire's heads, which means they must've made it through the crowd. Shall we try for ourselves?"

Her head turned towards him, her eyes instinctively narrowing as she brought both arms in front of her as a protective measure. "I'd rather not, who knows if any of those people there won't realize they can't push back if I push them."

"Fair enough," he replied, sidling up next to her and making her inch her way towards the front of the building next door to the studio. "We'll stand watch for if either of our friends come back. If they do, great! If they don't, then you're stuck watchin' Luna while I chase them down to get our stuff out of their stroller and start headin' home."

"I…don't know if I'm down for that plan, but it'll work in a pinch." With her arms still in front of her, Severa was now looking towards Lunabel, the girl sniffling as she was calming down from her fit. "I'd hope she'd behave if you did leave her with me, she's not getting away with being so nasty about having a sister."

The corners of the girl's mouth fell as far as they could, Lunabel's red and teary eyes meeting her mother's after a couple moments of trying to keep from making eye contact. "Babies are icky, so sisters are icky," she stated, before sticking her tongue out and blowing a loud raspberry that made her forget she was trying her hardest to be upset and start giggling instead. "I don't wanna have a icky yucky sister."

"You'll get used to the idea eventually, I hope," Severa told her with a smile, not sure if she ever would because she didn't know what it was like to know about getting a sibling. "Maybe after you're done being punished for the stunt you pulled, we'll get to spend some great time together that isn't ruined by your sister."

"Okay, Mama, I like that." Lunabel sounded sullen, even though she had just been laughing; she had come to realize that the looming punishment for her behavior wasn't going to go away no matter how hard she tried, but she was still trying to repent for what she'd done, leading her to ask, "Will Mama hold me now?"

"I, uh, I really can't," she was told, Severa not moving her arms at all as she spoke. "I think you're too big for me to comfortably hold while I'm standing like this. When we're home, I'll hold you on the couch or something, but for right now you've just got to understand that I'm not hurting myself to hold you."

Puckering her lips in disgust, Lunabel dramatically rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else. "I'm glad you're thinkin' about what's best for the baby that needs it, rather than just trying to appeal to Luna," Brady said as he felt Lunabel snuggle herself down into his back and shoulders. "Here I was, getting worried that ya weren't going to find a way to balance playing mom to both of them, but you've found a way after all."

"I'm not a horrible person, I think I can manage raising one kid while being pregnant with another," Severa snapped, before gasping at her own brashness. She quickly looked to see if she'd offended Brady with what she'd said, but based on how he was trying his hardest not to smile she was sure he was finding her comment more amusing than anything. "Okay, seriously, I'm not horrible, but that was a bad way to word that."

"It's been a ride of a day already, I can forgive why you're bein' so harsh to everyone you're speaking to today." Finally letting that smile shine through at her, Brady went from watching her face light up in relief to looking back at the crowd, seeing a familiar face coming towards them, stroller in tow. "Looks like Noire's headin' this way, you want to do the talking or should I?"

"You do it, I'd rather not misspeak and have her go ballistic on me again."

"I figured you'd say something like that." Shrugging, Brady watched as Noire came to stand right in front of them, her eyes narrowed as she slowly rocked the stroller back and forth, trying to keep the two now-wailing babies in it from getting too much louder. "Hey now, what happened to them sleeping like rocks? Did someone over in that crowd disturb them?"

Shaking her head, Noire explained, "No, it was my fault that they woke up, someone brushed against me and I lost control of my tongue for a moment, which shocked them both to being awake. Someone should…I shouldn't have…" She looked back to where she'd emerged from the crowd, sighing as she did. "Owain was trying to find Inigo in that mess and he got cornered and separated from me, so I did what I could to find him but had to get away when it got to be too overwhelming. Someone should go find him."

Understanding why she was sighing, Brady cast a pleading look at Severa, who shook her head at him. "I'm not holding Luna so you can go find your cousin," she said, "so either set her down and get going, or take her with you. Those are your two options."

"Actually, if you'll keep rocking the stroller, I'll gladly hold Lunabel for you two," Noire offered, and with the genuine kindness in her voice it was hard to resist taking her up on it. Even with the knowledge that relying on her wasn't necessarily the best idea, Brady really didn't want to take Lunabel into the mess of a crowd with him, but he also didn't want to leave her laying on the ground next to her mother who wouldn't bother even trying to hold her. He ended up accepting Noire's conditions, even if Severa didn't seem to be pleased about being in charge of the whining twins, and the moment Lunabel was safely held in Noire's arms he was heading towards the crowd in search of Owain.

Pushing his way towards the door of the studio was a lot easier than he'd expected it to be, but given his tall and somewhat intimidating stature it wasn't too surprising. It also gave him the advantage that no one else in the group (minus the person he was looking for) had: the ability to scout out people over everyone else's heads. True to Noire's word, it seemed that Owain had gotten himself cornered, surrounded by a couple of guys who didn't look to be from around the area. "H-hey, you can really stop rubbing up against me," he heard Owain's voice say as he got closer, making him worried for his cousin's safety. "I get that you're really touchy-feely, but I am married and I do have kids, you know…"

"I just wanted to see if your core felt as strong as it looked to be," a foreign voice replied, dripping with sultry tones that sounded like they were completely genuine. "It's a shame that you're taken, you'd make for quite the stunning armpiece."

"I don't even care about the romantic stuff you're throwing around right now," the other person said, getting right into Owain's face as Brady watched from a few feet away. "I saw some of those gems he had on his phone, I want to know exactly how he got them. I've been trying for weeks now to catch anything good, you've got to tell me your secrets!"

"You're kidding me, Owain gets trapped by a dude playing his dumb game and a guy who wants to date him?" Brady asked himself, chuckling before he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "Yo, Owain, what're you doing in here? What's going on?"

Up against the wall, pinned behind the two strangers, Owain slid a bit lower as he heard his name in Brady's voice, not wanting to justify him with a response. "Is that your loverboy there looking for you?" the first man asked, running a finger along one side of Owain's jaw, while the other man tried frisking his pockets for any sight of his phone and what he'd seen on it. "Or is it someone else concerned for your well-being?"

"It's my cousin," he answered, still sinking lower to try and get out of the two men's reach. "I really should get going now, playing this game with you two's been fun, but—"

"Hold it right now." A third voice broke through the sound of the bustling room, people falling silent as a russet-haired man approached the scene. From where he was standing just a bit away, Brady was unsure of how someone else had gotten through without him see it, but he was sure that Owain was glad that Inigo had appeared out of thin air and come to his rescue. He grabbed both the men holding his friend hostage and pulled them back a few steps, looking at them both with an ashamed expression. "I cannot believe you two came all this way to start attacking a dear friend of mine. What did he do to you to deserve this?"

"You've gotten to know me rather well as of late, Inigo darling, you know that when I see a beautiful man I must investigate him for myself." Bowing his head in shame, that man stepped aside willingly, the second one following in his footsteps after longingly looking at Owain for a few seconds more. "Let's see if we can find anyone else of interest, or at least, of my own interest. Maybe someone'll have a sign or something you can take as a keepsake of this day, Keaton."

"Yeah right, no one here's got anything I want, except for that guy!" Waving a hand towards Owain, the man known as Keaton had his other arm grabbed and was dragged away, the pair passing by Brady as he watched in confusion at what the two were doing in a place like this, and why Inigo seemed to have known them.

At any rate, he'd get his answers soon enough, especially after he made his way over to where Owain was still slouching against the wall, Inigo standing in front of him much like the two strange men had been moments before. "I really do apologize for this, the people that have come into town for the summer's events are quite the bunch," Inigo was saying. "I never knew that being part of the dance company that is putting on such a big festival would result in mobs like this coming in on a daily basis."

"This is normal for you now?" Owain asked, trying to scoot himself back up to more of a standing position, but only managing to slide down further towards the floor when Inigo nodded. "Damn, and here I was thinking you had a pretty normal thing here. Who were those guys?"

Trying to ease his way into their conversation without coming as much of a shock, Brady offered out the one bit of information he'd heard that he was also sure Owain had heard. "Pretty sure the wild-looking one's name is Keaton, if that's any help." He got two people facing him as he finished speaking, both men seeming happy to see him.

"That would be correct, Keaton's a wonderful performer as the wolf in any recital, but off-stage I suppose he keeps his wild demeanor and doesn't quite understand that physical limits are a thing." Inigo shrugged, finally offering a hand towards Owain so that the blond didn't hit the floor with how much he was sliding. "The other one, also completely unaware that people have boundaries, is the pride and joy of the adults-only Nohrian dance troupe, stage name Zero, real name Niles. Quite the…fellow, I would say."

"He grabbed me in places only Noire should be grabbing," Owain said, unable to get much more straightforward with his point than he had. "I can see why he's an adults-only kind of performer. What're people like that doing here?"

"I've told you about this several times now, Owain. There's a festival happening in town that my parents have had a fairly large share of putting together, meaning that the studio here is one of the hotspots for the activity." Sighing deeply, Inigo looked at what remained of the large crowd in the entryway, shaking his head at all the people pushing their way in. "The insanity will surely fade as events begin, but for now all hell has broken loose around here and I'm stuck having to orchestrate all the different performances involving the less-than-pure gentlemen, while my mother takes charge of the women's dances."

"That would explain why the flower shop was closed when we went down there." Also looking around at who all was still in the area, Brady couldn't help but wonder what kinds of performers a lot of these people were, and why they were so important as to cause such a scene like this one. "Bet your parents are going to miss the peace and quiet of just runnin' that and occasionally bein' up here, huh?"

Inigo shrugged at the question, before explaining his hesitance at agreeing, "It's always been a dream of Mother's to run a successful theater, and if all goes well this summer, she might move to just running the dance studio to train dancers for said theater she's trying to build with the funds raised by doing this. Father's always been one for travelling and meeting interesting people from all over the world, hence why there's so many foreigners here for the events. I would much rather be selling flowers than dealing with this, but I've known it's been in my blood all along."

"Interesting, we're going to have to come check out some of what you're putting on once the performances actually start! Uh, as long as neither of those guys from earlier happen to see me around again, that is." Owain scratched the back of his head, laughing as he did. "I should go find where Noire got off to and let her know that I didn't get robbed or attacked too badly in here without her. Care to come with?"

Inigo refused the offer, citing that he needed to stick around to keep people from breaking into the main part of the studio, but Brady knew exactly where Noire was and knew that he needed to get back there as well. "I bet, between her and Sev, they've either got three sleeping kids or three dead ones," he jokingly said, before realizing that the joke wasn't really that funny and seemed to raise a panic within Owain. "Hey man, it wasn't serious, they're all okay and—you're leaving already, nice." As he was trying to talk, Owain was already beginning to push through the crowd trying to leave, not caring that he was leaving behind the person that was coming with him.

At least keeping up with him wasn't too hard, given Brady's ability to see exactly where he was at all times thanks to their heights. Once they'd broken out of the crowd outside the building, the blond man stopped to catch his breath and make sense of where he was located, giving his cousin a perfect opportunity to catch back up with him. "We came up the street when we got here, right?" Owain asked once he saw that Brady was right beside him, getting no answer because Brady wasn't sure if that was the case or not because he hadn't arrived there initially with him. "Which should mean that Noire and Severa and all the kids are waiting for us somewhere this way, shouldn't it?" He looked down the street seeing people walking away from the crowd but no familiar faces. "So where are they?"

"I don't have the slightest clue," Brady admitted, as he looked straight to where he was positive he'd left them behind. "They're not waitin' for us where they should've been."

"That's because we moved, idiots." Somehow, without them realizing it, the others had ended up behind them, and judging by how Severa was sounding amused as she spoke, it wasn't for any bad reason. The two men turned around to see the ladies and the three children, two of them once again asleep in the stroller while the third was focused back on the crowd in Noire's arms. "People kept walking past us asking what kind of fucked up harem thing we had going on, so we decided to move to get away from it."

"People really don't understand how women can have a day out with friends even after having children," Noire added, offering Lunabel back over to Brady, the girl whining a bit as she was exchanged between hands but resuming looking at the crowd almost immediately. "It was almost embarrassing at times, how rude the people were as they asked about what was going on between us."

"Also didn't help that some of those people came by in large groups and…oh, forget it, it's over and I'm not dwelling on it." Draping one arm around Brady as she leaned into his side, Severa loudly sighed. "I just want to go home and be done with today, I'm already dreading how the next few days are going to go while we tell everyone what's happening."

"It can't possibly go that badly," Brady assured her, resting his head on the top of hers for a second, before he saw Lunabel sneakily reaching towards her mother's hair, and rather than letting her do whatever it was she was plotting he jerked her away, knocking Severa off balance and nearly toppling her over, a perfect way to reinforce the reality that everything right then could and would indeed go badly if given the chance.


Telling everyone the gender news went over fairly well, up until the last two people on the list that needed to know. For the most part, showing the remaining sonograms to the curious people was good enough, them accepting the two images as the truth, and everyone's reactions to the news of a second daughter were positive ones. For a while, it seemed that the only person honestly unhappy about it was Lunabel, but that changed when they'd gotten around to tell Chrom (and Maribelle, but she was honestly excited about a second grandbaby, regardless of gender).

"So you're not going to get to name a kid after his grandfathers, it seems," Chrom said dejectedly as he looked at the two pictures, his eyes shifting between them as if he was looking for something to prove the determination wrong. "I'd been hoping, from the moment I found out about this, that you'd be able to do that, but…"

"Actually, uh, about that." Not liking how upset his father sounded with the turn of events, Brady leaned down closer to the dining room table, looking up at his father with a smile. "We don't have a full name yet, and who knows when we'll have one, but we've asked Lucy to help us out on this one, comin' up with some good girl name that works your name and Sev's dad's name into it."

"You're aware that agreement was only in effect for Lunabel, correct?" Maribelle asked, bouncing her granddaughter on her lap while the girl pushed her own cheeks up with her fists as she tried to make herself look happy despite the topic of conversation. "If you two wanted to name your second girl after someone else, perhaps a dear friend or sibling, it would be accepted and forgiven."

"No, Ma, we're makin' sure it's fair to all the grandparents this way." Reaching towards where Severa was sitting, her head resting on her arms as had them folded on the table's edge, Brady sat back up straight and pulled his chair in a bit closer to the table with his feet. "That's why Lucy's involved, between her and Laurent they know a million names and a million more alternate versions and they'll come up with something, I know they will."

"We just need a first name," Severa corrected, lifting her head as she disputed what Brady had been saying. "I know what her middle name's going to be, it's going to be just like Lunabel's except with my father's name. Easy as that."

Simultaneously, both Chrom and Maribelle had comments to make. Sounding surprised at the gesture, Chrom asked, "So that means that her first name gets to be based on my name?" while Maribelle, jaw dropping at the revelation, said, "I don't know if I can live my life knowing my grandchild has a criminal's name as part of hers."

"I don't want to hear you talk about my dad like that, he's more than just a criminal." Replying quickly to part of Maribelle's half of the conversation, Severa continued on to his both of their points with, "But yeah, we're doing something crazy and stupid and naming her something sounding like Chrom, and then her middle name's going to based on my dad's name. So it'll probably be just as big of a mess as Lunabel's name is, but at least this time we're not messing with prissy and pretentious names."

"My name isn't prissy or pretentious," Maribelle said with a turn of her head that sent a few of her ringlets flying over her shoulder and into Lunabel's face, making the girl cough as the taste of hair hit her mouth. "You've just been raised by less-than-noble people, that's all."

"I'd say a police officer with a family heirloom of a name is pretty noble." Severa drew in a deep breath, exhaling as she rested her head back on her arms. "Too bad that I can't give that name to both my kids, but the family's got a rule. One person with the Cordelia name per generation, and I was the lucky one to get to use it for Lunabel."

That was a new fact about Severa's family that Brady hadn't heard before, something he asked about as they were leaving his parents' house that night. She explained it exactly as she had there at the house, that one person per generation in the family got the name and then it wasn't used again until the following generation. "That's a neat rule they've got there," he said, seeing her smile out of the corner of his eye. "So, has there been anyone else in your family born in Luna's generation or…?"

"Not that I know of, but do you know how much I actually care about my extended family? I know when they die and that's it. Mother dearest keeps better tabs on everyone than I could care to, she knows that Luna was the first and therefore she could get the name, and that's that." Severa laughed, her smile getting bigger. "I still can't believe it's a rule that we can't all just use the name, but thank the gods it is, because I'm rather content with the name I've got. Wouldn't want my mother to have shoehorned her name into it."

Brady figured that, by learning that information that day, he wasn't ever going to have to grapple with it again for a very long time, if ever, but lo and behold, when the time came for them to get over to Severa's parents' house to tell them in person about their second child, it came roaring right back at them. It started when they pulled up to the house in their beat-up car and saw a vehicle that looked like it belonged in the ritzier neighborhood sitting in the driveway. "Say Sev, ya never mentioned that your parents had upgraded their car," he remarked as he parked the car in front of the house and got out, getting Lunabel from the backseat before walking around to help Severa out as well. "When were ya going to tell me about that?"

"That's not the kind of vehicle my mother would drive," she replied, approaching the strange car with apprehension and investigating it. "Besides, it looks to be a rental car. Kind of fancy for a rental, but maybe their car's in the shop and Daddy was the one to pick out the temporary replacement." She leaned her face into one of the tinted windows, hoping to see anything inside for any more answers, but came back with no more leads. "I'll have to ask them about it when we get inside. That'll be a fun story, I bet."

"Mama, Dada, can we not talk about sisters today?" Lunabel asked, burying her face into her father's neck after she finished. "I don't wanna do it."

"Sorry, sweetie, but that's kind of why we're here today," he told her, patting her back as she sighed, her breath warm against his neck. "I understand you're over the whole sister thing, but this isn't something that's gonna change anytime soon. It'll get better once you actually have your sister around to be with, I bet."

"Or it'll get worse, who knows?" Severa was already at the door, raising one hand to knock on it while she held the front edge of her shirt down with her other hand, trying to keep it from pulling up as she started knocking. "You know what I'd like, I'd like to not be having to do this either, I'm already sick and tired of being pregnant and I know the worst parts are all still coming."

Watching how she was straining to keep her shirt down, Brady couldn't help but give a soft laugh at the action. "Don't you think they'd be nowhere near as bad if ya could manage to keep all the sweet stuff out of your mouth, so ya weren't already worrying with how big you are?" Her knocking stopped as she turned to glare at him, tongue sticking out and metal piercing visible, which only made him laugh more; the laughter was interrupted, however, when the door opened and the person standing on the other side wasn't either of her parents.

"When they said that you didn't look quite like you did the last time we saw each other, I figured they meant something small, not something quite so—" The person greeting them hadn't even been able to finish his thought before Severa had turned back around, wound her arm back, and punched him squarely in the jaw, not hard enough to do any damage but certainly hard enough to have him stumble backward and rub at the bright red spot her fist had left. "What was that for, Severa? I was only going to say that you wear motherhood much different than I had assumed you would."

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Spitting the words as she brought her arm back as if she was going to take another swing, Severa watched as the man in the doorway stepped back to get away from her, which she countered by coming closer. "Answer me, Subaki! What are you doing here?"

"I'm in town to partake in watching the festival happening downtown this summer, if you care so much to know that before asking anything else." Even though he'd just been punched moments before, Subaki was smiling at Severa, before looking to the man standing behind her with the child in his arms. "And who do we have here? Could this be little Severa's husband and daughter? I've heard a lot about you lately as I've been acquainting myself with the ins and outs of the area."

"Er, yeah, that would be us," Brady answered, not quite sure why he was dignifying this man with a response after Severa's violent reaction to him. "Who are you?"

Subaki's eyes went wide for a moment as he realized he'd gone with asking about someone else before properly introducing himself to the people who didn't know him. "How could I be so foolish as to not let you know? My name, as Severa has already said, is Subaki, I happen to be a distant relative of hers."

"Not just a distant relative, he's my second cousin," Severa clarified, still holding her fist as if she was ready to strike again. "And he's not anyone we want to associate ourselves with, Brady. Let's just go and come tell my parents the news some other time, I'm not dealing with him and his bullshit."

"That sure would explain why you know what that phrase means, but why're we going already? I haven't even gotten to meet the guy." Even though Severa seemed hell-bent on leaving right then, Brady stayed exactly where he had been going as far as to hold out a hand for Subaki to shake, after making sure he had Lunabel held tightly with his other arm. "My name's Brady, in case no one's told ya that, and this girl here's named Lunabel."

Squashing her face as much as she could as she looked at the man, Lunabel loudly said, "I don't like him, like Mama! Put me down Dada, I wanna go!"

"Well if she isn't just like her mother, always wanting to get away whenever something she doesn't like is around." Not bothered slightly by the way the girl was reacting, Subaki took up the offer of a handshake, his grasp rather firm on Brady's hand as they shook in greeting. "At any rate, it sure is nice to meet you. I'm surprised Severa hasn't spoken of me before this, we used to be quite close despite living at great distances from each other."

"And then I grew up and realized what kind of asshole you are, but we're going to just pretend that never happened, aren't we?" Severa was stepping away as fast as she could, hearing Lunabel repeat the demand to be set down to follow her getting ignored as often as it was being made. "My daughter, who's never even met you, knows how much of a prick you are just with one conversation, you can drop the act you're putting on and get back to your damn normal behavior."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what's got you so worked up right now, Severa," Subaki admitted, ending his handshake as he pulled back to push the door open a bit further. "But if you want to leave, by all means you can. I think your husband and I will have quite a great time getting to know one another."

Frustrated that she wasn't winning the argument, Severa stopped her retreat and stormed back towards the man in the doorway, raising her fist to Subaki's face once more. "Don't sound so smug when you're talking to me about the people I care about, jerk," she threatened, shaking her fist at him. "I don't know why you're here or what you're doing trying to play friendly, but we both know how the last time we interacted went down, don't act like it happened any different."

"I could never forget how it happened," Subaki replied, gently pushing Severa's hand away and earning himself a hard punch in the arm for touching her. "You managed to get drunk on free wine while underage at the family gathering before my wedding, then proceeded to be too hungover to come to the ceremony the following day." He shook his head, tutting at her while she inched back from him, eyes wide as she realized how right he was. "So yes, I do remember the last time we interacted quite well, it involved me being a gentle soul and holding your hair back while you—"

"You don't need to remind me of that part," she said, defeat in her voice as she looked down, her stomach by far the most prominent thing she could see. "So maybe I've been mentally making mister perfect over here a monster in my head for no reason, but…" Her eyes tracked back up, hitting Subaki's face right as he began beaming at her. "You're still pretty low on the list of people in this family I can tolerate. I think I enjoy my mother more than you most days."

"Acceptable, as you don't see me as much as you see her." Without giving her the chance to break into a rant about how much she despised her mother and how he shouldn't have taken that as a compliment, he stepped aside to let her and Brady both walk in, closing the door behind them once they were all in the entryway. "Now, I believe your mother said something about preparing lunch for us all today, which is a lovely gesture on her behalf. Sometimes I wish I was that courteous as kind."

"Yeah, she's a real kind one," Severa grumbled, looking at the pictures on the wall and seeing that, even though times had changed and relationships were much better than they had been, there were still a few pictures hanging there that had her cut out of them. "So kind that she's tried erasing her daughter from her life a time or two, but we forget all about that because she loves making lunch for us when we visit, don't we?"

His face going completely stone-cold, Subaki looked at Severa and shook his head. "You're awfully ungrateful sometimes, I hope you realize. No wonder your mother seems to prefer me to you."

He walked towards the kitchen before she responded, although said response was a lot of gaping and trying to put a voice to words that were coming out solely as breaths. "I'm takin' it that you and him don't exactly care for each other one bit," Brady offered out as a starting point for Severa's rage-fueled comments, but when he got a dramatic flip of a long ponytail and a lot of heavy stomping towards the kitchen in response, he sighed. "Maybe listenin' to her about just leaving right away would've been for the best, don't you think, Luna?"

"I think Mama's not happy," the girl replied, giggling as she did, before loudly gasping as an idea came to her. "She's gonna hi-i-it 'baki man again, right Dada?"

Grimacing at the idea of Severa taking physical action again, especially in the presence of a police officer, Brady replied, "I sure hope not, kiddo. We don't need her gettin' in trouble just for not liking the guy."

"Oh, but 'baki man isn't a good, Mama likes good and he is not good." Lunabel pressed her face into her father's shoulder, still giggling. "But okay, no hitting. Hitting is bad."

"It is bad, definitely." Now wishing that they hadn't been present when Severa had done that initial punch, Brady moved a bit quicker towards the kitchen, half-expecting to see her wailing on Subaki once more when they got there. But everyone was already sitting at the table, the seats closest to the door still open for when he and Lunabel got there. The lone exception to the sitting rule was Cordelia, who was hovering behind an unamused Severa, her hands pressing firmly on the sides of her daughter's stomach. "Oh gods, what did I miss by bein' a bit late to comin' in here?"

"You only missed Severa walking in, stating that she couldn't handle the smell of the meal I'm making, and then blaming it on the baby, which she accidentally referred to as a girl in the process," Cordelia explained, moving her hands around slightly. "And now I'm attempting to feel any sort of movement that my granddaughter might be making in there."

It was obvious that Severa was not enjoying being touched like she was, based on how she was glancing around and glaring at everyone who made eye contact with her. "I've explained this to you a couple times now, Mother. She doesn't move around much during the day, it's always at night that she decides she's going to be super active."

"Yes, well, it's always worth a shot." Bringing her hands back and brushing them together before heading back to her stovetop, where a pot of something was boiling, Cordelia gave a content sigh once she was back to stirring whatever she was cooking. "I shouldn't be so invested in this child, it being your second and whatnot, but seeing as you tended to exclude me before Lunabel was born, this is a nice change of pace."

"She excluded you in such a happy time in her life? What kind of horrible child does that to their parent?" Subaki, leaning back in his chair, caught the glare that Severa was shooting him for that comment, leading him to laugh. "I only say that because I could never imagine having done such a thing to my parents before my daughter was born, they were there for every step of that journey."

"Why couldn't you have ended up more like Subaki, hm?" Cordelia asked, pursing her lips together as she turned to look at Severa, who was still glaring at him with no desire to stop being so nasty towards him, even when Brady was sitting next to her and trying to calm her by having a firm hand on her leg. "It would have made things so much more enjoyable for everyone involved."

Across the table, only half-listening to what was being said, Gaius caught enough of what was happening to snort in amusement. "Yeah, see, I don't think any daughter of mine would've been able to be raised to be respectful and good like this guy here. Wouldn't want her any other way, though."

"Can we stop talking about me for a moment and say something about how he casually dropped that he's got a kid and no one batted an eyelash at it?" Throwing her hands up in exasperation, Severa gestured towards Subaki with only her middle finger pointed at him on both hands. "Don't tell me you were telling everyone about that and expected me to hear it from them. Just don't."

"I wasn't planning on saying anything of that nature," he replied, tilting his head just far enough that his perfectly-positioned clip of red hair cascaded to one side. "Your mother was immediately on the list to know when she was born, but aside from her, the only people who were members of the family who have the family name. Oddly enough, I wasn't ever told who was preventing me from bestowing it upon my darling Caeldori, but…"

"Oh, no one told you after everything?" Cordelia asked, to which Subaki explained to her that they hadn't, his own parents only telling him that they knew the name had been given to someone in his daughter's generation already. "How odd. At any rate, let this be the day where you find out, as the recipient of the name happens to be in this very room."

Now it was Subaki's turn to glare, but his eyes never once had Severa as their target; he was looking straight at Lunabel, as she was reaching for the candy bowl in the center of the table. "I…see. I can definitely agree on how odd it is, seeing as it was not kept secret at all that Severa had been the first of us in our generation to have a child, but nothing had been said about said child's name." He whistled softly, drawing Lunabel's attention away from the bowl and onto him. "Young child, would you mind telling me your name?"

She didn't know it was a trap into admitting her unintentional guilt, so Lunabel was quick to give what had been requested. "Luna 'delia," she replied with a grin that seemed to take up her entire face with its radiance. "And you're 'baki man."

"I am, yes," he replied, fishing his phone out of his pocket so that he could show the girl something on it. "But this isn't about me, this is about the lovely child you've kept a beautiful name from." Once his phone was in hand, he turned its screen on, the lockscreen showing a picture of a little dark-haired girl that had to have been right around a year old, earning a grumble about babies from Lunabel as she looked at the picture. "That's my dearest Caeldori, who will be around here for you to meet sometime this summer when the dance festival events draw closer to their beginning."

"She's a baby," Lunabel said, her face scrunching in disgust. "Like a sister."

"She's also quite deserving of the name you have that she doesn't," he continued, not really caring that, of all the people he could be making this complaint to, the child it involved was the least likely to understand. "She's a perfect image of what someone bearing the Cordelia name should be, unlike you." As he gestured towards the woman still standing by the stove with one arm, he motioned towards the unimpressed facial expression and the messy pigtails the girl was wearing with the hand still holding the phone. "You must understand why I want my daughter to have the name so closely intertwined with perfection."

Most certainly not understanding even slightly, Lunabel saw that the phone was close to her face and knocked into it with her head, putting an end to the conversation when she accidentally made him lock himself out of the device for a short period of time. There was still a lot of talking to be had between everyone there, a lot of it getting heated as it involved Severa interacting with people she wasn't fond of, but when the afternoon melted into evening and they broke apart for the night, it ultimately wasn't that bad of a time to look back on.

"When were ya going to tell me about that guy and how strange he is?" Brady asked Severa as they got back into their car to head home, her shrugging in response. "I mean, it would've saved a lot of awkwardness today if I'd know who the hell the guy was. Also would've made ya knowin' how Luna's related to Owain's kids make a lot more sense."

"If I could forget that Subaki exists, that would be the best thing ever. Why would I talk to you about him willingly?" That mindset didn't stop her from spending the entire car ride home griping about how his every tiny motion had annoyed her more than she could properly express. By the time they were parking in their normal spot in front of their building, she was fuming because of how much she'd worked herself up, ready to just get back into the apartment and call it a night.

Somehow, she should have seen it coming that everything was going to get so much worse, especially when they got upstairs to their front door and found, attached to the middle of the door with a thick piece of tape, a notice for their eviction from the apartment due to a lack of paying rent. A notice relating to a noise disturbance, that would have made sense given the presence of a three-year-old who enjoyed throwing fits on occasion, but their rent should have been being paid. Severa knew it should have been. That was the one thing that Brady's money from his job should have been taking care of every month so that she could focus using her money on everything else they needed.

"Do…do you know what this is about?" she asked, her voice cracking as she was barely holding onto her composure. "Do I need to call the landlord telling him he's made a mistake, or do you know what's going on?"

In a split second, Brady went from trying to act like he was clueless to crying, setting Lunabel down on the ground so that he could drape himself over Severa while he cried. "I didn't know I didn't have enough to pay it this month, I swear," he sobbed, her looking disgusted at him while he did. "It wouldn't have been a problem if I'd just stuck with the one day a week think that'd been offered to me, I know it!"

"One day a—damn it Brady, what the fuck kind of fool do you think I am?" Shaking him off, she opened the door and, after making sure Lunabel had followed her in, slammed it on him before he had a chance to collect himself enough to follow as well, leaving him staring at the sheet of paper on the door that had been his undoing.

The one question on his mind, aside from how he was going to make this up to her: what had happened to him getting money from her father?


A/N: oh boy I wonder what else is going to happen to show just how bad karma can bite someone?