Yeah I know it's moving slow.
But eh, nobody will care anyway xD
Thanks to all the dedicated commenters, you're really helping me continue uploading x)
Enjoy~
They arrived in the apartment just a few minutes later in which Nino had called his parents, telling them he would return late and that they shouldn't worry. When they all had gotten rid of their outdoor clothes, the twins and Amber went to their room while Nino raced Jazz into the living room only to playfully lift her up and tickle her exposed belly. When he set her down again she tackled him around his neck and he dramatically fell to the floor.
"Oh no! She got me pinned down! Someone has to help me!"
Alya followed them after she had put on warmer and more comfortable fluffy socks and settled down on the couch while looking at them.
"Nah. I enjoy how my baby cousin is pinning you down."
With that Etta came down the hallway, without her twin sister and Amber, and climbed on top of her big cousin's stomach, falling onto her with her full weight and making Alya forcefully breathe out.
"Kid-… Down-… You've grown! G-Grown, Amber, d-down-…!", she choked before sitting up and gently pushing her into her lap and breathing in, tapping her little cousin on the nose, "Little devil."
Amber just chuckled and ran off, not after accidently kicking Alya's stomach. She heard the door of the twin's room moments later and shook her head, smiling and rubbing her middle.
"That girl really needs to relax.", she said jokingly.
Jazz and Nino had watched the interaction between the two girls, then the little child on top of him worriedly looked down to him.
"I'm not sqwuishing you, am I?"
He laughed and she jumped up and down along with his movements. Alya joined his laughter but the little girl still waited for his answer.
"Jazz, you're too cute. No, you're not squishing me, don't you worry. You're not as big as Amber and I'm a little stronger than Alya is."
Before he knew what was happening Jazz was lifted up and another girl plopped down on him. Because of this unexpected and way heavier person he choked up and coughed.
"Oh yeah? Stronger than me, huh?", he heard his girlfriend's voice and blushed deeply when he glanced up, seeing her on top of him instead of her baby cousin.
"A-Alya?"
"Oh, and don't you dare say I'm heavy."
He suddenly grinned and rolled her off his torso, resulting in a surprised yelp from the girl that was now lying on the floor beneath him, with him on top of her. But being the gentleman he was he only pretended to sit on her, actually kneeling above her.
"I would never.", he smirked when it was her time to blush and once again he noted just how adorable his girlfriend had become. Her reddish-brown hair fanned out around her head like a halo and her pout made her face younger than she actually was. In this moment, she looked so similar to her younger sisters and he had to grin when he leaned down and placed his hands next to her head.
"What, I'm heavy now?", he laughed when she started to breathe faster.
"N-No! You're not actually sitting on me so I can't even tell if you're h-heavy or not. But you probably are, you big baby.", she mocked him despite her being so flustered. But he didn't think of that as any other than embarrassment that he had managed to flip her over. They constantly laid above each other when they were chilling or learning with Adrien and Marinette, somehow during the afternoon and evening it just happened. Normally it started with Adrien and Marinette, the blonde just laying down across her stomach as soon as she lying, being the cat he was. It then was Alya who claimed back her best friend, stealing her shoulder away from him. When Nino joined to rest his head on Marinette's hip the pile was usually complete but it often changed. Sometimes Alya laid on top of him as well, resting her legs on Marinette's. Sometimes they didn't just lay down on Marinette but on Adrien or Nino, too. When the girls wanted to start Marinette especially liked it to lay on top of Alya since she claimed her best friend to be comfortable and soft. There were different ways to build a pile but one thing was always the same. They weren't afraid of body contact.
So, he laughed and slowly lowered some of his weight on her stomach.
"Are you saying I'm fat?"
"Yes!", she tried to push him off of her but as soon as her hands connected with the somewhat firm muscles of his chest she blushed even harder and tried to roll out from him. He was at least proud to have a few muscles from his childhood left in his upper body, due to daily tree climbing with a certain girl, when already having lost his six pack. That's when he smirked and looked up to Jazz who was lying on the couch, eyeing the teenagers suspiciously.
"I've trapped her! What should I do with her?"
Jazz began laughing into both her hands when Etta joined them now, nudging her cousin to look at the two of them.
"Alya has to kiss you!", Etta blurted out and giggled when she saw both her cousin and her friend blushing.
The words of her mother echoed in his head as she grinned smugly, grabbing his cheeks and pulling him down for a kiss, full on the lips, making Jazz and Etta gag loudly and theatrically.
"There! You got your kiss! Now let me go!"
He nodded as if he was in trance and scrambled off of her, giving her the room to join her sister and cousin for a tickling war on the couch which Nino didn't join for now, smiling gently.
Jazz appeared in front of his view with a mischievous grin and showed him one of her dolls while Alya called Ella and Amber to sit down at the table for their homework.
"You have to style her.", she demanded.
He could only nod when she shoved the doll into his hands, along with a tiny hairbrush. Slowly, with each stroke of the brush over plastic hair, he calmed his beating heart and could focus on Jazz again who sat cross legged in front of him, watching as he styled the doll. The result was rather messy because he didn't really have experience with styling and Jazz got the doll back from him in a somehow more uncombed way than before.
She giggled and called him silly, earning an approving look from his girlfriend. He pouted but looked as Jazz combed her hair with quick fingers.
"You're really good at this, huh?"
She looked up at him and beamed.
"I have pwacticed.", she proudly stated.
He smiled and nodded, looking up to Alya sitting on the table while the kids did some of their math homework, to see her scrolling through the Ladyblog to look up what people commented to the newest Akuma attack. It was a few weeks back already and slowly, Adrien and Marinette were getting anxious, as was Nino. He so desperately craved an Akuma attack to prove he meant no harm.
He made a mental note to ask Adrien later what they found out from Master Fu.
"Hey girls, I still need to go shopping. What do you wanna eat?"
"I wanna eat pancakes!", Ella stood up on her chair and beamed at Alya who immediately slammed that proposition down.
"A real meal, Ella."
"What about Pizza!"
A chorus of voices spoke up, all wanting Pizza, as Alya helplessly looked over to Nino. "A little healthier?" she mouthed over to him and he chuckled as he joined her on the table, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to tease her.
"I dunno, I like Pizza.", and the girls got louder while Alya deadpanned.
"I swear to god I will make that pretty mouth of yours shut up when we're alone this evening.", she mumbled, then she took advantage of Nino's blush and kissed his cheek before he could do anything about it. Finally, she spread her arms to make the girls calm down again.
"Hey, okay, settle down. No Pizza. I promised mom to feed you something healthy since I know you girls already had Pizza day in school yesterday."
Nino got over his flustered state and stuttered something out, his hand brushing down Alya's back.
"I-I like ratatouille."
For a moment, all girls remained silent until Jazz spoke up, excitedly throwing herself around is legs.
"I wuv watatuoille, too!"
He laughed and scooped her up in his arms.
"Let's make some ratatouille then!"
Half an hour later, Alya returned with the ingredients and they started cooking. Nino along with Alya was cutting the vegetables to get them ready while Amber and the twins set the table with Jazz playing on the floor a little. He saw a little hesitation in her movements when she grabbed one of the knives but the next second it was gone. Nino looked around to see her little sisters goofing around with the plates so he turned to Alya and bumped her shoulder with his arm.
"Hey, you alright?"
She was a little startled but smiled and locked their gazes.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well, knives…?"
"Oh, yeah, that. Marinette said it's okay now. She had had a few fall backs in the last months but she's controlling it. Nothing happened since the great cure so I'm sure everything's fine… I'm just-… I'm still a little skeptical."
Now, Nino was concerned. Neither Adrien nor Marinette had told him anything about fall backs with this cutting thing.
"Fall backs? What do you mean?", he still kept an eye on the girls to make sure they wouldn't notice their conversation. It wasn't something that was meant for children's ears.
"Oh, that's right, you don't know. Sorry, Nino, I guess she was just really afraid, Adrien and I found out by accident, too."
"Alya, what happened?", he set down his knife and looked down at his friend concerned.
"It's not what happened. It's what almost happened. You know, for a few months she was entirely alone with everyone thinking she was a murderer. She started-…", the brunette lowered her voice with a side glance to her siblings, "She started cutting to ease the mental pain. And after doing it so frequently and intense – and I guess it somehow really helped – it's become a habit. Almost like… Like an addiction."
"She's-…", he blurted out but quickly whispered after realizing he accidently had gotten louder, "She's addicted to cutting?"
Alya furiously shook her head but pressed together her lips.
"Well, it's-… You don't exactly get over such a heavy depression just like that. Just because a suicide failed and some friends said they love her again. No, this depression is way deeper down. She still has these thoughts about not being enough or not being worthy of love but she's already seeing it differently. You see… Cutting helped her. She had something else on what she could concentrate that wasn't her thoughts on being left alone when she had been loved just a few hours ago. Cutting was a pain she could control because she herself caused it and she desperately needed control over something in her life during that time, so it was cutting and drinking. And she told me she did it on a daily basis after some time. So, she got used and kinda addicted to it. And when she gets thrown back into that thought because of a disappointment or a snappy comment by Chloé or sometimes just like that, she remembers cutting helped her through. Her logical conclusion-…"
"-… Is cutting, then, of course.", he interrupted her and looked down on the knife that was back in his hand.
The girl next to him nodded and started cutting the vegetables again.
"That's why I'm still uneasy around knifes. Because Marinette's still struggling and I can't do anything but try to make her see as often as I can that I deeply regret accusing her of murder and denying our friendship and constantly show her that we love her. I just-… The sight of knives makes me kinda helpless and I can't stand being helpless."
Nino nodded, then placed a quick kiss to her brown hair.
"It's alright. Thank you for telling me. And we'll pull through this together, Marinette won't be alone ever again. We will make sure."
She looked up to him and gave him a bitter smile.
"I sure hope so…"
"We'll manage. We've always managed.", he grinned down at her when suddenly her face turned into a surprised one and she looked down. Jazz clung to her leg and looked up to both of them, having a concerned expression on their faces.
"Alya, awwe you sad?", Jazz said while pouting against Alya's jeans. The brunette just lifted her youngest cousin up and placed her on her hips.
"Well, a little."
"You're crying.", Ella noted from across the room, still busy with setting the table.
"It's just a little tear.", their oldest sister replied assuring.
"Why awwe you sad?"
Alya sighed and bopped Jazz' nose before reaching up and stroking over her hair.
"It's alright. I'm just a little worried about Marinette because she is sad, too, but I'm sure she will be fine in a couple of weeks and Nino is as well. You have nothing to worry about."
Jazz brushed away the tear that slowly made its way down Alya's cheek with clumsy movements but it was the gesture that counted.
"Don't be sad because Marinette's always happy."
"I-… I know, Jazz. It'll be alright, for sure.", she grinned when she set her cousin down again, "And now, are you finished with setting the table, girls? If not, I'll-…"
Alya playfully poked Jazz' side and the little girl jumped away while laughing loudly, the twins joining her giggling.
"Awmost! Awmost I pwomise!"
The girl scrambled away to the table and Alya straightened up again, only to face a concerned Nino.
"What is it?"
"Well, isn't it a little thoughtless to openly tell them you're sad? Shouldn't kids be protected from sadness as far as possible?", she smiled when she turned back to the counter and finished her vegetables to get them into the pan.
"Yeah, most people think so. But just consider, kids are feeling just like teenagers or adults. They notice when someone's sad but contrary to older people they openly ask if the person is feeling a certain emotion. They do it so they can learn to read other people and interpret emotions. If you deny your feelings to protect them, you'll prevent them from learning how other humans function. You have to be honest with kids – most times it doesn't need a reason – so they can grow up to be sensible adults. If you tell them you're happy even though you're really down they'll interpret it wrongly and if they meet someone who tells them he's sad and means it, they'll get unsure and that mostly ends in insecurity towards other people. Simply, because they don't know what the other person is feeling due to overprotectiveness in younger years."
Nino nodded and smiled as he watched Alya scattering a few spices over the gently roasting vegetables.
"That's convincing. But, well, I couldn't know because you already had practice with your sisters and cousins."
"As far as I know you're an older brother, too."
"And a younger one! I was always the fun brother and my older sisters were the babysitter. So, I don't have that much experience with babysitting as you do. Well and now that both my sisters have moved out my younger siblings are too old to babysit.", he grinned as he thought back to his older sister who lived in Lyon along with a few friends to study science and his oldest who had stayed in Paris and was already engaged to her boyfriend of long years.
Etta joined them in the kitchen as Ella and Amber began mock wrestling with Jazz, sometimes letting her win, sometimes tickling her to the floor. Nino reached down to mess up her hair to which Etta whined and hid behind Alya.
"Nooo!"
Nino laughed, making a few mock attempts to get to her again but didn't actually aim for her. She then finally dared stepping out of her cover to lightly slap his butt and run off cackling, causing him to yelp and yell after her.
"I'll get back at you for that!"
"You gotta get me first!", was her cheeky response.
It took a while for him to catch her and mess up her hair even more before returning to Alya, still laughing and with reddened cheeks.
"She sure takes after you.", he finally panted, arching his back.
"What makes you say that?", she smirked and finished off the meal by turning down the heat.
"She's sassy as hell."
"Oh yes?", she chuckled, turning to him to let her fingers walk up his chest,
After a few moments, she called the girls to get to the table and sit down. They ate together while goofing around and were finally finished after two hours, always someone distracting the others from eating.
