This is the end. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.
WARNING!: Unedited, but planning on editing later.
Chapter 12 - Epilogue
"Mom!" Nina shouted into the quiet, early morning of the Devil's Associates. It was nearly seven in the morning, a time when every worker who lived within the establishment's walls was sound asleep.
Beside her, carrying their three-year-old daughter, Klaus hissed, "Shh. Nina, no one is awake right now. Don't go waking the entire neighborhood, okay?"
"Yeah, you don't want to go waking up Maura again, do you?" Daemon asked, taking the stairs three at a time, "You know what happened last time you woke her from a dead sleep." He disappeared into the long corridor of bedrooms as Nina and Klaus slowly made their way up.
"Daemon! Daemon!" the voices of two young boys rang back to them, bouncing off the walls. They were unnaturally loud in the silence of the morning, but they were utterly welcome. "Is Nina here too? And Klaus? And Maura? Are they? Are they?"
Daemon's voice, hushed and quiet, was too low for either of the pair to catch. The voice that followed his was not. It flew down the hall, smacking them in the face, followed closely by a body slamming into Nina. "Nina, my darling daughter! You're home! Oh, and you've brought Maura and Klaus with you!" Amelia gushed, crushing her daughter to her chest in a bear hug.
"Amelia," came Marguerite's sleepy, but warning voice, "You're going to wake up everyone, and we don't want to wake up Natalya. She was already irritated as it was when she went to bed. I don't want her health getting worse because she can't get any sleep."
"Don't worry," Natalya's voice, sleep deprived and pissed, muttered from a stairway descending from the top floor. A long cardigan brushed her ankles, unable to stay closed across her distended belly. Her hair was twirled up into a loose knot at the back of her head, loose strands falling around her face. Dark half circles marred the skin under her eyes, a clear indicator that sleep had evaded her for far too long.
A grin even wider than the one she already had on her face broke over her face. She extracted herself from her mother's arms, allowing Amelia to attack Klaus with her bone crushing hugs. "Mistress Natalya, it's been a long time! I didn't know you were pregnant! When did it happen? Have you gotten any sleep lately?" Nina asked excitedly, carefully throwing her arms around the older woman.
"It has been a very long time indeed. You're family looks good," Natalya told her, hugging her back gently, "I haven't gotten very much sleep lately, they're moving too much. I've gotten only a few hours a night, sometimes less. My due date is coming up soon."
"Who's the father? I want to congratulate him too!" Nina told her, holding the other woman's hands tightly, jumping with excitement.
Natalya sighed forlornly, rolling her eyes. "Please don't, it'll only boost his ego."
"Who is it?"
"The same father as my babies," interjected Maggie, dragging Nina's attention towards her. Maggie's belly stuck out even further than Natalya's. Either her babies were huge, or she was about ready to pop. Probably both.
"Yeah, he's such a little hoe," Natalya said, slowly lowering herself to the bottom step and stretching out her legs in front of her.
Maggie grinned. "He really is, but we still love him." Natalya nodded in agreement.
"Who are you talking about?" Nina whined, wiggling her butt excitedly, tuning out the excited tittering of her mother.
"Alfred," the two females finally spoke together just as the man himself poked his head out of his door followed closely by Matthew, their hair tousled with sleep and their glasses askew. "Oh, speak of the devil."
The twins exited their room, yawning together. Though they were utterly different in personality and volume, they were often similar in some of their habits. "Are we having a party out here or something?" Alfred asked, pressing a kiss to Maggie's lips before moving and kissing Natalya, "Good morning, beautiful goddesses which are bearing my children."
Natalya and Maggie rolled their eyes together, but small smiles still twitched at the corners of their mouths.
"Hey there, Nina and Klaus and little sleeping Maura," Alfred said, hugging each in turn before moving back to stand beside Mattie. Mattie smiled softly at everyone, his eyes half-mast as he rubbed sleep from them.
Nina was opening her mouth to greet the newcomers when a chorus of children's voices filtered back to them, overlapping with the trampling of a stampede of tiny feet. What seemed like a herd of children hurtled around the corner, tackling the unsuspecting twenty-one-year-old to the floor. "Nina!" they all screeched, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She was being crushed under their combined weight, and gasped loudly.
"Hey guys," she wheezed, sucking in a deep breath as the kid on her chest was removed.
Daemon grinned down at her, setting the kid to the side. "Hey twin, need some help?" he asked even though he had already begun to pull the children off of her.
Ivan appeared in her field of vision beside Daemon, pulled her to her feet and hugged her to his chest. "Hello Nina, I haven't seen you in so long. Is that my granddaughter your fiancé is holding over there?" he asked as he pulled away from her and turned to Klaus. They shook hands before the parcel exchange occurred. Maura was passed off to Ivan who turned back down the hall with a parting, "I'm going to go lay her down."
"Nina, are you going to stay this time?" the children asked excitedly, drawing her attention back to their hopeful eyes, "We really miss you."
Making up the group of children was Elliot, Dimitri, Ilia, Anastasiya, Axel, Caterina and a number of other children that belonged to the prostitutes of both the Devil's Associates and I.H.O.P. (International House of Prostitutes). Elliot was the four going on five-year-old son of Maggie and Mattie. Dimitri was the four-year-old of Alfred and Natalya. Ilia and Anastasiya were the other set of twins that Nina's parents had produced a little more than five years prior. Axel was the second son of Klaus' parents, just scratching at three-years-old. Caterina was the nine-year-old daughter of Lovino and Feliciano, the gay couple they were close friends with over at I.H.O.P. She was the biological daughter of Lovino while being the adopted daughter of Feli.
Nina smiled down at them. "Sorry guys, no. We'll be here for a couple days and then we have to head over to Italy to visit I.H.O.P. After that, maybe. I'm looking for a publisher right now. Know any good ones?" she asked, earning a chorus of confirmations from the mob. Nina cut her eyes to Amelia, raising a blonde eyebrow, the question clear on her face.
"What?" Amelia asked, shrugging without concern, "I'm babysitting for everyone. They needed a break. I didn't mind."
Nina rolled her eyes. "Mom, you make too much work for yourself."
"Says the girl who never sleeps because she's always up writing," Klaus teased, pulling her towards him to plant a kiss at the corner of her mouth. She tilted her head so their lips brushed each other before applying more pressure. They mob stared up at them in fascination.
"Alright, alright, break it up you two," Natalya called without getting up from her seat, "There are plenty of rooms around here. Pick and hide, or don't head in that direction in front of the kiddies' eyes."
"Come on, please. It's just a little kiss," Nina said, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the other adults surrounding them, not pulling away from Klaus' lips. They were only centimeters apart, still close enough to feel the electricity leaping between them.
The adults collectively rolled their eyes, knowing grins stretching across most of their faces. They remembered what it was like to be young and in love, and couldn't fault them for always feeling the need to be in physical contact.
"Whatever. Just remember to keep it PG-13," Alfred told her with a grin, scratching subconsciously at the exposed skin of his chest. Unlike his twin, he'd come out of the room in only pajama bottoms that hung low on his hips.
Nina stuck her tongue out at him, but pulled away from Klaus.
"Hey little man, good to see you again," Klaus said before silence could engulf the group, "How have you been doing?" He ruffled Axel's light brown hair, grinning down at him.
Axel only came up to Klaus' waist, making him have to look up at his older brother with the bloody red eyes of their father. His skin, just like Klaus', was the tone of their mother's skin. "Welcome back, Klaus," the boy said, smiling up at his brother, "I'm fine. Mommy and Daddy haven't been fighting as much lately."
"Well, that's fantastic!" Klaus said excitedly, grinning widely, "They're always much more fun when they are getting along aren't they?"
Axel nodded. Klaus swung him up into his arms, balancing him on his hip. "Let's go wake up Maura, huh? I think it's time for her to greet everyone." Axel nodded again, more enthusiastic this time. For being uncle and niece, the pair got along surprisingly well.
"Hey, why don't you guys go help wake up Maura too. I'm sure she'd love to see all of you," Nina suggested persuasively, smiling widely down at the mob still circled around her, "The adults want to talk for a little while."
"Alright," they said a little reluctantly, pulling away before taking off at a dead sprint down the hallway. They slid around the corner, bumping into each other and laughing like only children can laugh.
"So, how's college going for the three of you?" Amelia asked as soon as the mob had disappeared, looking between her oldest set of twins, grinning widely.
"Only one more year left," they said, wrapping their arm around the other's arm and holding up one finger each. They grinned widely, pearly teeth flashing in the dim light of the lamps attached to the walls. "Klaus has two years left, and is going strong."
"What are you guys studying again?" Alfred asked, leaning against the frame to his bedroom, "I always forget."
Maggie and Mattie both shot him annoyed glares, but kept their lips sealed, glancing down at Kumai and Kumajiro as they peaked out of the bedroom, their three cubs trampling out without pause. They rolled along the floor before getting their feet under them and running in the direction the children had. Kumai and Kumajiro followed them slowly, not particularly concerned where they went.
"Well, I'm studying journalism and creative writing," Nina said, still grinning and tangled with her twin.
"And Klaus and I are studying psychology," Daemon spoke up, "Though I'm minoring in drama."
"Drama queen," Nina coughed into her fist, not looking at him. A smirked curled up at the corners of her mouth as he rolled his eyes at her.
"Like you're any better Miss My-Daughter-Didn't-Cling-To-Me-On-Her-First-Day-Of -Pre-School. Even Klaus took it better than you. You just sat in the parking lot sobbing. We had to drag you away so they could get class started," Daemon shot at her.
"You would have to if she was your daughter!" Nina shot back.
"But she's not, so there."
Nina threw up the bird, glaring at him past her middle finger.
"Love you too, sis."
"Ladies, ladies, please, you are both beautiful," Gilbert said as he headed towards them from the stairs. His hair was tousled, lipstick still smeared across his lips and cheek. His clothes had day old wrinkles pressed into them. "It Nikolaus here as well? And my granddaughter?"
Nina accepted the hug offered to her, grinning into his shoulder. "He's down the hall with Dad and all the other kids. He's probably being suffocated under all their weight in a game of wrestling. Were you with Elizabeta?"
Gilbert pulled back, grinning. "You got it," he said, drawing out the first word before disappearing towards the room probably holding one too many children.
"Now we just need Elizabeta, Feli and Lovi to be here and then our family would be complete," Nina said, grinning widely. Even as the last word was leaving her mouth, the front doors downstairs burst open.
"Amelia, Caterina, we're here!" Feliciano's high-pitched voice called up the stairs to them.
Nina's grin turned into a smile. "We're just one big happy family."
THE END
Well… there you go. I couldn't figure out how else to end it, so I hope this was acceptable. This was… a weird story to say the least. It was started on a whim and finished on a whim. Hope y'all liked it! See you next time in whatever story I decide to create next!
