3 years later
"Sev wants help with Michelle next weekend." Selene said, taking a brief break from her manuscript to look at her phone.
"That's wonderful." Brittany replied flatly. She ignored the glare her twin sent her, though it wasn't easy to tell anymore that they were twins. While Selene's hair was still long and white, it was currently incredibly messy and greasy. It had been a few days since she'd showered and she'd forgotten to brush it before running out of the house to meet her sister. Brittany had not only chopped her hair to her chin, but also dyed it a chestnut brown the month before.
Though she refused to admit it, Selene knew her twin had changed her hair so drastically because she hated looking in the mirror and seeing their mother's reflection.
"Brittany…" Selene began in a warning tone.
"Fine!" Brittany snapped, in an attempt to stop her twins lecture before it could start. "Help with what?"
"Taking care of Michelle." Selene repeated. It was silent for a long time before she said quietly, "Mom would want the two of you to get along, y'know."
Brittany scowled, more due to the fact that she could suddenly feel tears welling up than to her sisters statement. "Well, mom isn't around to make us behave anymore, is she?" Selene flinched at her sisters scathing tone. She hated using their mother as an argument, but lately those had been the only ones that would get through to any of her siblings, mainly Sev, Bell and Brittany. Even after all these years, they still couldn't manage to get along.
The albino sighed and unlocked her phone again. I'll see what I can do about Brittany, but I'll be there and I'm sure Chris will want to help.
It took a few minutes for her older brother to reply. You'd think growing up with three younger sisters would make me better at taking care of girls. She's just as fussy as Bell and Brittany were.
Selene snickered and set her phone down, going back to her document.
"I'm honestly not sure what else I could tell you."
Brittany scowled, taking a sip from the water Lovino had given her. "There's a great deal you could tell me." She didn't mean to be so short, but everyone seemed so reluctant to talk about Maddy that she was beginning to wonder if they'd all forgotten who the blonde had been closest to to begin with.
The italian raised an eyebrow at her. "Unless you want all the nitty gritty details, no, there's really not."
Brittany opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a rather frantic knock at the door. Lovino almost looked relieved to have an excuse to leave the room. "Excuse me." He got up, disappearing from the room.
Lovino scowled as he made his way to the door. He understood why Brittany wanted to hear about how her friend had been in the twenty years that they'd been apart, he really did, but she was starting to get on his nerves. She wanted to know things he wasn't sure he could tell her and had so many questions that he just didn't have the answers to.
He paused in front of the door to take a deep breath so he wouldn't take his mounting irritation out on whoever had decided to visit. He opened the door, half expecting it to be Antonio. The damn tomato bastard had made a habit of visiting him and the kids even more than usual after Maddy had died.
It was not Antonio.
"Severus?"
The young man stared at his father, seemingly on the verge of tears. "I- I'm sorry dad. I didn't really know where else to go. Bell has her roommates and I didn't think they'd know what to do, but I- Michelle won't stop crying and I don't know what's wrong with her and I couldn't think of anyone else who's dealt with children semi recently." He clutched a previously hidden bundle to his chest.
Lovino felt his sour mood slide away. "Well, don't stand out there. Come on."
Severus, fueled by his desperation and the coming chill as the sun sets, swiftly makes his way into the house. He hears his father close the door behind him and looks around. And here I thought I'd gotten out of here. While, he'd only moved out the year before, he enjoyed living on his own. He'd been a little lonely, having grown up with his father and sister, with his mother and uncles' (Antonio has dubbed himself an uncle to both Vargas children, much to Lovino's displeasure) constantly visiting.
Admittedly, he'd moved out to get away from the memories of his mother that were trapped in this house. The guest bedroom she'd always stayed was close to his old room. He'd had to pass everyday to get downstairs. He would've moved out earlier, but... he hadn't felt ready to and then it had gotten to the point where he didn't care anymore. He'd needed out of this house, away from all the reminders of when he'd actually been happy, when he and his parents could pretend to be a family.
And yet, here he was, running back to his father, back to his childhood home, simply because he didn't know how to make his daughter stop crying.
"I'll take her. You can go upstairs and sleep for a while. I'm sure it's been a few days since you've slept well."
Severus was jerked from his thoughts by his father's statement. He turned to hand his baby over, but froze. His father was looking at the two of them with a soft expression, one the young man hadn't seen on his father's face since... oh no. Not that expression. His stomach flipped once, twice, threatening to heave its contents forward. That was the same way his father had always looked at his mother, unless they were arguing about something.
Hastily, he handed his daughter over to his father, suddenly feeling dizzy and weightless. "I think-" He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I think I'll go lie down. Take your advice."
Lovino nodded, watching his son make his way up the stairs. He looked down at his granddaughter, cradling her close to his chest. "Hello bambina." She looked up at him, her face scrunching up as she yawned. "Just as tired as tuo padre, I see." Her eyes seemed to widen at his statement and he smiled at her, a small, bittersweet smile. "You have your grandmother's eyes. I wish she was here to see you. She'd steal you away every chance she got. Your father would have to fight her to get you back."
Michelle's eyes didn't hold the same pain and sadness that her grandmother's always had, but they were the same vibrant blue. For now, she just seemed curious about the entire world, constantly looking around and trying to take everything in.
"Don't bambina, I'll protect you. Always."
Hey, look, I finally got the epilogue out. Yay...
There was a lot more that I wanted to cover in this, but I tried covering it all in the first draft and it got so jumbled up and I lost motivation for it, so I decided it would be better to focus on a few points.
Michelle is the daughter of Severus and the girl from his psychology class (does anyone remember her? Don't worry if you don't). Her name is Evelina, but she goes by Eva and she left Sev shortly after Michelle was born.
The kids did not take their mother's death well and they all dealt with it differently. Sev and Bell both ran, Selene and Brittany both try to pretend everything is normal and Chris is pretty depressed now. He's pretty much the only one who fully accepted it.
Also, the random point that was going to be brought up in the original draft. Matthew gave Maddy a promise ring, which she kept in a box in her closet after they broke up because no matter what, she just couldn't bring herself to get rid of it. In my head, it gets found by Brittany (the best friend, not the child) and she pretty much screamed at Matthew for a while.
