It was the same way every time they sat down to eat. That's why he never let them go to his restaurant. The Merovingian sat at the dinner table, his fork halfway up to his mouth and watched as the two Twins cut their food with their pearl handled razors and ate like a bunch of Vikings. The Mero rolled his eyes and placed his fork back down on his plate and swiped his mouth with his napkin. Just watching them eat was enough to gross him out.
"Perse, if you want so much to care for those two, why not take the time to teach them table manners?"
Perse smiled at her husband.
"What's wrong with the way they eat now?"
"Haven't you noticed at all?" The Mero leaned on the table. "Take a look." He pointed to the other end of the table where the enormous food battle was taking place. Perse turned her head toward the Twins. Whatever the Twins had been eating (if you can even call it that) was now all over them, the tablecloth, and whatever else that was unfortunate enough to be within five feet of them. Persephone cringed then slowly turned back to her husband.
"I see what you mean." She said under her breath, losing her appetite too. "Children." Perse started to get up. The Twins stopped throwing food and watched as Perse came around to where they were.
"You aren't going to lock us in our room again are you?" One softly asked. Perse smiled.
"No, I'm not going to lock you in your room, but this has got to stop." Perse picked up Two and looked him over. "There are such things as eating utensils you know." She grabbed a cloth napkin from the table and started to wipe Two's face off.
"Two, phase will you?"
She stepped back while Two phased, reappearing clean again. One did the same.
"That's much better." Perse sighed. "Shame the table can't do that." She turned to look at the mess on the tablecloth.
"One of the maids can get it, dear." The Mero put his glass down on the table and leaned back in his chair. "If they're done Cain and Abel can take them."
"Cain and Abel?" The two twins said in unison.
"Yes, they're going to be watching out for you two tonight so the Mero and I can have some time to ourselves." Perse picked Two up and carried him over to the Mero. One walked over next to his brother. The Merovingian got up and stepped out of the room for a few minutes then came back in, followed by two dark hair men wearing shades and black clothes.
"This here is One and that's Two." The Mero said to the two men as he pointed out the twins. "Take good care of them."
The Twins, at first, weren't too sure of their new guardians, but with a little persuading from Perse they soon disappeared out the door, along with Cain and Abel.
"Peace at last." The Mero sighed while walking back to the table. "You almost ready to go to the restaurant for a night alone?"
"Yes. Just let me get my shawl and I'll be ready." Perse smiled while walking out of the room.
After cunningly planning the escape from Cain and Abel during a game of blindman's buff, the Twins ran down the hall toward their room and stopped.
"Want to go see what's in Mummy and Daddy's bedroom?" One looked at Two.
"You think we should?"
"Yeah! It'll be fun." One walked down the hall a little ways and stopped in front of the huge wooden door and motioned for Two to come over to him. Two sighed and walked over.
"I dunno about this. We saw how mad Daddy got in the kitchen." Two shuddered.
"We can go in and look around a bit and be out before Mummy and Daddy get back."
The Twins opened the door to the bedroom and walked in. Immediately they went over to Perse's vanity. Many times they had watched her put on what she called 'makeup' there. Getting up on the vanity's fancy silk topped stool, the Twins found delight in looking over the many bottles, tubes, and containers.
"Oooh, cool!" Two giggled, picking up a tube of hand cream and squeezing it till the top burst open, squirting the cream all over the mirror.
"Wow! Do that again!" One nudged his brother. Two closed the cap and squeezed again, causing the top to burst open squirting more cream in a zig zag line across the vanity mirror. Both laughed and looked at each other, then smiled together.
"Think we should give Daddy a makeover while he's sleeping?" Two said evilly.
"Yes we should." One nodded. "We'll do it tonight. Right now we should check out the rest of this stuff."
The Twins opened up every bottle and container, looking through everything and sniffing the many scents.
"What do you suppose this is?" Two held up a long thin tube like pencil.
"I've seen Mummy use that to put something red on her lips with. Here you take it and turn it a little." One turned one end of the tube until a red stick came out. Two looked at it then ran it across the top of the vanity.
"Look, you can draw with it." Two grinned and started to draw a picture with it.
One picked up a bottle of fingernail polish, opened it and smelt. He jerked his head back and wrinkled his nose at the horrid scent.
"Here, I think you can use this to paint with." One dotted a clean area of the table with the small brush. Finding that it left a blot of the colored stuff, One continued to dot more places.
"Hey, look it's Daddy." Two snickered at the pitiful picture he had drawn with the lipstick. One smirked.
"He needs a little more hair." One pointed at one area of the drawing.
"That's not his head."
"It's not?"
"No, that's his face. His head is right here." Two pointed at the top.
"Oh!" One tilted his head to the side, trying to make out Two's scribbles.
"What's yours?" Two pointed at the dots One had made with the nail polish.
"Bullet holes!" One grinned while dotting the table more.
Several hours passed and Persephone and Merovingian returned from the restaurant. The Merovingian was the first one to walk to the bedroom. He stopped in the doorway and stared. The Twins sitting in the middle of the floor jerked their heads up.
"Perse, I think you should come take a look!" The Mero shouted down the hall. Perse came running into the bedroom and gasped.
"Now tell me they're your 'little angels'." The Mero snickered.
"Boys! How could you!" Perse again gasped as she looked down at the Twins. Both were covered in lipstick, rouge, powder and other makeup. Lipstick smears covered the floor where they sat as well as several areas of the bedspread. The vanity was another matter.
"Oh me, what a mess." Perse cringed while picking up One. She handed One to the Mero.
"Clean him up." She said while picking up Two.
"Me clean him up?" the Mero held the dirty twin out away from his nice clean suit. "So let me guess, when they're clean and running through the halls, they're yours, but when they get dirty and messy, they're mine. Correct?"
Perse smiled; setting Two on the edge of the bed and walking into the bathroom that was connected to their bedroom. The Mero continued to hold One out away from him as if he were infected by a disease. Perse came back with a wet cloth and bent down beside the bed and rubbed the cloth over Two's face. Two squirmed, but let Perse continue to wash him.
"There we are." Perse smiled at Two after she had wiped the last bit of lipstick off of his cheek. Two scowled and phased to get the rest of him clean. Perse smiled again.
"Tell this one to phase!" The Mero said, still holding One. One phased out of the Mero's hands and appeared on the bed next to his twin. Both were now clean.
"Come on you two, let's go to bed." Perse motioned for the Twins to get up and go to their room.
"By the way. Where's Cain and Abel?" the Mero stopped the two before they got out into the hall.
"Probably still wandering around trying to find us." One smiled.
"What!"
"We were playing blindman's buff."
"Oh, I see." The Mero glared.
"Mummy, will you read us a story?" Two looked at Perse.
"Sure. As soon as you get ready for bed I'll be in to read you a story."
The Twins ran off toward their room.
"Aren't they sweet?"
"I don't see anything sweet about them. Look what they did to this room! I programmed them to cause havoc but this is ridiculous." Merovingian tried not to get on the makeup smeared on the vanity and floor. "And you aren't upset about this?"
"Of course I'm upset. But there's nothing I can do about it now, but clean it up."
"Nothing you can do about it? Punish them again!"
"I don't want to punish them. You saw how frightened they were when we locked them in their room."
The Mero shook his head and mumbled something under his breath while looking for a clean place to sit down.
After reading a story to the Twins and making sure they were in bed, Perse returned to the bedroom. Mero was lying in bed reading.
"I'll just have one of the maids clean this up in the morning." Perse yawned.
The Merovingian only huffed and continued reading.
In the Twins bedroom, however, something else was being planned for the next morning.
"He must be asleep by now." Two whispered to the bed opposite from him.
"Yeah. Let's go." One whispered back.
The Twins quietly walked out of their room, carrying the makeup they had stuffed in the pockets of their coats earlier.
"You go get the paint, I'll start on Daddy." One whispered to Two. Two ran off and One walked up to the door of Perse and Mero's bedroom and gently pushed it open, careful not to make any noise. All was going ok. No noise except for the Merovingian's loud snoring. One shook his head at the sound and softly got up onto a chair placed beside the bed. It was going to be hard working in the dark, but he'd have to do the best he could. One positioned himself over the Merovingian and stared at the sleeping man a few minutes. The Mero snorted and wheezed then started to snore loudly again. One's eyebrows raised as he watched the Mero sleep.
"Maybe I should take his tonsils out instead." One whispered to himself. "With all that noise, it's got to keep Mummy awake."
Persephone at that moment turned over the other way while nudging the Mero to get him to shut up.
"Mmm…wha?" the Mero mumbled then drifted back off to sleep. One sighed in relief. For a minute he thought the Mero would wake up. Two slowly walked into the bedroom, carrying a bucket and brush. One nodded to Two then turned back to the Mero.
