I pushed open the door to Aro's office dramatically and kicked it closed with my right foot so that it slammed behind me. Aro was leaning back against the front of his desk with his arms crossed as usual while Caius and Marcus took up their regular seats lounging back on the sofa.

"Aloha, my loves," I called.

"Aloha, tesoro," Marcus greeted from the sofa, "though I did not realise we are speaking in Hawaiian now."

"I know, I should've brought my hula skirt with me," I added sarcastically, sitting myself down on his lap with my feet on Caius' thighs. "I didn't realise you can speak Hawaiian though."

As if to prove a point, Aro began babbling on very fast in Hawaiian. Clearly he said something funny, probably at my expense, since all three of them began laughing at me.

"Um…what did I miss? What did he say?"

"Oh, carissima, you do make me laugh." Caius began to compose himself again and pulled off my shoes to toss them across the room. "Aro was in fact speaking in Double Dutch, not Hawaiian. Translated to English, he said 'we do not speak Hawaiian, but the fact that you believe this is Hawaiian is absolutely adorable."

I pouted and crossed my arms. "That's mean, how the hell was I supposed to know that?"

"Tesoro, Double Dutch does not even faintly resemble Hawaiian," Marcus chuckled, wrapping his arms around me tightly and pressing a kiss to my hairline.

"There's no way I could've known that, come on. The only word I know in Hawaiian is 'aloha', you know how crap I am at languages," I protested.

"You are not that bad, cara mia, it just takes time and practise" Aro assured.

I sighed. "You've all heard my depressing attempts at Chinese."

"If all else fails, at least you can order noodles in China," Caius teased.

"It's not like I could even use that sentence anymore in anyway. What's 'humans' in Chinese?" I asked jokingly.

Aro laughed. "Fortunately for you, bellissima, we have no alliances with any covens in China. Although, we are very close to the Hamamatsu coven in Japan."

"Please tell me they can at least speak English."

"Of course. In fact, I do believe only three members of their coven are actually able to speak fluent Japanese, so communication will not be an issue."

I breathed out an overdramatic sigh of relief. "So what's the plan for today?"

"We were about to ask you the same question," Caius responded.

"Well, technically I'm supposed to be overseeing the guards while they handle a bunch of newborns, but it seemed pretty boring, and they know what they're doing so they don't need to be babysat by someone centuries younger than them," I shrugged my shoulders. "You?"

"Today is yet another uneventful day. Welcome to Volterra," Marcus replied glumly and nuzzled into my hair.

"Don't be like that, surely there's something to do."

Caius sat in thought for a moment. "We could see the gardens, Aro's slightly neglected houseplants, the library, the swimming pool-"

"Swimming! What a splendid idea, brother," Aro exclaimed.

I raised an eyebrow. "Again? Seriously? You remember what happened last time."

"Oh, cara mia, remember the saying: 'if at first you don't succeed'…" he gestured for me to continue.

"Cut your losses and vow to never attempt to swim again?" I suggested.

"Nice try, il mio amore, nice try," he shook his head. "Besides, I am certain that your immortality will improve any swimming capabilities in anyway. You will be 10 times better, I am sure."

"10 multiplied by 0 is 0," I reminded him.

"Oh dear, you are stubborn," he muttered, ignoring my indignant "oi". "This will be fun, I promise."

On the plus side, Heidi didn't know about my swimming session this time, which allowed me to dress and get ready in peace…ish, I was still dressing with Caius in anyway.

He grabbed a random pair of black swimming trunks from his wardrobe. "My brother does confuse me sometimes."

"On top of that, now imagine being his true mate," I laughed, eventually choosing out a swimsuit and darting into his bathroom to change, "catch you on the flip side, babe."

The swimsuit I'd chosen out was a low-cut black and purple one piece with a hell lot of side boob. It was definitely one of my favourites I owned but I couldn't help but feel self-conscious, out of habit at this point. Even with my unnaturally perfect body, I somehow still didn't like how I looked in it at all. I guess you can never truly be happy with how you look.

I threw a hoodie over it which I left unzipped, denim shorts, and a pair of flip-flops before joining Caius back in the bedroom. His eyes glazed over me hungrily and I could see that I had to keep this show on the road before I ended up being held hostage in the room for the next few hours.

"Come on, blondie boy, off we pop," I gripped his arm and dragged him outside.

He pulled away and turned back around to go into his wardrobe yet again. "Eliana, I need clothes."

"Don't tell me, just do it," I sighed.

In a few seconds, he came back out wearing a dark crimson button up, black dress pants, and expensive black Italian shoes. I looked him up and down confusedly.

"Er…babe, we're going to a swimming pool. Are you sure the shoes are such a good idea?"

"I am not planning on swimming in them if that is what you are suggesting," he scoffed.

I grabbed his arm once more and continued dragging him out. "I'm glad we're on the same page. Vamanos!"

The sprint to the swimming pool only took a few seconds which was a bit of a weird adjustment to me. Once we arrived hand in hand, Aro and Marcus were already there, placing their clothes neatly in a pile on one of the white sun-loungers. Aro grinned as soon as he spotted us.

"Ah, you have finally arrived. For a moment there, we were sure we would not see you for another pleasurable few hours," he remarked.

I took off my hoodie and launched it at him, but he was still able to catch it effortlessly. "You just can't help it, can you?"

"You are such a joy to tease though. Teasing both of you simultaneously, now that is certainly a treat," he added.

I quickly took off my shorts and flip-flops, messily tossing them onto the previously neat pile of clothing. With a scowl, Aro picked up my clothes and decided to fold them himself exactly how he wanted them folded. Drama queen.

Excitedly, for some reason I decided to scream and jump into the pool with my knees to my chest without any warning. As soon as I made contact with the water, my nonexistent need to breathe came in handy as I was originally worried that I wouldn't be able to swim back to the surface myself but, after a few attempts, I managed to float back up to the top without any issues. The other three had already jumped in less than a second after me and I quickly felt a pair of arms surround me from behind.

"You are already better at swimming, tesoro," Marcus' lips moved against the skin of my neck.

"Quite right. I do not know of any immortal that is unable to swim, so I would've guessed you would be the same," Aro mused, smoothing his hair out of his face.

Marcus hummed in thought before a mischievous grin crept onto his face. "Let us test that theory."

Oh shit.

The brunette lunatic lifted me up and tossed me to the other side of the pool as if I weighed nothing. I screamed a little just as I hit the water, but oddly enough I was easily able to swim back up to the surface again. From then, I found that swimming somehow came as second nature to me as I managed to paddle my way back over to the gracefully.

"And she swims!" Aro clapped his hands with sarcastic enthusiasm.

"There was no need to throw me, cinnamon roll," I snarked at Marcus.

"Without me throwing you, you would still be unaware of your true unlocked swimming potential. For that, you are most welcome," he smiled.

I faked a smile back which he saw right through, causing him to laugh and pull me back tightly into his arms. I turned my head around for a moment just to check on Aro and Caius but, to my surprise, the man children were doing backflips underwater for some reason. With a sigh, I kicked Caius in his side and he quickly swam back up to the surface with a scowl.

"You could have just asked us to stop," I snapped.

"I didn't think I'd even have to in the first place. What the hell were you doing?"

"What is it to do with you?!"

"What's it to do with me?! The pair of you were spinning around like some kind of messed up washing machine under there. If I said anything, you probably wouldn't have heard me if I screamed your name!"

"You did not even try!"

"I know you wouldn't hear in anyway!"

"Maybe I would if you were less stubborn!"

"I'm the stubborn one?! You're the only stubborn one here!"

"I am not stubborn, you are simply a childish brat-"

We didn't even finish are argument before we were both hurled in opposite directions across the pool. Marcus had flung me to one end while Aro did the same to Caius. Huh, rude. I instantly swam over to them and slapped Marcus on the arm.

He furrowed his eyebrows with a frown. "What was that for?"

"No, what was that for?" I motioned to the pool. "Seriously? Again? And to albino bunny too?"

"What did you call me?!" Caius seethed.

"Albino bunny. Fight me," I challenged him with a smirk on my face.

"That is quite enough for one day, thank you," Aro placed his arm in front of Caius to avoid any further bickering. "We came here to swim, not to argue like infants."

"We weren't arguing, we were just…in a moral disagreement, that's all."

"Call it what you may, let us do something fun," he smiled excitedly.

"Like what?" I asked.

He gasped as if he suddenly had some idea. "Let us test your speed by seeing who can complete 10 laps of the pool first."

A moment later, Caius, Aro and I were positioned at one end of the pool ready to race. Marcus was watching from the edge of the pool, mostly because he knew at least one of us would try and cheat at some point.

Marcus began to count down. "3…2…Eliana, I have not even said 1 yet."

"I didn't do anything!" I argued.

"I saw you move," Aro chipped in.

I whacked him lightly. "Of course you saw me move," I snarled.

Marcus sighed. "And again, 3…2…1…go."

As soon as he said the final word, I pushed off the wall as quickly as I could and began to frantically swim across the pool. A single lap seemed to only take a second or two, so a few seconds later, I was finally back at the start point.

"I win!" I yelled, cringing at the loud echo from the room.

The other two made it back only a second later, but Aro was slightly further behind than Caius.

"Did you hear that? I win! You lose, suckers, I win!"

"No you did not, you cheated," Caius accused, scowling at me like he'd never scowled before.

"Huh, I did not cheat thank you very much, I won fair and square. You're just jealous because I'm better than you, don't be such a sore loser."

"Yes you did cheat."

"How then, wise guy?"

"Brother, she did not cheat, I was watching," Marcus countered.

"Did you count how many laps she did? She could not have possibly completed 10 laps in that time," Caius' voice began to raise a few octaves.

"Chill your beans, shockingly enough I do know how to count to 10. I think they learned that to us in human school. I win, you can suck a cucumber," I shrugged.

"Excuse me-"

"That is quite enough childish bickering for today, thank you," Aro held us apart by wrapping his arms around my waist. "Eliana, you won."

"Hear that, blondie? I won!" I squealed.

"Yes, yes, I heard," Caius grumbled.

"Oh my god, is that what I think it is?" My face lit up in excitement.

I quickly leapt out of the pool and darted over to the corner. To my surprise, there was a giant inflatable llama underneath one of the sun-loungers. It was still flat, but I carried it back over to the pool so I could inflate it.

"What is that?" Caius asked.

I sat on the edge of the pool with my legs in the water. "A giant inflatable llama, obviously."

Marcus chuckled at me and my childishness as I began to blow up the inflatable. Immortality did play to my benefit in that instance since I could fit more air into my lungs. After less than a minute, I'd managed to fully inflate it and it was somehow bigger than me.

"He needs a name," I stated, examining it in case an idea suddenly came to me.

"So many name options," Aro sighed, "Kenneth, Bartholomew, Timothy, Brian…"

"I love these suggestions," I deadpanned.

He ignored me and continued listing a few more names. "Kevin, Gary, Larry, Keith, Carl-"

"CARL!" I yelled enthusiastically. "Like from Llamas in Hats."

All three of them looked at me blankly as if I was speaking gibberish. I don't even know why I expected them to understand classic meme culture.

"Search it up on YouTube," I sighed and tossed it into the pool. "Actually, that was dumb. How am I going to reach that now?"

"Just jump onto…Carl," Aro suggested with a shrug.

Following his suggestion, I hurled myself away from the side of the pool and landed in a heap on the giant llama. I quickly adjusted myself so that I was sat with my legs crossed as it slowly floated through the pool.

"That was anticlimactic," Caius remarked.

"I know right? Truly underwhelming."

We sat there in awkward silence for a few moments while I continued to gradually drift through the pool. Suddenly, the entire inflatable was flipped over onto the side which sent me crashing back into the water with a light scream. Once I made it back up to the surface from underneath it, Marcus was in fits of laughter.

I slapped his arm and he groaned slightly. "How dare you?!"

"It was funny!" he insisted.

"For you, maybe. I loved that llama, Carl was everything to me, and look at him now," I motioned to the lopsided, sad-looking llama.

He frowned playfully. "I thought I was everything to you."

"You three come in second. Carl is my true soulmate," I giggled.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Was there any point in this chapter? No, there really wasn't. But CARL OMG I LOVE CARL SO FUCKING MUCH.

Anyway, thank you do much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!