"Can You Feel My Heart" by Bring Me The Horizon

The twins ran excitedly ahead of us while Tyler and I carried all of the groceries. The worms had been fine, though probably as displeased as worms can be. I also ended up having to clean up the twins because they immediately rubbed their hands all over each other's faces once I took the worms away. It was only about three in the afternoon and I was exhausted. It's one of those days.

I knocked on the door, the two twins almost bouncing in place. Noah answered the door, looking a bit surprised.

"I know, we're about three hours early, but I couldn't keep them contained any more," I smiled. He let out a chuckle before bending down so that he was eye level with the twins. "Noah, this is Declan and Kelly. And this is your granda."

Noah held out his hand but the twins ignored it, throwing their arms around his neck instead. He was surprised for a few moments before patting them on their backs and hugging them.

"Are the boys out back?" I asked Noah, noticing that they were nowhere to be found. He nodded. "I'll go retrieve them." I handed Tyler the bags I was carrying as Noah led the twins and him inside.

I went around back, finding the boys in the barn. They were clean shaven with their hair short.

"Well you two clean up nicely," I smiled when I saw them. They looked surprised to see me so early. "The twins were restless, so we're early. They're in the house with Noah."

"I have to, uh, grab something from the back of the barn," Connor said awkwardly, getting up and walking away from us.

"Well that was weird, even for Connor," I noted. Murphy laughed, looking entirely nervous about something. I narrowed my eyes at him, his nervousness making me suspicious.

"Murphy, I swear to god if you're going to tell me what I think you're going to tell me, the twins will never meet you because I will murder you right here and right now," I crossed my arms.

"What? No, that's not what I'm about to tell ye," he said, looking surprised. I relaxed a little but didn't uncross my arms. He sighed, coming over to grab my hands, forcing me to uncross my arms and rubbing the back of my hands with his thumbs. "I want to take ye on a date."

Now it was my turn to look startled. We've never been traditional together by any means. I don't even think we'd ever been on anything I'd consider a date. And that's not a bad thing, it's just how we work. Dates are awkward. It's never awkward with Murphy.

I realized I had been staring at him longer than I should have when he started to shift from foot to foot uncomfortably, trying to decide if he had stepped over some invisible boundaries.

"Murphy, you and I don't do...dates."

"I want to do it properly this time with ye."

I laughed, unable to help myself before smiling at him. "We aren't proper people, nothing about this is proper. But I would love to spend more time with you. Just please don't make me sit through an awkward first date with you. That would be torture."

He laughed before leaning forward to kiss me, still holding my hands. I rubbed my nose against him, just like I used to when we lived together. I laced my fingers with his.

"Now come on, they've inherited your sense of patience. They're probably terrorizing poor Noah." Murphy playfully poked me in the side.

"C'mon Connor, stop fecking off back there. We've gotta save Da from the little ones."

I'd say Tyler is helping, but he's probably just letting things play out unless they're actually in danger. When we got to the door, I gave Murphy's hand a squeeze before letting go of it, leading the way into the house. It was modest, but it wasn't small, and all of the essentials were there. The kids were, as expected, terrorizing Noah. Tyler was in the kitchen beginning to prepare stuff for me while also listening to make sure no one was in danger of dying.

The twins stopped pestering Noah as soon as they realized I was back and that their father was with me. They grinned at Murphy as he knelt down to their level, almost knocking him over with a hug. Connor laughed. I went into the kitchen as the twins started trying to talk over one another.

"Thanks for getting stuff ready," I greeted Tyler.

"It was more of an excuse to let them terrorize someone else for a change," he laughed.

"That's exactly why we're in here and they're out there," I laughed.

Tyler and I finished preparing dinner and brought it out to the dining room table. The boys were seated across from the twins, speaking in Italian. The twins were watching intently.

"You do know they can understand what you're saying, right?" I asked the boys, making them stare at the twins in disbelief. Without missing a beat, the twins switched to fluent Italian.

"We can. We wanted to see how long it would last," Declan shrugged.

Kelly turned to her brother, switching to German. "Do you think they know German?"

The boys didn't miss a beat, assuring the twins that they knew German while speaking Irish. The twins rolled their eyes. Of course they know Irish. I had made sure they knew it. Adrienne and mom made sure they knew Italian. We learned German because, well, we lived in German and it was more convenient than asking them to speak English every time.

"You'll have to switch to Russian or one of the Uralic languages for them to not understand you," I shook my head at what was happening in front of me. "Now go wash your hands, it's time for dinner."

"Yes, Mom," they said in unison, getting up and heading to the bathroom to wash their hands.

"Ye've done a good job with them," Noah said, breaking the silence as I served their plates. I smiled.

"Thanks, though I had a lot of help. Tyler, my mom, and our boss. They're easy enough kids, just rambunctious."

"It's still impressive," Murphy said softly, looking at me with a mixture of admiration, guilt, and sadness. I shook my head.

"None of that," I replied so that only he could hear me.