They all woke up slightly early that morning, they had a huge task for today. Francis got up and made them all some breakfast. He set up the table and started to cooked up some pancakes and bacon with sausage. He also went through Antonio's little backpack and pulled out some baby food jars.
After everything was served, he put some lids on top of the plates on put them in the oven to keep warm. He went upstairs to the nursery, where Gilbert, Antonio and Lovino were all sleeping. He went up to his sleeping friends and tried to wake them up but they were deep sleepers. He shook their shoulders, but they haven't risen from their sleep. Francis tried to wake them by punching them, pulling their hair, dumped ice on them and even set off the fire alarm, but they didn't wake up. Francis had to think of something that would wake them up.
"We are having pancakes for breakfast," he whispered into Gilbert's ear. Gilbert loved pancakes and he would always get up in the morning if there were pancakes.
"We'll have paella for supper after shopping today," he also whispered into Antonio's ear.
As soon as he had said these things, he ran to the doorway. He watched as both of his friends got up in a flash. It was weird when they just got up after finding out about food. He let them get dressed and went down the stairs. Francis took out their breakfast out of the oven and placed it on the kitchen table, as his friends entered the kitchen. They sat down and began to eat their large breakfast.
"Pass the maple syrup," Gilbert asked. Antonio passed him a plastic bottle with the amber liquid.
"I meant the real stuff, Toni," Gilbert said in an exasperated sigh.
"Toni, you really like to trick Gil, don't you?" Francis asked.
"Yeah I do, Fran. It's one of my favourite things to do. What are we doing today," Antonio asked.
"Well we have to prepare the nursery for our kids, so we are going shopping," Francis answered.
"Where are we going? Are we splitting up to 'divide and conquer'," Gilbert asked.
"Well, Antonio made a list for IKEA, so he's going to drive over there and get some furniture for the nursery. We also need to go to the grocery store and Home Depot and a couple other places," Francis answered.
"Are we all leaving at the same time? Are we all going to the same places together," Antonio asked.
"We'll go at the same time, but we'll split up so we can get everything we need more quickly," Francis explained.
"Toni, I think you forgot something this morning," Gilbert stated between mouthfuls of pancake and breakfast sausage.
"That's ridiculous, what on earth could I have forgotten?" Antonio asked.
"Your son," both Francis and Gilbert answered him with dry voices.
Antonio swallowed his food before he could choke a little, but he choked a bit anyway. "Water," he asked between coughing fits. Gilbert went to the cupboards and pulled out a glass. He went to the sink and filled it with with some warm water. He passed it to Antonio. Antonio threw back the glass of water and cleared his throat. He could breathe again.
"I'll go get him right now," he said as he finished eating and got up. He came back a couple of minutes later with Lovino. He sat at the table with his kid. Francis slid the jar of baby food over to him and passed him a spoon. Antonio opened the container and put the spoon inside. He took out a spoonful of the stuff. He brought it to to Lovino's mouth and tried to force it in. Lovino moved his face away from the spoon.
"What do I do? He won't take the food." Antonio freaked out.
"How about that weird thing that always seems to come up on television? The "here come the airplane" thing," Gilbert suggested.
"You should try it, it would be interesting to see if it works," Francis said.
Antonio sighed and gave it a try. "Here comes the airplane... Vroooom," he said in a sing-song voice. He looked at his friends after Lovino took the spoonful of peach baby food. His friends were stifling their laughter at the ridiculous sight. Gilbert was about to let out a couple giggles, but he couldn't do it.
He left the table to get ready to leave. But then he thought about the question of who was going to watch Lovino. So he came back to the kitchen.
"Hey Toni, who's going to watch Lovino? If we're all going shopping, someone has to watch him," Gilbert pointed out.
"Here comes the airplane... Vroooom. We could always bring him with us. We should go to IKEA together anyway. Will you babysit him," Antonio suggested.
"Sure, I'll watch him. Are we all going to the store together," Gilbert asked.
"Yeah, might as well," Francis answered.
They all finished up their breakfast and put on their shoes. Francis locked up the door and walked to his car while Antonio and Gilbert walked over to the other truck. Gilbert was holding onto Lovino, when he walked up to the truck's back door. Antonio opened the door for him, but smacked his kid in the face with the door. Lovino started bawling in Gilbert's arms.
"Oh shit! I'm so sorry niño. I can't believe I just did that. Gil can you do something to calm him down? I really need you to have him quiet down," Antonio ranted.
Gilbert got into the truck's back seat with Lovino. He put on his seatbelt and held onto the screaming child and was rocking him slowly back and forth while shushing him. Lovino was starting to calm down and stop crying. Antonio was in the driver's seat and looked at them through the rear-view mirror.
"Is he okay," he asked his friend as he checked on them through the mirror.
"Yeah, he's just asleep," Gilbert replied to him. Rocking the unconscious child in his arms. Lovino was
all quiet in Gilbert's arms.
"He's still alive right, he's too quiet," Antonio mentioned.
"Of course he is," Gilbert replied aghast.
They drove on for a while, until they reached the parking lot for IKEA. Antonio drove to the entrance of the store and let Gilbert go in with Lovino, so he could get a parking space and find them later in the store. Gilbert got out of the truck, picked up Lovino and strapped him to his chest. He walked through the large doors with the sleeping child on his chest.
When he entered the doors into Ikea, he was given looks of surprise because of his appearance. He was wearing another black military jacket with with a white t-shirt. But what probably made him look intimidating was the brown haired infant that was strapped to his chest. The boy was wearing a onesie that had feet attached to it. Also, when they looked at the young man's face, he was albino. The people in Ikea, thought that he had kidnapped the small boy.
"Hey Gil, thanks for taking him with you," Antonio said as he had entered the store. The people who were staring at Gilbert with Lovino all looked away.
They continued on walking through the store together, totally ignoring the people who were giving them weird looks as they were talking.
"We should take pictures with the furniture so that Fran can have a look at the cribs with us, since he can't come in with us," Antonio suggested.
"That sounds like an awesome idea, I should have come up with it myself," Gilbert answered.
"What kind of poses should we do," Antonio asked.
"We should do some sexy poses, something that would make Fran laugh so hard he drops his phone," Gilbert suggested in a quick whisper.
"Sexy poses? I don't know how to do those," Antonio whispered back.
"You have a kid, you should probably be able to do a sexy pose, you could always do that lame nibbling on things like your sunglasses or whatever as a worst case scenario," Gilbert said quickly.
They continued on looking through the store until they reached the crib showroom. They looked at the different styles and sizes of the furniture. They picked out three styles that they both seemed to like. Gilbert motioned for Antonio to start posing next to the cribs and took some pictures.
The first crib that Gilbert took a picture of Antonio with was a birch crib that had thin features. Antonio posed as if he was going to start nibbling on the bars in the most sexy manner ever. The second crib was an oak piece that was so well lacquered that it shone under the bright lights of the store. Antonio posed with it as if he we going to hug it, and gave the camera-phone a smoulder. The final crib was a red wood colour. Antonio looked away from the camera and gave it an indirect look as he bit the tip of his thumb.
Gilbert couldn't stop laughing as he showed Antonio the pictures that he took of him on his phone. He sent the pictures to Francis' phone with a quick message of how they needed his decision on the crib style. A few minutes later, Gilbert received a phone call on his cell. He picked up.
"Hello," he asked questioningly.
"Hey Gil," Francis greeted.
"Which one did you like best? We need you to choose from our top three," Gilbert said.
"I like the one where Toni is biting his thumb," Francis responded.
"Awesome," Gilbert said back.
"Don't you ever send me pictures like that again, when you know I'm shopping for food and clothing," Fran said in an annoyed voice.
"Should I put them on Facebook?" he asked.
"Maybe not not right away, put them on your blog," Francis answered.
"Awesome! Thanks,"
"I have to go now,"
"Bye,"
"Bye,"
Gilbert told Antonio which crib to get and wrote down the identification code for the crib. They also picked out some other furniture for the nursery such as small dressers, highchairs, a few changing stations and small bookshelves.
When they finished shopping for furniture, they went into the warehouse part of the store and picked out all of the needed pieces for the nursery. When they had entered the warehouse, they were overwhelmed by how full the area was.
"This makes me think of that new Indiana Jones movie," Gilbert thought aloud.
"Yeah," Antonio nodded in agreement.
"But at least the shelves are labelled," Gilbert pointed out.
"Yeah," Antonio agreed again.
"I'll go get a cart so we can put the bundles on there," Gilbert said before dashing off with a baby strapped to his chest.
"Alright! Have fun," Antonio said.
Gilbert came back with the shopping cart that was meant to carry the furniture packets. He then thought of something that was bothering him, so he decided to call up Francis. He put in the ten digit phone number and waited for Francis to pick up the phone.
"Hello," Francis answered.
"Hey Fran, I have a question for you," Gilbert said.
"Shoot," Francis said, as if motioning Gilbert to continue his question.
"Do the bedrooms we were given even have furniture? I thought that we might as well know, since we are at IKEA," Gilbert asked.
"Yeah they do, but they just have a boring paint job," Francis informed.
"Are you going to go to Home Depot later," Gilbert asked.
"Can you buy paint for our bedrooms? Because that would be awesome," Gilbert enquired.
"Sure, what colours do you even need for the nursery," Francis asked.
Gilbert stopped talking to Francis and asked Antonio what colours he needed for the nursery wall and bedroom.
"An adobe, bright red, dark and bright green, sky blue and yellow for the nursery, and the same colours for my bedroom," Antonio replied into Gilbert's cell phone.
"And Gilbert? What colours do you want," Francis asked.
"I want to have a yellow, turquoise, purple, Prussian blue and many shades of blue and green. If you can get some glow in the dark paint, that would be awesome," he said.
"Alright, be home soon. Don't build any of the furniture in the nursery if you come home before me, we have to paint the room first. Got to go, bye," Francis said before hanging up his phone.
"See you in a bit," Gilbert hung up his phone, and adjusted Lovino's straps because they were starting to fail. They had all the furniture they needed and headed to the exit of the store, where the cashiers were. They spent quite a lot on the furniture, so they had to get a really cheap lunch. They decided to go to a place that they rarely went to because the food was terrible and bad for you. They decided to go to McDonald's, but it was closed (surprisingly) so they went to Burger King instead.
"What do you think you'll get? I'm going to get the Angry Whopper," Gilbert said.
"I'll get the exact same thing," Antonio said.
They got their food, and sat down at a table for two and brought a highchair for Lovino to sit in. Antonio pulled out a jar of baby food out of his jacket and put it on the table. They started their meals, and ate a bit quickly because they had to feed Lovino. Gilbert finished eating his burger and picked up Lovino's food. He opened the jar and stirred it a bit with a spoon. He did some sound effects as he brought the spoon to the boy's mouth. After feeding Lovino all of the food, he waited for Antonio to finish eating.
They left the restaurant and went to the truck, they got in and drove to Francis' house. When they arrived, Francis had just arrived in the driveway. He was just getting out of his car. He went up to Antonio's truck after he had parked. Francis went to the truck of his car and pulled out some reusable bags from there. He took two, and Gilbert helped him out with bringing in the heavy bags from the car. Antonio got out of the truck and ran up to the door, he unlocked the front door with the key that Francis had given him.
After unlocking the front door, Antonio went back to the car and closed the trunk because it was empty. He then went to his truck and pulled out the individually wrapped boxes of furniture. He brought in the pieces of furniture two at a time, and left them in the entryway of the large house.
When he had closed the front door, he took off his shoes and brought the furniture into the living room. He called out to the others, wondering where they went and found them in the nursery.
"We were thinking of painting the room first before we build the bedroom pieces. That way we won't damage them. What do you think," Francis asked.
"Sounds good," Gilbert said.
"Do you want to start right now," Antonio asked.
"Sounds like an awesome idea," Gilbert agreed.
"Let's start right now," Francis suggested.
"Sounds like a good idea," Antonio agreed.
They went into the nursery and put a plastic sheet on the floor, in case the paint rolled down the wall. They were about to start until they noticed that they were not dressed for painting a wall.
"I didn't bring any clothes with me, do you have something the awesome me can wear," Gilbert asked.
"Same here Francis, I don't have any clothes that I can get paint on without it bothering me," Antonio said as well.
"I guess I could pass you some of the smocks I used in art school," Francis replied.
"You went to art school? I never knew that," Gilbert said.
"I told you like fifty times, you just never listened," Francis said with an exasperated sigh.
"Thanks," Antonio said as Francis threw him an old loose t-shirt.
They all started painting the room, but then Lovino started to fuss. Antonio left the room to take care of his kid. When he had returned, both Francis and Gilbert had finished their painting in the nursery had taken off their smocks. Gilbert offered to watch Lovino while Antonio finished his wall. Antonio accepted the offer and let Gilbert take the child. Gilbert picked up Lovino, and went into the living room and sat on the couch near his backpack. Inside the backpack, was the completed packet of papers for his brother's custody and his mother's funeral plans.
Gilbert thought that Lovino was going to be fussy. But actually, he just fell asleep. A sleeping kid was no fun, so Gilbert asked if he could build one of the highchairs for Lovino. He put the sleeping child in the nearby laundry basket and tucked him in.
He looked in the pile of wrapped up furniture and opened the cardboard box containing the highchair. The first thing he did was check out the instructions, but like any diagram from IKEA, he had a bit of trouble figuring out which piece was which. He did his best in assembling the chair, but it didn't turn out right away. Gilbert kept trying to build the piece of furniture, until Antonio came down the stairs after painting.
"Do you need help," Antonio asked.
"Yes, that would be awesome," Gilbert replied.
They worked on the chair until they were done building it, which was just in time for supper. They brought the high chair to the kitchen table, where there was a delicious spread of food.
"Francis, your paella looks good. Just like mama used to make," Antonio said.
"Thanks, Toni," Francis replied.
"Hey, did you guys paint your bedrooms yet," Francis asked after they ate for a bit.
"Yep," they replied at the same time.
"I guess that means that you guys are going to be sleeping in the living room tonight," Francis mentioned.
"We don't really care," they replied.
They finished eating and went into the living room. They all got comfortable in their sleeping bags on inflatable mattresses, and went to sleep.
Author's note:
Hello readers,
I deeply apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I had a bad case of school deadlines and writers block. I hope you find a place in your heart to forgive me. Anyways, long chapter eh? I assure you that they will not be this long again (or as close to this long). My biggest roadblock in this chapter was the ability to have fun at IKEA, I never realized how difficult it can be at a grown up store. If I were to post the sixth chapter, it would be in a while because I am in the most important school year, so I won't post all the time like I did with the first four chapters (that was because I was on my winter holidays). If you liked it, tell me in a review if you would like to. If you have questions, I will answer them as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading this far,
shadow-of-doubtfulness.