Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear triplets! Happy birthday to you! So, yes, as it is quite obvious, I am in a good mood because today is Adrienne, Jeremy, and Sabrina's birthday! :D And that is why you are getting an early chapter. Because they love you, and they love your reviews! That, and they are generally gracious on their birthday...
Disclaimer: The triplets and their amazing party belongs to me... Dimitri and Rose can just watch. :D
It was a wasted effort to try to get Jeremy and Sabrina back to sleep after Adrienne had run in and jumped on their bed, demanding they wake up so that they could go and play. They were crying and refusing to play with her. It upset me that Jeremy and Sabrina had been soundly sleeping, and Adrienne had woken them up. But then again, this was Adrienne. She was the wild child, the rogue. I had figured that punishing her was a wasted effort, but Dimitri had different ideas.
As I calmed Jeremy and Sabrina down, Dimitri was having a serious conversation with his daughter. A very scary conversation, if her expression was anything to go by. Her lower lip was quivering, and her eyes were filled with tears. She pulled a shaking hand through her hair slowly. I saw her mouth, "I'm sorry, Daddy." Dimitri picked her up, and she buried her face in his chest. I saw her small body heave and shudder as she cried.
Dimitri looked at me and gave me a weak smile. I smiled back. Hopefully this would never happen again. Sabrina tugged on my shirt. "Yes, Sabrina?" I murmured, crouching down.
"Wha's wrong with Adrienne?" she asked worriedly, her brown eyes wide and curious.
"She's okay, Sabrina," I soothed, picking Sabrina up. Jeremy stood by, watching his sisters interact with us. While Adrienne and Sabrina were the same in the way that they had to know what was going on, Jeremy was the complete opposite. Adrienne pushed against you until you paid attention to her and gave her the answer she was looking for. Sabrina was more inconspicuous with her questions, seeing as she liked to hide behind others.
Jeremy was the odd one out. Instead of asking for answers, Jeremy was very clinical when things began to happen. He assessed a situation and came to his own conclusions about things. He rarely asked questions, and when he did, they were well thought-out.
Finally, Adrienne stopped crying and removed her face from Dimitri's chest. She sniffed and whispered, "I'm sorry, Sabina. I'm sorry, Jermy. I wanted to play a game." She frowned. Sabrina smiled gently at her.
"It's okay, Adrienne," she said quietly. She squirmed against my arms, and I put her down. She hugged Dimitri's leg, and Dimitri put Adrienne down next to her sister. They hugged, glanced at each other, and grinned. Jeremy's eyes widened as his sisters ran toward him. They basically tackled him, and he began to laugh, loosening up. Jeremy could be like his dad when he wanted to be - stoic, quiet, observant. But once his sisters started laughing, he got a little louder, a little more outgoing.
Of course, Jeremy's little comrade, Andre, always turned him into a jokester. Lissa and I joked that we were going to have to keep our boys under lock and key one day. But for now, Jeremy was being calm, and I was cherishing every moment of that. The three hopped around for a moment, and Adrienne glanced up at me hopefully.
"Please, Momma?" she whispered, batting her huge eyes at me. Oh God. She was already beginning to work her magic. This would be a deadly weapon in her future, and it was being used to its fullest capabilities even now. She knew the power she had over anyone who had a heart. She just looked so innocent, so helpless, so vulnerable. But I knew her. She thought everything through, planned it so it came out just the way she wanted it.
I sighed. "Yes, Adrienne. You can play a game." She squealed in delight and threw herself at my legs, squeezing them as tightly as she could.
"Thanks, Momma!" She pulled on her siblings, tugging them downstairs. It didn't escape my notice that Dimitri was following them very closely down the stairs, making sure that they didn't trip or fall. That would have been bad, to say the least. Of course, Adrienne had to pick the game that Dimitri hated.
"Hide and go seek!" she demanded. Dimitri groaned. He was always terrified that one of the kids would disappear and never be found even though they all knew that the main rule was stay in the house under all circumstances.
I rubbed Dimitri's arm soothingly, and he sighed. Jeremy and Adrienne took off through the house, giggling, while Sabrina counted to the best of her ability.
"One... two... thwee..." She stopped, blinking up at me. "Momma, what's after thwee?"
"Four," I supplied.
She grinned and nodded. "Four... Five... Six... Seven... Uhm. Ten!" she shouted happily. I was proud that she'd gotten to seven by herself. "Ready or not, here I come!" She giggled, running through the house trying to find her siblings. Of course, Dimitri and I wanted to calm them down, so we gave hints to Sabrina, and after she'd found Jeremy underneath his bed, Adrienne was still missing. It took about twenty minutes to find her underneath my bathroom sink, and Dimitri was a nervous wreck by then.
"Let's watch a movie now," I murmured. We had to get them to calm down before we went to Lissa's party where they would receive tons of sugar. They didn't need to be hyper before they inhaled pounds of sugar.
Adrienne and Sabrina instantly flew for a princess movie, and I swore Jeremy was growling under his breath. I knew he was tired of princess movies, but he was outnumbered, two to one. Dimitri sighed. "Girls, please. Do you want Jeremy to turn into a girl?" My laugh came out in a squeak, and Adrienne and Sabrina's eyes grew huge. Jeremy huffed. "Let Jeremy pick the movie for once."
Adrienne and Sabrina glanced at each other unsurely, then nodded slowly. Jeremy grinned and picked out his favorite movie - Cars. We didn't get to watch it much on account of the girls running the household most of the time. Jeremy was ecstatic as Dimitri put the DVD in the TV. His attention was on nothing but the movie. Adrienne and Sabrina were halfway interested, and they dozed through most of it.
Finally, it was dark, and it was time to go to the party. The girls were adorable, demanding their shoes. Jeremy lazily strolled through the house, blissed out on watching a movie of his choice. Dimitri grabbed Adrienne and Jeremy, kissing them both on the forehead, murmuring, "Time to go. Excited?" Jeremy rolled his eyes. He was going to his Aunt Lissa's house where he was treated like a king. Of course he was excited. Adrienne nodded enthusiastically, bouncing up and down.
I swung Sabrina into my arms, kissing her on the nose. "Come on, Sabrina," I breathed. "Let's go."
She nodded, burying her face into my shoulder. "Okay, Momma," she sighed. I followed Dimitri the few hundred feet to Lissa's house. Sabrina squirmed against me when she saw her siblings being lowered to the ground. I put her down, and they ran to Lissa's front porch. I knew she had already seen them, but they rang the doorbell and hid. In the spirit of things, Dimitri and I made ourselves harder to be spotted as well.
Lissa opened the door, an impish grin on her face. "Where are my munchkins?" she asked. Jeremy was the first to reveal himself, eager to get to his Aunt Lissa. Liss grinned and kissed his cheek. "Where's your mommy, Jeremy?" Jeremy, ever the traitor when it came to Liss, pointed me out right away. I moved, allowing her to see me and smiled.
"Now, Lissa, that's cheating," I complained, coming toward her.
"Uh-huh, sure," she mumbled, distracted. "Jeremy, honey, where are your sisters?" Jeremy grinned and pointed to where Adrienne and Sabrina were hiding. They scowled at their brother for being a pushover. "There's my nieces," she chuckled. She hugged them, keeping Jeremy in her arms. "Sugar, where's your daddy?" Lissa breathed.
Jeremy looked and looked for Dimitri, and I began to laugh hysterically because the frustration on Jeremy's face was evident. He was so pissed off that he couldn't find his daddy for his Aunt Lissa. "I don't know," he finally snapped, angry at himself. He crossed his arms over his chest and began to pout.
Dimitri blurred from nowhere and took Jeremy out of Lissa's arms, laughing. "Looking for me?"
"Daddy!" Jeremy shouted, exultant at finding his father, even though it was more Dimitri that had found Jeremy.
"Happy birthday, guys!" Lissa was ecstatic. She let us in, and I nearly had a heart attack.
There were presents everywhere, and I saw roughly two billion food items that had unspeakable amounts of sugar in them. Dimitri and I glanced at each other, then at Lissa. She shrugged and said quietly, "I had to make up for three years."
It was silent for a long moment before the triplets screamed in delight and rushed to devour anything and everything in their path.
Happy birthday dear triplets, happy birthday to you! Here is the chapter, as promised, a day or two early. And you just had MAJOR triplet fluff, so the birthday kids expect major reviews for the tons of fluff.
Don't forget to say happy birthday! The triplets promise to thank you back! Oh, and uh, they want reviews. Don't make the triplets sad on their birthday. :c
- J.C.
