Title: Future
Pairing/Characters: OT4 duh. Romano and Alejandro and a little Lovina in this one.
Rating: K+
Note: This has been on tumblr forever forgot about this one pft.
With two of their brats being fully grown and out of the house and the youngest one being sixteen and perfect and not a horrible little monster, Romano figured the days of being woken up by children in the middle of the night were long gone. He went to bed every night expecting to not wake up until the morning, though in all honesty it never worked out that way because of all the snoring and kicking and sneaking into other people's beds at 3 am all his partners did, but there were no childish nightmares or bed wetting incidents or crying babies waking him up at odd hours.
There were no tiny hands grabbing at him to pull themselves up into his bed or soft whispers of, "Babbo can I sleep with you?" and, "It's too dark in my room," and, "I want to cuddle," either, but none of that was at all endearing when one was sleep deprived anyway.
Neither were quiet knocks on his door.
…Why was somebody knocking on his fucking door at 2:30 in the morning?
He glanced at the three people sleeping soundly beside him and got up to see what Gisella could possibly need at that hour, but when he opened the door, it wasn't her standing on the other side.
"…Alessandro, do you know what time it is?"
Alejandro laughed nervously and mumbled, "Two?"
"Past two. How did you even get in the house? Did Antonio forget to lock the door again, I swear I will fuc—"
"I still have a key."
"Oh. Right."
Romano closed his bedroom door behind him, mostly because he didn't want to deal with the excitement Antonio and Antonia always overdid whenever Alejandro came over for a visit. He nudged his shell-shocked looking son over toward the couch before making his way to the kitchen. If he was going to be up at strange hours, he might as well be eating the cannoli Lovina told him to stay out of. "You going to tell me what's wrong or did you just feel like waking somebody up for nostalgic reasons?"
He didn't respond for a few minutes and Romano was slowly growing worried because Alejandro was definitely a talkative person, always had been. He'd even managed to pick up Antonio's annoying habit of talking in his sleep, so for him to keep quiet was a very odd occurrence.
"Alessà, what's—"
"Elena's pregnant."
"…What time did she tell you this?"
"Last night."
"And you couldn't have called then? Or waited until the morning? …Please tell me no hand puppets were involved."
Alejandro laughed and then quickly covered his mouth when he realised how loud he was being. "No Babbo, no hand puppets. I'm way smarter than you and Papá."
"You watch your tongue, brat." Because Romano was a very giving parent, he handed Alejandro some of the off-limits dessert he'd gotten into and because Alejandro also had a knack for eating things Lovina told him not to, he happily took it. "So what's the problem?"
"No problem."
The clock in their living room struck 3:00. "No problem?"
"I'm gonna be Babbo now. Or Papá, I guess—"
"Oh, right." Alejandro's shell-shocked face was soon matched by Romano's. "That's not allowed."
"And you're going to be—"
"Don't fucking say it."
"—Nonno."
"Goddamnit."
"I know."
The two of them remained silent until the cannoli was long gone and Romano had retrieved a pan tiramisu with a note reading Romano, I will burn you if you fucking touch this again, fatass. Love, Lovina for them to start on. "How old are you? I'm not old enough for this shit. How old am?!"
"You're twenty-nine," Alejandro replied quickly.
"Damn right I am."
"…I don't know anything about babies."
Romano snorted. "Neither do I." They went silent again as Alejandro inhaled the tiramisu and Romano let him because Lovina had only burnt him once before on accident and she'd freaked out about it way more than he had. "You'll be fine, and if you're not I'm sure Antonio and Antonia will be more than happy to take the thing off your hands for awhile."
Alejandro grinned and fiddled with the wedding band on his finger. "Love you, Babbo." He paused for a moment before laughing. "Even if you're only three years older than me."
"It is too early for your sass, young man." Romano ran a finger through the perfectly frosted top of the remaining tiramisu before reclosing the lid with Lovina's note on it. "But I love you too. Now stop freaking me out and go home to your wife."
"Okay, Babbo."
"And if you ever say anything about me being Nonno again I am disowning you."
"Sure you will."
"I will."
"Mhmm."
"…Well maybe just a little."
Alejandro had inherited a great many things from Romano, but his propensity for leaping at people and pulling them into lung-crushing hugs was definitely not one of them. Romano forgave him just this once and wrapped his arms around him, but not before letting him know that he was crushing him and he didn't appreciate murder attempts before the sun was even up.
"If you two are done with your girl talk, I'd like to go back to slee— is that my tiramisu. Romano, I told you not eat it, why do you always do this?"
Romano also didn't appreciate his sleep-deprived moments with his oldest son being ruined, damnit. "Call me in the morning, Alessà."
"Sure thing. Don't kill Babbo, Mamma."
"I am making no promises." Lovina scowled and returned the half-eaten tiramisu to the fridge while Romano walked Alejandro to the door. Once she heard the click of the lock she made her way out to the living room. "What the hell was that all about?"
"Oh, you know." Romano fell into step with Lovina as she returned to her bedroom. "Not much, just you're going to be a grandma."
"Oh, well— what?!"
