The moment I opened the kitchen door, we were met with the aroma of sweet and sour chicken and miso soup mixed with the scent of pasta, fried empanadas and enchiladas. The smells overwhelmed my nostrils to the point that I had to pinch my nose. Dad, Antonio, Francis, Feliciano, Kiku and Yao were spread out through the kitchen, each making different dishes. Pork dumplings, streamed buns, strawberry crepes, flan and those were the dishes that I knew.
"Hey everyone," I greeted.
"Leave the door open," Yao exclaimed as he stirred chicken in the wok.
"There's too much stream in the air," Francis waved his hand over the strove as he paced a three pans of sliced potatoes mixed in with some type of yellow sauce.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Creamy au gratin potatoes," he answered. "Don't worry you'll love it."
"I would rather have the crepes," I gestured to take a strawberry from a plate, but Francis slapped away my hand.
"Non, non," he wiggled his finger at me, "that is for after dinner."
I stuck my tongue out at him and glanced to the strove, there were two massive skillets. One carried brown liquid filled with rice while the other had chicken, shrimp and sausage. I titled my head, "what's this?"
"That's paella," Antonio grinned, "you serve it on the rice, with the chicken, meat and shrimp on top. I also added tomatoes and oyster shells to the mix."
I nodded, "awesome."
"We also have sesame seared tuna and sushi," Dad gestured to Kiku, his sleeves were rolled up and he had a green bandana tied around his face to push back his hair. "The others brought las-ineciai, that's Lithuanian bacon buns, Latvian style baked onions, stewed cabbage, kar-jalan pies and sve-nssska kott-bullar," Dad struggled over the foreign words. "Also known as Swedish meatballs," he finished.
"I also brought Koskenkorva viina," Tino came in with two large vodka bottles. He squeezed through the kitchen so he could place them on the table, "by the way John, you don't have to put so much force on the s in svenska."
"Svenska," Dad said in a more confident voice.
Tino smiled, "you got it."
"Wow, you guys are really going all out," I grabbed Natalia's hand, "come on Nat, I'll show you to my room." I quickly pulled Natalia through the crowded kitchen and walked in to the living room. The countries were still gathered around Melissa as she continued to show pictures, but the number of nations had increased.
A tall woman with short blond hair was talking among Grandma, Eduard, Toris and Feliks. Then there were four Asians, all four were dark haired and dark eyed. Two were men and the other half were women. One of them with a curl saw me first, "Ms. America," he shouted happily with his arms in the air. His sleeves were extreme long as they ruffled over his hands. He wore a long yellow jacket, with an orange shirt, purple jeans and gray shoes. "Welcome home!" He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and nuzzled his face in my hair.
I patted his back, "it's good to be home, even thou I've been here this entire time." Then I whispered to Natalia, "who is this guy?"
He heard me, "I can't believe you don't know me! I'm Korea!"
"Which part?"
"I represent the southern part," then he gave me another hug, "oh you're so cute and hug-able."
I laughed, "Dude are you on something?"
"He always acts that way," an Asian guy with shaggy hair spoke, "if only we could bottle it." He wore jeans and a long sleeved red hoodie.
"Hello Ms. America," the Asian women came to greet me with handshakes. "Thank you for opening your home to us," said the one with wavy hair. She wore a light pink summer dress that came to her mid thighs along with a matching flower in her hair. The woman next to her had her hair tied in a low pony tail and wore dark jean capris and a green blouse.
"Not a problem," I proclaimed. Then the woman with short blond hair walked over. She wore a high waist black skirt that came to her knees and a tucked in blue blouse that matched her eyes. But it was too small, for the buttons were barely able to contain her massive breasts.
"Hello Ms. America, welcome home," she nodded to me.
"Sister, she's been here. She was only hiding," Natalia proclaimed.
"Hiding?" her voice suddenly became high, "why would you hide? I thought," she became nervous, "I thought you wanted us to be here?"
"I do, I just didn't realize it till all of you showed up."
Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, "why do you sound so mean when you say that?"
"Uh, hey, hey, no need for tears. I was joking."
"Amy," Grandma narrowed her eyes at me in disapproval, "Did you make Irunya cry?"
"No, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."
"Please Sister," Natalia placed a hand on her shoulder, "stop crying."
Then the front door swung open and four more nations walked in. They wore causal summer clothes and had food and wine bottles in their hands. I recognized Roderich and Akram, but I had never met the other two. One nation was a woman with long light brown hair and green eyes. While the other was an Asian guy with glasses and flopped to the side black hair.
"Klahan," the Asian woman with the green blouse walked up and gave a quick hug to the Asian guy with glasses.
"How many nations are coming over?" I asked.
"They should be the last," Korea proclaimed.
The group spots me in the crowd and came to introduce themselves. "Ms. America," Roderich nodded his head to me.
The woman with long hair beamed at me, "We didn't get the chance to meet," she grabbed my hand. "I'm Elizabeta Héderváry the nation of Hungary."
Arthur stood by Akram's side, "Amy, you remember Akram." He was dressed in the clothes that he wore in the picture that Arthur showed me. He must like that outfit, I thought to myself. Akram placed his palms together and bowed to me.
During our small chat, I quickly discovered that I had just met the Asian countries. The shaggy haired man was Li Chun the nation of Hong Kong, the one with long sleeves was Yong Soo Im the nation of South Korea, the woman with wavy hair was Mei Xiao the nation of Taiwan, the one in the green blouse was Kim Lan the nation of Vietnam and the one with the glasses was Klahan Hyusen the nation of Thailand.
Like I said, who the hell could keep up with all this?
"Oh guys, I found the video," Melissa cried out in a fit of giggles and began to connect Dad's laptop to the TV.
I tensed, "what video?"
She grinned mischievously at me, "You're see." She typed a key on the computer and the TV screen displayed a ten year old Johnny and a twelve year old Melissa. The nations gathered around the TV and fell silent.
"Is the camera on?" child Melissa asked.
"Yeah," Johnny exclaimed, "bring her out."
Melissa was wearing a purple dress that came to her knees and her hair was in a high ponytail. She reached inside a baby carrier and picked up a ten month old baby with fair skin and short golden curls.
"Aww, it's America as a baby," Yong Soo exclaimed happily.
"You were so cute." Melissa pitched my cheek, "what happened?"
"Ha, ha, very funny," I said as pulled my cheek away.
"Mom wants us to film her laughing," Johnny said in the video, "do something."
Melissa made a goofy face at me and bounced me on her knees. I displayed nothing more than a confused wided eye stare. After the fifth face she made, she turned to the camera, "she's not laughing."
"Here," Johnny adjusted the camera so it would face the both of them and sat next to his sister's side. "Let me see her."
She hands me over and Johnny placed me on his knees. He begins to hum a tune and move my arms to the beat. Then he sang, "I like big butts and I can not lie
"You other brothers can't deny
"That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
"And a round thing in your face
"You get sprung-"
Melissa then smacked him over the head. He hissed in pain and glared at her, "Ow! What was that for?"
"You are not singing that song to our baby sister," she proclaimed.
He mumbled, "It worked on F.R.I.E.N.D.S."
"That was a sitcom," she smacked him again and this time I giggled.
"See the song worked," Johnny grinned.
"No stupid, she likes it when I hit you."
The movie cuts to the next scene. The year in the corner of the film was 2005 and a teen-aged Johnny was fixing the camera to face me. I was four at the time, my hair was in a curled tangled mess and I was wearing a dress with sunflowers on it.
"Okay, Amy, you ready?" Johnny asked as he was giggling.
I nodded eagerly and he pressed a button on the radio, which was playing a Sir Mix Alot song: 'Baby Got Back.' I began to sing along with the music, thou, I was off key and I would usually mumble the lyrics. But then I would scream out, "Baby got back." Then I would shimmy my bottom and jump around like was I hyped up on sugar (most likely that was the case).
Johnny was trying to conceal his laughter throughout the entire clip.
Everyone in the living room however didn't. My faced heated as the nations kept rewinding the clip just to see me dance. Then Gilbert smirked at me, "you like big butts Ms. America."
"I-I-I," I stuttered till I got a better grip on my nerves, "I was four! I didn't know what I was doing!"
"Oh," Melissa pressed a few more keys, "she knew what she was doing."
The next video came from an iPhone camera and it was filming me in a dance room at the rec-center. This was before I started high school; my curly hair was in a low ponytail and I twerking to the same song that was in the last two videos. My butt was facing the camera so everyone got a clear view of my ass in black yoga pants. It only got worse, I was singing along with Sir Mix Alot; loudly.
"But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna
"Till the break of dawn
"Baby got it goin' on
"A lot of simps won't like this song
"'Cause them punks like to hit it and quit it
"And I'd rather stay and play
"'Cause I'm long, and I'm strong
"And I'm down to get the friction on
"So, ladies-"
I jumped around the face the camera and I froze like a deer caught in the headlights. Then the video cuts to Michel's grinning face, "This is so going on YouTube."
The clip continued with me chasing Michel down, screaming at him to delete the video. The nations were cracking up; several of them couldn't even breathe.
My nails dung into the skin of my palms, "he promised me he deleted that."
"Clearly he didn't," Lovino took a breath from his laughter.
"Michel," I shouted and walked towards the stairs.
"He's not here," Melissa called after me, "He went with Sanjay, Johnny and Jamie to our house to get tables and chairs for everyone."
"Of course he did," I mumbled and speed walked to my bed room. As I slammed the door, Raiden stirred and wailed. "Crap," I hissed and walked back into the hall. Melissa was running up the steps and I gestured her to stay. "I got this."
She smiled, "Thanks."
"Don't misread this. I'm gonna get you for this," I waved my hands over the crowd of nations.
She rolled her eyes, "Love you too, sis."
I gave a tiny smile and walked into the guest room. When I closed the door, the noise from downstairs instantly soften to hushed whispers. But not all was quiet. Raiden was doing his signature scream/cry and my ears were beginning to ring. I shook it off and picked him up, "hey buddy, I'm sorry I woke you," I soothed as I rocked him in my arms. I walked over to the balcony's glass door and began to hum a song; it took me a couple of tries for me to sing anything else but 'Baby Got Back'.
"Hmm, so you do like that song," a voice proclaimed as I jumped and held Raiden closer to my chest.
"Ah, shit! Natalia don't scare me like that." Raiden cried louder and I began to lightly bounce him in my arms. I turned to her, "someone needs to give you a bell."
The door opens and Blair, Blake and Lady walked in. "Is Raiden okay?" Blair asked.
He was still crying, "What do you think," I grumbled.
"Let me hold him," Blake sat on the bed and held up his arms.
I handed Raiden over and Blake positioned him so his head was on Blake's shoulder. He whispered a song in Hindi as he rubbed his back. Melissa then walked in with a bottle, "he must be hungry."
Blake hands his little brother over and Melissa adjusted him on his back and began to feed him. She turned to me, "Grandma said she'll handle the nations for now, but you have to go down there. They are your guests."
"Technically," I pointed to her children, "They're their guests."
"So I was right, you didn't want us here," Natalia said and we tensed in surprised, clearly we forgot that she was in the room.
"No, Amy's just being unreasonable," Melissa proclaimed and I stuck my tongue out at her.
Natalia sat next to Melissa on the bed, "are you ready?"
I lifted a brow at her, "for what?"
"Our bet," she said as she crossed her legs.
"What bet," Blair got between her and Melissa and grinned up at me.
"Oh, yeah, I lost to her at the Horseshoe, now I have to sing for her," I quickly explained.
"You beat her," Melissa beamed at Natalia and held her hand up for a high five, "you go girl."
Natalia cracked a brow in wonder, but she still lightly tapped her palm to Melissa's. Blake hopped off the bed and pulled out the keyboard from the closet. Mel hands over Raiden to Blair, "could you hold him?" Blair nodded, cuddled her brother in her arms and continued to feed him. Lady then took her chance to hop on the bed and lay herself beside Blair.
Melissa helped Blake with the keyboard as I got the black stand. I placed the stand near the balcony and Mel sat the keyboard so she would face our small audience. Blake ran out of the room and came back five minutes later with a chair. Melissa thanked her son with a kiss and Blair snickered, "Momma's boy."
Blake ignored her and sat on the corner of the bed. Natalia was now in the middle of the twins as I stood at the glass door of the balcony, "Any requests?" I asked.
"I doubt you would know any Belarusian songs," said Natalia.
Blair threw up her hand and began to wave it in the air, "Oh, oh, I know one, I know one!"
"Is it a song that can be played with just a piano?" I questioned.
She took a moment to think about it and then she pulled her hand back down, "No."
"I still remember that Avril Lavigne song," Melissa added.
I nodded, "I do too. Should we wait for Johnny then?"
"No, I got this," she smiled as she cracked her fingers and sat at the keyboard.
I leaned against the glass door and took a deep breath. That was the cue for Melissa to play the soft beginning of 'When You're Gone' by Avril Lavigne. I rolled my shoulders and tried to relax; singing was not my strongest trait.
"I always needed time on my own
"I never thought I'd need you there when I cry
"And the days feel like years when I'm alone
"And the bed where you lie
"Is made up on your side"
I sang in a soft tone, but still my voice was too rough for such a calming tune.
"When you walk away I count the steps that you take
"Do you see how much I need you right now?"
Melissa composed the music to make the piano the main source of the song. She added extra notes to make up for the missing guitar and I continued to sing the chorus.
"When you're gone
"The pieces of my heart are missing you
"When you're gone
"The face I came to know is missing too
"When you're gone
"All the words I need to hear to always get me through the day
"And make it okay
"I miss you"
I took a short pause as Mel moved her skilled fingers over the keys. My knees were beginning to buckle and I almost had a half a mind to face the glass door rather than Natalia's watchful eyes. I side glanced to Melissa and she smiled at me. My confidence rose and I placed all my focus on Mel and her kids. I imagined that it was just my family here in our home, that the nations were nowhere to be seen or heard from. That I could let go of my nerves and have fun with it. Even if I messed up, we would just laugh and keep going.
"I've never felt this way before
"Everything that I do reminds me of you
"And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
"And they smell just like you,
"I love the things that you do"
I caught Blair pulling away the empty bottle from Raiden and sitting him on her lap. Raiden's eyes found me as he watched me curiously. I smiled and allowed my voice to rise in volume for the chorus once again. Then I closed my eyes and sang the next section of lyrics with passion.
"We were made for each other
"Out here forever
"I know we were, yeah, yeah
"All I ever wanted was for you to know
"Everything I do, I give my heart and soul
"I can hardly breathe; I need to feel you here with me, yeah-"
"That's enough," Natalia's voice rose over the music, which surprised Melissa. Her fingers pressed on the keys in a deep shrieking halt and the sound made my eyes shot open. Natalia was already at the door, "thank you for the song."
I called out, "Nat-"
She walked out the door without even a backward glance.
"So," Michel walked to one end of a round table as I stood at the other side. "She asked you to sing for her, then once you were about to end the song, she told you to stop and walked out of the room."
We lifted the table and walked in the direction of the backyard as I said, "rude, right?"
He nodded as he walked backwards, "yeah, but I can see her point. You sang a song from Avril Lavigne, and don't get me wrong I love her. But that song is a little depressing."
"It was the only thing that came to mind and all we had was the keyboard. Sorry we couldn't call up The Fedoras and have the stage set up for a jam session." I exclaimed as we sat the table down.
"That would be so cool," he grabbed a table cloth from the back porch railing and covered the table with one flap. "I bet the nations would love that."
"I'm not singing in front of them. My knees were about to give out with just Natalia watching me. Imagine if it was all of them."
He shrugged his shoulders, "just imagine them in their underwear."
I shook my head, "no thanks, I'd rather not be scarred for life."
Sanjay and Johnny brought in the sixth and last table from the front. "You sure it will be enough for all of us?" Sanjay asked.
"Yeah, each table could hold up to eight to ten people," Johnny answered as he took another cloth from the rail and spread it over the table.
We arranged the tables in a wide oval in front of the back porch. All the table cloths were different colors and graphics. The two in the curve of the oval were blue and yellow. On the right, two tables were covered in graphic cloth with flowers and leaves on it. While on the left, the cloths had small bird and bear designs.
Jamie ran out of the house and stopped herself on the rail, "She's coming up the driveway."
We leaped over the back steps and rushed through the kitchen. Everyone was gathered in the living room, waiting for my mother to walk through the door. My family was standing in front of the large party of nations, facing the door.
Mom was wearing her pink scrubs and her hair was tied in a ponytail. The moment she opened the door we shouted together. "Welcome home."
She yelped as she jumped and dropped her keys. "What's going on?"
Dad came to her side and picked up her keys, "The nations decided to pay us a visit." He hangs up her keys and gestured her to the nations. "Everyone this is Jessica, the love of my life," he grinned.
"John," Mom turned her head away as a blush formed over her cheeks.
"Aw, your mom and dad are so cute," Jamie whispered to me.
I grinned, "Come on," I grabbed her hand, "dinner's ready."
Serving plates were split up and spread out evenly. Pitchers of water, tea, lemonade and liquor were in the center of each table. Bowls and pans were placed around the pitchers, but each had various choices of food. Some tables might have a certain dish, while others may not. Most likely we'll end up passing them around so everyone could have chance to try the paella, the Swedish meatballs, the creamy au gratin potatoes and all other cuisines that the nations were so kindly enough to cook for us.
Everyone took their seats. On the right, closest to the back porch; Dad and Mom sat themselves with Ludwig, Feliciano, Gilbert, Roderich, Elizabeta, Antonio and Lovino. Next to them, Jamie and the twins were seated with Akram, Klahan, Heracles, Sadik and Gupta. The rest of the Asian countries sat with Sanjay and Melissa at the table with the yellow cloth while Grandma, Johnny and Celine sat with the Nordics at the table with the cloth of the small graphic bears.
Michel then took notice of Natalia, Irunya, Feliks, Peter and the Baltics sitting at the table on the far left. He rubbed his hands together, "time to gather intel on Toris."
I groaned, "Please don't tell him about the whole team thing."
"I won't. Besides, Jamie and I agreed not to get involved with you and your potential nation boyfriends." Michel winked at me and sat himself between Eduard and Toris. "Hey guys just so you know, now that I'm here," he slapped his hands on the table, "this is now officially the cool table."
"Pfft, please," Celine rolled her eyes. "This is the cool table. We're with the original Vikings."
"Technically only three of us were Vikings," Erik commented.
"Really," her eyes sparked with interest, "which ones?"
"Guess," Tino smiled.
She smirked, "you were one of them."
He shook his head, "nope."
"Well I know one was Norway," Grandma added, "mostly because I learned it from that show on the History Channel."
"Oh the one called Vikings," Mikkel asked and Grandma nodded, "ah I loved that show."
"I'm putting my money on the big guy," Johnny pointed at Berwald.
"And you would be correct," said Berwald.
"Okay which is left," Celine asked and she was met with the answers of Denmark and Iceland.
All three of my family members took a moment to think it over. Then they all guessed at the same time, "Iceland."
"What?!" Mikkel exclaimed, "Norway founded that little brat!"
"So he wasn't a Viking?" Johnny asked.
"Of course he wasn't! Plenty of my people were Vikings and damn powerful ones at that."
"Ha!" Lukas smirked, "Your people didn't even come close to mine."
"Don't start with me Lukas. I can still kick your ass any day of the week," Mikkel sneered as he poured himself another glass of vodka.
"If it makes you feel any better, you all are number one in my book." Johnny then poured himself cup of Koskenkorva, "To the Vikings!"
Everyone from the table cheered as they clicked their vodka glasses together and dunk it in one gulp. That pretty much started the conversation for the rest of the tables.
Mom took a bite from the paella, "Mmm, Antonio this amazing. You have to give me the recipe."
"Of course," he smiled, "anything for the mother of America."
"Stop calling me that," she narrowed her eyes at him, "it's silly."
"But it is true," Elizabeta said, "You raised Amy."
"Yes, you raised her to be a little bitch," Gilbert murmured.
"Brother, be polite," Ludwig said through gritted teeth.
Mom held a hand up to him and turned to Gilbert, "John told me of your little ordeal with my daughter, and I must say you are delusional if you think Amy will find you attractive. You are an arrogant man with a disturbing case of narcissistic personality disorder. To put it frankly my daughter was raised to have better taste."
Roderich smirked, "well said."
"Thank you."
"Hey, whose side are you on?" Gilbert exclaimed.
"Not yours," he proclaimed.
Everyone else shared a grin as they passed around the pasta.
Blair began to bombardment the nations with questions. "Are you the real Heracles? Or were you named after him?"
"Um-" Heracles was about to answer but Blair had a short attention span.
"Did you know any of Pharaohs? Did you live with them? Did you know King Tut? Queen Cleopatra?"
"Well-" Gupta was also cut off.
"Why are you named Turkey? Is your national bird the turkey? Do you also have Thanksgiving?"
Sadik knitted his brows at her, "What, no-"
She then turned her attention on Akram, "What's India like? Do you ride elephants where ever you go? Do you like Bollywood movies? I like Bollywood movies. Do you cross dress? Cause a lot of actors in Bollywood movies cross dress. If you do cross dress, are you a pretty as lady?"
Akram gave her an uncertain look and Blake pulled on Blair's arm. "You're being rude."
"They're valid questions," Blair exclaimed and I froze, she was becoming a mini Michel. There are two of them now. My worst fear has been realized.
Blair went back to her questions, "What it's like to be nations? How do you become a nation? How old are you? When did you meet each other? Are you all friends? Did you all ever had to fight each other?-"
I blocked out the rest of her questions and moved on. Sanjay and Melissa were chatting among the Asian countries. Raiden was with them and the nations were taking turns with the small bundle of joy.
"Aw, he's so tiny," Yong Soo grinned as he grasped Raiden's hand.
Mei was holding him, "he looks so much like you," she said to Sanjay.
He smiled, "thank you."
"If we had known you just had a baby we would have brought a gift," Kiku added and bowed. "I am sorry for our insensitive behavior."
"It's alright Mr. Japan, besides you made us sushi." She took a bite, "Mm, it's been almost year since I had any."
"Believe me," Sanjay added, "you gave her the best gift anyone could have given her."
"Let me see the little one," Yao asked and Mei handed him over. "Hello there," Yao's voice became soft and soothing. "You're so cute, I have a half mind to dress you up as panda."
Melissa clapped her hands together, "Yes, we can dress him up like that for Halloween. He'll look adorable."
"Will you send us pictures?" Yong Soo asked.
"Sure," she said as Yao continued to make cooing sounds so that Raiden would smile.
I scanned the area for an empty seat but most of the tables were occupied with the maximum number of guests. It was as if karma was backhanding me in the face when I found that a seat was open with Arthur, Francis and Matthew. I haven't really spent much time alone with them since the Emerald. I took a deep breath and walked to the table with the blue table cloth. "Hey guys," I greeted and sat myself in front of them.
All three of them raised their brows at me in surprise but they remained quiet. We would then exchange the minimum use of words as we passed dishes around to each other and to the other tables. I glanced to my food and then to the countries; Arthur was on my right as he ate a fried empanada with a fork and knife. Francis sat on the left nibbling on a pork dumpling and Matthew was between them picking at his salad. The silence was digging into my nerves to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I slammed my fists on the table, "okay seriously, the silent treatment, I thought you guys were above this."
"Are we ma chérie," Francis asked with a condescending smile.
I closed my eyes and connected my head to the table. "Don't you idiots get it," I mumbled, "I'm," I sighed. "I'm letting you in."
Arthur asked, "In where?"
I rose off the table and groaned. "Really, you're gonna play stupid. Okay then, let me just say this. You are a smothering, worry wart and you love to be right especially when you're wrong." I turned to Matthew, "you are a door mat for these two. And sometimes I just wonder, why would you even deal with their crap." Then I faced Francis, "And you flip like a coin. You're either the flamboyant weirdo or the depressing storyteller."
Then I focused on all three of them, "no I take that back. You all flip like coins; one minute you're happy and like to be around my family. The next you tell me to drop them and go off with you and be a nation." I shook my head, "why am I even bothering with you? Why am I even trying to-" I took a breath, "to understand you." I covered my face with my hands, "Listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I said you weren't acting like my family and I guess that was somewhat intentional-"
"You guess," Matthew interrupted.
"Somewhat," Arthur added.
"Okay, are you done," I hissed.
"Non, I believe it is our turn to say what we want," Francis began to count off his fingers. "You are stubborn as an ass. You refuse to move even an inch for anyone."
"You have no self-control," Matthew continued, "you lose your temper and attack anyone that's in your way."
Arthur followed, "I never thought I would say this, but you are too sarcastic even for me. Sometimes I have half a mind to struggle you."
I snorted, "You and me both."
We were silent for another minute or two till I said, "You three always seem to find the right buttons to push."
"So do you," Arthur dung into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out an envelope. "But like your sister says you can't hide your affection for us."
I skimmed through the photos of me, Arthur, Matthew and Francis at Johnny's wedding. The four of us dancing and posing together with genuine smiles and laughs made my lips curl into a grin. "And you guys can't hide your affection for me." They remained quiet as I flipped to the last photo of all four us grinning at the camera. "You know, before Ivan decided to screw with us. I was beginning to like you guys."
I glanced to Arthur, "We really get on each other's nerves, but I can't help but mess with you. It's too much fun," he cracked a smile and I continued. "Mattie, you're the sweetest, most understanding guy I ever met. You're like a puppy, no matter what we do wrong, you'll just wag your tail and everything will be okay. I like that about you.
"Francis," I paused, "you and I get along pretty well, especially when we mess with this guy." I gestured to Arthur and he glared. "Oh don't give me that look; you know you like it." He shook his head and I continued with Francis, "You're also wise, kind and you have a way with kids. Lali adores you and that's big in my book." I focused on all three. "Now that I think about it, the kids loved all three of you. Mattie has the baby polar bear, which won some points. And," I turned to Arthur, "they like to tickle you and make you dance."
Arthur sighed, "Do you all enjoy this; toying with me like I'm your own personal entertainment."
Francis held up his thumb and index finger an inch apart from each other. "A little bit."
I giggled, "You guys also make me laugh."
"I like it when you do," said Arthur, "You have his smile; just yet another quality you have of his."
"You're also brave and loyal to anyone that deserves it," Francis added.
Matthew set his eyes on me, "Let's just hope one day we'll be one of those people."
"Don't you see," I beamed, "you guys already are."
The End. . . . . .
For now. . . . . .