"And I thought I was a heavy sleeper." Maddy muttered, planting her hands on her hips and wondering silently how he could still be asleep. She watched the italian enviously, her thoughts spinning. How is he asleep? Due to developing insomnia at a young age, she was used to being the last person in the family to wake up. That wasn't the case today. Her children seemed to have inherited their father's love of sleep, so now she was standing in a silent living room, wondering what she was supposed to do with herself. Shuffling footsteps came up behind her and arms wrapped around her middle. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at her son, who was still half asleep. "Morning bugaboo."

Severus' nose scrunched up in false irritation. "Mom, you said you'd stop calling me that."

She smiled again. "I did, didn't I?" He nodded, before using her shoulder blade to scratch an itch on his chin. "Should I wake your father up?" It was going to happen sooner or later, considering she'd caused an avalanche of pillows to cover him trying to get off the couch. "Nevermind, I'll let him sleep. Are you hungry?" At her son's nod, she moved toward the kitchen. Suddenly, she stopped. "You don't want pasta, do you?"

His face scrunched up again, but this time it was due to a mixture of confusion and disgust. "Who eats pasta for breakfast?"

The blonde chuckled. "Your uncle." Severus detached himself from his mother and went to wake his sister. Maddy went back into the living room, watching Lovino again The kids were now banging around in the kitchen. She considered waking him up again but they'd stayed up pretty late talking the night before and he probably wasn't an insomniac like her. Waking him up now would just be cruel. She turned and went into the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee before Severus could get to it and drink it all. The sleeping habits of his parents had been passed down to him in full force, causing him to turn into a zombie every morning. Maddy chuckled and ruffled her son's hair as he passed her to get to the coffee pot. As soon as the correct ingredients were gathered, she started on pancakes, shooing the kids out of the kitchen. She appreciated that they wanted to help, but she didn't need it. Well, she actually just didn't want help because she was stubborn, but she wasn't going to tell her children that. Lovino woke up just in time to sit down at the table and have a plate of pancakes put in front of him. He poked at the stack until a mug of coffee was placed in his hand and he sipped at it, a little put off by the bitter taste. While it wasn't his favorite beverage, drinking it every morning had become a habit ever since his son had started drinking it. The room was soon filled with sounds of silverware clinking against dishes and Lovino raised an eyebrow at Maddy as she sat down. "You're not eating?"

She shook her head. "I'm not a breakfast person."

Severus looked up, his bright green eyes locking onto his mother. "Ma, that's not healthy."

The blonde sighed, pain shooting through her. "Yes, I know it's not."

"You should eat."

Maddy flinched as her son said this. She knew he was trying to help her and that she really should eat, but that didn't change the fact that this entire conversation reminded her of Brittany. Her mind kept replacing Severus with her sister and she forced herself out of her train of thought before she could break down.

"I'm just saying, mom. Not eating breakfast is really unhealthy. Your stomach builds up all this stomach acid to break down food and then you don't eat, so it's just sitting there. You're basically giving yourself ulcers."

Lovino watched as she froze, staring at Severus with a mixture of sadness and guilt. She got up and left the room, wiping furiously at her eyes. Severus seemed to realize he'd upset his mother and he got up, following her out of the room. "Mom."

She ignored him and went out onto the porch, sitting down and holding her head in her hands. He sat down next to her. "Mom."

She waved him off. "I'm fine."

His shoulders drooped. "No, momma, you're not."

She sent him an amazed look and it took him a minute to figure out why. He hadn't called her that since he was a kid. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

She shook her, a small but sad smile gracing her features. "It's fine. You just.. You sounded a lot like your aunt. She was always trying to get me to eat healthier too." She pulled him into a hug and held him there for a few minutes before pulling away just enough to boop his nose with her own. "Boop."

Severus chuckled and got up, trailing his mother as they went back inside. He sat down to finish his pancakes, watching as she folded one up into a taco shape and ate it. He smiled triumphantly and ate the rest of his food. "I have some homework to work on." He put his plate on the counter, ruffled Bell's hair and kissed his mother's cheek before going upstairs. Abelia sent a message on her phone before jumping and claiming that she also had homework she needed to work on. She put her plate on the counter, hugged her father then ran upstairs. The two adults sent each other looks that said 'what the hell just happened?'

"Nothing from Sev." Maddy mumbled. "Not for you."

Lovino rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He'd been hoping she wouldn't notice that he and his son weren't very close. "We're working it out."

Maddy simply hummed in response, not at all convinced that they were, in fact, 'working it out.' She could leave it alone though. For now. She looked at her nails as she focused on another topic. "You think they planned that?"

Lovino sent her a confused look. "Planned…?"

"The kids. You think they planned to leave us alone like this? They've been especially persistent about getting us alone together this weekend." The lyrics to Fallout Boy's Alone Together floated through her mind as she said the words, but she forced herself to pay attention to the man sitting across from her.

The italian blushed as the implication of her words finally hit him. "You know they've always wanted us to-"

"To get together." Maddy interrupted, her eyes glued to the suddenly extremely interesting table. Her expression was blank, but Lovino knew her well enough to know that she was just masking her discomfort with that bland look. They'd talked about this before, things just didn't seem to change. "Yes, they have. Bell in particular. I don't think we should encourage that idea."

"Absolutely not." Lovino agreed. A relationship between them just wouldn't work. Sure, they were a lot alike and they worried about each other, but that was what friends did, right? Besides, it was because they were so alike that anything other than friendship wouldn't function correctly. They'd probably fight about the stupidest things. There just wasn't enough good to outweigh the bad.

"We should go do something." Maddy said suddenly, pulling the italian out of his train of thought. He sent her a questioning look. "Do what?" She frowned at him and shrugged. "I don't know, just something." Lovino shook his head. "Very specific, Ragazza." She rolled her eyes at him, before getting up. "Whatever. I'm going to get dressed."

A few minutes later, Abelia walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge. She paused and looked around. "Where's mom?"

"Getting dressed." Lovino replied, finishing off his coffee. He was wide awake now, but he didn't like letting drinks sit unattended.

"Are you guys going out?"

He nodded, partially paying attention to his daughter. He only brought his full attention to her after she squealed. "What?"

She smiled, her eyes lighting up. "What are you going to do?"

How she interpreted his response finally hit him and he sat upright, his gaze boring into hers. "It's not like that."

Bell smirked at her father. "Like what, dad?" She knew exactly what he meant, but she was her father's daughter. Making people uncomfortable came naturally to her. Lovino, meanwhile, was sputtering and trying to come up with the right words to tell his daughter that this wasn't a date.

"Are you giving your father a hard time?"

Bell smiled innocently at her mother. "Not at all, mom."

"Yeah right." The blonde muttered, sitting at the table again. She smirked at the italian across from her. "Your face is bright red, Lovi."

The nickname only made him turn redder and he huffed. "She gets it from you!"

"Right, and you had nothing whatsoever to do with it." She chuckled. "As much as I hate to admit it, my sass is nothing compared to yours. Whatever Bell has, it's from you."

Abelia smiled before hugging her tomato red father and scurrying back up the stairs. "Sev! Guess what!" She flung her brother's bedroom door open and watched as he jumped, dropping the book he'd been reading. He sent her a vexed look. "Can't you knock?"

She scowled and planted her hands on her hips. "Mom and Dad are going on a date."

Her brother simply picked up and returned his attention to his book. "I doubt it's a date. You may wish they were romantically attracted to one another, but they're just friends."

Abelia growled in the back of her throat and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, it's still a date."

"No, I'm pretty sure it isn't."

She huffed, turned and stormed out of the room. "It is so a date." She realized she sounded like a child, but she didn't care. She flopped onto her bed, clenching her blanket in her fists. Sev was so boring! Why couldn't he let her have this one delusional fantasy? She knew her parents weren't ever going to see each other as anything other than friends. Of course she knew that, she wasn't stupid! But it wasn't fair. Everything else in her life was messed up and out of control ,why couldn't this one thing be normal? Why couldn't she be normal? All her friends had normal people for parents, people who were married and lived happily ever after. Why did her life have to be so complicated? She hadn't even been able to make a normal looking family tree in grade school for god's sake! Abelia scowled and burrowed deeper into her bed, covering herself with her blankets and pillows.

All that talent and charm wasted on that brat! Her thoughts turned towards Brittany and Chris. She despised Brittany, who was always strutting around like she owned the world. Like she was better than everyone else and she deserved to be the ruler. Chris just followed her around like a kicked puppy. He told her what she wanted to hear and immediately agreed with her on everything, even if she was so blatantly wrong that everyone could see she'd messed up. She thought she was perfect and such a damn princess! She was so charming and had so many people, both male and female, lining up to date her and she'd just toss them aside when she was bored with them, but still they went to her. She always looked down her nose on her half siblings, as if they were less than her, even though Sev had been born first. The brunette girl curled into a ball under her comforter and soon fell asleep, her thoughts still racing.

"Ragazza, you're going to fall down the stairs."

Maddy rolled her eyes and continued down the stone steps, but Lovino could just barely hear her mutter, "Absolutely no faith in me."

Lovino followed her down the stairs, rolling his eyes back at her, even though she couldn't see. "How many times have you sprained your ankle falling down stairs?"

"Shut up! As if you've never sprained your ankle!"

"Not falling down the stairs."

She turned and stuck tongue out at him, her expression telling him that he needed to shut up if he knew what was good for him. He knew her better though and knew that no matter how much he annoyed her, she wouldn't do anything to him. He ruffled her hair as he passed her and she smacked his wrist, storming after him. "Lovino! Where are we even going?"

"You're the one who said we should go do something."

"You live here! How am I supposed to know what there is to do?"

"Maybe you should actually come up with a plan before waltzing off somewhere then."

"I didn't 'just waltz' out here!" She rolled her eyes and muttered to herself, "I don't even know how to waltz." Her gaze drifted up, taking in the architecture and suddenly, her eyes widened and she gasped. "The coliseum! It's so pretty!"

Lovino rolled his eyes. "That place is overrated."

"You see it everyday! Of course you think it's overrated!"

"You mean, like how you think pumpkin spice is overrated?"

She growled at him, but allowed him to lead her toward some of the other tourist destinations. He watched as her eyes widened until it looked like they were going to pop out of her head. He let her go ahead of him, smiling slightly. She was spinning around, a child like sense of wonder and amazement shining in her eyes. "Wow.." She almost looked like she'd forgotten how to breath or at least, it didn't seem like it was a priority. Her foot caught her leg and she stumbled. He shook his head and reached out, grabbing her shoulder. "Careful." She blushed and stood up, carefully avoiding his gaze. She looked around again, that joyful glint coming back. "Postcards really don't do this place justice."

"Of course not." He scoffed, crossing his arms. "It's- where are you going!?"

She had started walking toward a crowd on the other side of the street. He sighed and followed her, grumbling about being ignored. They made it to the group and saw that two men were handing out flyers for some sort of reenactment. "We should see it!" She said, her eyes shining. Lovino considered saying no, but he realized he hadn't seen her this happy in… years. He sighed again. "Fine." They made their way towards the building, it was kind of like a miniature version of the coliseum and sat in their seats. Two men came up to them a few minutes later and struck up a conversation, smiling all the while. Lovino scowled. They'd been enjoying the silence and he knew what these two bozos were trying to do. Maddy looked like she had no idea how to handle the situation. She knew they were trying to flirt with her and usually, she could come up with some sort of scathing remark to get them to leave her alone, but her mind went blank. Lovino wrapped an arm around her shoulders and sent the men a death glare. "We were just discussing what to do after this, right, darling?"

"Darling?" Maddy turned to him and sent him a look that was both questioning and pissed. She turned back just in time to see the men walk away, muttering angrily. As soon as they were out of her sight, she threw Lovino's arm off. "What the hell was that? I could have handled them!"

Lovino simply pulled out his phone. Hey, Williams. I just stopped some guys from hitting on your ex. You're welcome.

It didn't take long for the canadian to respond. What?

"Lovino Vargas! Don't ignore me!" Maddy seethed. She was partially glad he'd intervened into the situation, but the other part of her was pissed. She'd had the problem handled! She didn't need his help to drive away annoying pests! As the reenactment started, she turned away from him and tried to focus her attention towards the actors. She'd chew him out later.

Alright, this has come up quite a few times in the story now. Severus has continuously been referred to as a "mama's boy" and that's because he is, but I realized I haven't really touched on the relationships the other kids have with their family members. I'd spend a few chapters talking about it, but I kinda want to get the plot moving along, so we'll do this instead:

Severus- total mama's boy, very protective of Selene and Abelia, mostly just tolerates Brittany and Chris, not the best relationship with his father, good relationship with his uncle Feli, has his parents sass it's just not as obvious (he's better at controlling it)

Brittany- while she loves and respects her parents she's closest to her uncle Alfred, extremely protective of her baby brother, would do just about anything for her twin, tolerates the existence of her half siblings

Selene- (she's basically her mother reincarnated) loves her parents but she's not super close to them like her half siblings, would do just about anything for her twin, loves her younger brother but has trouble expressing it, loves her older brother to death, pretty close to her younger sister

Abelia- total daddy's girl (that was obvious though) Lovino loves his baby girl and will spoil her if it's an appropriate situation (he'd probably let her take over the world if she wanted to), loves her mom but isn't going to act like a koala like Sev, adores her older brother but thinks he's a spoilsport, despises Brittany, thinks Chris is just a kicked puppy, tolerates Selene's attempts at affection, boyfriend- emilio

Chris- loves his parents but spends most of his time with his grandfather, not super close to his uncle, follows Brittany around like a lost puppy, not close to either of his half siblings, working on a relationship with Selene