The sound of the guitar riff from "Carry on Wayward Son" at a ridiculous volume jerked Arthur awake in the morning. For a moment he forgot that there was even another person in the bed with him, much less that the person was Lydia.
"Sorry," Lydia said, a groggy tone to her voice. "Guess I should've made sure I had the volume turned down a little bit."
Arthur grunted in reply, turning on his side to face Lydia as she got out of bed. She walked out of the room silently and a second later light from other bedrooms filtered into the hallway. Arthur listened as she tried to coax her children awake and looked out the window, realizing it was still dark outside.
Lydia made her way downstairs after making the twins get up, hoping there was coffee in the house somewhere. After looking in a couple cabinets, she found the coffee and started making it. While she stood at the coffee maker she listened for any sounds of little Arthur and April getting up, but she wasn't expecting the significantly heavier footsteps that were coming down the stairs. After starting the coffee maker, she turned to see Arthur walking into the kitchen looking very unhappy to be awake so early.
"I really am sorry for waking you up," she said when Arthur walked over to her.
"'S okay," Arthur mumbled, leaning against the counter. He pulled Lydia close to him and she fell into the hug easily, relaxing against him and closing her eyes.
"Ewww, moo-o-oom," little Arthur's voice came from the other side of the kitchen and Lydia opened her eyes while she tried not to laugh at the look of disgust on the younger twin's face.
"What?" April asked from behind her brother, stopping beside him and rubbing her eyes. Lydia pried herself off of Arthur before April could react similarly – they would want to eat some breakfast, after all. "Arthur, that's not gross. Kissing is gross. But not hugs."
"Oh, whatever," little Arthur said, sitting at the small kitchen table. "Still gross."
"Arthur," Lydia chided, turning away from the open fridge to give her son a hard look. "Please, not this early."
April stuck her tongue out at Arthur when their mom's back was turned.
"You, too, April," Lydia said, not even looking away from the contents of the fridge. "You guys just want some cereal or something?"
"Hold up," Arthur said from his spot next to the coffee maker. He opened a nearby cabinet and pulled out a box of Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles. "Here." He walked to the table and set the cereal boxes down in front of the kids, and they immediately went to the one that was set down right in front of them.
"Should've figured something like that would be around here somewhere," Lydia said in a teasing tone as she walked past Arthur. He only shrugged, too tired to debate on why a grown man would still enjoy the sugary cereals. "Where are the coffee mugs?"
"Here," Arthur said, reaching over Lydia to a cabinet and brushing against her back. She gave him a warning look, wanting to keep the physical contact to a minimum around the twins at least for a little while. If they were to move into the Curry residence, she wanted them to be eased into the fact that they would be having both parents around, and in a romantic relationship. Looking around Arthur, April was giving them a huge grin, while little Arthur looked rather uncomfortable.
"Cut it out," she said under her breath to Arthur, her back still to the kids while she poured herself some coffee. "Please. Just for now."
"Fine," Arthur said after taking the coffee pot from her, leaning against the counter again.
While the kids were eating breakfast, Lydia stayed beside Arthur and watched her children. She wasn't sure how they would do with these sudden changes in the long run; on one hand, they were both mature enough to understand the situation, and why Lydia would choose to move them to the lighthouse, but on the other hand she knew they would start asking questions about why they'd never met their father before, or even worse if he wasn't around from the beginning because he didn't want to be. It seemed that her original plan to ease into introducing them to Arthur and his father flew out the window when she first saw the two in the bar the previous day.
"After I get back from taking them to school you and me need to sit down and talk," Lydia said to Arthur after thinking about the situation at hand. "I need to know exactly what you're expecting out of all of this, and I feel like I need to tell you what I'm expecting about all of this, too."
"Oh no, it isn't gonna be the break up talk, is it?" Arthur said, elbowing Lydia and smirking.
"I'm serious for once," Lydia said, looking up at him. "I need to know that we're on the same page with everything before getting them into a situation I couldn't easily get out of."
"You're saying you don't think I'd stick around?"
Lydia knew she was going to aggravate Arthur by bringing up something that serious, but she also wanted to make sure her kids weren't gonna get hurt any time soon.
"Don't even try to get mad at me about this," she argued. "Especially right now."
After breakfast, Lydia made April and little Arthur get dressed in their own rooms while she went to get her own change of clothes. They would probably take forever getting ready and argue over the room in front of the bathroom mirror while brushing their teeth, but that was why she made them get up so early. Once she was upstairs, it wasn't long until Arthur also went back into the bedroom. He still didn't look very happy about their conversation in the kitchen.
"You seriously shouldn't be taking what I said in the kitchen so personally," Lydia pointed out after she was fully dressed. "I mean, this is literally the fourth day I've been back here. All this change is a lot to take in, and I know it's worse for the twins than it is for me. I at least know a little bit about this place, but they've never even been in the state of Maine until now."
"Are you sure all you're worried about is how they deal with the change?" Arthur asked in an accusing tone. "Cause that's not how it sounded."
Lydia gave him a deadpan look before walking over to where he was sitting on the bed, standing in front of him so he couldn't move out of the way.
"Listen, you know if I agreed to let my children–"
"Your children?"
"Hush. If I agreed for the three of us to stay here last night, then I'm obviously not gonna fight with you about whether or not you and your dad are gonna be part of their lives. And if what we did last night wasn't any indication, I plan on sticking around with you for a while. Most likely as more than friends. But that part is honestly up to you at this point. That's why I wanted to be able to sit down and talk while the kids aren't here."
Arthur looked up to Lydia as she stood there, and without really thinking he wrapped his arms around her waist before kissing her.
"Fine," he said. "We'll talk when you get back. I guess it couldn't hurt to know what exactly'll be going on from here on out."
"Thank you," Lydia said with a smile before kissing him again. "So, you first official dad duty is to make sure those two actually brush their teeth instead of arguing about who's in the way more."
Arthur leaned his head into her in defeat, giving her a pleading look after standing up before smiling.
"This ought to be fun."
As Arthur walked towards the bathroom, he could already hear the twins arguing.
"What are you arguing about?" he asked them casually, leaning against the door frame.
"She's in my way!" little Arthur whined, elbowing April away from the bathroom sink.
"Stop pushing me!" April almost shouted, glaring at her brother.
Arthur raised an eyebrow at the twins, not sure how to handle the situation. Looking back towards the bedroom, he noticed Lydia watching him from the doorway with a smirk.
"Switch places," he offered to the kids. "Or take turns. I dunno."
"He came in here after me!" April complained.
Lydia decided it was time to intervene and came up to Arthur, blocking the bathroom doorway as she looked in at the twins.
"Alright," she said in an authoritative voice. "You two need to cut it out, or no tv or video games for a week."
"Mom!" little Arthur argued. "Not fair!"
"I'm serious."
"But I was here first!" April defended herself.
"Okay, then finish up. Arthur, stop pushing your sister and April, don't yell at your brother again. You two have to sit next to each other on the way to school and I'm not gonna listen to you arguing the whole way there."
Lydia started walking away from the bathroom as the twins started complaining, shaking her head. School mornings were always a battle with them.
"Ya know, if you listen to your mom, I might convince her to let me take you swimming after you get out of school," she heard Arthur say to them, when he probably thought she was out of ear shot. "She told me you both like to swim."
She couldn't hear what either kid said, but by the tone of their voices they sounded pretty happy about an opportunity to swim later.
After taking the twins to school, Lydia stopped by their apartment to grab swimming gear for them before going back to the lighthouse. She'd noticed Tom going to the end of the dock as they were leaving for the school, when the sun was coming up and made a mental note to ask Arthur about it. When she got back, Arthur was on the front porch waiting for her.
"I figured you might try to go back to sleep after getting woken up at 5am," Lydia said to him, stopping so she was right in front of him.
"Nah," Arthur said with a wave of his hand. "I been thinking. About what you said earlier."
"Oh?"
Lydia walked around him and into the house to put her things up in Arthur's bedroom for the time being. When she got back downstairs, Arthur was sitting on the couch, waiting for her.
"So, what have you been thinking about?" she asked him after sitting next to him.
"Well, I think I'm just gonna let you run things. Of course I want to be here for the twins for good. I know you're not questioning that part. Whatever you say, goes."
"Sounds pretty good to me," Lydia said with a shrug. "My only request is that the three of us don't just barge in here and move in yet. I'd like for them to get the hang of things first. Get used to their school and stuff. Then we can think about moving."
Arthur nodded in agreement, then got a more serious look on his face.
"So, I've got some stuff I gotta do," he said when he noticed Lydia's concerned look. "And I'm gonna be gone for a while. Few weeks at most. It's this deal of saving people."
"When are you leaving?"
"Probably tomorrow. I did promise the twins I'd take them swimming after school and I'm keeping my word on that."
I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely chapter dump! Also, I realized I made a small mistake in my update when I posted chapter 5 - I do not have ten complete chapters to post sadly, I am still working on chapter 10. But I'm hoping to get it finished pretty soon! Thanks!