This was going to be a disaster, Jericah already knew that. Last year had been a disaster, and thank Merlin, the Nightrays had not been invited this year. It was honestly too early to tell actually. The Hogwarts kids had just gotten home yesterday, and they had been in for a surprise when they saw Rica already showing - she was already almost six months along. Another school that ended its year quite recently was Durmstrang, which is the only reason this dinner had been postponed for as long as it had. Rica had finally admitted to who the father was of the child she was carrying, mainly by writing to her Dad - she was hoping he'd be the more levelheaded one really. She had no idea what Dad did, but now, she was seated for dinner, while some of her siblings helped Dad with the food. Apparently, Crispin would be arriving tonight - she had no idea what to tell him, she hadn't really replied - nor bothered to open - his letters after he'd replied with that stupid question. The owls would have returned the unopened letters to him. Maybe this was just all a fever dream, and he really won't be showing up.
The last few months have just been pure chaos, between finally adjusting to his job, having twins, and finding out his daughter was pregnant, Conan was quite out of sorts. They didn't even find out about Rica's pregnancy because she told them - no, it was because Taylor noticed it during graduation day. His pumpkin had been intending to go through her pregnancy, with just her twin knowing about it. Didn't even plan on telling them - her parents! He had honestly been upset about that - he thought he and Taylor had done well with making sure that their kids knew they could come to them about anything. It had been a relief when Rica had finally admitted who the dad was, some kid named Crispin whose father owned Quality Quidditch Supplies. It didn't take long to figure out that the kid was James' nephew of all people. That had been a headache to know. He'd written the kid a strongly worded letter that they had to discuss things pertaining to Conan's daughter and that his presence to talk would be strongly appreciated. And since they couldn't talk in a public place, Edogawa Manor would be open to him and his parents. He'd also made sure to ask James to ensure that his "sort-of" nephew didn't ignore the letter. Now as he finished cooking most of the food to be brought out, he could only hope the boy would come, or he'd have to resort to storming Quality Quidditch Supplies. Conan was not a storming kind of guy - he'd have to ask his sister, or his brother-in-law.
Months ago, when Corey had been called by his Touchan to help his Kaachan get to the hospital, he'd only been expecting to find Lewis. He was not expecting to find Kakeru and a pregnant Jericah in the house. Corey hadn't even been able to think about it that day since his Kaachan was about to give birth to twins. He'd visited quite a few times since then, though, mostly to help with the twins and to figure out what had happened to Rica. He talked to the twins - Merlin he probably should call them differently now that there was a new set of twins in the house, but Ru and Rica have always been "the twins" so he supposed the younger ones could be "the boys". It was a struggle to get Ru to talk about Mahoutokuro since Rica's pregnancy obviously weighed on him - keeping secrets was not one of Ru's strong points and the twins have always had a certain dynamic. If talking to Ru was a struggle, getting to Rica to talk was a war effort. Rica was scarily good at keeping secrets that Corey had thought she would end up an unspeakable. She had been so tight-lipped until he finally convinced her to tell their parents who the father was - if only so they could make sure that all the paperwork would be set straight and the father would not be able to take away his niece or nephew if he suddenly decided to. Which was why they were here now. Corey would pity the guy really since he'd be coming to dinner with twelve people but he wasn't exactly feeling generous with whoever this guy was right now. Still, he made sure to sit beside Rica so she would know that he was here to support her however this talk goes tonight.
Sayuri could not explain the anger that built up within her when she found out about Jericah's situation. Jericah had been the sibling she looked up to; she was supposed to be the smart one. But apparently, that brain of hers only goes so far. And now they were supposed to have dinner? Like a normal night? With a random stranger who got Jericah knocked up? Nope. Sayuri was not going to be dealing with this. And so, after dinner had been set on the table, she'd excused herself and told her parents that she would be staying in her room. Her parents shared a look - one of the annoying ones they do like they could read each other's thoughts when she knew they couldn't - and agreed before telling her to grab food for herself to bring up.
Honestly? Crispin had absolutely no idea what to expect. He hadn't spoken to Shiori since December. He'd all but confirmed that the letter earlier in the year was from someone who wasn't her, since she hadn't replied. So one of his mates had obviously done it, not that any of them had bothered to own up to it. Still, he supposed it could have gone a lot worse, as these things do - not that he understood exactly why he was even in this situation in the first place. He'd received a rather strongly worded letter telling him to come to the Edogawa house, which... looking at it was a little more than a house. His Dad had money, but he didn't live in a place this big. Merlin. His eyes travelled up and he looked at the door, sudden anxiety hitting him for what he was about to find behind it. Just what exactly was he getting himself into? What had he done that he had ostensibly received a summons from an entire family. What the heck had Shiori told them? He touched the door, the wards lighting up to let whoever was inside know that he was here, surprised when Taylor Blare opened the door with a heavy but polite smile. This was indeed unexpected. "Uh, Ma'am." He said, looking over his shoulder at his Dad, unsure what he was even supposed to do.
Her smile was tight. Her babies slept in their bed in the room and all she wanted was to be up there with them, but no, as was common in her life, her family had other plans. "Come in." Everything in her screamed for her to say welcome but she was not raised with that kind of politeness, unlike some of the other members of her family and she wasn't about to pretend otherwise, not to mention this was the boy who'd gotten her daughter pregnant and then promptly disappeared, or forgotten about her, or whatever it was that little boys did these days. Perhaps he was not so little anymore, a graduated, newly minted man by all accounts, but that hardly meant he was a man in her eyes, not after what he's done. "Follow me," she said, nodding to both of them, making sure they didn't touch anything, she was hardly going to want to pay for them to break anything.
Rose couldn't believe she had been dragged into yet another family drama and somehow she wasn't surprised that it involved at least one of the twins. Everyone had lost their minds about Ru last year during the Nightray thing, but Rose was only surprised that it hadn't equally been on the fault of both of the twins. Because she was generally the quiet one (despite her panic attacks) people (even her family) tended to overlook her a little, and it meant she noticed things that others maybe didn't. Like that fact that the twins tended to egg each other on, even without noticing it. It was a bit similar with her and the boys, Jonah and Eli, but because they were all sort of singled out on their own, it was less obvious, where as Ru and Rica sometimes were practically interchangeable. They were the same in so many aspects. As Kaachan walked the boy in, Rose sat on the kitchen counter, her back up against the wall as she just watched them, her wand out and in her hand as she floated one of her textbooks in the air. She was at least pretending to be interested in her studies, otherwise Eli might have her locked in her room until she could pull them up and she refused.
Jericah could not believe that Crispin and Mr. Ezra actually came. She'd been expecting neither of them to actually respond to what was essentially a summons from her dad. It wasn't even that she didn't want to see Crispin again - because she did - but a small reminder of his lousy response to her letting him know she was pregnant was always enough to stop her from writing to him. She'd accepted exactly one letter from him - it didn't mention anything about her being pregnant with his child. Maybe he didn't care, and there was also the fact that he'd basically had to confirm that it was "Shiori" informing him about a pregnancy or some other random bimbo. Because who else could be informing him about getting pregnant? Stupid, stupid, stupid. So yeah, she'd been holding a grudge but also being utterly miserable about it because she hadn't wanted to confirm for herself that he didn't care enough about her, or that he didn't care that he'd gotten her pregnant, or that he really had been with other girls enough that he actually needed to confirm it was her who was writing him. It didn't even help that she'd discovered the whole thing so close to the end of the school year in Mahoutokuro - meaning she'd been stressed enough about NEWTs and Quidditch. She played Quidditch while pregnant. And then her mum gave birth. And then it's just been a whole slew of putting it off because she just couldn't do this. And when she'd finally admitted it to her Dad, she'd asked him to put it off until the Durmstrang school year was over because... well... maybe she just wanted to make sure that even if her future was potentially ruined, she didn't want to ruin Crispin's. It was weird. But now, procrastination had ended and he was here, standing in her family's dining room with his father. She stood then from where she sat, a hand on her five-month belly, because it felt awkward to be sitting there while the... guests? ... were standing. "Crispin. Mr. Ezra," she said calmly, with a small incline of her head. There was a calmness to her voice that was definitely the direct opposite of how she felt. She would like to throw up now - wasn't she supposed to be done with morning sickness?
He followed Taylor into the rest of the room where his eyes immediately landed on Shiori and at first he smile widened, because he was happy to see her and was surprised when she hadn't answered any of his letters. He'd thought maybe she had just been busy, but once the Mohotoukoro school year had ended and she had still refused his letters, he'd figured perhaps he'd done something wrong, though he hadn't known what. Looking at her now, he blinked, because though she looked the same, she also very much didn't. It had only been about five months since he'd last seen her and she was... well, not in the same condition with which he'd left her. "Oh... okay," was this what they had brought him to see? So that letter... was that what she'd meant? He thought that was his mates? and they hadn't said anything different so he just assumed. F*ck. This must have been why she was salty with him. "Shiori, I.... I swear I didn't realise, I thought that letter was from the boys and they never said it wasn't. I thought they were being d*cks, I swear I didn't know." He said, trying to get her to hear the sincerity in his voice. One look from the corner of his eye and he could see the eyeroll Ezra was trying to hold in and he knew this was going to require a conversation when they weren't in foreign territory. This was the kind of conversation for when they could speak freely, he would want to know exactly what Crispin's plans were.
Jonah felt like his world was shattering. It wasn't that explosive shatter either like glass falling to the floor. No, it was more, a small crack slowly turning into a web and, before you knew it, would just collapse. At first, he'd been excited about the babies - his new siblings - but as the semester and the year progressed, he'd found the initial excitement less and less. It wasn't like he was wishing the twins didn't exist now. It was more of, he just wasn't... happy about them anymore. He wasn't mad about them. Or sad. It was just... nothing. And then they'd all come home to the surprise of Jericah being pregnant. And Jonah didn't know what to think about that. He did know though, that whoever was the dad of Jericah's baby, Jonah didn't like them. He wasn't sure though if he disliked them because they weren't here - encroaching on Jonah's family - or because they were threatening to fracture Jonah's world more. Jonah held no illusions about marriage. Aunt Ai moved away when she got married to Uncle Liam. Cousin Jai left his family when he married. Corey now lived with Roxas - but at least he's known Roxas for years. Whoever this man was who got Jericah pregnant, he would take her away. And now that man was here and Jonah was glaring at him. And Shiori. Her sister's name was Jericah. "It's not Shiori. It's Jericah. JE-RI-CAH." They should just leave.
Rica didn't know what she had been expecting Crispin to say. She didn't know if it mattered anyway because as soon as he'd said her name - not the one her family or everyone else called her, but the one that was only his - her throat had already clogged up. She'd missed him so much. She'd missed talking to him. And how was it even possible to miss someone you barely knew? She was crazy. It was the hormones. It was definitely the hormones. Being pregnant does things to your emotions right? It was hard to hold on to that irrational anger when he was standing right here all sincere and dorky and this was just so unfair. Jonah snapping at Crispin, felt like a gunshot in a race, and she was rushing to him and throwing her arms around him, burying her face in his neck and just... the tears just wouldn't stop. "You're so f*ck!ng stupid you know that? Why would you ask if it's me you stupid stupid stupid I thought you weren't sure because there were... You're so stupid and I'm so mad at you and I thought you didn't care and I'd say sorry but I'm still mad but maybe I will later if I'm not and you're so f*ck!ng stupid Crispin." She whispered all of that against his skin as she just let the tears fall, clutching him tightly. Maybe they will be okay or maybe they won't. She didn't know. But this felt like a relief she hadn't felt in months.
Genuinely, Ru wasn't sure he fully understood what had happened between his sister and this boy, all he knew was that he wasn't all that pleased. He glared at Crispin from beside Rica, and then rolled his eyes when she ran over to him after he apologised. Well, barely, he wasn't sure that was wha he would have called it, certainly what he would have considered a good enough apology. He wasn't annoyed that he was here, he felt like he should definitely be here since this was his kid too, but he wasn't really sure he liked the explanation. He supposed he could let Rica make her own decisions, but he didn't want to, he'd been supporting her all through school and now this champion has basically got off scot free, which he din't agree with. "Best be on your best, Crispin." He'd not like this until it was resolved to his satisfaction honestly.
She runs at him and he has to quickly turn to catch her, worried he might miss and she'd face plant the ground. "Merlin, Shiori," the little boy, her brother he assumed, shouting her name at him wasn't even on his radar, he was too busy paying attention to Shiori and the fact she was carrying his baby, which was absolutely wild. He wasn't quite sure he knew what to do with that. A baby? He didn't even have a job, well, he had a job with his dad maybe but not like a proper job. He was going to have to think of something to be able to do to support them. Where were they going to live? Here? New Zealand? He hadn't even really been sure they were dating, they'd only really been writing to each other until December and then this, wow, it was actually here. "I know, I'm sorry, I'm stupid. We need to go somewhere to talk, can we? Can we go somewhere away from everyone?"
Conan's eyes narrowed with every passing second of the boy's - because this person who had gotten his daughter pregnant was no man - presence. He didn't understand much of what went on between this boy and his daughter, aside from the fact that his daughter had snuck out to meet with him, gotten pregnant in the process, and he hadn't thought that the letter his daughter had sent him was from his mates. What kind of friends did this boy have? And of course, his daughter had believed him and ran into his arms. He could almost feel the migraine coming on as he rubbed his forehead, and even as he was quite possibly the oldest in the room, he felt quite validated that his sons didn't seem to agree with the situation either. Especially since Crispin Applewhite seemed to be enjoying testing his patience. "Considering the last time the two of you went away from everyone resulted in this entire situation, I would highly suggest rethinking that request." It was rare for him to get angry. Nothing good ever came from him being angry. But he thought that in this situation, he was quite justified to be a little more than frustrated with the two teenagers. "The only reason I've asked you to come and talk instead of sending a lawyer to discuss custody and my want of your lack thereof is because I work with James and I consider him to be a friend." If the boy's father hadn't been James' family, Conan would have happily just sent lawyers with a bunch of papers to wherever they lived.
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