Getting used to the noisemakers

[Irene Finch]

After the recent admission to her brother, Irene wasn't feeling so anxious and frightened by her pregnancy. Now that he knew she felt as if a huge burden, one bigger than the one she carried around her mid- section, had been lifted. That was not to say that she was suddenly eager to have a child because she certainly wasn't. Children were still little...things that she didn't quite understand and she already knew that she didn't have the patience for them, especially because they were so needy and whiny all the time. There were some witches who were maternal and simply born to have children and she could see evidence of that around the park that she'd just entered. Irene was certainly not one of them, but she could see a group of them to the right of her all huddled together watching their children play together and chatting merrily.

In fact, there seemed to be loads of children toddling around the park with their parents and Irene nearly did an about face right out of the park. But, she really did want to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and as she sternly told herself, she had better get used to the little annoyances seeing as she would soon be dealing with one herself. She would have to take baby steps in the matter. Scanning the park with her bright blue eyes, Irene spotted a bench that was away from the group of children with their mothers. It was partially in the sun and Irene strolled over to the area, where she took a seat and pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet, from her bag, one hand absent mindedly rubbing her belly for a moment as she felt a bit of discomfort. Shaking the paper open, she began to scan the articles, looking for anything that might be particularly interesting.

 

[Nicolas Styx]

Nicolas watched a group of older children run by chasing after a ball. He would love to play with them, or go after that ball rather, but as a two year old he was much smaller and slower than any of those older kids. Nicolas didn't really like to play on the equipment or anything like most children liked to do, he would much rather spend his time making friends or crawling all over people. Nicolas was a people person all the way, unlike his twin brother who was always quiet and never really did anything but sit there. Nicolas would just rather be around people and have them talking to or listening to him, he could hold an entire conversation with some people that he was closer with and could actually understand what was coming out of his mouth. His brother was probably the best at understanding him because they were the same age and them being twins often meant they knew what the other was thinking and feeling because they were close. His mother also was pretty fun to talk to, she was Nicolas' favorite person and whenever she was around and wasn't with daddy he loved to hang off of her, she usually didn't seem to mind it either. Nicolas let his silver eyes scan the playground carefully, there were lots of people here for him to go and bother. Of course he wasn't going to sit still like his mother told him to either. He was also in that terrible two stage where he listened to no one and got into everything, what a life huh?

Nicolas nudged his brother Damianos and started to head off into one direction, there had to be someone he could bother at some time. His brother usually followed him for damage control or something. He was the well behaved one out of the two and since he got so much more attention than Nicolas did one would figure that he would act like that. It took only a couple of minute's of wandering around and waving his way through a crowd of people when he noticed a woman sitting on a bench rubbing her stomach and reading a newspaper. Nicolas decided she looked lonely and approachable enough. He bounded over with his short legs and once he reached her his tiny hands grasped the top of the bench. "Hi lady. Does your tummy hurt?" He asked her as he peered up. Whether she would be able to understand him or not was unknown but he was going to try and hold a conversation anyways.

Out of Character:

After Damianos posts, Irene is free to post.

 

[Damianos Styx]

Out of Character:

Me now? Me now. Dang, forgot to color Damianos' eyes gold. Oh well.

Damianos watched with boredom as kids chased around a ball. Since it was the weekend, he was allowed to be home and wondering around. Otherwise, it was back to the Zhefarovich Manor with Vladimir to train to become a Head of the Zhefarovich Family. Damianos was younger than Vladimir, but that did not make him any less important. Damianos crossed his legs and he stared at Nicolas while he watched the other kids play. Damianos thought that he was the smarter one of the bunch, but he never said this out loud. He was learning things that most children would not learn on their own. However, Nicolas got to be a kid, and Damianos was not exactly the type to play ever since his training began. One could say that he was more and more like his father. That was true, because he was like his father. Damianos allowed his golden eyes to watch others act like they were just toddlers, unaware of what was happening in the world. He sat there in his black robes, and he did not like to think of joining them. Heck, he did not even like the fact that he had a twin brother that played much. But the cold toddler just waited. He wondered if Nicolas would take to wondering around, again. Damianos might have to drag him back. The difference in the twins, other than eye color and attitude was their hair. Damianos kept his neat and trimmed, and Nicolas loved to keep his messed up.

When his twin brother nudged him, Damianos let out a sigh and he stood up to follow his brother to do Merlin knows what. Damianos followed his brother reluctantly and then he noticed that he stopped in front of a woman on a bench. Damianos stared at her with cold, golden eyes and he glanced over at Nicolas when he tried to hold a conversation with her. Nicolas obviously never heard of the phrase 'Don't talk to strangers'. However, Damianos took this to a whole new level. 'Don't talk unless someone is worthy enough'. Damianos would remain silent, but his eyes never left Nicolas as of the moment. He did not want to look at a woman that he did not know, and did not know if she was worthy enough to be in front of him right now. The silent boy remained what he was known for: silence.

 

[Irene Finch]

Irene nearly jumped out of her seat when a child appeared out of nowhere. Irene had hoped that by hiding behind the paper people, adults and children, would know that she was not in the mood for company. The adults seemed to have gotten the message, but this little boy didn't. She gave him a sideways glance as he began to speak or babble more like. She only understood every other word, but from it she pieced together that he was asking about her stomach or 'tummy' as he put it. Irene settled her paper on her lap as she scanned the area for a mother who might be looking for this boy, and that was when she noticed the other one. Twins? She thought, her face paling as her hand stopped rubbing her stomach. Oh dear sweet Merlin...let this not be two children. The other boy was silent simply staring at her and she got the feeling from the look in his golden eyes that the boy was much wiser than his years.

She stared at the boy for a moment and then sighed. "Yes, I've got something moving around in there" she muttered, her blue eyes moving back to the child who was closer even though she was fairly sure he wouldn't understand what she was speaking about. There was no denying the two boys' cuteness, but to Irene that didn't really matter. She found hippogriffs cute but that didn't mean she wanted to own one of those either. "Why don't you go find your mommy now, k? I bet she's looking all over for you" she said in a mock baby voice, looking at each of the boys in turn. That was what kids understood, right? Lifting her paper up once more, Irene was confident that the boys would be on their way now. She smiled to herself. That hadn't been too terrible...aside from the new fear that she had that she might be carrying not one but two babies anyway. As if one wasn't enough to deal with. Irene would simply die if she had two. She peered out of the corner of her eye, stealing a glance at the blond boy, hoping to see the boy begin his retreat and hoping that he'd take his silent brother with him.

 

[Nicolas Styx]

When the older lady told Nicolas that there was something moving around inside her stomach and that happened to be what was making her tummy hurt. Of course Nicolas wouldn't understand that the woman was pregnant. He was only two years old and the concept of babies completely flew over the toddlers head. He did remember his own mommy's tummy being like this though, then his sisters appeared and it all went back to normal. "What's movin around in there?" His words came out as babbles but was still understandable enough. He wanted to know what was making the poor lady feel uncomfortable. was it a ghost or an Alien that was in there? Nicolas didn't like either of them so he really hoped that wasn't the case. With little arms he tired to pull himself onto the bench because he didn't like being on the ground while the lady was up there. How was he supposed to climb on her when it felt like they were miles apart from one another. Damianos had yet to say anything like always but it was possible that Nicolas was doing enough talking for the both of them. His brother didn't like to talk or be cuddled but still liked to follow around and see what everyone else was up to. Sometimes Nicolas just preferred that he just stayed where he was because he was always making Nicolas feel left out, and they were only two! Everyone paid more attention to Damianos, they talked about him, and father always took him places while Nicolas was left behind every single time. At least this lady seemed a bit more focused on him at the moment, just like mommy always was.

"No." Nicolas shook his head when the lady said his mommy must have been looking all over for them. Well she probably was looking but if Nicolette wanted to find them both the twins knew it wouldn't be hard for her. Nicolas puckered out his lap though, he didn't want to go on and find him mommy when he was having fun talking to this random lady. Did she not enjoy this company? Nicolas hated being told no in general but it wasn't like the lady knew that, oh what a con Nicolas could be.

 

[Damianos Styx]

Damianos knew that there was something wrong with her when she said that there was something wrong with her, or rather something moving around in her stomach. What in the world did she eat then? However, Damianos then remembered that this was similar to the way that their mother looked when she was about to give birth to his two baby sisters. He could not remember Bothizar being in the stomach at all. However, he did not know how children were formed but somehow they were kept in the stomach. Damianos rolled his eyes when Nicolas asked what was moving around inside her. Though he remained as silent as the clouds because he really did not want to guess and might end up being wrong because Damianos hated being wrong on anything and everything. Damianos glanced up when Nicolas tried to climb into the bench and probably climb all over the woman for reasons that he did not know or want to know. Damianos hated to climb on people, and hated to be handled or touched. Damianos glanced around the park to see if their mother was anywhere nearby.

The boy shrugged lightly once more as he turned his attention to Nicolas. Damianos muttered, his own tone of voice a little darker and colder than Nicolas' voice, "Would you leave the woman alone? She doesn't have time for us." Damianos rolled his golden eyes once more and he shrugged again. He started to walk from the two but he figured that he would have to take Nicolas with him. He did not know if Nicolette would blame him if he lost his twin. It was in his duty as an older brother to watch after his siblings, and he even seemed protective of Kailie. Though the other two boys, Hades and Kaleb, he could not say much for because they were the ones that were protecting them as much as their father was. Damianos glanced around the place once more for the one that gave birth to them. Damianos let out a frustrated sigh and he turned his eyes to Nicolas once more, as if signalling him to come and leave her be, but he had a feeling that he would be sticking around for a while.

 

[Irene Finch]

As she glanced to the side once more and noticed that the boy still hadn't left, Irene realized that her plan hadn't worked at all. If anything, her answer to his question about her stomach seemed to have made him more interested in staying. She didn't have to listen carefully to his next question since it was obvious that he would want to know what was she was talking about. Sighing heavily as she put her newspaper down once more, Irene noticed that the other brother seemed interested in hearing her reply as well. He still hadn't said anything though so she couldn't be sure. "I'm having a baby" she said, the word baby being spit out like it was a bad word. She mimicked the rocking of a child in case they didn't know what babies were even though they had once been babies. "Why am I bothering?" she asked herself aloud as she stopped. If anything, she shouldn't have done that at all since it would probably just make the boys remain.

It was bad enough that as she spoke the little boy had begun to try and climb up beside her. She didn't reach out to help him because she figured if she helped him out, he would think that she wanted him to remain, which she didn't. But when the boy said no to her, she looked around once more searching in earnest for their mother. This was exactly why she disliked little children. She couldn't get them to do what she wanted and when they didn't get their way they threw tantrums or cried. As the boy's lip puckered, Irene held out a hand as if to tell the boy to stop. "Please don't cry...I'm begging you" she pleaded. If there was one thing she really disliked it was hearing the cry of a child. Turning to the other boy who had finally chosen to spoke, Irene nodded eagerly and then realized she was agreeing with a little boy. The way the boy spoke though betrayed his age. The tone of his voice was like a child but how he spoke and what he said made him sound older than his years. "You should listen to your twin" she said to the boy closest to her even though she hadn't quite heard what his twin had said. He seemed to want to leave so she hoped he had been saying something along those lines.

 

[Nicolette Styx]

Nicolette had forgotten how fast her children could run off if given the moment to. Nicolas demanded for some juice because he was thirsty and of course Nicolette couldn't deny her baby anything, she would end up getting some for Damianos and Bothizar too. She told both boys to wait on the bench while she went to get some juice and was probably only gone for a minute to come back to an empty bench. Her golden eyes narrowed for a moment before she sighed. God could those two never sit still for more than a minute or so? It was most likely Nicolas' idea because when he went somewhere Damianos usually followed to keep an eye on him, so even though he left it was Nicolas that was the culprit here. "Bothizar, I curse the day those boys learned to walk." She spoke to her baby whom was sitting quietly in the stroller sucking on his thumb. He stared up at her with his gold eyes and just stared blankly, he was just a year old so it wasn't like he understood what she was saying at all. Nicolette smiled at his blank look before she smoothed out his hair and watched as he settled back into the Stroller. He was already quite the brain, but he was so shy. He often hid whenever he had to meet new people directly. He was even a little shy around his own father sometimes, it was quite cute. Taking the stroller in hand, Nicolette went on to look for the twins. Hopefully they were not causing some poor person issues. Nicolas liked to climb all over people and Damianos often got fussy when people got all around him. It was odd how different they were yet they were twins. It made Nicolette think of the infamous Arnost and Asparuh for some reason. They were twins but seriously lacked in acting like them. After a couple of minute's Nicolette finally spotted the two familiar blonde's and headed over to them. They were talking to some woman sitting on a bench, she looked a little distressed.

"Nicolas and Damianos? What on earth are you two doing?! I am terribly sorry Miss, Nicolas here has a fatal attraction to strangers." Nicolette pulled the stroller close before she stepped over and picked Nicolas up and away form the bench. For a moment she thought he looked pitiful. But it only took a moment of her staring at him before he giggled softly, this made her roll her eyes before he leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Her hand also went down to smooth Damianos hair, she knew he wasn't a fan of being picked up but she was pretty much telling him good job for keeping an eye on his brother. "Will you please stop running off? You shouldn't be bothering this lady." Nicolette reprimanded her son. Little Bothizar stared at the lady shyly from his crib before he shifted and turned to look at his mom. Once Nicolette was done speaking to Nicolas she turned her gaze to the lady that they were bothering and looked apologetic. Normally Nicolette wasn't as nice to strangers but this lady wasn't causing a problem and she was around her children whom she always had a soft spot for.

 

[Nicolas Styx]

Nicolas blinked when the lady said baby. She was going to have one of those? He knew what a baby was and everything because his mommy had a baby not to long ago, actually she had two babies. But the lady didn't sound like she was happy to have a baby for some reason. 'I thought all mommies liked babies.' Whenever Nicolas saw his mommy with his sisters she was always talking to them and looking really happy. Actually everyone looked really happy around babies. Something that neither of the twins understood really was people's obsession with little baby and small children. Although this lady didn't really want anything to do with either of them. Nicolas kept his lip puckered out as the lady begged him not to cry. Well that just made him want to cry even more. "He's never any fun." Thats why Nicolas never listened to his twin. Besides he wanted to be friendly with this lady so he didn't see why she wanted him to go away and everything. He was being nice. Not moments after he said what he needed to stay he heard the voice of his mom and turned around. His golden eyes met his mothers and he backed away from the bench and held up his arms to tell her he wanted to be picked up. He loved being held by his mother.

"Mom this lady is going to have a baby like you did!" Nicolas told his mom happily as he watched her smooth out his twins hair. He had seen his mom be awful mean to people who made her upset but she was never mean to Nicolas or Damianos. Next thing he knew his mother was telling him that what he had done was wrong. And by what he had done wrong, she meant wandering away and bothering people. Nicolas had been told quite a few times not to do that but he never liked to listen. After he mom finished talking to him and frowned softly. "Sorry Mommy." He laid his head down on Nicolette's shoulder and didn't turn to look at the lady again. He was afraid that if he did his mom would be mad at him for not listening.

 

[Damianos Styx]

Out of Character:

So sorry. Holidays plus work equals mucho slower replies.

Damianos turned his head to the woman when she said that she was going to have a baby. Their mother had a few of them, and it amazed Damianos how someone could have a baby inside them and then somehow, like magic, it was in the arms of family. Damianos counted in his mind how many babies that his mother had, other than him and Nicolas. Three. Two sisters and a brother. Damianos wondered if they would have any more siblings, someone that wouldn't be as rotten as Nicolas in his mind. Damianos smirked slightly, but his face soon fell into utter void. He really did not want to have to hear Nicolas cry, and almost rolled his arm back to punch him, before he thought that he would get in trouble, and folded his arms over his chest to keep himself in line. His golden eyes narrowed at silver and he glared at his little twin brother, knowing that fun was not allowed for the future Head of the family, so he had been told. But the sound of his mother's voice struck him dead in the heart, as he turned around and allowed his eyes to stare up at his mother.

It was obvious that he was glad that Nicolette had arrived, those golden eyes showed recognition and admiration. He welcomed the small notification of her being proud because he did not stop watching his brother. It seemed to be out of his power to control his brother, Damianos had no power - yet. That may change soon. He was just glad that someone came along and saved the woman from being terrorized by Nicolas. At least Bothizar was quiet, though he was probably too young to even think about running off, or else Damianos would have to chase after him too. Damianos would prefer to just be by himself, and avoid everything like this. He fell back into silence once more. He did not need to say that he was sorry, because he was doing that he needed to be doing, and that was protecting his little brother. Damianos turned away from the woman soon to be having a child, and clutched onto the fabric on his mother's legs. He glanced up at her, as if to say that he wanted to go home now.

 

[Irene Finch]

Irene looked down at the boy and bit her lip. Her words didn't seemed to have eased him at all and he looked just as close to tears as he had a few moments before. What do I do? She thought to herself panicking slightly. Put anything in front of Irene and she would be the picture of calm and poise but a baby? That was another matter entirely apparently. Her mind was blank and she felt miserable. How was she going to raise her own child when she couldn't even get another person's child to listen to her? With a sigh, Irene opened her mouth to try again. It seemed that appealing to the other twin wasn't a good idea since he was no 'fun.'

"Umm..." she began, glancing between the two boys and then stopped as a woman came by and began speaking to the twins. Irene sighed, realizing that this woman had to be their mother. When she apologized, Irene smiled weakly, her blue eyes drifting over to a third child, much younger than the other two who was sitting in a carriage. She couldn't believe her eyes that the woman had three small children. And here she was complaining about one that wasn't even born yet! Almost as soon as the woman had picked him up, the boy no longer looked near tears but Irene was still afraid the woman would be mad about it. As the woman glanced at the other twin, Irene finally found her voice again. "I was just telling them that you were probably looking for them, but I wasn't sure if they understood me or not" she shrugged. "Your sons are quite curious, especially that one" she said, nodding toward the toddler who was being held. Her eyes drifted over the woman again. She was being nice but didn't seem as annoying as the other ladies who were fawning over their children and loudly gabbing.