Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Katya
The fun and whimsy of yesterday is quickly overshadowed by a more serious responsibility.
Leon has to spend a few hours out of the house on only my second day of being moved in.
He got a call after we put the kids to bed last night and it’s become clear that his time being able to stay at home for such a long stretch has truly come to an end.
He looked gutted when he told me the news, and offered to call one of his siblings to come by and help me with the first day alone if I needed him to.
I, being the ambitious and hopeful sort, refused outright.
I wasn’t worried about being alone with Bastian and Leo, especially only for a few hours.
Not to mention, our original deal made it seem like this is why he married me, didn’t it?
I’m meant to be here to be a nanny, if not a close family member who cares for them.
If I’m too scared to watch them alone for less than half a day, then I’m not meant to be taking on this role.
Since I had a heads up for Leon’s plans for the day, I was able to prepare myself.
I made sure to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and woke up early with ease because of it.
Knowing Leon would already have left the house at the crack of dawn, I made sure to check on Bastian and Leo before even changing out of my pajamas.
The boys were still fast asleep, and the three in-home guards who came on duty when Leon left seemed more than competent during our short meeting.
The house is always guarded of course, but mostly from the outside unless their Underboss has to leave his family alone, at least, that’s what he’s told me.
I take the extra time afforded to me to get ready and dressed for the day, before heading downstairs to make a small chai and some breakfast. Leon informed me that the boys were perfectly content with having cereal most mornings, but I knew I wanted to be more impressive than that on my first day.
Cereal was cold and boring and I wanted the boys to think I’m warm and fun.
Only a half an hour later, I think I’ve accomplished my goal.
“Wow, Kat.” A small voice full of wonder bursts into the kitchen. “You make waffles for us? Bastian lub waffles!”
My heart soars happily as I plate up the last bit of food from the stovetop and turn off the gas burner, spinning around to see two sleepy but smiling faces.
Leo is dressed in his pajamas still but wearing socks.
One of them is falling off his feet like he pulled them on in a rush to come downstairs.
Bastian is in his pajamas as well, but his are much more wrinkle-free and his feet are covered in tiny brown slippers rather than mismatched cotton socks.
“Good morning,” I breathe out, setting the plate down on the island counter between us and rounding it to greet them properly. “Did you both sleep well?”
“I did,” Leo answers first, nodding seriously. “All good dreams.”
“Yes, Katya,” Bastian replies next, sounding tired.
“I’m so glad to hear it.” I nod and look between the two brothers. “Are you hungry? I’ve made us plenty of food.”
“Yes!” Leo says, bouncing on his heels. “You make waffles, right? Bastian favor-it. I telled you.”
I gasp quietly, turning to Bastian while widening my eyes wide. “How could I forget? I’m so glad you like them. I made regular, chocolate chip, and blueberry. Do you like those options?”
“Yes, all of them,” he agrees, looking over my shoulder to peek at the counter.
“I like chocolate,” Leo supplies, grinning. “You warm the sir-rup like Daddy does?”
“I can absolutely warm up the syrup,” I agree eagerly. “Why don’t you two go sit at the breakfast table and I’ll bring everything over so we can eat together, hmm?”
Leo claps before reaching for his brother’s hand to tug him toward the breakfast nook area of the kitchen. “Yay, breakfast together.”
“Do you want juice, or milk, or…”
Leo has chocolate milk, insisting that it has to be his drink to go with his chocolate waffles.
Bastian opts to have apple juice with his breakfast instead, but he seems happy with his choice.
The two of them devour their plates at an almost concerning pace, but seem content the entire time they stuff their little faces.
Waffles, scrambled eggs, and bacon all seem to be a hit with them, and much to my relief, neither of them complain about any of the food.
I’ve always been competent in the kitchen, but I’m no chef.
I can follow instructions, and make a nice meal on my own, but I’m sure these two have had their fair share of fine dining.
Even simple foods can be elevated to an unmatchable level when a professional is cooking them.
From what I can tell, though, Leon doesn’t employ a personal chef.
Which means, he cooks.
We made pizza together last night of course, and the sandwiches that he prepared for lunch before that were super easy, but I never asked if he was in charge of making meals before.
Granted, Cleo could have been the one doing a majority of that before.
Or maybe they order in a lot. But something tells me that by the way Leo requested his syrup to be heated up like his daddy always does it, my husband makes fine meals for his sons more often than not.
When breakfast is done and the kids are satisfied with their full stomachs, they get up on their own without prompting.
It seems like it’s their routine to change and clean up after breakfast, and neither of them requests help in the process.
It gives me time to clean up my kitchen dishes and prepare to do whatever they’d like to do.
We have a whole day ahead of us, even if Leon comes home within a few hours like he planned.
There’s a million things we could do around this house, but I haven’t known the kids long enough to know what they’d want to spend their time doing if given the choice.
They both have homeschool tutoring some days during the week, but none coming up that I’m aware of.
Leon mentioned giving them time off from learning while grieving their mother and adjusting to the changes now that Cleo is gone.
“Can we watch a movie?” Leo asks suddenly, startling me as I close the fridge. I just finished putting away the last of the breakfast leftovers after struggling to find Tupperware for five minutes. I should really take some time tonight while the boys sleep to get to know this kitchen more.
“A movie?” I ask, pretending like Leo didn’t just almost make me jump three feet in the air. “Is that what you two want to do?”
“Uh-huh,” he agrees, bobbing his head. “Bastian always sleepy in da morning.”
“Ohhh, is that so?” I look behind him to find his brother, eyes still shadowed with signs of being tired.
He’s changed into his casual clothes for the day, but he looks like he could fall right back asleep either way.
“I like to watch movies when I’m feeling tired too.
Of course we can watch one. Do you know what you want to see? ”
Of course they do.
It’s not even five minutes after Leo requested a movie that we end up in the living room, sprawled out all over the giant, cozy leather couch as the opening credits to Ice Age 2 play on the large flatscreen.
We, of course, watched the first movie last night with dinner.
And Leon confirmed that this series of films is their current hyper fixation.
He said with full confidence that he could recite several scenes line by line, and that he wasn’t proud of it.
I, however, thought it was precious.
It reminded me of Ares rewatching Frozen and Moana a billion times with Gaia, never complaining about the repetition of the films. Kids like what they like, and if a comfort movie at 9:00 a.m. is how they want to start their day, who am I to argue?
Each of us was bundled under our own individual fluffy blanket, passed out by Leo before we could get too comfortable without one.
Leon keeps the house at a comfortable temperature, but who could say no to a cozy blanket when it’s thrown to you by one of the sweetest little faces? Not me, that’s who.
I half expected Bastian to fall asleep by the end of the movie, given how tired he seemed when it started, but at the roll of the credits, he’s perked up significantly.
He said that he slept well when I asked, and Leo mentioned his brother being tired in the mornings, but part of me wonders if he didn’t truly get enough sleep last night.
It would be understandable, given how much he’s been going through recently.
I suppose it’s a good thing that they usually need to nap after lunch, and he can get some extra rest then.
“Well, that was very nice,” I tell them, maneuvering my blanket off my legs. “Is there anything else you’d like to do today? It’s a bit chilly outside, but we could play a game or you could show me more of the house. Anything you’d find fun.”
“Bastian, you pick,” Leo decides, swinging himself up and off the couch.
“We can show you the rest of the house,” the elder sibling decides. “Dad was going to, but he got busy.”
“That’s okay,” I tell him easily. “It’s been a busy couple of days and this is a very large house.”
“Yep.” Leo bobs his head twice. “Huge.”
I match his nod, agreeing seriously. “I would be perfectly happy with just my rooms and the rooms I’ve already seen but I want to see all your favorite places too, since we’ll be spending lots of time together.”
“We have so many rooms,” Leo says, almost sighing as if it’s too many rooms.
I can’t help but let out a little laugh, hearing his tone. “Well, we should get started, then.”
Bastian takes his role as tour guide quite seriously, mapping out the best way to show me around his childhood home.
We start with the lowest level, which is easily the most surprising and exciting.
There’s an indoor, in-ground pool room that we can only see through the glass door since it remains locked unless Leon is there to open it.
A safety measure that I highly appreciate.
There’s also a gym that “Daddy uses” and a laser tag room that Leo and Bastian both insist that we play in later on.
That’s an activity that they want to do with their father present, claiming that you need an even number to play in teams. Given that I’ve never played the game in my life, I would also appreciate Leon showing me how to work the equipment before I embarrass myself spectacularly in front of the kids.
The basement is only the first of many places the boys show me, taking me from floor to floor, room to room.
I know within ten minutes of being shown around that I’m going to get lost a few times before I can commit the layout to memory.
There’s several living rooms, offices, bedrooms, and closet spaces that aren’t even in use.
Expectedly, the tour gets a little awkward when it comes to one particular wing of the house.
“These were her rooms.” Bastian doesn’t take me down the hall, stopping as soon as two doors are visible from the end of it. He looks stiff and uncomfortable, shifting on his feet and waiting for me to reply.
“Mama’s rooms,” Leo clarifies, his pale eyebrows scrunching in. “No go in.”
“Oh, of course,” I reply immediately. “I don’t need to go in them.”
“He means we can’t go in,” Bastian tells me, shaking his head slowly. “She didn’t like it.”
“I understand,” I reply, swallowing hard.
From my understanding, their mother was sick for a long time.
She probably kept her rooms as her space, and her space alone.
She likely needed somewhere she could feel sick, or hide her symptoms without worrying about scaring the kids.
“We don’t need to look here any further.
Do you have any other rooms you want to show me? ”
“Can we show pway room again?” Leo asks, looking excited by the possibility. He purses his lips together as if he’s pondering all of the fun that could be had in what’s obviously his favorite room. Since they showed me the space when I came for my interview, they haven’t shown it to me yet today.
“I think that’s a great idea,” I agree, humming as if deep in thought. “I think we could play with your race track again, don’t you? Maybe my car will win this time.”
Leo giggles mischievously. “My car win!”
“Hmmm, I don’t know. Bastian might beat the both of us. Should we go find out?”
Of course, I’m met with an enthusiastic yes.
Surprisingly, it comes from both boys. Bastian has blinked himself out of whatever emotion captured him when faced with his mother’s old domain.
The feeling doesn’t seem to linger as genuine excitement fills his expression.
He’s a shy boy, not quick to warm up, but he’s still as fun-loving and youthful as Leo when given the chance to show it.
The two of them so effortlessly warm my heart, and I can see how truly easy to love they are.
In the end, my chosen race cars lose every single race.
Bastian and Leo take turns in victory, cheering and laughing for each other every single time, and patting my arms or back in a show of good sportsmanship every time I lose unceremoniously.
I don’t think their track likes me very much, but it’s okay with me.
Watching them win is just as fun as it would be to win myself.
Racing quickly turns into playing with their larger remote cars, and then into being hungry from hours of playing and showing me around the house.
Lunch is a much less intense affair, with no need for cooking.
We all share leftover pieces of our pizza from last night, and nap time comes faster than I might have liked.
Time goes by quickly with them, so much so that I almost wish it would slow down. I know that I have all the time in the world, that I’m not going anywhere any time soon…but I want to savor it all the same.
Just as the thought crosses my mind, my phone buzzes in my back pocket.
Leon
I’m going to be more than a few hours, I’m sorry. You can call one of my siblings if you need back up. Cassio and Apollo would be the fastest options. They’re not busy and have access to the plane.
My lips shift, not down, but up.
Not only is he being thoughtful, and sorry for taking longer than expected, but I get more time to bond with his lovely children.
Katya
I’ve got this. Don’t be sorry. We’ll miss you, but we’re having fun. See you tonight. :)