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Lina was proud of herself for slipping out of bed without waking Gourry and for getting up before the kids woke up. Especially since she’d been up later than usual to do a deep clean of the kitchen and living room (as for the kids’ room…that would be a challenge for another day). It was the big lug’s birthday, and for once Lina planned to surprise him with breakfast in bed and it would be much easier to do it if the kids were still asleep. She grinned as she opened the bedroom door and closed it quietly behind her as she tiptoed to the kitchen.
She opened a cabinet and then cringed as an ill placed bowl tumbled out and fell to the floor with a clatter. One of the kids must have thought they were being helpful and put it in its precarious position. Lina stood still and tense as her ears perked for any sign of tiny footsteps. And then her heart dropped as a door opened and Lucia poked her head out. “Good morning Mommy!”
Please tell me the twins are still sleeping! Lina thought to herself. Lucia was getting big enough that she could help a bit. It wouldn’t be too bad if it was just Lucia. “Morning sweetie.” Lina said as she managed to smile.
But then Gwynn and Glynn poked their heads out. “Whatcha doin’?” Glynn asked.
Lina internally cringed but hoped she didn’t show it as she said, “Making breakfast for Daddy. It’s his birthday!”
All of the sudden Lina was overwhelmed by all three of them clamoring about how they wanted to help. “All right, all right! Settle down now! One thing at a time. First, we have to make the pancakes. Now we need flour…”
“I’ll get it!” Lucia said as she ran to the pantry and reached on her tiptoes to grab it but ended up dropping it and spilling it all over herself. Lina cringed a bit as all of the hard work she’d done the previous night went up in a cloud of white powdery smoke. How some people managed to keep a spotless house with young children was beyond her! “Uh-oh.”
Lina stared at the mess and felt her heart sink. Sure, she could run over and get some more flour from her parents’ store but if Luna found out then Lina was in for some sort of snide comment on her inability to get her kids in line. And given that Lina needed every ounce of patience she had for her kids she didn’t have a morsel to spare for Luna!
So she decided that Gourry wouldn’t know (or care) if she scrapped it off the floor with a measuring cup. “Not to worry, we’ll just do this then.” Lina said as she got the measuring cup and scooped the flour into it and then into the bowl. “Now we need two eggs.”
“I wanna crack one!” Lucia said.
“Me too!” Glynn said.
“And me!” Gwynn added.
“Of course.” Lina said as she wondered what it was with children and cracking eggs. Sure she could let them all crack one and let one go to waste but Lina’s blood boiled at the thought of wasting even so much as one egg! So she started doing the mental math needed to figure out how much more flour and other ingredients she would need with an extra egg.
Of course someone like Sylphiel would have this down to a fine art! Lina thought bitterly, and then she tried to push the thought away as Lucia ran to get the basket with the eggs in them. Despite Lina’s fears to the contrary she didn’t drop or break any! Each of the kids cracked an egg, though none of them did it particularly neatly and a bit of eggshells fell into the batter. “Allright, milk, butter, baking soda.” Lina said as each kid fought for their turn to add the ingredients and Lina felt her patience slipping.
“Why do we need milk? What does it make the pancake do?” Glynn asked.
“It makes it taste yummy.” Lina said.
“And the baking soda? Does it make the pancake taste yummy?”
“Of course!”
“But how? Baking soda is yucky!”
“How should I know! It just all works out somehow!”
“But how?”
“Magic. Now everyone back away from the stove while I cook these!” she said as she turned to light the stove and when she turned back around she screamed as she saw that they were all sticking their fingers into the batter, licking them, and then returning their fingers back to the batter. “STOP! Don’t do that! We have to cook it first!”
“But it’s yummy!” Glynn said.
“It will be even yummier when I cook it and it turns into cooked pancakes!” Lina snarled as she grabbed the bowl from them and then cringed as they placed their sticky, batter dipped fingers on the table, chairs, walls and floors. “And for the love of Ceiphied, wash your hands! Do you know how long it took me to clean this kitchen?”
Lucia ran to the water pump and the twins followed her. Lina sighed as she hoped it would keep them occupied for five minutes as she scooped some batter on the pan.
“Let me help!” Lucia exclaimed as she jumped up on Lina, who closed her eyes in frustration.
“Careful, it’s hot! Don’t jump on me when I’m close to the stove like this or I could get burned.” Lina yelled.
“But let me help!” Lucia insisted as she pulled a spatula from somewhere and, before Lina could ask where she had gotten it from, she forcefully shoved it under the runny pancake batter and tried to turn it before it was ready. Lina wanted to cry as it ran all over the stove and dribbled onto the floor. “Oops.”
“Why are you glowing red, Mommy?” Glynn asked.
Lucia gulped as she ran to the twins and grabbed their hands, “That means we need to get into the living room, quick! We’ll be good Mommy!”
“Just go!” Lina snapped, and the kids ran into the living room. Lina ignored the sounds of toys being dumped and decided to settle for being left alone to finish the pancakes as she tried not to think of the mess that she would have to clean up and all of the wasted time she had spent staying up late the previous night to get it all cleaned. Pancakes first, everything else could be done later.
Finally she managed to make a batch of decent looking pancakes. She lifted the platter up and Gwynn gasped as she ran over to Lina, “Oh, I wanna carry it to Daddy!”
“No, I wanna carry it!” Glynn said as he also started to run…
And all three of them collided, with Gwynn’s head hitting Lina’s elbow and forcing her to drop the plate of pancakes. Lina’s heart dropped as the plate fell and the pancakes spilt on the floor. “No!” Lina wailed as she looked at the remnants of the pancake breakfast as she fell to her knees as the tears spilled out.
“Good morning!” Gourry said as he came out of his room clutching his robe around him.
“No! You’re supposed to be in bed! You’re supposed to have breakfast in bed on your birthday!”
Gourry walked up and grabbed a bit of the pancake on the floor and ate it, “It’s pretty good!”
“You can’t just eat it off the floor like that!” she yelled as he got down on the floor with her and kissed the crown of her head.
“Why not? It tastes delicious!” he asked as he continued to scoop bits of pancake up and shovel them in his mouth.
Lina had to smile at the sight, “You deserve a bit better than to eat off the floor on your birthday.”
“It’s all part of the adventure.” He said as he pulled her into a hug and their kids joined them. “And the adventure is what I fell in love with.”
Lina felt a little better, but it still weighed on her that she’d married someone so sweet and couldn’t manage a nice breakfast for him without destroying the kitchen in the process. Her eyes focused on the living room which had now become a disaster zone. It had taken her over an hour to get it all nice and clean the previous day and even longer to clean the kitchen and in a matter of minutes it was all demolished!
Why do I even bother to clean when hours of work is destroyed in mere minutes?
“Come on,” Gourry said as he handed her some pancake, “It’s good.”
“It’s been on the floor!” she said as the kids starting yelling and squealing.
“I want floor pancakes!” Glynn said as he grabbed a bit.
“Me too!” Gwynn said as she joined him.
“Floor pancakes are delicious!” Lucia yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Come on, Mommy, where’s your sense of fun?” Gourry asked as he speared some on his fork and directed it towards her.
Lina laughed, “Hand it over.”
The door opened with a bam, “Knock, knock!” Luna yelled as she strode in and then she sighed as she saw the state of the house, “Honestly, Lina, it’s your husband’s birthday, can’t you get off your lazy butt and clean for once?”
Lina gritted her teeth and thought about how she must have been blessed with a wonderful husband to make up for being cursed with such a cruel sister as Gourry said, “But she does clean a lot. Kids are just messy.”
“You’re too lenient. On all of them.” Luna said as she opened her mouth, likely to opine on just what she would do in his shoes.
“Maybe.” Gourry said as he scratched the back of his head before she could, “But we were having a lot more fun with each other before you arrived. And I’d rather have fun with my family than a screaming stressed out wife and scared kids.”
“Well if I’ve taken all the fun I’ll just leave then. Don’t come crying to me if you get sick from eating off the filthy floor.” Luna said as she turned to leave.
“Nah, we all have a cast iron stomach.” Gourry said with a laugh, “It’ll take more than a little dirt to fell the Gabriev clan!”
Luna shut the door behind her and Lina wrapped an arm around him, “Thank you.” She said.
“Oh I’m happy to kick Luna out anytime.” He said.
“Well that, and for telling her that I did clean. It’s so frustrating that I can spend so much time doing something I absolutely hate and rather than getting a day or even an hour to enjoy all of that hard work, boom, it gets destroyed and it looks like I’ve been lazy. I mean monster slaying was no easy feat but at least they stayed dead and I had something to show for my hard work!”
“Hey, the kids are still young.” He pointed out, “You don’t judge a swordsman on his first week of practice.”
“What does that mean?” Lina asked.
“It means that hard work can look messy from the outside looking in. The kids are still growing into themselves and you’ve been teaching them. But no one expects a seven-year-old to be a master swordsman so why do we expect kids to be excellent housekeepers? And how will they learn if we don’t include them in it and deal with the mess when we can? You’re doing a great job, even if some idiots can’t see it.”
Lina threw her arms around him, “You may be an idiot but somehow you always know what to say! Happy Birthday, lug-head.”