4.25 'Manipletif'

 "I need my shirt back, miss." Winter muttered, wrapping his arms around her and surprising her. She'd not even been aware that he was awake when she'd crept downstairs to start breakfast, and hadn't heard or seen him come down the stairs right in front of her.
"Well, you have to wait. I don't like cooking naked." Kaity smirked, pushing herself into his crotch to indicate she was literally only wearing his shirt. Winter pulled a face, looking into the pan on the hob.
"I didn't think you liked cooking at all."
"I don't. I can't cook, but I'm feeling confident today."
"What are you making?" He asked after the off-white goop in the pan.
"Waffles, silly!"
"You don't cook waffles in a frying pan."
"Well, I do." She replied, stubbornly. Ending the conversation.

 "You're all wet." She noted, drawing circles on his arm with her thumb, and running her fingers through his hair with her other hand.
"Yes. I had a shower, and then was going to get dressed but someone's stolen my shirt." He tugged at the sleeve of his shirt to emphasise his point.
"Hm. Well. I was gunna make breakfast and then get dressed before I got the kids up."
"You were going to serve the kids cold... Uhm... 'Waffles'?" He kissed her cheek to show he meant no harm.
"To be honest, I hadn't thought about any of that." She went back to stirring whatever it was that was now burning in the pan. "I woke up at four, and couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I could make breakfast. I tried to find a recipe online, but I think I might have mixed a few recipes I looked at together. And then-" She stopped and sighed. "This really isn't working. I think they'll have cereal today, unless Shae wakes up and saves the day." Winter laughed quietly, and kissed her cheek again, before moving around her, turning the gas off and pulling her into his arms.

"So. Now you're done cooking..."
"Winter, seriously? What time do you have to be at work? Anyone would think you couldn't wait to get out of here. Are you worried what the kids will think? I can explain to them later-" Winter silenced her with a kiss.
"You didn't let me finish my sentance, but no, I'm not worried what the kids will think. I know they've seen men here before, and I'm pretty sure we didn't wake them up when we came in last night. I have work at eight, but I was going to go home and get some clean clothes first."
"I can give you a lift? I can't be bothered to work today, so I don't think I'll open the shop. I'm still a bit drunk, to be honest, so I'd rather be cuddling with the babies when the hangover kicks in."
"Can you do that?" Winter looked a little worried that she'd just close the shop with no warning.
"I can do what I want. It's my shop, and if someone is that desperate to know their future they can knock on the door or something." Kaity suddenly started giggling.

"What?"
"Why are you only wearing a towel? Two towels... Why are you wearing both my towels?"
"Because someone stole my shirt. And I was too fat for one towel." He pouted, and Kaity nearly fell over laughing.
"Maybe you could help me get your shirt off then, fatty?" She leaned in to kiss him, and as their lips met they were interrupted.
"Mummy what were you laughing- oh. Morning Winter..."
"Ew! What's that smell?" Kaity cursed under her breath.

"Maybe later." She breathed to Winter, before turning to face the large crowd. "Well, Soph, that smell was supposed to be your breakfast, but apparently I can't cook-"
"We know you can't cook!" Jaydean laughed, bouncing Elise on her back. "You're the only one who doesn't."
"Oi, cheeky. Watch your mouth or you'll have to eat what I made." Jaydean pulled a face. "Exactly. So, cereal anyone?"

"Why is Winter here so early?" Sophie asked, not able to see how little he was wearing.
"Because we had a sleepover." She replied, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to have 'the conversation' so early in the morning, or their lives.
"Oh. Can we have a sleepover tonight?"
"No. You have school today and tomorrow. Maybe Saturday."

"But moooooommmm!" Both twins moaned.
"'But moooommm!'" Kaity mimicked, causing the twins to scowl.
"You're allowed!" Sophie pointed out, pouting.
"I'm a grown up and I don't have school. And anyway, now I'm really tired and unless you two can get your grades up to at least a B you're not allowed to be tired at school." Both girls moaned, Kaity didn't like to use their low grades against them, but she knew they could do better than the D they had both got on their last test. "Now, come on, give me and Winter a baby each and grab yourselves some cereal."

"Is Winter going to live here now?" Jaydean asked with her mouth full of cereal. Kaity's heart stopped, Winter looked equally uncomfortable, and it was up to Shaena to say something.
"What makes you ask that, honey?"
"Because everyone elses mummy and daddy live together. I know Winter isn't our daddy, but now you guys have got Autumn then maybe it's about time to think about settling down, don't you think?" Shaena and Winter attempted to hold in a laugh, while Kaity was sure she was going to be sick.
"Jay, eat your cereal and stop asking silly questions." Kaity scolded, shakily.

"She wasn't asking silly questions, mummy. She was making a valid point and you know it." Sophie spoke up. Kaity found herself glaring at her daughters, hoping they'd shut up, but they didn't appear to look at her once. Shaena, on the other hand, was finding this whole situation hilarious, and even laughed out loud. She didn't dare to look at Winter to see what he made of this mess of a conversation. "We know in this day and age you can kiss whoever you want and you don't have to get married to do it, but that doesn't mean you can't get married." Kaity thought her eyes would pop out of her head at the mention of marriage.
"Yeah, mum. I mean, look. You're never gunna find someone else who can put up with you going crazy like Winter can, so you may as well just admit that and marry him." Jaydean chipped in again.

The twins finished their cereal, and got up to clear their bowls. Kaity braved a glance at the two people beside her. Shaena was giggling, and trying to hide the fact behind Josh's head, Winter looked a little surprised, but nowhere near how Kaity was feeling.
"So? Are you getting married?" Sophie asked, looking first Kaity, then Winter in the eye. Jaydean turned from her bowl to see their reactions.
"Just go to school." Kaity replied, trying not to cry. She couldn't believe her kids were pressuring her to get married, and it made her feel like she'd failed them in some way by not tracking their father down.

"But the schoolbus isn't here yet." Sophie pointed out, while Shaena and Winter tried to ignore the extremly awkward conversation.
"Have you done your homework?" Kaity was glad to finally see a way to change the conversation. Both girls froze and looked at each other. "Are you kidding me?! What were you doing with that babysitter last night?"
"Nothing! He just let us watch some TV." Jaydean defended their sitter. They liked Michael, he let them get away with anything.
"Right, well, tonight when you get home, you're chained to that kitchen table until every last scrap of homework is finished. Do you understand?"
"Oh but!"
"No. No buts. Homework, or I'll fire Michael." Both girls scowled again, while Kaity let herself breathe a sigh of relief that the marriage conversation seemed to have been forgotton.

_____

"It's not fair!" Sophie shouted, loud enough for her mother to hear from the living room.
"I don't care!" Kaity called back. Usually, she'd help them if they got stuck, but she was still so annoyed from that morning that she'd told them they had to do it all on their own. Sophie huffed and started scribbling in the bottom corner of her work book while she contemplated an answer.

"Hey, good call on all the marriage stuff this morning." Jaydean grinned. "I wasn't going to go any further than him living here, but that was a great idea. Do you think they got the message?" The twins had been discussing ways to get their mother to take her relationship with Winter to the next step for weeks now, this mornings conversation was just the start.

"I dunno, Jay." Sophie sighed, looking at her completed doodle on her homework. "She seemed pretty mad. Maybe it was a step to far this early in the operations? And he's not here right now. He's almost always here when he finishes work."

"Do you think we scared him off?" Jaydean asked, mortified by the idea. "We wanted him to move in, but grown ups don't work like us. Maybe what we said made them think the opposite? Maybe he decided he didn't like us anymore?"

"Jay, mum can't scare him off, so there's no way we could scare him off. For all they know, we were just asking because all our 'little friends' have two parents." Jaydean nodded her agreement. "Besides, we have a few more tricks up our sleeves before we need to worry about it."

Jaydean laughed, remembering the other possible stages they'd planned. "When do we try stage two?"
"Not for a few weeks. We don't want them suspicious, do we?" Sophie replied.
"No. I guess we better get our grades up, though. Mr Blake said he'd ring home if we didn't turn homework in again."
"Yeah, but what are we doing now? And he didn't say it had to be grade A homework, or even completed..." Sophie grinned at her sister, and Jaydean matched her expression.
"Oh, wait!" Jaydeans face fell as she remembered something. "Mummy will be so mad if we don't get better grades on our next test, though. Maybe too mad to marry Winter."

 "Jay, as far as she knows, our grades and her relationship with Winter are in no way related." Sophie sighed, rubbing out yet another spelling mistake. "How have you spelt 'manipulative'?"
"M-A-N-I-P-L-E-T-I-F" Jaydean recited for her sister. "And I guess you're right. If we do this properly they'll never know we had anything to do with it."




*dies of embarassment* What the hell is up with the ceiling tiles downstairs? I apologise... I hope nobody noticed :/ Please also ignore the ringtone in the first pic (Kaity gets more cold calls than even I do!), and the fact that something weird happened to Josh and Autumn near the end of breakfast... Dunno what that was...