156. Free With Your Love

A/N: Hi!  Swear I didn’t forget about Hive.  Crime’s just been taking up my energy. x)  I know I said there’d be at least one more Crime chapter first, but I don’t wanna work on Crime right now.

—

The second set of quads got aged up.  First, as the oldest, was Finnick.  Where do these big ears come from?  Mine are small and delicate!

Prim was frightened almost as soon as she aged up.

“You dummy, we’re both ghosts,” said Harry.

“Oh, right, yeah.  I’m not scared!  I’m swatting a fly!”

I caught Mags in a rare moment of electric shock.  For some reason, she seems happy.  I hope she can’t feel those shocks, cause that’d make her masochistic.

Cinna appears to have a bit more padding about the middle than his siblings, but what do I know.

“If I win, I get cuddles from you for a week.  If you win, I’ll give you belly rubs for a week.  Deal?”

Either way, they both win.

Prim and I were outside in a rare moment of mother-daughter bonding.

But I just HAD to try out our new slip’n’slide!

No offense, Prim, but this slide is way more interesting than that boring sprinkler.

See, I can do spins!

Teddy must’ve been really lonely being the only teen.  Just look at how excited he seems.  Which is ironic, since he’s a sworn loner.

My handsome Nikko looks like a high chieftain of an olden people.

That, or he looks like me, and by extension, my alien forebears.

Either way, he’s exotic.

“Dude, seriously, where’s your hair?”

“Yeah, where?”

“Look, I simply don’t want hair.  Stop listening to Fred.”

Dobby spends a lot of time dancing.  He recently taught himself the ‘clap and spin.’  Today the spin, tomorrow the splits!

“You think I’m scared?  Well, I’m sorry – BUT I’M NOT!”

“Oy, I’m Fred, Prim!  It was Harry giving you a hard time!”

“Oh, right.  Well, I’m still not scared!”

“GAH!  PRIM!”

“Hehe, you tell Harry from me that I creamed you and that proves I’m not scared of other ghosts!”

“You need a hair growth, Nikko.  How’re you gonna get girls to look at you without hair?”

“This is coming from the guy who prefers his own company to anybody else’s?”

“I never said I want to spend time with girls, but I like when they look at me.”

“Well, Teddy, you realize we’re only a few days old?  We have plenty of time for that later.  Right now, all I want to do is do well in school so that I may get a good job.”

“Assuming anyone’ll hire you, since you’ll scare the bellsugar out of them.”

“Me?  What about you, vampire?”

My adorable Finnick is the budding artist of the bunch.  Which reminds me, I haven’t touched that easel since I moved here.  And I don’t really care.  I was mostly doing it for the money in Twinbrook.  With the remaining funds from my divorce settlement with Cameron and my grandma Anna’s new will, I never have to get a job again.  Motherhood is my job.

“Stop dancing, Cinna!  You’re nauseating to watch.”

“I can’t hear you over my awesome!”

“And thus conclude the amazing adventures of Harry the Brave, Harry the Heroic, Harry the – Prim fell asleep on me, didn’t she?”

“I love our big family!  There’s always somebody to talk to and play with.  Especially cause Mom’s usually doing…stuff.  Has anyone seen Mom?”

“Shh, Mags, we only have like ten minutes and I want to finish this show before the bus gets here.”

“Albus, look, being a couch potato doesn’t mean you have to watch TV all the time, you can just like sitting around talking.”

“Well, I am of the school of thought that TV-time and couch-time are inextricably linked.  Not that it matters now, bus is here.”

Mags wondered where I was?  I was sleeping and eating.  And playing outside.  You know, normal mom stuff.

But with all ten kids off at school, I felt lonely all of the sudden.  I think I often spend too much time watching my kids and not enough actually interacting with them.  I don’t like watching them at school, though.  It’s all very boring, and I’m glad I have rich family so I didn’t have to go to university and get a real job.

I went outside to pay the overdue bills and realized something.  I’ve lived in Moonlight Falls for quite a while now, but I’ve never met my closest neighbors.

So I took Curly out with me.

“Hi!” I said.

“Oh, not another one!”said the girl in the mermaid dress.

“Hello there, beautiful.  I’ve seen you before.  You’re our neighbor, aren’t you?”

“Um…yes.  I’m Elena Queen.  You are?”

“Lucy.  Lucy Lumion.  Why haven’t you dropped by before now?”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Well, better late than never!  Come on in.”

Curly discovered this young fella and seemed to take quite a liking to him.

“You’re nice!  I wish my moms would let me get a dog, but all Mom wants is a horse.  Or a unicorn.  And Mami says we don’t have enough room for anything bigger than a fish.”

My supposedly ‘nice’ dog then got back up to his old tricks.

“You can’t have Lucy, sugar.  She’s mine.”

“Stop it, Mami, Mom’s mine too cause she’s my mom!”

“Um…I’m sorry.  Clearly, you think I’m somebody else.  My name’s Elena Queen.  I don’t want Lucy.”

“Liar!  Everybody wants Lucy!”

“Mami…please…”

“Lance, go to your room and let me deal with this little fairy who thinks she can just come to my house and break up my love!”

“YOU!  Get out of this house!  It’s bad enough Mama and I still live here, Mom doesn’t need another member to add to her harem!  WATCHER, GET HER OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!”

“I don’t want to go to my room!”

“Ugh, I’d rather be dancing than listening to this repeat rubbish.”

I was stunned.  Clearly, I had walked into a bee’s hive posing as a nice neighbors’ home.  My life seemed sane compared to theirs.

“I’m sorry about all this, Elena.  It can seem a bit crazy to an outsider’s perspective, but I swear, we all love each other.”

“Watcher, I’m waiting!  Annihilate the fairy!”

“If you don’t go to your room I’ll take away your pet rock!”

“No, not Pebbles, Mami!”

“As you can see, I could do with a breath of fresh air.  I’ve never been with a fairy before.  Life’s full of firsts.”

“Excuse me, are you coming on to me?”

“Don’t you want me to?”

“No.  I’m…I can’t believe I have to say this, but I’m straight.  I don’t do girls.”

“Have you ever tried?”

“No!  I’m sure it’s a lovely lifestyle for you, but…I really prefer guys.”

“Oh.  Well, that’s too bad.  You really are very beautiful, Elena.  Are you sure, just this once?”

“No.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t even be asking this.  I’m trying to be good to Ella.  I do love her.  Sometimes a vampire just needs a break, you know?”

“Yeah…I guess I do know.”  And I did.  Just…you know, with guys, not girls.

“I have a question.”

“What’s that?”

“Are you by any chance related to a man named Lord Lumion?  You share a strong resemblance.”

“I’ve never heard of anyone by that name, sorry.  It’s possible he’s a cousin of mine.”

“Oh, good.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, I have triplets by him.  I just wanted to be sure you’re not their aunt or something.”

“No, don’t worry about that.  I’m an only child.  It sounds as if you don’t know this Lord fellow very well.”

“I don’t.  I kind of…well, I don’t want to give the wrong impression…”

“Say no more, then.  You’re like me, I can tell.  You tend to be free with your love.”

“Well, yes.”

“If that’s the case, there’s somebody I’d like you to meet.  Let’s go to the graveyard.”

Right when we got there, I saw who she meant.  I suppose I should have guessed.  When it’s not a full moon, there’s no zombies or lunatics running around here.

“Have fun!  If you ever change your mind and want to try something different, drop by my house.”

“Hello there, fair fairy.  I am Billy Coeur.  Do not be deceived by my appearance.  I am not dead, not really, not any longer.”

“But you’re…a ghost.  Doesn’t that make you dead?”

“The same could also be said of our mutual acquiantance, Lucy.  As a vampire, she is termed the undead.  But does not she act very much alive?”

“Yes, I suppose she does.  I am Elena.  Elena Queen.”

“Elena,” he breathed in a sigh.  “From the moment I have seen you – ”

“You mean like a minute ago?” I giggled.

“Well, yes.  But from the moment I have seen you, I have wished to court you.  May I do so?”

“I don’t know about courting…why don’t we start with the fun part first?”

“Really?  But a lady such as yourself should not be so interested in the pleasures of the flesh.”

“Don’t tell me what I’m interested in, Mr. Coeur.  If I say I’m interested in taking you right now, right here, then by Berry I am.”

And with that, my thoroughly uninterested dog left.

—

A/N:  Billy Coeur was made by Milenchica.

I did say Lord Lumion is a clone in a previous posting, so I decided to stick with that.  lol  I dunno if I’ll do anything with him, but there you go.

And, for those who read the Lumion Legacy, a couple of things:

1. No, I don’t know if I’ll ever update the legacy again.  That’s why I decided to bring them over to Elena’s Moonlight Falls instead of having them be separate universes.  I’m actually thinking of making Lucy Elena’s new best friend since Zoey Sky kind of faded from the story a while back. x)

2. Beatrice Crumplebottom was duplicated, lol.  There are now two versions of her here, the one that had triplets with Claus Bloopenhooper and is still an adult, and the elder version who’s living with Lucy still.  I didn’t think of it until I’d already moved her to the town, so I guess we’ll go with the clone theory for both cases? lol

155. Busy Bee

A/N: So…I changed my mind.  I decided not to switch to Holly’s perspective in this chapter.  Sorry!

Also, thank you to Nay, who gifted the playpen and walker from Aurora Skies to her readers.  The walker kept me sane. 😀

—

Dobby and his brothers grew into children, because even I can’t handle eight toddlers for long.  He resembles his namesake strongly.

My, what big ears Harry has.

Fred favors the barely-visible-face look.  Mama is not sure she approves.

And Albus, is, as ever, a walking representation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Note the green eyebrows, yellow eyes, blue and green hair, and red skin.

The triplets have been a big help.  I really don’t know where I’d be without them.  Probably an asylum.  Even someone who’s been doing this as long as I have can still go mad from it, apparently.

“I’m never having kids,” said Remiel.

“I am!” said Shya.

“Really?  After all this?”

“Mom’s hardly representative of average motherhood.  I’m sure it’d be much easier with my own kids.  I don’t want hundreds of them!”

“A hundred.  If she was going for hundreds she’d be older than a hundred before she was done.”

“Just how old is Mom, anyways?”

“Search me.”

“Gran, I’ve decided something.”

“What’s that?”

“I gotta leave.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m leaving.  I don’t want to live here anymore.”

“Where will you go?  Back to Zoey?  Back to your Mom’s?”

“No…I was thinking of moving in with the people I partied with.”

I was glad she couldn’t see my face.  “But…you told me you had woohoo with one of them and then realized you didn’t really like him and that you really like a woman who was there.”

“Yeah.  So?”

“So…why are you moving into a zone ripe for drama?”

“Because I want out, Gran!  I’m sick of being surrounded by squalling babies, I’m sick of being your bodyguard, I’m just…tired.  I want a change of scene, and living with the Coven will certainly be that.”

“Oh, so they’re the Coven now, huh?”

“That’s what they call themselves.  Something tells me you don’t like them much.”

“I don’t even know them!”

“I think you should move out!” announced Sydney.  “There are way too many Monokinchians and Fugly Wall Peoples around here and they show no signs of leaving.  Sometimes it’s better to retreat!”

“As good a reason as any.”

I didn’t like it.  It wasn’t because of…him.  It wasn’t even because Holly was so young.  It just…well, I’d started to think of Holly as a permanent fixture around here.  With her gone, I felt like I’d be missing part of my team.  And that coven did sound pretty dodgy.  Why were they letting her live with them?  Were they masochistic?

I didn’t voice any of my opinions, though.  Holly is a grown woman.

“Do you think I did the right thing, baby?”

He snuffled my ear.  Not much of an answer, but what did a puppyless dog know about releasing pups into the world?

“What are you still doing here?” asked Harry.  “Thought chu left?”

“I was just…getting ready to go.”

“You’re saying goodbye to the rocking chair, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“I had a dream, that I was just like you, Mags!  Well, not really cause you’re not a fairy ghost and I was, but I was an electrocuted ghost like you but apart from that I guess I was more like Fred.  Anyways!  I don’t know how I got that way but I just suddenly was and I realized that for once I was equal to you guys and it felt good!  Also, I really liked going through solid objects.  Although going through the toilet made me feel like I was a toilet…urgh!  Anyways, how was your sleep?”

“…Unno?”

I found Nikko asleep in my bed and he was so precious I couldn’t bear to kick him out.  I usually sleep in the fairy house anyways.  I just like having a miniature bed.

“Why must everyone invade the inner sanctum?  The inner sanctum does not like invasion!” said Teddy.

My dear son, making the entire living-dining room your ‘inner sanctum’ is about as effective as peeing on the floor to mark your territory.  It just smells of snobbery.

“Can you show me how to dig a hole?  Maybe I can dig a big enough hole to have an underground inner sanctum just like they were meant to be!”

Uh, Mama don’t think so.

“Mom, if you have one more kid I’m going to mutiny!” said Albus.

“Al, she still wants another thirty-two kids.  I don’t think mutiny’s an option,” said Remiel.

“It’s always an option!”

“What’s mutiny?” asked Dobby.

“Not this again!” I said.  “I heard enough of this harping from your Twinbrook siblings.  I am having a hundred kids.  You are all going to have to live with that.  Capische?”

“I don’t like you,” said Fred.

“What…why?”

“Cause you’re bald!  What kind of ghost is bald!”

“I just don’t want hair, that’s all!  What’s the point when it’s just thick ghost-matter on top of my head?”

“You take that back!”

“Take what back?  I was just explaining!  What’s with you?”

“You know what, I don’t have to deal with you and your drama llamaness.”

“I’m sorry, Nikko, I didn’t mean it.”

“Really?”

“No!  I meant every word!  What sort of self-respecting kid thinks hair is bad?”

“A dead one?”

“We ain’t dead, we’re limited edition!”

“Not that limited edition…”

“Hey, Dobby, let’s be cool too!”

“I thought we were already cool.”

“Well, let’s be cooler!  We can have arguments about hair!”

“I think I’d rather play tag.”

“Okay!”

While I love my kids, even I was getting weary of their tantrums.  I’m sure I’ll miss this when the house is emptier, though.  Nothing like quads to make a mother feel busy and wanted.

“Grrr…does no one understand the term, ‘inner sanctum’?”

“It’s you who misunderstands, honey.”

I made several improvements to the house.  One was purchasing three walkers.  I admit, I enjoyed the break from training.  Do you realize how sore one’s wrists can get pulling a toddler up?

Finnick looks like he’s walking Indian style.

I also got two playpens, one for indoors, one for outdoors.

Cinna was the first to test one out.

“And then, if you’d believe it, I woke up and realized I wasn’t a ghost anymore when I nearly fell out of my miniature bunk bed in the fairy house!  Berry, I love that thing.  All a fairy could ever want!  Well, except a bath.  For a house, it sure lacks in plumbing.”

I do have to appreciate the selective unsolidity of my ghost babies.  Imagine if they floated through everything – they’d never learn anything!

With training over thanks to the walkers, teens, and myself, it was nice to relax with Prim.  For a few minutes, anyways.

“Hi, Holly!  How are things?  Good?  Really?  No fights?  Oh…I see.  Honey, turning people into toads does not solve your problems.  I know, I know, no lecturing, but really, toads?  What about zombies?  At least they resemble Sims!”

Holly seems to be doing well.  She doesn’t call me – I have to call her.  I hope she’s really doing well.  I haven’t had any visions of her, so I can only guess by the tone of her voice.

What?  No, I’m not ignoring Mags.  I’m just looking for scary monsters.  With my eyes closed.

“Gotta tell you, Sydney, I can’t wait to move out.”

“You read my mind.”

“WHOO, WE’RE GREEN!  Why are we green?” asked Sydney.

“Don’t look at me, it was Shya!” said Remiel.

“I admit nothing.”

I make beautiful babies, if I do say so myself.

All right, so some credit goes to Lord Lumion, wherever he is.

But I get most of it.

“Do you think we’re attracting the Monokinchians with the sparkly candles?”

“Let’s find out…TOOOOT!”

“I wish for normal sisters!”

Teddy gained a strong jaw from his father, which he’d been threatening to do since the tiny toddler days.  I have to say, he cuts a handsome figure.

I’m sure his neck will grow into the jaw.

“Hey, Nik, think you’ll grow some stubble when you’re a teen?”‘

“Shut up, Fred.”

“We did it!  Now to age the other set of quads and Nikko up tomorrow – then I’ll be a free woman!  Free to pursue more daddies!  It’s amazing what a difference four kids instead of three, two, or one can make!  Or should I say, eight?  Or sixty-eight?”

—

A/N: I think I’ll be updating Queens of Crime next.  Already have some pics and I really want to get my time-skip update up so I can move on in my semi-planned storyline for that.

Oh, and don’t worry – Holly’ll be back.  When’s the question, not if. XD