Title: Merry Little Voices
Author:
cutthroatpixieCharacter(s) or Pairing(s): Romano/Fem!Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, OC children
Rating: PG
Warnings: Kidfic, polyamory, when Antonio is the mother children become Disney princesses
Summary: This is what happens when Antonio gets his turn to be the mother.
Note: Gisella = third OT4 child. Alejandro is ~14, Celio is ~8, Gisella is ~4 and they are all ADORBS.
It was a warm summer evening, right in the middle of July, and Lovina was just winding down from a long, hard day of sitting behind the counter of Caffe Quadratto doing her nails while Antonio attempted to teach Alejandro how to use the cash register. Alejandro was not the problem, nor was Antonio's teaching skills (he was a teacher, after all, though his style didn't exactly suit teenagers)- Antonio just had no idea how to really use the cash register, even after all the years he’d spent working the café along with everyone else. Alejandro was a smart kid and could have probably figured it out on his own (plus Romano had already shown him how to use the damn thing), but he was also sweet, far too sweet, and he just nodded and watched and played along as Antonio attempted to show him how to open the cash register and give their (growing ever more frustrated) customers their change.
Lovina had eventually had to take over, and damnit, teaching was hard. Teaching was hard and work was hard and life was hard, which she had explained to Antonio many times on the way home from work, but now she could finally relax. She poured herself a glass of wine and sat down on the... blanket fort that had apparently replaced her couch.
“Gisella.”
“Hi Mamma!”
“Antonio.”
“Lovi, hi! You're sitting on me.”
Lovina realised that. Lovina realised that so much. “No sh- “ Gisella gasped in anticipation of the word Lovina was no doubt about to say and Lovina cut herself off, sighing and rolling off of Antonio's blanketed form. “Why is there a fort? No, how did you even have time for a fort, we’ve been home for ten minutes.”
“It’s not a fort, it’s a castle.” Antonio peaked out from under the blankets and Lovina rolled her eyes at the paper crown perched on his head.
Another paper-crowned head soon followed after him. Gisella smiled up at Lovina as she repeated after Antonio, “Castle, silly Mamma!”
“…Right. I'm going to take a bath. I'm going to take a bath and when I come back, the blanket fort needs to be turned back into a couch.”
A chorus of buts followed her as she tried to make a quick getaway, but Lovina was having none of it. “Taking a bath! Turn it back into a couch!”
“Fiiiiine.”
She wasn't surprised at all when the response came from, not the four-year-old girl hiding under the blankets, but from Antonio. Lovina had stopped being surprised by these sorts of things many years ago.
At least, that is what she thought.
“Come my little friends,” Gisella sang, laughter in her voice as she picked up Javier (a.k.a. The Pervert Cat) and swung him around in her little arms, blonde hair (blonde hair that Lovina was very proud of, thank you very much, because if morons were going to continue to stare at and ponder about their family, at least they could get a fucking curve ball when the blonde ringlets and clear green-blue eyes of their daughter didn’t match up to anyone else) spinning around behind her as she did so.
“As we all sing a happy little working song,” Antonio added, voice nowhere near as high-pitched or childish as the little girl's, but every bit as cheerful.
“Merry little voices clear and strong!” they sang together, oblivious to the fact that Lovina had not yet left the room. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, but Lovina was not quite sure what to do with herself as she watched Antonio and Gisella twirl and dance in time with the song, while somehow managing to clean up their mess just as efficiently (if not more so) than if they were just acting like normal people and not dancing around at the same time. After a complicated dance number and a few minor heart attacks when Antonio tossed Gisella up into the hair, all the blankets were neatly folded and put into a pile. Gisella skipped and spun as she carried them all off one by one to their rightful place in the closet, still singing as clear as day. As another verse started they honed in on the pillows, gathering them up one by one and tossing them onto the couches and chairs they belonged to, somehow managing to make them land perfectly though neither were really watching where they were throwing, too busy laughing and singing in perfect unison.
Javier tried to slink away and Lovina thought maybe the cat did have some sense about him, but then Antonio took a turn twirling him around and when he set him down, the half-dizzy cat nudged a pillow into place, as if he were helping to clean up as well.
“Fucking hell,” Lovina mumbled, heading towards the kitchen instead of the bathroom. She seriously wasn't drunk enough for this shit.
“Aw, look how cute they are!” She wasn’t drunk enough for Antonia’s shit either, but she didn’t think that was even possible without giving herself alcohol poisoning. “I’m so glad Antonio got his turn being the mother after all, he’s so good at it.”
“Mhmm.”
“I mean, it was really hard,” Antonia continued, thankfully pouring the wine Lovina had come to get for herself. “And you had to help out a lot, which is good, it was so nice of you because Antonio needed lots of mothering help, and Romano still won’t take his turn, but at least Antonio got one!”
“Got one what?” Antonio asked, entering the kitchen with Gisella perched proudly on his shoulders.
“Your turn!”
“Ah, yeah, I did! You guys are so nice, not skipping me even though Lovina won the coin toss!”
“Yeah, I’m a saint or something.” Lovina just sipped her wine and watched as Gisella was suddenly swung around from her perch on Antonio’s shoulders, her knees coming dangerously close to hitting her “mother” in the face.
They didn’t, though, because Antonio and Gisella probably choreographed that too. Lovina wondered if they had a “happy little scare the hell out of Lovina by tossing Gisella around like a rag doll” song too. Probably. Now that Lovina knew about the cleaning song, it made her wonder what else they sang songs about…
“Let’s making something, let’s making something~!”
…Actually she was really done with all this singing business.
“You are seriously taking your turn next time, Romano,” she mumbled, leaving the kitchen and hoping the musical number wouldn’t follow her this time.