#however colouring this made me want to bang pot and pans together

[luthqrs]

#lying thieving cow (affectionate) DAISY MIDGELEY in CORONATION STREET ↝ 17.01.2025

[amysteriousmessenger]

‘When The Clock Strikes Twelve’ RFA (+ Saeran and V) x Reader, New Years Headcanons

Just a little something extra to celebrate the end of 2020, it’s been rough and I truly hope that 2021 is better for all of us. The RFA believes in you and hopes for a better year too!

(Mix of SFW and NSFW implied)

Zen/Hyun Ryu x Reader New Years Headcanons

Zen usually enjoyed going to parties on new years, but this year was different. He was spending it curled up on the sofa with you, and he was thankful for it. It was just you, him, some delicious food and plenty of beers.

The two of you would be watching a film together, and because he’s a gentleman, he let you pick. You settle on a musical, surprisingly not one he stars in, but that doesn’t stop him from knowing all of the lyrics to every song and serenading you with them.

By the time it’s 11.45pm, you’re both almost entirely out of alcohol and he’s somehow wiggled you into straddling his lap, not that you minded in the slightest.

The film continued playing but was long forgotten as you peppered lipstick filled kisses down his jar and neck. For a moment, you had both honestly forgotten that you were waiting for midnight, and only realised when you heard the sudden boom of fireworks that it was the new year.

Zen and you both scramble to lift your drinks up to toast the new year and resume kissing, almost aggressively.

‘Jagiya~ How about we continue this in the bedroom so we can Christen the new year properly?’ He’d whisper as he kissed up to your ear, before promptly lifting you bridal style off of his lap and carrying you into the next room.

Jaehee Kang x Reader New Years Headcanons

Jaehee was very tired by the nighttime, but it wasn’t often she got a paid holiday off so she wanted to take the full advantage of being able to spend it with you. The two of you spent the day baking, having fun, watching various musicals of Zen’s, relaxing and just enjoying one another’s company.

When it came to five to midnight, you would both be standing outside on her balcony ready to watch the fireworks and call the count down. The live News countdown would playing on the TV. Jaehee didn’t particularly care for New Years usually as she typically spent it alone, but she was enjoying making a memory of it with you.

You heard the countdown begin on the TV and felt Jaehee hold you a little closer against the chill air, a glimmer of excitement flashing in her honey eyes. ‘Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!’ you chant in unison as she turns with a smile, bringing your lips together. She had never had a new years kiss before, and it felt so magical with the fireworks illuminating the sky in colourful flowers behind you.

‘Happy New Year, ____. I hope we get another year of happiness together.’

Yoosung Kim x Reader New Years Headcanons

It was too far to travel to either of your homes, so you decided to just have a nice New Years together in his dorm. The two of you spent some time with his flatmates, made food together, played some LOLOL and settled onto his bed for a movie and a cuddle.

Yoosung was a little worried that maybe you weren’t having enough fun and that he wished you could have done something more exciting, but you assured him that you were more than happy to just spend the time with him.

You suddenly woke up when you heard his flatmates start yelling the countdown outside your room and shook Yoosung awake too. You hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but Yoosung was just so warm and cosy! Everything was happening so fast that by the time Yoosung was conscious, the countdown was already on four.

There was a slight confusion and panic evident across both of your faces as you suddenly, and probably with a bit too much eagerness, smashed your lips together at ‘one!’ so you both still got your new years kiss. 

After the moment of urgency had passed, you both looked at eachother, and down towards eachothers lips in a flustered embarrassment. Yoosung’s face had gone a little red, so you pressed another less time-sensitive kiss to his warm cheek.  - ‘Happy New Year, Yoosung.’ ‘Happy New Year, ____.’

Jumin Han x Reader New Years Headcanons

Jumin had the chef prepare a special evening meal for the two of you and had an extra special bottle of wine brought up from the wine cellar to accompany it. He usually spent New Years alone doing work since he didn’t feel like he cared enough about the holiday to prioritise it over getting ahead of his work schedule, but this year was different because you were with him.

He would have let you take the lead on how you wanted the two of you to spend the evening after the meal, and was delighted to find out that you just wanted to spend the time enjoying each others company and sharing some wine by his fire.

The countdown would have also been playing on Jumin’s huge television. He didn’t usually put it on because he never had time for such leisure, but you had wanted to watch the countdown and he would do anything to indulge you for it.

When it was two minutes to midnight, you both went out into his rooftop gardens to enjoy the view from his skyline. You heard the chants as the last ten seconds loomed and Jumin wrapped his arm around your waist, staring lovingly at you. 

When the clock struck twelve, Jumin dipped you into a long, sweet kiss before pulling you back up and wishing you a happy new year.

As a surprise, he had prepared a special fireworks show for you, featuring all your favourite colours in extravagant displays. It was like nothing you had ever seen before and you dare not think how much it cost him. It was such a sweet gesture that you couldn’t help but pull him towards you and kiss him again. He barely even watched the fireworks, he just watched you watching them.

After the fireworks had ended, like Zen, he also would have suggested ‘christening’ the new year and led you away to the bedroom for some extra celebrations. 

Saeyoung Choi x Reader New Years Headcanons

Seven had never celebrated a New Years, and he felt somewhat guilty being able to now, but he was at least thankful that he now had you and Saeran to share it with. He would have been determined to make it as special as possible.

You two would have watched a film together, eating the snacks that Saeran had baked and then prank called Yoosung and Zen. Seven watched to try prank calling Jumin but you reminded him that he didn’t want to go to federal prison.

He’d set off some very small fireworks in his garden for you all to enjoy, and would have chased you with a sparkler in hand. You saw Seven briefly consider chasing Saeran too, but one threatening look from this brother told him otherwise.

Saeran would have gotten too cold and went inside to watch the fireworks from his bedroom window, leaving you and Seven alone on the blanket on the garden floor.

Seven had set an alarm on his phone to warn him when there was a minute beforehand, and when it went off he pulled you extra close to him - so that your head was resting on his chest. 

You whispered the countdown together and you propped yourself up onto your arms to place a long kiss onto your boyfriends lips before returning to watch the firework display with him.

‘Happy New Year, ____. It’s been rough but I hope you put up with me for another one.’

Bonus: He tried to chase Saeran to give him a New Years kiss on the head and only stopped when he was threatened with getting tased.

Saeran Choi x Reader New Years Headcanons

Saeran didn’t... know what New Years was. He had always been the one to see it at a distance, or hear about it vaguely from other people. To him, it was just the day the calendar changed. He didn’t really know how to celebrate it, but he was open to learning if you were the one showing him.

You’d spend the day doing things that made him happy, namely starting with lots of baking and cooking because you knew how much joy it brought him to see you eating the snacks he made.

He wanted to watch films with ice-cream, and you were more than ready to oblige him in that. 

Seven had bought some sparklers for you to share because he didn’t know if Saeran would like the loud bangs of the fireworks at such close contact. But when it was night time, Saeran was absolutely captivated by the sparklers. He thought they were so pretty and adored the way they sparkled in your eyes, like tiny fireworks just for the two of you.

Speaking of fireworks, Seven stayed for a bit in the garden with the two of you before he decided he should probably go back to work and leave the two of you to enjoy some privacy. 

Saeran had never seen fireworks before, he already thought the sky was breathtaking regardless, but he had no idea that all these colours could be added to it. He felt like a child witnessing ti for the first time, and could barely take his eyes off it. His brother was right, he wasn’t a fan of the loud noises but he was willing to look over it in order to get to enjoy the fireworks. 

At midnight, you explained the concept of a new years kiss and asked if Saeran would like one, which of course he did. He was more than happy for one, actually. The both of you sat up for a moment and kissed by the light of the rainbow fireworks as you heard the final countdown indicating that the new year had begun. 

That, and the fact that Seven had come running outside banging pots and pans together and shouting Happy New Year! 

Jihyun Kim/V x reader New Years Headcanons

V had done both versions of New years, both at art exhibition parties and relaxing at home. He very much preferred the latter. He savoured the quiet time he had with you, the warm fire and a glass of wine- talking about everything, nothing, and whatever else you wanted to. 

It wasn’t a particularly special occasion for him, so like Jumin, he would let you choose how you wanted to spend the evening. 

He would, however, chosen the wine for you especially and wanted to cook for you - to show you his appreciation for all the love, time and patience you had given him over the last year. He would state that he could never encapsulate how he feels about you, but this is just a fraction of  start. 

When it was midnight, he would have taken his camera out with him to take pictures of you watching the fireworks, he wanted to capture a sense of innocence at the wonder but was slightly concerned that the fireworks would have been too far away. Even if that was the case, he still wanted picture of you to commemorate the new year.

The two of you would be standing on his back porch as the radio in the background called the countdown. When there were ten seconds left, V would turn to you and cup your face with once hand and pull you at the waist with the other; he wanted to remember how you looked in this moment. He could never capture such a thing with his camera, so he had to burn it to memory. 

The kiss was chaste, but with emotion behind it. You wanted to collapse into him under the kiss, but to do that you would have had to have broken it first, which you absolutely didn’t want to do either. 

[glitterysummerkitty]

Jake Gyllenhaal

Source-  https://wifflegif.com/gifs/446604-jake-gyllenhaal-shaking-head-no-gif

Jake Gyllenhaal One- Shot

Requested by ANON

Pairing- Jake Gyllenhaal x Reader

Warning(s)- mild swearing

       You file the last of the document in its file before checking everything was in order. It was one of those days when life just decides to be hard on you. First it had been the alarm that bailed on you. Only when the sweet smell of waffles and fried eggs had tickled your nose did you wake. It had left you furious when you saw that it was way past your time to wake up and, your boyfriend, instead of waking you up, was out in the kitchen making breakfast. While this would make you happy any other day, it didn’t today.

“Why the hell did you not wake me up?”, you had spat venomously as you entered the kitchen. Jake had been taken aback but he grinned as he scratched his head.

“Well I thought that maybe you could just stay in home and we could do something together. I have really missed you.”, he smiled. Normally you would have melted in his arms and kissed the living day lights out of him but not today.

“I am going to be presenting my project before some of the top people in the company you jerk! Of course your selfish head couldn’t retain that information!”, you had yelled back at him. Jake lost his smile and also his colour instantly.

“You only think about yourself sometimes!”, you had accused him as you headed out the door of your shared apartment, leaving behind a visibly pissed and hurt Jake.

      The day only got worse when you arrived to your own presentation twenty five minutes late. The big bosses had made no effort to hide their disappointment and displeasure.

      Your tardiness affected your performance drastically. The displeasure you had seen in your senior’s faces made your confidence fall flat to the ground and it reflected in your stammering speech and also you had kept mixing up the data, which was humiliating to say the least.

    To add to the humiliation, you didn’t get to lead your own project. This was something you had already expected, seeing as how badly you had screwed up your presentation. Yet it was painfully heart wrenching to hear them confirm what you already knew in your heart.

      Rest of the day was less eventful but at this point you cared for nothing. You kept thinking about the day and how it turned out. You couldn’t believe that just because your alarm didn’t go off you missed on the opportunity of your life. You had poured your heart and soul into the project and to say that it would be painful to watch someone else take the lead was an understatement. And then there was Jake.

      In the calmness of your office as you recalled everything, trying to see where you went wrong or whom or what you could place the blame on, you realise how stupid of you it was to yell at the man you love so much and also how stupid it was to blame him for anything. You had been furious and when that happened you always lost the brain to mouth filter and never thought twice before you spoke. This always left you with deep regret later, like it did now, and you hope that Jake wasn’t mad about it still.

      You reach out and pick the phone off of the desk and check to see there were plenty of texts and a few calls that you had missed but none of them where from Jake. You blow out a frustrated breath as you sink into the leather chair, trying to think of something to do to appease Jake once you got home.

        However, two hours later, when you finally make it home, any thoughts of trying to appease Jake slowly starts to leave as you step into the house. Even before you entered the apartment you could hear loud guffawing and it didn’t take much for you to realise that your brother was home. Jake and your brother got along very fine and by the amount of shouting and yelling going on you guessed they were playing on PSP.

“Hey guys. I am home.”, you announce as you drop your bag and walk into the living room.

“Hey Baby!”, Jake greets rather cheerfully followed by your brother who only grunts in response.

      Jake’s lack of anger should have calmed you but instead you felt triggered as you looked around the living room, which at the moment resembled a pig’s sty. There was beer cans and snack packs all over the place. Also both the men had decided it was a good idea to leave their sweaty hoodies on the couch.

      Rolling your eyes at the two men, who had gone back to playing, you walk into the kitchen and feel your headache threaten to pull you down seeing the sink overflow with soiled dishes. The damp air was filled with the smell of stale food making your nose wrinkle. Horrified you scan the kitchen and see the bread crumbs on the counter, the box of butter lying open, the empty bread packet lying in the counter along with the skin of banana and orange.

      Jake wasn’t usually this messy but somehow whenever he hung out with your brother, your brother seemed to manage to bring out the pig in him. Feeling your blood boil you begin clear out the counter. You dump everything in the garbage bin before throwing the dishes in the dishwasher. Both cutlery and pans and spoons and pots went in there with much clang and clutter, some plates even breaking in the process but you didn’t care. You were angry and upset and you needed to vent them out.

      Seconds later you hear the house go quite, the chaotic sound of laughter and cheering nowhere to be heard, but you don’t stop. You dump the half full pack of detergent into the machine, all over the dirty dishes.

“Hey... Y/B/N left.”, you hear Jake’s voice come from behind you as you slam the door and press some buttons. Without looking at Jake or acknowledging him you grab a scrub from under the sink and begin to scrub the gas range which had dried splatters of gravy and sauce. You tried to guess what had occurred in here as you silently assessed the crime scene nothing made any sense.

“I can do that--”, you feel Jake’s hand against your arm, trying to pull you away but you jerk him away and hiss at him, “I can do it!”

“Y/N--”

“Jake! I had a terrible day and the last thing I want to do is argue with you so please just f*** off!”, you say through gritted teeth.

“What is your problem?”, Jake fires back, clearly pissed. “If you don’t want me here Y/N, just say the damn words and I will leave!”

“What is my problem? What is my problem?”, you feel rage course through your vein, chasing every rational thought, “My problem is that my idiot of a boyfriend decides to make breakfast for his still sleeping girlfriend instead of waking her up for work, my problem is that because of him I lose the biggest project of my life for which I had worked my a** off. My problem is that the same ass of a boyfriend acts like he did nothing wrong and doesn’t even bother asking how my presentation was.”

“You’re so busy spending the day with Y/B/N that you don’t even fucking care what happened with me and then I walk into this place which is supposed to be our kitchen but at the moment smells like sewer!”

      You swing around and bang on the window panes, pushing them open and letting the cool evening breeze to flood in.

“Look! I am sorry I forgot about your presentation but I didn’t mean to deliberately make you late. It’s not my fault that you got late to work.”, Jake spoke angrily.

“Of course it’s not! You know I have a job! You know I have to get to it every day but still you didn’t bloody wake me up and decided for yourself that I should stay home and spend the day with you.”, you wave your hand frustrated.

“Is it so wrong to want to spend time with your girlfriend considering I wasn’t home the past month?”, Jake yelled.

“Of course not! But you ask first! You could have checked with me. You don’t get to decide! You cost me the most precious thing in the world damit! Your childishness cost me the one thing I most cared about!”, you yell back.

      Jake recoils as if your words stung him. He looks down at you with tears pooling in his eyes. Too late you realise your mistake but there was nothing you could do to take back the spoken words that hung so heavily in the tensed atmosphere.

“Jake I am so--”

“Don’t! Don’t say anything else!”, Jake stops you, his voice much softer but heavy with hurt.

      He begins to storm out the kitchen and you follow him hurriedly, calling after him but he doesn’t stop. You watch miserably as he grabs his hoodie and marches out the house, slamming the door behind him.

[ghosthunthq]

For: @books-tea-ghosts

By: @snavej

A massive thank you to @teaaddictedghosthunter for editing!

Day 1: Monday

“And everything is in her bag,” Lin finished and handed the large backpack to Oliver.

“We’ll be fine,” Gene insisted while bouncing the toddler on his hip. “Won’t we, Maggie?”

“Yes,” Maggie replied with a vigorous nod, causing her two ponytails to bounce on either side of her head.

Madoka leaned over and kissed her daughter.

“You behave for Gene and Noll, won’t you?” she asked in a gentle voice, caressing Maggie chubby cheek.

“Yes Mama!”

“Bye bye Maggie!”

The toddler’s parents waved as they left. Oliver rolled his eyes and shut the door behind them as he mumbled about letting the heat out.

“Bye bye!” Maggie echoed. She wriggled against Gene and ordered him to put her— “Down!”

Gene placed her on the floor where she wobbled for a second before taking off down the hallway.

“Oh jeesh!” Gene went haring after Maggie. He kept his hands outstretched, ready to catch the toddler at any moment.

Oliver, meanwhile, shrugged and followed at an idle pace. When he caught up with his twin and their charge, Maggie was opening and closing all of the kitchen cupboards that she could reach purely for the pleasure of looking inside them.

“Maggie, why don’t we go and do some drawing?” Gene suggested with an encouraging smile.

“No!”

Maggie had not turned to speak to Gene, but had continued searching the cupboards and drawers as Gene hovered over her, ready to protect her from whatever danger she may find.

“Or watch TV?”

“No!”

The toddler looked around and giggled at the look of frustration on Gene’s face.

“No!” Maggie repeated, clapping her hands together as a grin spread across her features.

“She takes after her mother, I see,” Oliver commented.

“Book!” Maggie tottered past Gene and grabbed onto Oliver’s trouser leg. “Book!”

“She wants you to read to her,” Gene guessed.

“I gathered,” Oliver replied before looking down at Maggie’s eager face. “I am not reading to you.”

“No! Book!”

Oliver rolled his eyes and glared at Gene, who was leaning against the counter and looking amused.

“I’ll read to you,” Gene said hastily, jumping away from the work surface.

“No.”

Maggie pouted at Gene and stuck her tongue out before returning to tugging on Oliver’s clothing. Gene swooped down and picked Maggie up.

“Come on, let’s leave Noll alone. I’ll read to you.”

Maggie’s pout grew as Gene carried her away from Oliver, who in turn began making a pot of tea. He flicked the kettle on and had just found a mug when his phone started ringing.

He answered it.

“Yes, Mai?”

“How’s it going? Have you killed Maggie yet?”

“She’s been here a total of four minutes,” Oliver deadpanned. “I have not done anything to her.”

“Is she okay? Have you made her cry yet?”

“Gene has taken charge of her,” Oliver said, “She has not cried—”

A sudden wail from the living room cut him off.

“What’s that? What did you do?” Mai’s frantic voice asked. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone to this damned conference.”

“Mai, that conference is important for your career. Gene and I will manage perfectly well. Now if you will excuse me, I need to find out what on earth the idiot did to make the child cry.”

Oliver hung up, somewhat offended that Mai thought he could not manage five minutes without killing a child. Especially when Gene was the one that upset the toddler.

Oliver abandoned his half-made tea and strode through to the living room.

“What did you do?”

“Maggie stubbed her toe,” Gene explained. He was holding Maggie close to his chest and shushing the toddler. However, when Maggie spotted Oliver, she wriggled free of his grip and latched, once again, onto Oliver’s trouser leg.

“Hug!” she demanded.

“No,” Oliver replied as he folded his arms across his chest.

“Hug now!” she repeated with a pouting frown.

“Noll, it won’t kill you,” Gene muttered.

Oliver glared first at Gene then down at the toddler. He sighed heavily when his stare had no effect on Maggie. He picked her up and held her at arm’s length. Maggie reached out for him, still pouting.

Oliver sighed again and drew her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled. Gene now took to pouting.

“What?” Oliver mouthed at him.

“Nothing,” he replied, looking away.

Oliver rolled his eyes and pulled Maggie off of him.

“Gene is going to read to you,” he told her as he placed her back on the floor.

Oliver missed the disappointed expression Maggie sent his way as he left the room. He was keen to escape before he could be roped into any more ridiculous activities. He returned to the kitchen, made his tea and headed to his room.

He opened his email account and found one addressed to him and Gene from Madoka and Lin. The subject line read ‘How to take care of a toddler.’

Oliver took a long gulp of tea and opened the attachment. His eyes scanned the document in front of him. It consisted of a daily routine, food plan, guides on how to wash a toddler as well as how to stimulate her during playtime.

Oliver yawned and closed the document. It was Monday today and Madoka and Lin would only be away until Friday. How hard could it be?

A shriek from downstairs reached Oliver’s ears. He drunk a little more of his tea, having expected Gene to deal with whatever the problem may be. Yet the shrieking continued.

Oliver finished his drink and headed towards the noise.

“What’s going on?” he asked his brother.

“She won’t stop crying!” Gene replied, flapping his hands about. “We were reading and then—”

Oliver glanced at the clock on the wall.

“She is tired,” he concluded. “The schedule Madoka sent indicated she has usually had a nap by now.”

“But we haven’t even sorted out her sleeping arrangements yet!”

“We’ll put her in Mai’s room,” Oliver said.

A sudden tug on his trousers caused him to look down. Maggie had latched onto him, yet again, and was now wiping her nose on him as she continued to bawl.

“I’ll do it,” Gene said, reaching forwards to pick her up. But as soon as his hands touched Maggie, her wailing increased twofold.

“I’ll do it,” Oliver corrected.

He picked Maggie up and imitated the shushing noises Gene had made earlier with as much fake empathy as he could muster. Maggie settled a little, her head resting on his shoulder. By the time he had reached Mai’s room, Maggie had fallen asleep.

He placed the toddler in Mai’s bed and tucked her in, leaving her to her nap. He crept out of the room to find Gene, who had relocated to the kitchen was reading the email Madoka and Lin had sent on his phone.

“We have, like, no toys.”

“There are a few in the bag,” Oliver countered.

“Yeah, but have you seen how much ‘playtime’ is on this schedule thing?” Gene asked.

“I briefly glanced at it.”

“This was such a bad idea.”

“Humans are surprisingly resilient creatures,” Oliver said. “She will survive a week with us.”

“You are relying on the resilience of the human species? Really?”

Oliver shrugged.

“I have some work to do,” he muttered. “Are you willing to cook for this evening?”

“Yeah,” Gene mumbled, mind clearly elsewhere, “Yeah, I’ll sort something out.”

Oliver nodded his appreciation and returned to his room. He worked in peace and quiet for almost two hours, an unexpected bonus considering their new house guest.

Gene’s muffled voice roused Oliver from his state of concentration. He could not quite make out what his brother was saying, but from the tone of his voice, he knew Gene was annoyed.

He exited his bedroom to find Gene’s bedroom door open.

“—not supposed to use that!”

A childish giggle told Oliver that Maggie had woken up.

“Give it here!”

Oliver entered Gene’s bedroom to find Maggie clutching at what he recognised as Gene’s stage makeup. Although Gene had not been part of the local Amateur Dramatics group for a few years, he religiously maintained his stage makeup collection, just in case it was needed.

Maggie, however, was oblivious to this and thus had used the various powders, lipsticks and creams as facepaint. She had given herself surprisingly symmetrical red panda eyes. The rest of her skin had been coloured a sickly green colour and a lot of what Oliver recognised as foundation had been used to ‘style’ her hair.

He smirked at the distraught look on Gene’s face.

“Noll. Can you clean her up while I salvage what I can?”

“Of course,” Oliver replied, turning to Maggie. “Come on.”

Maggie giggled again and clapped her hands before holding them out to Oliver, who sighed and picked her up. He kept her at arm’s length until they reached the bathroom.

After putting the toilet seat lid down, Oliver sat Maggie on the lid and set the water running in the sink. After a minute, when the water had warmed up, Oliver grabbed a clean flannel and wetted it before wiping the mess off of Maggie’s face with as much care as he could be bothered with.

“There,” he said finally.

Maggie’s face had reddened from his scrubbing, but she had not cried and so Oliver saw this as a success.

“Hungry!” Maggie declared as she wriggled to the floor. “Foo now!”

Oliver followed her from the bathroom to the stairs, where Maggie bum shuffled down them. Impressed with her ability to get around, despite being a little unsteady, Oliver continued after Maggie until they reached the kitchen.

They found Gene stirring a pan and scowling. Oliver could hear him muttering under his breath as he did so. But knowing his words were likely to be about his ruined makeup collection, Oliver made no effort to induce a conversation.

“Food is almost ready, lay the table.”

Oliver nodded. He reached down and picked Maggie up. He sat her in a chair and quickly realised they would have a problem. Her head just reached the height of the main table.

“Can’t see!”

Maggie obviously saw the problem too.

“Wait there, I will set the table.”

“Can’t see!” Maggie repeated, reaching up and banging the bit of table closest to her head.

“I know,” Oliver repeated. His hands worked at setting place mats and cutlery for three, while his eyes remained on Maggie. The toddler appeared content making a racket.

“Noll, she can’t use metal cutlery!” Gene admonished. “There were plastic ones in that bag.”

“Keep an eye on her while I get them.”

When Oliver returned, Maggie had stood up on the chair so that she could see the table. She had taken the liberty of rearranging the cutlery that she could reach so that the knives and forks formed crosses.

Oliver replaced Maggie’s cutlery with the plastic spork and straightened the other sets.

“No!” Maggie threatened tears at Oliver ruining her hard work. But a crisis was averted by the arrival of the food.

“You gave her as much as an adult,” Oliver accused.

Gene sighed, but did not respond to Oliver’s comment.

“Eat up, Maggie,” Gene encouraged as he sat.

The twins began eating, not realising for a few minutes that Maggie was struggling to eat herself.

She began to make displeased whining sounds, gaining the attention of both young men. Oliver immediately slid her place closer and cut up her food into smaller mouthfuls.

“There. Eat.”

Maggie tried again. When Gene finished his own food, he took her spork and fed her with the aid of a few imaginary planes and choo choo trains.

After Maggie had eaten some food — neither twin was entirely sure if the quantity was enough — Oliver sat Maggie down in front of his laptop and streamed some children’s show for her to watch.

They were midway through the washing up when Maggie tottered into the kitchen.

“Where Mama?”

“On holiday,” Oliver replied as he dried one of the plates.

“Where holiday?” Maggie stressed each syllable of the last word.

“Paris.”

Maggie’s frown grew.

“Where Mama?” she repeated, her perturbed state of mind evident. “Where Dada?”

Gene dried his hands and bent down to Maggie’s level.

“They’re not here right now. We’re looking after you,” he said in a soft voice.

Maggie’s bottom lip wobbled dangerously. Gene’s face morphed from worry to sheer panic.

“Maggie,” he said hastily, “It’s ok—”

She bawled. Noisy tears streamed down her face as she plonked down to the floor and covered her face with her chubby little hands.

“I don’t know what you expected,” Oliver muttered. “She was bound to get upset about her parents leaving at some point.”

“But they talked to her about it,” Gene replied.

Oliver raised an eyebrow at his twin.

“I thought I was supposed to be the idiotic insensitive one.”

Gene’s mouth fell open, insulted. Oliver put away the final piece of kitchenware and picked up Maggie, who latched her arms around his neck again.

“Mama,” she moaned into his neck.

“She’ll be back soon,” Oliver insisted. “Let’s go and watch something while we wait.”

Gene gaped after Oliver.

“Who are you and what did you do with my brother?”

Unseen by Gene, Oliver rolled his eyes. He settled Maggie back in front of his laptop, but Maggie would not release his arm. So Oliver sat down beside the toddler and read while Maggie watched some ridiculous cartoon.

When he joined them, Gene pouted at the lavish attention Maggie was giving his brother, but did not say anything for fear of making Maggie cry again.

“Where is she going to sleep?” he asked in a soft voice some time later.

Oliver shrugged.

“Mai’s room?”

Gene nodded, not having a better suggestion.

Some time later, once Maggie had fallen asleep watching cartoons, Oliver relocated her to Mai’s bed again.

They had survived the first day.