When Tom stepped inside he found his usually chaotic house was strangely silent. His wife and kids were mysteriously missing from the living room, though Calder’s things were still left on the table. He moved further into the house, locking the front door behind him.
Carefully he stepped around the toys the twins had discarded and that’s when he hears it, laughter. Faint of course, but coming from upstairs. A faint smile makes its way onto his face and he follows the laughs and giggles that grow louder the closer he gets to Calder’s room.
The floor was scattered with pillows and blankets, and there was a random chair in the middle of the hallway. Somehow the sofa pillows from downstairs had made their way upstairs to rest on the floor by the door.
“Now what are you lot up to...?” Tom asks quietly as he pushes open the door all the noise was coming out from behind.
Immediately he notices two things. One, Calder is standing on his desk, trying to throw the other sofa cushion perfectly into the center of the large room, and two, his wife has both Feli and Teddy in her arms, she’s balancing with one foot on the desk chair, and the other on Calder’s bed. As soon as the twins see their father they cry out. “Papa! The floor is lava!”
Cam nods vigorously, carefully throwing Teddy and then Feli onto the bed as they laugh, before hopping around to the room, on odd bits of scattered furniture to be closer to Tom.
Tom starts to grin and hops up beside Cam, who giggles like a teenager.
The family hop about, not touching the floor, moving from room to room.
Just as the family reach the last room, Cam and Tom’s room, the home-phone rings and Calder trips off his pillow in surprise, landing on the floor.
“Ahhhh!” He cries out, acting, of course, trying not to ruin the game for his two younger siblings. Cam joins in the act, as Tom helps the twins onto the sofa.
Cam falls to her knees on her sofa pillow, reaching out for Calder. “Calder! No! Grab my hand!”
“Cal!” Teddy cries out, as Feli hangs onto him. The two balance precariously on the edge of the sofa, trying to get closer to their brother
Tom starts moving closer to the twins, as Cam and Calder continue their melodramatic act.
None hear the front door unlocking downstairs, too caught up in the act.
“Mum, Dad, Twins, go on without me…” Calder coughs, reaching out a hand to Cam, who grabs it. “It’s my time…”
“Calder, stay with me!” Cam says, laughing a little, and trying to disguise it with a cough.
“Goodbye world!” Cal cries out, dramatically acting out his death and ‘dies’ with a realistic “Bleh” sound, sticking out his tongue.
“Noooooooooooo! My eldest son! Calderr”
“What. The. Heck?” An amused voice says, and all eyes are drawn to the newcomer.
Luca had made his way upstairs, looking for his sister and her family and had no idea what he stumbled in on.
“Uncle Luca!” Feli cries out, grinning.
“The floor is lava!” Teddy cries out after his sister, giggling some.
Luca looks about, raising an eyebrow at his eldest nephew, who just shrugs.
“That much… I’ve gathered… But don’t you know…” He pauses, before whispering. “ I’m Lava-Proof.”
The twins gasp, though they start giggling more when Luca walks over to the sofa, picks them up, and starts walking downstairs.
“Now we’ve got to turn off this lava, because lava floors aren’t very safe to have when you’re having guests over.”
“Okay!”
And so the lava is ‘turned off’ and everyone makes their ways downstairs, as the rest of the family arrive. Myst brings cake, and Rosa brings Chiara and Noel, the two nine-year-olds, who run over to their younger cousins with big smiles on their faces.
The bunch of friends spent the rest of the night laughing, and simply enjoying each other's company, as they tended to do, as they had done since they'd found each other.
(If the Wynter-Willow family moved into a cute little house, and Rosa and Luca moved into one next door, and Broso and Vitto live with Myst, near the bakery which is somehow like five min away and everyone visits each other always)
