Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 132

I flush darkly, I hadn't even considered that. 

With a giggle, Adriam rolls his eyes, following me into the kitchen as Tonic enters with a bag. I offer him a quick glance but say nothing, sitting back down to pick at Verando's breakfast and offer a few bites to Xaiver who seems on the border of deciding if he wants to cry or not. 

"Stop." he whimpers, waving a hand toward Adriam. 

I blink, "Xaiver, you're talking." I manage, heartbroken all the same as I marvel at him. 

"oh, he says whatever he wants when he wants. He also is not a morning person, so we're currently being told to be quiet."

"Stop." He tells Adriam firmly, poking out his lower lip before taking the bit of muffin out of my hand and casting it on the floor. Eve casually strolls over to lick it off the tile, I can only gape at the boy who snuggles firmly into my grasp with a pout. 

"Oh my." I exhale, catching Steffan's giggle. 

"Alright, but he's so cute... he's a little rotten," Steffan admits. 

"A little?" Adriam scoffs but smiles all the same. "Sorry... there aren't very many rules at my house and everyone just loves them both so much." 

Stroking the tangle of off-black and gray hair, his touseled curls had been teased to perfection, and the light, smokey eyes drift up towards me as he wrinkles his nose with a boyish grin. "We're in so much trouble," I murmur, sighing heavily as I squeeze the child a little closer to me. 

"He looks almost exactly like his father, but wild like Tempy and crafty like Marisol. Yes, dear, you are in a heap of trouble." Adriam reassures me, collecting his tools out of his bag and taking my arm to put the strap around my bicep. I'd been poked and prodded so much, it really didn't bother me anymore. Pain was something that I hardly considered, it was a necessary evil to most parts of my life. 

We were lucky to have them, Adriam and Victor, Tomas and Rowan, all returned to our lives at the time when we needed them most. Feeling myself tearing up, I decided to take another bite of muffin instead, only to flinch as Xaiver crams the pastry into my mouth with a devious giggle. This wasn't going to settle well with my dictator husband. 

"Honey, your Daddy is going to lose his mind if he sees you acting this way," I warn the toddler, who giggles with a grin as he scrambles out of my arms to stabilize himself and get to work on seeing which cabinet doors he could open. "Oh god, what am I going to do?"

Pursing his lips, Adriam shrugs one shoulder as he sticks me, drawing tube after tube of blood from my arm. "Cry? Surrender? Laugh?" Tilting his head towards Tonic, Adriam manages a small smirk. "They grow to be assholes if you don't parent them right. So good luck with that."

The Verando look-alike grimaces though I really can't say he looks like his father much anymore. When I lacked comparison, I couldn't help but see resemblances but now they differed in many ways. Tonic wasn't nearly as fit as Verando was, though he appeared to be a hair or two taller. 

Secondly, the jaw was not right, especially after seeing Legardo who was a mirror image in many ways. The hair color was identical but not in texture, Tonic lacked the tangles, though he did have some wave to his natural hair. No, I couldn't keep calling him the mini me for my husband. He didn't deserve that title anymore. 

"Give it to me straight, how are we fairing, Adriam? Me and Randy." I needed to know before I devoted another ounce of energy to anything else, I needed the honest truth. 

"The baby looks good, as we said, I've got to test your blood and check your levels. Your body seems to be trying to adjust, the cuff is worrisome but I don't foresee it coming off unless another God took it off or cut it off, which is something I'd be concerned about with the value of an item like that. I'd keep it hidden or maybe get another one to match it. You'd do well to accessorize, while it'd be gorgeous with your skin tone, it'd also be a lot more difficult to pinpoint which is a gods item."