Once We are Descendants

Chapter 62: Home Away From Home

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin is left rather stunned and tries to hide her blushing as the dashingly cute pirate goes off with his "family."

...

"It just might be a bit of a mess," Aurora apologizes to Audrey. "Having a baby in the house does equal a clean homestead."

As the often-prissy princess walks into the house, she is overwhelmed by the smells and is rather shocked by the rather large mess in the hallway. And it doesn't do justice to the mess in the rest of home. Baby blankets, sleepers, onesies, packs of diapers, toys, books, dirty and clean laundry, are all strewn around in rather strange places. Audrey sniffs around and tries to hide her disappointment that her "alternate" parents were not living in a bigger house. She doesn't even want to know what the smells are, but she steps into the living room while Aurora goes to take Phillip Jr. upstairs for a nap.

"Make yourself at home," Phillip says, as he goes to the kitchen.

Rather awkwardly, Audrey searches for a place that isn't covered in something, and she settles for the edge of the couch, in which she nudges away a few baby clothes just to sit down. She smooths her dress and tries to appear as royalty should, sitting politely and waiting.

When Phillip reappears, he offers her a bottle of water, which she accepts rather reluctantly.

"Big shift with parenthood and this realm," the prince explains. "In the Enchanted Forest, we had servants to take care of the cleaning and such, but here, neither of us can even figure out to turn on the vacuum. Even after all this time, we still need Granny to come and help us figure it out. Plus, with the baby up at all hours, we never anticipated that we'd scarcely had time for anything, let alone ourselves."

"You... had a castle back in your realm?" Audrey asks, secretly wishing that they could go back to said kingdom and perhaps things would be much neater and feel less chaotic.

"We did, but we came over with another curse. It took us a long time to get used to all these modern things, but now that we have them, it's quite enjoyable. Just being able to get water from the tap instead of going to a well, is much easier."

"And having heating controlled by a dial instead of having to build a fire," Aurora adds, coming downstairs with the baby monitor in her hands. She then goes towards the kitchen, which Audrey can't imagine is any better than the living room.

"There's a spare room upstairs that you can sleep in, unfortunately, it is next to little Phillip's room," the prince says, knowing the girl will not be happy in having to sleep next to a crying baby. "What I can do for you is offer some earplugs,"

He smiles rather apologetically, and Audrey forces herself to smile politely, wishing internally that she had just gone to Granny's or stayed in the hospital as the place seems like something out of one of her own nightmares.

...

"My rules are simple," the stern owner of the bed and breakfast says as she gathers the keys for all the rooms. "No smoking in the rooms or in the diner. There is no room service, you want food you come down here. Laundry is down here in the back. Keep your rooms clean..." she eyes her charges sharply, knowing how much of challenge this will be for teenagers. "Boys with boys and girls with girls because I run a respected establishment so that means no visitors after 11."

A few of the kids giggle at the implication but stop immediately when the old woman glares at them under her glasses.

"I don't want any funny business. I also restrict the use of magic, if any of you actually have abilities." She pauses. "Those are my rules if you can't follow them... then tough, you can go back to the hospital and stay with Dr. Whale, and I can assume that he will not want that."