Cherish had never been good at coping. She knew this. It had always been Len who'd held her together. But with Len gone, Cherish turned to the only coping mechanism she knew- denial. It was easy, simply pretend it hadn't happened; pretend he had...
"You're very welcome," she winked at Chester and stole a bite of Ian's toaster waffle.
"Samuel, I've told you a million times that I don't care if I have to drag you down the stairs and bruise your legs. You wake up and come down for breakfast when I tell you to!" Cherish looked up to watch Pam wrestling six year old Sammy into the kitchen. She looked worn out, though that could be because only three of her kids were at the table and she'd have to do this exact thing at least five more times.
"No Fair! Joana and Felix are still sleeping!" Sammy wailed.
Cherish sighed and grabbed a hold of the squirming kid, "Bom Dia, Sammy! I'm gonna make some ice cream crêpes, you want one? Hi Pam."
"Oh Hi, Sweet. Thanks so much."
Grinning at Pam, Cherish tossed Sammy up onto the counter beside the stove and grabbed the apron that was resting beside the hand towel. Sammy was watching her excitedly, the prospect of ice cream for breakfast far too enticing to risk going back to sleep. "You can watch." She pulled everything she needed out of the pantry like she lived there and began tossing things into a bowl. By that time, Sammy's duplicate and triplicate had found their way downstairs.
"Can I help?" Cecile asked, climbing onto a chair beside Cherish. Once Cecile and Sammy were taking turns mixing, Cherish sent Ana to get a bunch of fruit from the fridge. With an amused smirk, Ian watched her and how she fit into the picture like she was meant to be cooking for his family. He laughed as she tried to explain the art of making crêpes to the triplets while trying to make sure none of them cooked themselves in the process.
"Okay, Sammy you can give me a plate now. Ana you can throw some of the fruit on there, okay? Cece, put a spoon of ice cream on the top."
"I'm done!" Cece proclaimed waving the ice cream scoop wildly in the air to get attention. Cherish ducked the flying ice cream too late and so ended up with a large glob on the front of her shirt. She eyed each of the howling kids in mock anger before swiping it off and dabbing a bit onto each of their noses.
"Watch out Cece, or I'll let Sammy have the ice cream job!" The tiny girl frowned and set herself to the task of expertly scooping ice cream. Cherish set the plates down at the table, only just noticing that 12 year old Miri was sitting beside Ian. She greeted the girl but received no response as Miri was constantly attached to her phone with music blaring into her ears.
"What the hell is Chester doing?" Cherish spun around and saw Felix and Mickey staring at the tiny boy in amusement; he was trying to lick the ice cream off his nose.
"Ice cream," she giggled and wiped it off for him. "Here you go, Cheese."
"Okay, okay I'm up," they could hear Joana thumping heavily down the stairs behind Pam.
"What's for breakfast?"
Pam and Joana turned the corner to see everyone seated and Cherish holding a plate while Chester was happily chewing on her finger.
"Oh thanks so much, Cherish!" Pam gushed at the exact moment Joana accused, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
Thankfully for Joana, Pam hadn't heard her choice of words and Cherish simply ignored her, setting down a plate at the head of the table. "This one's for you, Pam. What do you want on yours Joana?"
Joana grudgingly took a plate from Cherish and held it out to Ana and Cece for toppings. The quiet lasted a mere three minutes before Chester began howling, reaching out for the nearest plate; Pam's smile deflated almost instantly. When Felix tried to prevent Chester from grabbing Mickey's fork, Chester chomped down on his hand. Amidst all the noise that followed, the triplets laughing so hard they were crying, and Felix and Chester both screaming blue murder, Pam looked like she wanted to cry.
"God, Felix, shut up!" Joana rolled her eyes. "You're such a drama queen!"
"I'm not a queen!" so began another argument.
It was such chaos that Cherish couldn't help but smile; it felt more like home than home did. While Ian calmed the triplets down, Cherish swiped Chester from his highchair and offered him some of her breakfast. He was reluctant at first, glaring angrily at Mickey's plate and then accusingly at her, but eventually decided her ice cream would be just as good as Mickey's. Felix and Joana were still arguing, and with an angry growl, Joanne slammed her fork down on his already bitten fingers. The scream that burst out of him startled pretty much everyone, including Miri who'd plucked her earphones out of her ears in surprise.
"Hey Felix, come here, I can fix it for you." He looked at Cherish untrustingly, but inched closer to her anyways. "Let me see it." His fingers were quite red indeed and Cherish grinned and grabbed a hold of his hand. He looked panicky when she dragged his hand up to her mouth.
"I'm not six! I don't need you to kiss it better!" he tried to pull back frantically.
"I'm not kissing it better." Cherish retorted before cupping her mouth around his fingers.
"EEW! GROSS!" The triplets broke into fits of giggles again, and even though Mickey was squealing with disgust, he was laughing as well.
"How does it feel?" Cherish asked a half minute later, when she finally let Felix go.
He flushed bright red as he wiped his fingers off and begrudgingly looked up at her, "Better."
"See, I told you! My mom used to do it for me because my sister, Ari, used to think I was a chew toy when we were younger."
Joana rolled her eyes and left the kitchen, muttering under her breath. Ian sent the triplets out after her, promising them she'd turn on the cartoons for them. Felix inhaled the rest of his breakfast and he and Mickey clambered over each other to get upstairs first. Miri flicked her music back on and bounced up the stairs in time to whatever she was listening to. The whole experience was exhausting, reminding Cherish of weather related phenomena. A whirlwind of kids around the breakfast table and then they were gone as soon as they had come. She had no clue how Pam did it.
"Thanks for the breakfast, Cherish."
"No problem, Pam."
"I'm kind of happy you had to get away from Ari, now," Ian sighed and patted his stomach.
"Gee. Thanks."
He grinned as they cleared he cleared the table off, "If I let you hide from her here every Saturday, d'you think you could make more of those?"
"Ian!" Pam scolded.
"What?"
"That was the plan, E. And it's really no problem, Pam."
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* Title song by Elvis Presley
Merçi, Maman- Thanks, Mom De rien- no problem/ it was nothing. Mais oui, j'ai oublié- but of course, I forgot.
