"Want to twin with me?"
Light streamed into the multicultured room through high-class windows, painting the walls in sunlight and creating reflections in smooth surfaces. Laughter accompanied the colours, filled with happiness and calm; giggling followed it from children no older than five years old.
Paint splattered the table as Mira Atkinson watched the toddlers run paintbrushes along the paper or simply cover their hands in paint and slap them down onto the page.
They ranged from one to four years old, and each staff member in charge of looking after two of the children. There were only ten sat around the table, all with large grins as they filled the place with colour.
As usual, Lily, the small blonde toddler, was attached to Mira's hip. Mira didn't mind even though it did concern her slightly; she helped Lily pick the paint she wanted and place paper in front of her when she'd ran out of space to paint.
"I wish my husband brought me flowers," Gina, one of the carers, was complaining. "He always complains that I'm unhappy but he never tries!"
"Could be worse, Gina, my Tony buys me flowers as an excuse so I'll keep doing all of the housework like some maid," Alana huffed.
Alana and Gina were the younger group members (other than Mira who was the youngest). They were in their early thirties and were professional carers with medical training. Gina was a short red-head with tanned skin and dark eyes while Alana was a tall dark-skinned woman with braided black hair and a kind smile.
"Eddie wouldn't even dare say anything about me doing chores!" Ophelia, who was six months pregnant, exclaimed. "I know he's not romantic but he's a good cook and cleaner."
"What about you Mira?" Alana asked with a hopeful sign. "Lando...is he romantic? I mean, with all the travelling..."
"I think so but I'm not into very romantic things so it's hard to tell," Mira shrugged. "It's the little things I adore, like bringing waffles home when I crave them—"
"You do eat a lot of waffles—"
"I know I do Lando—"
Mira stopped and turned around, immediately lighting up and carefully jumping to her feet without startling the toddlers. She through her arms around her boyfriend and almost rolled her eyes at the others going 'aww'.
"See, Tony would never do that for me!" Alana complained.
"You have to stop doing that!" Mira mumbled into his shoulder. "You could just text me—"
"I like grand gestures and besides, I met some people at the airport," said Lando.
Mira couldn't have been happier when she saw Esme Cole and Pato O'Ward standing there. She'd really missed Esme as would anyone who'd been apart from their best friend for months on an in a completely different country.
"Hi Mira!" Pato greeted cheerfully.
"Hello Pato," Mira replied happily. "I'm just painting with the little ones, do you want to help?"
Pato O'ward was an adult child at heart, wanting something more than to paint alongside the toddlers. In fact, he was more than happy to when Mira suggested it. Pato, like Mira, found enjoyment in the happiness of others and he was more than happy to help out.
"Lando, we've been waiting to meet you!" said Alana brightly. "I'd shake your hand but I'm covered in paint. And who might you two be?"
"This is my friend Esme and her boyfriend Pato," Mira replied.
Pato waved. Esme chuckled at him.
"Pato is a child," Lando joked.
"So are you!" Mira replied, hitting his shoulder lightly. "Lana, Gi, Lia, you can take a break. We've got it for ten."
The three nodded and soon headed to the break room.
"Mummy, paint!" Lily sounded out.
Mira frowned as Lando titled his head.
"Lily, I'm not your mummy, love," Mira replied carefully.
Lily ignored her and kept showing her the picture. Mira nodded at her, praising the toddler, but let out a deep sigh. It was hard for her to hear Lily call her 'mummy' because it could be a sign that things weren't okay at home if the child was associating her as her parent.
"I know," Mira whispered to Lando before he could say anything.
"It's cute," Lando shrugged.
Mira didn't respond to him. Truth be told, Mira and Lando were not at a stage where the discussion of kids had come up yet and Mira didn't want it to. For as long as she could remember, she never wanted her own kids and still didn't. She'd heard to many traumatic stories of births and she had a bad history with her parents too. She never ruled out adaption but it wasn't a 'plan her life to get to kids' kind of thing. She just hoped Lando wasn't that way.
"Pato, you have paint on your face," Esme commented.
"I do?" Pato questioned with a grin. "Want to twin with me?"
"What no—"
Too late, Pato had playfully smudged a tiny bit of paint on Esme's face. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him — she found it impossible to get mad at Pato even when she tried to, Mira could see that.
"I thought Lily had a foster family now?" Lando questioned quietly as Pato and Esme joked around.
"She does, she shouldn't be here as much as she's adorable," Mira replied. "We gave them a plan of the activities she could come to but she's still here most of the day."
"I don't know much about it but that's not a good thing?"
"No, the foster parents are supposed to actually look after the child. We gave them a plan to get her used to the new schedule changes but they aren't following it. I've brought it up with my team, they're looking into it," Mira explained.
"Try not to worry, Mimi," Lando smiled.
"I have to worry Lando, it keeps me alert."
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"You are so cute, yes, you are!" Pato spoke in a baby voice as he held Thor in his hands.
Esme was sat on the sofa looking at him in amusement as the fully grown adult treated the cat like a baby. Esme was used to Pato's playful and childlike side, she'd spent most of her time in America with him and was back to travelling around with him for Indycar.
Esme knew that Pato and Mira would get along like best friends.
"I see you've practically moved in, Lando," Esme hummed as she took note of all Lando's things.
"No!" Lando pouted. "I have half moved in."
"We're here most of the time but Lando still has his house for when he gets back from a race and doesn't want to wake me up at two in the morning," Mira explained. "Plus, He has so many helmets and I'm not sure where we would put them."
"So you're telling me that your cats have their own room, you have a gaming room — which is understandable — your room and a spare guest room...but nowhere to put a few helmets?" Esme questioned.
"No one to put too many helmets without them annoying me," Mira corrected. "Hey, if we ever buy a house together, he can have a dedicated place for them!"
"I understand Mira, I have a lot of helmets too and never know where to put them," said Pato in understanding.
"I don't get why the two of you even live separately anymore to be honest," said Esme with a shrug. "You're with each other whenever Lando is home and you clearly like each other's company. It just seems like you're using Lando's house for storage.
Lando said nothing. He would be happy to move in with Mira and Esme was right but he wanted it to be Mira's decision to bring it up. He didn't want to pressure her into anything and if she felt it was way too soon to even be thinking about that, he'd understand.
A lot of people thought that because Lando was so young at 22 years old, he wasn't ready to start making big decisions like that or but the truth was, he was fully capable. He knew he had a childish nature but when it came down to it, Lando was an adult and understood living alone.
Mira was born on April 15th 1998 so she was actually older than Lando by just over a year and a half. It wasn't enough for people to even notice there was any age difference, not that a year and a half was an uncommon age gap. People always thought Lando was older.
Lando and Mira were both strong-willed enough to know what they wanted and it was up to them to work it out; no one else.
"We just haven't thought about it yet," answered Mira honestly.
"You should but anyway...do you have any popcorn in this house?" Esme questioned.
"Somewhere," Mira answered.
As Esme and Mira went hunting for Popcorn, Lando and Pato could only grin at each other.