Author's Note
It's been a crazy, drama filled ride but, a good one so coincidentally in honor of Bruno's 29th birthday, here is the final chapter of Everything Has Changed!
Enjoy!
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The Final Chapter: Epilogue
Cuz' everything has changed.
"Wake up mommy and daddy, wake up! Wake up!" I hear a tiny voice say.
"Up, up, up!" I hear a second small voice say. Two pairs of little hands shake my shoulders and squeeze themselves between Lalani and I.
"Ok, ok girls," I say ending in a yawn. "I'm getting up." I rub my eyes and when I open them, two pairs of brown and green ones on the little tanned faces of my twin daughters. I turn over on my side and and kiss the cheek of my wife and bestfriend, Rosi. She stirs for for a moment and slowly sits up with a smile on her face.
"Goodmorning girls," she says. Marisol and Mirhea sit Indian style at the foot of our bed waiting. Bedhead as wreaked its havoc on their heads full of curls.
"We want to go to the beach again," they say nearly in unison. Their eyes meet and they both smile.
"Can we? Can we?" Mirhea asks bouncing up and down.
"Please?!" Marisol adds. I begin grinning. Rosi nudges me.
"Well, can we?" She asks taking the girls words. I place my hand on my chin and look up at the ceiling in imaginary thought with a look of concentration on my face. It never ceases to amaze me how easily these three can gang up on me. The girls begin sticking out their lower lips and opening their eyes as wide as they can like puppy-dog-face pros; I can resist no longer. I look back at the girls and a hope washes over their faces.
"Alright, we can go to the beach."
"Yay!" All three girls scream. The twins practically parkour off the bed and run down the hall to their room. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and Rosi follows. The two of us walk into the bathroom and pick up our tooth bushes. I squeeze some tooth paste on mine, we it and begin but she waits.
"We win again." she smiles confidently at me before sticking her tongue out and then beginning her brushing. I pause and look at her.
"How am I ever supposed to win? You guys outnumber me three to one!" I manage to get out despite the toothpaste in my mouth.
She nudges me." I'm just messing with you, you big baby." She spits, rinses and wipes her mouth then kisses me on the cheek. Then walks out of the bathroom and down the hall. When I'm finished in the bathroom, I take my swim trunks off the hook at the back of the door and pull them on. As I head down the hall, I hear the girls giving their mother an ear-full about what they want to do at the beach.
"Mommy, can we look for shells?" Marisol says with some difficulty.
"Yes baby, we can. What do you want to do Mirhea?"
"I wanna swim and look for those little crabs in the sand."
"That sounds like fun too," Rosi replies. "We'll have time to do both." I walk down the hallway to the girls room and lean against the door frame. Rosi almost has Marisol dressed in her pick and green bathing suit but Nani who of course insisted on dressing herself is having trouble getting her blue and black tankini top on.
"Do you need help, Nani?" I ask calling her by her Hawaiian name. She sighs and peeks out at my through the tangled straps of her top.
"Yes please daddy." I kneel down in front of her, take the top off, adjust it and then help her put it on correctly. "I can do it myself now." she says quickly; I shimmy back and give her some space.
"Ok," I say watching her pull her little brown ringlets out of the back of the suit before pulling the front down. Next she takes a seat to put on her black flip flops and soon Leia joins her. The two girls grab their towels from racks alongside their beds then both pull out a pair of sunglasses; Nani with a pair of Raybans and Leia with a pair of aviators. I can't help but smile as they smile and slide their shades.
"You look just like daddy," Laylani says as she bends down to tickle the girls who's infectious giggles attack my sides causing me to laugh. "Make them breakfast; I'll be right back." I put my hands out for each of the girls to hold and take them down to the kitchen as Rosi walks back up the hallway to our room.
I take the girls down to the kitchen, put them in their high chairs and stand with my back to the counter. "Alright what's for breakfast," I start. "I, 2, 3, go!" Both girls speak at once and their requests become a train-wreck of words crashing into each other. They pause.
"I want arroz con leche," Nani syas confidently brushing a section of her ringlets out of her face.
"Good choice and what about you Leia?"
"I want spam and eggs!" She squeals kicking her feet.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you girls..." I say letting my voice trail off.
"What about you daddy, what do you want to eat?"
"I don't know...yet." Just then Rosi wlks in. She is all ready for the beach in her black wrap skirt, black and white tribal top and a mesh tank. Her hair is pulled out of her face on one side with a small hibiscus clip.
"Well, I think I could eat some fried plantins, what do you think?" she asks looking at me.
"I'm down, how about you girls?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Nani says kicking her feet.
"Yummy," Leia says.
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After a morning of swimming, boogie boarding, she and crab searching, sand castle building and wave jumping, the girls have settled into a spot at the water's edge. They sit side by side as the water laps at their little legs pulling the sand out from under them. Their curls have finally dried and carelessly blow in the cool Hawaiian breeze. The sun is just past its highest point in the sky but continues to burn brightly against the pale blue expanse. Futher up on shore, Rosi adn I sit in the sun catching some rays and eating fruit. I recline in my chair and hum along to songs I play on my ukulele and Rosi lays on her stomach with my aviators on and her hair up in a messy bun. Then I notice two tiny sounds among the sound of the waves against the shore and the light breeze in the air.
"Babe," I say.
"Uh huh?" she answers propping herself up on her arms. She looks at me.
"Check them out," I say gesturing toward the water where the girls are sitting, grabbing handfuls of sand each tome the tide comes in rubbing it on their legs as the tide goes out.
"Yeah," she says witha confused tone to her voice staring at the girls.
"Do you hear that?"
"What are you..." I cut her off slowly.
"Listen." I get up from my seat and get her to follow. As we near the girls their voices grow louder and clearer. A smile grows on my face as I realize what they're singing: one of their favorite Disney movies. Suddenly my arm is yanked down by Rosi who pulls me to sit beside her within a few feet of the girls.
"Don't get any closer, they might notice us and stop." Their little voices intertwine like a singular voice and a harmonizing recording. They switch between lead and harmony with some difficulty but even so I can't help the feeling of pride filling my chest. An uncontrollable grin breaks out across my face. When they finish before I can give the girls a round of applause Rosi beets me to it; I join her. The girls nearly jump as they turn around with frightened looks on their faces. Quickly their faces are adorned with bright smiles and deep dimples in both cheeks.
"Bravo, bravo," I say. They giggle and run to wrap their arms around me.
"It was beautiful," their mother says.
"Thanks!" Mirhea says.
"Really?" Marisol adds.
"Yes princess," I say to her before I scoop her up and kiss her on the forehead. Nani settles into the sand beside me and Leia sits between Rosi and I. I start to strum on my ukulele and sing the notes. Soon Rosi joins in on the harmony. "Do you remember this sing?" I start to sing the notes again and the girls try to match my notes in their key adding dimension to the song. As the song progresses the girls jump in singing along to the parts that they know and before I know it the four of us have sung the song to the end. I gather my family in my arms and hug them tight. Then I give kisses to everyone.
"I love our family," Nani says with a satisfied sigh.
"Who wan'ts to go visit Gram?" Suddenly as if a shot of adrenaline entered their blood streams the girls jump up.
"Ooo I do!" Leia exclaims. "Is Dessie gonna be there?"
"I think so." I smile.
"Yes!" Nani adds pumping her fists.
After baths, showers and a change of clothes, the family and I head over to Mrs. E's house. The girls begin to fight over who should ring the door bell but that is quickly resloved. Six and a half year old Dessie answers the door and quickly grabs the attention of her twin cousins. The three of them fun off to the sun room. As walk in Mrs. E greets Rosi and I with a kiss ont he cheek.
"Where are the girls?"
"You know where," Rosi says as she points to the sun room.
"Ahh Dessie," she says with realization. "Come in." The three of us walk in and take a seat on the couch.
"Marisol Leia and Mirhea Nani," Rosi raises her voice for the girls to hear.
"Yes mommy," the girls reply skipping into the room.
"Did you forget to say something to Gram?" The girls greet their grandmother affectionately with hungs and kisses. Moments later, Dessie appears to greet us. Afterward the girls run off once more to play. Rosi, her mother and I talk about how we are setting into our new lives with the girls. We tell her how well the girls are doing in school, how well behaved they are and we can't help but gush about how cute they are. Raising two little girls with boundless energy is much harder than I though it would be even though they have good behavior. As everyone knows, despite the fact that identical twins look the same, they have different personalities but who know that something as complex as personality would be so evident so early in their lives? Marisol loves her dolls while, Mirhea would rather play with her stuffed tiger; Marisol is more soft-spoken while, Mirhea is the first to speak up when there's something she wants or doesn't want. Yet still they get along very well.
After a late lunch and having to drag the girls out of their grandmother's house kicking and screaming, we make it out of the house alive. We spend the rest of the day giving the girls an immersible tour of the island. Rosi and I make it a point to take as many pictures as she can. We visit my pops, some frinds and we stop by out favorite places from our childhood. To conclude the day with dinner at our favorite diner. We get the girls souvenirs to give to friends and family in the states when we return with the promise of a movie night under the stars.
"Girls," Rosi says as we walkin into the house. "Go put on your pjs so that we can get ready for the movie."
"What movie are we going to watch?" Leia asks, Nani pulls at her.
"I don't know," I reply. "We have to be in our pjs to choose."
"Come on Leia, let's go!" Nani whines pulling more urgently. The girls scamper off to their rooms. Rosi gathers some snacks in the kitchen and I go and get into my pajamas: a pair of sweat shorts, a white vest and a hoddie. Moments late, Rosi walks in and changes into a pair of cotton shorts a white tank and a hoodie, almost matching me.She draws her hair up in a messy bun. I sit on the bed and watch her intently allowing my eyes to skim along his curves as she takes off her jewelry.
"Someone likes what they see," she says turning around to face me. She walks to me.
"You are a very nice sight to see." I pull her in my the hips and she places her hands on my neck. Bending down, she puts her lips to mine, moving so slow it seems as though time has frozen. When she lets go I instinctively hold her tighter. She kisses me once more.
"The girls are still up remember?"
I sigh. "I know," a laugh slips out of me. "Let's get this movie night started. Rosi and I walk down the hall to the girls room and peek inside. The girls have pulled their favorite blankets off their beds; Nani has hers wadded up in her arms and Leia is dragging her's along with her stuffed Pegasus. "Have you picked a movie yet?"
"I wanna watch Brave," Nani says in a muffled voice from behind her wadded blanket.
"But I wanna watch Tangled!" Leia whines. I look over at Rosi for help. She smirks at me. Nani groans.
"But I don't wanna..."
"How about Lilo and Stitch? You both like that one right?"
"Ooo! Yeah lets watch that!" Nani chimes in high spirits once more. She drops her blanket and grabs her Stitch plushie from her bed then picks up her blue and purple blanket again. I help Leia fold her pink and green blanket while Rosi helps Nani fold her's. Rosi gets the laptop and I get the snacks then the four of us head out to the beach and create our pillow fort for our movie watching pleasure.
With all their attention on the screen, Rosi manages to give Leia a cute braided bun and Nani a nice french braid. Afterward she pumps her fists silently with a look of triumph. Surprisingly, the girls make it through the entire film. Not to worry though, Rosi quickly goes back in the house and returns with another family favorite: The Lion King. Before Mufasa is murdered, the girl are knocked out sprawled over our legs.
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Narrator
The following morning, the boy and the gil rise early. The girl puts on a pair of white and blue Jordans, black joggers, a white tank and a black hoodie. The boy puts on a pair of khaki shorts, a white vest, a hoddie and brown Sperry's. After preparing a quick breakfast and packing it to go, they collect the family's luggage, the sleeping twins and head outside.
The girl's older brother, Trevor, drives the girl and her bestfriend, now husband, the boy and their twin daughters to the airport. Not long after the family's luggage is checked in, their flight number is called and they board the plane. As they take their seats, the girl nods off on the window with one daughter's head on her chest and the boy sits cradling their other daughter in his arms. He glances lovingly at his family and then stares out at the clouds as they slip by. He whispers a prayer to the sky.
God, you worked everything out for the better despite all of the wrong decisions that were made, you've blessed me with two beautiful, drastically different princesses that I know I will spoil and a queen to hold all of us together and for this...I thank you.
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Author's Note
Thank you for the remarkable ride you Hooligans have taken me on with this fanfic. I was a pleasure to be the conductor of the crazy rollercoaster. Thank you for all of the reads, votes, comments, private messages and wall posts on the work. It has really come to mean alot to me when you give me feedback. There are times when I can really say you guys made my day. Thank you to all my readers! Shout out to @imjusthavinfun who has been supporting me all the way through this, you rock! This one's for you girl!
Peace, blessings and I really, really really preeciatechu pyimps,
~Jaz
p.s. If you haven't said happy birthday Bru, get on that! you only have a few hours left!