"Pst!" Nick scratched the back of his head from the dinning room as he ate his dinner besides his sister-in-law as a soft noise echoed out from the next room.
Turning back and seeing nobody Nick turned to resume his meal with Lain.
Nina, Nelson, and the three girls had already finished their meals leaving them all alone. Well nearly. "Pst!" Nick heard again. It was almost as if the noise was following a pattern as there was nothing behind him.
"Are you alright?" Lain asked looking at him confused while she peacefully ate her food with no distractions.
"Yeah I'm fine. I think there's a bug flying around my ear or something." He excused. "Anyways what were you saying again?"
As Lain got back into her conversation with Nickolas, Nelson was internally screaming as he slammed his head silently against the wall besides him. "Really Nick!" He shouted inside his head.
Dragging down the dread on his face, Nelson was getting ready to call for his brother again.
Getting ready to make a more obvious and louder sound than before, the man sucked down a large waft of air.
He readied himself when out of nowhere Kaila had appeared behind him. "What you doing?" She asked sweetly looking at the man innocently.
Putting his finger up to his lips, Nelson tried shushing the little girl at his side before she could give away his hiding place.
But rather than silencing the girl. Kaila tilted her head confused seeing the silly faces he was pulling as he rushed to silence her. She couldn't help but giggle when his flushed face ended up looking like some kind of pufferfish.
"Kaila no! Stop laughing!" Nelson lightly scolded out of fear for himself but in doing so he had upset the poor girl just coming down to have fun. Turning her giggles into light whines, her alert made Nelson panic so much more.
Picking the small girl up and placing her onto his hip, he remembered seeing countless times the way Nina and Lain had calmed the poor girl down every time she cried. Swaying her side to side as he rubbed circles onto her back, Kaila's whines indeed softened but not enough.
Still whimpering as she wiped the shallow tears from her eyes, Nelson cringed when he heard from across the wall. "Kaila?" Lain had asked from the other room. "Are you down here sweet pea?"
There was silence for a brief moment. Nelson nearly celebrated in his head. He was thankful Kaila hadn't said anything back. But he was quick to celebrate.
"Mommy." The little girl eventually whined in Nelson's hold.
Hearing footsteps approaching them, Nelson rushed as he sat on the couch in the living room acting as if he had been there the whole time. Throwing his feet onto the seat and sitting Kaila on his lap, the man cradled the girl in disguise.
"Kaila are you alright?" Lain asked as she turned the corner. "Oh! Nelson, I didn't know you were down here." She gasped seeing the brother.
"Oh yeah..." he awkwardly laughed it off. "I came down a while ago to...rest! But this little one came down upset so I was just trying to calm her down. You can go back and finish up your dinner if you'd like. I know you spent a while preparing it for us."
While Lain appreciated the offer she checked the dreadful look on her little girls face before deciding anything. "It's alright. I'll take it from here." She said opening her arms towards him.
He gulped when Kaila extending her arms back out. Nelson scrunched his face up as he passed the sulking girl over hoping that she wouldn't say anything.
"Why are you crying baby?" The woman asked concerned as she bounced the small girl.
"Mean." She said making Nelson turn an even brighter shade of red. He was lucky Lain hadn't turned around to see him. Otherwise, she would've been able to see the guilt written all over his face.
"Oh well I'm sure they didn't mean it." Nelson sighed to himself as the woman assumed the culprit wasn't in the room. "Why don't you come and rest with mommy while we give Uncle Nelson some time to rest?"
Without saying another word, Kaila nodded against the woman's chest as she was whisked away. Finding comfort in Lain's arms, Kaila shut her eyes in peace.
Blowing out a breathe of relief, Nelson slumped down as he shut his eyes without the stress of Kaila in his grasp anymore.
As he took a moment to rest, he nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard a loud grunt from behind him. Throwing his head around feverishly he spotted Nickolas with his hands on his hip with a cocked eyebrow. "What was that?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" Nelson stuttered.
"I was trying to calm her down." Nick said in as high of a pitch as he could as he insulted his brother. "Please I'm surprised Lain didn't spot your lie. What really happened?"
"I don't sound like that." Nelson complained.
"Well you certainly don't sound that nervous for no reason."
"Hey well it wasn't even my fault. If someone had just heard me calling out for them beforehand none of that would have even happened." Nelson crossed his arms.
"Oh I knew it was you the whole time making those noises while Lain and I ate." Nick smirked.
"What?! And you let me do that for like ten minutes?! Why would you do that?!"
"Cause it's funny." He shrugged. "Also, it was weird. You could've just came over and said you had to tell me something privately, but instead I was having a good meal when all of a sudden I hear you calling me with some bird calls."
"I didn't want Lain to get suspicious."
"Trust me Nelson, it was even more suspicious having to listen to you make all kinds of animal noises to begin with."
"Whatever."
"Hey don't be so salty towards me. You were the one trying to get my attention so dearly. What was that all about anyways?" Before Nick even had the opportunity to sit down and listen to Nelson's explanation, Nelson had his brother held in a death grip by the collar as he pulled Nick into the guest room.
"Nelson be careful!" Nick protested trying to get out of his brothers hold. "You're going to break my shirt-"
"Have you heard anything back yet?!"
"What?"
"I said, have you heard anything back yet?!"
"No Nelson, I already told you that the second I do hear something I'll tell you though."
"We leave tomorrow morning Nick! How can you not be more concerned about this?!"
"I am concerned about this Nelson! Except I know how to keep my head on my shoulders when something seems stressful!"
"I am being sane! I'm just worried!"
"You dragged me out of the living room by the collar of my polo! That sounds pretty insane to me."
"Okay," Nelson took a moment to deeply inhaled as he collected his thought. "I'm sorry about your shirt but we need to do something Nick."
"There's not much else we can do besides wait. We tried calling them already and it didn't work."
"We could always go down to see them in person?" Nelson suggested.
Smacking his head down into the palm of his hands Nick looked at Nelson with furrowed brows. "Do you really want to be the one to ask them about this?"
Seeing Nelson's face turn to glance elsewhere his brother shook his head. "That's what I thought. And neither do I. That's why we're doing this over the phone."
"But there's no progress being made this way."
"If you're that scared they won't get back to us like they promised then I'll send them another message. How's that sound?"
"What for?"
"To see if they're still considering our last offer, or if they've just forgotten about us and we're waiting for no reason cause they've already rejected it."
Seeing Nelson nod his head eagerly hoping that by doing so they would make some progress, Nick pulled out his phone from his pocket and sent the message.
"There see. We're all good. Now my hands are tied until we hear something back from them."
Exhaling harshly Nelson nodded as he came to the grim conclusion he wouldn't be able to affect the process any longer. "Alright."
"Now if you'll excuse me, I want to get back out there and enjoy the rest of my time here before we leave. I don't know when's the next time I'll see Nina or everyone else again."
Nick walked to the closed door before he glanced back at his brothers nervous face.
"Look Nelson, try to lighten up. You're so tense now. You used to be so carefree. You wouldn't have cared if it took this long to get a response from somebody. Relax."
"Easy for you to say Nick, you've always been calmer than I have."
"Then at least go out there and try to enjoy some time with everyone. The girls enjoy playing with you and I know Lain missed having someone to talk to about cooking."
As Nick tried to ease his mind off the building stress that their scheme had thrown on top his shoulders, Nelson managed to chuckle. "Thanks Nick."
"Anytime little bro."
As Nickolas opened the door to leave Nelson stopped him one last time. "Wait, what about Nina?"
"Huh?" The oldest of the twins looked lost.
"You said the girls enjoy playing with me, Lain missed talking about cooking, but what about Nina?"
"Oh, I bet she's just ready to get rid of us." The brothers shared a laugh together only stopping when Nickolas's empty stomach roared out sending the man back out towards the table to eat his now cold meal.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off