Round One

Part One - Questions questions...

Evan: Another day, another early disturbance in the form of a rapping on the lid of my coffin at gone three in the afternoon.
"Is it that time already?" I check as I sit up.
"Uh-huh," comes the reply as our daughter Joanne hands me a letter, "This came for you."
"Thanks," I reply, frowning in puzzlement as I eye the address on the front. I look back up about to ask how school went but she's disappeared - typical. Smiling to myself, I decide instead to knock on Emily's coffin.
Emily: Oh for heaven's sake... huh? What is this?
"Sorry to disturb you sweetheart, but this is for both of us," I tell her, indicating the letter in my hands.
I do not understand a word of this. I was born in medieval times - we had none of this then. When we wanted to wed we did so, no matter what age we were. Thankfully Evan seems to understand this better; I tell him I will trust him to handle this absurd matter and return to my slumber.


Wow, you guys really like to dig! Oh alright, I'll play along - good job this isn't just a tick-box affair:

Have you had “sexual” relations? I wasn't going to go into that, but since you asked; yes we have. That was the initial whirlwind I mentioned, but as you may notice it wasn't a casual fling by any means... thankfully.
Are you going to have kids during this marriage? We already have kids. Will we want more? Maybe... we got thrown into the deep end with triplets, I think we'd be better off waiting till they've grown a little older first.

What differences will marriage bring to your life? The big difference I'm hoping for will be to finally knock some sense into that father of mine that we're serious. He's already disowned me for getting Emily pregnant, so I'm not holding my breath but still, it'd be nice. The rest of my family, and Emily's, will hopefully be easier to convince that this is real and we deserve recognition as a couple as much as the next people.

Are you being pushed into marriage? Hell no, that would cause more harm than good. People did try, especially Emily's Mum since they're both from the Dark Ages (literally), but thankfully I managed to convince her that forced marriage does no one any favours.

Part Two - Happy Memories

That's that done, let's have a read of the letter... what? Take care of a group of babies for a full day? ... Day?? Right, where's the phone number... I'll give you day, what're you trying to do, orphan our kids?!

That's that done, I'm off to bed. I'll update Emily when we wake up this evening.

"We have to what?!" I exclaim, "Do they not know we already have children?"
I sigh in resignation as I fold my arms. "They do now," I tell her, "As it was I had to remind them we're both vampires. They said they'll arrange something else."
Speak of the devil, there goes my phone... Joe?!
"We just got a call," he explains, "I understand you have to look after a group of babies for a... well, supposed to be day, but obviously that's out of the question."
Joe's one of my half-alien half-brothers. He explains that his circle of friends means we're able to bring the nursery home for a night and look after five babies; two sets of half-alien twins and Vicky, my newest half-sister! I like the sound of this already. The other guy I phoned earlier said we can hire out some equipment for the task too. We're gonna have to do some re-arranging though...
"Why are you moving my bed??" Joanne squeals.
"It's only for tonight, promise," I tell her as I finish explaining. Understandably she goes into a huff and goes to play with her toys. I still can't understand why, despite already being parents, we're being asked to do this - I could understand if we weren't but come on...! Oh well, it means we'll wing it at least.

I felt rather strange at the first mention of alien babies, beginning to wonder if they needed any special attention, but on talking to the "mothers" it would seem that is not the case. Although on hearing of Evan's family I was expecting them to be green, yet they aren't... and all five of them are adorable!
"Hey there little sis!" I grin as I reach down to hold her. Mum's genes work well with Marco's, she's beautiful!

"Oh okay, you wanna play? There you go..."
"Here, look what we have for you!"

Hey, where's Alaina going? Oh, she's found Joanne... Well well well, what's this I see?

"Not so grouchy now are we?" I remark with a sarcastic smile.
"She's so cute!" she giggles in reply.
"Try the whole package one day, then tell me that," I wink as I tell her dryly, before I get pulled in another direction. I swear those white guys Erik and Aiden are identical - I can't tell them apart! One of them tugs at my trouser leg, but after giving him a cuddle he starts pointing frantically at one of the potties.
"Ah, bathroom break huh?" I smile as I take him over, being joined by Emily in the process with Bianca. "There you go, now let's see how your friends are doing."

This all brings back many fond memories of when our three were this young. I cannot get over how well-behaved they all are; how much of that is down to upbringing and how much to being kept occupied I cannot tell, but in any instance I will miss them when they have left. I shan't miss this however...

In the meantime we have our own blood to take care of. After spending some time with them, and ensuring they are happy to wait for their meals, I go back upstairs to find Evan taking one of the babies to their chair, and feel a tug at my skirt. "Ah, I see. Mealtime, you say? Very well."
We quickly get into a routine of slipping them into their chairs, feeding them and going off to grab the next. Even grouchy Vicky is being good; maybe it's true that children can sense people who are kind-hearted and get on well with them - not to blow my own trumpet but this is definitely how I take after Dad the most, before he changed anyway.

"Dad!!"
After being satisfied that Emily can finish the feeding duties, I turn to find Leo - one of our sons - staring up at me. I like how he's volunteered me for whatever it is he wants.
"What's up?"
"Can we have some now?" he wails, "I'm starving!"
I cross my arms as I gaze knowingly down at him. "What do you say?" I prompt him without budging. This guy needs some serious lessons in manners; this is just a taster of what he's been like.
"Please," he relents.
"That's better," I smile as I head for the kitchen.
As you can see, being a vampire has no impact on my cooking skills; I'm used to the smell of normal food by now.

And as the parents come for their kids at six in the morning, we both have big smiles on our faces as we tell them they were no problem whatsoever. Well, apart from stopping us interacting with our own kids to a degree, but we got round that by taking it in turns to chat or whatever with them. In fact I'd gladly do it again if we had to, and to boot I have a big "I told you so" for the powers that be.
That was over too soon. Despite the inconvenience of having to re-arrange the bedrooms, I truly enjoyed the experience, and these children were a pleasure to entertain. In fact, if I had ever wished for more children at a later time, I certainly do now.