{TRIGGER WARNING! EXPLICIT CONTENT! DO NOT READ IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT, THANK YOU! Otherwise, enjoy!} 

'It still doesn't make any sense.' I roll my eyes, wishing that North would just shut up about it already. 'Maybe you're just too stupid to understand?' 

Her eyes fill with anger and I can see her debating if she should throw something at me.

'Can you guys just stop fighting and get over here already!' Leon exclaims as he walks out onto the patio, followed by Valentina. 

I don't get where they get their energy from, but I'm exhausted. 'You need to figure out what to do with it, before it gets out of hand.' 

'I'm not taking orders from you, North.' She inhales slowly, making me smile a little. I'm getting on her nerves more than she's getting on mine. 'Just because you brought two new Curzios into the world, does not mean that I'll listen to your orders.' 

'I'm just trying to help here.' I get up from my seat and walk after Valentina and Leon, wondering why they want to go out on the patio, and notice North walking after me. 'Your help is unasked for, so say out of this.' 

A soft guitar song plays in the background and I can't help but roll my eyes when I notice my wife dancing with my idiot of a cousin.  

'Fine,' She grunts as she walks around me just to get in front of me, 'Just know that it would be a lot more difficult to deal with it later and-' 

'Don't you have babies to focus on?' She frowns and mumbles something as she turns around, staring at Leon and Valentina who are still dancing. 'That's mean and I'm just trying to help.' 

'Like I said,' I turn back to North and stare down at her, wanting to shove her face into the pool and drown her now that Leon's too busy to even notice, 'I didn't ask for your advice or help, so stop giving it.' 

'That's enough.' Before North can respond, Leon sweeps her away, his arms going around her waist as he keeps her close. 

Valentina slowly makes her way over to me and reaches out for my hand. 'Will you two ever stop fighting?' 

'We're not fighting, she just needs to mind her business.' She leans in to kiss me and pulls me closer, slowly swaying us to the music in the background. 

'What are we doing here?' I only danced with her twice. At our wedding and in a club. The club was packed with people, so it felt less intimate, even though it was way more sensual than this. 

This feels warm and better than the other times, yet heavy, as if I'm going to ruin it by not moving with her. 

'You're dancing with your wife.' Her eyes sparkle when she calls herself my wife, just like it makes my heart skip a beat. 

'Why?' She slowly moves her arms around my neck, leaning in even closer, 'Because she feels like it.' 

Because you feel like it... 

'Since we're doing what my wife wants right now, we'll do what I want later.' She smiles as she locks eyes with me. 'And what is that?' 

I lean in, pulling her in by her waist, and brush my lips against her neck, 'I want to fuck you.' 

Her breath hitches in the back of her throat and when I lean back to look at her, I notice her cheeks turning red. 

'Only if that's okay with my wife, of course.' She presses her lips on mine and keeps my body close to hers, not wanting to let me go any time soon. 

I almost lift her up and take her to the bedroom, completely forgetting about Leon and North on the other side of the patio. 

'What are you waiting for then?' She whispers against my lips, driving me completely insane. 

'You really want me to-' 'Leon, we need to talk!' Marco exclaims as he rushes out of the house. 

I lower my hands to my waistband, noticing Valentina smiling as she places her hands on mine to stop me from pulling my gun. 

'Don't you dare.' I sigh and lower my hands, before turning towards my cousin. 

'Right now?' Marco nods and stays close to the door, once glancing at me in fear, before quickly turning back to Leon, 'Out of all fucking times?'

'It's about the thing we talked about...' Thing? 

North whispers something into Leon's ear before she stumbles back inside. 

'I'll go with her,' Valentina gently presses her lips on mine, before she moves towards the house, 'Don't kill anyone.' 

'I'll try.' She smiles as she walks past Marco and I head toward Leon. 

'What thing?' Leon shrugs as if he doesn't know what Marco's talking about, even though I can tell he's hiding something. 

'What thing, Barsetti?' I ask as I turn to Marco instead. 

Marco glances between Leon and me a few times, wondering if he's going to survive this. 

Because if he says nothing, I'll kill him, but if he tells me what's actually going on, Leon will kill him. 

'I swear to god, I will give you five seconds to-' Leon pulls Marco over to the pool, away from me, and whispers something into his ear. 

'I will fucking drown you two in a pool if you don't tell me what's going on right now.' 

Leon turns around sighing deeply, before looking into my eyes.

'Alessio is still in Spain.' Are you fucking kidding me? 

'I told him to leave, didn't I?' I ask, waiting for one of them to confirm. 

I know I said it, but maybe he didn't see it like that. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. 

'He has nowhere else to go.' Lies... 

His family has a whole empire in the states, he doesn't need to be here.

I turn to Marco and watch as his eyes fill with a new type of fear. 'Barsetti, send someone to kill him.' 

His eyes widen and he takes a few seconds to move before Leon stops him. 

'There's no need, just let him hide somewhere for a while. It's the least he deserves.' I roll my eyes and almost push him into the pool. 

'You have been doing this behind my back?' He sighs deeply, but nods, not denying it at this point. 'Could you please drop what happened and forgive him for his past actions?' 

'He can rot in hell for all I care.' Leonardo takes a step forward, practically begging me to help that son of a bitch. 'Let me deal with it, okay?'

I don't have time to focus on an idiotic piece of shit, and neither does Leon. 

'Why do you want to help him so badly?' It can't just be because he saved him. There's just no way. 

'Because he saved me and because I feel bad.' 

I inhale slowly, wondering if I should beat the shit out of him just for him to get back to his senses and try to calm down my nerves. 

'It will be my own money, none of your expenses.' He would do that... Of course... 

'Fine, it's all on you.' I state, just wanting to get away from this, 'If something happens and he fucks us over, again, I'll kill you with him.' 

Marco's eyes widen and he stares at Leon, waiting for him to reply. But all Leon does is nod. 

I turn around and walk back inside, hearing Leon shout something behind me, 'I love you too, Adriano!' 

'All done, now I have to go check on the twins.' North says, hearing her from the kitchen. 

I head in there and watch as Valentina cleans a few plates. She looks up and locks eyes with me, all the anger disappearing instantly. 

God... I love her... 

'Everything okay?' I nod and walk over to her, making sure I'm able to touch her, 'Just tired.' 

I don't want to deal with Alessio. I don't want to deal with Steel, I don't want to deal with anything. 

I just want it to be me and her. My wife and I. 

Nothing else. 

'We should head to bed then.' She says as she places the plate on the drying rack.

They'll deal with it in the morning... 

'I guess we should.' I mumble, locking her between me and the counter.

'What are you doing?' I lift her up and place her on the counter, pressing myself between her legs. 

'Rafael?' My lips brush against her neck and she grasps my shirt. 'Mhm?' I pull her as close as possible and slowly trail my hand to her thighs.

'In the-' She gasps for air when she feels my hand run further up her thighs, stopping at the edge of her underwear.

'In the what, Valentina?' I notice the goosebumps forming on her arm and smile against the soft skin on her neck. 

'We shouldn't- shit.' Her toes curl up when I start rubbing my thumb on her clit in the most delicate way possible. 

'Why not?' I breathe, continuing to kiss her neck, slowly moving down to my chest.

'Kitchen.' Is all she's able to bring out, too focused on making sure nobody else can hear her. 

I smile against her collarbone, liking how hard she's trying to stay silent right now, and listen to her squirm in my hold. 'It's my house, Valentina.'

I suck on her skin, so hard that she's unable to keep herself composed.

'I can fuck you wherever I want.' She leans into me, her warm body pressed against mine. 

I don't stop until I hear footsteps enter the fucking kitchen. 

Valentina pushes me off as if she wasn't actually trying before, and looks at whoever just walked through the door as she slowly slides off the countertop. 

Marco's face is starting to look more and more like a target for my bullets. 

'I'm giving you two seconds to get out of here.' Marco nods and instantly walks out of the kitchen, not saying a word as he does. 

'That's rude.' Valentina says as she gives me a gentle push, making me smile. 'He needs to stop ruining our moments.' 

'That's no excuse for you to be rude to him.' She takes my hand in hers and heads towards the hall, 'Now let's go sleep, because I'm actually exhausted.' 

As much as I want to finish what we started, or tried to start twice by now, I don't want to push her tonight. 

And we're both tired. 

'My time will come.' She chuckles as she leads the way to our bedroom, tiptoeing past all the other bedrooms. 

I take off my clothes and follow her toward the bathroom, watching her as starts her nightly routine while I wait by the door. 

Change clothes, hair up, brush teeth, wash her face, put a bunch of oils and creams on, something for her lips.

I can watch her do this every fucking night. 

She climbs into bed and watches me brush my teeth, her lips slightly curling into a perfect smile. 

'What?' I ask as I quickly wash my face and head to bed. 

'My husband is very hot.' My heart flutters for the millionth time today, and I hover over her as I get to bed.

'Is that so?' She nods and leans up far enough to kiss me, before wrapping her arms around me. 'We're both exhausted.' 

'That I can agree on.' I drop down next to her, pulling her into my arms as she plays with my fingers. 'The twins were adorable today.' 

I smile as I listen to her ramble on about another thing the twins did today. 

She absolutely adores them and every time I see her holding one of them, my heart skips a few beats. 

I shouldn't get excited to see her holding a baby, but I can't fucking help it. 

When I feel her doze off in my arms, I make sure she's laying comfortably. 

Just as I'm about to fall asleep, I hear something rumble down the hall. 

I instantly reach for my gun, trying to not wake up Valentina as I do, and sit up. 

The sound stopped, but something feels off. 

I slowly get out of bed and head to the door, listening for another sound. 

A door opens downstairs and I open the bedroom door to see if there's someone in the hall. 

I wrap my fingers around the trigger of my gun and look around the hall, wondering why I'm hearing so much noise coming from the other side of the house, but not seeing anything. 

Slowly I make my way down the hall, looking around every corner to find absolutely no one. 

I'm going crazy over absolutely nothing. 

As I turn back to walk to the bedroom, I hear the back door open slowly. 

I aim my gun in front of me and walk to the living room. The light in the corner of the room, close to the door is on, and the door is opened just a little bit. 

'Do you need more blankets?' Norman? If she's screwing us over, I'm going to fucking kill her. 

'No, it's not cold outside.' I drop my gun at the sound of North's voice and head to the door to see what it is they're doing in the backyard at this time of the night. 

North is holding one of her sons, I think it's Domenico, while Norman places Emiliano in one of the swing things they bought a few days ago. 'Thank you, Isa.' 

'They're absolutely adorable.' Norman mumbles as she bends down to play with Emiliano's hand or something. 'If only they would sleep at normal times.' 

I almost laugh at North's statement, because it's not like she has a normal sleeping schedule.

'You can go back to bed and-' North smiles at me when she sees me in the doorway, making Norman turn to me as well. 

Her smile drops and she instantly jumps to her feet. 'What are you doing out?'

'The twins don't want to fall asleep.' North answers while Norman excuses herself and rushes inside. 

I walk outside and feel the warm tiles underneath my feet. 'So you take them outside? In the middle of the night?'

She nods and cradles one of her sons, looking more content than ever before, 'They calm down outside, so it's easier to get them to sleep this way.' 

'They will get used to this ritual and you'll have to do this for the rest of their lives.' I joke, even though it might be true. 'I'm just glad that they stopped crying for now.' 

They have been crying a lot indeed. 

'They're your children after all.' She rolls her eyes but doesn't hide her amusement as she smiles. 

I lower myself onto one of the chairs across from her, trying not to make too much sound since Emiliano looks like he's going to fall asleep any second now. 

'Want to hold him?' I shake my head and keep my eyes on the little mix of North and Leon. 

'Why not?' She asks, making me wonder why I'm even sitting here. 'Because I don't want to.' 

She goes silent for a while, Domenico cooing from time to time, until he completely stops. 'You won't break him.' 

'How do you know that?' I ask, finally lifting my eyes from the almost sleeping baby. 'If even Victoria could hold him without hurting him, I figure you can too.' She says, challenging me without actually challenging me. 

If even a little girl can do it... 

I move to the edge of my chair and nod at North, watching as she slowly places Domenico into his own swing. He stays asleep, not bothered by the sudden change at all. 

North walks over to Emiliano, who's making more and more sounds by the second, and slowly picks him up. 'It's okay baby, shh.' 

She makes her way over to me and I can feel my body tense. I'm going to hold a fragile thing, a baby for the first time in my fucking life. 

Leon's going to kill me if something happens and I don't think if I'm ready for that, but- 'Lift your arm a bit, his head needs to be a little higher.' 

I do as North says, wondering why I'm even doing this in the first place, and try not to freak out as she hands me her child. 

Don't cry. Don't cry. Please don't cry. 

He's too small. Too fragile. Especially in my hands. 

I feel like I'll break him if I even breathe too hard. 'North-' Don't cry. 

'Don't be so stiff.' She jokes, smiling at me, 'They won't break that fast.' 

'Are you sure about that?' I ask as I try to relax every muscle in my body to at least look a little less tense. 'Don't get any ideas in your head, Rio.' 

She walks back to her seat, suddenly looking a lot more exhausted than before, and watches me. 

'Relax Rio. You're doing great.' I roll my eyes and try focusing on the small creature in my arms. 

My nephew. So small and soft and innocent. God... 

'You're just mocking me.' I whisper as I notice Emiliano looking at me with his beady eyes. 

'I would be mocking you if I took a picture and sent it to Leya.' She says, making me wonder if she would actually do that. 

North and I talked about a lot of things. She could've easily recorded some of our conversations and sent them to Valentina. 

So has she? I don't think so. 

I know for a fact that she told her about my love confession when I was drunk, I know that she told Valentina all the shit I said, but she never recorded anything, she never had evidence. 

'You're doing better than Marco.' I want to look at North and ask what she means by that, but I'm too focused on Emiliano to even bother, 'When Marco held them, they both started crying and wouldn't stop doing so for at least an hour.' 

I bet that hurt his ego. He always liked being around kids. 

Marco wants kids, he always said he would try for kids once he turned twenty-five, which is next year. But he also said that he would only get kids with someone he truly cares about. 

Someone he wants to settle with. 

'Maybe they just didn't like Marco.' North chuckles and mumbles something under her breath as she slowly releases it. 

'They seem to like you.' North says as she leans in. I can see her in the corner of my eyes, watching me attentively, as if she's waiting for me to slip up.

Or maybe she's waiting for me to say something. 

But I don't know what to say and I don't want to move. 

I don't want to make Emiliano or Domenico cry. 

How can something so small and weak be so... Adorable? 

I always thought I would hate babies around the house, that it would cause a distraction within the family and it would mess up the dynamic.

 We wouldn't be able to travel as much, not that we have been traveling as much ever since we ran into North and Valentina in the club, and we wouldn't be able to unwind the way we used to because we would be responsible now. 

They would be responsible now. 

I would keep myself out of the mess that they would call children. I would stay on my own and only get someone pregnant if it was really necessary. 

But now...

I'm holding one of my cousins, wondering what he could possibly think of as he looks up at me with those beady eyes of his. 

I'm wondering what school they will send him to, I'm wondering if I'll be there for all of his graduations, and I'm wondering if he'll be safe if I'm not around. 

I always thought that my touch would break a baby. That as soon as my hands touched the soft and fragile being it would drown in the blood on my hands. 

But here I am, holding a baby that isn't even mine, yet feeling attached to it like it is. 

Because it is my blood. It's part of my family and I'll take care of my family and make sure they're safe. 

But it just feels different. Heavier than I expected, but in a good way. 

It's not something pressing me to the ground and suffocating me. It's something wrapping me up and warming all over my body. 

Kids... Babies... 

Emiliano's eyes slowly close and I fear breathing all of a sudden. He's gradually drifting off to sleep in my arms as if it's nothing. 

As if I'm not capable of murdering him within a second.