You would have been alerted by the slow footsteps that were headed towards your bedroom door if it wasn’t for the giggles that followed. You didn’t need to open your eyes to know that they had entered the room as the door creaked open, the body that slept next to yours shifting slightly.

“She’s sleeping.” It was spoken in a whisper, as if he were trying not to wake you. His sister made no effort to lower her voice and pried further, entering the room, “There’s a boy in the bed.”

“Maybe she got married,” he offered but he was shut down by the other, rudely telling him that there would have been a wedding with a ‘pretty dress’ and a ‘big cake’.

 You smiled to yourself while listening to their little conversation, but the smile was enough, alerting the two that you were awakened by their talking.

“She’s awake.” At this you removed the smile from your face and nuzzled into your pillow, saturated with a familiar scent of shampoo that was absent in the room prior to that night.

 A set of small feet shuffled closer to your bed, “No she’s not, her eyes are closed.” He said,  as he stuck one of his fingers into the corner of your eye, as if to prove his point.

“Nuh uh, it’s just pretend.” It was spoken matter-of-factly, leaving no room for her brother to argue with her deduction.

 There was more whispering but the words being said weren’t clear enough to be made out. Their footsteps walked towards the door, and then you heard the door as it clicked shut. A sigh of relief passed your lips as you were worried that they might have awoken Peter with all of the noise they were making. It was obvious that you wanted them to meet, but you just didn’t really know how he would react to your brother and sister as he had no siblings of his own.

 He was always good with children. Whenever Peter was around the kids in the apartment building he always talked to them, asking about their day, or telling them how cool he thought they were with their colourful cartoon backpacks and matching shoes. But, as good as he was with kids, being woken up at 7am on a Saturday didn’t sound like the best way for them to meet for the first time, especially considering it was the first time that he had stayed over. You also knew that he would have to deal with your parents very soon, so you didn’t want to cause him any additional stress by having him meet your siblings so early in the morning. Though, since they had already left, luck seemed to be on your side.

 As you opened your eyes, you were startled to find a small pair of bright green ones staring right back at you, just mere inches away.

“I told you she was awake.” Abbi giggled, poking your cheek as you sat up on the side of the bed.

“Shhhh,” You held your finger up to your lips, indicating for her to talk quietly, “don’t be so loud, Honey.”

 A voice spoke up from where you would least expect it, “Is he your husband?” Your little brother emerged from his hiding place behind your desk chair as he asked the question. You hadn’t even seen him because of the pile of coats and clothes that were flung over it in disarray.

“No Theo, he’s not,” you whispered as you hoped to inspire them to speak more quietly. They were only four and hadn’t quite grasped the concept of whispering or speaking softly when others are asleep, or at any other time.

 Abbi turned towards her brother who was now standing right next to her, “See Theo, I told you so.” She sang as she stuck her tongue out at her brother.

 You spoke up, “Hey, be nice.” She quickly moved away from you before you could reprimand her further. You were a bit relieved when she did as you didn’t have the energy to scold her this early in the morning, plus you usually left the discipling to your parents. You settled back into the bed, facing them, as you refused to deal with your sister’s antics.

 The whole family were used to Abbi’s assertive and bossy behaviour, being the more feisty one while Theo was more shy and reserved, happy to go along with whatever his sisters were doing.

 Before she could mouth back at you, Peter rolled over, snuggling into your back. His brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of where the voices were coming from. A smile crept up your face as he sleepily grumbled incoherent words into your shoulder.

“Hey, it’s alright, you can go back to sleep.” You reassure him, rubbing your thumb across the forearm that he had lazily slung across your waist.

 Theo came close and sat on the edge of the bed next to you, “Can you make us breakfast?” He asked giving you a look that would put a million puppies to shame. Whoever said that puppy dog eyes didn’t work with green eyes was clearly wrong and Theo was the living proof.

 You just wanted to go back to bed with Peter, so you tried your best to get them to leave for a bit, “How about you two go get some cereal and watch TV until Mum and Dad wake up instead, yeah?” As you were saying this Abbi started shaking her head frantically.

“We can’t,” Abbi gestures largely, as if she were in a teen-drama, “there’s no more milk.” She said it as if you should have known there was no milk.

You decided to give in to their request before Abbi got any louder, “Okay okay, fine, just give me a few minutes to get up, alright?”

 They nodded eagerly and scampered out of the room, but before Theo shut the door, he looked back and gave you a little smile and wave. You chuckle to yourself at how sweet and adorable he was, a great contrast to his sister, especially in the morning.

 What you didn’t realise was that Theo was actually waving to Peter, as, not even two seconds after the door clicked shut, you felt him smile into your shoulder before pressing gentle kisses to your neck.

“How long have you been awake?” you turned around in his arms to face him as you spoke.

“Just a few minutes.” He answers, grinning sleepily at your messy bed-hair. “They’re so much littler than I imagined they would be. The way you talked about your siblings made me thing they were ten or twelve.

You shook your head lightly, “Yeah nope, they’re only four.”

He raised his head slightly to see you better, “Both of them?”

“Mmm hmm. They’re twins. Not identical, obviously, we don’t even know who’s older.” You played with his fingers as you were speaking.

 Peter looked at you quizzically, trying to understand what you just told him. He couldn’t tell if you were being serious or not.

 You let out a breath before answering the unspoken question, “We weren’t there when they were born. They were dropped off at a hospital the day after. They’re adopted.”

 He looked surprised as his eyebrows shot up, nearly to his hairline, as he listened to what you were revealing, “Wow, I had no idea, I don’t know what to say.”

You shrugged, “It’s alright babe, it’s not that big of a deal. They know they’re adopted, it’s not some big secret. My parents have told them from day one, it was easier than trying to hide the truth their whole lives. Plus my parents are both red heads, I think they’d get suspicious after a while since they’re both brunettes.”

“Yeah, probably.” He looked up at you and squinted his eyes slightly, “Are, uh, does that mean that you’re adopted too?”

You just nodded, “Yeah.” There was an awkward pause in the conversation as Peter mulled over what he’d just learned.

“Huh, me too.” He half whispered, “I’m adopted too.”

“Huh, yeah, I never thought of it that way.” You said, as you held onto his hand tighter than you were before.

“Me neither.” He chuckles at his confession. “Is that why, in eighth grade,  you said that you would rather adopt kids then have your own?”

“Um, yeah actually.” You paused for a minute, “Peter, I honestly don’t know whether to be impressed or weirded out that you remember that.”

“Oh, I see. You clearly didn’t believe me when I said that I had my eyes on you for a while.” He laughed as he spoke but you could tell that he was telling the truth.

“I know now.” You giggle “That actually makes me feel kind of bad that I didn’t notice you earlier than when I did.”

 He shrugged, “Meh, I think it just gave me time to really fall for you.” You could tell he regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth.

“Eww, oh my goodness that was so cheesy.” The both of you laughed.

“Always for you.” His reply made you visibly cringe, scrunching your whole face up. Peter leaned over to close the gap between your lips. They’d just barely connected when you heard a chorus of giggles and ‘ewws’ erupt from the doorway behind you.

 You sigh and roll over to tell them off but as soon as you moved, they bolted out of the room giggling as they went.

Peter chuckled lightly at your departed audience.

You covered your eyes with your hand, “I am so sorry about them.”

He gently pulled your hand away from your face, keeping hold of it, “Why be sorry? They’re cute.”

“Believe me, they stop being cute after a while.” You said, patting his hand lightly.

“Where are you going?” he questioned as you wiggled out of his grasp to sit up on the edge of the bed.

“I have to feed the monsters remember?” you reminded him as you searched through the sweaters laying over your chair, finally settling on a navy blue one that was just slightly baggy on your frame. You stood in front of the mirror while you fixed your messy bed-hair.

“And where do you think you're going?” you asked as you noticed in the reflection of the mirror that Peter had pulled the blankets off himself to sit on the edge of the bed and stretch.

“Thought we were feeding the quote-unquote monsters. Unless you don’t want me to.”

“Peter, I’m not going to say no.” You giggle, sitting down on his lap, bringing his arms around your torso. “I just didn’t think that you’d want to.”

“You already know that I’d do anything with you.” He smiles, kissing the tip of your nose, then your forehead and at last, your lips. You grin into the soft kiss, pulling away after a few moments.

“Did you sleep well.” You whisper.

“Yeah, the best I have in a long time.” He leans back in for another kiss but you move your head before he can connect his lips with yours.

“Can’t get too distracted remember?” You said as you stood up, pulling him up with you.

“Mmmm of course.” You didn’t know it was possible for someone to look that cute after denying them a kiss.

“Well then, off to feed the monsters.” The two of you walked out of the room and into the kitchen to see Abbi and Theo sitting in front of the TV watching Paw Patrol. You put two pans on the stove to heat them up while Peter took the eggs and bacon out of the fridge. By then you’d caught the attention of your brother and sister, who had decided that they wanted to help with breakfast.

 You decided to assign them the task of toasting and buttering the bread. While they were waiting for the toaster to pop, they took turns tackling Peter. One of them would cling to his leg or foot while the other jumped onto his back. Eventually the toast was forgotten by them but you didn’t mind. All of your previous worries involving Peter and your siblings disappeared the moment you looked back to see them all playing together.

 After a few moments of flipping the bacon and eggs you turned to see Peter. He walked back into the kitchen, his arms flexed and a child hanging off of each bicep They were dangling a foot or so off the ground, giggling and squealing the whole time. He carried them around as if they weighed nothing.

 That just happened to be the moment your parents walked in to see their youngest children hanging off the arms of a stranger. It wasn’t a complete surprise to them as you had mentioned the day before that Peter might stay over. You couldn’t believe that they didn’t say no immediately. You were prepared to have a big list of reasons why they couldn’t say no, but thankfully, that wasn’t needed. They were okay with the idea under the promise that there was no funny business. They would rather their daughter stay at the house than sneak off somewhere with someone they hadn’t met yet.

“Morning hun, that smells delicious.” Your mother said as she walked into the kitchen, then stopped when she noticed the clowning around that was happening. “Ahhh this explains the gigling. You must be Peter. It’s nice to finally meet the boy who stole our daughter’s heart.”

“Mum!” you scoffed, mortified and blushing as bright as the bacon in the pan.

“He’s cute.” She whispered as she passed you, stealing a piece of bacon from the plate.

“Hi, um, it’s nice to uh meet you too Mrs. L/N.” Peter stammered blushing nearly as red as you were, if not more. He’d barely had time to recover before your dad walked in.

“Ah yes, I was definitely not prepared enough to deal with this this morning. Meeting the boyfriend.” He stalled as he tried to figure out how to handle the situation. He’d completely forgotten about Peter staying over. That was kind of the plan though, you had asked while he was watching golf so he wouldn’t give it too much thought before saying yes.

 You groaned quite loudly, “Dad, stop being weird.”

“Right, sorry, uh I’d shake your hand but I see that they’re both a little full.” He recovered nicely, gesturing to his kids that clung to Peter arms.

“That’s alright.” Peter said starting to calm down once he realized that your dad was just as freaked out by this as he was.

 Peter had admitted earlier that he was nervous about meeting your parents, especially your dad. Apparently the last time he met someone’s dad it didn’t go over too well. Other than the first awkward conversation, the rest of the morning went smoothly, Peter was smart about not showing PDA with your parents around. Your mum loved him right away while your dad was a lot more hesitant, but he eventually came around.