gouache
cold and planetary.
“Why won’t you fuc-” He aggressively shook the door handle, trying to get any movement out of it while getting nothing out of the giant metal door in return. Brielle scoffed, using a strong fist now to jam it open, but with a baby crying in his ear who he desperately was trying to get him away from the others sleepings so as to not wake him up- it seemed pointless now. Brielle hushed his son and bounced him on his hip, but he was relentless and wasn’t having any of it. “I’m going to break this door down.” Brielle went about unlocking and locking the door to see if that would work, but he had also done that a hundred times now, and it still wasn’t moving. “Honey. Lookup..” Hatchee exclaimed, now coming up from behind him after having been in the kitchen, “It has a deadbolt lock.” She pointed up top of the six foot door, showing him a lock that was stuck into the ceiling, but it was clearly out of Brielle’s short point of view.. and missed it completely. Brielle just stood there silently in deaf with a scowl on his furry face, while Hatchee just laughed softly to herself. She reached up and pulled the dead bolt down, unlocked the door, and finally pushed it open. Brielle had enough that unwavering steel door, even though they had been living here for three days.. He was ready to break it down into tiny pieces. Hatchee herded Brielle out the door, shut it behind her as quietly as she could, and stepped into the extremely cold concrete stairway. Everything had an echo in there so Sorel’s crying seemed to be bouncing off the walls, and straight into their ears. Hatchee gently took their baby from her husband’s arms and set him comfortably on his hip before showing him the glass milk bottle. “Sorel.” The exhausted mother held it to his mouth to take notice of it, thankfully he didn’t fight her about it, and swiftly took a hold of it in his tiny fingers.
Finally, it was quiet again, only being able to hear the babies sniffling and the insistent dripping from god knows where inside the stairwell they had been looking for to cover it up but with no luck. Hatchee gazed at her husband who just had his arms folded against his chest, staring listlessly out the window facing the side of the street. It was almost five in the morning, so it was completely dark with absolutely no movement outside. Hatchee softly exhaled, taking in the silence once again before she reached out and tugged on the sturdy fur collected on Brielle’s face. “What?” Brielle jumped from the sudden tug, snapping out of his exhausted trance to turn his head to his wife who was just smiling sleepily at him. Her husband rubbed at his face in an attempt to wipe away his stubby snout and the coarse fur on his face, doing his best to try and calm down now. Hatchee tenderly rubbed their babies back, now staring intensely at Sorel to study his damp and flushed little face. Sorel’s hair was sticking to the sides of his face from the amount of sweat he accumulated while sleeping, looking as if he had just run some sort of marathon. He was nursing the bottle fairly quick, so she would gently pull it away from his mouth to get him to slow down. “They're both probably awake now.” Hatchee admitted with a chuckle, gazing back at Brielle to see him staring out the window again with a scowl on his face. “Yet.. here I am.. forced to care.” He sneered at the idea of his baby affecting anyone else but him and his wife, who already wished they could have the right to be sleeping in. “Oh boy…” Hatchee cracked up at her husband who clearly had enough of this living situation, but was managing to power through it anyways. Brielle fell completely silent and still, brows furrowing together with an intense look on his face while he stared into the night. “What is it?” Hatchee asked in concern, rarely ever seeing her husband suddenly look frozen in fear. Brielle didn’t answer her, still standing paraylized. “Brielle?” She sharply exclaimed to get his attention, but it didn’t phase him, so she now scooted in beside him to try and get a look out the window. “I saw someone out there.” Brielle revealed, his breathing becoming shallow as if he was trying to remain as still as possible to not be seen. Hatchee squinted her eyes in an attempt to survey into the darkness to see what he must’ve been looking at, but saw nothing but the wind shaking the trees. “I don’t see anything.” Hatchee muttered in a worried tone, looking back at her husband to see he was still intensely looking out at something. “I saw someone near the gate..” “It was probably the wind honey.” She worried he was being overly paranoid, especially now that it was so early in the morning, and no one was out at this hour on a thursday.
Brielle was a bit on edge coming here, he wouldn’t let Hatchee go by herself anywhere lately, and would be sure she went with someone even if it was to the store down the block. She would often go on walks with Sorel in their old neighborhood, but since moving here, he started to go with her. He was always a relatively careful and on guard person, but as of lately it’s been more intense. Hatchee’s attention turned toward Sorel once she felt her hair being tugged on by his tiny chunky hand, “Hi monkey..” Hatchee cooed lovingly, tenderly kissing his head before brushing some of his damp hair behind his ears to get a better view of his face. The baby was looking at his father while half heartedly drinking from his bottle, seeming to be just as lost in thought as Brielle looked to be in. With the both of them having the exact same expression on their faces, making her laugh at how identical they were to each other. “Is daddy being weird..” Hatchee whispered into the baby's ear, nuzzling her nose into his warm and clammy cheeks to get a good smell of him- he always smelled like oatmeal and baby powder, which happened to be the most comforting smell for her. Sorel was quiet now compared to how he was minutes ago, now almost being done with his bottle. “Let’s go back inside, Brielle.” Hatchee urged her husband who just paid no mind to her, and instead kept glaring out the window. He swore he could see the shadow of a figure shaking underneath the bushes, and it definitely didn’t look like it was due to the wind. Sorel started to fuss and squiggle around in her arms, now pushing the bottle away. “You're scaring Sorel.” Hatchee stated sternly before she took Brielle by the hand to pull him out of such a defensive position. Brielle finally gave in once hearing their baby get worked up again, choosing to set aside his gut feeling to listen to his wife who just wanted to go inside. “We’re safe honey, you don’t have to worry.” She tried to soothe her husband to try and calm down that paranoid force deep inside telling him to always be on his toes, and not forget where they live now. “That’s why we have a deadbolt lock, remember?” Hatchee teased and chuckled loudly, only for Brielle to scoff and roll his eyes, before Hatchee pulled him by the hand to start heading back inside the apartment. Once they got inside the warm apartment, Hatchee shut the door behind them and reached up to put the deadbolt back into its place. She sighed in relief, happy to be back inside the apartment and out of that cold concrete jail. Sorel started to whine and twist around in her arms insistently to be let go, “Okay, hold on..” Hatchee mumbled, trying her best not to be loud as to not wake the others. Brielle had already gone ahead to the kitchen to place the glass bottle in the sink, not caring at all for being loud or not. Hatchee stepped into the kitchen silently to peek over to the living room where she last saw Shmuel and Daemen. They both had fallen asleep watching Sorel last night on the couches, even though she tried to wake them up to go to their beds, the both of them just stayed anyway. Hatchee jumped when she saw two sets of eyes staring back at her from the dimly lit living room, the both of them sitting up right on the couches half asleep. “Did we wake you up?” Hatchee asked with a frown, and the two just nodded their heads.
“Yeah...” Shmuel groggly groaned, running a hand through his extremely messy hair which was intensified by his bed head. Daemen just yawned and laid back down onto the couches before shoving his face between the cushions of the couch. Sorel wiggled aggressively to get down now before starting to cry, only for Hatchee to saunter into the living room and gently place him on the blankets on the floor. “Can I make you two breakfast to make up for it?” The mother sighed heavily, she was exhausted but this was Sorel’s schedule after all. The parents woke up to their baby crying in between four and six in the morning, six being at the latest. After all.. It was his world and they were just living in it. Shmuel rubbed at his eyes and nodded his head drowsily before feeling Daemen’s foot smack the side of his leg. Neither Shmuel or Daemen recalled falling asleep last night, and the last thing they both remembered was just watching Sorel on the couch. Shmuel pinched Daemen’s foot, only for Daemen to retract his foot away violently before plummeting it straight into Shmuel’s chest. Hatchee didn’t notice Sorel was standing near the couch right beside Daemen’s leg to try and climb onto the couch. “Hey, watch it you two!” Hatchee gently lifted Sorel away from the couch and back onto the blankets, thankful the baby didn’t get hurt by their careless fighting. “You almost hit Sorel.” Hatchee sighed in relief, now seeing the baby was already wide awake and frantically rummaging through everything in the living room. Brielle ambled into the living room to shift Sorel away from the unused fireplace with his legs. “Pupa, look. Nanna.” The father waved a cut up piece of banana in the babies face to draw his attention away from destroying everything. The baby peered up at his father just to grab the banana slice from his hand and without hesitation shoved the banana and his hand into his mouth. Brielle plopped down onto the carpet to go about feeding Sorel his breakfast where he could watch to make sure he didn’t choke. “Do you want pancakes?” Hatchee suggested to Shmuel, he just wordlessly shook his head for a response to her. “I’ll make eggs too.” “Can I have mine over easy?” Shmuel asked, “Of course.” Hatchee cheerfully replied with a thumbs up. “Do you want any eggs Daemen?” Hatchee asked with a louder tone of voice, but he didn’t respond or react. Shmuel shoved Daemen with his shoulder to get his attention, only for Daemen to groan and pull his head out of the cushions to glare at him with half closed eyes. “What kind of eggs do you want?” Shmuel emphatically exclaimed, but Daemen just started to close his eyes again. Everytime Daemen would wake up, his hearing would always be terrible, and he could never get anything across to him. Shmuel this time gently rubbed at Daemen’s face to get his attention, and immediately upon Daemen opening his eyes for a second, Shmuel swiftly signed his question. Daemen just vaguely signed back to him, and placed his head right back in between the cushions again. “He wants them well done.” “Okay! Thank you.” Hatchee ambly made her way into the kitchen, not having to ask Brielle what he wanted, she already knew exactly how he liked his eggs. Shmuel peered down at Brielle sitting hunched over on the floor feeding Sorel small pieces of a banana, the baby looked rather content while he stood in between Brielle’s legs. “Brielle?” Shmuel piped up, “Do the new people know they're going to be living with a baby?” The brunette asked as he adjusted his knees against his chest and rested his back against the couch cushions comfortably. Brielle didn’t respond to him, and just kept going about making sure Sorel didn’t drop the banana. “Brielle…?” Shmuel asked for his attention again, but Brielle didn’t break away from watching the baby. After Shmuel bugged him enough, Brielle finally responded. “Did you hear what I said?” “I did.” The father patted Sorel on the back, clearly uninterested with what Shmuel was beckoning him to answer. “And?” “I don’t answer stupid questions.” Brielle stated as Sorel offered him a piece of his banana he had already put in his mouth. “It’s not a stupid question..” Shmuel argued, but Brielle just ignored him once again. “No thank you.. You can have it.” Brielle urged the baby, trying to feed it back to him, but Sorel was adamant on sharing his slobbery food with someone else. Upon being denied by Brielle, Sorel instead urgently offered up the banana piece to Shmuel, “Here!” Sorel chirped, holding his arm out to give it to him. “Oh wow.. Thank you.” Shmuel hesitantly reached over and took the banana from his damp little hands, completely unable to say no to him.
“That’s so nice of you. Thank you so much.” He half heartedly smiled at the baby who was now just staring at him intently, waiting for him to eat it. “Go on then. Eat it.” Brielle insisted with a smug smirk on his face, blatantly finding this very amusing now that Shmuel was trapped. Shmuel wasn’t planning on eating it, just holding it until he could throw it away, unbenounced to him that he would be put in such a difficult situation. “Sorel, come here!” Hatchee exclaimed from the other side of the room to get his attention, in no time at all Sorel waddled out of Brielle’s lap and straight to the kitchen where his mother stood waiting for him. Hatchee lifted the baby up and onto her hip comfortably, before petting his back tenderly. “Thank you….” Shmuel sighed in relief, thankful he wasn’t forced to eat it now with Brielle pushing him to do it. “You’re welcome.” She laughed, knowing that she saved Shmuel was a world of pain by not eating that piece of banana. “When is everyone coming?” Shmuel piped up, already knowing it would be hours from now because they were up so early in the first place. “They're supposed to be here at ten.” Brielle stated, going to look at the clock on the wall to see it was closer to six in the morning now. “Brielle and I have a lot of work to do before they get here, so you and Daemen will have to babysit.” Hatchee mentioned to Shmuel, her eyes studying the baby staring intensely at the eggs cooking slowly on the stove, the butter already beginning to start cracking and popping from the heat. Hatchee stepped back to hold Sorel away from the stove and turned down the knob that controlled the fire. She found it odd that the grease still cracked insistently, as if she hadn’t turned the temperature down already. Hatchee turned the fire off completely to see what would happen, but it started to pop more aggressively. Suddenly, the fire started up again but stronger than she had seen before, without even touching the knobs. It was so hot and so close to her hand that she swore it had already burned her. She was about to call out to Brielle for help, but just as quickly as it showed up.. It stopped, turning completely off again. Hatchee’s brows knitted together in shock and confusion, not sure of what she just witnessed or if she had just imagined it. She felt Sorel take up a fist full of her hair and tug on it to get her attention, his little face already contoured together at the sight of his mother looking so withdrawn. Hatchee chose to not bring this up with Brielle as it would make him even more paranoid, and to just pass this off as just an odd experience. “Let’s go get changed really quick..” She mumbled to her baby, wanting to step away from the stove and not touch it for a bit to see if that would get it back to normal. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to get him dressed. Watch the stove for me.” Hatchee exclaimed to her husband before making her way to their bedroom with the baby clinging to her neck. Brielle’s brows knitted together in concern at the uneasiness in her voice, but he assumed she was just tired, and went ahead to stand by the kitchen stove anyways.
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Brielle thumbed through the thick packet of notes he had jotted down in preparation for this occasion. His handwriting was messy and unreadable to everyone but his wife from how quickly he would go about getting everything written down. Most all the information on the sheets consisted of the layout, what goes where, who is who, pricing, upkeep, grocery lists, phone numbers, and many other details required to manage this place. Brielle rested his back against the bar and leaned on his left leg to try and get in a comfortable position, but it seemed pointless with their chairs only being stools with no back support. He really didn’t like stools because of this. “Do we have a list of all the alcohol?” Hatchee asked, sliding over her notes to him to take a look at what she had written down about the placement of the drinks. “I just want to make sure I have everything on here.” “I’ll have to check in storage.” Brielle ran a hand through his hair to brush it from out of his face and behind his ears to get a better view of the paperwork. He studied her list, before noticing some things from his own notes were missing in hers. They were both a little off course with how many deliveries they were getting in such a short period of time. It was overwhelming to say the least. “I saw a few boxes back there that I didn’t see earlier.” Hatchee explained, exasperated by the sheer amount of alcohol she didn’t even know existed up until now. “You're missing a few things.” Brielle pointed to a few things on his list to show her what she was missing, before he picked up his pencil and jotted it down. Hatchee gazed around the extensive room, it was unreal to her. She had visited this bar countless times, but everytime she would go inside it still felt strange and unknown to her. Their original bar was small and cozy so it always looked packed, and with a tiny stage. The stage here was massive, and could fit an entire band. It was definitely an upgrade for the both of them, which felt like an understatement compared to the one they built. Hatchee peered up at the clock mantled on above the bar to see if it was ten minutes to ten am, so the new crew should be coming soon. They could finally get things moving with more hands to help, especially tall ones. Hatchee didn’t want Brielle putting away the alcohol in storage from the spaces being so high up on the shelves, so she really needed the help. “You look so handsome this morning. Did you get dressed up for everyone?” Hatchee affectionately teased her husband with a big smile on her face, knowing that he struggled to get dressed this morning after not being able to find his favorite pair of pants. He wore a white button up shirt with couple buttons undone, with light grey cashmere cardigan over it, and dark grey tweed pants. He usually wore these specific kinds of pants for dressier occasions, but it was either those pants or shorts, and Hatchee chose them. He even wore his relatively new brown leather oxfords too, instead of his well worn ones. Brielle paid no mind to her snide remarks, and just continued to quickly jot down everything needed in her notes.
Hatchee believed in first impressions, but still dressed comfortably in a grey striped midi dress with cap sleeves, a slightly flared skirt, and thin brown belt around her upper waist. She wore her regular comfortable brown ankle strap with low block heels, considering she still had to keep up with Sorel. Brielle handed back the notes to her, pointing out what was missing between each other's notes. “I’ll go back there with you and show you what you missed.” He stated with a heavy sigh, already looking very tense and exhausted. Hatchee could tell he was feeling on edge, and maybe a little nervous about meeting these new people. They both had enough information about the new group to get a good gauge of what they would be getting themselves into, so they weren’t going in completely blind. Still, it was a little odd to trust someone else's judgment about who works for them.. instead of their own choosing. “This is going to be interesting.” Hatchee mumbled to herself while tying her lengthy ginger hair up into a high ponytail, already seeing the foreseeable future once Sorel came running back to her. They both could hear their baby from a distance, only being able to know where he is by the random shrieking and squealing he was letting out. “We should set up a table for everyone.” Hatchee mentioned, now realizing they didn’t have any of the tables set out beside the bar stools. “I think a couple of the tables are behind the left bar..” Brielle tried recalling, but couldn’t exactly put his finger on where he saw it last while digging around for the delivery receipts. Hatchee’s ears perked up when she heard Sorel’s screeching coming closer to her, and the sound of shoes clacking on the concrete floor. The baby quickly waddled off to the far end of the bar, only for Shmuel to follow shortly after him. Sorel shrieked before he started to waddle and sway backwards to keep his eyes on Shmuel while trying to get away from him.
“Don’t do that!” Shmuel shouted, now quickly trying to catch up with him. As soon as he said that, Sorel fell backwards onto his bottom with a little thud. Shmuel sighed heavily, expecting the baby to start crying, but to his surprise Sorel was unphased. The baby wiggled around in a struggle to get back onto his feet again, only to give Shmuel enough time to swiftly scoop him up to finally get a hold of him. Hatchee waved Shmuel over to her to get the baby out of his hair, considering he had been babysitting Sorel for almost three hours now. “Where is Daemen?” Hatchee inquired, watching as Shmuel made his way over to both Brielle and Hatchee with their baby squirming to get out of his arms. “He’s getting dressed.” “I need the both of you to go set up a table for the group.” Brielle stated, still not breaking eye contact from his notes. Hatchee took up the baby from Shmuel’s arms to rest him on her hip, Sorel immediately started to settle down and made himself comfortable by holding onto her hair. She didn’t have it in a high enough ponytail.. which was now made clear to her by watching him try and put hair hair into his mouth. “Where are the tables?” Shmuel folded his arms across his chest before gazing around the room in search of where they could be, and if Daemen was here already. “It’s behind the left bar in the storage room. Just bring one table..” Brielle injected, now flipping through his notes, running a finger along one of the unreadable lists, “And nine chairs.” “Do we even have nine chairs?” Shmuel asked with a raised brow, only for Brielle to completely ignore him again. Shmuel realizing once again that Brielle didn’t answer ‘stupid’ questions, so there must’ve been enough chairs back there. “Both of you hurry. They should be here in a few minutes.” Brielle replied with an almost threatening tone of voice, not wanting to continue talking until they both did the task he asked them to do. Shmuel without another word, turned on his heel and went about his way before calling out to Daemen to hurry up. “Do we have any pictures of them?” Hatchee asked, trying to untangle her hair from the babies damp and chubby little hands, but he was really hanging onto her. “No. I just know their names.” Brielle sighed heavily, looking up from his notes to turn and face his wife and son going at her hair like a gremlin. “I’m going to get him something to eat so he’ll be calm while this is happening..” Hatchee laughed softly to herself, knowing the moment these people walk in the door he’ll go nuts. Brielle nodded his head slowly, already feeling very rigid at the idea of putting so much trust into someone else's judgement and why he hired these specific people. “This will be interesting.” Brielle mumbled, staring intensely at his wife and baby as they both shared a quiet moment together, unsure of what was about to transpire here.
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“Thank you for being on time everyone.” Brielle cleared his throat, “Or I would’ve fired you.” He remarked, not really thankful for them being on time, but he was trying to be pleasant for his wife. Brielle looked fixedly around the room as everyone gathered close together, all sitting in a circle sitting in their own chairs. Brielle put them all closely together so everyone could hear each other speak, not wanting anyone to miss anything being said by him. He immediately thought they were an interesting looking group of people, but was also not interested in really getting a look at them just yet. “We’re going to go around the room and introduce ourselves first..” Brielle observed, while he stood in front of his chair to get a better view of everyone. “We’ll introduce ourselves in order, starting from the right side.” He explained before setting down his notes onto his chair, as he didn’t need them anymore. “First and foremost, my name is Gabriel, but call me Brielle.” He never went by his first name, but he knew they would be seeing his legal name on paperwork, so he wanted them to know beforehand so they didn’t come up to him to ask who that was. “My wife and I are the managers here.” Brielle turned around to point to his wife who was standing outside the circle with the baby, keeping him at a distance from the group while he was distracted by eating his pickle so he wouldn’t bother them. “Hello there! My name is Hatchee!” She cheerfully exclaimed with an inviting and warm smile, “It’s so nice to meet you guys! If you need anything, please feel free to come and talk to me or Brielle.” Hatchee insisted, while starting to sway around the baby on her hip now that he started fussing, seeing his mother paying attention to the new people gathered together away from him. “This is our son, Sorel!” Hatchee laughed softly to herself, already feeling Sorel wanting to get down and greet everyone- but she wanted to give them space for a while. “I hope you’ll learn to tolerate him! He’s a nice boy, just a little hyper.” That was an understatement, but she wanted to play it down to now worry them as much for what was about to come. Brielle just nodded in agreement at what his wife had to say, but he wasn’t concerned if they could tolerate his son or not. That wasn’t his problem. “Alright, so let’s start with some ice breakers, because we are children.” Brielle stood in silence for a moment to think about what he would ask them to say, and decided on doing something simple. “Go about introducing yourself and what instrument you play.. And tell us what your favorite drink is.” He thought that was good enough because in all honesty he just wanted to get this thing over with. “We’ll start with you.” Brielle pointed to an extremely tall woman he first met earlier for a moment before everyone else arrived. He thought she looked interesting and appreciated her familiar accent, although he hadn’t heard a russian accent in many years. “Go ahead.” Brielle picked up his notes from his chair and onto his lap, before taking a seat and crossing his leg over his knee.
Finally, it was quiet again, only being able to hear the babies sniffling and the insistent dripping from god knows where inside the stairwell they had been looking for to cover it up but with no luck. Hatchee gazed at her husband who just had his arms folded against his chest, staring listlessly out the window facing the side of the street. It was almost five in the morning, so it was completely dark with absolutely no movement outside. Hatchee softly exhaled, taking in the silence once again before she reached out and tugged on the sturdy fur collected on Brielle’s face. “What?” Brielle jumped from the sudden tug, snapping out of his exhausted trance to turn his head to his wife who was just smiling sleepily at him. Her husband rubbed at his face in an attempt to wipe away his stubby snout and the coarse fur on his face, doing his best to try and calm down now. Hatchee tenderly rubbed their babies back, now staring intensely at Sorel to study his damp and flushed little face. Sorel’s hair was sticking to the sides of his face from the amount of sweat he accumulated while sleeping, looking as if he had just run some sort of marathon. He was nursing the bottle fairly quick, so she would gently pull it away from his mouth to get him to slow down. “They're both probably awake now.” Hatchee admitted with a chuckle, gazing back at Brielle to see him staring out the window again with a scowl on his face. “Yet.. here I am.. forced to care.” He sneered at the idea of his baby affecting anyone else but him and his wife, who already wished they could have the right to be sleeping in. “Oh boy…” Hatchee cracked up at her husband who clearly had enough of this living situation, but was managing to power through it anyways. Brielle fell completely silent and still, brows furrowing together with an intense look on his face while he stared into the night. “What is it?” Hatchee asked in concern, rarely ever seeing her husband suddenly look frozen in fear. Brielle didn’t answer her, still standing paraylized. “Brielle?” She sharply exclaimed to get his attention, but it didn’t phase him, so she now scooted in beside him to try and get a look out the window. “I saw someone out there.” Brielle revealed, his breathing becoming shallow as if he was trying to remain as still as possible to not be seen. Hatchee squinted her eyes in an attempt to survey into the darkness to see what he must’ve been looking at, but saw nothing but the wind shaking the trees. “I don’t see anything.” Hatchee muttered in a worried tone, looking back at her husband to see he was still intensely looking out at something. “I saw someone near the gate..” “It was probably the wind honey.” She worried he was being overly paranoid, especially now that it was so early in the morning, and no one was out at this hour on a thursday.
Brielle was a bit on edge coming here, he wouldn’t let Hatchee go by herself anywhere lately, and would be sure she went with someone even if it was to the store down the block. She would often go on walks with Sorel in their old neighborhood, but since moving here, he started to go with her. He was always a relatively careful and on guard person, but as of lately it’s been more intense. Hatchee’s attention turned toward Sorel once she felt her hair being tugged on by his tiny chunky hand, “Hi monkey..” Hatchee cooed lovingly, tenderly kissing his head before brushing some of his damp hair behind his ears to get a better view of his face. The baby was looking at his father while half heartedly drinking from his bottle, seeming to be just as lost in thought as Brielle looked to be in. With the both of them having the exact same expression on their faces, making her laugh at how identical they were to each other. “Is daddy being weird..” Hatchee whispered into the baby's ear, nuzzling her nose into his warm and clammy cheeks to get a good smell of him- he always smelled like oatmeal and baby powder, which happened to be the most comforting smell for her. Sorel was quiet now compared to how he was minutes ago, now almost being done with his bottle. “Let’s go back inside, Brielle.” Hatchee urged her husband who just paid no mind to her, and instead kept glaring out the window. He swore he could see the shadow of a figure shaking underneath the bushes, and it definitely didn’t look like it was due to the wind. Sorel started to fuss and squiggle around in her arms, now pushing the bottle away. “You're scaring Sorel.” Hatchee stated sternly before she took Brielle by the hand to pull him out of such a defensive position. Brielle finally gave in once hearing their baby get worked up again, choosing to set aside his gut feeling to listen to his wife who just wanted to go inside. “We’re safe honey, you don’t have to worry.” She tried to soothe her husband to try and calm down that paranoid force deep inside telling him to always be on his toes, and not forget where they live now. “That’s why we have a deadbolt lock, remember?” Hatchee teased and chuckled loudly, only for Brielle to scoff and roll his eyes, before Hatchee pulled him by the hand to start heading back inside the apartment. Once they got inside the warm apartment, Hatchee shut the door behind them and reached up to put the deadbolt back into its place. She sighed in relief, happy to be back inside the apartment and out of that cold concrete jail. Sorel started to whine and twist around in her arms insistently to be let go, “Okay, hold on..” Hatchee mumbled, trying her best not to be loud as to not wake the others. Brielle had already gone ahead to the kitchen to place the glass bottle in the sink, not caring at all for being loud or not. Hatchee stepped into the kitchen silently to peek over to the living room where she last saw Shmuel and Daemen. They both had fallen asleep watching Sorel last night on the couches, even though she tried to wake them up to go to their beds, the both of them just stayed anyway. Hatchee jumped when she saw two sets of eyes staring back at her from the dimly lit living room, the both of them sitting up right on the couches half asleep. “Did we wake you up?” Hatchee asked with a frown, and the two just nodded their heads.
“Yeah...” Shmuel groggly groaned, running a hand through his extremely messy hair which was intensified by his bed head. Daemen just yawned and laid back down onto the couches before shoving his face between the cushions of the couch. Sorel wiggled aggressively to get down now before starting to cry, only for Hatchee to saunter into the living room and gently place him on the blankets on the floor. “Can I make you two breakfast to make up for it?” The mother sighed heavily, she was exhausted but this was Sorel’s schedule after all. The parents woke up to their baby crying in between four and six in the morning, six being at the latest. After all.. It was his world and they were just living in it. Shmuel rubbed at his eyes and nodded his head drowsily before feeling Daemen’s foot smack the side of his leg. Neither Shmuel or Daemen recalled falling asleep last night, and the last thing they both remembered was just watching Sorel on the couch. Shmuel pinched Daemen’s foot, only for Daemen to retract his foot away violently before plummeting it straight into Shmuel’s chest. Hatchee didn’t notice Sorel was standing near the couch right beside Daemen’s leg to try and climb onto the couch. “Hey, watch it you two!” Hatchee gently lifted Sorel away from the couch and back onto the blankets, thankful the baby didn’t get hurt by their careless fighting. “You almost hit Sorel.” Hatchee sighed in relief, now seeing the baby was already wide awake and frantically rummaging through everything in the living room. Brielle ambled into the living room to shift Sorel away from the unused fireplace with his legs. “Pupa, look. Nanna.” The father waved a cut up piece of banana in the babies face to draw his attention away from destroying everything. The baby peered up at his father just to grab the banana slice from his hand and without hesitation shoved the banana and his hand into his mouth. Brielle plopped down onto the carpet to go about feeding Sorel his breakfast where he could watch to make sure he didn’t choke. “Do you want pancakes?” Hatchee suggested to Shmuel, he just wordlessly shook his head for a response to her. “I’ll make eggs too.” “Can I have mine over easy?” Shmuel asked, “Of course.” Hatchee cheerfully replied with a thumbs up. “Do you want any eggs Daemen?” Hatchee asked with a louder tone of voice, but he didn’t respond or react. Shmuel shoved Daemen with his shoulder to get his attention, only for Daemen to groan and pull his head out of the cushions to glare at him with half closed eyes. “What kind of eggs do you want?” Shmuel emphatically exclaimed, but Daemen just started to close his eyes again. Everytime Daemen would wake up, his hearing would always be terrible, and he could never get anything across to him. Shmuel this time gently rubbed at Daemen’s face to get his attention, and immediately upon Daemen opening his eyes for a second, Shmuel swiftly signed his question. Daemen just vaguely signed back to him, and placed his head right back in between the cushions again. “He wants them well done.” “Okay! Thank you.” Hatchee ambly made her way into the kitchen, not having to ask Brielle what he wanted, she already knew exactly how he liked his eggs. Shmuel peered down at Brielle sitting hunched over on the floor feeding Sorel small pieces of a banana, the baby looked rather content while he stood in between Brielle’s legs. “Brielle?” Shmuel piped up, “Do the new people know they're going to be living with a baby?” The brunette asked as he adjusted his knees against his chest and rested his back against the couch cushions comfortably. Brielle didn’t respond to him, and just kept going about making sure Sorel didn’t drop the banana. “Brielle…?” Shmuel asked for his attention again, but Brielle didn’t break away from watching the baby. After Shmuel bugged him enough, Brielle finally responded. “Did you hear what I said?” “I did.” The father patted Sorel on the back, clearly uninterested with what Shmuel was beckoning him to answer. “And?” “I don’t answer stupid questions.” Brielle stated as Sorel offered him a piece of his banana he had already put in his mouth. “It’s not a stupid question..” Shmuel argued, but Brielle just ignored him once again. “No thank you.. You can have it.” Brielle urged the baby, trying to feed it back to him, but Sorel was adamant on sharing his slobbery food with someone else. Upon being denied by Brielle, Sorel instead urgently offered up the banana piece to Shmuel, “Here!” Sorel chirped, holding his arm out to give it to him. “Oh wow.. Thank you.” Shmuel hesitantly reached over and took the banana from his damp little hands, completely unable to say no to him.
“That’s so nice of you. Thank you so much.” He half heartedly smiled at the baby who was now just staring at him intently, waiting for him to eat it. “Go on then. Eat it.” Brielle insisted with a smug smirk on his face, blatantly finding this very amusing now that Shmuel was trapped. Shmuel wasn’t planning on eating it, just holding it until he could throw it away, unbenounced to him that he would be put in such a difficult situation. “Sorel, come here!” Hatchee exclaimed from the other side of the room to get his attention, in no time at all Sorel waddled out of Brielle’s lap and straight to the kitchen where his mother stood waiting for him. Hatchee lifted the baby up and onto her hip comfortably, before petting his back tenderly. “Thank you….” Shmuel sighed in relief, thankful he wasn’t forced to eat it now with Brielle pushing him to do it. “You’re welcome.” She laughed, knowing that she saved Shmuel was a world of pain by not eating that piece of banana. “When is everyone coming?” Shmuel piped up, already knowing it would be hours from now because they were up so early in the first place. “They're supposed to be here at ten.” Brielle stated, going to look at the clock on the wall to see it was closer to six in the morning now. “Brielle and I have a lot of work to do before they get here, so you and Daemen will have to babysit.” Hatchee mentioned to Shmuel, her eyes studying the baby staring intensely at the eggs cooking slowly on the stove, the butter already beginning to start cracking and popping from the heat. Hatchee stepped back to hold Sorel away from the stove and turned down the knob that controlled the fire. She found it odd that the grease still cracked insistently, as if she hadn’t turned the temperature down already. Hatchee turned the fire off completely to see what would happen, but it started to pop more aggressively. Suddenly, the fire started up again but stronger than she had seen before, without even touching the knobs. It was so hot and so close to her hand that she swore it had already burned her. She was about to call out to Brielle for help, but just as quickly as it showed up.. It stopped, turning completely off again. Hatchee’s brows knitted together in shock and confusion, not sure of what she just witnessed or if she had just imagined it. She felt Sorel take up a fist full of her hair and tug on it to get her attention, his little face already contoured together at the sight of his mother looking so withdrawn. Hatchee chose to not bring this up with Brielle as it would make him even more paranoid, and to just pass this off as just an odd experience. “Let’s go get changed really quick..” She mumbled to her baby, wanting to step away from the stove and not touch it for a bit to see if that would get it back to normal. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to get him dressed. Watch the stove for me.” Hatchee exclaimed to her husband before making her way to their bedroom with the baby clinging to her neck. Brielle’s brows knitted together in concern at the uneasiness in her voice, but he assumed she was just tired, and went ahead to stand by the kitchen stove anyways.
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Brielle thumbed through the thick packet of notes he had jotted down in preparation for this occasion. His handwriting was messy and unreadable to everyone but his wife from how quickly he would go about getting everything written down. Most all the information on the sheets consisted of the layout, what goes where, who is who, pricing, upkeep, grocery lists, phone numbers, and many other details required to manage this place. Brielle rested his back against the bar and leaned on his left leg to try and get in a comfortable position, but it seemed pointless with their chairs only being stools with no back support. He really didn’t like stools because of this. “Do we have a list of all the alcohol?” Hatchee asked, sliding over her notes to him to take a look at what she had written down about the placement of the drinks. “I just want to make sure I have everything on here.” “I’ll have to check in storage.” Brielle ran a hand through his hair to brush it from out of his face and behind his ears to get a better view of the paperwork. He studied her list, before noticing some things from his own notes were missing in hers. They were both a little off course with how many deliveries they were getting in such a short period of time. It was overwhelming to say the least. “I saw a few boxes back there that I didn’t see earlier.” Hatchee explained, exasperated by the sheer amount of alcohol she didn’t even know existed up until now. “You're missing a few things.” Brielle pointed to a few things on his list to show her what she was missing, before he picked up his pencil and jotted it down. Hatchee gazed around the extensive room, it was unreal to her. She had visited this bar countless times, but everytime she would go inside it still felt strange and unknown to her. Their original bar was small and cozy so it always looked packed, and with a tiny stage. The stage here was massive, and could fit an entire band. It was definitely an upgrade for the both of them, which felt like an understatement compared to the one they built. Hatchee peered up at the clock mantled on above the bar to see if it was ten minutes to ten am, so the new crew should be coming soon. They could finally get things moving with more hands to help, especially tall ones. Hatchee didn’t want Brielle putting away the alcohol in storage from the spaces being so high up on the shelves, so she really needed the help. “You look so handsome this morning. Did you get dressed up for everyone?” Hatchee affectionately teased her husband with a big smile on her face, knowing that he struggled to get dressed this morning after not being able to find his favorite pair of pants. He wore a white button up shirt with couple buttons undone, with light grey cashmere cardigan over it, and dark grey tweed pants. He usually wore these specific kinds of pants for dressier occasions, but it was either those pants or shorts, and Hatchee chose them. He even wore his relatively new brown leather oxfords too, instead of his well worn ones. Brielle paid no mind to her snide remarks, and just continued to quickly jot down everything needed in her notes.
Hatchee believed in first impressions, but still dressed comfortably in a grey striped midi dress with cap sleeves, a slightly flared skirt, and thin brown belt around her upper waist. She wore her regular comfortable brown ankle strap with low block heels, considering she still had to keep up with Sorel. Brielle handed back the notes to her, pointing out what was missing between each other's notes. “I’ll go back there with you and show you what you missed.” He stated with a heavy sigh, already looking very tense and exhausted. Hatchee could tell he was feeling on edge, and maybe a little nervous about meeting these new people. They both had enough information about the new group to get a good gauge of what they would be getting themselves into, so they weren’t going in completely blind. Still, it was a little odd to trust someone else's judgment about who works for them.. instead of their own choosing. “This is going to be interesting.” Hatchee mumbled to herself while tying her lengthy ginger hair up into a high ponytail, already seeing the foreseeable future once Sorel came running back to her. They both could hear their baby from a distance, only being able to know where he is by the random shrieking and squealing he was letting out. “We should set up a table for everyone.” Hatchee mentioned, now realizing they didn’t have any of the tables set out beside the bar stools. “I think a couple of the tables are behind the left bar..” Brielle tried recalling, but couldn’t exactly put his finger on where he saw it last while digging around for the delivery receipts. Hatchee’s ears perked up when she heard Sorel’s screeching coming closer to her, and the sound of shoes clacking on the concrete floor. The baby quickly waddled off to the far end of the bar, only for Shmuel to follow shortly after him. Sorel shrieked before he started to waddle and sway backwards to keep his eyes on Shmuel while trying to get away from him.
“Don’t do that!” Shmuel shouted, now quickly trying to catch up with him. As soon as he said that, Sorel fell backwards onto his bottom with a little thud. Shmuel sighed heavily, expecting the baby to start crying, but to his surprise Sorel was unphased. The baby wiggled around in a struggle to get back onto his feet again, only to give Shmuel enough time to swiftly scoop him up to finally get a hold of him. Hatchee waved Shmuel over to her to get the baby out of his hair, considering he had been babysitting Sorel for almost three hours now. “Where is Daemen?” Hatchee inquired, watching as Shmuel made his way over to both Brielle and Hatchee with their baby squirming to get out of his arms. “He’s getting dressed.” “I need the both of you to go set up a table for the group.” Brielle stated, still not breaking eye contact from his notes. Hatchee took up the baby from Shmuel’s arms to rest him on her hip, Sorel immediately started to settle down and made himself comfortable by holding onto her hair. She didn’t have it in a high enough ponytail.. which was now made clear to her by watching him try and put hair hair into his mouth. “Where are the tables?” Shmuel folded his arms across his chest before gazing around the room in search of where they could be, and if Daemen was here already. “It’s behind the left bar in the storage room. Just bring one table..” Brielle injected, now flipping through his notes, running a finger along one of the unreadable lists, “And nine chairs.” “Do we even have nine chairs?” Shmuel asked with a raised brow, only for Brielle to completely ignore him again. Shmuel realizing once again that Brielle didn’t answer ‘stupid’ questions, so there must’ve been enough chairs back there. “Both of you hurry. They should be here in a few minutes.” Brielle replied with an almost threatening tone of voice, not wanting to continue talking until they both did the task he asked them to do. Shmuel without another word, turned on his heel and went about his way before calling out to Daemen to hurry up. “Do we have any pictures of them?” Hatchee asked, trying to untangle her hair from the babies damp and chubby little hands, but he was really hanging onto her. “No. I just know their names.” Brielle sighed heavily, looking up from his notes to turn and face his wife and son going at her hair like a gremlin. “I’m going to get him something to eat so he’ll be calm while this is happening..” Hatchee laughed softly to herself, knowing the moment these people walk in the door he’ll go nuts. Brielle nodded his head slowly, already feeling very rigid at the idea of putting so much trust into someone else's judgement and why he hired these specific people. “This will be interesting.” Brielle mumbled, staring intensely at his wife and baby as they both shared a quiet moment together, unsure of what was about to transpire here.
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“Thank you for being on time everyone.” Brielle cleared his throat, “Or I would’ve fired you.” He remarked, not really thankful for them being on time, but he was trying to be pleasant for his wife. Brielle looked fixedly around the room as everyone gathered close together, all sitting in a circle sitting in their own chairs. Brielle put them all closely together so everyone could hear each other speak, not wanting anyone to miss anything being said by him. He immediately thought they were an interesting looking group of people, but was also not interested in really getting a look at them just yet. “We’re going to go around the room and introduce ourselves first..” Brielle observed, while he stood in front of his chair to get a better view of everyone. “We’ll introduce ourselves in order, starting from the right side.” He explained before setting down his notes onto his chair, as he didn’t need them anymore. “First and foremost, my name is Gabriel, but call me Brielle.” He never went by his first name, but he knew they would be seeing his legal name on paperwork, so he wanted them to know beforehand so they didn’t come up to him to ask who that was. “My wife and I are the managers here.” Brielle turned around to point to his wife who was standing outside the circle with the baby, keeping him at a distance from the group while he was distracted by eating his pickle so he wouldn’t bother them. “Hello there! My name is Hatchee!” She cheerfully exclaimed with an inviting and warm smile, “It’s so nice to meet you guys! If you need anything, please feel free to come and talk to me or Brielle.” Hatchee insisted, while starting to sway around the baby on her hip now that he started fussing, seeing his mother paying attention to the new people gathered together away from him. “This is our son, Sorel!” Hatchee laughed softly to herself, already feeling Sorel wanting to get down and greet everyone- but she wanted to give them space for a while. “I hope you’ll learn to tolerate him! He’s a nice boy, just a little hyper.” That was an understatement, but she wanted to play it down to now worry them as much for what was about to come. Brielle just nodded in agreement at what his wife had to say, but he wasn’t concerned if they could tolerate his son or not. That wasn’t his problem. “Alright, so let’s start with some ice breakers, because we are children.” Brielle stood in silence for a moment to think about what he would ask them to say, and decided on doing something simple. “Go about introducing yourself and what instrument you play.. And tell us what your favorite drink is.” He thought that was good enough because in all honesty he just wanted to get this thing over with. “We’ll start with you.” Brielle pointed to an extremely tall woman he first met earlier for a moment before everyone else arrived. He thought she looked interesting and appreciated her familiar accent, although he hadn’t heard a russian accent in many years. “Go ahead.” Brielle picked up his notes from his chair and onto his lap, before taking a seat and crossing his leg over his knee.
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