a=1 b=BRENNA!

Alecis was sitting in a booth at the Kiborante, eating a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. It was one of her favorite places to eat out, and because the kids were at a friends house she had decided to go out. She had tried to get a hold of Lumi, but both of the kids she had sent to Ughdarras had come home not knowing where she was. Because of this, she was here alone, but she didn't really mind. It was quiet, and she hadn't been getting a lot of quiet these days.

Rowan wasn't sure how he had never noticed the Kiborante before. It was a nice little restaurant right in the middle of Dahlin. It was weird, but it seemed almost as if it had popped up out of nowhere. More likely Rowan had just been really unobservant.

Anywho, he and Ria decided to have a dysfunctional family dinner and brought Claire and Chloe. Hopefully it would be a nice, uneventful dinner.

Erk. Rowan saw Alecis sitting at a table by herself eating spaghetti. Maybe this wouldn't be uneventful at all, since Alecis and Ria had been quite...confrontational with each other in the past.

"Don't look now," he muttered to Ria, because he really didn't want Alecis to notice them.

Of course when someone tells you not to look now, you have to look now, especially if you're someone who does what you want, not what other people want. So, naturally, Ria glanced over her shoulder to the place where Rowan had instructed her not to look. Great, it was that fire-crotch who had forced her to stop drinking.

Ria hated that girl. "Hey, Rowan," she crooned, "let's go sit over there!" She swished her little red dress and walked across the room over to the table next to Alecis. She ignored her for now, she wanted the wench to notice her first.

If Rowan hadn't been holding two babies he would have smacked himself in the forehead for telling Ria not to look now. That hadn't been the smartest thing to do. Well, Rowan being Rowan, he obeyed Ria and walked over to the table she chose, trying not to look at Alecis.

He got the babies all nice and cozy in their highchairs and sat down. "Please try not to cause a scene, Ria," he pleaded. "Don't forget that your children are present."

Ria pursed her lips in the 'you think you can tell me what to do' sorta way, even though he had said please. "Don't worry, Rowan dear," Ria said loud enough for the skank next to them to hear, "The babies are only a few months old, the won't remember anything that happens here."

She smiled sweetly and picked up her menu.

Alecis hadn't noticed anyone walk into the small restaurant, but she did hear a very, very familiar sounding name being spoken just feet away from her. Without thinking she looked to her right, towards the voice, towards the name.

Unfortunately the Rowan she had heard was the very Rowan she had been trying to forget. Lately it had been easier to not think about him, probably because she had been so happy about having Eva and Lorrik back. An unintentional frown spread across her face, it was hard to see him now. Especially since he was with... his babies. His drunken, bathroom sex babies. And the whore who had had his babies.

Fortunately, neither of the two were looking at her, although they must have noticed her when they came in. But why did they have to sit by her?

Blushing furiously, Alecis looked back down into her spaghetti.

Rowan kinda felt bad for Alecis, who obviously knew they were RIGHT THERE, but what could he do? (Stand up to Ria? Pshaaaaw.) Maybe they since she was ignoring them Ria would just ignore her too.

"There's no need for us to get kicked out of another restaurant," Rowan said in a low voice. "Come on, just please try to be nice. Think of Claire and Chloe. We want to be able to bring them back here, don't we?"

Ria shrugged, then looked up at the waitress that had come up next to them. "Uh, I'll just have some chicken, and the babies will have a bowl of mashed potatoes."

It took a second for the lady to "aw" at the twins, and then it was Rowan's turn to order. Ria kept glancing to the left, watching to see what the girl would do. She noticed that her eyes kept flicking to Rowan.

"I'll, uh, have ribs I guess," Rowan ordered. (YUM RIBS. I could go for some ribs right now.) He was determinately not looking at Alecis, even though he kept seeing her look at him out of the corner of his eye.

He instead focused on Chloe, who was busy banging a spoon against the table and laughing. She wasn't being loud or bothering anyone so he let her have her fun and smiled a little. So cute.

"And to drink?" asked the waitress.

"We'll each have a glass of Sherry, and the babies don't need anything, obviously." Even if Ria hadn't been in the mood for alcohol(which would never happen), she would have ordered it anyway, if only to see the look on that whore's face.

Alecis perked up when she heard Ria's order. "Um, I don't think that's such a great idea," she said, turning towards Rowan's table. "Rowan's a recovering alcoholic, Ria. You know that!"

Oh Jesus fucking Christ on a crutch.

"Thank you for announcing that in front of the waitress, Alecis," he said, covering his face a little, while the waitress looked at him with a new interest. He honestly wasn't sure if Ria had ordered that because she actually wanted it or to taunt Alecis. Or both. He shot her a disgruntled look.

"Excuse me," Ria said, turning to face Alecis, "what he does is none of your business. He could drink an entire keg himself and it would still be none of your business." She gave the fool a quick smile, then turned back to the waitress, "That'll be all."

Alecis faltered for a moment. The whore was right, what Rowan did was none of her business. But then she realized something.

"Hey, Ria," she said, glaring at the clio, "didn't anyone ever tell you that you aren't supposed to drink while you're breast feeding?" She smiled, knowing that Rowan wouldn't like that at all.

Rowan looked at Ria. He didn't know if it was true or not. It's not like he was an expert on breast feeding. "What happens if she drinks while she's breastfeeding?" he asked, glancing at the babies, who seemed perfectly fine and healthy to him.

Ria, who didn't know that there actually were no side effects, got a little nervous. A)she didn't want Rowan to try to make her stop drinking, and B)she really didn't want anything to go wrong with her babies. She loved them too much.

"Er, well... That has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Rowan can drink whenever he wants to!" Ria said angrily. "He isn't yours, no matter how much you want him!"

Ria didn't know if Alecis wanted him for sure or not, but it could be inferred by the fact that she glanced at him every few seconds. It made Ria happy, having another thing on the red head.

Alecis didn't have an answer to Rowan's question, she wasn't quite sure how it affected anything, only that it did. At least, that's what she had been told by one of her friends. She started thinking of what it might do, but seconds later, she had something different to think about.

"He isn't yours, no matter how much you want him!"

Alecis' eyes grew wide and a bit of a blush was found on her face. "Listen, you," she said angrily, "I was only trying to help! I just don't think either of you two should be drinking! Maybe I don't have any business trying to help you two stay healthy, but I also don't have any business letting those babies' have drunks as parents!"

Rowan got kind of offended at that. "No Alecis, you listen," he said angrily. "For one thing, one glass of sherry hardly makes us 'drunks.' For another thing, if you'll look at Chloe and Claire, you'll notice that somehow they manage to be happy and healthy being raised by us! And thirdly, you're right, it isn't any of your business.

"And I'm sorry if Ria tried to instigate you--" he shot a glare at Ria-- "but in case you didn't notice she's just trying to get a reaction out of you. So why don't you two just ignore each other so we can all eat in peace?"

Alecis stared at Rowan, not sure of what to say. It was strange, she was angry that he had spoken to her like that, but she was also... proud of him? This was the Rowan that she loved, the Rowan that she wished would be around all the time.

"O..okay Rowan. It's actually time I left anyway, sorry for bugging you." Alecis turned back to her plate, sipped the last of her lemonade and then stood. "It was nice seeing you again, slut," she said sweetly to Ria who looked as offended as ever.

"Hey!" Ria said angrily, glaring at Alecis. "I'm not a fucking slut, okay?" Why did everyone call her that?!

That was unnecessary. "Don't call her a slut!" he said as angrily as Ria looked. Even though it was, well, kinda true, Rowan still found himself offended that Alecis would insult Ria. He had been around Ria long enough to know that even though she was, to put it nicely, extremely flawed, she was doing the best she could. "She doesn't deserve that, Alecis."

"Oh really? And who are you to say that?" Alecis said, glaring at Rowan for the first time in forever. "Like I said, I'm leaving. I hope you two have a wonderful, disgruntled time together. Until Ria leaves for some other drunk."

With that she turned and walked away, tears glistening in her eyes.

Rowan was about to angrily retort that Alecis had no right to say that just because she was jealous, but then he decided it wasn't worth it and just let her go.

Claire didn't seem to agree, because using motor skills far beyond the average five month old she took a spoon, bent it back and flung mashed potatoes right at Alecis's head. The two babies laughed with glee when the mashed potatoes met their target.

Alecis stopped dead in her tracks when something smacked into the back of her head. It felt sloppy and gross, and it was trickling down her hair and onto her back. From behind her she heard baby-giggling and another laugh from who she could only assume was Ria.

Alecis shook her head, dislodging most of the potato goo, and then continued to leave the Kiborante.

Ria watched as Claire flung a spoonful of potato at Alecis. As it collided with the back of her head, a smile slithered onto Ria's face. Oh how she loved those babies.

"That's my girl," she half whispered to Claire as she started laughing. Even her babies could beat that silly girl in an argument. Ah, life was good.