Four Broken Pieces ✓

Thirty Eight

The chirpy loud ring of my alarm severed my dreams of snow-capped trees and ice-skating. I woke up with a start and resisted the urge to groan out loud as cold air hit me. Yawning loudly, I turned in Mikhail's arms who'd awoken with a beautiful, sleepy smile on his face. He turned on his side to give me a morning kiss on the forehead.

"It's the morning of Christmas Eve," he said excitedly. I grinned as Christmas music drifted into the room from downstairs. The lights of our tree were on as well and made a wonderful sight to wake up to. The fireplace downstairs was probably lit as well since we could smell the smoke.

It was precisely at this moment that we realized that there was something wrong with this situation. I turned away from Mikhail and realized Ivan and Alexei were missing.

"Oh god it's 10 in the morning," Mikhail groaned from beside me. How did our alarm only ring just now? No wonder those two boys were awake. What confused me was why they'd woken up before us before it hit us both like a ton of bricks. We looked at each other with wide eyes.

"They're making breakfast to surprise us aren't they?" I nodded fearfully and in seconds we were both out of bed scrambling down the stairs. Just as we hit the last step, the smoke alarm in the kitchen went off. Mikhail cussed quite loudly at the sight that greeted us.

Ivan was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a broomstick in his hand to turn off the smoke alarm. In his hurry to switch off the alarm, he knocked into a plate of burnt toast which crashed to the floor. The fireplace wasn't on and I internally shuddered at the amount of burnt food we must now have in our kitchen. It was a mess to say the least; with everything from egg cartons to blueberry jam on the counters and quite a few spills on the ground.

"Ahem." Mikhail cleared his throat. Ivan's head snapped to both of us and he rubbed the back of his neck before pointing at the couch.

"It was Alexei's idea." That was when I noticed Alexei, who oblivious to the entire chaos happening just meters from his head, was sleeping peacefully on the couch. Ivan threw the cap of a milk jug at his head and he woke up with a start.

"What's going on," he asked in his innocent morning voice as he rubbed at his head and glanced blearily from side to side. Mikhail slapped his head in impatience and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the situation. The kitchen was going to be a pain to clean up.

"Which one of you thought it would be a good idea to make breakfast for us when you clearly don't know how to cook." Alexei rolled his eyes as he languidly got of the couch and made his way to where Mikhail and I were standing.

"Mine of course. Ivan was in charge of the execution of the plan. I'm guessing he failed miserably." As if on cue, the smoke alarm went of once again and a smirk appeared on Alexei's lips. Mikhail whacked the back of his head and Alexei shot him a scowl.

"Alexei, go put a shirt on. Roe's right here and Ivan you've got milk all over you. Get upstairs. Roe and I will take care of this mess." Ivan and Alexei meekly went up the stairs to hit the showers after pressing a kiss each to my forehead. Mikhail started cleaning up the kitchen counter. For a second I just watched him in complete bewilderment. I'd known he was probably the most mature of the three, being the oldest among them and the most level headed but he'd rarely acted like this. This responsibility suited him.

"You're going to make an amazing father some day," I quipped lightly as I joined him in cleaning the mess. I could feel his intense stare on the side of my head but I didn't look at him. I felt an embarrassed flush lighting up my cheeks. That comment had been completely unnecessary. Why did I say that out loud?