It was like this on occasion, where a rather pompous patron found themselves infatuated with one of the ladies of the cabaret club. For the most part, it was rather easy to deal with them. Most were deterred by the muscle (see: Rhenakos and Drake), while others were turned away by the prospect of other loves. After all, the cabaret was just a job.

“Is this man bothering you?” Rhenakos walked up to see that Simone was still chatting with the obsessive man. He had fallen head over heels for Simone. “I can uhh…remove him if you like.” It wasn’t for Simone’s safety. It was for the patron’s.

“Oh heavens no,” the man said as he slipped Rhenakos a few silver. “I was just telling this lovely lady what a wonderful life she could live.”

Rhenakos sighed, “Well, I tried.” He gave Simone a look, and shrugged. “Your funeral.”

The man merely laughed it off as Rhenakos walked away. “See! Money makes the world go around. I can provide for you more than this place ever could. I could take you away from this drab work that has been forced upon you.”

Lewis had been watching most of the night. Well, he had been distracted with Simone for most of the night, but he had noticed the attention she had been receiving. He still hadn’t made a move, and was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, his cold eyes watching the man’s every move. His eyes met Simone’s for a moment, and he smirked.

The man was far out of his league.

Simone just gave Rhenakos a smile, “I’ve got it handled. Thank you, Rhen.” Her voice was so happy compared to the deadpan tone she could carry when she was in these types of situations. If anything it was scary how well she could fake it.

Mone giggled a bit at the man, “I decline… I’m not doing it for the money anyways. I’m doing it because I need a break from life.”

“Oh! You don’t have to have a break from life at all! Just come with me!”

Simone smirked a bit, “I’m sorry but I’ll have to decline again. I’m very, very happy with my husband.” She got a bowl of grapes from Osiria with a wink.

“Your funeral,” Osiria said. The man still thought it was directed towards Simone.

She fell on the lounge chair on Lewis’s lap as she started to feed him the grapes. “Was tonight hard love?”

“This is your husband?” The man came over and looked over Lewis. “I bet I could win against him!”

Osiria looked at Rhenakos, “I don’t think he understood what we were saying… He has a death wish.”

The whole feeding each other grapes thing was a fun little exchange the two had with each other. Some days it was Lewis feeding Simone grapes and other fruits, and others, well…

Lewis lowered his head, idly chewing on the grape he was giving. He took his time, and when he swallowed, looked at the man who was attempting to ‘woo’ his wife. It was, quite honestly, insulting that such a man would dare attempt to make a pass at another’s beloved, but…it seemed that it was a rather common occurrence in the world.

“Your threat assessment needs work,” Lewis replied as Simone fed him another grape. “You should have your eyes checked. Or better yet…” A menacing aura radiated from Lewis, and a few people looked his way, terrified. “I could just take care of the problem right here and now.”

The man’s threat assessment was, indeed, practically non-existent. Even if he could not feel Lewis’ aura, he should have noticed the sudden change in everyone else around them. Yet, he seemed completely oblivious.

“Now, now,” Drake said as he walked over. “You know the rules, Lewis. And so do I…I’d rather not start something.”

Never had Lewis been so disappointed to see the draconian.

“Gonna do anything about it?” Lewis scoffed.

“Give you a stern talking to, maybe,” Drake replied with a smirk. The draconian knew that Lewis was dangerous, but he was hardly scared.

“You know better, then,” Lewis replied as he let the menacing aura fade. “I won’t do anything brash. I’d hate to ruin Raile’s business. He looked to the patron who was, at this point, harassing them. “You’re lucky…”

“Up side to all of this,” Drake replied as he winked to the patron. “You get to live another day.”

“Never fear,” the patron replied. “I know a rapscallion when I see one.” The threats were starting to make sense to him. It was clicking in his mind that Simone might be a prisoner, held against her will. “Fair lady, I will rescue you from this fiend.” That got a few looks.

“Gonna have to stop you there,” Rhenakos said as he walked up. “I really don’t want to clean up after this…”

“Let’s be reasonable now,” Lewis said with an evil grin. “We can compromise. I won’t make a mess…in here.” It was obvious he wanted to escalate the situation.

“You need to stop,” Drake said, his eyes flickering red. “Or I’ll have to-”

“Down boy,” Simone said as she placed her finger on Lewis’ lips. “Have another grape,” she said as she plopped one into his mouth. The patron would never know just how lucky he was.

Out for a Stroll

Simone had Teagan wrapped up on her as she carried the small child around the marketplace on her. They had decided to visit Hoja Mesto for a change. Teagan was wrapped up in a beautiful lavender-colored wrap that seemingly matched the bow that was in her blonde hair. She was sleeping and her mother was gently moving about not that movement seemed to bother the child any.

Lewis wasn’t that far behind her. They had somehow managed to get both three-month-old boys on Lewis in a wrap. They didn’t want to be separated so they had to be skilled experts at how to handle carrying their sons around. Luckily, Lewis was comfortable, the babies loved it, and Xeik had approved of the method saying it wouldn’t hurt them. They were content as their hazel eyes looked about. Their black hair had grown in a bit more and looked like Lewis’s mop from his younger years. They cooed up at Lewis as they took in the sights.

“What do you think for Teagan?” Simone had found a little knit bear. It was white with pink little hearts woven on it. “It’s sorta cute I don’t know if she would like it though. It would be a while…” Teagan did like her dresses though and absolutely hated pants. She put up a fight with Lewis almost immediately when Fiori had designed a little pants outfit for her. Dresses yes. Pants no. She was a simple girl.

"Remy… Damond…" Mone picked up a rattle and rattled it at them. Their eyes went right to it. "Do you like this? Hmm? Maybe we could find two."

The day was beautiful, if not a little chilly. Lewis always enjoyed the sway of Hoja Mesto. It had a familiar comfort to it, as it had been where he was born and raised. Sure, it had been hell on the streets, but it was still, in his heart, a home of sorts. They had come to Hoja, though, for a very special reason. That reason was that there was an auction in Adeluna, and Lewis wanted to avoid that like it was the plague.

Especially because they had Teagan, Remy, and Damond. The poor children did not need to be subjected to Simone’s irrational desire for arguing with rich people over who deserves the items more.

Teagan seemed to be enjoying herself with a nap, but Remy and Damond were quite active as they cooed over just about anything that caught their eyes. The rattle in particular got a fun reaction, and they seemed almost entranced.

“I’d say that the rattle is a success,” Lewis said with a smile. “We can get it for her. At worst, it’ll be something else for Fiori to design around.” He paid for the little knit bear and two rattles, and they found themselves once again wandering down the bazaar.

“Lewis?” a voice called out, noticing him from the crowd. “Oh, it is Lewis!” A young man ran up and smiled. “Woah, and he stole some babies.”

“Excuse me?” Lewis replied with a glare. “These are my children…”

Mone was only barely paying attention, “We don’t need to steal babies trust me. Xeik would throw a fit.”

She looked over the young man who had run up to Lewis and gave a smile. “Besides take a look at them… They definitely look more like Lewis than they do me. Disappointing but at least they got my hair.”

“You aren’t still pouting about that are you?” Lewis held a smirk for a moment before he remembered the person in front of him who accused him of stealing his own children.

“No, I got over it. Lila makes up for it all,” Simone waved her hand and she gave a smirk. Lila and Janus got Simone’s face shape which she was happy about. Teagan started to fuss and she started to hush her and bounce the small child. “There, there Teagan. Mommy didn’t mean to startle you. Daddy made a joke.”

The boys made a bunch of noise towards their sister as they bounced their legs and looked up at Lewis. “It’s nice to meet you… I’m Simone, Lewis’s wife.” She assumed this man had to be a part of the old guild. It was the only way they would run up on Lewis like that.

“Allen,” the young man said with a smile and a half bow. “I heard Lewis came by a while back and I missed out. Never thought I’d see the day this lunatic had a family, yet…” Allen was all smiles when he spoke, as if he didn’t fear Lewis at all. “I guess he really did settle down.”

“I’m right here,” Lewis replied with a dead stare.

“Yeah, you always were hard to read. But I can’t even begin to take you seriously with two kids on your chest like that. Takes all the edge away,” the young man said.

“I can still ki-” Lewis started.

“But you won’t,” Allen replied. “I’m just playing around, Lewis. I don’t mean any harm by it. I’m just glad that you finally found happiness after leaving the guild and all.”

The ex-assassin took a deep breath. “Starting to wonder why I never left sooner…”

“Cause you loved us, even if you never showed it. Can you believe that this softie used to share his own portion of bread and porridge with the younger kids when we didn’t have enough food?” Allen was all smiles. “Used to say it was cause we’d be useless otherwise.”

“Cause you would have been,” Lewis replied.

Mone started to giggle and watched Lewis, “He’s the most emotional emotionless person I know. I wouldn’t change him for the world.” She came over and planted a kiss to his cheek but not before she realized he was glaring at her. “Going to teach our sons your facial expressions early,” she teased.

“If you think this is great you should see him feeding our son Glyn potatoes,” there was a smirk with her playful words.

“You have a whole litter!”

“Yes, yes we do. We adopt a lot. Least we can do for the world. Like our little Teagan here,” Simone showed Teagan off who briefly opened her orange eyes and made a face. Her nose scrunched right up and she pulled her head under the wrap. “Awww Lewis, the sun hurt her little eyes.” She giggled a bit and helped shade Teagan from the sun.

“I’m surprised the other boys never told you about our family. They came to see us when we were working at the Angel Cabaret not that long ago. I’m surprised at how many of you actually know my Lewis.”

Allen was half playing peekaboo with Remy and Damond as Simone talked about the other children. “Oh they told us, but I couldn’t believe it without seeing it.” He smirked as Remy giggled at Allen’s goofy faces with their little game. “And who didn’t know Lewis? He didn’t tell you that Xeik left him in charge for awhile? He was second in command of the guild!”

Lewis sighed. “For the last time, I was never in charge of anything. I just made sure nothing fell apart while Xeik was gone,” he said with a dead stare. He looked down to see that Remy and Damond both here giving a dead stare too, as best they could.

“Oh great,” he said with a smirk. “Learning early aren’t you…”

The two noticed that Lewis was smiling and started to smile back excitedly. Allen played another round of peekaboo with them, and looked back to Simone and Lewis for a moment. “So what brings you out today? Did you want to stop by the restaurant?”

“Lewis didn’t like talking about himself at first. He left me at home a lot while he worked. He hardly trusted anyone with me. He told me eventually though just not that he was second in command though Xeik tells it differently.”

Mone smiled a bit as the babies did the dead stare, “There’s Daddy’s face. What good boys you are.” She was glad that they were getting to play with someone outside the island. This was good for them. Now hopefully they didn’t think it was okay to kidnap people. “Thank you for playing with them. They don’t get to meet many new people. They are only three months old. Lewis and I worked very hard for them. I’m pretty infertile but Xeik managed a miracle for us.” She didn’t want to go into it too much. “Our little miracles. Huh?”

"We came out to enjoy the market with the kids. The other kids are all busy with school and Glyn is with his uncle Xeik right now playing with Myrri so we can have the little ones." The boys giggled at their mother’s words and she smiled more. “We could do for some food and Raile’s restaurants always welcome our babies. Plus it would give us time to get off our feet. We’ve been out here for a good hour or two already. Teagan wants out of the sun at some point.” There was a grunt from the baby with Simone. “She’s only a week old. We found her in Iria.”