“What have you done?” the cranky teenager growled at her big brother stranded on the front porch.

“Nadia, come on! Let me in the house-” David fussed sheepishly. “I didn’t do it on purpose-”

“The hell you say-” she grunted.

“If you don’t let me in this fn house-”

“YOU .ShALL . Not PaSS.” she roared.

“Mom!!!” David yelped.

“She can’t help you now! Not in this-”

“Momo! She’s blocking tha door!”

“I’m staying out of it!” their mom sang sweetly down upon the heads of her gargantuan eldest and middle children.

“Nadia if you don’t let me in this fn-” he hissed, doing his best to keep his voice down. A sharp yowl of indignation erupted behind him. “Sonafa-Nadia! Got dammit-”

“You brought it with you?!”she yelled, offended. Another yowl was spat out from behind him, echoing hers.

“DO not make me headbutt you out of the way with a kid strapped to my back because I WILL do it and you know it-” David growled.

The child papoosed to his back grumpily woke all the way up and started fussing right along with the aunt he’d never met. “I’d JUST gotten his little butt to sleep.”he sighed.

“Should’ve shown up with him under your coat-” Nadia chirped as David pushed her out of the way and followed after the girlfriend of his Nadia HAD let enter the family home sans any issue at all. 

Nadia’s first nephew watched her bemusedly as she trailed behind them after having locked the screen. She glowered at the little boy, who looked at her incredulously, paused and then glowered right back at the aunt he was meeting for the first time.

“Oh really?” she huffed, brow raised at the little boy when his dad stopped to be hugged by their youngest sister.

The one year old looked at her eyebrows in confusion and then slowly but surely wriggled his own at her, triumphantly.

They both broke out into the same Campbell soup kid grins at one another.

“Come’ere-”she growled at the little boy.

“Eh- he doesn’t like to go to-” his mom started to explain apologetically as the boy flung his arms towards his aunt and trust fell out of his contraption into her arms. Everyone in the room gasped but Nadia and her nephew.

He beamed up at Nadia, the two of them instantly thick as thieves.

“His dad did too, when he was a baby,” the mom sang out as she pinched her eldest cheeks.”Used to have his favorite lil red t-shirt on and his diaper all the time.”

“Til he was like 22-” Nadia chortled. “Never was much of a man for pants,” she snickered.

“Mommmm~” David whined, refusing to be embarrassed in front of the girl who’d popped out the spitting image of him of her own accord.

---

“Can’t buhlieve I gotta share mah bday with yo lil-” Nadia grumbled affectionately at the baby. The boy mirrored her expression back to her, making her blushgrin.

“Ah maaan, it’s all ova now~” their kid sister cat-called. “Not like he did it on purpose-”

Nadia rolled her eyes, “He totally did it on purpose!”she yowled.

“Nads, they just come when they come,” Beth shrugged.

“Well, actually….” Stacey chuckled, “I had him by C-section…induced. We did get to select the day…and he did kinda pick tha-” she grinned.

“iiii didn’t choose tha day!” David yelped defensively, “I leaned down and asked him in her belly, and…”his voice trailed off as everyone else in the room groaned while Nadia and him grinned at each other. “He said that your day was also…his day~”

“You two with your talking to folks in utero-” their mom fussed.

“She did tell me her name was Nadia three months before she popped her big head outta you-” complained David defensively.

“It was always my name and certainly better than Natalia~” Nadia curtsied with the baby buoyant in her arm. “Ain’t nothing about me Natalia’ish, even to this day.”

“Yeah,yeah- sure, cray-crays, the both of yews,” their younger sister chuckled as she tickled under her nephew’s chin. “I guess I mean Thea three of ya, since you rolled in here on the same mess,” she laughed.

---

“I knew it! Usurper of the Divine Day~” Nadia beamed love down into the kid who shared her birthday on purpose sprawled in her arms like they’d known each other forever. The kid raised his brows like she’d just taught him how to as she ran down the hall with him. 

“Be careful!” David yelled after her as Nadia carried her first nephew into the bathroom, “you know how clumsy your  accident-prone butt likes to be-” he cackled down the hall.

“Talk about a pot calling tha kettle back as I’m literally carrying yer-”Nadia muttered sarcastically.

“I heard that, smartass!” David yollered.

“Yeah-yeah,” she chuckled and closed the door.

“Don’t worry,”she murmured into the boy’s full head of curls,” I know you were no accident at all, now were ya?”

He blush-grinned confidently up at his auntie and shook his head no.

Nadia put her nephew’s two little Timbaland shod feet firmly on the counter and looked at the two of them together in the mirror.

They locked eyes in complete understanding of each other’s assignment. She stomped on the bathroom floor.

He stomped in response on the counter and then dissolved into giggles. Nadia scooped him back up and squeezed him, overcome with the baby smell that was his natural aura at this age. She sighed. He grinned and sighed back.

“You know you’re here to look out for him after I’m gone, don’t you?” she whispered as she looked into the mirror at his eyes.

An ancient knowing flooded up into the little boys face as he locked onto her in the mirror, then swiveled around in her arms, looked up at his aunt and raised his fat, little fist to her face.  He stroked her jaw.

“Good,” she whispered as a single, tiny tear slid down her cheek and wet his little fingers. “Ya gotta…you’re gonna hafta protect him. He’s an evil genius, but can bean idiot too, all at the same time, sometimes,” she momentarily scowled. 

He scowled like he’d already been witness to as much, smiled her smile back up at her and promptly fell asleep in her arms.

©AngelBrynner 2025