Chapter 176) Valentine

“There is a type of love that never dies, that never grows old or weary. It is selfless and unconditional.
It is the love of parents.”

San Myshuno
Senator Suites Apartments
Liam & Vivien, both age 24

Vivien looked up from her task of washing dishes after the breakfast she and Liam had shared before he headed off to work.

With a sigh and a melancholic smile her gaze went out the gigantic panorama window in the kitchen at the always hustling and bustling San Myshuno Art District streets, as her mind wandered back to the past weekend.
What an eventful one it had been.
Yesterday had been Valentine’s Day, the date Liam and she had set for themselves to tell all their family about their relationship by, so starting the weekend prior Liam and she had busied themselves making their rounds to both sets of parents, all the grandparents, siblings and Liam’s sister Leonie at her university dorm room at the Foxbury Institute of Science where she studied medicine.

For the most part the news were fairly well received, all awkwardness considered, except Liam’s father Jamie, who had initially flown off the handle, yelled about him being the mayor of Windenburg, about how the public would receive this and incest, thrown them out of the house, only to come running after them before they had even reached the end of the property, hugging them both, while tearfully and profusely apologizing, then dragging them back into the house to open his best bottle of ‘special occasion champagne’ with them.

Afterwards, they had Scarlett come get both of them, to tell the Del Sol Valley crowd about it over coffee, Vivien’s parents had been surprisingly cool with it, her siblings didn’t care either way, even though her father Blaine couldn’t stop cracking incest jokes, no matter how many times Vivien angrily snarled at him that it wasn’t incest at all.

All four sets of grandparents somehow weren’t surprised in the slightest, seemed to have known, Caleb even admitted as much.

Vivien moved into Liam’s penthouse officially and permanently, which basically only meant moving a few more boxes as most of her things had already found their way there over the time she had been staying with him.

With them no longer having to hide their relationship in public, Liam’s boss got wind of it within days, called Liam into his office, but before he could go off on him, Liam interrupted, threatening to quit immediately if confronted with a choice.
After a moment of surprise the old Bagley nodded defeated, got up and shook Liam’s hand, while telling him quitting won’t be necessary, as long as he at least tried his best to stay out of the gossip columns.
The same day Liam got a call by a publisher wanting to write an article about the strange love story, Vivien was okay with it, so Liam agreed if only to get their side of the story out to the public, hoping to avoid cruel rumors.

Valentine’s Day was the most romantic one Vivien had ever experienced so far. Breakfast in bed, followed by the special type of ‘dessert’ in bed, then another helping of the same during a shower together. Liam had bought her a dozen red roses, the darkest he could find, as deep crimson roses were Vivien’s mother Scarlett’s favorites and had also become Vivien’s since she was little.

But nothing would beat the afternoon entertainment. They had an early dinner at an upscale restaurant, after they got home, Vivien headed to the living room to curl up on the couch by the fireplace to watch a movie together, when Liam held her back, pointing at his piano.

“I wrote a little something, can I run it by you to see what you think?”

“Sure! If you don’t mind professional criticism and honesty.” Vivien smiled, winking.

“I prefer honesty. All right, stand right there, here goes. Be kind.” he said, winked, then tested the keys, before he started playing a sweet, simple melody.

“Oooh, it’s nice, I like it!”

“Hang on, there are words too. Give me a second, I am not used to playing for an audience like you are.”

Liam played on, while Vivien observed quietly, smiling at the thoughtful gesture, when he started singing.

“Loved you then
Love you still
Always have
Always will
You know, you are my life
Vivien, will you be my wife ….”

As the last note faded out a wave of heat rolled over Vivien trying to process the unexpected words, Liam had stopped playing and gotten down on one knee in front of her, holding out a little box with a ring in it, shining and sparkling.

Vivien stared at the ring, then at Liam, then at the ring again.

“Are you … sure? Isn’t this a bit fast?”

Liam chuckled “Fast? You want to get to know me a little better after the 20+ years you already have gotten to know all sides of me, the good, the bad and the ugly, all my quirks and flaws? This ring is just a next level, not the fast lane, I am not rushing either of us to the altar, far from it, I don’t want to get married anytime soon either. This just symbolizes a promise, something definite to hold on to for both of us. Something for you to look at when you are away from me, touring, when the going gets rough, when life gets crazy, to remember we always have each other’s backs and we belong. And of course the amazing sex.” Liam chuckled.

Vivien had to laugh, as tears began to fall and she bent down to kiss him.

“You’re right. Yes, Liam, I will marry you. Of course I will! I love you so much! Oh, by the way, a solid A+ on the song. I love it!”

He slipped the ring on her finger, kissed her hand, then rose up and they kissed. Again and again.

Del Sol Valley
Cameron Mansion

Blaine frowned at his sons.

“Did I stutt-utt-utt-utt-utter?! Neither of you little vultures is getting Viv’s room – and that is final!”

“Why dad?!? It’s HUGE, it’s on the other side of the house … far away from you and mom’s bedroom … which would be heaven-send, considering the noise level no child should ever be exposed to from their parents …” 19 year old Blake argued.

“Hey – brain donor! Suggest you tread lightly now! Also, you have a HUGE room, MY old room, with great views and an en-suite bathroom and you own several sets of headphones. So shut your mouth! If anyone were to be considered for a bigger room, it would be your little brother, as your sister and you both already have huge rooms and his is slightly smaller, even though he has additional space in the basement for obvious reasons, just like his mother and me.”

“Well, dad … my room is smaller than Vivien’s though and if I want to get some professional video equipment in there for the YouTube channel I am launching … I could really use a bigger room. Then Chase could …” Celeste joined the discussion, but Blaine cut her off.

“YOU TOO NOW?! Which drunk tooth fairy would buy a 14 year old some professional video equipment?! Not this one here! Listen – all three of you brats – and that unborn one inside your mother – everyone stays exactly where they are at for the foreseeable future! Nobody is moving anything to anywhere, including themselves, until I say so!”

Blaine shot a glare at Scarlett who had started laughing.

“Oh yeah, glad you are amused, wifey. Feel free to chime in at any time while I am trying a wrangle our brood.”

Scarlett said nothing, just shook her head, gesturing Blaine to continue.

“Right – mom, since you are the more reasonable one …” Chase turned to his mother.

“THAT’S IT! Scarlett, pop out that girl right now, so we can make a replacement son, I am killing this one!” Blaine roared.

Scarlett was laughing hard now and left the room, followed by Celeste, probably to work her foster mother over for the perceived room upgrade. Celeste was quiet overall, but make no mistake, every bit as confident and spoiled as the rest of the kids.

“Hey dad? Wanna go to the pool and TAN a little with me?” Blake grinned devilish at his recently turned vampire father, who did not have any sun resistance yet.

“Hey Blake, want me to drain and drown you a bit?” Blaine countered Blake’s attempt at poking him, flashing his new fangs at his son.

“Nah, thanks though. My next role needs me to look like a – how did they put it – oh, right … bronzed Greek god. So, I am gonna go work on that by the pool. In the bright sunlight – ahhhh, so warm as it tickles my skin as I turn into Adonis 2.0.” Blake smirked then left.

“You better walk off or my foot is gonna tickle your spoiled ass, kid!” Blaine called after him.

“Hey dad, want me to ruin his Greek godliness a bit for ya?” Chase grinned fiendishly.

“You are NOT getting a carte blanche from me to doodle on your brother again with suntan lotion. My ears are still ringing from the last time you did that. And you couldn’t just have drawn some normal kids stuff, a smiley face or Mickey Mouse some normal shit like that! No, not the fruit of my loins! You had to go into the basement of your mind for inspiration! You know how important his looks are to him. He is almost worse than Vivien. Almost.” Blaine ranted.

“Was just a … smiling man with a big nose …”

“Chase, I am not an idiot. You drew a dick and balls on your brother and he couldn’t do his favorite shirtless routine for all the girls to swoon over for weeks. You can’t do that shit with metrosexuals like your older brother, kid. Not if you love your parents.”

“Fine … cannonballs it is. I’ll wait till he nodded off for the full effect though.”

“Chase … come on lil man. Just go and do some stuff normal boys your age do.”

“Grampa Rett says I am just like you were at my age …”

“Your point being? I said ‘normal boys’, didn’t I?! Never claimed that applied to me.”

“Good point, dad. But Blake’s too full of himself and his ‘golden boy’ routine. Just giving him a reality check, for his own benefit, of course.”

“Yeah, of course. What a good little brother you are. Speaking of reality checks though … homework done?”

“Yup.”

“Room cleaned?”

“Define cleaned …”

“Can I walk in there without breaking my bones? Can I see the floor?”

“Yup, mostly. But I am keeping the door shut anyway, so George doesn’t get out and scare mom and Celeste.”

“Who the heck is George?”

“Frog.”

“What frog!?”

In that moment they heard a blood curdling scream from upstairs, followed by loud cursing.

“Uh oh. The one mom probably just found. You know dad, I kinda wanted to continue the guitar lessons. Meet you in the studio?” Chase was suddenly nervously in a rush.

Blaine grabbed the back of Chase’s sweater, shaking his head when the boy looked at him worried and begging for mercy, just as Scarlett already appeared in the kitchen.

“CHASE CAMERON!!” she instantly unleashed her anger at him.

“Yes mommy?” Chase went for the innocent puppy dog routine, making Blaine roll his eyes.

“How in the world did you find a frog in Del Sol Valley?! And why is it loose in your room?!” Scarlett inquired.

“I traded for it. Couldn’t find a good container yet, since you forbade me to use kitchen stuff for that kinda thing.”

“Traded what?! With whom?!”

“Box of dad’s condoms from you guys’ bathroom. You’re obviously not needing them and Manuel wanted to have a water balloon fight with his friends, but nobody had balloons … but I had an idea! A brilliant one. You two should be proud of me!”

Scarlett just stared at her son, then at Blaine, both speechless. Finally Blaine was able to speak first.

“How the heck would a 10 year old boy know anything about condoms!? And what were you doing in the master bathroom without asking?!”

“Looking for stuff to trade, like I just said. I knew I had nothing to make water balloons with, Blake had locked himself in his room practicing lines, Vivien took all her stuff when she moved out and I didn’t think Celeste would have anything I could trade for the frog, so I checked yours … duh!”

“Well, duh, you are grounded! Kiss your phone goodbye, for two days straight! And now go catch that damn frog and we’ll figure out what to do with the sucker. Also – stay out of our bedroom and bathroom in the future, unless we specifically allow it or it is an emergency! Before you go there, looking for loot is NOT an emergency!” Scarlett told him angrily.

“But moooooom …”

Scarlett remained firm, especially as Chase’s rule breaking just piled on as the day progressed. A call from the teacher about Chase being late to class and forgetting homework a few times, then a neighbor called for them to get their son, who was supposed to be in his room, grounded, but evidently was trying to climb said neighbor’s palm trees instead.

By the time midnight ended the day, Chase was grounded, lost not only his phone, but also TV privileges and was on dish duty for two weeks straight …

(Author’s Note: All the below 100% Chase autonomously!!! Are you guys as proud as I am – NOT?!)