New Year

It took all she had not to scream. The food had burnt. Again. Her nieces and nephews would have a fit over burnt cookies. They have before and they certainly would now. With ages three to ten it wasn`t all that surprising. They were absolutely spoiled rotten but they were too adorable to resist. And they were sweethearts. Most of the time anyway.

"You`re stressing again," Kaoru stated from the open front door, lounging as he smoked a much needed cigarette.

"And you get to smoke your stress away," Heidi shot back with a growl.

He chuckled at his girlfriend`s anger. "It`s not my fault your mother hates smoking so much."

Heidi rolled her eyes and pulled another casserole out of the oven. "I know that. But as soon as she leaves I`m having a cigarette."

"So in three days then?"

"Oh shut it."

"I can text Toshiya and have him bring cookie dough on the way over," Kaoru offered in a somewhat playful truce.

"Yes please," Heidi murmured quietly.

More soft chuckles escaped the guitar player, lips forming a smile around his cigarette while sending a text message to his bassist. Moments later Die and Shinya walked into the kitchen, finally done rearranging the spare room so Heidi`s nieces and nephews would have a place to crash.

"Instruments are put away and the bed is made," Die announced.

"Thank you, sweetheart. If you both aren`t too tired, can you please help me?"

Shinya nodded. "In any way we can."

By the time Toshiya and Kyo arrived everything was cooked and all that was left were those blasted cookies. Thankfully Toshiya brought two tubes of cookie dough, just in case. While he helped Heidi, Kyo moved to the door way and light up a cigarette with Kaoru.

"She seems stressed," Kyo murmured.

Kaoru grunted. "And pissed she can`t smoke. "

"Her mom?"

"Who else? As long as she`s here Heidi will be under her thumb and she`ll be uncomfortable the whole time."

Kyo nodded, knowing exactly how his guitarist`s girlfriend got around her mom. She was like a little kid again. Completely under her mothers control until she got pissed enough to scream her frustration. And man could she scream. Woman had a set of lungs on her and coming from him that was something. Unfortunately that scream of frustration was usually let out as soon as Elena left the house instead of properly and in the woman`s face.

Speaking of Elena. Kaoru and Kyo cursed and hurriedly put out their cigarettes and did there best to hide them, catching Heidi`s attention immediately.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Your mother," Kyo hissed.

"Shit!"

"Good evening. Kyo. Kaoru. It`s so good to see you two again," Elena greeted before walking into the house.

Heidi blanched at the site of her mother.

"Hello, my darling Heidi."

"Hello, Mother. Is dad with you?"

"Of course," Elena chuckled. "He`s parking the car." She walked around her daughter to give the three musician`s behind her a hug. She would never admit it out loud but she was quite fond of them.

"She`s not supposed to be here for another hour," Shinya hissed when the woman in question walked into the living room.

"I know," Hedidi hissed back just in time to hear her father`s booming voice as he greeted Kaoru and Kyo.

Jack was a big burly man at six foot four and looked more suited to be a biker than a lawyer. But, Kaoru supposed, that worked in his favor. Though he never quite figured out how he and Elena got together. The woman looked like she belong in some high society hoity toity club. And often acted like it too. But most of the time she meant well. Or at least that`s what Heidi always told him after calming down from a fight with her mother.

"Hello, Papa. How are you?" Heidi asked.

Jack grinned down at his daughter. "Great, just great, sweetheart! You`re looking lovely this evening."

Heidi chuckled and shook her head. Of course he`d think so. "Thanks, Papa." She hadn`t changed into her party dress yet and he was already complementing her.

While the two spoke, Kyo whispered to Kaoru, "Doesn`t she called you Papi?"

Kaoru grunted and smacked his singers arm. "Shut up. Don`t let him hear that. He`ll kill you."

Kyo smirked at him. "Well she does, doesn`t she?"

"Maybe," he grunted. After he grew out his mustache she started jokingly calling him "Papi". Unfortunately it caught on in more ways than one. And the last thing he needed was Jack to hear about it. He`d skin him alive if he knew.

While Jack started a conversation with Die about motorcycles, Heidi`s nieces and nephews ran into the house screaming, oldest chasing youngest.

"This is going to be interesting," Shinya commented while gathering Heidi`s youngest niece into his arms. He`d always been particularly fond of Sarah.

"You have no idea," Heidi groaned, suddenly craving a cigarette that would no doubt calm her nerves.

"It`ll be fine," Kaoru assured.

"You don`t know my family very well yet. Just you wait. You`ll be claiming insanity by the end of the night," Heidi chuckled.

"And yet you`ve been together for almost a year," Toshiya teased while pulling the cookies out of the oven, much to the delighted squeals of Heidi`s nephews.

"I need a cigarette."

Kaoru chuckled. "You can`t while your mom`s here."

Heidi grunted. "Screw my mother." She marched up to her boyfriend and plucked the cigarette from his lips and placed it between her own, breathing out a contented sigh.

"You two are so weird," Kyo muttered.

"And you can suck it," she said with a grin.

"Oh I`ll give you something to suck."

Kaoru snorted at their banter. They acted like brothers and sister and he secretly enjoyed it. Not everybody could hold their own against his singer but his girlfriend seemed to do it pretty well.

"You know, I really don`t think Kaoru would like that," Toshiya interrupted with a grin.

"You have no idea what he likes," Heidi muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Kaoru asked.

"Nothing!"

"This really will be interesting now," Shinya said, still cradling a now sleeping Sarah.

Jack chuckled, watching his daughter tease her friends with amusement. "I couldn`t agree more."