Meeting by Chance Staying by Choice

Red Velvet Cupcakes

"Oh dear, that's not good." Lana wrapped the baby back in the blanket and looked at the sorta pink haired man.

"Do you want to hold her?" Oliver nodded his head and she put the baby in his arms. Maximum looked up at Oliver,  her bright blue eyes shining, she locked eyes with him for a few minutes before fussing again. "Oh hold on, I'll make her a bottle, she's probably hungry. Heaven knows when the last time she was fed."

Lana quickly made a bottle and handed it to Oliver, to which he fed the baby and burped her.

"Do you have a lot of experience with raising children, Oliver?" Maximum started to fall asleep again. There was a few bangs coming from the living room along with a few curse words. Oliver walked in there along with Lana.

"Put money in the swear jar." He called out to Matt and Al, then looked back at Lana. "Who do you think raised Al and Matt? I raised Al and Francois raised Matt for a little while before giving him to me."

"Oh I see." The two watch Matt and Al try to put together the crib and rocker, both were having an extremely hard time. It was amusing to Lana how hard they were struggling to put together something that shouldn't take that hard to put together. When the two heard Lana laughing they looked up and saw her, with her hand covering her mouth trying to not let them hear her. Matt smiled for a second then went back to his normal scowl when he thought of having to put the crib together. Al saw Matt's smile and nudged him roughly. Soon after they ended up in a wrestling match and making a lot of noise.

"Matt, you're gonna wake the baby." Lana said just loud enough for him to hear but not loud enough to disturb the child's slumber. Matt stopped his wrestling and sat up, to which Al nudged him again.

"Quit with your shit, Al." Matt nudged Al back.

"Since when do you take orders from a girl, Matt?" Al shoved Matt this time.

"If you're going to fight, take it outside." Lana grabbed the back of both of their collars and tried dragging them out of the house, but really she only ended up walking a few steps and they had gotten up. Lana continued to walk them out of the house and shut the door behind her once they were in the yard. "Alright Oliver you can either put Maxi in the car seat or you can hold her,  but I'm going to put up the crib and stuff."

"Oh poppet, I can't let you do it all by yourself." Oliver put Maximum into the car seat and started helping Lana. In total it took them about half an hour and both the crib and rocker was put together. Twenty minutes later Matt and Al walked in with dirt and a blood on them.  "Are you two boys done now?"

Oliver and Lana were still on the floor, while Maximum was still in the car seat. Matt, whom had the least amount of blood and dirt on him, picked her up and cradled her in one arm. After a moment he walked off, to Lana's bedroom. Lana and Oliver gave each other a funny look, Al could care less and walked into the bathroom. The remaining two in the living, walked quietly to Lana's room. In there, laying on the bed, was Matt, cuddling Maximum. Oliver soon walked off saying something about making cupcakes, but Lana, she crept quietly into the room and took a picture of her macho boyfriend sleeping with his new daughter.

"Oliver, I wanna make some cupcakes." Lana said as she walked into the kitchen. At the moment, she wanted to make something for her boyfriend. He had taken really good care of her over the last few months and even better over the last few hours. It had cost Matt around $600 for all the baby stuff and it had taken him days to get that money. Each poacher he had caught would gain him about $100. Oliver, when he heard she wanted to make cupcakes started dancing around the kitchen and eventually made her dance with him.

"Oh poppet, this is wonderful. What made you decide this, no one ever wants to bake with me."

"It's for Matt, he's done a lot for me and I want to show him my appreciation." Oliver nodded his hand in understanding and they both agreed to make red velvet cupcakes and top it with chocolate maple icing. Oliver had said those where Matt's favorite and would eat them often when he was a child.

Lana made the cupcakes and Oliver the icing, and once the cupcakes where in the oven, Oliver checked on them. Eventually he took them out and let them cool, then went through and iced them. Lana made some chocolate swirls and placed a few of them on top of each cupcake. Al walked into the kitchen just as they were cleaning up.

"Are those vegan cupcakes?" He asks, picking up one and taking a look at it.

"No they aren't but we can make some if you like." Al put the cupcake down and asks for vanilla ones, then leaves the house. Oliver says he will take over making them and that she could go and see if Matt was awake.

Lana walks into the living room and stops, she stares at the set up. It had been awhile since she had actually stopped and appreciated having a house and a nice one at that. After a few minutes she continued going on her way to check on the baby. In the room, Matt was up trying to change Maximum's diaper and wasn't having much luck. Lana stood at the door way and gave Matt a few more minutes before going to help him.

"Matt I made something for you, it's in the kitchen on the counter." Matt finished up changing the baby and put a bottle in her mouth, keeping Maxi close to his chest.  Matt kissed the child's forehead, then Lana's.

"What is it?"

"You're favorite, according to Oliver." Matt gave Lana a skeptical look.

"You actually made those?" Lana nodded her head and walked into the kitchen, with Matt close behind, still feeding the baby. There, sitting on the counter on a red plate was Matt's favorite red velvet cupcakes with chocolate maple icing. He unwraps one of its rapper and takes a bite. "Mm, you're the best Lana." Lana just smiles and watches him enjoy the cupcake.

It's evening time now and half the cupcakes are gone. Oliver made a wonderful meal that suited everyone's taste. Francois was still not home, Oliver said that he would be home late due to him taking care of some business that was work related, which meant he was probably off bashing somebody's head in. Lana fed Maximum after dinner and changed her diaper then got in the shower before going to bed. 

Four hours later, Maxi was up crying but by the time Lana got out of bed she had stopped. Curious as to whom was taking care the baby she went and looked in the living room. Standing there was a dismantled, rough looking figure of Francois. At first Lana began to panic but didn't leave her spot in the hallway, she was going to wait and see if Francois was going to do anything to the baby first and then react accordingly. But he didn't do anything, he was just changing her diaper, then holding her, whispering something in French. Lana stood there just watching this scraggly man, sure he had fathered Matt for awhile but she didn't expect him to act like this for a baby he didn't even know.

"I know you're standing there." Francois said, not looking up from Maxi. Lana stepped out of her hiding spot and smiled sheepishly.

"How did you know?"

Francois gave her a dumbfounded look. "I'm in the mafia, no I am the mafia, I can sense when anyone is around me." Lana nodded her head in understanding. "I assume she's yours?"

"Yeah, Matt and I adopted her after finding her in an alleyway." 

"What did you name her?"

"Maximum, Maxi for short."

"You can go back to bed." Lana just looked at him for a minute. "It wasn't a suggestion." Francois' tone of voice was harsh but more so in a fatherly way. Lana went back to her room and Matt had decided to get up at that time. He pulled her close to him then fell asleep again, the baby didn't make a sound for the rest of the night.