ARMANO
(Age Nine)

"Why is everyone still sleeping? It's my birthday!" I whined, bursting into my parents' room in the morning.

They were fast asleep, snuggling together on the bed and on hearing me, Dad woke up, lifting his head, his eyes hooded with sleep. "Armano. Is everything okay?"

"Wake up."

He glanced at the wall clock and sighing let his head fall back on the bed. "It's six in the morning. Go to sleep."

"It's my birthday."

"Son, I really love you but I need to sleep for a few more hours, so leave before I throw you out myself, okay?" Dad said gently, closing his eyes.

"I am bored. Let's go out. We are in New York!"

At my request, Dad planned a family vacation to New York City with all the other family members, including Dad's younger brother, Silvio and his wife and children. Also, Dad and Uncle's childhood friend, Cyrus who is actually a part of our family and lived with us so he was here too with his wife and daughter.

Which reminds me...

"I am going to wake Alamea, then we can play," I suggested to myself.

Dad hummed sleepily. "Very good idea. Just don't cause any trouble or hurt Alamea or Cyrus will chew off my head."

I gave Dad a thumbs up even though he couldn't see it as he was snoring already.

I walked out of there, closing the door.

Our family is rich and by rich I mean, we are billionaires. We run a mafia organisation with various side businesses and since Dad is the current leader, I am next in line.

I do have the option to opt out of it, to do whatever I feel like but seeing the power and money it provides, I wish to be a leader too but I don't have to worry about it until the next...well...until I turn twenty-five.

We owned a mansion in Brooklyn but considering how busy everyone was, I was never able to visit New York until I told Dad that for my birthday gift, I wanted to have a family vacation.

My Dad is the best, in fact, my whole family is the best. My uncles...aunts...cousins. Every single one of them.

Well...maybe not Alamea. She is not our cousin but we did grow up together and she can be quite grumpy for a five-year-old.

But, I guess we are friends. Sort of?

Reaching the room where Alamea, Kian and my younger sister, Lenore were sleeping, I went inside.

The three of them shared a floor bed, with Lenore sleeping in between Kian and Alamea.

I crouched down and poked Alamea's chubby cheeks. "Hey, wake up."

"Mea?" I called, patting her cheek.

She frowned and lazily swatted my hand away, still not opening her eyes.

Sighing, I went over to the other side where Kian, my six-year-old cousin slept. When Mom was pregnant with Lenore, I wanted a little brother but that didn't happen.

But that's okay, I have Kian whom I adore a lot despite him hardly talking. He remains silent and busy with his boring books.

"Kian?" I whispered, gently shaking his shoulder.

Unlike Alamea, his eyes opened instantly and he blinked at me sleepily.

I smiled. "Do you wanna play?"

He stared at me blankly and shook his head once and closed his eyes.

"Hey! You are supposed to be my best friend." I pouted but he was fast asleep.

"Stop!" Alamea hissed, glaring at me from where she lay, finally awake.

"Ooh, the devil is awake finally."

She squinted her eyes at me. "You are disturbing my sleep. Go away."

"Nope." I moved over to her, grabbing her hand. "Wake up, let's go play."

"I'm sleepy." She whined.

"It's my birthday. You have to do everything I say today."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. Come on, now."

She grumbled to herself but finally got up, rubbing her eyes.

I followed her when she went to the bathroom and got on her tiptoes to grab her toothbrush and toothpaste.

Leaning against the wall, I waited for her to finish up, watching her brush her teeth but she was struggling as her cheeks seemed to be getting more brushed than her teeth.

Sighing, I grabbed the toothbrush from her hand, held her jaw firmly and gently started to brush her teeth.

It was only so that she could finish up quickly and then accompany me.

Once I was done, I washed her toothbrush and told her to spit and a second later, something wet landed on my cheek.

"Mea! Eww!" I glared at her while she looked smug.

I washed my face immediately, disgusted by her act.

I kept glaring at her as I wiped my face with a towel. "Go back to sleep. I don't wanna talk to you anymore."

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes. "I don't wanna talk to you either."

Huffing, I left her alone, walked out of the room and decided to roam around instead.

I spent around ten minutes watching the TV but then I got bored so I got up and decided to eat something.

Reaching the kitchen, I halted.

Alamea was on her tiptoes, trying to reach the jar of cookies which was on the kitchen countertop.

Yesterday, Aunty Lilith baked us all chocolate chip cookies and everyone is a fan of it so she made extra and stored it.

When she couldn't reach it, she looked around and tried to drag the stool from the kitchen island.

But it was too heavy for her and I decided to take pity on her.

Her head snapped to me when she heard me walk inside the kitchen but remained silent because she knew I would help her.

I grabbed the jar for her and unfortunately, there were only two cookies left, someone must have eaten them late at night. I took them out on a plate.

She blinked at me innocently and grabbing her under her arms, I picked her up and placed her on the countertop.

Looking satisfied, she grabbed one of the cookies and started to munch on it.

Not having anything else to do, I hoisted myself up on the countertop too and watched her eat.

A moment later, she grabbed another cookie but paused before she could eat it and then offered it to me.

"Now you remember to share, huh?"

She rolled her eyes, shoving the cookie against my chest. "Only because it's your birthday."

"So, this is my birthday gift?"

She nodded.

"I thought you didn't want to talk to me." I teased, taking the cookie from her.

Her nose scrunched up. "You said you didn't want to talk to me. You talked first. You lose. I win."

"Uh-huh." I broke the cookie in half, sharing it with her.

With her mouth full of cookies, she said, "Happy Birthday, Mano."

I groaned. "I told you not to call me that."

Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "It's cute."

"No, it's not."

"You call me Mea."

"Mea sounds like a real name, Mano doesn't."

She shrugged, finishing the cookie. "Whatever. Also...I didn't get you a gift."

"Of course you didn't."

She grinned as if proud of it making me shake my head.

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Dad unfortunately went to his office for some work, even on a vacation but he promised to be finished with it soon. Even Uncle Cyrus went out for something.

Uncle Silvio stayed with us...all the kids and Mom and aunts.

I was showing the birthday gift my parents gave me to my cousins and Alamea.

Celestine was the eldest here at the age of twelve and she had no interest in seeing the new electric bike I got. It was so cool and almost real and I could ride it around the house.

Lenore was busy sleeping in Mom's arms which left Ada, Alamea and Kian.

Alamea and Ada looked bored while Kian watched the bike with rapt attention, looking fascinated.

I could feel Uncle Silvio watching us and a moment later, he approached us, crouching next to Kian, placing his arm around his shoulder.

"Do you want one too?" He asked him softly.

Kian glanced between the bike and his father before nodding slowly.

Uncle ruffled his hair. "Okay. When we get home, hmm?"

Kian nodded, looking happy.

"You can ride mine till then." I offered him, getting off the bike.

Uncle looked proud of me and left us alone.

"Okay, enough. Let's play something now." Ada whined. "I'm bored."

I decided to keep my bike away and play with the others.

Uncle Cyrus entered the living room, bending down to pick Mea up in his arms and kissing her cheek.

Mea wiggled around. "No, let me go, we are going to play."

Uncle pouted but let her go with another kiss on her head.

We all decided to go to another room to play where we sat around the bed and decided.

"We can play house!" Ada suggested.

"How do we play that?" Alamea asked.

"We can create our own story and act it out. For example...any two of us can become a couple and then the rest of us can take other roles..." She explained.

"Couple? Who will become a couple?" I questioned.

"You and Ada." Alamea pointed out.

We both looked at each other, our faces grimacing and Ada gagged. "Eww! He's my cousin."

"Same. Eww. How about Kian and Mea?"

Kian gave me such a disapproving look which was also mixed with an 'I will slit your throat in your sleep' look which made him look so much older than he was.

"Fine, not him," I mumbled.

"That leaves you and Mea. It's decided." Ada stated.

"No." I gave Mea a side-eye. "I'm not pretending to be her boyfriend."

Mea scoffed, folding her arms across her chest. "Ha, as if I want you to."

"I suggested this game so everyone will do as I say." Ada stood up on the bed, looming over us with her hands on her hips. "So, let's begin now."

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"This is ridiculous", I mumbled to myself as I grabbed Alamea's hand in mine.

"What?" She questioned sharply as if I insulted her.

"Nothing, my sweet little devil." I gave her a fake smile.

At this part of the script, I was supposed to go and introduce Mea aka my girlfriend or fiancee or whatever to my Dad.

"I don't wanna play this game." She grumbled as I dragged her towards Dad's office.

Ignoring her, I burst in, an unfamiliar man was sitting across from Dad and they seemed to be in a serious conversation.

"Daddy?" I called out dramatically.

Dad continued to type something on his laptop and said softly, "Not now, Armano. I am busy."

"But Mea and I are getting married", I said innocently, pouting at Dad.

His head snapped to us. "What the--" He corrected himself. "You can't get married."

This is the part where I am supposed to tell my father that I will only marry Mea and no one else--

"But I don't wanna marry you", Mea complained.

I glared at her, telling her to shut up.

Uncle Cyrus rushed inside the office, grumbling to Dad, "If your son steals my daughter one more time we are going to have a serious problem."

Dad rolled his eyes. "We will see, now get out."

Uncle grabbed our shoulders and dragged us out. "I told you all not to go inside there."

"We are playing", I told him.

"Daddy", Mea said as innocently as possible, all of a sudden, turning into an angel. "He was forcing me to marry him."

"What?" Uncle's eyes widened and he glanced between us. "What the heck. You can't marry my daughter."

Glaring at Mea, I clarified, "Like I said, we were playing."

"Play or not..." Uncle picked her in his arms. "No one deserves my daughter."

I rolled my eyes as Mea smiled at me evilly.

I was done playing and Uncle carried her away. She turned her head, looking at me over his shoulder and stuck out her tongue at me, wiggling it.

I sighed as a small smile broke out on my face. Sometimes, I adored this devil of mine.