Recap: Irwin and Fantine got married. Cid aged up into a teenager and gained the Natural Cook trait. Fantine discovered she was pregnant.

The meals in the Thrones household have always been easy-to-access snacks. Cid, Fantine, and Irwin consumed a strict diet of cereal, ice cream, and the occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich for no reason other than that no one knew how to cook.

Cid decided enough was enough and that it was about time for the Thrones’s to have warm, hearty meals to put into their bellies. He popped open the fridge and grabbed some basic ingredients that had never been touched before. Staring down at them, he realized he could attempt to make some mac and cheese.

Cheese, milk, pasta, salt… how hard could this be? he thought to himself.

Slicing up the cheese and pasta seemed pretty simple, but he wasn’t really positive on how much milk to add. He decided to go with what his gut told him and just began to wing it.

The aroma of boiling pasta swept through the house and Cid’s mouth started watering.

Irwin and Fantine were bound to freak out when they tasted Cid’s mac and cheese masterpiece!

Before Cid even set the bowl on the table, he heard Fantine screaming from the living area. He sprinted over to where she was standing, shattering the bowl of mac and cheese in the process, and saw her clutching her stomach.

“Fantine! What’s wrong?” he cried.

She doubled over and pointed to the door. “It’s time, get your father!”

Cid frantically pounded on the bathroom door and could hear Irwin flushing the toilet. “Dad, Dad! Fantine’s in labor!” he announced. Irwin came running out into the room, sweat already beginning to fall from his brow. Cid led him to where Fantine was and Irwin gulped. This was it!

Never in a million years would Irwin have guessed Fantine was going to give birth to twins.

Irwin was absolutely beside himself. Twins. He had two twin boys coming home with him. Of course, he was nervous about being a father all over again, but at least this time he had Fantine to co-parent. There was comfort in knowing that, and Irwin settled down a bit during the trip.

They named the firstborn Russel. He was born with the traits of a Slob and also happened to be a Virtuoso. On the way out of the hospital, Russel would coo along with the songs playing on the elevators and even looked like he was trying to bob his head to the beat.

The second twin, born only minutes after Russel, was named Feign. The temperature outside was incredibly cold, but while Russel shivered in his tiny blanket, Feign closed his eyes and smiled. It was apparent he Loved the Cold. As soon as the new family got into the taxi, however, Feign crinkled up his nose and started crying. He had been born with a Grumpy trait as well.

Naturally, the household would need a little bit of a revamp before the twins could settle themselves in, so Irwin called his eldest and instructed him to call an architect or two to give them a new home. While Irwin and Fantine were at the hospital, Cid made the arrangements by hiring the fastest builders in the city. He helped supervise the workers when it came to demolishing their current residence and building a better one, as he felt he would be able to provide everyone with a stylish abode.

The kitchen was all Cid’s design. He knew he would be the only one cooking in there, so it was tailored completely to Cid’s own liking.

The master bedroom where Irwin and Fantine would reside contained a pet bed for Waffles in the corner next to the bedside table.

So as not to arouse suspicion to the builders, Cid went ahead and asked for his room to be furnished with a bed. He knew he didn’t need to sleep as humans did, but it would prove later to be a comfy spot to relax on. The chemistry set was Cid’s little gift to himself. He was excited he was learning how to cook, so he wanted to try to learn another skill.

Since it was too early for Cid to have known the twins’ favorite colors were Lime (Russel) and Spice Brown (Feign), he chose to decorate the nursery a neutral yellow.

The bathroom seemed a little plain, but he knew Fantine’s frugalness wouldn’t allow Cid to go on a spending spree for random clutter, so he filled it with only the essentials.

Last but not least, the living area became an actual living room that was adorned with portraits of Irwin and Waffles.

Fantine praised Cid for a job well done supervising the building process and happily led Irwin to the nursery. She felt so attached to Russel and Feign so quickly that she had a difficult time letting them out of her embrace.

Whenever she heard the slightest whimper coming from the nursery, Fantine would drop whatever she was doing and run. Suddenly, becoming a Visionary didn’t seem important anymore. She was now a mother to two gorgeous baby boys.

Well, she had become a step-mother when she married Irwin, but as much as she loved Cid, she knew she would never feel the exact unconditional love towards him that she now harbored for her own biological sons.

Cid loved his younger siblings as soon as he saw them. He helped care for them on nights when Fantine and Irwin were too exhausted to feed or change them.

When he wasn’t on his self-appointed babysitting duty, Cid was learning how to use his chemistry set.

Fantine’s birthday snuck up on her, as she spent so much time with her sons she actually lost track of the days. She aged up into an adult and immediately had an odd sense of regret wash all over her.

She stared at herself in the mirror and a bunch of wrinkles came into focus. She had crow’s feet around her eyes. Her cheeks looked like they were beginning to droop a little. She brought her hand to her face and traced the outlines, her heart pounding a little faster each time she discovered a new one.

Her camera sat on the dresser, having gathered enough dust at this point to make an actual bunny from it. When was the last time she had touched it? She really didn’t even get much opportunity to use it anyway — as soon as Irwin bought it for her and she registered herself as a self-employed photographer, she threw up in a toilet. Her pregnancy got in the way of her actually learning how to professionally use it.

How long ago was that? Weeks? Months? Years…?

Her lifelong dream was beginning to look completely out of reach. Fantine had endured a rough childhood thanks to constant bullying, and the only thing that kept her going forward growing up was the idea that one day, she would be the world’s greatest Visionary. Everyone who had ever doubted her would see her accomplishments and envy her. They would take a step back and apologize for all of the hurt they had caused her.

This, she had kept a secret from Irwin. This, she had dubbed a fate less important than motherhood the second she held her sons.

Her pregnancy got in the way of her dream. Her Workaholic side suddenly began to ache for the chance to go out and make money off of doing something she loved. Thoughts flooded her brain. Her two boys, her beautiful, happy little boys had prevented her from moving forward. They had sucked her in with their innocent glances and cheerful laughter and forced her to forget what life was all about. It was all their fault. They did this to her. They were the reason she missed years of her young adult life.

As she soaked all of this in, she flung open the drawers of her dresser and frantically searched through her wardrobe. She needed to wear something that would make her feel like she hadn’t just wasted the last few years of her life on screaming infants. She grabbed a shirt and tore it apart so it was more revealing. A white jean skirt from when she was a teenager was tucked away underneath business clothes. There were knee-high boots, gloves, and jewelry that made a statement in the bottom drawer. Fantine took all of these things out of the dresser and threw them on.

There. Much better. Surely, this new look of hers would help her take back these last few years.

Russel and Feign aged up into toddlers, so Irwin went out and bought some toys for them to play with. Russel’s hair grew in white like his father’s whereas Feign’s turned a dark black color.

Russel was drawn to the little toy xylophone Irwin had bought. He spent most of the time out of his crib and on that xylophone, creating musical patterns and trying to sing along to it. Feign wasn’t crazy about that particular toy — he enjoyed playing with blocks. He would build and stack them into small structures and whenever his Grumpy trait kicked in, he would knock the blocks down. It was almost therapeutic for him, and he would squeal with laughter every time his buildings fell.

The first thing adult-Fantine wanted to do was spend as much time as possible woo-hooing her husband into submission. She walked into the bathroom while he was showering and tapped on the glass.

Irwin was startled. “Fantine! I’m, uh…”

“Shut up and move over, I’m coming in.” She stripped her clothes off and waltzed into the shower, grabbing Irwin’s face in her hands and kissing him hard. He settled down from his initial shock and gave in to her frisky attitude.

While Irwin went to bed very satisfied that night, Fantine became even more anxious than she was before. One impromptu night in the shower wasn’t enough.

The next day, the very moment Irwin’s lunch break hit, Fantine arrived at the gypsy wagon and pulled him into an embrace. “Here?” Irwin whispered, his adrenaline starting up.

Fantine nodded. She asked him to lead her into the wagon to find a place where they could be alone.

The risk of getting caught made this particular woo-hoo the best they had ever had.

Fantine was just flat-out ignoring her children at this point. It was as if the bond she felt the moment she laid eyes on them had completely vanished from her psyche. The only thing that was important now was making sure she felt young again — that she felt she had more time to complete her one and only wish.

The woo-hoo wasn’t working. Sure, it was fun to surprise Irwin and all, but it wasn’t making her feel young and sexy, which in turn did not make her feel like she had more time.

Perhaps some new lingerie would do the trick?