First Family Meal

Aiden had hoped that it would take them longer to show up.The less time he spent around them, the happier he was but oh well. The three of them were all loud as they clumsily shuffled into the room and shut the door. "Derek! I'm so sorry we took so long but we're here now." Lyla rushed over and placed both of her hands on Derek's arm. As she did so, she leaned forward so her chest was more exposed. Derek sighed, immediately pushed her hands off and motioned to the three remaining seats with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Hurry up and sit down before the waiter arrives. And don't worry too much, not all of you were late." At Derek's words, Lyla shot a glare at Aiden who smiled innocently. Before she could say anything though, the waiter came in to take their orders. Derek and Aiden both ordered quickly but when it was time for Lyla and the other two to order it didn't go so well.

"Ah! Hold on! We haven't even had time to look at the menu yet." Lyla grabbed a menu for herself and two more for both her kids and started reading through it. Becca, on the other hand, was still glued to her phone as usual. "Becca, baby, put your phone down now and pick something to eat." Becca rolled her eyes, obnoxiously popped her bubble gum, and pointed to a random item on the menu.

"That one."

"Honey, you didn't even look! You can't eat that or you'll get gassy!"

"Mom!" Becca blushed and shouted indignantly.

"Spencer, you hurry up too."

"I can't even read most of these. Is this French or something? How do I even know what I'm ordering?" Spencer complained and Becca scoffed at him.

"Oh my gosh! No, you idiot, it's Italian. We're in an Italian restaurant, why would the menu be in French? And only the names are Italian. What's in it is written underneath in English, you moron."

"Don't snap at me just because mom embarrassed you! How about you just worry about picking something to eat that won't make the rest of us want to walk home instead of being stuck in a car with you, Ms.Gassy, 'kay?"

"Shut up! You annoying little…!"

"Both of you stop it and order your food!! This is our first family meal and I told you not to fight!" Lyla yelled. The three of them bickered and shouted for almost ten minutes as the waiter just stood there patiently with a blank expression. Aiden shook his head and leaned away from them and covered his eyes with his hand while the atmosphere around Derek got colder by the minute. When they all finally managed to order, the poor waiter practically fled from the room. He definitely deserved a raise and a hefty tip. "Honey, what's wrong?" Lyla asked Derek as she reached out and touched his hand. He pulled away as if he'd been burned and scowled.

"Don't call me anything like that and stop touching me.".

"But I..." She pouted and started to argue but was interrupted. Derek leaned over and picked up a briefcase from the ground. He opened it and pulled out a stack of papers, tossing it on the table in front of Lyla with a loud thud.

"As agreed, that's your copy of the contract. Don't let anyone else find it. We'll be legally married for a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years. During that time, you and your family will live with me. You'll each be given a monthly allowance of five thousand dollars." He pulled more papers from the briefcase and gave one each to Aiden, Lyla, Spencer, and Becca. "You'll each need to sign these NDA's. To summarize, don't talk about the contract. To the rest of the world this marriage needs to be legitimate. People are bound to be suspicious anyway so don't do anything to make it worse."

Picking up the paper, Aiden carefully read through the agreement. He was cautious, unlike his cousins who clearly didn't feel like reading the fine print. There was no way he would sign his name to something without thoroughly reading every word. When he found nothing wrong, he looked over at Derek.

"Do you have a pen?" Derek handed him one from the briefcase before throwing three more to the other's. Aiden signed it and handed it back along with the pen. Soon after, Spencer, Becca, and Lyla all signed theirs and handed them back as well.

"Good." Derek put them back in the briefcase. "Spencer, Becca, and Aiden will be transferred to a private academy for school. However, you'll all need to take the placement exams. We'll discuss more of the details at a later time." Derek took out his phone and typed something. A moment later, Aiden's phone, as well as everyone else's, rang. He looked and saw a text message from an unknown number with an address. He saved the contact under 'Trouble'.

"I'm saving this under 'Hubby'!" Lyla cheered and giggled but Derek looked completely disgusted. He chose to ignore her and continued.

"As Lyla and I have already discussed, you'll all be moving in throughout the next two weeks. My housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson is always at the house during the day so she can let you in and show you your rooms. Now, the house rules. They're not complicated so I expect you to follow them. First, and most important, my room and my office are completely off limits. Under no circumstances are you to enter without my direct invitation. If you do, I will throw you out of the house without a second thought. Understood?" He paused, waiting for their response.

"Yeah." Spencer mumbled and Becca rolled her eyes.

"Whatever."

"Alright." Aiden nodded.

"Next, do not invite anyone over without my approval. Also, there are security cameras all over the house. You don't need to know where, just know that your rooms and the bathrooms don't have them. Questions?" They all shook their heads. Aiden made a note to double check his room and bathroom just in case. "Good, moving on, you'll all receive a house key from Mrs. Hudson. If you lose it we have to replace all of the locks for security reasons, so don't lose it. Keep the noise to a minimum and don't disturb me unless absolutely necessary." When he finished listing his rules, there was a light knock on the door before it opened and the waiter came in with a cart full of food. "We'll discuss more after we eat."

The waiter carefully placed each of their plates in front of them along with some drinks and left the room after making sure they didn't need anything else. Derek and Aiden ate in silence while the other three fussed about as usual. Aiden's head was starting to hurt and he didn't have much of an appetite so he ate slowly. He thought it was a good thing that he ordered something light. Aiden was exhausted and all he wanted to do was curl up under a warm comfy blanket and take a nap. When he finally managed to finish his meal, he quietly excused himself and headed to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and get a moment of quiet. As he left the room, he didn't notice Derek's concerned gaze trailing after him.

When Aiden returned to the private room, all the dishes had already been cleared but a glass of ice water was placed at his seat. When he sat back down, Derek nudged the glass towards him a bit before continuing to discuss a few more things with them but not much had anything to do with Aiden so he didn't pay attention. He drank some of the water and just sat there, kneading his temples. He couldn't help but wish for this so-called family meal to finally end so he could leave and rest.

After another half hour, Derek returned to work and Aiden went back to the house with Lyla, Spencer, and Becca. The taxi ride was just as chaotic as the lunch had been which didn't help Aiden at all. It felt like the drive would last forever. Their loud voices felt like knives in his head but there was no point asking them to be quiet since he knew they wouldn't. In fact, they would probably be even louder just to torment him so it was best to not say anything at all.

As soon as they arrived, he went straight to his room, and took another warm bath to ease the pain in his muscles. The bath helped somewhat but his headache had still gotten much worse and his body felt heavy. Afterwards, he changed into a plain tank top and comfortable sweatpants, took some medicine and went to sleep. Several times, Aiden woke up due to a fever. He ended up skipping dinner, but took more medicine when he needed to, and slept until the morning.