"Dad, how did you and mom meet?"

Antonio's eyes widened. He looked at the beautiful little girl that he was tucking in bed at a loss for words. He gave a small smile. How indeed.

"Yes dad, tell us! You never did!"

He turned to look at the other child, this one a little boy, whose bed was on the other side of the room.

He smiled and said "Really? I never told you?" knowing the answer all too well.

The boy sat up in his bed. "No, never! Tell us now, now!"

Antonio smiled and inquired "Like a bedtime story?"

The boy's face scrunched. "Nu-uh! We're too old for that! Don't call it that!"

Antonio laughed. "Ok then, this is no bedtime story, just a story that I'm telling you at bedtime. Come here Romano, it's easier if you are in the same bed with Beatriz, no?"

The boy huffed and got up, joining his sister on her bed. Antonio tucked him in too and smiled.

"There. Are you two comfortable?"

Romano nodded, but his sister said "Yes, yes, now tell us, please."

Antonio chuckled and smoothed her auburn hair.

"Ok. Once upon a time..."

Romano cut him off. "Hey! That's a fairytale's beginning!"

Antonio merely shrugged. "I know, but it sounds prettier like that." he turned to Beatriz. "Right, Beatriz?"

The girl nodded. She always did like fairytales...

"Ok. So, once upon a time, there was a boy..."

"Was it you?" asked Romano.

Beatriz snickered. "Of course it was him! Shut up now. Daddy, please, go on?"

Antonio nodded and went on. "So, there was this boy, and yes, it was me. Now, back in the day, when you two weren't even in my thoughts, I used to work as a life-guard, and every day, at lunch time, I used to take my little boat with uncle Francis, so we could have lunch and have fun where no one could bother us. But one day..." Antonio left the sentence hanging, and frowned to add the dramatic effect.

"You met mom!"

interrupted Beatriz.

Antonio chuckled. Then got his serious back on. "No. One day, there was a huge storm, with waves taller than any giant and winds so strong that could make a grown man fly!"

Both children held their breath.

"The wind was so strong that I fell overboard and hit my head against the hull of the boat, and fainted in the water!"

Beatriz looked very worried. "Did you drown! ?"

Romano huffed. "Of course not, silly! He's here now!"

Beatriz stuck his tongue out at him.

Antonio gave his daughter a pat on the hair. "No sweety, I didn't drown. But only because there was someone already in the water, someone that went swimming there everyday, but I had never seen. A girl."

Romano's eyes lit up. "It was mom! Right?"

Antonio whispered "Maybe..." then went on.

"That girl, children, saw that I was nearly drowning. So she saved me, she took me and swam me back ashore. I remember that when I woke up, I heard a girl sing, a girl with the most beautiful voice I had ever heard... but when I opened my eyes, I couldn't see her well, because she was against the sun. I could only hear her voice and see her outline in the blazing sunlight..."

Romano nodded as if he knew where it was going. "Yeah, that was mom."

Antonio didn't lose heart. "But you see, that girl was very shy. So when she heard uncle Francis' voice shouting for me, she ran away before I could see her and ask her name!"

Beatriz's eyes became worried. "Oh no, dad! What did you do then?"

Antonio brought his hand to his forehead in a dramatic gesture.

"Oh, was I lovelorn! For I had fallen in love with that girl, even if I knew nothing of her, not even her face! What could I do? How would I find her again? Where did I have to look?"

Romano snickered. "Dad, that's so sappy!"

Beatriz begged to differ. "No it's not! It's cute! Like a tomato!"

Antonio chuckled. "Thank you, Beatriz. But yes, it was a bit sappy, you know. But then..."

Both children held their breath again. "Then what?"

Antonio's eyes lit up.

"... then, two days later, I found a beautiful girl sitting on the dock. She looked like she had been through a sea of trouble, so I went to her, and saw that her figure looked like the singing girl, but..."

Beatriz smiled. "It was mom, right? She had come back to you! I knew it!"

Romano instead asked "But what?"

Antonio gave a mischievous smile. "... but that girl was mute."

Beatriz sat up in the bed. "Oh no! It wasn't mom then!"

Antonio tried to look very sad for a moment. "Yes baby, that's what I thought. If she was mute, then she couldn't be the girl that saved my life. I was very sad. But that poor, poor girl looked like she needed help anyway. So I took her in."
Romano looked confused. "But... but... does mom know?"

Antonio tried really hard not to laugh in his younger child's face. Honestly, it was just so cute...

"Yes, she knows, don't worry. So I took that girl in, and I found out that her name was..."

Romano swallowed. Beatriz brought both hands to her mouth.

"... it was Lovina."

"What! ?" asked the children at the same time.

Antonio chuckled. "That's right. So, I took her to my house. We lived together for a week, and in that time, I fell in love with her. But I didn't realize that yet. Because I was still thinking of the girl that saved my life. I still wanted to see her again..."

Beatriz looked a bit troubled. "... it's better if you don't tell mom that."

Romano seemed to approve. "Yes. But dad, mom was right there! Why did you think of the singing girl again? You must have made her very sad!"

Antonio sighed. Wasn't that right...

"I know kids, but back then, I didn't know yet that I would marry her. I just thought that she was going to stay with me for a while. But then, on the sixth day we were together, I discovered that I really, really loved her."

Beatriz seemed relieved. "I was starting to worry..."

Antonio smiled at her. "But!"

Romano looked really enthralled by the story. There were just so many twists! "But what? What, dad?"

"... but on the seventh day, I went to the beach. And there was a girl singing. With the exact same voice of the singing girl that saved my life!"

Beatriz looked really worried again. "Oh no! Dad! Did you fall in love with her? And mom?"

Antonio frowned, this time for real. He still didn't remember anything of the few hours he had been under Arthur's control. Lovina had told him what had happened, but he couldn't tell the children that. He'd have to come up with a new version from then on. He tried to buy some time while he thought of something that would make sense without telling the children what had really happened.

"No, of course not. I was in love with mom, don't you remember?"

Romano cocked his head to the side. "Yes, but you met the singing girl..."

Antonio sighed. "I know. But you see, I was not in love with her anymore. I was still very grateful to her, though. That's why when I saw her..." uhm. He stopped for a moment. He hoped that what he was going to say next would make sense.

"... when I saw her, I gave her a kiss."

Romano's eyes widened. Beatriz let out a strangled noise.

"Eeeew, that's gross!"

"Daaad! You can't kiss other girls! Only mom!"

Antonio chuckled. "I know, kids. But don't you remember? Lovina was not my wife yet..."

Beatriz puffed her cheeks. "Yes, but she was mom already! And she loved you! I bet she was very angry!"

Antonio sighed. "Oh, yes, she was. Because she had seen me kiss the girl. She came up to us and got really angry. But she couldn't speak, remember? So I didn't know exactly what she wanted to tell me. Because you see, the singing girl that I had found..."

The children looked at each other in confusion. Where was dad going with this?

"... was actually very good at imitating people. She was an enemy of your mom, and she hated her, and wanted to make her miserable! So, when she found out that mom was happily living with me, she wanted to steal me away from her, so that she would be unhappy for the rest of her life!"

Antonio gave himself a mental pat on the back. Now that was a nice way to put it! Bravo, Antonio.

Beatriz looked shocked. "Oh no! She was a witch?"

Romano huffed. "Of course not, witches don't exist! … right?"

Antonio looked at both kids in the eyes with mock intensity before saying a light-hearted "Who knows..."

Then he went on. "Anyway! Mom got very angry, but the fake singing girl took advantage of the fact that she couldn't speak. Mom could not tell me anything, and for a moment there, I thought that if the singing girl had come back to me, then maybe me and Lovina were never meant to be..."

Antonio mentally scoffed. Not really, but he had to make the story flow without mentioning Arthur and mermaids. Besides, he remembered nothing of those moments.

Romano huffed. "Jeez dad, you were stupid."

Antonio laughed. "Yes, I was, but I didn't know yet how it would end back then, did I? So what I did was go off with the fake girl, and leave mom behind. I even took the fake girl on a boat ride that day, before sunset."

Beatriz looked thoughtful for a moment. "She really was a witch, right? She cast a spell on you!"

Antonio was this close to telling her "Yes, indeed." but managed not to.

"No, baby, she was not a witch. She was just very good at imitating voices. But!"

Romano's eyes lit up. Yes! Another "but"!

"But mom had followed us. She knew that the fake girl did not love me, and that I would be unhappy with her. So she swam to our boat, and..."

The children held their breath yet again. Antonio chuckled. He loved to tell them stories. They made such a good audience...

"... and she spoke to me!"

The children looked at each other in confusion.

"But dad, you said mom was mute!" protested Romano.

Antonio smiled. "I was wrong. Apparently, since she went swimming every day, she had caught a bad cold that had made her lose her voice for a week!" He tried not to laugh. That was one lame excuse. But he couldn't tell the kids that mom had sold her voice and her freedom to the sea warlock in order to obtain legs...

Romano and Beatriz exchanged a confused look. "And what did she say, daddy?"

Antonio smiled. "She told me that it was her that had saved me. That I was very stupid for not having realized earlier, and that the fake girl just wanted to make the both of us very unhappy."

Antonio purposefully skipped the part where Lovina had tackled Arthur off the boat and the fight that came later.

Beatriz gave a happy smile. "So it was actually mom that saved you from drowning! I knew it!"

Antonio gave her a pet on the hair. "Yes, baby, it was her. But you know, I didn't care anymore who saved me or not. Because now I could see clearly. Your mom had stayed beside me for a week, and had loved me from the very beginning. Why would I care if she saved my life or not, if she could speak or not? She was my Lovina."

Beatriz looked at him with stars in her eyes. "That's so cute, dad!"

Romano smiled too. "You know, that's a really cool story! All our friends' parents met in such boring ways..."

Antonio chuckled. "I know, right? So, that's it. After a month, I asked mom to marry me. And well, you can guess what she told me..."

Beatriz smiled. "Are you living happily ever after now, dad?"

Romano groaned. Eeeew. His big sister was so sappy...

Antonio smiled and gave each child a kiss on the forehead. "... I think so, baby. Now, good night. Have sweet dreams, sweeties."

Lovina had been out of the kids' rooms the whole time. When Antonio finally got out, he saw her sitting with her back against the wall, hugging her legs to her chest, like she always did.

He smiled tenderly and sat down on the floor beside her and playfully said "Hey. Did you like my story?"

Lovina gave a small smile. "... it was full of plot holes. Honestly, a cold? Arthur was just good at imitating voices? And what happened to him when I got on the boat? Seriously, tomato. You need some extra classes in story-telling."

Antonio laughed quietly. "But Lovi, I couldn't tell them the real thing, I had to make it up as I went..."

Lovina leaned against him. "... I know."

Antonio circled her shoulders with his arm. "So, do you think we are living happily ever after?"

Lovina blushed. "... damn you. Always trying to make me say corny crap."

Antonio chuckled and nuzzled her neck. "You know, it won't kill you to simply say yes..."

Lovina reached for the hand on her shoulder. "Alright, fine. Let's be corny. Yes. Happy now?"

Antonio pulled her on his lap and buried his face in the crook of her neck. Lovina could feel his smile pressing against her skin as he said "You have no idea."

Et voilà. It's over now. Thanks for having stuck with this story till the end! See you in the next!