"Alright, everyone! Dinner is in thirty! Try not to destroy the living room before then!" Lucian's voice carried down the hall from where he was setting the table.
"No promises!" Rylan shouted back from his room.
Elaine snorted, tucking her brush into her bag as she stepped out of the guest room after a quick shower.
"There she is!" Lucian grinned, holding a plate. "Though we lost you to the guest towels."
Elaine smiled, shaking her head. "I was just making sure I didn't look like a drowned rat."
"Trust me," Lucian grinned, "You've seen us post-pool. You look like royalty in comparison."
"Stay for dinner, yeah?" He waved the plate back and forth, smiling. "Chef made enough for a small army."
Elaine blinked, hesitating for a moment before nodding. "Alright," she smiled. "One meal couldn't hurt."
Lucian grinned, setting her a spot while the others slowly filtered in. After about five minutes, Lucian and Enzo ended up engaged in a very serious debate over who actually cooked dinner while Casen tried to sneak pieces of bread from the counter.
"And I'm telling you, all you did was flip the chicken!" Enzo said, waving a spatula at him.
Lucian gasped dramatically as he leaned on the counter. "Supervised flipping! That's leadership!"
"You were watching TikToks between turning them over."
"I was multitasking," Lucian corrected.
Elaine bit back her laughter, sliding into a seat Luca had pulled out for her. Rylan had already sat down before the argument started. Casen plopped down across from her while Lucian and Enzo sat on the opposite side from Luca.
"Okay, tell me this doesn't feel like home. Music, food, and someone arguing in the kitchen."
"Add someone yelling at an animal to get out of the kitchen, maybe," Rylan hummed. "But yeah, it's like home."
Lucian grinned, pointing at Casen and Rylan with his fork. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said about my cooking."
"He's lying." Enzo didn't even look up as he spoke, "I cooked."
"Lies and slander!" Lucian gasped, "I supervised."
Casen nearly choked on his food, laughing. "Supervised flipping."
"Hey!"
"You said it, man," Rylan snickered.
Casen swallowed a large mouthful of food before perking up again. "So, family stories," he leaned back in his chair. "Anyone else grow up with siblings who used your stuff as paintbrushes, or just me?"
"Just you," Rylan snickered.
Casen shook his head, "Okay, fine. My youngest sister once 'borrowed' my guitar picks and fed them to the dog. Said it 'improved the dog's rhythm.' She was four."
Elaine laughed as she wiped her mouth. "That's… creative, at least."
"It was stupid!" Casen groaned, "It was somewhat funny, afterwards… Until we had to explain to Mom why the dog's poop sparkled."
Lucian shook his head, trying not to grin. "Okay, okay. Casen's childhood aside, let's hear something embarrassing from Rylan."
Rylan squinted at him from over the rim of his glass. "Oh, you mean like the time you split your pants mid-show?"
"No. No," Lucian immediately shook his head, "We're not-"
"Or," Luca cut him off, spinning his glass with his finger, "The time Casen tripped over a monitor and took half the stage lighting with him?"
"Oh my god," Lucian groaned, "I had to jump out of the way like a damn action hero."
"Except action heroes usually stick the landing," Enzo added.
Elaine covered her mouth as she laughed. "Please tell me someone recorded that."
"Oh, we did," Lucian admitted. "We just swore that footage would never be released."
"It was a missed opportunity," Casen chimed, "'Band nearly dies before debut.'"
"Okay," Rylan chuckled, "I got one. My sister used to prank me all the time. There was this one time she poured glitter in my hair while I was asleep."
"Ah, yes, the start of a villain origin story," Lucian chuckled.
"Nah," Rylan grinned, "Nah, man. A few days later, I filled her blow dryer with flour. The whole room looked like a snowstorm."
"So, that's how you learned timing," Casen chuckled.
Rylan looked over the rim of his glass with his brows raised, "Nah. That's how I learned to run."
"Oh, oh!" Casen bounced up and down, "You remember that time before the debut when the van door broke and I had to hold it shut for like an hour?"
"I told you I had it under control!" Luca retorted.
"You were taking corners like a stunt driver!" Enzo laughed out.
"We almost missed our first gig 'cause the GPS took us to a cornfield," Lucian laughed.
"Oh my god," Elaine wheezed.
Casen nodded vigorously, trying not to spit his drink out from laughing. "We were sitting there for like fifteen minutes trying to find where we were supposed to be going."
"And then you said, 'I feel like it's close.'" Rylan chimed in, nudging Casen with his elbow.
Enzo shook his head, covering his mouth with his hand. "Those cows were not the audience, man."
"Speaking of audiences," Lucian smirked, "Remember the time Casen jumped off stage into the crowd and they dropped him?"
Elaine choked slightly on her drink, "They what?"
"Oh, yeah, they dropped him hard," Rylan snickered.
Enzo leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "To be fair, they weren't ready."
"Only because Lucian messed up his intro!" Casen retorted, "He literally said 'make some noise if you like… existing!'"
Elaine leaned forward, laughing while clutching her stomach, "I can't."
"Hey, it couldn't be worse than Enzo messaging me at four A.M. asking me if birds dream," Lucian cackled.
"Why?" Elaine questioned, raising a brow.
Enzo groaned, leaning his head back, "Wasn't that when I didn't sleep for three days?"
"Yup!" Lucian confirmed, "You and Luca both kept sending me the most random questions."
"Luca too?" Elaine covered her mouth. "What did he ask you?"
"He asked me if I ever thought about how coffee was just bean soup," Lucian chuckled. "Oh, I also have this gem." He pulled out his phone from his pocket, scrolling for a moment before pushing play on something.
There was a faint rustling sound before Luca's distorted voice came through the speaker.
"Why are all spoons just slightly different? I just noticed it. Like, they all agreed to be spoons, but none of them committed to a size. This one's wide like it has confidence issues. Oh…" There was a long pause before he gave an odd, exasperated noise at a faint meow. "Haven, babe. Why are you looking at me like some sad Victorian child… Wait… Are you?"
The recording ended, and Luca buried his face in his hands while everyone laughed. Elaine grinned, patting Luca's shoulder.
Enzo's jaw dropped, staring at Luca, "You did not call my precious cat a 'sad Victorian child.'"
Luca pressed a hand over his mouth, his body shaking with laughter.
Lucian smirked, tapping on his phone, before anyone could respond, another one began to play, this time it was Enzo.
"Ever… I think I'm dyslexic. No… not dyslexic. Evolving. I am evolving. My thoughts are no longer words, they're just vibrations… Also, I want Udon. Can you make me some?" He paused, rustling slightly, "Come here…" There was another pause before he made a very confused noise. "Uhm… Ever… I don't know where I am."
As the recording ended, Enzo was glaring at Lucian, who grinned.
"Wait," Casen laughed. "Wasn't that when we had to track him down, and he was literally standing outside the hotel trying to hail a cab?"
"Oh, I remember that!" Rylan choked out, "He was so confused when we told him that a cab wouldn't take him home."
"We were in Michigan," Luca added.
Elaine looked between Luca and Enzo before laughing again. "I have a story along the lines of delirious talking." She chuckled, "So, Eleanore sleep talks. There was one time she fell asleep in my room while I was finishing a project. It was like three A.M. when she sat straight up, looked me dead in the eyes, and said, 'The frogs are unionizing.' I thought I misheard, but then she goes, 'We can't stop them now, Elaine. The lily pads belong to them.' Then laid back down and started snoring like it never happened."
"What?" Casen's jaw dropped, wheezing out a laugh, "What was she dreaming about?"
"Amphibian revolution, apparently," Elaine snickered, "She didn't remember it the next morning."
As they finished eating, Rylan and Casen collected the dishes to wash them while everyone settled in the living room. Lucian was sprawled out with his legs over the arm of his chair, while Enzo lounged on the loveseat next to him, and Elaine sat on the opposite side of Luca on the other loveseat. Rylan and Casen flopped onto the couch after finishing the cleanup.
"Thank you, Enzo, for the food." Elaine smiled, earning a small nod.
Lucian rolled his head to the side, "Enzo and Luca are the best cooks in the house."
"Yup!" Rylan agreed.
"Hey, what about me?" Casen whined.
Rylan went to respond, but Luca beat him to it. "The last time you were allowed to cook, you set pasta on fire."
"I didn't set it on fire; it fell into the burner."
Enzo raised his brows, nodding. "That's called setting it on fire."
Casen looked between them, then leaned forward. "Hey! At least it was controlled. My sister once tried to make me breakfast in bed. She used a hair dryer to cook the eggs… on the carpet."
Elaine stared at him with her mouth open for a moment, then covered it with a slight laugh. "You're lying."
"Nope." Casen shook his head. "Hair dryer omelet. The dogs still won't step foot in that room."
Rylan nearly spit his drink out, laughing. "I'm sorry… Why?"
"She wanted to surprise me." Casen's lips pursed for a moment as he nodded, "Suprised the whole house."
Lucian had his hand over his face, laughing. "Did it even work?"
"Well," Casen raised a brow with a half smile. "The eggs were technically warm."
"Technically salmonella," Enzo muttered.
Casen turned his head in Enzo's direction with a dramatic gasp. "You have no sense of childhood wonder."
"Childhood wonder doesn't usually involve a fire extinguisher."
Luca spun his drink around his glass, giving a half-smile. "At least she tried…" He paused, staring at the liquid as it rippled. "My brother once taped my shoes to the ceiling fan…"
Elaine blinked, looking at him. Completely oblivious to the shocked looks on the other members' faces. "Why?"
He offered a small shrug, taking a drink. "He said it was for an experiment."
Lucian recovered from his initial shock, grinning. "Was the experiment about gravity or revenge?"
"Both," Luca nodded, "Definitely both."
The stories began to die down as Lucian turned on a movie for everyone. For a while, everyone just relaxed, watching the comedy on the big flat screen.
Luca paused for a moment as if remembering something and leaned his arms across the back of the couch, looking toward Lucian and Enzo. "Hey," he smirked. "Do you remember Reginald?"
Lucian slowly turned his head, his face a mix of a grimace and horror. "...No. No, no, no. Don't you dare bring him up."
Elaine blinked, turning her head to look between them. "Who's Reginald?"
Enzo's lips twitched, lifting a hand to conceal the smile breaking through.
Luca tipped his head to the side, still smirking. "He was… sort of our mascot back in the Empty Empire days."
Casen blinked, "That name sounds like it's for a middle-aged accountant, not a mascot."
"He was dignified," Enzo retorted.
Elaine blinked, tilting her head. "Dignified? So what was he? Like, a doll?"
"For the love of everything," Lucian groaned into his hands. "Please no."
Luca snickered at Lucian's reaction. "One of the old members had this taxidermy fox head that he brought to every show. He said it brought good luck, he named it Reginald."
"A what?!" Rylan burst out laughing.
"A taxidermy fox head," Luca repeated, as if that clarified everything.
Elaine looked both delighted and horrified, snickering. "That's so cursed."
"He wasn't cursed," Luca defended. "Just… Unsettling."
"Unsettling?!" Lucian sat up sharply. "That thing stared into my soul every night on tour!"
"You're telling me you had a haunted fox head on stage?" Casen managed to wheeze out between laughs.
"Front and center," Luca confirmed.
Elaine leaned forward, laughing. Rylan shook his head, grinning. "So, where's Reginald now?"
"I don't want to know!" Lucian yelped.
Enzo snickered, slowly getting up as he left the room.
Rylan blinked, looking after him before looking at Luca, who had a look that was between horror and humor.
"Why does he move like that when he's about to do something unholy?" Casen inquired.
Elained blinked, confused. "What's he doing?"
Before Luca could respond, Enzo reappeared, holding a red and white, glass-eyed fox head mounted on a cracked wooden plaque.
Lucian jumped up so fast that he tripped backwards over his chair. He recovered quickly, clutching the arm like a lifeline. "WHY DO YOU HAVE HIM?!"
Enzo grinned, holding it up proudly. "Everyone, this is Reginald."
Rylan fell off the couch, doubling over while he lost it. "Oh my god, it's real."
Casen fell over onto his side, laughing as he almost fell on Rylan. Elaine couldn't breathe as she clutched her stomach. "You actually kept that?" She managed.
"He's vintage." Enzo brushed imaginary dust off Reginald's ears.
"He's possessed!" Lucian was still crouched down, holding the arm of his chair.
"Now, now," Enzo said softly. "He's sensitive about that."
Casen fell off the couch, landing on Rylan, who lost his balance, still laughing. "Please," Rylan wheezed, "Does he still go on tour?"
"Only when morale is low," Enzo replied, a smug smirk on his lips as he walked to the mantle, setting Reginald dead-center, adjusting him with care. "Home sweet home."
Lucian scrambled away from his chair, standing behind the couch. "You've unleashed a demon into the house."
"You say that like it wasn't already haunted," Casen wheezed.
"Now it definitely is," Lucian muttered.
Luca smirked. "We brought him to one show, and the power went out mid-performance. The guy who owned him swore it was 'Reginald's blessing.'"
"That was not a blessing!" Lucian yelped, "That was a curse wrapped in taxidermy!"
Enzo smiled, crossing his arms as he stood beside Reginald. "He's a blessing."
Lucian stared at him, then pointed at Reginald. "If that thing moves on its own, I'm burning the mansion down."
Rylan and Casen both slowly recovered as Elaine looked between Lucian and Reginald, smirking. "I think he knows who to haunt," she snickered, "He's looking right at you."
Lucian froze, slowly looking back at Reginald, who was positioned perfectly, where his glassy eyes were indeed fixed on him. Luca and Enzo exchanged a look before he slowly stood, Enzo uncrossed his arms, then grabbed the plaque and charged across the room.
Lucian yelled and bolted out the back door, where Enzo and Luca both took off after him. Rylan, Casen, and Elaine all doubled over laughing at the scene unfolding under the sunset as Lucian tried to evade Luca and Enzo, who still had Reginald.