°♡˖꒰Author's꒱˖♡° POV
At exactly 3:00 AM, the silent halls of the Watson estate were haunted by a small, ghostly figure. Jay Jay was awake, her body aching from cramps and her mind swirling in a post-breakdown fog.
She shuffled down the hall, engulfed in Keifer's oversized black hoodie which still carried his heavy, comforting scent. In one hand, she clutched her favorite tattered panda toy. She reached Angelo's door and gave a soft, rhythmic tap.
When Angelo opened the door, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he found his sister looking like a heartbroken mess.
"Jay? What's wrong? Are you in pain?"
"I want ramen," Jay Jay whispered, her voice cracking. "With vanilla ice cream. Now."
Angelo didn't argue. Remembering Keifer's warning about the 'war zone ' in her stomach, he hurried to the kitchen. Ten minutes later, he placed a steaming bowl of spicy noodles topped with a melting scoop of ice cream in front of her. He kissed her forehead gently.
"There you go,food disaster. Eat up."
Jay Jay took one bite, froze, and then the spoon clattered to the floor.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream was so sudden and so raw it brought the entire house to life. Within seconds, Percy, Aries, Jaspher, and even Tita Lola Gemma were scrambling into the living room in their pajamas.
"What happened?! Did she burn herself?" Jaspher shouted, rushing to her side.
"IT'S WRONG!" Jay Jay wailed, dropping onto the floor in the center of the living room. She tucked her knees to her chest and sobbed into her panda. "It doesn't taste like Keifer's! He puts the spice in at the beginning! Angelo put it in at the end! It's all wrong! AHHHHHH!"
"Jay, it's just noodles," Aries said, trying to be the voice of reason. "Percy, go make another one. Follow the instructions!"
Percy ran to the stove, frantically boiling water while Lola Gemma tried to wrap a shawl around Jay Jay's shivering shoulders. "Hush, apo, don't cry. It's bad for your health."
"I DON'T WANT HEALTH! I WANT KEIFER!" she shrieked, her mood swing hitting a peak of pure desperation. "He knows the exact temperature! You guys are just... you're just making soup! AHHHHHHH!"
Percy brought over a second bowl, looking hopeful. "Here, Jay. I added the spice first. Look, it's redder!"
Jay Jay didn't even look at it. She just sat there on the floor, the center of a panicked circle of powerful men and concerned elders, crying her lungs out.
"It's not the ramen," Jaspher whispered, looking at his sons with a defeated expression. "She doesn't want the food. She wants the person who knows how to fix it."
"She's been crying for twenty minutes," Angelo groaned, checking his watch while Jay Jay's sobs echoed off the high ceilings. "If we don't stop her, she's going to make herself sick again."
"Someone call him," Lola Gemma commanded, pointing at the phone. "Call the Watson boy before she cries the roof down."
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The living room looked like a disaster zone. Aries was hunched over a laptop, frantically googling "How to balance spice and dairy for a 17-year-old CEO," while Percy held a measuring spoon like it was a surgical instrument.
"Okay, Jay, focus," Aries said, trying to be the 'logical' brother. "Tell us the recipe. Is it two shakes of flakes or three? Does Keifer stir clockwise or counter-clockwise?"
Jay Jay looked up from the floor, her face red and her panda toy soaked with tears. "He... he just knoooooows! He looks at the steam and he knows when my soul needs more chiliiiiii! You guys are using a measuring spoon! It's insulting! AHHHHHH!"
"Insulting?" Percy squeaked, holding up a packet of noodles. "Jay, it's instant ramen! There are only three steps on the back of the box! How is he making it 'soulful'?"
"He puts the ice cream in so it looks like a cloud!" she wailed, collapsing back onto the rug. "Angelo's looks like a melted puddle of failurrrrre! AHHHHHHH!"
"A puddle of failure?" Angelo looked at his masterpiece, offended. "I used the expensive vanilla bean ice cream! That scoop cost ten dollars!"
"IT TASTES LIKE REGRET!" Jay Jay shrieked, her period-induced mood swing hitting a comedic peak.
Jaspher sighed, rubbing his temples. "Boys, stop. We're losing. We are four grown men and a matriarch, and we are being defeated by a bowl of noodles."
"Fine!" Angelo threw his hands up. "The ramen is a failure. But Jay, you need to sleep. How are we supposed to get you back to bed if Keifer isn't here to be your human pillow?"
Suddenly, the crying stopped. Jay Jay blinked, a mischievous, slightly manic glint appearing in her teary eyes. The mood swing had flipped again.
"Wait right here," she commanded.
She scrambled off the floor and bolted toward her room. The family stood in a confused circle, listening to her rummage through her bags. A minute later, she ran back into the living room clutching a sleek, black bottle—Keifer's signature cologne.
"Jay? What are you doing with that?" Aries asked, backing away.
Pshhh! Pshhh! Pshhh!
"Hey! Watch the eyes!" Angelo yelled as Jay Jay began aggressively spraying him with the scent of sandalwood, leather, and expensive tobacco.
"There," Jay Jay said, tucking the bottle into her hoodie pocket. She grabbed Angelo's arm and dragged him toward the sofa. "Now you smell like a person who knows how to run a company. Lie down."
Angelo looked at her father, bewildered, but did as he was told. Jay Jay immediately climbed onto his side, hugging his arm and tucking her face into his shoulder. She took a deep sniff of the cologne-soaked fabric and sighed happily.
"You're a weird kid, Jay," Angelo whispered, though he gently pulled the blanket over her.
"Shut up, Kuya," she murmured, already drifting off. "You're just a temporary Keifer. Don't let the power go to your head."
Just minutes later.
"She's finally quiet," Percy whispered, leaning over the sofa. "But now Angelo smells like his business rival. It's confusing for my nostrils."
"Whatever works," Jaspher muttered, finally turning off the lights. "Just nobody move until sunrise."
The peace in the Watson living room lasted exactly two hours. At 5:00 AM, the sun hadn't even touched the horizon, but the storm had already returned.
Jay Jay sat up on the sofa, shoving the cologne-soaked Angelo away with a sudden burst of irritation. The cramps had returned with a vengeance, and her stomach was demanding something that defied all laws of culinary logic.
"AHHHHHHH! IT'S HOT! WHY IS MY STOMACH ON FIRE? AHHHHH!"
The scream sent Percy rolling off his armchair and onto the floor. Jaspher jolted awake, nearly knocking over a vase, and Angelo sat up so fast he got whiplash.
"What?! What is it?!" Angelo gasped, smelling strongly of Keifer's leather-and-spice cologne. "The ramen? Is it the ramen?"
"No!" Jay Jay wailed, clutching her heating pad like a shield. "The heating pad is cold! It's only lukewarm! It feels like a wet napkin! I need it to be the temperature of a volcanic eruption! AHHHHHH!"
"I'll microwave it!" Percy scrambled up, grabbing the pad. "Ten minutes? Twenty?"
"Don't kill her, Percy!" Aries snapped, rubbing his tired eyes. "Jay, monkey, breathe. What else do you need? Do you want water?"
"MONKEYYYYYYY??"
"Sorry, sorry, what you want???"
"I want..." Jay Jay stopped crying for a split second, her eyes glazing over as a very specific, very weird craving hit her brain. "I want pickles. With melted marshmallows. And a side of extra-salty French fries."
The living room went dead silent.
"I'm sorry," Angelo said, blinking slowly. "Did you just say pickles and marshmallows?"
"YES! AHHHHHH!" she shrieked, her mood swinging into pure fury. "The sourness of the pickle balances the existential dread of the marshmallow! Don't judge me! Keifer wouldn't judge me! He'd already be halfway to the kitchen!"
"That is biologically offensive," Percy whispered from the kitchen, though he was already opening a jar of dills.
"Just make it!" Jaspher commanded, looking like he aged ten years overnight. "Aries, get the fries! Angelo, find the marshmallows!"
Ten minutes later, Jay Jay was sitting on the floor, the freshly heated volcanic pad pressed to her stomach, dipping a large dill pickle into a bowl of gooey, melted marshmallow fluff.
"Is it... good?" Aries asked, looking like he was about to gag.
Jay Jay took a crunching bite, a marshmallow string stretching from her lip to the pickle. She chewed slowly, then burst into tears again.
Jay Jay stared at the bowl of marshmallow-dipped pickles as if it had personally insulted her. She took another bite, but the moment the crunch hit her teeth, her face crumpled into a mask of pure devastation.
"It's wrong!" she wailed, throwing the half-eaten pickle back into the bowl. "Keifer melts the marshmallows until they're toasted, not just... gooey! This tastes like despair and amateur cooking! AHHHHHH!"
"Jay, it's literally sugar and vinegar!" Aries shouted, exasperated. "How can there be a 'professional' way to serve this disaster?"
"Keifer knooooows!" she shrieked, her voice reaching a pitch that made the windows rattle.
"And this heating pad! Percy, did you even put it in the microwave or did you just breathe on it?! It's freezing! I'm dying and you're giving me an ice pack! AHHHHH!"
"Freezing?!" Percy yelped, grabbing the pad. "It's 40 degrees Celsius! I can see steam!"
"I WANT VOLCANIC LAVA!"
Percy ran back to the kitchen, shoving the pad into the microwave for another three minutes. When he brought it back, he had to use oven mitts. He gingerly placed it on her lap.
Jay Jay sat silent for three seconds before her eyes bugged out. "AAHHHHHH! MY SKIN IS MELTING! YOU'RE TRYING TO COOK ME ALIVE! YOU WANT TO KILL THE CEO SO YOU CAN TAKE THE MILES DEAL! AHHHHHH!"
She slapped the pad away, and it landed on Angelo's chest, making him hiss in pain.
"Too cold! Too hot! The marshmallows are raw! The pickles are too round!" Jay Jay sobbed, rolling onto her side on the rug. "I'm seventeen and my own family is trying to sabotage my recovery with lukewarm pads and subpar snacks! AHHHHHH!"
"We can't win," Jaspher whispered, defeated, as he watched his daughter have a full-blown meltdown over the geometry of a pickle. "We are the most powerful family in the country, and we are being dismantled by a microwave and a marshmallow."
After an hour of sheer chaos, Jay Jay finally went limp. Her voice was gone, her eyes were nearly swollen shut, and she looked at her family with a hollow, exhausted stare.
"Blanket," she whispered. "I want to sleep. Now."
Percy scrambled to the linen closet, returning with the finest, most expensive Egyptian silk duvet the estate owned. He draped it over her with a flourish.
Jay Jay touched the silk for one second before her face twisted in a fresh wave of agony. "AHHHHHHHH! I'M FLOATING! I'M GOING TO DRIFT AWAY! IT'S TOO LIGHT! WHY IS EVERYTHING IN THIS HOUSE SO FLIMSY?! AHHHHHH!"
She kicked the silk duvet off with such force it hit the chandelier.
"Wait, wait!" Angelo hissed, the memory of Keifer's voice finally cutting through his sleep-deprived brain. He grabbed his phone and scrolled frantically through his notes. "I remember! That asshole Watson said something about this!"
He cleared his throat and read aloud: "And she needs the heavy weighted blanket, not the silk ones. She feels like she's floating away when she's stressed, the weight grounds her. Also, no bright lights. Keep the curtains drawn."
"Aries, the blackout curtains! Percy, get that twenty-pound weighted blanket from the therapy room!" Angelo barked.
While they scrambled, Jay Jay let out a pathetic whimper. "I'm thirsty. I want chocolate milk."
Aries, trying to be helpful, dashed to the fridge and poured a glass of cold, creamy milk chocolate. He handed it to her. "Here, Jay. Cold and sweet, just the way—"
CRAAASH!
The glass shattered against the far wall, brown liquid dripping down a priceless painting.
"IT'S MILK CHOCOLATE!" Jay Jay shrieked, her voice reaching a level of fury that made the men jump. "IT TASTES LIKE SUGAR AND LIESSSSSS!"
Angelo slapped his forehead, reading the next part of his notes: "And don't even try to give her the milk chocolate from the kitchen. She'll throw it at the wall. She only wants the 80% dark cocoa from the top shelf of my pantry—I already put a box in her bag."
"She wants the bitter stuff!" Angelo yelled. "The 80% dark cocoa! It's in her bag!"
They finally found the box from Keifer's pantry. Percy mixed it with hot water, making it dark, rich, and slightly bitter. They wrapped her in the heavy weighted blanket until she looked like a little burrito and drew the thick velvet curtains until the room was pitch black.
Jay Jay took a sip of the dark cocoa, felt the heavy pressure of the blanket grounding her, and finally—finally—stopped crying.
"About time," she muttered, her eyes closing. "You guys are really slow. Keifer would have had this done in three minutes."
"We've been at this for three hours," Percy whispered, leaning against the wall, defeated. "I feel like I've just fought a war and the noodles won."
"She's asleep," Jaspher whispered, looking at his daughter with a mix of love and sheer terror. "Nobody breathe. Nobody move. And for the love of God, nobody mention the word 'ramen' until 2027."
By 8:00 AM, the Watson estate was a silent graveyard of exhausted men. But the peace didn't last. The heavy thud of a bedroom door upstairs signaled that the "Titan" was awake.
Jay Jay marched into her en-suite bathroom, her eyes still puffy but her mood shifting from "sobbing child" to "lethal CEO." She turned on the shower, waited ten seconds, and then the sound of a ceramic soap dispenser shattering against the tile echoed through the hallway.
"AHHHHHHHH! IT'S ICE! DO WE LIVE IN AN IGLOO?!"
Angelo and Percy stumbled into her room, nearly tripping over each other. "Jay! What happened?!"
"The water!" Jay Jay stood there, wrapped in a towel, pointing a trembling finger at the shower head. "It's cold! It's insulting! I'm seventeen, I run three divisions, and I can't even get a lukewarm rinse in my own house! AHHHHH!"
"I'll fix it! I'll fix it!" Percy dove for the handle, cranking it to the left. "Give it a second! It's heating up!"
He waited until steam started to swirl and stepped back. "Okay, Jay. It's perfect. It's warm now."
Jay Jay stepped under the spray for half a second before let out a shriek that could have curdled milk. She grabbed a bottle of expensive shampoo and hurled it at Percy's head.
"AAHHHHHHH! YOU'RE TRYING TO PLUCK MY FEATHERS! IT'S BOILING! I HAVE SECOND-DEGREE BURNS! AHHHHHH!"
"It's just hot water, Jay!" Angelo yelled, dodging a flying loofah. "How can it be 'too cold' one second and 'boiling' the next?!"
"Because Keifer knows the degree!" she wailed, sliding down the bathroom wall in a fresh heap of drama. "He sets it to exactly 38.5 degrees! He says my skin is too sensitive for 'standard' hot! You guys just turn the knob and hope for the best! You're reckless! AHHHHHH!"
"38.5 degrees?" Aries asked, standing in the doorway with a digital meat thermometer he'd brought from the kitchen. "Who measures shower water with a decimal point?"
"A man who actually loves me!" Jay Jay shrieked, clutching her panda toy to her wet towel. "Keifer is a tycoon because he pays attention to the details! You guys are just... you're just amateurs with a water HEATERR!"
Jaspher stood in the hall, watching his sons try to calibrate a shower with a meat thermometer while his daughter screamed about the thermodynamics of her skin.
"He really is the only one who can handle her," Jaspher muttered, reaching into his pocket and finally dialing the one number he promised he wouldn't. "Keifer? I don't care about the Miles deal. I don't care about the board. Get to the house. Bring your thermometer. We're losing."
After the shower disaster, Jay Jay finally settled into a nap, cocooned under her twenty-pound weighted blanket. The house held its breath for hours until, at 4:00 PM, she emerged with a dark, brooding intensity.
"Coffee," she stated, her voice low and dangerous. "And if I see a single drop of milk in it, I will liquidate the family's real estate holdings."
Angelo personally brewed the strongest black coffee available, serving it in a porcelain cup. She drank it in silence, staring out the window like a war general. For the first time in three days, there was peace.
Dinner time arrived, and the family gathered around the massive dining table. Jaspher, Angelo, Aries, and Percy watched her like hawks as she ate her steak in a calm, almost eerie silence. No screaming. No crying. She was eating peacefully, her mood swings seemingly at bay.
Then, she set her fork down. She looked at the empty space in front of her, then up at her brothers. Her bottom lip began to tremble.
"Where is it?" she whispered.
"Where is what, sweetheart?" Jaspher asked, his heart rate already beginning to climb. "We had the steak, the mashed potatoes, the asparagus—"
"The dessert," she croaked, her eyes filling with fat, shimmering tears. "Keifer always makes the dessert. It's a chocolate fondant with a molten center that has exactly one pinch of sea salt to cut the sweetness."
"We have mango float!" Percy offered frantically, gesturing to the kitchen. "And Tita Lola made leche flan!"
"I DON'T WANT LECHE FLAN!" Jay Jay shrieked, the peace shattering as she slammed her hands onto the table. "I want the molten center! I want the pinch of salt! Why is there no salt in this house?! AHHHHHHHH!"
"It's just cake, Jay!" Aries groaned, throwing his napkin down.
"IT'S NOT JUST CAKE! IT'S COMPASSION!" she wailed, sliding off her chair and onto the expensive rug. "Keifer knows that at 7:30 PM my sugar levels drop and I need the salt to feel alive! You guys just give me eggs and condensed milk! You don't care about my biological rhythm! AHHHHHHH!"
"Her biological rhythm?" Angelo muttered, looking at his father. "Since when does she have a rhythm for salt?"
"Since she turned seventeen and started running a country!" Jay Jay sobbed, clutching the leg of the dining table. "I want my Boss! I want Tycoon! I want the man who knows the difference between sea salt and table salt! AHHHHHHHH!"
The relief in the Watson mansion lasted exactly sixty minutes. After the dinner meltdown, Jay Jay had finally cried herself into a state of semi-consciousness, her chest heaving with tiny, exhausted hiccups until she drifted off.
The brothers and the staff—Eman, Rory, Adrix, Felix, Calix, Blaster, Drew, Eren, Kit, Mayo, Yuri, Ella, Freya, Honey, Graze, Raki, and Mica—were all slumped in various states of disarray. Eman was actually sleeping on a sack of flour in the kitchen, while Percy was using a velvet curtain as a pillow.
"Is it over?" Kit whispered, afraid that even a breath would trigger another siren-level shriek.
"It has to be," Angelo groaned, rubbing his eyes. "There are no more liquids left in her body to turn into tears."
But then, a floorboard creaked.
Everyone froze. In the dim light of the living room, Jay Jay appeared. She wasn't standing; she was sitting directly on the cold hardwood floor, her expensive silk pajamas pooling around her. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her hair was a bird's nest, and she looked devastatingly cute yet completely unhinged.
"Jay? Sweetie?" Jaspher asked, his voice trembling. "Why are you on the floor? There's a thirty-thousand-dollar Italian leather sofa three inches behind you."
Jay Jay looked at the sofa with a look of pure, unadulterated betrayal. A fresh wave of fat tears spilled over her cheeks. "The sofa... is too soft," she whispered, her voice cracking. "It's swallowing me. It's like being hugged by a giant marshmallow that didn't even have a pickle inside it! AHHHHHHH!"
"IT'S A SOFA, JAY JAY!" Aries yelled, finally snapping. "IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SOFT!"
"NOT THIS SOFT!" she shrieked, her lungs finding a second wind as she wailed into her hands. "Keifer knows my spine needs structural integrity! He knows that when I'm stressed, soft things feel like lies! The floor is the only thing that's honest! WAAAAAAAH!"
Ella and Freya tried to slide a rug under her, but she kicked it away. "Honey! Graze! She's rejecting the textiles!" Mica cried.
"I don't want a rug! I want the 38.5-degree man!" Jay Jay sobbed, her face pressed against the hardwood. "He would know that the floor is too cold for my tummy but the sofa is too soft for my soul! He would bring the specific ergonomic floor mat from the office! AHHHHH! I'M A CEO ON A HARDWOOD FLOOR AND NOBODY LOVES ME!"
Angelo looked at his father. Jaspher looked at the ceiling. Eman woke up from his flour-sack nap just in time to see Jay Jay trying to "fire" the coffee table.
"Call him," Jaspher and Angelo whispered, defeated. "Tell him the floor is too honest and the sofa is a liar. Just... tell him to come home."