Spaghetti family part 10, spaghetti party!

I don’t know how we managed to get out of that “lesson” unscathed, but we did. It wasn’t as bad as it usually is, but still scary and I felt uneasy for Robin and Manny.

The originality of these lessons were becoming stale. They were rehashings of old stuff, a sort of rebooting with minor additions and even then, it was less exciting and more of an annoyance than ever.

We were sitting back in our living room again, discussing the weather now and if we should go out for a picnic.

I had not given up on still trying to get Robin and Manny to remember our memories together over the last year, but at the same, I was exhausted and I just was happy they were alive and next to me. So, I decided to just relax for a moment and take it easy—-to enjoy their company.

“How’s about I go check the forecast online?” I take out my phone, but I notice the internet is down. I sigh. “Never mind. The Wi-Fi isn’t working.”

“What’s Wi-Fi?” Manny asks.

Robin shushes him, waving his hands down dramatically. “Don’t say that! We don’t need anymore lessons!” He mouths out in a soft whisper. I understand the feeling, but I try to change the subject.

“It’s okay, Manny. We can just pack a spaghetti picnic and then even if the weather isn’t nice, we’ll still have a party here,” I give them a thumbs up. “Together.”

“Spaghetti party?” Robin says with a raised brow.

“Yeah. Why not? A party for my spaghetti family,” I say with as much enthusiasm as I can with knowing their memories have been wiped.

“Who would that be?” Manny asks.

I get up. “You two, of course.”

Robin gives Manny a confused look and they both shrug at each other. Robin sighs but then looks at me in a contemplative glance.

“Hmm. Okay. Let’s go then. Make sure you pack plenty of napkins. Spaghetti is a messy way to eat. Especially outside,” Robin concludes grumpily and I nod happily.

“Yeah? Okay! That’s good. Let’s go start up the picnic!” I jump up and grab Robin’s hand.

“Again with the hand holding? Hmm. Okay. I guess. You should ask me every time if I am okay with it…” Robin says with a smile even as his tone seems snarky.

I let go of his hand but before I can ask him he aggressively grabs my hand and holds it.

“I didn’t give you permission to stop holding my hand!” He squawks out, and I feel so giddy that I swing our hands a bit.

“Right! I won’t stop holding your hand. Promise,” I say gleefully, and he scoffs.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep!” He says sarcastically and I chuckle.

“You’re so cute,” I say suddenly and he stops and looks at me in surprise.

“Hmm?” He makes a strange noise of questioning at me.

“Cute. You’re… uh, cute,” I repeat.

He smiles. “Oh. Thank you. So are you.”

This time, I am shocked. “What? You mean that? Really? You think I am cute?”

Robin slaps his face and quacks loudly. “Damn! I said the quiet thing out loud!”

I laugh. “It’s okay, love. Happens to the best of us. Right, Manny?” I turn to my son after a moment of no response after Robin shrugs at me.

Manny looks at me with a bemused expression. “Huh? Who is Manny?”

I sigh. Of course they forgot their real names.

“That’s you, silly,” I say.

“Oh. I guess I don’t know that. I though my name was Doi..” Manny says.

“Sort of looks like a Manny…” Robin comments and I nod.

“Agreed.” I start walking to the kitchen. “Okay. Let’s start the spaghetti.”

Manny nods and runs after us. “I’ll boil the water!”

“Be careful!” Robin tells him, and I grin.

“You’re such a kind father,” I whisper in his ear and he jumps a bit.

“Father? What’s… huh?” He says nervously. “I thought you wanted to be the father figure.” He put on a hand(the free hand I’m not holding)on his hip and sighs.

“Well, yeah. We did argue over that. That was a long time ago, see, but I think now we can safely say that we are both established father figures to Manny. Well, both the dads,” I explain. He is so silent I can’t stand it so I lean in and kiss his cheek.

“Ugh! Why’d you do that!” He says, jumping around in a flustered way.

“Because you looked so beautiful,” I say and he looks at me in a flabbergasted, open mouthed way.

“Cut that out!” He says in a frustrated way. “If you really believe we are a… couple, or whatever we are, then be a bit more… metered and woo me like a gentleman!”

I frown, but think about what he is saying.

“Robin, you’re right. If my memory was wiped and I had no idea that the person I had lived with a long time had, over the course over a year, got into a new romantic relationship with me, but for some strange reason, our lives are being controlled by monsters, crazy singing appliances and puppet masters that may be actually the devil incarnate—-and I had no idea why some weird, tall, red mop wanted to kiss me and hold my hand, I would be upset too. The last thing I’d want is to be smooched.”

He puts his finger up and gives me a surprised look, but then sighs and nods. “Yup. That’s it in a nutshell.”

“Well, then, friends? At least until we can do things up right?” I say softly, and he nods.

“Friends!” He smiles and I smile back.

“Well, good. Hug?” I ask and he nods jumping into my arms.

“Mmm!” I squeeze him close to me and he quacks softly.

“Too tight?” I ask in a concerned tone and he replies quickly still in the embrace, “No, no. It’s alright. Feels good.”

I let out a sigh of relief at his answer and hold him a bit closer. Our bodies may be different but it feels exactly the same to me. Perfect.

We stop hugging and I say, “Let’s go check on Manny… Doi… you know..”

Robin nods in understanding. “Let’s.”

We head over to the kitchen to see Manny making a dry spaghetti teepee house.

As soon as we walked into the kitchen, he jumps, knocking into the table, making the spaghetti spill all over the floor like that game of pick of sticks.

“Oh no! I’m so so stupid!” Manny says, going to the floor to pick up the pasta.

Robin rolls his eyes and scoffs.

I rush over and pat Manny’s back.

“That teepee wasn’t stupid and neither are you, mate,” I say. “I rather liked your construction.” I start picking up the pieces of dry pasta and say, “Let’s make a new one.” I try to stack it on the table but it falls down, making Robin roll his eyes again exasperated.

Manny beams and jumps up excitedly. “Really?”

Robin looks at me, incredulous but impressed at how I handled it. “That’s a nice thing to say. Even if there is a big mess to clean up now,” Robin grumbles and I laugh gently.

“We can clean up as we have fun..” I suggest and Robin shakes his head but I can see a slow smile on his face spreading, and Manny jumps up and down. The only way I can describe Robin’s smile was sneaky and… a bit evil.

Manny and I start putting the pasta in a pile on the table, piling it up and stacking it upright. We were laughing as it kept falling down.

Suddenly, there was a down-pouring of what I discerned was tons of dry pasta raining on top of both Manny and my head, and Robin manically laughing.

“Aha! I got you two!” Robin said in a evil voice, laughing.

I turned around as I grabbed huge amounts of pasta in both of hands. Robin saw me and knew what was coming, and said, “Shoot!” And ran off. Manny laughs and starts grabbing the pasta, throwing it at Robin’s feet.

“Come on, dad, let’s get him!” Manny yells at me, and I grin, feeling extremely happy he calls me that finally.

“Yeah! Hurry! Can’t let papa get away with that!” I say in between our airy, hysterical laughs. I finally catch up to Robin and sprinkle the pasta all over him, saying, “You brought it upon yourself, you mischievous duck!”

Robin’s cheeky tone goes away but he is still smiling. “Ah, fine. You win!” But then starts a tickle fight with Manny, tossing pasta everywhere.

“Now this is a spaghetti party!” Manny states and we all nod in agreement.

Manny is rolling on the floor laughing with dried assorted pasta all over him by the time we are done.

“This is better than being on stage singing a song. Though, I was booed for that,” I say, and they both look at me weirdly.

“Hmmph! How rude! I bet you were too brilliant and they were snobs,” Robin says, and I grin.

Manny nods, “Yes. Agreed!”

I bow and say, “Thank you, guys,” when all of a sudden Robin is walking up to me and moving in close to my face.

“Pesky pasta is on your hair..” Robin says, his hair moving to gently remove it, tossing it on the floor. “It would be a shame since your hair is so nice looking.”

“Th-thanks… for that…” I say softly, shifting my feet back and forth shyly as I was not expecting that sort of compliment from him, and move in to close the gap.

Robin closes his eyes and puckers up his beak, and I feel my whole body tremble at the thought of kissing him finally.

Suddenly, before I realize it, he’s pressing his beak against my mouth and kissing me long and softly, and I hold him tightly against his waist.

“Ohhhhhh…. What a weird day….” Robin says after the kiss, holding his head in his hands for a moment in what looked like an existential crisis, wiping his beak with his palm.

I frown and shakes his head, playing with loose strands of my red hair. “No, no. That wasn’t it. I liked kissing you… it’s just… I never kissed anyone before. It was so…”

“Great?” I offer, and he nods.

“Yeah. Great. That’s what it felt like,” Robin agrees.

Manny is grinning. “I told you guys we were a family!”

“Uh uh! That isn’t right!” Robin says as I keep nodding like a fool, his pointer finger in the air authoritatively.

I look at him with a concerned frown, as does Manny, a question in our eyes.

He goes up to us and even though he is the smallest one in our family, bunch, group, whatever you wanna call us, he scoops us together and hugs us close to his chest.

“We’re the spaghetti family!” Robin side eyes us as he says the declaration joyfully, and we all beam with a great family-style smile.

Later, I got the WiFi working and saw someone posted a video of my debut on stage after-all.

Robin was watching it with rapt attention and clapping by the end, but angry at the rude audience.

“Can we kill them?” He asks me and I laugh nervously.

“I don’t know who they are, Robin,” I say and he growls.

“Well, I loved your song, dad, it was fantastic!” Manny says, hugging me.

I felt a bit better about everything by the end of the day even though they still didn’t have their memories back, thinking that as long as I have these two by my side, I’ll be more than okay.