The early morning sun filtered through the sheer curtains of Luca's apartment, casting soft golden light over the neatly arranged living room. On the couch, nestled under a pastel pink blanket, lay two small lumps that occasionally twitched and mumbled in their sleep.
Luca exhaled, running a hand down his face. "Iris, Ivory," he called out, walking over to the couch. "Time for school."
The blanket stirred. Then a little voice said—
"No."
Luca crossed his arms. "That's not an option."
A little head peeked out. Ivory-one of his twins, still half-asleep, blinked at him. "We don't wanna go."
"You say that every morning," he deadpanned, kneeling down and gently peeling the blanket away. "But guess what? School still exists and you still have to go."
Iris, the second twin, groaned dramatically, flopping onto her back. "I just want to stay and watch TV and learn racing! I wanna be a racer when I grow up!"
Luca sighed. He should've never let them watch that street racing show. "You can be whatever you want when you grow up. But right now, you're going to school."
The smell of coffee barely masked the lingering scent of maple syrup as Iris and Ivy sat at the kitchen table, their feet swinging as they chattered about everything and nothing.
"Papa, you put too much syrup!" Iris whined, poking at her pancake with her fork.
Ivory, ever the peacemaker, leaned over to inspect her sister's plate. "I can eat it if you don't want it."
Luca sighed, running a hand through his already messy dark hair. "It's just syrup, sweetheart. You like sweet things."
"Yeah, but not a lake of it."
"So can i have it?" Ivory proposed
"Nuh uh, it's mine!" Iris dug in.
He chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to both their foreheads before grabbing his keys. "Alright, finish up. We need to go in ten minutes."
With great effort—and a lot of dragging—Luca got them dressed and out the door. The drive to their school was filled with Iris chattering while Luca and Ivory listened quietly.
"So my teacher asked me yesterday what superpower I would like to have!"
Luca slightly rolled his eyes. What was the use of asking a 5-year-old that?
"Speed," Ivory replied after thinking for a second.
"No, it's mind reading!"
Before they could start an argument over that, Luca interjected, "I think Invisibility, wouldn't it be nice to go anywhere you want without anyone seeing you?"
There was a moment of brief silence before Ivory narrowed her eyes. "Daddy, are you saying you want to run away from us?"
"…Okay, we're here." He breathed a sigh of relief wiping the imaginary sweat from his brow.
Luca barely parked before they were unbuckling their seats and hopping out. They each gave him a quick hug and Iris dramatically waved out the window as though she were heading off to war, while Ivory simply gave him a small, knowing smile before trotting after her sister. He never understood how two children raised the same way could be so different. Iris was more energetic and extroverted than her sister. Luca watched them disappear into the crowd of kids before pulling away with a sigh. Time for work.
Playing his favorite song, he drove quickly to the hospital where he was working and got ready for his day. His name tag read Dr. Luca Moretti, Orthopedic Surgeon, and the moment he walked through the hospital doors, the atmosphere changed.
"Dr. Moretti, your 10 a.m. is prepped in OR Two."
"Dr. Moretti, should I push back the consultation with Mr. Danvers?"
"Luca," Isla's voice cut through the noise, smirking as she fell into step beside him. "You've got a fan club today."
"Very funny." He rolled his eyes looking through the file in his hands.
Isla was his best friend, she had been for about 15 years, she was the only woman who, as they said, could handle him.
Isla leaned against the nurses' station, arms crossed. "That new neurosurgeon? The one with the superiority complex? He's been making noise again."
Luca sighed. "Dr. Harper?"
"Yep. He's convinced you're overrated."
Luca didn't rise to the bait. "Let him think what he wants."
"You know, you're soft-oh wait, sorry. You act like you're a kind person, and that's going to make people walk over you." She rolled her eyes as they walked into the break room
"Mhmm," Luca murmured, grabbing a cup to fix himself a coffee.
Isla, however, had other plans. The moment Dr. Harper appeared, she smirked. "Hey, Harper. Luca here can fix bones, but can he fix that fragile ego of yours?"
"You know," Harper started, ignoring Isla's jab and leaning against the counter as Luca poured himself a cup of coffee, "for someone who's supposed to be an Orthopedic surgeon, you sure have a lot of free time."
Luca took a sip, barely sparing him a glance. "And for someone who's supposed to be a neurologist, you sure have a lot of brainless things to say."
Harper scoffed. "Oh please, like you could—"
"Didn't someone lose a patient last week because they read the MRI backwards?" Isla's voice cut through the air like a dagger. Luca didn't flinch—he knew his best friend's sharp tongue well.
Harper stiffened, his face going red. "That was—"
"Oh, wait. That was you." Isla put a hand to her chest mockingly. "My bad. I thought you were just another hospital ghost at this point. I'm still confused about why you haven't been arrested and your license revoked."
Luca bit back a laugh as Harper stormed out. Isla turned to him with a raised brow. "What would you do without me?"
"Live a peaceful life," he answered dryly, making her snort.
🍒
Milo had grease on his hands and a cigarette tucked behind his ear when a familiar voice interrupted his peace.
"You're late."
Milo glanced up from the car engine he was working on. His best friend, Deacon, stood with arms crossed, unimpressed.
"I was busy."
"Doing what?"
"E..eating." He shrugged.
Deacon sighed. "You're impossible. Anyway, your next race is in three days. Try not to get yourself arrested before then."
Milo smirked, wiping his hands on a rag. "No promises."
"Milo Hawthorne, please this is really important for us."
Milo barely glanced in his direction going back to the car he was working on.
"Why are you wasting your time when you know he won't listen to you?" Another guy walked in--Marco.
"Can you talk to him? I WILL NOT bail him out of jail one more time!"
"Don't worry father, mother will bail me out." Milo jokes.
"Who's the mother!?"
"Of course you miss Marco."
"Pei pei, no thank you."
[A nickname for Ivory that Luca will call her is, Ivy]