The morning after

Pistolets

A pistolet is a typical Belgian kind of bread. It is a small round bread roll with a crispy outside and a fluffy soft inside. Next to the regular kind, there are some common varieties with sesame seed, poppy seed, or tiger pistolets. Tiger pistolets have a tiger-like pattern made by covering the dough with a rice semolina porridge before baking.

I was always told that the name pistolet (meaning small pistol) comes from a time where they almost cost a pistol. (pistol was the name of a local currency in the 16th-17th century). The people called it a pistooltje (dutch for small pistol, both the gun and the currency ) which then later became pistolet (French for small pistol, the gun) when talked about among the French-speaking nobility.

I woke up feeling a nice warm softness so I nuzzled a bit into it. I heard a soft moan and shot instantly awake. I noticed I was still in Anna's embrace and realized I just nuzzled her bosom. I felt myself starting to blush. But Anna tilted my head to look her in the eye and kissed me good morning. Connecting to Anna made me feel like I would lose myself but at the same time, I felt so empowered and ready to take on anything.

I tried to move, but the bed felt really cramped. I removed the sleep from my eyes and to my surprise, Anna and I were no longer alone in my bed. Fien was sleeping with Emma in her arms at our feet, and Emma was holding Pussyni. I could imagine what had happened. Emma must've woken up during the night and must've become jealous that everyone was staying in my room. But how did Fien manage to calm her down, and lay in my bed without waking us up?

Anna noticed my befuddlement and said “I permitted them to sleep in our bed. You were out cold. All you did was hug me tighter when Emma tried to wake you. I didn't see another way to calm Emma down without waking the house. But look. Aren't those three cute together!”

“Incredibly cute!” Gazette and Elodie squealed. Fien woke up, and as soon she realized she was laying not only with Emma in her arms but that the cat had also joined them she got really excited. Pussyni of course went looking for a different safe haven away from all the excitement. Fien pouted a little at yet another failure to get close to the cute cat. “Oh you can see it again, we took plenty of pictures,” Gazette said, showing us the screen of her smartphone. “Fien, if I could, I would nominate you as the babysitter of the year with this cute picture!” Elodie said excitedly. That put a proud smile on Fien's face. It was funny to see how fast and easy Fien went from one emotion to the other.

I looked at Gazette's phone and there were indeed plenty of cute photos of Fien and Pussyini. While scrolling through them I noticed she had also a folder with pictures of me kissing Anna and sleeping in her embrace.

“What is that folder? Why did you take those pictures of me and Anna?” I said, a bit shocked.

“Because we needed proof for our Y- file. That is standard procedure, isn't it? We also needed some pictures to show the happy ending on the website we made about yesterday's events.” Gazette answered amused. “You did not think you were the only one that opened Y-files did you?”

She must have found the folder on the server at the office of her and Elodie, and this was payback. Never underestimate Gazette's detecting paparazzi skills. I wanted to protest but sensed that would be really hypocritical of me. I had been outplayed but I did not really mind the outcome. I felt Anna hugging me a little tighter.

Before I could say anything Emma shouted “Auntie Claire and Auntie Anna look so cute together, and she dived on the both of us, hugging us. Now that everyone was awake we were all fooling around a bit. Having some ridiculous fun with friends felt really nice, I was wondering why I had always been so against getting friends and letting people into my life. Mom entered the room and brought back order to the chaos, by making us remember we had to go to school. For some reason that had completely slipped my mind, it really felt like the weekend.

Then she said “Frank made pistolets for everyone. He is in a really good mood.”

That is why I did not want friends. I had been so busy fooling around that I forgot it was an opportunity to cook for everyone. Friendship and love were great but I should not allow myself to lose sight of my cooking like that. I started reprimanding myself inside my head. Anna must've noticed something was wrong because she gave me a little nudge and looked at me with worried eyes. She said “Let's go and have breakfast. Shall we?” I instantly forgot what I was worried about and took her arm.

Once we went to the hallway the smell of freshly baked bread traveled toward us. Frank had brought up an extra table from the brasserie, that way we could all sit together.

Frank was clearly in a super good mood. I guess something good must have happened to him, but I was a little too busy with my guests to ask him about it.

As you can guess it was a very lively breakfast. Fien was preoccupied with Emma, and it did not take long before both their faces were smeared with chocolate. Fien had tried to make Emma eat a piece of pistolet with chocolate paste and Emma had taken a bite flipping the rest of the bread in her face. Then Fien tried to show Emma how to eat it but the second Fien brought the bread to her mouth Emma had planted the pistolet in Fien's face and that is how she also got smeared with chocolate. I saw that the situation was about to escalate and stopped both of them. I noticed that Anna was looking at me with a warm smile while I was putting the girls straight. I started to feel a little self-conscious about it all and decided to end the situation as quickly as possible. I cut the pistolet for Emma into small bite-sized pieces and sent Fien to the bathroom to clean her face.

In the meantime, Gazette and Elodie were laughing and taking pictures the entire time. Knowing them, these images were probably already trending somewhere.

When Fien returned we started to take turns going to the bathroom. Anna and I would go last because the other girls were on a stricter deadline since Anna and I would drive to school.

By the time Anna and I were ready, the other girls had already left. I felt that mom was hurrying us along to get us out of the door. My penny dropped. She had her date with her mystery man today. I felt I needed to say something so I quickly hugged her and said “Have fun today. Whatever happens, Frank and I will always be on your side.” I still did not feel completely at ease with mom dating some bloke we did not know, but I did not want her to feel limited or obstructed because of me either. I had to trust mom to do what was best for her.

For some reason, mom got really emotional from my words and gave me a really tight hug. She said “You can't possibly know how much those words mean to me. I was really worried that you would object.”

Anna was carrying Pussyni in her cage. From today onward Pussiny will be the mascot of the FBY. Anna asked me who my mom was dating. I told her I did not know. That I would let mom decide for herself when she thought her relationship had progressed enough to introduce us to someone.

“Hmm, maybe I should ask Ms. Lourdes, she is her best friend, she should know. But she won't be at school today. I'll just ask her tomorrow. It is always best to do a thorough background check before things get serious. That way there aren't any nasty surprises.”

At that moment I think I saw a somewhat worrisome Lyst family trait pop up. Well, she meant it in a caring way and I felt it was nice to see my girlfriend care so much about my family. I did not want mom to be seduced by some creep with a dark past either. So I decided to just let it be.

When we arrived at school I saw a scene I could not have imagined. The entry was blocked with masses of reporters wanting a scoop on the story of the Lyst divorce and the love story between the yuri Jeanne D'Arc and Anna Lyst.

Anna and I decided to watch to see if they would leave when the bell rang, but we were unlucky. Before we even realized it, they had noticed Anna and me. They were slowly surrounding us like a bunch of zombies in those old horror movies and were bombarding us with questions. I took Anna's hand. If she had not been there I think I would have run.

Then a loud shout sounded through a megaphone making the journalists stop and face the other side.

A bunch of girls stepped outside of the school in rows and made a little road through the crowd so that students could enter safely. We walked toward the school and when we got closer I recognized the girls from the Prince's fan club.

Mia was shouting intimidating threats in the megaphone to anyone who tried stopping us, and Valerie was giving orders to her fan club. We managed to get to the school safely. After we got in, the school gates were closed leaving the vultures outside. Anna took her phone and I saw her messaging. I looked at her questioning. “Mom caused this, so I asked her to solve it. It should not take her long.”

"..." Anna seemed to have no problems whatsoever with shutting the press up with a single phone call. My thoughts of this society changed at a rapid pace with Anna next to me.

We walked toward the FBY office, and when we got into the hallway, we saw Ms. Trine looking around impatiently. What was she doing here? When she noticed us, she walked toward us at a determined pace.

“Good, the two of you are finally here. Since Ms. Loudes is out of the office, you are the one in charge as the FBY director, Claire. Polly is waiting for you. With all that has happened yesterday, we have lots to discuss.”