"And everything is in her bag," Lin finished and handed the large backpack to Oliver.
"We'll be fine," Gene insisted while bouncing the toddler on his hip. "Won't we, Maggie?"
"Yes," Maggie replied with a vigorous nod, causing her two ponytails to bounce on either side of her head.
Madoka leaned over and kissed her daughter.
"You behave for Gene and Noll, won't you?" she asked in a gentle voice, caressing Maggie chubby cheek.
"Yes Mama!"
"Bye bye Maggie!"
The toddler's parents waved as they left. Oliver rolled his eyes and shut the door behind them as he mumbled about letting the heat out.
"Bye bye!" Maggie echoed. She wriggled against Gene and ordered him to put her— "Down!"
Gene placed her on the floor where she wobbled for a second before taking off down the hallway.
"Oh jeesh!" Gene went haring after Maggie. He kept his hands outstretched, ready to catch the toddler at any moment.
Oliver, meanwhile, shrugged and followed at an idle pace. When he caught up with his twin and their charge, Maggie was opening and closing all of the kitchen cupboards that she could reach purely for the pleasure of looking inside them.
"Maggie, why don't we go and do some drawing?" Gene suggested with an encouraging smile.
"No!"
Maggie had not turned to speak to Gene, but had continued searching the cupboards and drawers as Gene hovered over her, ready to protect her from whatever danger she may find.
"Or watch TV?"
"No!"
The toddler looked around and giggled at the look of frustration on Gene's face.
"No!" Maggie repeated, clapping her hands together as a grin spread across her features.
"She takes after her mother, I see," Oliver commented.
"Book!" Maggie tottered past Gene and grabbed onto Oliver's trouser leg. "Book!"
"She wants you to read to her," Gene guessed.
"I gathered," Oliver replied before looking down at Maggie's eager face. "I am not reading to you."
"No! Book!"
Oliver rolled his eyes and glared at Gene, who was leaning against the counter and looking amused.
"I'll read to you," Gene said hastily, jumping away from the work surface.
"No."
Maggie pouted at Gene and stuck her tongue out before returning to tugging on Oliver's clothing. Gene swooped down and picked Maggie up.
"Come on, let's leave Noll alone. I'll read to you."
Maggie's pout grew as Gene carried her away from Oliver, who in turn began making a pot of tea. He flicked the kettle on and had just found a mug when his phone started ringing.
He answered it.
"Yes, Mai?"
"How's it going? Have you killed Maggie yet?"
"She's been here a total of four minutes," Oliver deadpanned. "I have not done anything to her."
"Is she okay? Have you made her cry yet?"
"Gene has taken charge of her," Oliver said, "She has not cried—"
A sudden wail from the living room cut him off.
"What's that? What did you do?" Mai's frantic voice asked. "I knew I shouldn't have gone to this damned conference."
"Mai, that conference is important for your career. Gene and I will manage perfectly well. Now if you will excuse me, I need to find out what on earth the idiot did to make the child cry."
Oliver hung up, somewhat offended that Mai thought he could not manage five minutes without killing a child. Especially when Gene was the one that upset the toddler.
Oliver abandoned his half-made tea and strode through to the living room.
"What did you do?"
"Maggie stubbed her toe," Gene explained. He was holding Maggie close to his chest and shushing the toddler. However, when Maggie spotted Oliver, she wriggled free of his grip and latched, once again, onto Oliver's trouser leg.
"Hug!" she demanded.
"No," Oliver replied as he folded his arms across his chest.
"Hug now!" she repeated with a pouting frown.
"Noll, it won't kill you," Gene muttered.
Oliver glared first at Gene then down at the toddler. He sighed heavily when his stare had no effect on Maggie. He picked her up and held her at arm's length. Maggie reached out for him, still pouting.
Oliver sighed again and drew her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled. Gene now took to pouting.
"What?" Oliver mouthed at him.
"Nothing," he replied, looking away.
Oliver rolled his eyes and pulled Maggie off of him.
"Gene is going to read to you," he told her as he placed her back on the floor.
Oliver missed the disappointed expression Maggie sent his way as he left the room. He was keen to escape before he could be roped into any more ridiculous activities. He returned to the kitchen, made his tea and headed to his room.
He opened his email account and found one addressed to him and Gene from Madoka and Lin. The subject line read 'How to take care of a toddler.'
Oliver took a long gulp of tea and opened the attachment. His eyes scanned the document in front of him. It consisted of a daily routine, food plan, guides on how to wash a toddler as well as how to stimulate her during playtime.
Oliver yawned and closed the document. It was Monday today and Madoka and Lin would only be away until Friday. How hard could it be?
A shriek from downstairs reached Oliver's ears. He drunk a little more of his tea, having expected Gene to deal with whatever the problem may be. Yet the shrieking continued.
Oliver finished his drink and headed towards the noise.
"What's going on?" he asked his brother.
"She won't stop crying!" Gene replied, flapping his hands about. "We were reading and then—"
Oliver glanced at the clock on the wall.
"She is tired," he concluded. "The schedule Madoka sent indicated she has usually had a nap by now."
"But we haven't even sorted out her sleeping arrangements yet!"
"We'll put her in Mai's room," Oliver said.
A sudden tug on his trousers caused him to look down. Maggie had latched onto him, yet again, and was now wiping her nose on him as she continued to bawl.
"I'll do it," Gene said, reaching forwards to pick her up. But as soon as his hands touched Maggie, her wailing increased twofold.
"I'll do it," Oliver corrected.
He picked Maggie up and imitated the shushing noises Gene had made earlier with as much fake empathy as he could muster. Maggie settled a little, her head resting on his shoulder. By the time he had reached Mai's room, Maggie had fallen asleep.
He placed the toddler in Mai's bed and tucked her in, leaving her to her nap. He crept out of the room to find Gene, who had relocated to the kitchen was reading the email Madoka and Lin had sent on his phone.
"We have, like, no toys."
"There are a few in the bag," Oliver countered.
"Yeah, but have you seen how much 'playtime' is on this schedule thing?" Gene asked.
"I briefly glanced at it."
"This was such a bad idea."
"Humans are surprisingly resilient creatures," Oliver said. "She will survive a week with us."
"You are relying on the resilience of the human species? Really?"
Oliver shrugged.
"I have some work to do," he muttered. "Are you willing to cook for this evening?"
"Yeah," Gene mumbled, mind clearly elsewhere, "Yeah, I'll sort something out."
Oliver nodded his appreciation and returned to his room. He worked in peace and quiet for almost two hours, an unexpected bonus considering their new house guest.
Gene's muffled voice roused Oliver from his state of concentration. He could not quite make out what his brother was saying, but from the tone of his voice, he knew Gene was annoyed.
He exited his bedroom to find Gene's bedroom door open.
"—not supposed to use that!"
A childish giggle told Oliver that Maggie had woken up.
"Give it here!"
Oliver entered Gene's bedroom to find Maggie clutching at what he recognised as Gene's stage makeup. Although Gene had not been part of the local Amateur Dramatics group for a few years, he religiously maintained his stage makeup collection, just in case it was needed.
Maggie, however, was oblivious to this and thus had used the various powders, lipsticks and creams as facepaint. She had given herself surprisingly symmetrical red panda eyes. The rest of her skin had been coloured a sickly green colour and a lot of what Oliver recognised as foundation had been used to 'style' her hair.
He smirked at the distraught look on Gene's face.
"Noll. Can you clean her up while I salvage what I can?"
"Of course," Oliver replied, turning to Maggie. "Come on."
Maggie giggled again and clapped her hands before holding them out to Oliver, who sighed and picked her up. He kept her at arm's length until they reached the bathroom.
After putting the toilet seat lid down, Oliver sat Maggie on the lid and set the water running in the sink. After a minute, when the water had warmed up, Oliver grabbed a clean flannel and wetted it before wiping the mess off of Maggie's face with as much care as he could be bothered with.
"There," he said finally.
Maggie's face had reddened from his scrubbing, but she had not cried and so Oliver saw this as a success.
"Hungry!" Maggie declared as she wriggled to the floor. "Foo now!"
Oliver followed her from the bathroom to the stairs, where Maggie bum shuffled down them. Impressed with her ability to get around, despite being a little unsteady, Oliver continued after Maggie until they reached the kitchen.
They found Gene stirring a pan and scowling. Oliver could hear him muttering under his breath as he did so. But knowing his words were likely to be about his ruined makeup collection, Oliver made no effort to induce a conversation.
"Food is almost ready, lay the table."
Oliver nodded. He reached down and picked Maggie up. He sat her in a chair and quickly realised they would have a problem. Her head just reached the height of the main table.
"Can't see!"
Maggie obviously saw the problem too.
"Wait there, I will set the table."
"Can't see!" Maggie repeated, reaching up and banging the bit of table closest to her head.
"I know," Oliver repeated. His hands worked at setting place mats and cutlery for three, while his eyes remained on Maggie. The toddler appeared content making a racket.
"Noll, she can't use metal cutlery!" Gene admonished. "There were plastic ones in that bag."
"Keep an eye on her while I get them."
When Oliver returned, Maggie had stood up on the chair so that she could see the table. She had taken the liberty of rearranging the cutlery that she could reach so that the knives and forks formed crosses.
Oliver replaced Maggie's cutlery with the plastic spork and straightened the other sets.
"No!" Maggie threatened tears at Oliver ruining her hard work. But a crisis was averted by the arrival of the food.
"You gave her as much as an adult," Oliver accused.
Gene sighed, but did not respond to Oliver's comment.
"Eat up, Maggie," Gene encouraged as he sat.
The twins began eating, not realising for a few minutes that Maggie was struggling to eat herself.
She began to make displeased whining sounds, gaining the attention of both young men. Oliver immediately slid her place closer and cut up her food into smaller mouthfuls.
"There. Eat."
Maggie tried again. When Gene finished his own food, he took her spork and fed her with the aid of a few imaginary planes and choo choo trains.
After Maggie had eaten some food — neither twin was entirely sure if the quantity was enough — Oliver sat Maggie down in front of his laptop and streamed some children's show for her to watch.
They were midway through the washing up when Maggie tottered into the kitchen.
"Where Mama?"
"On holiday," Oliver replied as he dried one of the plates.
"Where holiday?" Maggie stressed each syllable of the last word.
"Paris."
Maggie's frown grew.
"Where Mama?" she repeated, her perturbed state of mind evident. "Where Dada?"
Gene dried his hands and bent down to Maggie's level.
"They're not here right now. We're looking after you," he said in a soft voice.
Maggie's bottom lip wobbled dangerously. Gene's face morphed from worry to sheer panic.
"Maggie," he said hastily, "It's ok—"
She bawled. Noisy tears streamed down her face as she plonked down to the floor and covered her face with her chubby little hands.
"I don't know what you expected," Oliver muttered. "She was bound to get upset about her parents leaving at some point."
"But they talked to her about it," Gene replied.
Oliver raised an eyebrow at his twin.
"I thought I was supposed to be the idiotic insensitive one."
Gene's mouth fell open, insulted. Oliver put away the final piece of kitchenware and picked up Maggie, who latched her arms around his neck again.
"Mama," she moaned into his neck.
"She'll be back soon," Oliver insisted. "Let's go and watch something while we wait."
Gene gaped after Oliver.
"Who are you and what did you do with my brother?"
Unseen by Gene, Oliver rolled his eyes. He settled Maggie back in front of his laptop, but Maggie would not release his arm. So Oliver sat down beside the toddler and read while Maggie watched some ridiculous cartoon.
When he joined them, Gene pouted at the lavish attention Maggie was giving his brother, but did not say anything for fear of making Maggie cry again.
"Where is she going to sleep?" he asked in a soft voice some time later.
Oliver shrugged.
"Mai's room?"
Gene nodded, not having a better suggestion.
Some time later, once Maggie had fallen asleep watching cartoons, Oliver relocated her to Mai's bed again.
They had survived the first day.