~Leo

"So, it's decided, we move the shipment on Friday night instead of tomorrow and then hand it over to the buyer." I stated.

"Yeah, we'll do it together, my men can support in security the whole way as well." Nikolai nodded.

"Seb and Killian, I want both of your teams on this as well, Enzo on standby if we need backup."

Enzo nodded at my request. "We'll be prepped and ready at the warehouse if needed."

"Well, then I guess-"

The sound of the door opening made me pause. I couldn't see who they were as all of the men were in front of me.

"Who is it? You are not meant to enter without permission." I said a bit louder, my voice stern.

"Sorry." A small voice whispered.

I recognised that voice anywhere.

I stood up from my desk, now able to see over the men's heads.

"Essie, baby?" I softened my voice at the sight of my five year old daughter.

She turned to me, her stuffed giraffe in her hand.

"Papa." She mumbled, looking down and playing with one of the ears of the giraffe.

I knelt down to her height and opened my arms. She walked into my arms and stuffed her little face in the crook of my neck.

"Did I scare you, sweetheart?" I whispered and felt even worse at the small nod I got in response.

"I'm so sorry, baby girl. Do you wanna sit here with me and your uncles?"

She lifted her head off of my shoulder and gave me a small smile. Taking that as a yes, I walked back to my desk and rejoined the meeting.

Essilie sat happily on my lap, tracing the tattoos that littered my arms. I gave her the colouring book and felt tip pens I always kept in my draw and she stayed quiet, completely focused on colouring the two giraffes on the page.

Yeah, she loves giraffes, can you tell?

After around half an hour of discussions, the meeting came to a close and all of the men said their goodbyes and left swiftly.

Essilie turned her head to look up at me, pulling slightly at my loosened tie. I looked down to see her pointing at her now completed colouring sheet, only a few instances showing where she had not coloured inside the lines.

"That's so pretty, baby. Should we go and show mama?" I asked, quite eager to go and see Aria myself.

She nodded, grabbing her stuffed giraffe and hopping off of my lap. I grabbed her colouring sheet and held her hand in my other.

It must be quite comical, seeing a giant like myself walking next to my daughter, who is every bit as perfect as her mother.

We walked through to the library and found Aria and the boys in there. She had decided to teach them how to play piano and all of them are very eager.

"So, now you play this note here," Aria said to Orson and Arlo, who were sitting on either side of her. Luca was sitting on the beanbag in the corner, reading one of his superhero comics.

I cleared my throat to get her attention and she turned to me, a big grin adorning her face.

"Dad!" The two youngest boys jumped up off of the piano stool and ran over to hug my legs.

"I missed you too." I laughed. Even though it's only been about 5 hours since I last saw them.

I trudged through the doorway, closing the door after me. Essilie was still in my arms and the boys were attached to my legs, Orson on my left and Arlo on my right. They were laughing hysterically as I walked, moving them as well with every step.

Ari laughed as she grabbed her phone from the coffee table and took a quick picture of me covered in children like I'm a piece of playground equipment.

"Hi, bambina" I grinned down at my gorgeous wife.

"Hi." She grinned, her cheeks turning pink.

Even after 13 years, she blushes the way we first met every single time I speak italian.

"Where's Chris?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"In his room, he's playing video games online with Max."

"I can't believe they're in secondary school now, it's scary." I voiced.

"I know, but we still have four of our babies in primary school. Time does move too quickly though." She agreed.

"Are you ready for our date night, amore?"

My wife giggled at my hinting tone and nodded as she bent down to pull our youngest sons off of my legs.

As you can imagine, with 5 kids, having an evening for just us was a rarity. Christian, who was now 11, was staying at Enzo's with his son, Max. Luca was going to stay with Peter, Astrid and Niko's eldest son and the triplets were with my parents.

The fact that we send them to different places just shows how troublesome my kids are.

Oh well, exactly like me.

I love all of my kids deeply, and I would love to have another, but Aria shut that down two years ago. In her words, not mine "I have carried five watermelon-sized humans already, I think I'm done".

So, as a 'compromise', I had a vasectomy. Which Aria took great joy out of as payback for the times where I 'was mean' during her pregnancies. She also made me one of those care packages similar to the ones she saw on tiktok, basically making fun of the fact that I was in pain for a few days.

"Please can we go in the pool, mama?"

I turned to look at Orson who was using his well-known trick of puppy eyes on my wife, knowing that she can't say no.

"I guess, but only if papa comes in too." She looked at me with a smirk.

Cheeky woman.

"Pleaseee."

This time it was Arlo begging.

"I bet Essie wants to go in too." He added.

"Do you, Essie?" I looked at my daughter who was still snuggled up in my arms.

She was a lot quieter than all of her brothers, a lot smaller too. I had panicked about it when she was younger, but the doctor assured me she was absolutely fine, it might just be because she was the smallest of the triplets at birth.

She nodded and wriggled to be let down beside her brothers.

"Do you want to come swimming, Luca?" I looked up at my second eldest son.

He nodded before placing his comic on the coffee table and taking his glasses off, that he only needed for reading.

We all walked out of the library, Aria taking Essilie to get ready, leaving me with the 3 devils.

This is gonna be a mission.

- - -

This is a mission.

"Arlo. You are meant to wear your trunks, not put them Orson's head." I sighed, pulling them off of his head.

"I'm ready, dad" Luca called from outside the boys' room.

"Cool, you can go down with your mama and sister. I'll be down in a few minutes."

After about 3 more tries, I managed to get both of the boys' swimming trunks on, which was funny seeing as they were the ones who wanted to swim the most and yet they were the ones who took the longest.

We walked into the pool room, seeing Essie and Luca rummaging through a pile of pool toys and Aria sitting nearby, keeping an eye on them. Christian had joined us, and was sitting beside his mother.

The boys ran towards their siblings and within a few minutes, all five of them had some sort of toy.

I got in the pool first, helping the boys in as Aria stood on the side making sure they didn't slip. I took Essilie into my arms last as she couldn't really swim just yet. Aria got in as well, choosing to play 'piggy in the middle' with the boys.

"You okay, Essie"

"Yes papa." She grinned.

"Should we try swimming a little more?"

She nodded and I put her armbands on and swam a little distance from her. She kicked her little legs as she doggy-paddled into my arms.

"Yay!" Aria grinned, watching our daughter swim.

"Well done, sissy!" Arlo yelled and the rest of the boys all swam towards her, giving her high fives and words of praise.

I let Essie go with Chris into a shallower side pool and grabbed Aria's waist.

"I love you amore."

"I love you too, amour." She whispered. "Always."

- - -

Author's Note:

Surprise bonus chapter!

I've been thinking about our Leo as a girl dad and I have to say, I love it.

anywayyyy i should actually revise for mocks.

Lol

K byeee

E x