Zavier woke with a start when Tess kissed him gently on the forehead.
"Sleep well, Pimp Game?" she asked with a wry grin, nodding to his fur coat. "And what are those?"
Zavier chuckled then followed her gaze to the knives. "Oh, this is cool. First, let me show you how to identify something."
Tess woke the kids up as Zavier made a breakfast of Banana's Foster on brioche with a side of andouille sausage. He wanted everyone to start today in as good a place as possible. While he worked, Tess walked them through how to identify and had them all hold the knives. She wasn't comfortable enough to let them unsheath them, but that didn't matter as it wasn't necessary to gain the perk. Zavier had told her about the muscle memory and they decided it would be good for all of them to become familiar with any item-based improvements, even if they weren't planning on using it. That way if they ever did get something that boosted a core skill they wouldn't need to take the time to practice with it.
Tess was laughing and dodging around the room as the twins threw a tennis ball between them. Once she caught it she'd yell the name of one of the twins and they were 'it' and had to try to catch the ball next. Soon there were some pretty impressive acrobatics going on in the living room, each of their movements getting more and more frantic as they pushed their limits.
Then the inevitable crash could be heard and Zavier sighed, moving the breakfast to a cool burner. Three heads turned towards him with shocked faces and Zavier could see a body-shaped impact in the 80-inch TV behind them. He chuckled and shook his head wryly.
"Even with super powerful space alien gods coming down here and giving you the athletic prowess of professional gymnasts, you couldn't have aimed for the couch? C'mon Juggernauts, let's get some breakfast."
Tess touched his foot with hers under the table. "You okay? I know you didn't get much sleep last night and with the TV getting broken…" She looked at him with soft eyes that always made his heart dip just a little, even after 20 years.
"Yeah, it's all good. They were having fun and I don't know how much of that they'll get in the near future. Plus, the practice is good. I'd rather they break a TV than be unprepared for this new world. Besides, I took out every loan we could qualify for and opened up as many instant-open credit cards as I could get."
It was amazing how quickly her eyes could go from soft and loving, to shocked, then to outraged.
"You WHAT??" Tess stood up fast enough for her chair to slide back. Forks paused as everyone in the room suddenly froze.
Zavier rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and tried to flash her a charming grin. "I, uh… listen, it'll make sense. So since we're in the apocalypse now…"
Tess leaned forward and put her hands on the table, bringing her face close to his. "Let me guess. You thought that since it was the end of the world you would leverage all of our assets to get quick cash, then use that massive amount of money to buy up everything you think we'll need to survive. Nevermind that you probably just put us into 50 years of debt to do it. And before you say anything, I know - if the world goes to shit we won't have to pay it back and you'd rather we 'be in debt for 50 years than not have something we need', am I right?"
Zavier's mouth opened and closed a few times while Cass, under his breath, imitated Tess, mimicking Zavier's voice poorly. "Better to be in debt for 50 years than to go without something we need." Both the twins burst out in laughter, which was immediately stifled when Tess shot them both the types of glares that only mothers are capable of. She turned back to Zavier.
"Well?"
"I mean, yeah. That's it. But…"
Tess stood up and waved her hand, cutting him off. "I get it and I agree with you. What I'm pissed about is that you didn't ask me first. We don't make big financial decisions without each other, EVEN in the apocalypse. You already have a tendency to go off half-cocked when you think something is the right thing to do. That was fine when the biggest issue was a hotel in Chicago for the weekend or buying a new TV that we didn't need."
Her voice dropped to a tone that indicated there would be no arguments, no jokes. "This situation is going to make that worse. I can already see that you have plans running through your head. We decide on those plans together - every time, no exceptions. Before, if you chose wrong it only cost us some money. Now it could cost us our lives. You will NOT make big decisions like this on your own again, got it?"
Zavier could only nod. Tess trusted him and always had. She never bothered him about his decisions and really only got upset if he spent too much money without asking her first, but even then it was only a mild scolding because he'd left her out of it. They were a team and always had been, and sometimes they had to remind each other of that.
Her voice softened and she came and sat on his lap, putting her arms around his neck. "Honey, you are the smartest man I know and you have always done what is best for us. I'm not questioning your intelligence or decision making ability. But what are the odds of someone making the correct decision 100% of the time?"
He smiled and dipped his head in acknowledgement of the point.
"We have to be careful going forward and I'm just worried. Okay?"
"As always, you sexy beast, you are correct," he smiled as he pulled her in, kissing her neck and eliciting flailing arms and laughs. He laughed and let her go. "Kids," he looked at them, "thoughts?"
"Just that we aren't paying your debt when you die of old age in 3 years," Luna said, causing Cass to do a spit take with his food before they both burst into laughter.
"Alrighty," Zavier said, "here's the most exciting part of the apocalypse: shopping!" That earned chuckles as Zavier opened up a shopping list on his phone.
"There's going to be a run on groceries and we want to get ahead of it. I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of tools and important items like that too, but probably not for a few days. We have about six hours until the safe period is up so we're going to need to get as many items as we can. I'm sending you all shopping lists now. Tess, you know more about medical supplies than any of us so can you go clean out as much of whatever you think we'll need from as many places as possible?"
"I'm not going to clean them out, other people are going to need stuff too. We're not going to hoard medical supplies."
"That's fine, do whatever you think is best. But get more than we'll need for just the four of us. I don't think healing is going to be a huge issue, what with us healing when we level, but I don't know if that will always be true and we need a plan for when we get injured between levels anyway."
"Cass and Luna, you guys are going grocery shopping. Stay together. I don't know if food will be an issue, maybe we can eat some of these creatures, but let's not count on it. I put the top priorities on your lists but focus on canned vegetables, rice, pasta, flour, and bottled water. Get soda if you want too, but water needs to be our biggest priority. Who knows how long utilities will stay running? People will go to work for a little while when they realize that the world isn't ending tomorrow, but a lot of people are going to be no-shows. Get as much non-perishable food as you can. Don't get anything refrigerated or frozen. Oh! Get as many bathroom supplies as you can too. Toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, deodorant, tampons, etc. Those items are going to become rare quickly."
He looked at Tess and saw her expression. "Okay, don't clear everything out. Leave some for other people. But get as much as you can. You guys are taking the SUV."
"What are you doing?" Luna asked.
"I rented a moving truck and plan on doing some grocery shopping of my own. I'm going to hit up a few of the other grocery stores then I'm headed to the hardware store. Everyone keep your phones on you. Shop, bring the supplies back here, then go out for another run. In four hours we're going to meet back here, okay? Everyone understand the plan?"
Nods all around. "Great! And kids, if you see anything fun that you've been wanting, just buy it. I don't know if Santa comes during the apocalypse."
Once they got in the cars Tess looked over at him. "Just buy it?"
He gave her an innocent smile. "I know, I know, but it's going to get hard soon and I want them to have a little fun."
Tess smiled and sighed. "You're right, I just don't like giving them a blank check like that when they're holding a debit card. Wait, how much money do we even have in our account now that you took out the loans?"
Zavier just looked ahead and reached to turn up the radio.