chapter 3:A Proposal Nobody Asked For

The siblings had barely escaped their mother's grip when the bickering started up again, as it always did in the Floris household — the squabbling was practically a love language.

"This is all your guys' fault," Quinn announced the moment they were safely behind a closed door, arms crossed, glaring at her brothers like a queen passing judgment.

"What? It's brother's fault," Elison said immediately, throwing Heinz under the bus without a flicker of guilt.

"Excuse me," Heinz shot back, affronted, "don't drag me into this."

Quinn rolled her eyes so hard it was a wonder they didn't get stuck. "You both stupid. Look, mom is angry with me also." To punctuate the point, she reached out and smacked both her brothers lightly on the head, the kind of hit that stung more out of principle than pain.

Elison winced, an exaggerated, pained little noise escaping him, and Heinz wasn't far behind, both of them rubbing their heads with identical betrayed expressions.

The argument might have escalated from there, but Heinz suddenly switched tactics entirely, turning to Elison with wide, pleading eyes.

"Please help me," he said. "Don't let your brother die."

Elison didn't even look up. "Don't care."

"Same," Quinn added, not even pretending to consider it.

Heinz's expression shifted, calculating now instead of desperate. "Ten million."

There was a beat of silence. Then Elison's eyes lit up, practically sparkling. Quinn's did the same a half-second later, both of them transforming instantly from indifferent siblings into the world's most devoted bodyguards.

"These bitc—" Heinz started, equal parts grateful and disgusted by how easily his siblings' loyalty could be purchased.

Before the insult could fully form, Quinn cut him off with a satisfied little hum, already basking in her future windfall. Elison, for his part, simply smiled — the smile of a man who had just discovered his brother's desperation came with a price tag, and that price tag was extremely generous.

"Hey," Elison said suddenly, as if remembering something important, "I'm older than you."

Quinn blinked, the joy draining from her face. "Excuse me?"

"And I'm older than both of you," Heinz cut in, not about to let that slide.

The room descended into stunned silence, all three of them staring at one another as though the established sibling hierarchy had just been called into question for the first time in their lives.

Before anyone could properly relitigate their birth order, the door swung open, and Megat Floris entered carrying a tray piled high with food, looking entirely unbothered by the chaos he'd just walked into.

"I'm your father," he announced simply, setting the tray down as though that single fact settled the entire debate.

It didn't stop the bickering, but it did successfully redirect everyone's attention toward the food — which, as it turned out, was exactly the kind of bribery the Floris children responded to best.

Heinz, however, wasn't finished. "Dad," he said, voice tinged with dread, already sensing where this was going.

Elison made a small, disgusted noise. "Eww."

"Shut up," Megat said without missing a beat, "if you don't want to get married."

That got everyone's attention. Elison's mouth snapped shut, the protest dying instantly. Wisely, he chose not to test that particular threat.

Megat continued, his tone settling into something more serious. "Heinz, you are getting older… and we give a lot of time to both of you. But none of you brought anyone. So you are getting married now."

"Da—" Heinz tried, but his father was already pressing a hand to his temple, looking thoroughly exhausted by the whole conversation.

"Ahhh, my head hurts too," Megat muttered, and promptly left the room, abandoning his son to process the announcement alone.

For a moment, nobody spoke. Then the silence shattered.

"Everyone—" came a flat, unimpressed voice from somewhere else in the house — Adira, presumably, already aware of what had just been announced.

"Congrats," Elison offered, completely deadpan.

"Yeah, congrats," Quinn echoed, equally unbothered.

Heinz looked between them, betrayed all over again. "Wtf — please help your brother, I can't get married."

Elison, already digging into the tray of food Megat had left behind, didn't even look up. "No option," he said through a mouthful, gesturing vaguely with his fork as if that explained everything.

"Should I run away?" Heinz asked, only half joking, eyeing the window like it might actually be a viable escape route.

"Mom will shoot you," Quinn said cheerfully, also eating, entirely unconcerned by the very real possibility she'd just described.

Elison nodded along in solemn agreement, mouth too full to add anything further.

The next day arrived far too quickly for Heinz's liking.

"The next day," the world seemed to announce, and with it came Adira, sweeping into the room with the casual menace of a woman who had already made up her mind about everything.

"Heinz," she said, "you want to come meet your in-laws?"

Heinz swallowed hard. "Mom, dad, I have something to say."

"Yes," Adira said, reaching for a cigarette with the kind of calm that was somehow more terrifying than yelling would have been.

Heinz gulped audibly. "I have a girlfriend."

Adira didn't even blink. "No, you don't."

"Huh??" Heinz's voice cracked, caught entirely off guard.

Before the conversation could spiral any further into confusion, Megat reappeared, sighing the long-suffering sigh of a man who had clearly already lost this particular argument once that day.

"Sighs," he said. "Give them food."

All three siblings settled in, the prior argument momentarily forgotten in favor of the very effective bribery technique their parents had perfected over the years. They ate in surprisingly peaceful silence, the tension of the morning dissolving with every bite.

It didn't last.

"Btw, Heinz," Megat said between mouthfuls, far too casually for the bomb he was about to drop, "we are meeting your in-laws tomorrow."

Heinz's fork clattered against his plate. "WHAT?"

"No to what," Megat said simply. "Only yes."

Heinz stared at his father, betrayal written plainly across his face. "Dad, I don't want to marry."

Megat didn't even look up from his food. "Talk to your mom tomorrow then."

Heinz opened his mouth to argue further, already knowing exactly how that conversation would go, already bracing himself for whatever chaos tomorrow would inevitably bring, because in the Floris household, chaos wasn't a possibility.

It was a guarantee.