The next morning arrived with a sun too bright for their collective exhaustion, streaming through the windows like it had no respect for anyone's sleep-deprived state. Samantha groaned, smacking down the alarm that seemed to have developed a personal vendetta against her eardrums. "I swear, if I hear that thing one more time…"
"You'll turn it into a pancake and eat it," Marcus predicted, already stirring coffee in his favorite mug with the precision of a barista who'd seen too much chaos.
"You'd eat the pancake," Callum pointed out, voice rough from sleep, leaning against the counter in a shirt that seemed far too small for his shoulders and far too perfect for everything else. "And then probably fight over the syrup."
"Not if I get the syrup first," Kai muttered from the couch, staring at the coffee as if willing it to brew itself faster.
