I swiveled on my stool and turned to meet my maker. My mother was never really one to come to my bar. It wasn't that she didn't love me or was disappointed but I believed she had always felt I could've done more with my life than what I was doing. She would never interfere with any of our lives as she believed that we were on the paths we needed to take but I knew, deep down, she had wished I would have applied myself more while I lived in the covens, would have gotten my witch levels officially ranked but I hadn't cared for the bureaucratic bullshit that it brought being such a high level. So I simply had stuck with the level I last ranked at.

"Lovely to see you, Red." She gave me a soft smile and I gave her a slightly strained one in return. I didn't know why dealing with my mother always left me flustered and nervous but it did. I knew she meant well but I always felt like I needed to gain her approval. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why I had rebelled as hard as I did. A subconscious need to take back some type of control from growing up with such a larger than life sorceress. I honestly didn't know how Lacey had been able to live with her as long as she did.

My eyes darted the figure who stepped closer to my mother and my mouth dropped open before I threw my mother a glare. "Mama!" I got off my stool and hastily moved over to where Tiannia was looking like she wanted to do nothing more than to disappear into thin air. "Do you have to drag her out like this? And to the bar?" I hissed it out as I grasped Tia's arms and she gave me a rather shaky smile, her green eyes warm but wary behind her large round glasses.

"I went to visit her and mentioned I was coming to see you. She offered to come." At the words I threw her a look. I knew how our mother worked. Tia was... she was different and I knew that mama must have pestered her about coming to see me and getting out of her house. I didn't like that, at all. Probably another reason I acted out like I did. If our mother was focussed on me and my rebellion then she would leave Tia alone.

"I wanted to come see you, Lilli." Tia gave me a soft smile and I shook my head as I carefully brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. There was no one I loved more than my twin and I knew that would never change. She was the other half of my soul, she held my heart in her hands and always would.

"You should've let me know you wanted to visit. I could have come to see you." I said it softly and she nodded before wrapping her arms around me and giving me a surprisingly tight hug that I returned, feeling a bunch of tension I didn't realize I was carrying, slide off my form.

"Believe it or not, Tiannia does like to leave her house every so often." Our mother crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me, a wry smirk tugging up her mouth.

"I know that!" It came out snapped but I couldn't help it. I had always been over protective of Tia and I didn't like anyone pushing her too hard to move outside her comfort zone. I was just glad I had actually cleaned the bar before they had come in. Although I knew she was going to stress out when she counted my bar stools and realized I was at an odd number. I winced at that, "I just would like a heads up before you guys drop in so I can make sure the bar is appropriate for her." I would have fixed that damn bar stool so she wouldn't fixate on it.

"She can't get used to things being disordered if she isn't exposed to it." My mother tsked slightly and Tia's grip on me loosened slightly.

I gently let Tia go and kissed her cheek again when she gave me a happy smile. "She doesn't need to get used to anything she doesn't want to get used too." I was happy with Tia like she was and I knew she had some issues with things, that she was particular about how things should be, and that she was particular about how things were supposed to be ordered. She was fine the way she was and didn't need to get used to something if she didn't want to.

I was more than aware that our mother was giving me a slightly exasperated look. She thought I was a bit too protective of Tia but I didn't particularly care what she thought about my protectiveness with my twin. If I didn't protect her, then people would walk all over her and her boundaries. Tia was a push over and she would let people walk all over her only to have serious meltdowns later and I was usually the one who helped her through said meltdowns so I understood just how difficult it was for her. That and after the incident that had happened when we had been fifteen, I couldn't help but be protective.

"You cleaned." Tia glanced around and I gave a short nod but hid my wince as her gaze zeroed in on the bar stools. I could see her mentally counting them and her eyebrows and mouth twitched downwards slightly and I could feel her stiffening. "Nine. You have nine stools, not ten, Lilli. You had ten before." She glanced at me and I could practically see her brain zeroing in on the number of stools with pinpoint accuracy.

I forced my expression to remain soft, despite the fact I was cussing myself and our mother a blue streak inside my head. Myself for not fixing the stool right away and my mother for not warning me they were coming so I could fix the stool. "The tenth is in the back because it got broken a few days ago." At the words she stepped away, her mouth pulling down into a frown.

"Should have fixed it. Need to have ten, ten stools not nine. Or take another into the back. There needs to be an even number. If not ten, then eight." Her eyes were intensely focused on the stools and I knew she was counting them repeatedly. She wiped her hands off on her pants before she marched by me to find the broken stool.

"Tiannia." There was a bit of sharpness to mother's voice that I glowered at her for.

"She's fine. If she wants to find the stool and fix it for me so that there are ten equal stools, then let her." I wasn't going to let our mother interfere. I knew that if she did, it would bother Tia for literal weeks until she got enough courage to come back to make sure the stools were an even number. It was easier for her to put a bit of order into the bar than for her to suffer for several weeks before she felt okay enough to come back.

"Your father was far too hard on her." Her expression pinched slightly and I rolled my eyes. While it was true that our father had been a right bastard and had pushed Tiannia far too hard and to the point where she had several mental breakdowns that I could only fix and I was pretty much aware a lot of her need for control and order came from those incidents of harsh treatment and mental breakdowns, the solution to that was not to push her further than she had already been pushed by him.

"Why are you here, mama?" I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at her intently.

"You baby her too much, Lillianna." There was a warning to her voice that had me making a sound of disgust. Warning me about my twin gave me as much disgust as someone using my given name did.

"I'm the only one who allows her to be herself and gives her the ability to work through her quirks without pushing her to the point of a having breakdown." The reprimand came out harsher than I wanted and my mother gave me a look, her lips pinching together. I lowered my voice, "She isn't Lacey, mama. She's not built like that. Just leave her alone and stop pushing her. She will find her own way through life and who cares if her path deviates and goes a crazy, off road way. No one has to walk a straight path in life." In that way, we truly were twins. We made our own way in life and we were went off track quite a bit. I was pretty sure we hadn't been on track for a very long time.

"She locked herself in her house for a week because a neighbour had a guest that came to her door unexpectedly. She's been scrying to ensure she knows where everyone is at all times in her town. It's not healthy."

"And if you point it out, she will just get self-conscious. Leave it be." I set my jaw and looked at her. "Besides that 'guest' tried to break her door down and banged on it for long enough that I got there to throw his ass to the curb. She is well within her rights to be scared and wary after that, mama. I don't blame her, you know what that warlock did to her and then father." I hissed the words out rather accusingly and she pressed her lips together before sighing.

"I just want her to be happy." She said it softly, her shoulders slumping and I understood where she was coming from but she was trying to fix something that she couldn't possibly begin to fix.

"She's making her way there but she needs time and she needs to be supported. Not drug to a fucking bar where the stools aren't an even number." I gestured to the stools and Tia finally came back out, the broken stool in hand.

"Your boxes weren't straight. I straightened them. And your bottles had the labels facing odd directions so I straightened them. Your cleaners too. Then your wash clothes were hanging in odd numbers so I put the odd ones in the basket. Out of sight out of mind. Wash them though... or let me wash them. I can wash them, make sure they are clean and even." Tia looked at me, her eyes wide behind her huge glasses and I shook my head with a smile.

"No need. I'll wash them right after you guys leave. They will go right into the washer." I would make sure they would b washed because I knew she would call me the minute she got home to ensure they were.

She gave an almost twitchy nod. "Okay. Everything is straight now, though. It's better." She gave me a tight smile before she lifted the stool. "The leg is broken. It has three legs now, it should have four." I nodded at that.

"You find the leg?" At the question she nodded and I smiled at her again. "Good, you try and figure out how it's supposed to go and we can try and fix it with some glue or something." Tia didn't like it when people used magick around her. That damned warlock was lucky he had cried to the King of the Covens after I learned what he had done to Tia. As it was, I was fairly positive Bam had ended up using a defacto incendiary bomb on him, which was getting off lucky. The fucking sadistic bastard. However the damage had been done and Tia couldn't really handle people using magick around her or being outside for that matter.

I glanced at our mother, "So... why are you here?" There was a reason for her surprise visit and I wanted to know exactly what it was.