Here's a quick character breakdown, for those not familiar:

Yamato and Sora had two kids, Hanako and Tsukuyomi

Jyou had a child with a friend, Nana. That child was Aiko, but he lived with Nana and her boyfriend, Shinjiro until he passed away.

Yamato now lives with Jyou and the three kids are under their roof.

Taichi and Koushiro are a couple as well, with two children: Jaciru "Bug" and Nakayama "Kaya".

Takeru and Hikari are married with two children: Kazuki and Lucian.

Hopefully that catches everyone up for the most part. :)

Chapter One: Unearthing a Pebble

Yamato thumbed through bills. Seriously, why do I always have to keep up to date with these things? Jyou's the math genius, not me. For someone so reliable, he certainly doesn't care about paying the rent or the cable.

"What did we spend this forty on again?"

Jyou was having his own problems in the kitchen, trying to make cupcakes he had lost the Ishida family recipe for so Aiko would have something for their school bake sale. "Was that 2% milk your Grandma used?"

"Huh? Milk?" Yamato wondered, looking up again from the budget he made on his laptop. Aside his old composing program, there wasn't much else he used it for. "Jyou, you do remember that Christmas is coming up, right? How are we going to get presents?"

"Presents? No, these are for the bake sale."

"Jyou!"

"Yamato?"

The blonde shut the laptop and smiled as he snaked over to Jyou. The other parent was sitting at the middle in the row of stools where the kids usually did homework. He wrapped his arms around him, "Do you ever listen to me?"

"Must be because you're not complaining about something," Jyou teased. "Now, what was it?"

"Christmas, Jyou."

"Don't you have that money you've been saving?"

Yamato burned red with embarassment, "Well, I had to pay for that new JAXA training, so I used it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I had to cover the school photos so my savings are gone, too."

"Having three kids sucks," Yamato sighed onto his lover's shoulder.

"Well, the way things are going with you and Hanako, we may as well have two children."

The blonde huffed, "I can't help her if her mother decided to poison her and she has a certain tendancy to hang around certain people."

"You mean the trash you hung out with in high school?" Jyou lectured.

"Yeah, yeah, indebted to you and Koushiro for life, I know," the other replied, picking up his chin and slumping in a nearby chair from the dining table. "Still. All she can talk about is her mother lately."

"Well, she's always had this infallible view of her," Jyou admitted, "She's a teenager now, it's just going to get worse. Maybe you two should spend time together. It's not like you go out of your way to do anything with her like you do with Aiko."

"I don't want Aiko to think I hate him... or something," Yamato wondered, "I mean, he's lost a father and gained a new one. Now, I come in and I don't want to replace anybody."

"Aiko fully well knows that you and Shinjiro are different people but both his father, as I am. Give the kiddo some credit. We're talking about Hanako, remember?"

"What. Like you and her have such a dazzling relationship."

"...I just helped her with boy advice last week."

"Boy advice?!" the blonde shrieked, running his hands through his hair. "Who am I killing?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you," Jyou chuckled, going over to the fridge for some eggs. "Why don't you just admit that you're scared to be close to her because Sora poisoned you, too?"

"Like I remember anything she said to me," Yamato smiled, leaning back in the chair, "I was wasted half the time."

"I'm sure that made a wonderful impression on her," Jyou pressed.

"Dad!" Tsukuyomi called.

"Huh?" Yamato asked, tossing a glance his son's direction.

"Is Dad-Dad finished with the cupcakes yet?"

Yamato tried not to laugh. He wasn't sure how they decided on that nickname for Jyou and it just stuck. Jyou adjusted his glasses, covered in something that would eventually turn to batter, "W-Well, I had to do it from memory, so it's taking a little longer, but I'll get them done."

"Yeah, I don't want to disappoint Jaci-chan," Tsukuyomi replied.

Yamato blinked. Since when did my kids get this old? Hana-chan's sixteen, Tsukuyomi is thirteen, and Aiko is seventeen now... Hell, when did I get this old?

"Jaciru is a jerk," Hanako said, gently pushing her brother aside. She sat down across from her father, not even glancing over at him. She instead turned to Jyou. "I asked Yuto out the other day."

"Yuto? What happened to Haruto?"

"Haruto was too nerdy for her," Tsuku snickered.

Aiko gave a quick knock at the door frame. "Dad, my homework's done. I wanted to see if you needed any help."

"I think I got this covered," Jyou said, standing proud.

"Yeah, covered in cupcake," Hanako remarked, kicking her feet up in one of the two spare chairs at the table.

"What's Yuto like?" Yamato asked, swatting her feet down onto the floor.

"None of your business."

"Fine, I'll ask your brothers. What's this kid like?"

Hanako stood from the table and began to leave, "I only have one brother, and he doesn't know anything anyway."

Yamato resisted the urge to stand up from the table and strangle her. "Was I this bad? Really?"

"She heard you talking about her, what did you expect?" Aiko remarked.

"Room, both of you," Yamato snapped and buried his face into the crooks of his arms.

"I thought you wanted to hear about Yuto-"

"Out," Jyou sighed, filling the cupcake pan.

The kids knew to leave the room and Aiko remembered when he used to have the drag the two away and give a speech about respect for their parents' privacy, but he didn't have to do that anymore. Or, it wouldn't get through, in Hanako's case. Aiko turned to her, "Eavesdropping? All it does it make that temper of yours worse."

Hanako tossed her flowing blonde hair and closed her blue eyes. "Just get out of here, Aiko."

"You shouldn't blame Dad," Tsukuyomi said from down the hall. "He didn't ask for any of this."

"I know," Hanako whispered, "I know it's my fault. You don't have to keep reminding me."

"That's not what he means," Aiko replied.

"What would you know?" Hanako hissed, pushing past her older, dark haired step-sibling. "Your parents weren't divorced because you existed."

"Your parents divorced because your mother's warped beliefs about something that didn't even happen to you. The way you're acting is a big slap in the fact to Yama-papa."

Hanako smiled, "He just never got the chance to hurt me. My mother did nothing but try to protect me and he just shut her out so he could go whore around with the man you call father."

"You don't know the truth, do you?" Aiko remarked.

"Enough fighting!" Tsuku yelled just enough for them to hear and their parents not to. "I can't stand it. This is just like Mom and Dad. I'm going to bed. When you two decide to get along, tell me!"

A slammed door effectively ended the conversation.

"You know, they sense this tension," Jyou sighed, giving a glance to the stovetop clock as he rubbed Yamato's shoulders. "Maybe if you let them see Sora."

"They do see her."

"Supervised. Twice a month. That could have easily been you if Ichijouji hadn't investigated," Jyou reminded.

Yamato shrugged him away and turned, "Don't remind me. It's not like I don't feel sorry for her."

"You just hate her with all your being," Jyou said, taking a seat next to him.

"...your point?"

"Maybe Hanako just wants to actually have a day out with her mother."

"Why? So she can take Hana-chan away from me again?" Yamato asked, gripping the tablecloth.

"...I didn't want to say this, but, your parents never acted like this," Jyou explained, placing a slender hand on his husband's, "They wouldn't keep you away if you had wanted to actually talk to your mother."

Yamato snorted. "My mother wasn't a psychopath."

"You're mad because you didn't want the divorce, but what choice did you have? You need to just... do a better job than your parents did."

The blonde sighed, then stood from the table. "Not all parenting is as easy as baking cupcakes." He walked over into the kitchen and reached into a high cabinet and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from behind the plates. He looked down into the pack and took the third to last one out, then went out to the porch.

Jyou heard the stove alarm go off and stood from the table. Maybe parenting wasn't always this easy, but... he wanted to scream at Yamato because he wasn't even trying to compromise. Jyou would... have to take things upon himself, which he usually did. However, the chance that Sora would listen to him? He didn't want to think about that.