Courtney looked up from the desk as a family walked into her photo shop.
"Welcome!" she said warmly with a smile. "How can I help you today?" As the family approached, she noticed the two men were identical twins. And she would bet one of them was the father of the two red-headed children who were currently chasing each other in, out, and around the grown-ups' legs.
"We're here for family portraits and Christmas cards," said the woman (the only one not ginger-haired in the group). Yes, now that Courtney looked closer, the children had this woman's eyes and nose, and the same hair, facial structure, and overall demeanor of the twin men who flanked either side of her. She was curious, but was far too shy about people's personal lives to ask.
"Did you have any specific ideas in mind?" Courtney asked, pulling her bushy hair into a pony tail to keep it out of her face.
"Not really," the woman said with a smile. "I'll leave that up to your creative expertise." Courtney giggled.
"All right then," she said. "Follow me." She told them to wait on one side of a line of tape on the floor while she set the stage. "What are your names?"
"I'm Jasmine," said the woman. She pointed to the twin on her left. "This is my brother-in-law, Hikaru, and my husband, Kaoru." She gestured to the other man. "And these are our twins, Jackson and Joni." Said children stopped their frolicking to pause and quickly pull their eyelids down and stick out their tongues at her. She couldn't help but laugh at the expressions on the adults' faces. Jasmine rolled her eyes, Kaoru sighed, and Hikaru grimaced and his eyebrow twitched in anger.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop behaving like me?" he growled at the youngsters. They just laughed and scurried out of his reach. "You'd think I'd be used to it after three and a half years." Jasmine chuckled as Courtney began setting them up. She gauged the visual outcome based on the color of their shirts and came up with a pretty good idea of what she wanted.
She instructed Jasmine to sit in the center, Indian style, then placed the men on either side of her. She had planned to put one child sitting in front of each of the men, but they had other ideas. Courtney snapped a couple fun pictures of the children pestering the angrier of the brothers. The girl had actually remained seated in front of him, but used the distraction of her brother plucking a few choice hairs from Hikaru's head to hastily tie the man's shoelaces together. Courtney thought she'd captured that one practically perfect and saved it for later.
They finally got Jackson to sit on Kaoru's lap and Joni to quit making gross faces at the camera.
Courtney loved when she got customers like this. Their smiles were obviously genuine.
They moved on to pictures of just the children. When Hikaru stood up, he promptly fell on his face.
"Can we get some of the three of us?" Jasmine asked, gesturing to herself and the men. "It's kind of a personal, sentimental thing." Courtney was confused, but didn't argue.
"What kind of thing do you want with these?" she asked, not knowing how to pose them.
"Oh, we've got our own things in mind. You just shoot," Hikaru said and Jasmine giggled.
"You're going to scare her out of giving us photos," Kaoru laughed.
"No, I'm just a little confused, but it's really none of my business," Courtney said and prepared to take more pictures. "How do you want to set up?" Jasmine giggled as the twins grabbed a white sofa and placed it where they'd been sitting earlier.
They did various poses that all had some kind of romantic undertone to them, whether it be a look or a touch, but it was all very subtle. In the end, she was very pleased with all of the outcomes.
"These are some of the cutest pictures I've ever taken," she said at the cash register. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to use some of them up around the shop and in advertisements."
"Oh, that would be lovely," Jasmine said. They sat down at a big-screen monitor to review all the photos and select the best ones to have them pay for.
"Haha! I like that one!" Kaoru said at the one of the kids pestering Hikaru.
"You would," Hikaru sneered and flicked his brother in the ear. Kaoru made a little grunt and a confused face.
They settled on a price and Courtney got the address to ship the package to and the family was off.
She hoped they'd come again.
"Oh, look! It's the Hitachiins' Christmas card!" Jandra yelled excitedly and rushed with the mail into the bedroom. Her new husband was currently wishing sleep would hold over him a little while longer. Why he had married a morning person, he never knew. The fact that he loved her was actually enough for him. He groped for his glasses on the bedside table.
"What sort of nonsense have they come up with this year?" he asked and rolled over to face her.
"I want us to see it together," Jandra said, lying down next to her husband and holding the envelope above them so he could see too. She held the envelope and he pulled out the card, flipping it over so they could see the photo clearly.
He couldn't help but chuckle at Jasmine's choice of photo. He was sure they'd had a somewhat composed one, but of course, she went with the one of the little twins torturing their biological father.
Jandra read the inside aloud and then placed it on her bedside table. She snuggled in close underneath the covers.
"Maybe we should start doing Christmas cards," Jandra said, settling her head into the crook of his neck.
"No," he said softly, but sternly. "You know I don't like having my photo taken."
"Awww, Ya-ya, you're so mean," she whined. He groaned at the nickname. She knew he couldn't say "no" to that.
"I am not," he said. "You're just selfish and spoiled."
"But you're the one who spoils me," she reminded.
"Guilty as charged," he said and swiftly slid out from underneath her only to hover over her like a cloud on a rainy day. "I just can't help myself." His voice dropped almost an octave and was lined with silk. Jandra closed her eyes and melted into his voice. It was almost hypnotizing.
"Mm," she giggled. "By all means, don't hold yourself back."
He didn't move a muscle for about ten seconds.
Suddenly, he dropped his head and began kissing her roughly in the nape of her neck. She shrieked and flailed, laughing uncontrollably.
"That tickles! Ahhaha! Kyoya!" Their laughter could be heard throughout the manor.
Tamaki chuckled at the Hitachiins' Christmas card.
"I can't wait to meet up with everyone again," Haruhi said, scooping baby food into an infant's mouth. She made baby noises and faces as she did so.
"You're doing it again," Tamaki said with a laugh.
"Noooo, I'm noooooot," Haruhi said, through her baby talk.
"Mama!" came a small voice from beside her.
"Hm?" She turned to her oldest daughter.
"Potty," the one-and-a-half-year-old said. Haruhi sighed.
"Tamaki, could you finish feeding her? Ana has to go," she said, handing him the spoon and jar. Tamaki gladly took over, making even louder baby noises than Haruhi had been as he sped the airplane into the landing dock.
"Mitskuni."
Honey turned around, white flour adorning his youthful face.
"What is it, Takashi?" he asked. His voice had dropped so much it was almost equal with Mori's. He was just about as tall, too, though his face still deceived many people into believing he was in high school, when in reality, he was almost through college.
"Christmas card," Mori said, handing it over. Honey hastily wiped his hands on his apron and took the card. He laughed.
"Oh, poor Hika-chan!" he said. "Jackie-kun and Joni-chan are too like their father for his own good." There was a "Ding!" from the timer above the oven. "Oh! It's almost time to open up shop!" Honey hummed happily as he set the Christmas card on the mantle above the oven that took up the majority of the back wall. He retrieved a rather large tray of goodies from it and slid them behind a glass display case.
Mori walked over to the door and flipped over a sign to read "Open" to the people walking down the street. The sign on the shop read "Honey's Sweets" and they had regular customers and great profits from their business. Honey made the best cakes around.
Hikaru walked into Honey's shop, wanting to take a treat home for the kids. He'd been living in the Hitachiin manor with Kaoru and Jasmine, and it seemed things were going to stay that way. In a way, he was just as much a part of their family as Kaoru. At first, he'd felt like he was intruding, but now, it seemed like there really wasn't any other way to go. They all just got along together so well that his life would seem empty if he lived somewhere else. He felt as much of a father to Jackson and Joni as Kaoru did. They even called him "Daddy" occasionally. They just got used to having two fathers, he guessed.
"Hi, Hika-chan!" Honey shouted from the kitchen door. He was bringing out fresh cakes.
"Hey, Honey," Hikaru said. "Got anything you think the kids would like?"
"Hmm," Honey mused, putting a finger to his lip.
That's when Hikaru spotted it.
Immediately, his shoulders hitched, his hair spazzed, and a vein in his head popped. He slowly turned around and left the shop.
"Hika-chan?" Honey called after. "Hm."
Hikaru growled all the way home. He slammed the door behind him and shouted for the entire house to hear.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU USED THAT PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE CHRISTMAS CARDS?"
He heard the kids giggle somewhere upstairs. He heaved a heavy sigh.
"I should never have been allowed to procreate."