Kyle was just about ready to throw his drawing pencils on the ground and abandon the whole process.
The "process" was drawing a portrait of his fourteen-month-old twins, Aria and Aaron, while they were still somewhat willing to cooperate. The drawing was going to be a birthday present for his wife.
The twins were on the floor of their room, playing with their toys, and starting fights with one another.
"Why did Mana have to pick such easily-dirtied outfits for this?" he muttered. It was true; Aaron already had a stain on his shirt. Aria poked Aaron in the eye. "Aria, quit bullying your brother." Aria, although still a baby, seemed to understand, and took her pudgy finger out of his eye.
Part of Kyle's problem was that he couldn't quite get the right setting. Wherever he went, the two babies wanted just to play or get into some other mischief. They had no intention whatsoever of staying still enough to be drawn. Sure, Kyle knew what his kids looked like, but he needed to draw something beautiful.
Aaron continued to try and play with a toy buffamoo Kyle himself had carved, while Aria would toddle up behind him and whack him in the head with a pillow. It was hopeless, Kyle had decided. He loved the kids, but he was sure that they were going to drive him insane.
"You know," he said, suddenly coming up with an idea. "Daddy's going to draw you two with the flowers. How does that sound?" Aaron pointed a chubby finger up at him. "Yes, I'm taking you. Can you say 'Dada'?" Aaron just looked around the room.
That was another seemingly hopeless cause: trying to get the twins to talk.
Surely at over one year old, Kyle thought. The kids can say my name. Even little Leann de Sainte-Coquille could say "Dada", and she walked into walls and laughed about it.
Kyle put his drawing pencils and pad of paper into his back pocket, snatched up the two children, and carried them both under his arm. They both protested to this with shrieks as though they were being attacked. Carrying them was difficult enough, but carrying them while they were throwing fits was even more difficult.
He walked all through town, trying to get to cherry blossom square as quickly as possible. When he got to the park, he saw that Max and Julia de Sainte-Coquille were sitting on a bench, pushing a beautiful stroller back and forth.
"Hello!" Julia exclaimed energetically upon seeing Kyle.
"Hello," Kyle replied less enthusiastically, but he walked over to them.
"Do the twins have time to play today?" Max asked. "Leann's been putting up quite a fit all day." As if on cue, Leann screamed from within her stroller. Julia picked the baby up, and brought her to the level where they could be face-to-face. Leann was a gorgeous baby, that was for sure, and she was usually very happy, but that day seemed to be an off-day for her.
"Look," Julia said to the screaming baby. "There are your friends!" Leann stopped crying for a second, and looked over at Aria and Aaron with tearstained eyes. But eventually, she went back to screaming.
"I guess I should be going," Kyle said nervously. Being around too many babies at once often made him nervous. Besides, he had to get to cherry blossom square before Aria and Aaron started throwing fits again.
He continued to the west side of town, where he saw Dorothy and her little sister Cammy, and Cammy's friend Roy were pushing a stroller as well.
"I don't want to take a walk with stupid baby nephew," Cammy whined.
"Don't call him that, Cammy," Dorothy said quietly. "He has a name."
"I agree!" Roy declared. "Babies are weird!" Aria pointed at the stroller and whined.
"You can't ride in there," Kyle told her. "That's Leonel's stroller."
"Hello, Kyle," Dorothy said. She had managed to get over her shyness ever since her marriage to Barrett, and even more so when she had her baby.
"Hello, Dorothy," Kyle replied.
"Kyle!" Cammy exclaimed. "I'm sure glad to see you! But why are those dumb babies with you?"
"Because they're my kids," Kyle replied. "And you should be nicer to Leonel, Cammy." Crying came from the stroller, and Cammy and Roy covered their ears.
"Oh, poor baby," Dorothy cooed.
Am I causing babies to cry today? Kyle wondered.
Dorothy took Leonel out of the stroller, and held him.
"He's gotten big," Kyle said.
"I know," Dorothy said. "And don't you think he looks just like his daddy?" Kyle's first instinct was to say that Leonel looked like a little girl with his perfect blonde hair baby blue eyes, but he decided against it.
"Yes," Kyle replied. "I need to go, though. I'm going to do a drawing of Aria and Aaron at the cherry blossom square."
"Okay," Dorothy said. "I'll see you later."
Kyle continued his walk, and he eventually reached cherry blossom square, where he saw Cecilia and Rosalind sitting under a tree with their babies.
"Hi, Kyle," Cecilia said, with her son Orland at her feet. He was playing with a box that had differently shaped holes, and he was trying to fit the differently shaped pegs into the corresponding holes. The baby was a smart, quiet type.
"Hello, Ceci," Kyle replied. "And Rosalind." Poor Rosalind seemed to be a bit weary, since she had twins as well. The two girls, Sera and Serena, were complete opposites, although they looked exactly alike.
"What brings you to this part of town?" Rosalind asked, as she tried to restrain a protesting Serena from throwing a rock at a tree.
"I wanted to do a drawing of Aria and Aaron," Kyle replied. "I wanted to see if I could get them under a cherry tree without them killing each other first."
"Good luck," Cecilia said with a laugh.
Kyle sat the two babies down at the base of the tree opposite Cecilia and Rosalind, and Aaron immediately started to toddle off to try and play with the other babies.
"No," Kyle said, picking him up and putting him next to Aria again. To Kyle's dismay, Aria stood up and started to walk over to the other babies as well. "No, Aria." He picked her up, and sat her down next to Aaron. "Now stay." He felt as though he was trying to train a monster.
The two babies continued to give Kyle a headache for quite some time. It was a miracle that they weren't filthy, and even more so that their diapers weren't dirty.
"Honey?" a voice asked behind him. "What are you doing?" Kyle turned, to see that Mana was standing right behind him.
"Nothing," he replied.
"It doesn't look like that," she said. "Why are you drawing Aria and Aaron under that tree?" Kyle sighed, deciding to give up.
"I wanted to make this for your birthday," he replied. "I wanted it to be something really special. Something beautiful." Mana laughed.
"Kyle," she said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You've already given me something beautiful. And they're right in front of you." Kyle looked at Aria and Aaron, who looked as though they were playing, at last.
"I guess so," he said, laughing.
"But if you really want to do it," she said. "I won't stop you. You can even draw what they're doing now."
Suddenly, one of the twins began to cry. Kyle's head turned, as did Mana's. Aria had started gnawing on Aaron's hand, causing him to wail in pain.
"On second thought," Mana said. "Keep that image in your head."
Kyle continued to draw Aria and Aaron, doing exactly what Mana said. He eventually finished the drawing, and he decided he would color it later.
"It's beautiful," Mana said. Her face lit up. "I wonder, if I show it to them, do you think they'll recognize it?"
"I don't know," Kyle replied. "Let's find out."
Kyle handed the drawing to Mana, who got down on the ground to show Arian and Aaron the picture.
"Look, guys," she said sweetly. "Daddy did this. It's you." Aria screwed up her face, and pointed a chubby finger out at the image of herself in the drawing. Then, she did what neither Kyle nor Mana would have imagined.
"Dada!" she squealed. Mana's expression was a combination of overjoyed and disbelief.
"Yes!" she cried. "It's Dada's drawing!" Aaron stood up, and toddled over next to Aria.
"Dada," he said, pointing at the picture as well.
"Yes!" Mana exclaimed again. "You two do such a good job!" She paused for a second, and looked up at Kyle, who was laughing. "Kyle, I think I'm going to cry. They've gotten so big."
"That they have," Kyle replied, smiling broadly.
While Aria and Aaron continued their shrieking of "Dada", Kyle wondered what he was thinking when he thought he needed to put them in a "beautiful" place to draw them. Mana was right; they were beautiful just the way they were.
I managed to write a oneshot while keeping up with my other story! Yayzorz!
Anyway, this is dedicated to my new baby sister Francesca, who was born yesterday. Literally. XD
I hope you liked this! It's somewhat related to one of my chapters of Teenage Stupidity et cetera long title blah, if you've read that.