Erland sat on Berwald's lap as they flipped through their memory book. The young ginger hadn't been much interested, but the Swede had managed to convince him with promises of sweets when Tino returned from taking Peter to Arthur's house for the weekend.
"This is something Tino usually forces me to do." Erland pointed out, as he turned the page, remembering the halloween picture that had been on the page when he had dressed up as the White Rabbit from Alice and wonderland and Sealand was the King of Hearts. It had actually been a group costume with Kailen and Edwin, but Tino had wanted pictures of just them too.
"I wanted ta be with ya." Berwald said with a small smile that went unreturned by the child, who looked through pictures of him and his family. There were also a few pictures of Arthur and Peter together, and just Tino and Berwald together, and Erland the day he came to live with Berwald.
"Do ya remember that day?" Berwald asked? Erland rolled his eyes slightly.
"Of course I do. That's the day you adopted me." He said matter of factly. That wasn't to say that Erland wasn't grateful for Berwald. The foster home he had been staying in had been okay, but the family had had a hard time dealing with the troubled child. But Berwald had saw Erland, and completely fell in love with him.
Erland continued to flip through the book, but was disappointed to find that it didn't end there. In fact, there were pages filled with just Tino, Berwald, and Peter.
"Why do you have so many pictures of just you guys?" Erland asked, sounding annoyed.
"Because He was with us longer than ya." Berwald pointed out, flipping back a few pages to show him pictures of the day Peter had been adopted.
"Yeah but, that wasn't even a real family, because I wasn't there?" He said, crossing his arms, suddenly frustrated because he hadn't been adopted first.
"You don't have any pictures of just me and you and Tino!" He pointed out, looking back at Berwald with an angry look. The man chuckled slightly.
"Yes we do…" He said, flipping back through the pages to find one. Though, other than the day he had came home, Berwald realized that they hadn't really had pictures of just them, but he didn't see why that was a big deal. Their family had been completed when Erland was adopted, so of course they would capture the whole family, not just parts of it.
"Barely! But you have a ton with Peter!" The boy argued, flipping back to them and pointing them out. His eyes landed on one in particular. It seemed to be a staged picture of them, probably paid for. Erland leaned back on Berwald with a huff.
"Why did you ya adopt me second?" He questioned. Berwald wrapped his arms around Erland a bit more.
"We just found Peter first." He told him, but the logical reasoning didn't seem to work with Erland, who felt personally attacked for being a 'second choice.'
"Whatever." Erland said, slamming the book closed and hopping off of Berwald. The adult sighed and leaned forward as the boy put the album away.
"Would it make ya feel better if we took a picture with Tino?" Berwald asked, but the redhead scoffed.
"And give me a pity picture? No thanks." He pouted, before standing still a moment. He crossed his arms, but looked back at Berwald.
"Would it be better than your's with Peter?" He asked quietly. Berwald chuckled and stood up.
"How about if they are both good?" He asked, ruffling Erland's hair a bit. The boy flushed and whined, but didn't object to the idea.
When Tino came home, both Berwald and Erland stood in the living room, both of them wearing their nicest clothes.
"Hallo, Tino." Berwald greeted with a smile. Erland smiled as well, looking smug and proud of his attire.
"We're taking a family picture!" He was a bit flustered, having just gotten out of bad traffic, but he smiled slightly.
"What, a family picture?" He questioned. "But we aren't all together." He pointed out as he took off his jacket and hung it up.
"We're taking our one and a half addition family picture." Berwald said with a chuckle. Erland continued to smile happily.
"Go get dressed!" He told Tino. Who was confused, but laughed.
"Okay okay, but who's taking the pictures?" He asked as he walked towards the bedroom to change.
"We invited Uncle Lukas to take it." Erland explained as he took Berwald's hand. "So you hafta hurry, because he's a grump and won't wait long."
Tino laughed and walked into the bedroom, still unsure what had suddenly came over the other two, but he was happy to see them both in a good mood and getting along. Erland always struggled with them it seemed, so to watch him grab onto Berwald, and want to wear nice clothes, well, Tino wouldn't question that.