"Daddy!" Ayden yelled before climbing up onto my stomach waking me up from a nap. His light brown hair was messy as usual and his face seemed flushed. "Daddy! Erin, Erin hat dat ball and, and see aint lettin' me pway." He complained.
'Not this again,' I thought as I sat up off the couch slowly. Why did kids fight so much?
"I hat it first!" Erin said in her defense from across the living room.
"You two can either play nice or I can take the ball and have you both find something else to do." I told them. I wasn't sure how other parents went about solving these kinds of things but I felt being very direct with my two worked fairly well. I got the results I wanted nearly half the time I used this method, which, in my opinion, is good.
"But I hat it first!" Erin repeated sourly. I could barely tell what it was they were saying. They rarely talked in full sentences and even then breaking the code of words was difficult. It was easier though when they were mad. Anger is an easy language to understand anyway.
"I told you to play nice," I told them, my voice no-nonsense. "Keep it up and I will take away the ball."
"B-but see aint lettin' m-me pway," Ayden said again. I had noticed that he had slipped into stuttering again. He usually only did it every so often, mostly when he was really upset. 'I hope he grows out of it. I'd hate to have him picked on for stuttering.' I thought. "Erin. You're going to have to learn how to share." I told her.
Her face turned into a scowl and she threw the ball at Ayden. 'And their just turning two! Good lord I have a ways to go!' I walked over and smacked Erin on the hand, "No. We don't throw things in the house." I told her firmly.
Ayden didn't seem to mind at all because he grabbed the ball and walked off having gotten his way. Erin had a different opinion on the situation because she started crying. Throwing a temper tantrum more like it. "If you don't stop you're going in time out again," I warned her. 'Why? Why did I keep them?' I wondered to myself.
Erin stopped her whining and walked over to her cloth blocks to sulk. 'She'll get over it.' I knew. I reached over and picked up my book. I was still on Johnny's Got His Gun. I hadn't really had time to read. No surprise there though. The twins seemed to find a way to eat every hour of my life for themselves. Honestly, if I allowed such a thing with myself, I didn't mind this fact.
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The phone rang about an hour or so later. 'I bet its Aeris.' I thought lazily as I picked it up. "Hello," I answered.
"Hey Seph!" Aeris replied happily.
'I'm a freakin' psychic.' I concluded. "What do you need?" I asked.
"Oh I was just wondering if you were going to do anything special for the twins. It's their birthdays tomorrow after all. You should give them a little party." She told me.
"I don't know..." I offered doubtfully.
"Oh come on. you act like it will kill you."
"It just might."
"Here, I'll save you some time and bake a little cake myself!"
"Fine," I grumbled. I saw no further reason to say no. Either it was because I knew I wasn't going to win this one or the fact I could get free cake no other way. "Just don't make it chocolate. It. Will. Get. Everywhere."
"Oh come on Seph, every kid has to have a chocolate cake!"
"Not mine."
"Not yours?" The woman seized every opportunity to pounce on the little phrases I let slip concerning my attachment to the children.
"Exactly. Cake will be all over the place and I'd much prefer washing out something that doesn't look like poop."
"Ew!"
"Then I've made my point?"
"Yeah sure," She said. "Well I'll call Cloud and tell him to be over at your house at… is one an okay time?"
"Good as any, I suppose." I still did not want to do this. It still seemed rather silly to me.
"Alright, I'll tell him to be there at one. See ya then!"
'Well this is just going to be fantastic.' I thought as I hung up the phone. 'Then again how bad could it be?'
Then the phone rang again. I glared at it. Sometimes I have often thought about how much more simply my life would be if I just unplugged the thing. "Hello?"
"Hey brother!" I nearly hung up the receiver.
"So which one of you needs to be bailed out of jail this time?" I asked, not beating around the bush.
"Loz. How did you know that's why I was calling?" My younger brother, Kadaj, asked.
"Because that was the reasons for the last two calls you gave me over the span of three years." I replied simply. It was a fact that my family held a certain troublesome reputation. The last few occasions it was nothing major and all that was needed was for a sympathetic relative to make a trip down-town with their wallets in hand.
"Ah... So is that a 'Yes I'll be happy to help out a family member in need'?"
"Not really."
"Oh come on Sephy."
"Call me that again and the answer will definitely be no."
"Fine, but could you hurry? By the way, is that children I hear in the background?" Ayden and Erin were at it again.
"Yes." I answered not even wanting to ponder what was going through his head. Kadaj was silent for a moment then began laughing.
"So, what's the deal? You, by some twisted and unnatural chain of events, finally settle down? Or did you just knock up some chick and are now having to deal with the consequences?"
"Neither."
"Oh?" I could literally feel the curiosity radiating from that single comment. It did manage to cross my mind a few times in the past to alert the rest of my family to the existence of my new adopted children. But a very large part of my brain said that it wasn't important. Yes, I was being petty in the fact that my reasons came mostly for the fact that they had all stopped calling me and if they couldn't take the time to catch up on things, I wouldn't do it for them.
"I might explain later. Right now I might as well get Loz out of prison."
(A/N): Yeah… I don't know if I'm pushing it by adding those three or not. If ya'll don't like the concept then they wont appear often. So, anyway, the next chapter will be the party! Tell me if you all want Kadaj and them in it. If not be sure to let me know, I'll go by majority on if they pop up or not. Once again sorry for the shortness in chapter.
