I really needed the little kid sweetness this last week, so, passing along the cuteness. Thanks for reviewing!

Jesús tapped his cheek thoughtfully with his pencil as he looked at the paper. It wasn't the spelling test he was worried about, he had practiced with his moms every night that week. The problem was the name he was going to write on the paper. The first part was easy. Jesús. He was always Jesús, no matter what. But the last name…that was something different. That required more thought, and it had been something he had been thinking about a lot. Mom and Mama loved him, he knew that. He also knew that they were trying to adopt them. Something he was not supposed to know, was that his mom…his other mom…his birth mom Ana…was holding up the proceedings. He had come across this knowledge both accidentally and recently. One night he had crept down the stairs, intent on trying to get some food to eat in his bed – crackers were a bad choice because they left too many crumbs but sandwiches made an excellent snack – when he heard his mothers talking.

"This isn't a good sign, is it?" Stef asked, looking at her partner.

Lena pursed her lips, looking at the papers in her hands, "No," she agreed softly.

"Dammit," Stef swore, vehemently but quietly, "I cannot believe that woman. I really can't."

"Stef-" Lena rubbed her forehead, "Can you imagine how difficult this is for her?"

"No Lena, because I would never have chosen drugs over my children in the first place. I don't give a damn how she feels about anything."

Jesús sucked in his breath, there was only one woman they his mothers could be talking about. He took another quiet step down the stairs.

"Well unfortunately, we do have to deal with how she's feeling and what she's thinking because it effects the twin's adoption," Lena's voice was heated.

Stef's eyes dropped and some of the anger went out of her stance, "I know."

Lena saw the dispiritedness in her partner, and walked around the table to put her arms around her. "It's frustrating. I hate it," she admitted quietly, "But we're not going to let that stop us. We're not going to give up. The twins are already ours, the papers only make it legal."

Stef picked up her partner's hand and kissed the open palm, "You're right, as usual, my love." Her voice grew determined, "We'll just keep going until it happens."

Jesús crept up the stairs, feeling confused and a little upset. It was good that his moms wanted to keep them, it was, but even a little kid like him knew that The Papers were important. Without The Papers, he and Mariana could be moved, away from his mothers and his brother and the home that he loved. There was even the terrifying possibility that he could be separated from his sister, from his twin. He went back to bed, but he had trouble sleeping.

The next morning he had been more quiet then usual, causing both his mothers to ask him what was wrong. He shook his head each time, merely claiming that a bad night's sleep was to blame. At school he dragged his brother way from his usual group of friends and found a quiet place to talk. He couldn't talk to Mariana about this, it would only scare her, but he could talk to Brandon. After telling him the story, he saw from the dark look in his brother's eyes, and the way he looked away that he had known some of this already. "You knew!" he yelled, giving him a punch in the arm.

Brandon grimaced, but not from the punch, "I knew a little bit," he admitted. "I knew Ana was doing something that was making it harder to adopt you." He restrained himself from adding anything derogatory.

From the smoldering look in Jesús's eyes, Brandon knew he wasn't forgiven. "You knew!" Jesús repeated, managing to sound both angry and hurt. "You're s'pposed to tell me stuff. You're s'pposed to be my brother."

"I didn't want you to be all worried about the adoption," Brandon said. "And you don't have to be, Mom and Mama will fix this. Honest. It's just papers anyway," he repeated, something their mothers had told them on several occasions.

Jesús sighed, looking a little worried now instead of angry. "You're sure?" He needed the reassurance.

"Yeah," said Brandon firmly, he didn't doubt it, "Moms will figure it out. They told us they would. They promised."

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Jesús looked down at his test paper once again. Papers shouldn't mean so much, but they did. They were the difference between staying-maybe and staying-for-sure or staying-forever. He couldn't do much about his adoption papers. That was a grown-up thing, but he could do something about the papers around him. Maybe his papers could be like a wish. If you believed it enough, if you wished enough, it would happen. In his neatest hand, the one he hardly used, he carefully wrote his name at the top of the paper, Jesús Foster.

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"That's your brother?" Celia asked, sounding confused. She was new to the school. It was Mariana's job to show her where the water fountains and the bathrooms were and to make sure people were nice to her. Mariana was very good at this job because she knew what it was like to be new and her mama was the assistant vice principal so she knew eeeeverything about the school.

"Hey shrimp," said Brandon affectionately pulling her braid as he passed by with a couple of his friends.

"I'm not a shrimp," she said automatically slapping at his hands. He only smirked at her.

"Uh-huh," said Mariana, deciding to ignore the bewilderment in the other girl's voice. She didn't feel like explaining it, she was tired of explaining it. They continued walking to the cafeteria, meeting the rest of their class for lunch. Mariana scanned quickly for Lexi, smiling when the other girl waved wildly from their second favorite table. "Let's get our food and sit with Lexi," Mariana said.

Celia nodded, "Is the food good here? The food at my last school sucked."

"It's okay," said Mariana. "Not as good as my Mom's, but it's still pretty good," she said as they lined up to get their food.

"Your mom cooks?"

"Uh-huh. Does yours?"

"Yeah. She likes cooking fancy food. I don't mind as long as she doesn't make me try everything." Celia chose pizza and then filled the smaller sections of the tray with orange slices, cucumber, and sunflower seeds.

"My mom does that too," laughed Mariana. "Except she always says we at least have to try three bites before we make a decision. My brother Jesús likes almost everything but if he doesn't like it he'll take his first bite and say "yuck", then he takes the second bite and says "yuckier" and then he'll take the third bite and say "yuckiest."" She also chose pizza but she added orange slices and pineapple bits beside a pile of carrots.

"What does you mom do when he does that?"

"The first time he did it, Mama looked mad but Mom laughed and said we should send a note to his teacher about his fabulous use of superlative adjectives," Mariana giggled. She had been pleased that she had been able to understand the grownup joke.

"Hey – wait a second. Did you say mom and mama? What do you mean?" Celia asked.

Mariana walked a little faster to Lexi's table, pretending like she hadn't heard the other girl. "Hi Lexi," she said to her friend, giving her a little smile.

"Hi Mari! Did you see Hayley?"

"Mariana!" Celia walked over to the table sounding aggrieved, "didn't you hear me?"

"No," Mariana lied, eyes wide, "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"I said-"

"Ohmigosh!" Lexi interrupted enthusiastically, "You guys have to hear what happened to Emily! It just happened and everyone knows about it!"

"What?" asked Mariana and Celia. Mariana was relieved, at least she was going to be able to avoid the question for now. She saw Lexi wink at her and she smiled back. It was great to have a best friend who always knew how to help, no matter what. Mariana couldn't imagine not having Lexi in her life.

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"Jesús Gutierrez."

Jesús studiously ignored Mrs. Thomas.

"Jesús?" she said insistently.

Slowly he looked up with an innocent expression, "Yes Mrs. Thomas?"

"Didn't you hear me calling you?" the woman asked, one hand on her hip and the other clutching a blue dry erase marker.

The little boy blinked at the subtraction bar model that was displayed on the board, then back at his teacher, "No ma'am. I thought you were talking to someone else."

The faintest smile twitched at the corners of her mouth, "Well, you are the only Jesús in the classroom," she reminded him gently.

"Uh-huh, but you called me Jesús Gutierrez. That isn't my name. My name's Jesús Foster."

Mrs. Thomas, who had about twenty years of classroom experience nodded her head thoughtfully. She certainly hadn't been blind to the fact that Jesús had been signing his papers as Jesús Foster for the last week and a half. However, it was apparent he was beginning to take it to the next level. She would need to talk to Lena, but for now, she decided to let his self-expression go unchecked. "Alright, Mr. Foster," she said, a trifle formally, "Why don't you tell me what the next step is to solve the problem?"

His smile was so blinding she was sorry to tell him when he got the answer wrong. It didn't diminish his grin.

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At recess there were some differing opinions about his declaration. "You told Mrs. Thomas your name was Jesús Foster," said Cole, who was significantly bigger than Jesús, "that's not true. I've known you since second grade."

"Things change," said Jesús simply, something he had been told on multiple occasions.

"Or maybe you're a superhero and you have two names," the tone was mocking as Jacob shoved a finger into his chest.

"Is that right, Batman, do you have two names?" said Alex in a babyish tone.

Jesúspulled a face, "Are you guys stupid or something? Batman's cool and when he's Bruce Wayne he's rich. He's awesome with both of his names."

The boys frowned at one another, considering this, then Cole shoved him a little, "Are you calling us stupid?"

"Are you calling Batman lame?" Jesús sassed, trying to look for a way to escape if things got violent.

"What's going on?"

Jesús grinned when he saw his brother, standing with his arms folded. The odds were definitely better now. He ran over to his brother, standing next to him so their arms touched.

Cole scowled a little. Brandon was known to have no problems fighting dirty if he was outnumbered, and Cole had the sore balls from last year to prove it. "He says his name is Jesús Foster," his tone was challenging.

Brandon didn't blink, "duh, he's my brother."

"He's not your real brother," said Alex.

"Says who?" asked Brandon, clenching his fist and moving forward a little.

The three boys looked at one another, where had they heard that? It wasn't something that they heard, just something they knew. After some careful thought, Jacob finally grinned in triumph. "What's your sister's name then?"

"Mariana Foster," said Jesús after the barest hesitation.

"Maybe we should just ask her then," said Alex, catching the hesitation and wearing his own grin.

"You leave her alone," Brandon said flatly, just as Jesús leaned forward and shoved Alex, hard, "you better not!"

The other boy stumbled back into Cole who surged forward right as Brandon stepped into him. In a moment all five boys were on the ground in a disorganized melee. The ear-splitting whistle of the recess supervisor broke the boys up as they looked at one another and simultaneously broke apart and ran. Jesús and Brandon had the edge of knowing the nooks and crannies of Anchor Beach extremely well. Without even talking they headed in the same direction. Within moments they had ducked into a alcove and rolled under the dense bushes. They looked at one another, breathing hard. "So," said Brandon brightly after a minute of hard breathing, "you got something to tell me?"

"Remember when we talked about the adoption?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm tired of waiting. I decided to do something about it."

Brandon looked thoughtful, "you changed your name?"

"Yeah," Jesús said looking proud, then he looked at his brother, his foster brother, a little anxiously, "that's ok, right?"

"Duh. What do you think?"

The superior tone reassured Jesús immediately. "What'd you think Moms will think?"

"What do you think Captain Obvious?"

Jesús leaned over and gave Brandon an unexpected hug, smearing more dirt on him, "thanks Brandon."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Recess is almost over. We better get to class before our teachers tell Mama."

Jesús peered out from under the bushes, "I think the coast is clear," he said, as he looked over his shoulder at his brother.

Brandon joined him in the alcove and looked at him critically, "you better dust off," he advised him, "you look like you were rolling around in the dirt."

"That's 'cause I was," Jesús said. "You look pretty bad yourself."

Brandon looked down at his clothes and sighed, "yeah." He began patting at his clothes. The boys looked at one another and nodded their acceptance before moving out of their hiding place and walking along the breezeway. "What'd do you think Mariana's gonna say?" asked Brandon.

"She'll wants to change her name too. She's scarder then me about being taken away."

Brandon stopped. "I told you that wasn't going to happen. Moms promised. You believe me, right?"

"Ye-es," said Jesús slowly, "but the papers are really, really important Brandon. We need them. I don't want to leave you and Mom and Mama. I don't want to leave the house. I don't want to have to go away again ever, ever again."

Brandon grabbed his shoulders, making eye contact. "I swear Jesús, we won't let that happen. Me and Mom and Mama would fight them. Well, Mama would probably talk to them but that's just as good. We would never let you be stolen away from us."

Jesús sighed a little and leaned into him, "I want the papers now," he said.

"Me too," Brandon patted his back.

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As usual, Mariana made her way to Lena's office after school, only to find her brothers were already there. They sat on opposite sides of the room wearing similar glum expressions. She put her hands on her hips, "what did you do?"

"Stupid tattletales got us in trouble," Jesús grumbled.

"Got in a fight," clarified Brandon simply, "got caught."

Mariana rolled her eyes, "at school? Mama's going to kill you."

Brandon plucked at the button on his shirt. Not only would Mama be mad at them, Mom would be mad at them for making trouble for Mama. "Probably."

Jesús kicked the wall disconsolately. He'd wanted so badly to ask his moms about the name change but it was ruined because now they were going to be in bad moods for sure. He looked at his sister, "do you want to change your name?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to be Jesús Foster, no matter what people say. I mean…unless…," he hesitated, "do you want to be Mariana Foster?"

She looked at Jesús, then Brandon. "Of course I do. That's why we're getting adopted, so we can stay with Mama and Mom and Brandon forever."

Jesús made a sound of frustration, going so far as to kick the wall again, "but I mean now. Don't you want to be Mariana Foster now? I'm sick of having to wait all the time."

Mariana studied her brother's face. There was a familiar set to his chin, an identical trait they shared when they dug in their heels about something. "What if Moms get mad?" she asked in a small voice.

"They won't be mad, not about that," said Brandon, "I can guarantee you the only thing they're going to be mad about is that Jesús and I got caught fighting at school."

"But it's not legal. We can't do it for real."

Jesús looked at her uncertainly, then looked at Brandon, "is that true?"

"You're already doing it," said Brandon. "Has Mrs. Thomas arrested you?"

Jesús licked his lips, "nuh-uh, but will I get in trouble from someone?"

This time, Brandon hesitated, "I don't think so," he said, unwilling to give them false advice, "it won't matter to other people like it matters to us."

"I don't care," Mariana piped suddenly, fiercely. "If Moms won't be mad I wanna do it. I wanna be Mariana Foster then when people ask me about my family I can tell them and they won't be so confused."

"They'll probably still be confused," admitted Brandon, shoving his hands in his pockets, "but who cares what they think?" Mariana opened her mouth and Brandon waved a hand, "I know you care, and we all care, in some ways. But we're probably always going to get weird looks and stupid questions."

Jesús smirked a little, remembering a month ago when they were out shopping with Mom and some lady stopped them all and looked at them and asked in syrupy tones, "and where did these two little angels come from?" which was really just a way of asking why they weren't white like their Mom and Brandon and if they'd been snuck across the border in some taco truck or something.

"God," Brandon had said without cracking a grin or taking his eyes off her.

The lady had made some kind of noise and hurried off. Mom had smothered a chuckle then whapped their brother lightly across the back of his head and called him a smart aleck.

"It doesn't change anything," said Brandon, "And you know what?"

The twins shook their heads.

"Screw everyone else. You guys deserve to be called whatever you want to be."

A smile spread over Mariana's face. Jesús looked at his brother sideways, then grinned a little, "I think I'm going to call myself Batman."

"If ever you needed a secret identity, it would be now…Batman."

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"So what's going to happen with the boys?" Stef asked, trying to slice up almonds to go into the salad. "Why don't we by the sliced almonds, I've nearly cut off my own fingers twelve times tonight?"

"Do you know how expensive sliced almonds are?" Lena shook her head at the ridiculous idea. "All the boys are losing their recess for the week. They will be helping to clean the classrooms during that time. I had to modify it for Jesús though, you know what would happen if he didn't have a chance to get out some of his energy," Lena rolled her eyes expressively.

"Ah yes," said Stef, leaning back against the counter in pretend reminiscence, "that would be the time he actually climbed the walls. Good times."

"Yeah, he'll be jogging at recess instead. Then after school he can clean." Lena carefully placed herb encrusted chicken breasts on a platter and put it into the oven.

"So did you ever find out what it was about?"

Lena went over to the sink and began washing her hands, "Not from our boys. The other boys tried to pin it on them, but there's no way Brandon started that fight and Jesús doesn't usually hang out with them. Carol told me something though, that could have started it."

"What was it?" asked Stef as she began taking plates out of the cupboard.

"She said that Jesús has been signing his papers as Jesús Foster for the past week or so."

Stef put the plates down and looked at her partner, "Yeah?"

"Apparently so. She feels bad, she said she should have brought it to my attention sooner but she's been a little overwhelmed by the new individual reading assessments she's supposed to be doing, you know, while she's teaching the other twenty-five kids."

Stef let Lena's barb about the state testing requirements float right past her, "huh, that's interesting. Must be about the adoption, right?"

"Well, it's certainly some relation to it," Lena sighed and nibbled her lower lip. "What do you think we should do about it?"

Stef frowned a little, "well he's not hurting anything, right? Why not just let him sign his papers the way he wants?"

"Stef," Lena sighed heavily.

"What?"

"They're not…they're not ours yet," Lena felt her voice catch and tears came to her eyes, just saying those words hurt her heart. "What happens if Ana screws this up for us or if DCHS decides to just…swoop in and take them away?" She rubbed at her eyes as she was enfolded in her lover's warm embrace. "How could we do that to them?" she asked softly. "With everything else, give them a name only to have it taken away?"

Stef kissed her temple, trying to think of what to say. Everything Lena had said was true, but she couldn't imagine that happening. Jesús and Mariana were their children. If anyone tried to take Brandon she would… "it won't happen," she finally said, a lump in her throat. "If they try to take the twins we'll do whatever we need to do. We won't let them be taken from us."

Lena leaned back in her embrace to look at her, eyes faintly damp, she nodded, "yes," she said softly. Then she smiled wryly, "Bill's going to have something to say about this."

Stef snorted, "I love Bill, but screw him. They've waited long enough."

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Lena and Stef climbed the stairs together, holding hands. They heard muted whispering so they eased up the rest of the stairs soundlessly. Mariana was splayed across the hallway on her stomach, her head crooked towards crack underneath Jesús's door. She nodded at whatever was being said, then turned to Brandon's door, "Jesús says that we should tell Moms on Saturday afternoon 'cause it's after their nap and their always really happy after that."

Stef poked Lena in the ribcage, and Lena suppressed a giggle. Mariana listened to something, then turned back to Jesús's door, "Brandon says that's a good idea. He says I should tell them 'cause I'm the cutest."

Brandon apparently caught that, "I did not Mariana!" he said loudly through his door, "I said you were better at looking innocent."

"Ahem," Stef cleared her throat expressively.

Mariana scrambled up from the floor, straightening her clothing nervously, "Hi Moms," she said in a loud, nervous voice. "Brandon and Jesús stayed in their rooms, just like you said Mama."

Two thumps from the opposing bedrooms showed the boys had caught those words. Lena raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "The boys are supposed to be in their rooms thinking," she said.

"Well, you said they had to stay in their rooms but you didn't say I couldn't talk to them," Mariana said with a timid smile.

"Young lady, do we need to have a talk about following implicit and explicit directions?" Stef said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Nuh-uh," Mariana shook her head, black hair flying in every direction. "I'm sorry Mama," she addressed Lena penitently. "I just had to tell the boys something."

"Jesús…Brandon?" said Lena. The doors opened. Brandon shuffled out and Jesús peeked around his door. "Yeah?" asked Jesús.

"Come out please, we need to talk," Lena said gesturing to them and turning so they could go talk in the living room.

Brandon and Jesús stood on either side of Mariana, and she reached out to grab their hands as she took a deep breath. She was brave, she could be brave. "Jesús and me want our last name to be Foster now. We don't want to have to wait for all the papers and stuff," she blurted. Her moms turned back to face them. Mariana bit her lip but felt her brothers squeeze her hands reassuringly. "And we don't like Gutierrez, it's yucky."

"Mariana, Gutierrez it a beautiful name. It's really old, from the medieval times from a man named Gutierre, and probably had something to do with warriors," Lena said. She didn't want that for her children, she didn't want them to ignore their heritage, or to think less of it.

"We've waited and been patient," said Jesús, then decided to go for it, "And…and…even if you don't think it's a good idea, we're gonna do it anyway," he said.

"It's not that we wouldn't like it," said Lena, "we can't wait until you both are adopted. We were just.." she stopped and looked at Stef, asking her if they could really make this promise with a clear conscience.

"Go ahead," said Stef, looking at the twins with a serious, resolute expression. "You go ahead and change your names. Mama and I will let your teachers and everyone else know."

"Really?" asked Jesús, bouncing a little on the balls of his feel, a delighted grin on is face. Mariana's sweet smile and Brandon's enthusiastic one echoed his excitement.

"Yes," said Stef. "You're ours. Let's make sure everyone knows."

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It was about two months later when they finally learned the adoption was going through, one month after that, the twins were formally adopted. Jesús leaned wildly over the judge's arm, peering intently at the embossed seal and his signature. "Those are the papers right, the official really real papers?" he breathed.

"Indeed, they are young man," the judge said, signing his name with theatrical flourish.

"We read a story in class," Jesús told the judge seriously, "about a girl who tried to make a thousand paper cranes to make a wish come true, and you know what?"

"What?"

"Me and my sister and my brother wrote our names over a thousand times and now my wish came true."