"Alright, now we need…"

Lysander looked down at the shopping list in his hand and then into the trolley before looking at Tristan.

"We need milk! Do you remember where the milk is?"

Tristan frowned for a moment before his little face lit up and he nodded, pointing across the shop. Lysander praised him and then they went over to the relevant section. Immediately, Tristan opened the door to the refrigerated cupboard where the shop stored its milk and then reached up, only to realise that he was too short to reach the milk. After a few moments of frustration however, he turned to look at Lysander pleadingly. Just as he was about to step in and help, he heard someone say:

"Oh here, let me get that for you, Tristan! Who're you here with today?"

The teenage girl who'd come over glanced over and then smiled. Lysander smiled back-he couldn't remember her name, but knew she was an older sibling of some of the children that they'd bring Tristan down to play with from time to time. She often babysat them, too.

"Hiya." He said.

"Hi, hi. How many did you need?"

"Just two, that's all."

"Cool cool."

She took down one bottle of milk and gave it to Tristan when she saw him reaching for it, and then she grabbed another and put it in the trolley. After Tristan had painstakingly put the other bottle in, the girl turned back to him.

"Hey, it's your birthday soon, isn't it?"

Tristan nodded at this.

"Oh, awesome! How old are you going to be?"

Immediately, Tristan held up one of his hands, fingers splayed, and grinned. The girl grinned back.

"Oh, five, huh? That's awesome!"

Tristan nodded again, then waved his hand around. The girl frowned quizzically, and looked over at Lysander for a translation. Luckily, he knew exactly what Tristan was trying to say.

"He's saying that he's going to be a whole hand old. Right, buddy?"

Tristan grinned and bounced on his feet, again waving his hand. The girl laughed.

"Oh, that's very exciting! Do you know, that when you become ten, you'll be two whole hands old?"

Tristan's eyes went almost comically wide as he stared at both his hands in astonishment and then looked at them both as if to ask: really?

"Yes, she's right. One hand is five, and two hands is ten." Lysander told him, not quite able to hold back his laughter.

Tristan still looked astonished, and now the girl giggled.

"Yep, yep. But being five is pretty awesome too! You must be excited about that, huh? Are you going to have a party?"

Tristan blinked, and then looked up questioningly at Lysander.

"Um…"

"You're not having a party?" the girl asked.

"Well…that isn't really viable…"

That wasn't to say that they hadn't celebrated Tristan's previous birthdays, because they'd had. Juniper decorated the house, Aisa would go all out with baking each time, and they'd all bought him little things and sung the birthday song (it was amazing, just how many eras the song 'Happy Birthday to You' had endured over) and done a bunch of fun things. Sometimes they'd even come down to Eos to eat at one of the nicer cafes for breakfast or to get takeout for dinner. But parties were a different creature altogether, not least because those involved inviting other people and that was just not something they could do.

"Oh, right, of course!" the girl exclaimed, clearly remembering that one of their many quirks was not inviting others to their house. "It's not like you've got to do it at your house, though!"

"It's not?"

"Sure, plenty of places do kids' parties, even this little place!" the girl exclaimed. "Remember when you brought Tristan down for Amias's birthday? That was at the soft play space downtown, remember? And I'm pretty sure some of the restaurants have party rooms. Or there's the town hall, or bowling…although maybe they're too little for bowling, huh? Oh, I know, don't worry, I'll get my mum to call you or something, yeah? She'd know better than me."

"I…well…"

Lysander looked down at Tristan, who had been listening quietly all this time.

"What do you say, Tristan? Do you want a party?"

Tristan nodded vigorously and bounced, and the girl giggled.

"I'll tell mum to call you! I gotta go now, bye!"

"Bye now, Mabel." Lysander replied, having remembered her name after she'd mentioned her brother's.

Tristan waved wildly, and then when Mabel had disappeared he turned and looked at Lysander with big, pleading eyes.

"You really, really want a party, huh?"

This question was met with more vigorous nodding, and Lysander couldn't help but laugh as he ruffled Tristan's hair.

"Alright, a party it is. But first, let's finish this shopping and get home, alright?"

…

Aisa ended up being the one to organise the details of the party's location once Mabel and Amias's mother had called them, considering all her options from amongst the places in or near Eos that could host birthday parties. Eventually she found a pub that had party rooms and an outdoor area connected to these that the children could use, and she took Tristan down there to choose a room to book. Although none of them were themed, there was one room that had dark blue walls and little lights in the ceilings that made it look like outer space, and that was naturally what he ended up going for. She then concentrated on the logistics of party games, other decorations and the cake while Lysander and Juniper set about making sure that as many of Tristan's little friends were invited.

On the day, they went down early to set up, with Hanako meeting them at the pub in question, along with Kady and Miya (the twins weren't well, and Bucky and Tarou were taking care of them, apparently). When they got there, Kady was holding a parcel almost as tall as she was, wrapped in sparkly pink paper that matched the frilly dress the little girl was wearing.

"This is yours and you gotta open it first!" Kady announced immediately, shoving the parcel at Tristan almost as soon as he ran to her. "Come on!"

"Kady, Kady, let's let them get inside!" Hanako laughed.

"But I want Tris to open it!" Kady whined.

"Yes, once we're inside."

They went inside, and Aisa went straight to the counter to give her name and Tristan's, and soon a member of staff escorted them to the party room. As she, Lysander and Juniper began to set up the cake and arrange the decorations, Kady once again shoved the humongous parcel at Tristan.

"Open it, open it! It's very special, you see."

Tristan giggled and he laid the parcel along the floor and opened it, with some 'help' from little Miya. When all the wrapping paper had been thoroughly shredded, amongst the chaos of it lay a gigantic plush unicorn with a rainbow-coloured main and golden horn and a slightly goofy grin.

"It's a unicorn! Miya decided unicorns but I chose this specific, actual unicorn cos you're my friend" Kady announced. "And I know you're a boy, but there's nothing genderly inhearing about unicorns, right, Mama?"

All of the adults in the room stared at Kady, and even the other two children looked confused. After a moment, though, Aisa thought she got it.

"Do you mean 'inherently gendered', Kady?"

Kady pulled an impressively angry face.

"That's what I said!"

After a moment of pouting, though, she turned to Tristan.

"Well, do you like it?"

Tristan's response was to reach over the unicorn and hug Kady, and after a moment of giggling, she wriggled away and started chatting away with Tristan who of course simply listened, nodded and giggled.

"Hanako, where on earth did your five year old learn a term like 'inherently gendered'?" Juniper wanted to know.

"I wish I knew, really." Hanako sighed, shaking her head and grinning. "You would not believe the things she comes out with sometimes…"

"Oh," Aisa said drily. "I think I would."

Hanako just smiled, and then turned to the three children.

"Come on, let's tidy up and then go and play outside while Tristan's parents finish setting up. His friends will be here soon, after all."

"Other friends, Mama! I'm the best one!"

"Yes, yes, I know…."

…

Juniper's usual mindset on children was that he liked his child (because duh, his child) and that he naturally would also have a soft spot for children of the people he considered his own. Even when they were as bafflingly precocious as Kady. But typically speaking, other children were too much and as a result, he wasn't sure if he liked children as a whole.

But there was something about watching the children now-some of them sitting around and eating cake while others ran around and played that just warmed his heart. The party had been a bit chaotic, with some of the younger siblings not understanding why they couldn't blow out the candles on Tristan's space-rocket cake and some tears when children had tripped over during the chocolate-chopping game that Aisa had planned. But all in all, it had actually been fun.

Considering the snacks at the snack table again (which had been moved outside once the children had their proper eating time), he turned to see Tristan there, carefully putting his empty cup in the binbag.

"Hey, you sure you might not want another drink?"

Tristan frowned, and looked at his cup.

"Here, give it to me. We'll put it on the tray with other people's."

Tristan seemed happy enough to do that, so Juniper put the cup on the tray in question and then on an impulse he lifted Tristan up and spun him around, making him giggle.

"This is fun, huh? This party."

Tristan nodded and giggled as Juniper spun him around again, and then put him down. Almost immediately, Tristan put his arms up, as if asking to be picked up again but all of a sudden Kady, Miya and a few of Tristan's other friends had come and gathered around him, all of them clamouring.

"Uncle Juniper, spin me next, spin me!"

"And me!"

"I want Tristan's dad to spin meeeeeee!"

And normally, he would have just passed the children onto Lysander, or maybe even Hanako. But today was different. The fact it was Tristan's birthday party, and he'd never looked happier, that made it different. So he sighed deeply and pulled a face at them.

"Alright, alright, but we're taking it in turns, alright?"

The children cheered (with Tristan bouncing and smiling in near-silent excitement) and he obligingly played with them, picking them up and spinning them around and around, obliging their requests for going faster, or higher. And while by the end of it he was dizzy, still unsure if he liked children as a whole, and also felt a bit like he'd just become a human fairground ride none of that really mattered.

All that mattered that he was happy, and that Tristan was too.