Chapter 1: Rough Night

Cerise: 8 ½

Renee and Auggie: 9 months

Late at night at the glorious apartment, Cerise was practicing her sign language while she watched her twin baby siblings play on the floor. The babies tugged at a light blue blanket and they gurgled.

Auguste obviously won the blanket while Renata shook her rattle and laughed.

Cerise smiled warmly at them as they played. Over the past nine months, Cerise fell in love with them and was very happy to be their big sister, despite having little to no experience. Despite all of the lovey-dovey stuff with babies, the twins can be a lot of work, but Cerise, Alfredo, and Colette didn't mind the work.

Speaking of Alfredo and Colette, they were also watching over the twins, sitting on the couch with cups of tea in their hands. They too had warm grins on their faces seeing them play.

Cerise was still practicing until she heard the twins crawling over to her. She looked up and smiled, closed her book, and picked them up. They were starting to gain a bunch of weight since they were in the middle of getting weaned off of Colette's milk. Even though they were nine months, they were starting to become big boys and girls.

Cerise then tickled both of their bellies with her right hand alternating to each baby. They gave her the sweetest laughs ever heard until Renata yanked really hard on Cerise's hair making her hiss in pain. She slyly smiled at her baby sister and pinched her nose, making her laugh again

"I guess they must really like their big sister," Colette said from the couch. Cerise smiled at her adoptive mother and looked back down at her baby siblings. Her baby brother tried to grab at her white shirt with red stripes.

"Woah Woah Auggie…" Alfredo grabbed his son and brought him to his mother. "You hungry sweetie…"

Cerise then rose up and waved at the adults while still holding onto Renee. The couple turned to her and she signs that she can feed him. Renee looked up gormlessly at her big sister as if to say, "What are you doing with your hand?"

"Oh, you wanna feed Auggie...Okay...I'll take Renee and change her…" Alfredo conformed to Cerise's wishes and they swapped babies and Colette handed her a bottle. Cerise looked around and she sat down on the rocking chair in the living room next to the couch. Auggie's dreary dark blue eyes looked at Cerise as he consumed the milk. Cerise gently rocked in the chair as she smiled at her baby brother. As Auggie finished, Cerise set down the now empty bottle and gently patted his back. A small belch came out and Cerise jolted a little

"Guess your full…" Cerise thought. Auggie then tiredly giggled and pointed behind her head. Cerise turned around and saw Remy and Avalon watching the baby. Auggie then squirmed, reaching an arm for them. Cerise then smiled once more.

The rats have grown used to the babies and despite the twins playing a little too rough with them, Remy and Avalon and the other rats adore them. In fact, The twins were an inspiration to the other rats to have children of their own and to raise a family...Even Remy had that idea in his mind.

Cerise extended out an arm to let the rats run over to the children. Remy and Avalon ran on her arm and they went to Auggie, who joyfully laughed seeing them and tried to squeeze them but they ran off before he could.

Auggie had a tendency to squeeze the rats but lucky was stopped a few times and was showed on how to play with them. Cerise pinched his pointy nose that he inherited from his father and wiggled it a little, causing a few laughs from the baby boy.

Cerise then picked him up and took him upstairs to the nursery and met Colette and Alfredo rocking baby Renee and putting her to sleep. They turned to Cerise who brought their baby boy and Colette gladly took him

"Thank you, Cerise…" Colette whispered Cerise nodded her head. She signed something.

"You wanna say good night to the twins?" Alfredo asked her. Cerise nodded.

Colette lowered Auggie so Cerise can kiss him goodnight. Then Alfredo picked up his sleeping daughter and brought her to Cerise and she did the same making Renee smile in her sleep. Cerise then slowly started to walk away but she felt Colette touch her shoulder and scooped her up.

"Don't think we forgot about you, Cheri…" Colette gave the child a bunch of kisses, making the child squirm and smile in her arms. Alfredo came over and ruffled Cerise's hair.

Cerise knew that they loved her even though they were busy with the twins. Cerise was never the type to display jealousy to her baby siblings despite being not at all related to them. All that mattered was Cerise gave them the love and respect they deserved despite her father previously abusing her and her mother. Ever since Cerise was adopted by Linguini and Colette, She felt nothing but love and had something called peace of mind. Cerise knew that this is where she belonged.

"I know, We've been focusing a lot on the twins lately Cerise, but Colette and I want you to know that We love you...and We haven't forgotten about you…" Linguini told her. This made Cerise smile.

"Get some rest Princesse…" Colette whispered to her adoptive daughter not before Alfredo giving her a kiss goodnight

Cerise then waved goodbye to them and headed off into her room. She glanced around the dark purple and maroon walls of her room. As she walked to her bed, her attention was at a certain frame. It was of her and her real mother. Cerise was smiling while her mother had the exact same smile holding onto her daughter. Cerise touched the photo gently and began to sniffle. She really missed her mother. She sacrificed everything just to protect her and now she was gone and it was all her real father's fault...A few tears rush down her face. It pained her sometimes to look at the photo. The events of her mother's death played on repeat in her dreams sometimes and she didn't know how to stop it.

Then a squeak was heard and She saw two familiar rats coming to her and She quickly wiped away her tears. Remy and Avalon knew something was wrong with her.

She grabbed her notebook and pen and wrote them a message. She didn't want to use her translator because one time she did, it scared the babies and it took Alfredo and Colette a while to calm them down.

I just don't want to mess things up with the twins

Then Remy shook his head and wrote something back to her. It took him a while but he luckily got his message across

You're doing great Cerise...They love their big sister...I think it might take them a while to get used to the translator

Cerise nodded her head and glanced back at the photo of her and her mother. Avalon ran up to the child who was starting to sniffle again and rubbed herself against the child's cheek as well as Remy.

Cerise smiled and gently hugged the two rats and gave them a kiss. They saluted her and they ran off together. Cerise took one last look at the photo and gave it a kiss. Cerise then turned off the light in her room, turned over, and dozed off into sleep.

Later that night cries of her twin siblings startled Cerise awake. She glanced next door to the twins' room and rubbed her temples. It was always the same every night. Either one or both of them cry in the middle of the night and Colette and Alfredo would try to determine how to calm the fussing twins down.

Cerise then collapsed back down in her bed to try her best to sleep off the crying her twins were doing but it was futile. The rats came in with slight grumpy looks on their faces

Cerise wrote them a message

I know who you both feel...This is the fifth time this week alone…

Then the trio hear the cries decrease when Colette and Alfredo sang a lullaby to the twins. They had very sweet voices despite Alfredo not knowing how to sing and they mostly put the twins back to sleep. But Cerise frowned when she heard the twins whining again, which meant the lullaby didn't work. Cerise exhaled through her nose. The twins were probably going to cry all night like they did last week. So Cerise got out of bed, took her teddy bear, and went downstairs with the rats following after her.

Meanwhile, Colette and Alfredo were stuck with their whining babies. They both had dark eyebags around their eyes and they had each twin in their arms. Alfredo had Renee and Colette had Auggie

"What's wrong you guys, Mommy and I can't get you guys to sleep and we're really tired…" Alfredo said

Colette then tiredly tried to hush Auggie and Alfredo did the same with Renee

They gave the twins a bunch of kisses knowing that the twins loved that

Cerise nibbled on some cheese along with the rats. Avalon and Remy then looked up at the room where the fussing and whining still continued. Cerise looked up too. She reluctantly backed away thinking that she might make it worse. Then Remy had the idea to try and climb onto Cerise's hair and pulled on two strands of her hair. This caused Cerise to move. Cerise swatted Remy off of her head as if to say "I'm going I'm going" Avalon squeaked and told her that she and Remy will be right behind her. Cerise nervously nodded her head.

Cerise slowly walked up the stairs and heard shushing in the room and stepped back a little when she heard the twins wail once more. She shut her eyes and thought to herself.

"I hope I don't make things worse…" Cerise gently stepped to the nursery and gently knocked on the door.

Alfredo and Colette knew it was Cerise because she would always knock before she entered the room

"Cerise...Dieu merci you're here…" Colette said answering the door. Cerise was a little flabbergasted at this

"They wanted me to come?" Cerise thought. She slowly entered the room and the twins still whined. Colette gently turned on the light and went to help Alfredo comfort their baby girl

Cerise then began to think and then she waved to them once more getting their attention. Cerise signed if she could hold the twins. The husband and wife glanced at each other and they obliged her idea. They gave the rocking chair to cerise and she sat down as the twins were being handed to her.

Cerise shut her eyes thinking about if it was going to work. Then like magic, the crying stopped and it turned into giggles. Cerise opened her eyes and smiled. She looked up at the parents and back down at the twins. It worked that she got her baby twins to stop crying

"Finally…" Colette whispered while Alfredo sighed in relief

"I guess they just want their big sister…" Alfredo commented

Cerise looked from her adoptive father to her baby twins once more. She gave them a kiss on each forehead. She handed each of them back to their parents and she was about to depart until she heard whining again.

"Oh uh…" Alfredo stammered. He saw the twins reaching for their big sister Cerise.

"Cerise…" Colette called gently. Cerise turned around. "I think they're trying to say they want you to stay with them.

Cerise grew a smile on her face. She looked around and shrugged her shoulders.

Alfredo then opened Renee's pink crib and Cerise gave a small reluctant look as if to say "I cannot fit in there…"

"We'll-We'll help you fit…" Alfredo and Colette then expanded the crib as much as it went and took the twins from cerise as she tried to step inside the crib. She was a little scared that she was going to break it, but she remembered that Alfredo did this before and it didn't break.

Cerise then settled in a corner of the crib and the twins were being handed back to her. They snuggled into her arms and fell asleep.

Then Cerise had a look of guilt and looked up at Alfredo and Colette who were already asleep on the floor of the crib with the lights still on.

Cerise then smiled at her baby siblings and she realized that they truly love and trust her. Then she slowly found herself dozing off again. Remy and Avalon watched the loving family sleep together and they shut off the light to leave the family to get some sleep.