Thanks to everyone who reviews this, Im glad you are enjoying it. Drawing in Deviantart
Miz's Summary:
Learning what is wrong or right
Watching pasts that come to light
He doesn't notice what it means
The AXOLOTL scrubbed it clean
"Aaww! Stan went to meet Phillip's parents for Christmas!" Seb cooed at the news. They had gone to Wanda's parents' house for the holidays this time. As much as he loved her family as well, he missed seeing his niblings and his brothers. "Really? That's so nice!" Wanda smiled and reached for her phone. She'd ask for the details from Carla. Wanda bet she was glad to meet Dillon's mom after how long their boys had been dating.
And maybe Stan did something dumb (like Seb normally did), and she could be a virtual shoulder for Carla to complain about her idiot husband on.
The twins were happy to go with any family as long as they got presents and they returned home with a bag full of toys. However, Zully complained about most of them ("I don't want a kitchen, we already have one! And I don't like cooking too much anyway!" "...I don't want more babies!" "...I don't wanna headbands or earrings...I don't wear them…") The child felt bad for feeling bad though, their family gifted it to them, and mommy and daddy said they had to be grateful...but Zully wanted toys like their older boy cousins got, like cool remote cars or more action figures, they had too many dolls already! Zully loved their dolls, but it wouldn't be bad to get a dinosaur action figure too...
Amanda listened to her blond friend complain with a serious expression on her face. For the first time in forever, the twins were hanging out in Amanda's house. Carol was downstairs on the phone and while Zoe ran around in circles in the bright pink room, Zully was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "And I think getting some of those transforming robot guys would be cool too."
"But those aren't cute at all." Amanda finally replied. "But they're cool!" Zully responded. Zoe jumped onto the bed while grinning at them, "I think they're cool too!" She liked the robot toys because they would be more fun to break. Dolls were too soft, they broke easily. But shattering a robot into a bajillion pieces? That'd be a challenge. Amanda shrugged. "I like dolls more...and my mommy says girls like cute things." She said simply. "But if you like robots, that's good too, because we like different things, like the teacher said."
She didn't really get it, why mommy always said that all girls had to like something. Mommy was probably right, but mommy was probably only right about Amanda, since Amanda was mommy's daughter. But Zully and Zoe were missus Wanda's daughters so they probably liked different things. Teacher said that everyone is different and that's what made them all special. So if the twins likes robots, that was fine too. Hm… "I don't have any robots though."
"We can build one?" Zully pointed out. In fact, that sounded like an awesome idea. Zoe squealed. "YES! BUILD A ROBOT!"
They brainstormed what things a robot needed before running to the kitchen to get their supplies. They'd need cardboard and boxes and duct tape and light bulbs for the eyes and hands and claws and guns! So it was a fighter one!
"Not guns!" Zully scoffed at their sister. How silly…
It didn't take long for them to get their materials, Amanda knew where to find them and in the trash there were cardboards too! But it also didn't take long for mommy to find out and scolded them for playing with trash.
"We are building a robot!" Zoe hugged the beater she was planning to use as a hand. "It'll be big and-and have GUNS!"
"No guns!" Zully scolded their sister again. Zoe scoffed. "Guns make everything better. That's what uncle Stan says." Amanda looked back and forth between her friends. Every time they talked about their uncles, she really wondered what what up with their family. They sounded fun. Weird, but fun.
The woman put her hands on her hips and looked down at the kids. She snatched the egg beater from Zoe who let out a "Hey!"
"No. No robots! I want you to go play silently upstairs with your dolls and not with trash!" Carol scolded them. "Are you boys? Only boys get all dirty from playing in the trash."
"I like getting dirty." Zoe shrugged innocently. "And I'm not a boy." She argued. "I can be a girl and still like getting dirty!" Carol scoffed, as if that was the most stupid thing ever, and shooed them back upstairs, ruining their robot plan.
"You should learn from Amanda and your sister to be a better behaved girl. You won't be able to find a good husband acting like a savage." Carol patted Zully's head condescendingly, making the oldest twin sigh with a sudden sadness. Missus Carol's words made their heart hurt a lot…
Once upstairs, Zoe scoffed. "We will build our robot at our house!" She reassured the small group. It didn't make Zully feel better.
-.-
Wanda was summing up her case in her office. She needed to finish writing her evidence to prove her client was not at home at the moment of the accident, so, her stupid boyfriend claiming she attacked him and left him that bruise was just wrong. Stupid man, she was so going to destroy him and his lawyer. The blonde was so concentrated on her job that she missed the first ring of her phone. She missed that call but luckily they called again and this time Wanda managed to pick up. "Hello, Wanda Friedmann."
"Good morning, um...Mrs. Pines?" Wanda grinned. She didn't change her last name ("Sorry, honey, but you didn't go to law school.") but it was still nice to be called Pines. "Yes, that's me? Who's this?"
"We're calling from Zully and Zoe's school...The twins were involved in a fight and the principal wants to talk to you…" Wanda sighed tiredly and ran a hand across her face. Oh god! Zoe, what did you do this time!? "I'm at work now, but I'll call my husband and he'll be there as soon as possible." The secretary nodded. "Alright then, we'll wait for him. Thank you."
Wanda massaged her temples before quickly calling Seb. He was at home working so he surely could go see what the problem was now. Seb also groaned when she finished explaining and after a "Urgh! Zoe, what did you do this time!?" He said he was going to the school. Wanda just hoped it wasn't something too serious...She didn't want problems with Seb later.
Seb arrived at the school and went directly to the principal's office. He already knew his way around the school...He knocked and saw the twins sitting on the same chair, holding hands and the other boy with an ice pack on his face. Good thing his parents hadn't come yet….
He sent a look to his blond spawn who stared back at him, not even having the decency to look sorry. "Hello, Mr. Pines, thank you for coming." The principal sighed. "What happened this time…" Seb stood behind the twins and looked at the principal. She sighed again and sent a look to the twins. "Well...surprisingly, it wasn't Zoe this time."
"...it wasn't?" Seb's jaw dropped.
"No, I was surprised as well, it was Zully this time…" Seb's eye widened a bit. HUh. He didn't know Zully had the guts to get in trouble! "They were at recess, and Zully suddenly punched Georgie in the face before she slammed him against the wall. Then Zoe joined in the beating...but it was Zully who started it…"
Zully stuck their thumb to their mouth and closed their eyes to suckle. Zoe huffed. That wasn't true!
Seb covered his mouth as he looked directly at the principal, nodding slowly. He was hiding a huge grin behind his mouth. Oh my gosh, this was hilarious…He was so proud~
"I already told them is not right to hurt people and that we have to talk to each other." She glared at the twins who flinched on themselves. Seb sighed. "Ok, but did you ask them what happened? Zoe, Zully, why did you punch this kid? Did he bother you?"
Zully nodded shyly but the principal shook her head. "She said he was bothering her and she punched him. But even so, it's not right to respond with violence, Mr. Pines, and you have to tell them so."
"Zoe, what happened with your sister." Seb asked, ignoring the principal. "She-She told him to stop, but he didn'! And he was making Zully very upset and angry and she even said please but he continued so Zully punched him and I helped because Zully is my twin and we're a team." Zoe declared with a grin. Seb smiled a little, reminded of his own childhood. Stan had gotten in trouble for protecting them too.
"That's not true!" The hurt boy whimpered and Seb turned around to hiss at him. "Shut it, I'm not your father so I don't have to listen to you, you strange crotch goblin!"
"M-Mr. Pines!" The principal gasped.
"Ok, there you go. They said it was the boy's fault. He was bothering them and they asked him to stop , and he didn't . I'm sorry, but if they were defending themselves from him then I have nothing to tell them. I don't stand for kids bothering and bullying others. If Zully asked him to please stop, and he didn't then he was obviously messing with her and distressing her on purpose." He growled at the kid with the ice bag and the other toddler flinched on himself. "But fine, are they suspended?" Seb asked, tired of having to come by the school so often.
"No…" The principal said, a bit shocked by his response. She was hoping he'd agree to scold them. But, well, if his daughters were being harassed by a boy and he wanted them to learn that they should be allowed to fight back, she… couldn't really hold that against him.
"Good. If you want me to talk to them, I'll give them some ice cream and tell them to continue defending themselves from annoying kids as long as they're just defending themselves. Can I take them home now?" The woman was so taken off by his response. The look the man sent her also freaked her out a little, his eye seemed to be turning red…
The boy's parents arrived at that moment and the mom immediately went to coo and hug her poooor baby boy who had been hit. "Look at what your little monsters did to my baby! They're too aggressive!" Zoe growled and made a biting motion with her little pointy teeth at her.
Seb rolled his eye. "Welp, I'm leaving with my monsters now, if you don't mind. If you wanna talk about your kid harassing my children to the point where Zully felt she had to hit him to defend herself, then you can get a date with my manager, I have a tight schedule to keep." He grinned and handed the furious dad a card. "I won't deal with your bullcrap in front of my kids." He motioned for the twins to follow him and the toddlers quickly stood up and followed daddy like ducklings.
He strapped them in their carseats and went to sit down on his own seat, but he didn't start the car yet. "Zully, Zoe."
"Yeah?" "Are we getting ice cream?" Zoe asked innocently. Seb rolled his eye. "We can have some at home, but we have to talk ok?" And then he finally drove them home. Some scoops of ice cream later, Seb was sitting on a chair, staring at the twins who were sitting on the couch. It reminded him of his very serious and mature talks he had with them when they were a few months old and always destroyed their pacifiers and bottle nipples. Wanda said reasoning with them didn't work because they couldn't understand, but now he could definitely have a talk with them!
"So...you know I told you I didn't care if you hit other kids, right?" The twins nodded. "But ONLY if they were being annoying or bothering you first?" They nodded again. "Ok...So, I'm always going to protect you, ok? No matter what, I'm always on your side." Because that's what good parents did.
"But I want to know if it was really self defense. I mean, I also have the need to beat the sheep out of many annoying people (like our neighbor) but I don't, because humans use 'words' and 'reasoning'." he quoted with his fingers with an annoyed look, remembering Wanda's (and Ford's) words. "And seriously, hitting people who deserve it is actually pretty fun! And messing with them! And you know what else would be fun? Rearranging the places of someone's organs! Imagine if their heart ended up in their butt!" He laughed loudly.
The twins weren't very sure where this was going and they stared at their dad with confused brown and green eyes. Seb realized he got distracted so he coughed to clear his throat. "What I'm trying to say is that, there are annoying rules that people like your mom make other people follow, and in one of them is that you cannot hit someone unless they started it because...hitting others without reason is not ok and it can get you in trouble...you can't do that…" It PAINED Seb so much to teach the kids to follow rules, he didn't want to follow rules, but here he was, indoctrinating his kids...He sighed. This sucked!
"Did that boy REALLY hurt you? Did he hit you first or something like that? You can lie to anyone but me." The man asked seriously. Zully's eyes welled up with tears as Zoe pouted. "Can-Can I get a hug?" The oldest twin whimpered and Seb nodded. He sat in between them and let them hug him. Zully rubbed their eyes before speaking. "He-He didn't hit me…"
Seb sighed a little. Ok… "So you hit him… why?"
"Because...Because he kept holding my hand… and he refused to let go even when I said I didn't like it." Zully confessed, feeling very sad they disappointed Dad. That boy didn't hurt them hurt them, but they thought it was ok to hit them because they were really bothering them. And it made them really uncomfortable and unhappy.
They were at recess. Everyone was in the playground, on the swings or slides. There was a group of kids playing pretend and Zoe and Zully joined them after getting bored of the slides. Georgie had declared himself the king and started saying who had to be what. Some boys declared they were knights or warriors, the girls all said they were princesses. "I wanna be a knight!" Zully exclaimed happily, raising their imaginary sword in the air.
"No, no, you can't be a knight! You're a girl! Girls can't be knights because boys are knights." A boy explained to the blond twin. "I can be a knight if I wanna! Or-or a wizawd!" Zully pouted. Those had magic and they had magic! Then, Georgie came over and grabbed their hand firmly. "No, I want you to be my Queen! And we will get married!" He squealed.
"NO!" Zully pulled at his hand, but the kid was holding on tight. "No! I don't wanna! Don't wanna! I'm a knight! Not a q-queen!" Their eyes were starting to well up with tears. Zoe jumped in front of Georgie. "I wanna be queen! Because Queens have all the powers! Like Elsa!" She smiled widely. Georgie stuck his tongue out at her. "No! You can't be queen! You're scary!" he turned back to Zully, who was still trying to pull away from him.
"You're my Queen! Because girls are princesses and you gotta marry me after I saved you!" " NO! NO! NO! NO! LET ME GO! Please!" "NO!" Zully wailed, tugging and thrashing. Georgie whined and tried pulling Zully towards their new castle. Zully was getting desperate now, and after a quick change of eye color to red they freed themselves and punched the kid in the nose. He staggered back, wailing, but Zully didn't stop there. After a scream, Zully threw themselves over him and started punching him repeatedly in the head, in the eye and the stomach. "I'm not a princess! I'm not a princess! I don't wanna marry you! I'm not a princess!"
Zoe grinned widely at the beating and joined in to kick the kid in the stomach with all her might, it was like kicking a ball that screamed ! The other kids screamed and some went to tell their teachers to stop the fight. When the teacher came, Zully was slamming Georgie against the wall .
Seb rubbed Zully's back as they finished explaining what happened. His poor baby was unsoothable, wailing their heart out. "I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Seb raised their little hands and checked their wrists. Yeah, the red marks were the kid had grabbed her were still there under their sleeve. "He didn' huwt me but I hit him!" Zully wailed.
"No, baby, you had every right to free yourself. He was holding you without your permission, NO ONE can touch you without your permission, ok? It was fine what you did, you did great, I promise…" Zully just snuggled closer and sobbed as Dad stroked their hair. Zoe pouted as she watched her twin cry.
"I-I did...I did good?" Zully looked up with puffy red eyes. Seb nodded and kissed their forehead before cleaning away their tears. "Yes, pumpkin, I promise you did fine, I'm proud you defended yourself from him, no one can touch you like that if you don't want them to, ok? Or you, Zoe." He added, looking at his other girl.
"I-I HATE it when-when they tweat me like a girl!" Zully whined loudly, hitting Dad in the chest in their frustration. "I don't like it!"
"Well, those kids literally live in the middle ages like you were playing. Girls can do anything they want! You don't listen to those buttholes!" Seb scoffed.
"NO! I don't! I don't-I don't!" Zully stumbled with the words to explain just how FRUSTRATED they felt right now. "I-I don't WANT to be a princess or-or marry a boy! I don't wanna!"
Seb winced when their arms caught on fire. "It's ok, Zully, you don't have to be a princess or marry a boy if you don't want to! I swear! You-You can be anything you want, yes? What do you want?" He asked softly.
"I don't wanna be a girl!" Zully all but screamed.
Seb blinked and stayed silent for a few seconds. She-She didn't want to be a girl? What? "You don't want to be a girl?"
"NO! I-I wanna...I wanna be a boy…" Zully rubbed his eyes, completely exhausted from this horrible poop day. "I don't wanna be Zully anymore…" The poor child was so exhausted and their... his voice sounded broken and tired… He...He wasn't Zully...He didn't want to be a girl, he didn't want to be a girl anymore, he wanted to be like Dad, not like mommy. He-He was a boy...
He ...That... felt much more right than she...He...Like dad, like his uncles, like Dillon, like Dipper...He was tired of being a girl, he wanted to be a boy, like the other boys at school, he felt more like them. He knew girls did girl things and some of them were fun...But he wanted to be a boy and do boy things too...
Seb gaped at the words he was hearing. What-What did that even mean? She-She, why did Zully want to be a boy? He didn't understand…
"So you will be my bwother now?" Zoe asked her twin innocently, lifting her head from where she was resting on Seb's shoulder. Zully hummed softly. Brother...That...that felt much nicer… almost familiar. "I wanna be your brother, not sister."
"Oh! Like Dipper and Mabel!" Zoe squealed. "Daddy! We'd match Dipper and Mabel!" She squealed excitedly, punching Dad's shoulder as he still tried to understand what was going on. That one time when they bathed together and Zully said...she (he?) said that he wanted to have...his private part…
"So you wanna be a boy now?" Seb asked softly. Zully looked up at him, with big bright eyes. Zully had wiped away his tears and now he was just waiting for him to say something. Zully was waiting for his daddy to support him…
"Will that make you happy?" Seb asked. He had wanted to do so many things as a kid as well. He had felt so weird and wrong when he discovered his mom, the only person he trusted, said he couldn't wear a skirt, or makeup or earrings or paint his nails… That didn't make him a girl, as far as he knew, maybe Zully wanted to do other stuff and this way 'he' felt more comfortable. But Seb wasn't sure. Maybe he was wrong...Maybe Zoe was right and they...were like the older twins...a girl and a boy…He only knew he had to be there for Zully and support them, whatever they wanted to be.
Zully nodded firmly. "I...I wanna be a boy...like you...I'm a boy…" Seb nodded as he processed that and smiled before pulling the two kids into a tight hug. "Ok...I understand…" Zully leaned in to whisper into his ear. "I-I always felt I wasn't a girl...I-I get it now, because-becuz I'm a boy, I felt it here…" He touched dad's chest, where his heart was. Seb felt his throat closing and his chest clenching a bit. "I love you so much, baby, I love you…" Zoe let dad hug Zully first, because she-he had been crying before. And Zully was a boy now! Ok! She knew Zully was weird sometimes! And NOW she understood! It was because she was actually a boy! And boys were just so weird!
"I-I don't wanna be called Zully… I should have a boys name, I don't like my name…" Zully looked up at Seb who pursed his lips in thought. "Well then...what name do you want me to call you?"
Zully shrugged. He hadn't thought about it yet… "Dunno...I need to find one…" Seb chuckled. "We can call you Zu, meanwhile, as you look for your perfect name~" Zu's eyes widened and he nodded.
"Yeah! I wanna that!" He squealed and hugged Dad's neck. "Call me that now!" Seb nodded. "Promise, I will call you Zu now. And if I forget, remind me, because daddy is forgetful sometimes." Zu was thrilled by this. "And you tell mommy too?!"
Oh shit, mommy ! Seb nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell her to call you Zu too...and we'll stop calling you, princess. You don't like it, right?" Zu blushed a little and nodded. Yeah, he didn't like it, he never liked it...
Seb rubbed his nose against his daug-SON. He'd fight anyone who wanted to bring down his baby. Anyone who would tell his SON that he couldn't be a boy if he wanted to! Seb still didn't fully understand, but seeing how happy Zu looked, he realized it didn't matter if he couldn't understand, as long as he still gave Zu his full support.
"Are you serious?" Wanda sighed tiredly and massaged her temples. "He told me that…" Seb whispered. As he promised, he said he was gonna talk to mommy about it.
"Can you, like not call her a he? She's our daughter, I mean, why doesn't she want to be called Zully? Did someone say they didn't like her name? Or she couldn't do something as a girl? Is that why she wants to be a boy?" Wanda groaned.
"An ass kid said Zully couldn't be a knight, but I don't really know why she-um-he wants to be a boy… She-URGH!" This was confusing. "Zully says sh-he will think of another name that he likes better."
Wanda really couldn't get it. Why was their daughter asking them to call her a boy? Was this just a phase? "I mean...we can't go around telling everyone she's a boy! It doesn't even make sense!" She pouted. "And I like her name." She was quite sad that Zully didn't like it.
Seb grimaced. "Ok, I know but...it really makes Zully happy…" He reached out to cup Wanda's face. "Look, maybe this is a temporary thing. But even if Zu just wants to try out being a boy right now, there's nothing wrong with that, right? So why not let him do what he wants? I…" Seb bit his lip. "When I was a kid, my mom said I couldn't paint my nails or wear skirts." He didn't really blame her, people probably would have bullied him even more if they saw him. But… "...and I don't want Zu to think that sh-he can't do the things he wants, I don't want to be the one to tell him that he can't do something. I don't want to be that kind of father."
He squeezed her cheeks, making her lips pout comically. "And you're the best mommy, because you want them to be happy and if this makes them happy AND hurts nobody while he's expressing himself...then we should just go with it, no? for Zu." He squeezed her cheeks even more.
Wanda pulled away from him with a tiny smile. "I...I guess you're right this time...As long as it makes her happy...Besides, maybe she's just tired and wants a change, right?" She suggested.
"Yeah, maybe that's it...but remember to say he now~" He poked her side. Wanda squirmed.
Seb was so glad their talk didn't end up in a fight again! Maybe all this sports stuff was taking effect! (He loved rock climbing. He was forced to go with the rest of the program which included weights and sit-ups and stuff. Sure he cheated with magic, but the little he did was causing a great effect on his body. He even got a bit of muscle!)
Wanda squealed when she was pulled towards the bed for a hug and while she snuggled him, she couldn't help but worry a bit… Hoping it wouldn't last...What would her parents think? Wanda really didn't want to have to disagree with Seb about wanting Zully to be happy, but Zully was her little girl. Wanda couldn't wrap her head around the idea of sweet little Zully wanting to be a boy, of all things.
This time they weren't called from the school before it ended for the day (small miracles), but the teacher had to explain to Seb the twins'...situation…
Seb felt faint.
"...What did...What did you do to your hair, Zu?" Seb, about to lose it, put a fist under his chin.
"I cut it!" Zu grinned wide, hair a mess of uneven tuffs and curls. Seb wanted to cry. In fact, he did. "B-but we could have cut it at a SALON!" Seb wailed. "I-i-it would have looked NICER!"
"It looks nice! I helped!" Zoe told her dad with her hands on her hips. Seb sent the teacher a tearful look and she sighed. "I'm sorry, we didn't realize they did this until I checked on them…"
"Ok…" Seb then had to take Zu to their usual hairdresser, who gasped in horror when she saw Zu's beautiful hair all cut. "What happened?!"
"Zu wants it short…" "Like a boy's hair! Like Dillon's!" Zu said with a big smile as they climbed to a chair. Daddy's hair was short sometimes and long sometimes. But Dillon's hair was cool.
At this point, because of the random short and long strands of hair, Zu's hair would end up being shorter than Seb's once they trimmed everything neatly. And Seb was getting his hair trimmed already. (Heck, if he was coming to the salon anyway, why not get his hair trimmed? He dyed it recently, and getting the ends snipped wouldn't hurt.
Zu didn't mind it, in fact, as the woman cut his hair and Zoe ate chips next to him (feeding him some from time to time), his smile never left his face. "I missed my hair like this!" He shook his head side to side. It was so light! His neck could feel wind!
Seb took a photo of Zu to show it to Wanda, and waited for her answer, before looking up at his kid and poking his nose, making him squeal loudly with laughter. ""Now I look like you, daddy!"
Seb nodded. "IDENTICAL!" Even though his hair was longer than Zu's.
Wanda replied to his message when they were going home, and he made the mistake of playing the audio on the car. "What? Oh god, what did she do to her hair?" Was her cry of despair. She loved combing Zully's hair!
Seb winced a little before trying to glance back at Zu, trapped in his carseat. "Don't worry. Mommy's just surprised." He assured him. Zu pouted but accepted the answer. "But… I don't look bad, right?"
"Of course not. You look very handsome." Seb assured him. Zu rubbed his short locks of blond hair, feeling up the now curlier curls. If daddy said so, then it was true, right?
Once he had sent the kids to play somewhere else, or do homework, or just get out of his sight, Seb called Wanda. She was rightfully surprised. The photos he had sent her were one before the haircut and some after. "Zoe tried helping Zu look more like a boy…" Seb explained and he heard Wanda sigh.
"Ok...It's-It's fine...If Zu likes it that way…" Seb nodded and bit his lip. "Also...Zu didn't realize but you called him a she before and he heard that…"
"...sorry. I'm just… not used to it." Wanda frowned. It had been a few days after all. Nor did she really think Zully knew what she wanted for sure yet. Sh-he might say he's a boy right now, but they weren't even five years old yet. How would they know? But… Wanda took a deep breath. If referring to and treating Zully like a boy made them happy, she was willing to do it. Even if she still didn't believe Zully would know for sure. Perhaps they'd change their mind once they were older. Still, she would try harder and also read up about this. Whatever this was.
Seb had looked it up and said it was called 'trans' and Wanda's first thought was about transvestites, since that had been the term she'd learned growing up. But apparently that word wasn't used anymore? She didn't know anymore.
She was distracted at work, barely hearing her assistant saying she had to travel for a meeting. "What?! Noo~" She complained. "Sorry, Mrs. Friedmann, you agreed to it a month ago, I was just reminding you that it's in a week." The assistant raised an eyebrow.
Wanda groaned. She had totally forgotten.
She was distracted the rest of the day, but at home, she put all her attention to receive her babies. ""Mommy!"" They cried and ran towards her. They hugged her legs and Wanda had to admit, once she'd calmed down and wasn't startled by the change, Zu's haircut didn't look all that bad, it was all curly and adorable like Seb's hair was.
"Wow! Zu look at you~~" She cooed at her oldest baby, who giggled sheepishly and shifted from side to side. "So handsome~ Just like your dad~"
Zu turned to look at Seb, who nodded. "See? I told you!"
The toddler was thrilled.
-.-
Just a couple of days later, they received a letter from the school. Much to their relief, no, the twins weren't in trouble, but there was a parents meeting for the kindergartener parents to talk about violence and misconduct...The Pines had a feeling it was about them...but oh well.
They called the nanny for that night, and left to the school as early as they could. If they didn't, Carol and his husband could catch them and tell them to go together. If they went earlier, they could sit with someone else and avoid the Woods altogether! Perfect plan! Seb and Wanda were happy to put as many other parents between them and Carol as possible. They would look at Carol with a fake sad pout and point around them like 'Oops! Sorry!'
The parents were sitting in their children's classroom, which was given some bigger chairs instead of the tiny ones their toddlers used. Seb looked at the walls with the children's paintings and grinned. The one with lots of red scribbled all over people representing blood was definitely Zoe's ~ Ah, such an artist. The one with triangles around the borders was Zu's. He drew triangles like him! He had definitely seen him draw triangles everywhere too.
And he was just awesome! Zu wanted to be like him~ That was definitely why Zu drew triangles everywhere.
The meeting was boring, the teacher basically explained that they wanted the kids to be well behaved when they entered 1st grade and that the school was starting some anger management courses to curb violence among the kids. They didn't quite put it in those words, but that was essentially what they wanted to do. Seb was kinda annoyed by all of it, but Wanda nudged him. "It'll stop other kids from messing with the twins too." She pointed out.
Seb hummed and at the end agreed. They were already sending the twins to gymnastics every weekend, they were not violent! They just had tons of energy to be adorable! They didn't need to go to the courses if they didn't need it or want it!
There was a brief break before the teacher offered to receive short personal questions from the parents about their kiddos. Some parents piled up in front of her and she sat with them at her desk and listened to them. As Wanda and Seb drank coffee and Seb stole all the cookies, a kinda familiar woman and man walked over to them.
It took Seb a few seconds to realize this was the mother of the boy that Zully beat up. Seb frowned at them, not wanting to listen to the woman complain about the twins again. The woman stopped in front of him, eyes narrowed. Seb prepared himself to ignore her, if he started a fight here, Wanda would be mad.
"I'm very sorry for what my son did!" The woman said quickly, bowing her head. Seb startled. "Wha?"
The woman looked up at him and winced. "I asked my son about what happened, and he told me he grabbed your daughter's hand while they were playing and refused to let go even when she asked him to. I have already explained to him that what he did was wrong. I am very sorry for what he did." She bowed her head again. "I'm still upset that your daughters beat him up, but I understand why they did. She had every right to defend herself. I apologize again for what Georgie did."
Seb blinked at the woman, unable to comprehend what was happening. Someone was… actually apologizing to him? Admitting that they were in the wrong? What… what?!
Her husband nodded slowly and pulled out the card Seb gave him. "We were going to call, but preferred to apologize in person." He said.
Wanda smiled at them and thanked them for talking to their child, she assured them that they also told the twins about only using violence for self defense. After some goodbyes, Seb hummed in thought, eye narrowed. Huh. He guessed not every other parent was a bitch.
-.-
Zu was proud of his new hair and had shown it around class. Amanda gasped, a little upset because she loved combing Zu's longer hair, but Zu liked it better short.
"If you like it...I like it!" The blue-eyed girl blushed a little bit when Zu smiled and hugged her super tight.
Most kids didn't mind, they just shrugged and smiled. "Nice!" They complimented. Zu wasn't crazy like her sister, they'd play more with her and Amanda if Zoe wasn't there.
Some girls who were enemies with the small group of friends just said it looked horrible on her and that she looked like a stinky boy.
"You are stinky! With your perfume that smells like poop and garbage!" Zoe defended her brother with a snarl. "And good thing Zu looks like a boy because he's a boy!"
The other little girls giggled. "That's not true! Zully is a girl! You play with dolls, you're a girl!"
"No I'm a boy!" Zu shouted.
"Nuh uh! Miss! Miss! Is Zully a girl or a boy?!" The toddler asked their teacher.
"She's a girl, Tulip…"
"No, I'm a boy! I'm Zu now!" Some kids giggled at his declaration and the teacher bit her lip, not knowing how to handle the situation. "Well, if you want to be a boy, that's fine too." She said carefully, unsure if maybe this was some elaborate pretend game. "I'm sure you're very proud of your new haircut."
"I-I am! I look like my cousin Dillon!" Zu smiled at the teacher. She managed to calm down the toddlers and class continued normally, but she remained thinking on what Zully said.
A few days passed by and because the blond toddler still called themselves a boy, the teacher asked Wanda for a meeting. Wanda, stressed from work and her upcoming trip, told Seb (after she complained for the last time to stop calling her at work and that Seb had a more flexible schedule) and the two met with the teacher.
After that, a new question surged. Should they make this public? No one but them called Zu a boy, they haven't even told their family yet. But Zu was getting upset about how no one called them a boy except them and Amanda. Seb thought it would be great to tell everyone, so they would know to say 'he' like Zu wanted. Wanda… was unsure. "What if people have a problem with it? What if Zu gets in trouble because of it?"
"Then what? We just… hide it?" Seb scrunched up his face. "Lie about it?"
"Well, we're already making them hide their powers-"
"That and THIS are two different things!" Seb cried. "I don't want Zu having to pretend to be something he doesn't want to!" And Zu seemed really upset by everyone calling him a girl and not letting him talk about being a boy. Seb didn't see why this was such an issue. Why did anyone care if someone was male or female? They were all humans in the end!
Wanda bit her lip and let out a sigh. "I don't know, Seb...I mean, Zoe says she's a dinosaur and that doesn't really mean she is one, even when we treat her like one so she has a fun time. We really don't know what Zu wants, he's literally 4! Did you know who you were and what you wanted to do with your life when you were in preschool?"
At Seb deadpanning face, and a "Of course I knew, I have the mind of a trillion years old demon", Wanda let out another sigh before forcing a smile, one she used to try to negotiate.
"Hey...how about we keep this between our family for now? Maybe tell your brothers and niblings, I'm sure they'd accept it better than my parents...And then, when we know more about what Zu is doing and if he isn't just playing around, acting like his beautiful and handsome daddy~ Then we start telling others." She compromised. Seb shrugged, he really didn't want to start a fight, so he agreed… for now. If Zu got upset then things might change. He just wanted his child to be happy with who he was, whatever that turned out to be.
"Ok, I think we can do that...So, no fight, right?" Seb tried. Wanda nodded and motioned him to get closer for a hug. "Come here, baby ~"
Seb grinned and relaxed, glad they managed to compromise and talk about this without fighting! Wanda cuddled him and suddenly gasped. "Right! By the way, I'm traveling in a day, I told you, right?"
"You what?"
-.-
Seb watched with a pout as Wanda packed a suitcase. "Don't leave."
"Please, baby, don't look at me like that. You knew I was going to travel a little in this new job." She sighed. This was the 2nd time she did it, and she never left for more than 3 days.
He only pouted harder.
"You're going to leave me with those kids all alone?" Seb complained, making Wanda roll her eyes. "You can deal with them better than me. It's just 3 days, I'll be returning Monday morning. I promise. Just follow a normal weekend routine. Go to the gym with the twins, play, cook."
Seb grimaced. "But...But you...Are you sure you're coming back? I-I see too many clothes for 3 days…" He bit his lip.
"Come on, Seb." Wanda sighed. "This is not about you, I'm not leaving you, I have work…" At his scared face, she sat next to him to hold his hand. "I'm not leaving you, Seb...Seriously. I love you, and while we argue...We are handling it better no? The gym is helping all of us. Talking it out is helping too." She kissed his cheek before standing up to continue packing.
"...Will you wear your necklace?" He asked. "I wanna know you're safe."
Wanda agreed before smirking. "Will you spy on me doing other things~?" At that comment, Seb chuckled sheepishly. "If you want me to~"
Wanda leaned up against him, purring, "I'll be sure to put on a show~"
Seb was bright red, he almost felt like there was steam shooting out his ears. "A-aaaaa-haahah?" Wanda laughed at his expression. God, he was so fun to tease.
-.-
The weekend felt eternal. The twins didn't have to go to preschool so Sebastian was forced to find a way to entertain them. At least he could watch Zu a little more. His baby was just...the same? It was confusing. Could a pronoun actually make him happier? What was different from himself doing "women stuff"? He didn't even do anything different from what he always did. Why didn't he feel like a female for that?! Who determined what was female or male?!
"Daddy, you ok?" Zoe looked up at him. "You look like you can't go poop." She imitated his grimacing face.
Seb laughed. "I'm ok, just thinking...Humans are more complicated than I thought…"
"We are humans?" Zoe asked with big eyes. Seb grinned. "Unfortunately...but the craziest!" Everything was still… normal, boring. Boring lunch. Quiet neighborhood.
He couldn't believe he was saying this, but he missed Amanda and Carol. The woman hadn't come to bother him in a while and he wondered why! He was bored!
Sure, they went to the gym and they had fun there...but everything was just so...annoyingly ordinary.
So close to Gravity Falls and yet so far...Sigh.
It was weird how quiet the house felt without Wanda here, even though she was already away most of the day, and the kids were as rowdy as usual. Seb supposed it was the empty bed that was the issue. He felt lonely without her sleeping beside him. It felt… cold. Seb shook his head. Wanda was coming home, that's all that mattered. He even checked on her through the necklace and she was doing well. (And she really WAS at a work meeting, not secretly leaving him, like he'd half feared.) Seb shook away these thoughts. Not important.
That's how the three spent their weekend. Now it was Sunday night and Wanda would finally be coming home on Monday.
He was on entertaining duty, he didn't want them to watch tv or videos on the internet all day because that will make them stupid (according to his book on how to raise human babies) so Seb was sitting in a tiny chair next to Zu. He didn't mind too much. He had done this with the older twins and Dillon when he visited them and he had humiliated himself even more in other occasions.
Besides, it was good to spend time with your kids. That's what good dads did. He had 3 dads (4, if biological isosceles dad counted), and only one of them actually cared for him.
Anyway, Zu was drawing with him and Zoe was on the piano, practicing as she sang a song from the Aristocats. That was a fun movie, Seb had to admit that he rather liked it as a kid.
"Do mi so do, do so mi do
Le vrai musicien répète avec ardeur
De savantes gammes et des arpè-è-ges
Mais il faut qu'il sache que sa voix doit sortir du coeur~
En chantant ses gammes et ses arpèges~"
Was he teaching her songs in French? Yes. Yes he was. If they had powers like him, they might as well be polyglots like him. He wanted to play a prank on Wanda too.
Imagine her face when he told her his ability to speak different languages was inherited by the kids! HAHAHA!
"I did good?" Zoe asked her daddy, looking incredibly small sitting in front of the piano. "You're doing fine, sweetie. We'll practice pronunciation later~ Qu'est ce que tu penses, bébé?" Seb cooed at Zu who was concentrated on coloring inside the lines.
"Je ne sais pas." He shrugged and continued drawing. Seb leaned to look at his drawing. There were several triangles, holding hands. Seb blinked. Huh. Reminded him of his own drawings as a kid. "What 'cha drawing?" He asked. Zu shifted his weight from side to side. "It's… a family." He said finally. Seb nodded. "Oh?"
"It's… brothers and their mom and dad." Zu told him. "But… the big brother goes away. He... " Zu frowned. "He was… different. The dad said that he couldn't be with them anymore…"
Seb felt cold inside. "Ah." His voice cracked. "That's… not good."
"No." Zu looked melancholic. "It wasn't good at all." He considered his drawing before his fist tightened around his color pencil until his knuckles went white. Then he loosened his grip and relaxed again. "But, back when they were together, things were good." He said quietly. Seb leaned down, ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest. "Yeah? Did the brothers have fun? When they were together?"
"A lot! The big brother was really, really smart! A-and they knew all the coolest stories and games to play-" Zu said, brightening up. "-and they were weird sometimes, but they were always really nice and-"
Sebastian grinned softly and reached for the gray crayon and drew some shapes reading a book. "I bet big brother also read to them a lot?" Seb carefully colored the bigger triangle he drew.
"Yeah! He read all the books they had! And then he wrote his own books so there'd be even more!" Zu's drawings were all lopsided, irregular. Seb thought he didn't have the fine motor control to make perfect equilaterals yet. That was fine. The irregulars were better! They were all unique! The former demon proudly looked on at his son's drawings. He liked the yellow triangle. "You know, yellow's my favorite color." He told Zu. His son giggled. "I like yellow too!"
"Yellow's the best color in the world!" The two curly haired father and son high-fived.
"Help me draw more of the family!" Zu demanded. They drew more of the family, in...happier situations than Seb had never lived as a mortal little Shape, but Zu liked them so he indulged him.
It was also weird how he drew the mom as a shape too but well... Zu was a kid so Seb guessed it made more sense to him.
The drawings became a practice to draw more shapes and learn about angles and degrees, while he went from Zu to Zoe from time to time. He had to pay attention to both of them after all.
"So how many degrees do a square's angle have?"
"90!" Zu exclaimed as he drew a happy, but very lopsided and not-at-all 90 degree-y square. He laughed and make it a dark blue. "Squares are boring ~" He grinned. Seb laughed too. "They sure aaaaare~"
"You know what's even more boring? A pentagon!" Seb drew a regular pentagon and made it have a silly look on its eye. Zu grimaced. "The more sides they are, the more BORING they are!"
"And circles are the WORSE!" Seb threw his hands into the air. "Stupid know-nothing-know-it-alls who keep sticking their non-existent angles into everyone else's business!"
Zu nodded vigorously and stuttered to express that he agreed with daddy in everything, but he didn't know HOW! He reached for his juice box and drank it as fast as he could, eyes tightly shut.
"They're not good shapes! They take people away! I don't-I don't like them! And-And drawing them is not nice too!" Zu huffed. He drew a circle and then scribbled over it in black, jagged and violent strokes. And then he scribbled blue all over the page. "There. Now he's dead." He said with satisfaction. Then, in a more sober voice, "Now they're all dead."
Seb's sole eye widened in satisfied surprise. "Damn~ Zully, I didn't know you had it in you!"
"It's Zu! Daddy!" the child pouted, eyes turning faintly red before fading back to brown. "Sorry! It was a slip!" Seb apologized. Zu looked down at his drawing again and the rest of his anger trailed away. He looked almost sad. "...they're all gone." He sniffled. "It's not fair…" Seb sighed and wrapped an arm around his son, pulling him in for a hug. "Yeah. It wasn't fair at all."
So lost in his own memories, Seb never thought to question why Zu knew all this.
Even when he was glad those assholes were gone...He...he had to admit a part of him (a very divided part of him, from Bill's remains of decency and actual feelings) that he missed some parts of it. His old friends, his brother...Many assholes died, but innocents, dumb, flat minded idiots, but still innocents, died as well.
"At least...We know their souls are safe, the Axolotl guards them." Seb smiled faintly. The one good thing that stupid lizard did.
"The Axo-Ax-lot? Is...Is that the god Mrs. Carol told us we would like to meet?" Zu asked.
Seb's thoughtful expression changed to a mad scowl and Zu giggled at how funny daddy looked. "Has Carol been trying to CONVERT you?!" Seb seethed.
"What does that mean?" Zu asked innocently.
Seb took a deep breath. "If anyone asks, you gotta say you're jewish, that's our cover religion, so its bad if someone comes to you trying to change that and tell you to change your religion to theirs. Carol has another religion, and if she's trying to make you follow her religion instead, that means convert."
"Oh. Then yes. She took us with Amanda to learn stuff in a funny big building. They talked about someone named God who was in charge of taking good people to Heaven."
"WHAT?!" Seb was so incredibly pissed at the sheer GALL that woman had!
Zu didn't care about it, he was still thinking about what daddy said before. "So...Daddy, when someone is gone forever...The Ax-lot will keep them safe?"
Seb took a deep breath, rubbed the bridge of his nose before exhaling. He'd deal with Carol later. "Yes, baby. The Axolotl creates souls and he makes sure souls continue a cycle. Some souls get reincarnated, some just move on and go to…"
"Heaven?"
"Um, yeah, you can call it that, but no one actually knows what it's like." Seb certainly never saw it. And he died multiple times!
"Do you think the Ax-lot got grandpa Matsuda?"
Seb blinked, having never had that thought before. "I think...Yeah, he must have…" He had no way to ask him (unless he wanted to die again to see him). "I'm sure he moved on." He sighed loudly.
Wow. This turned all deep and serious all of a sudden…
"Z-Zoe, how are you doing?" He listened to the sounds of the piano again (he had been so distracted the sound was blocked from his mind), and heard her playing Moana with help from a ThemTube video.
"I found another one. I was calling you and you didn't answer me!" She stuck her tongue out. Seb shook his head to get rid of the last minutes of weird conversation he had with his 4 year old son. "Oh~ I'm sorry~~" He grabbed Zu by his armpits and carried him towards Zoe who was still sitting in front of the piano. The twins shrieked as Dad squeezed them with his love.
"Dad! I can't breathe!" Zoe grunted.
"You can breathe just fine~ Otherwise you wouldn't be able to talk~" Seb laughed, rubbing his face against hers. He thought of something fun all three of them could do together. "Mommy's not here~ How about we watch a movie before going to sleep?"
""YAY!""
-.-
It didn't last long. Zoe and Zu were nodding off in front of the Tv after half an hour. It was a long day for two 4 year olds. The two were tired but refused to admit it. "Come on, kiddos, how about I read you a bedtime story, huh?" He picked them up, one in each arm and nuzzled them.
"Aaw~ Looks like the little monsters tired themselves out~ How about I sacrifice you to the boogeyman, huh?" They were just so tired they didn't protest or complain. Seb carried them up to their room and changed them into their pajamas and helped them brush their teeth. The two refused to brush their own teeth and Seb used his powers to levitate the toothbrushes into their mouths. At least the kids were awake enough to rinse and spit. He wiped their little faces clean and tucked them in before going to the bookshelf to find something to read to them. Mabel and Dipper had given them both a bunch of books for the holidays, so Seb might as well read one of them.
"Green Eggs and Ham." Seb read, doing a double take. Ah… weren't eggs not supposed to be green in this dimension? Ah, well. Ok then.
Half way through the story the twins passed out again and Seb gladly skipped out of the room to leave them rest. He wasn't too tired yet (and he felt lonely on the bed all alone, which made him feel dumb for being so dependant), so he spent a few hours in the living room, designing and humming to himself.
When he felt his weak vessel's exhaustion slowly show up, he stretched and yawned. He planned to go to his room to get ready for bed but that plan went out the window when something flew at him from out of nowhere and he was forced to throw himself to the ground to avoid getting hit by it.
"The FU-!?"
YASSS!