Something that had weighed heavily on Heather's mind for the longest time was that she had fallen in love and married a guy who had the family history of only having male offspring. As she still very much had the dream of getting to raise a little girl, that didn't sit well with her, but there wasn't much she could do about it. There was no way she was going to leave the guy she loved for that reason, and what else was there to be done? This was, of course, ignoring the fact that the only way to try and fulfil that dream was to have another child. At the point they were in their lives, still in their early twenties, there was no need to rush into things. To her, and she was sure Alejandro felt this same way, Andres was all they needed.
It didn't stop her from dreaming about having a little miniature version of herself to dress up and play with, though. Nor did it stop her from occasionally finding herself putting some of her own hair ties into her son's hair, just to see what he looked like with little ponytails made out of his thick, dark hair. He seemed to enjoy it, squealing and clapping when he'd be shown his reflection with his hair done, and it helped calm her desires of wanting a little girl around, but whenever she did this she had to make sure that there was absolutely no chance that Alejandro was around to possibly see it. There was something about him seeing his precious little boy with pigtails that set him off in half-Spanish rants about how boys only needed their hair pulled back when it would be in the way, not for looking cute, and rather than subjecting herself to having to listen to such nonsense, Heather chose to do her hairstyling in about as much secrecy as she could.
But when her little model was someone who didn't understand that he couldn't go to his dad with a hairbrush and a hair tie and get anywhere, there really wasn't that much secrecy to be had about things. Or, at least, there wasn't much that could stay secret about that situation, and because the amount of times that it was revealed that she was still doing what she wasn't supposed to be just kept going up and up until it was nearly a daily thing, something had to be done about it. Something had to be introduced into the home environment that would give her the chance to force feminine qualities on someone who wasn't a growing boy.
And that was why, one day after spending most of the afternoon working, Alejandro came home with a cat. A brown and white ball of fluff that he didn't seem to be happy with having with him at all. Heather, on the other hand, was more than pleased with the gift and took to it immediately, grabbing it from him when she saw it and holding it tightly to her. "You could've warned me you were going to bring something home for me," she said, as she started petting the cat, "but I guess I can forgive you. Cats are pretty great and I'm glad you've seen the light about this." That was in reference to one of their most common arguments, about what sort of pet they should have, where she stood firmly on the side of a cat and he was more for a dog. "Tell me what the occasion is, though. You're not usually big on spoiling me without reason."
"I figured that you could use the companionship of something that would not beg for me to style its hair. That way, you are no longer teaching Andres that it is acceptable for him to go around the house with multiple ties in his hair." At the sound of his name, the little boy cheerfully ran to his dad and began clinging to his leg, which distracted Alejandro for a moment, picking the boy up and holding him much like Heather was holding the cat. "Even though, I must admit that the shelter did not have a large selection in long-haired cats, and so I had to pick a male one."
"So it's okay for me to decorate a boy cat, but not our son? Yeah, okay, whatever." The cat meowed and, in response, she began petting him, her fingers hitting a collar that he wore around his neck. "Oh, what's this?" she asked, fiddling with it to find the tags on it, and then reading what one of the tags said. "Wait a second, does this say a description of him, or his name? Because that's a dumb name if it really is his name."
"I was not going to change it, not when it is the name he has grown up with," Alejandro replied, giving a slightly smug grin in Heather's direction. "It may be wordy but it fits him, and therefore it stays."
She rolled her eyes, returning the collar back to how it had been before she started messing with it. "I'm not calling him Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl. I'll shorten to…well, something that isn't that, but I'm not calling him that."
"Yes you are. It is his name, and it is a fitting name. Therefore, we will do our best to use it when referring to him." The smile grew a little smugger. "It is, of course, either this or have no cat and nothing to practice your hair styling on but yourself."
"Nope, we're keeping him, and I'm shortening this stupid name to Swirl. It's more fitting anyway, and doesn't take a minute to say." Her retort was met with a reminder that nicknames of that sort were not allowed, something she knew dearly as she was told that nearly as often as she was told to stop beautifying Andres. "Whatever. He's my cat, and I'm calling him what I want to call him. Even if you don't agree with me, it's not your decision and, really, I don't care what you have to say."
"You should care what I say, because I took the time out of my day to go get him for you, and the least you can do is respect him and his name, much like you respect me with my name. You would not treat him worse than me, would you?" If there was an answer to that, it wasn't paid attention to, because Andres began squirming and chanting that he wanted down (in what few words he knew, as he was barely a year and a half old), and once he was down he ran over to his mom and reached up at her, not wanting to be picked up but to try and get what she was holding.
"Is this cat good with kids?" Heather asked, watching the little hands that were reaching up at the cat's tail. "I don't want this to get ugly if he manages to grab poor little Swirl."
Alejandro's smug smile faded as he watched what was happening. "I would not have picked him over the others if he was not suited to be around a child. Trust me, there were cats with much more simple names that I could have chosen, but they would not react kindly to whatever horrors may have happened to them if they came to live with us. Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl there, he will tolerate what will happen to him." As he had said the cat's name, the smile came back, just to completely disappear when the cat let out a pained screech as a grubby hand finally got a grasp of his tail. "Or, ahem, he may just do that."
In the process of his screech, the cat dug his claws straight into the arms that held him, and once she realized that the claws had drawn blood, Heather screamed and threw the cat to the floor—or, rather, threw the cat straight at her son, who still held onto his tail with wonder as to what he was holding. With the force that the animal hit him, he was knocked to sitting on the floor, the cat landing in his lap, and that was the moment that things could have gotten worse, if the cat hadn't started purring and forgiving the child for holding onto him like he was.
"Tolerate it, huh?" Looking at her arms and the scratches that now covered them, Heather took a deep breath and shook her head. "Looks like the cat you bought for me doesn't like me very much at all."
"Or he had just gotten his tail pulled and reacted the only way he knew how," Alejandro suggested, "because you were holding him and he needed to get away from whatever was hurting him. Although he seems to enjoy being with who was actually hurting him." True to that, the cat was still purring and looked to be enjoying the rough petting he was being subjected to. "So maybe you are correct, and it is you he does not like. I can only assume that is because you refuse to call him his proper name."
"Ha, very funny. Pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. I'm going to hope this isn't because he hates me and more because he was attacked while I was holding him, or else I'm not going to use him for the purpose you intended." After she finished speaking she walked away to go tend to her scratches, leaving everyone as they were. And when she came back, the scene was mostly the same, the only exception being that Alejandro had sat down next to Andres and the cat, and was talking to the little boy about how one was supposed to treat cats, and that meant no pulling the cat's tail.
He listened to that rule, mostly. There would still be instances of the cat screeching because his tail was being pulled, but they were not regular occurrences. In fact, the most regular noise that the cat made was purrs, always from when he would find himself sitting on someone's lap or next to them and in close enough of a proximity to get petted. Even with his goofy name and the fact that he was typically referred to it with the entire thing (this was because the only person who didn't simply refer to him as "the cat" was Alejandro), he was a perfect pet for them to have around.
Until the dog came into their lives, anyway.
Much like it had been with the introduction of Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl into their family, the dog was very much a surprise that Alejandro brought home with him one day. Unlike the cat, though, this surprise was not one that was accepted and forgiven quickly, if only because he didn't make this one as obvious as the cat. He made sure to go out and purchase the little puppy when he knew that no one would be home when he brought it to the house, so that he had time to figure out how to explain his decision to his wife when she came back. Or, that was what he had thought he was going to do, but the truth was that there was no way he could explain to Heather why he had gotten a dog without so much as mentioning to her beforehand without her getting angry with him.
There was a little glimmer of hope when she came home, dragging with her a screaming two-year-old that was going on about not getting something at the store, and she didn't pay any notice to the presence of a dog carrier near the doorway. But that hope was quickly dashed when her cat came tearing out of whatever room he was resting in, with a black blur following behind. "Whoa, what in the world is terrorizing the cat, and why is it in the house?" she asked loudly, to be heard through walls and over the whining child she was still holding on to. "Someone better answer that before I kick whatever it is out of here."
Before she could get the chance to chase it down and do what she threatened, Alejandro came into the room, whistled for the animal to come to him, and when it didn't, he shook his head and laughed. "That, mi amor, is a dog. More specifically, it is our dog."
"I didn't agree to a dog. Cat, yes, because cats are great, but no dogs. Dogs eat cats for lunch. You're going to get rid of it, or I'll do it for you." The cat came running back into the room, the dog still following, and Heather put a stop to the chasing by picking the cat up and handing him to Andres, who stopped his whining when he realized that he was getting to play with the cat. "I'm not very happy about this."
"That was expected, which is why you were not informed that I was going to purchase her until after it was done. It is only fair that we each have the pet we want, rather than you have one while I do not." Whistling again, this time with the dog bounding to him, Alejandro smiled down at the little black and brown creature that flopped down at his feet. "I think you will grow to appreciate her as much as I already have."
"Her? Are you telling me that you get to have a female pet? That's so not fair." She took a few angry breaths, before dropping the appearance of being incredibly angered by what was happening. "Okay, guess it's not so bad. This place did need another girl in it, and I guess I can forgive that she came in the form of a dog. Let me guess, though, her name's something just as dumb as Swirl's is, huh?"
"No, as I named her, I can assure you that I took only the best name from our combined name list. We shall call her Sofia," he said, earning a groan from Heather, before continuing with, "and she will be a wonderful addition to our family."
A second groan, louder than the first, was the response to that. "You think it's funny to do things like this, don't you? That list was built for whenever we got past whatever stupid problem your family has with having girls, and you used it to name a dog!" By the time she was done speaking, her voice was much higher than it had started, and all that had done was make Alejandro tune out her silly argument, as well as call the dog's attention to her. Which meant that she was soon having little puppy paws clawing at her legs, and her instinct was to kick the dog away. "Nope. Not doing this. She goes."
"If she goes, then your dear Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl goes with her. It is unfair if one of us gets a pet while the other does not, and I can assure you that Sofia will be no sort of problem once she is trained and a bit more grown. Trust me that this will all work out." There was a chuckle in between two of his sentences that she didn't notice, too busy looking at the dog and trying to keep her away to even care. "So, what do you say? She is staying here, correct?"
"I don't really have a place to argue with you, I guess, since I do have a cat and all. It's only fair. Completely ridiculous, but fair." Heather looked over to where her cat was, still being held and petted by Andres, and as she looked she saw the little boy looking to her. "Oh, what do you want? Did he scratch you or something?"
The child shook his head, setting the cat down before he could actually be scratched. Then, after watching the cat run off, once again with the dog following, he dropped to the floor where he stood, getting on his hands and knees and starting to crawl around like an animal, meowing and barking intermittently. There was no explaining of what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but it eased the tensions that had come up over the pets, because it was clear he liked both animals. And if he could accept them both, then his parents were going to have to do the same, or risk disappointing him.
It was an acceptance that was just understood between them and never really spoken of as a matter that needed to be dealt with. There was no getting rid of either pet, even when the dog turned out to be a lot bigger of a hassle than anyone, especially Heather, could have expected. That was mostly because it was never mentioned what type of dog Sofia was, but it became very painfully obvious when she started growing like a weed, going from cute puppy to almost horse sized in the time between when she was purchased—a few weeks after the Valentine's season—and when Christmas rolled around. The little excitable pup who had found joy in chasing the cat around the house had turned into a giant, gentle, and loving companion to said cat, even if she towered over him. She was also easily the greatest thing to have ever happened in Andres' life up to that point, as he would hang around the dog as often as possible, playing with her more than he would any toy.
It was quite a sight to behold, a not-even-fully grown dog being taller than her child companion, but she was so gentle that there was nothing to worry about. Which, really, was for the best, as the adults had far more important things to be worrying about that didn't involve how safe the dog was with the kid who loved her so much. They had to focus on, partially, anyway, what to get said kid for Christmas. But they were looking out at the bigger picture a lot more than that one narrow frame, and the bigger picture was fairly simple to comprehend: at any point from the holiday on, someone new would be joining the fray that was this little family, and that had to be a primary focus.
Even if making sure that Andres had a great Christmas was a top priority as well. For most of the month before the holiday he had done nothing but point out things he wanted, regardless of if they were things he would actually enjoy or if they were something he didn't quite understand. Or, as happened on several occasions when he and his parents would be at the store and he'd say he wanted something, he would find something meant for infants and say he wanted it, just so that he could give it to his baby brother whenever possible.
At the brother part of those wishes, no matter how cute they were, Heather would always roll her eyes and give dirty looks at Alejandro, who would always smugly smile right back at her. Having a second child, while it wasn't something they had intended for, was yet another chance for her to have that little girl she had wanted, but it simply was not meant to be, and that point was one he liked to make sure he rubbed in a bit. When the topic of the second baby's gender would be brought up when they were alone, he would make sure to remind her that he had told her that it was going to be that way, and she would just have to accept it.
Accepting that her dream may never come true was not anything she wanted to do, but she knew she had to accept that, at least for the moment, it wasn't what was meant to be. And that meant having to go through an abridged version of preparations that they had gone through not quite three years before—a fact that, when she thought about it, honestly didn't feel real in the slightest. To her, it didn't seem like almost three years had passed, but when she looked at Andres and saw how big he was (not to mention how much he looked just like his dad), it felt all too real.
And the clock was ticking closer and closer to when there'd be another baby in the house, with the last baby still around and still dependent on his parents, even if he was big and capable of doing so many things on his own. Life was going to change for them all, and it really was just a matter of time. But before that change would happen, there was a very special holiday for them to celebrate together, the last Christmas for them where there would be only one kid opening presents.
It was an early morning, with two of the three people in the house being far too excited to open presents to sleep in late, much to the disgust of the third person. "I don't understand why you're forcing me to be awake this early," Heather grumbled as she slowly pulled herself out of bed to the sound of Alejandro tapping his fingers on the door. "You could easily put this off until later. Don't you value your beauty sleep?"
"I know you are aware that beauty sleep is one of the things we will not need to be worrying about again for a long time. Besides, it is not like it would do much for you anyway, with how stunning you look naturally." It was an attempt to get her to accept the fact that she was going to be up for presents, but with the way she glared at him for it, he realized that it came off as trying to sound like he was kissing up to her. "I hope I did not offend there. You know how much I love you."
"Whatever. Can't believe you're making me do this, on one of the last mornings we'll get to sleep in for the next year." That was when she showed him a rude hand gesture, causing him to laugh, but his laughter was not the reaction she had wanted. "Ugh, you act like you've completely forgotten how bad those first weeks with a new baby are. We're going to be ugly zombies around here. Just let me sleep for a bit longer, okay?"
"I would allow it, but there is a small problem." Alejandro held up two fingers placed very close together. "That being, of course, that Andres is already out with the presents, and you know how he can get sometimes when he wants something and it is in his grasp. We need to make sure he does not open his gifts without us there."
The glare softened and Heather sighed. "Okay, fine, point taken. But as soon as he's opened everything I am going right back to bed." She was told that was an acceptable course of action, as long as she tried to seem at least somewhat happy during the event, and her reaction to that was to quite literally shove Alejandro into the wall as she walked past him, not caring in the slightest that he needed to get to the same place she was going.
It didn't matter in the end, though, because by the time they got there together (he couldn't help it that she was so slow and easy to catch up to), they were greeted with a mess of paper that was ripped to shreds and thrown all over the room. In the middle of the mess was not the child that would logically be there, but Sofia the dog and her feline companion Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl, both looking like they had just won the free toy lottery or something similar. "Oh, looks like your dumb dog ruined this fun moment in our lives." Grumbling once more, Heather's glare returned in full force as she looked around at the scene before turning her head so she was staring right into Alejandro's eyes. "Bet you didn't expect this would happen, huh?"
"I would not jump to the conclusion of it being Sofia's fault so quickly when there are two pets present," he replied, putting his hand under her chin and turning her head back to the animals. "We should be blaming them both, not just the one I care for."
"No, see, we know that Swirl didn't do it. He handled himself perfectly last year. It's that damn dog that got into everything, and I can't believe you let this happen." She grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand off of her, before she went and sat down in the closest chair to the scene of the crime. "I'm waiting for you to admit your dog did it. We're not going anywhere until you tell me that it's her fault."
"Then it seems we will be going nowhere for a long time, because she is not solely responsible for this incident. Just because you do not like her does not mean you get to blame her for everything." Rather than trying to make anything about the situation better, he simply called for the dog and had her stand beside him, so he could pet her head and watch her wag her long tail, knocking paper around with it. "Sofia is a well-behaved dog, and you know this."
At the sound of her name, the dog gave a soft bark, even though it was still loud enough to get the cat to stand up and walk out of the room, clearly not wanting anything more to do with the situation. As his fluffy tail rounded the corner out, a big box started making its way in, being pushed into the room by someone unseen. It wasn't until the box was moving paper out of its way that Andres popped up from the other side of it, his green eyes shining with excitement that was shared in his big smile. "Oh look, maybe the kiddo would know what's going on here. Did the dog open all your presents, Andres?" Heather asked, leaning forward a bit in her chair to get just a smidge closer to the boy. "Or did the cat?"
He shook his head and pointed to himself. "Not cat, not dog! Me!" Looking to his parents to see what he figured would be pride, he saw them both look surprised, and due to that his smile disappeared, replaced with a sad look. "Not okay?" When they both shook their heads at him, his lower lip jutted out and he started tearing up. "Not okay…but good! Got," he hit the box a couple of times, "for baby bro'er!"
To check the validity of the statement, Alejandro looked inside of the box and found that the child had indeed opened everything that was intended for his not-yet-born younger brother and put all in one place. "And what did you do with everything that was meant for you? We can tell that every gift was opened, not just the ones in here."
"Uh, in room!" Sniffling from his little bit of crying, Andres ran out of their sight for a moment, the dog following him out, and he came back with his arms full of things that were clearly for him. "See, I have, I have!"
"He's so proud of himself. It's a shame we're going to punish him for ruining the one reason you forced me to be awake and out of bed." Of all the things Heather expected in response to her statement, what she got came as a complete surprise: a shrug of the shoulders and a look that told her that she wasn't quite right. "Come on, he opened all the presents. We've got to tell him that's not okay."
"There are ways to do that which do not require punishment, and you act as if he did it out of greed. He did this to set everything aside for someone he cares about very much, and that is an act that should be praised. Even if he did ruin the fun and excitement of this morning for us." And so, after explaining that what he did, even if it was nice, was bad, they tried to salvage the opening of the presents, which amounted in covering what Andres already knew as his own in ripped paper and having him uncover it and look surprised. It wasn't the same as him not knowing what was there, but it worked.
It was ultimately all okay, as the best gift they could have gotten for the holiday came a few days later, a perfectly healthy baby boy that made his screaming entrance into the world a handful of hours before the beginning of the new year.
For a few weeks, everything was difficult. Adjusting to not just having to care for a baby but an older child as well was a hard change, but after those first few weeks, things grew to get easier, especially since they already knew how to properly raise a baby. There were very few surprises with the second child, as he was just as easy to take care of as his brother had been nearly three years beforehand.
However, there was one distinct difference in the two, something that both parents learned all too well; while Andres had always preferred to be held by his mom, little baby Sergio (named for another one of Alejandro's cousins he had grown up with) definitely did not like it when he was being held by his mom for more than a few minutes. But a lot of the time, she was the only option and so he cried and cried for what felt like hours, until his dad would be around to carry him to his little heart's content.
Did it feel weird to Heather that she wasn't getting to bond as well with her second son as she had her first? She would laugh it off and say that it didn't bother her in the slightest, but she would feel pangs of sadness when she'd watch the baby laughing and having fun with Alejandro, when she knew that if she were trying to play little baby games with him, all he would do was cry. To keep her mind off the fact that she wasn't the desired parent to him, she would spend a lot of time with Andres, making sure he didn't get too jealous that he wasn't the only kid in the house anymore. While he was definitely feeling the lack of attention, he did still very much like getting to spend time with his mom, even if she was spending it with him because she wasn't wanted elsewhere.
It seemed like things were working themselves out for a while, but as life tended to do, when a happy rhythm was found, something was thrown in that set it off-balance once more. In this case, it was a month and a half before Sergio's first birthday, after nearly a year of new experiences and ways of managing his love of one parent over the other, when a huge wrench was thrown into everything. Or, at least, that was how the news was presented to friends and family alike, with the only people knowing that what was happening was intentional being the two people involved in the decision.
No one else needed to know that one of them had gotten desperate about wanting a daughter to love and to raise, and that they had decided to give it a shot, even though the other made sure to state the reminder that it wasn't going to happen several times. There was no point in not trying, though, even if it was definitely not the best timing and was going to leave them with oddly staggered ages of their kids. Just like had been warned, even with the idea of "third time's the charm" in their minds and hearts, there was no changing fate at all. That meant, joining two older brothers, there would be a third little boy being added to the mix.
The kicker to that news, probably the worst part of it all, was that he was supposed to be born right around the same time as a very important date that wasn't a birthday. Forgetting one's wedding anniversary was somewhat of a crime, wasn't it? And how were they to celebrate the day if there was possibly going to be a baby born at the same time? Well, if it wasn't Alejandro planning things, there would probably have been some moving around of celebrations, but he wasn't going to let a possibility ruin the moment of celebrating their fifth year together. (He was reminded a time or two about the last time he had pushed through with planning a night out, that early Valentine's dinner that had taken place four years beforehand, but that did not deter him.)
As the day drew closer, he felt like he had made the right decision, although Heather was still completely convinced that he had set up the same exact sort of disaster as the last time. There was no way of knowing which one of them was going to be right until the night was over, though—and to make things more interesting, they set up a bet between them over who got to pick the name of the baby, all depending on who was right about if the night was going to be ruined or not. Finally, when the day was upon them, neither of them was willing to move an inch about their stance on the matter, even if it was far too late for them to change the course of events, and it made for an interesting morning and early afternoon of preparing for what may come.
One of the preparations involved needing someone to watch the kids, who were definitely far too young to be left on their own. That was going to be something new, as they had never once left the two young boys in the care of anyone who wasn't family before, and on this bright and lovely late spring day, that fact was going to be rendered old news. Who they were to pick to have watch the boys was a battle they fought against each other for weeks, but the answer was ultimately decided when there was a knock at the front door and not just one, but two babysitters came into the house for the job.
It was going to be a great night for at least someone, be it the parents out on their date, or the boys back at home being watched by the slightly unlikely duo of Sierra and Cody.
A/N: Okay, so I'm pretty sure everyone knows where this is going. Sierra's going to kidnap the kids and...wait, no, that's not where this is going. Although where it is going is slightly obvious based on what's already happened. Stay tuned and find out what goes down next time! :D