Outside the walls of the house, snow was falling down from a dreary gray sky that seemed to make everyone's mood be sour. Inside, though, was warm and bustling, even though there was very little conversing that happened without someone getting snapped at. With just over a month before Christmas, there was a lot that needed to get done, especially with so many children who enjoyed the season in the house, and all of those things needed a lot of cooperation and work to get flowing.

But having only the younger three kids helping out was not going to get things set up and properly decorated very quickly, something that Alejandro knew very well. But he also knew that getting help from the oldest child was next to impossible on a day like the one they were having, because of all of the negative attitudes the weather was giving everyone, as well as the fact that Andres, as usual, was making the effort to bond with his mom instead of doing as he was supposed to. While neither were good reasons for why he wasn't there, at least the first one was something different, while the second one was never one that would be excused—a fact that really should have been gotten by then.

Work had to be stopped for the moment, it was ultimately decided, because having kids who didn't exactly know what they were doing try to set up decorations on their own while their father wasn't around was never going to end well. Neither was them decorating with his help and supervision, at that. That was why Andres had to be there, because he was the one who would be fastest and most competent at the decorating, and the only way that he'd be there would be if someone went and physically brought him to where the boxes of decorations that needed to be sorted through were. And as none of the kids were exactly big enough to do that, it meant that it was a task for one fairly displeased Alejandro to take on, something he accepted but was not happy about in the slightest.

There was no way anything was going to get done without Andres there, though, and that meant that getting him just had to happen. Like usual, he was found with his mom, but also like usual their location was somewhere that reflected what feminine activity they were taking part in. This particular instance, for example, he found them sitting in front of one of the house's big windows, bottles of nail polish sitting on the floor next to them and the cat very close nearby. Rather than just ruining the moment right away to collect the boy and drag him screaming into the other room, Alejandro decided to stand back and watch the two for a moment, just to see what was going on before he ended it, and from the spot he chose to watch them he could also hear the discussion that was going on.

"I don't know why it's wrong for me to do this," Andres was saying, as he was grabbing some of the nail polish and opening the bottle, taking the brush to one of his fingernails once he had it. "It's just color, right?"

"It is just color, and that's why I think it's stupid that if you get caught doing this, you get in trouble. Like, really? I say you can do it, so you can do it. Easy as that. But since I don't want you getting in trouble right now, don't paint your own nails and paint mine instead." It brought a small smile to Alejandro's lips, hearing the woman he loved telling the son that he, er, sort of loved to not do one of those activities that was frowned upon, even if it was to do a different activity that was also frowned upon. But that could easily be forgiven, as he saw that she was referring to the nails on her toes, and in her current state of being she couldn't exactly get to her toenails very easily, if at all.

That would have all been fine and perfect, had Andres actually done what his mother had told him to do. Instead he continued to brush polish onto his own nails, completely ignoring what he had been told. "I'll do your next, mom, I promise. I just want to do mine first."

"I'm telling you, you'll get in trouble for that. It's stupid, but it's true." Looking from his nails to his mom, Andres shook his head and went back to his painting, and she sighed. "Come on, either you like getting in trouble, or you don't get it that maybe you should tone down this 'being like me' thing you've got going on. I love it, don't get me wrong, but someone else doesn't love it and you've got to keep that in mind. What will he think when he sees this?"

"He'll think I'm trying to be a girl. Like always." There was a moment where the room became quiet aside from the sound of the cat purring, but then the bottle of nail polish was set back down, a soft noise of glass touching carpet. "Mom, listen to me, I think he hates me and he wants me to feel bad for liking you. I know, you don't like when I say that. But it's true! He hates me! And—"

"I do not hate you." Stepping out from where he had been watching, just his mere appearance made Heather cover her mouth in shock and Andres to go very pale, his eyes widening in fear as he watched his father come closer. "However, I do not approve of what you are doing here, at all. You are well aware of what you were supposed to be doing right now, correct?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," the boy replied, trying to hide his hands so that his painted nails couldn't be seen. "Decorating for stuff, I think. Not anything I really wanted to do, and since I sort of have three brothers I figured they could do the work for me. Mom had been talking about having a day where we sat and did fun things, so I chose today for that."

"You do not get to choose to not do something you are told you are doing, no matter how much you despise spending time with me." Maybe taking a harsh tone there wasn't the best idea, based on the situation and the content of his sentence, but it was hard enough at that moment for Alejandro to keep his words in a language everyone present could understand that some mistakes were going to be made. "Now I do understand that you feel you are more wanted here with your mother, but you are needed more with your brothers."

There was a second where Andres looked like he was going to give in to what was being demanded of him, but before he could say any half-hearted apologies, he noticed that his mom had narrowed her eyes and was shaking her head at his father. "Uh, mom, you look like you want to say something…" he commented, hoping that she did, and that whatever it was would get him off the hook for what he had done.

"I do want to say something, but I don't think it's anything you need to be hearing. In fact, it's not anything I want to have to say. Yet here we are, in a situation where I think I'm going to have to say it." Pointing one of her freshly-painted fingers in Alejandro's direction, Heather shook it at him a few times before getting to the point she didn't want to make. "You think you can come in here, ruin my moment with my son, and then tell him that he's needed somewhere else when there is not a single person in this house that could ever need him more than I could? Yeah, no thanks. I don't care if that's how things were handled back when you were a kid, or whatever it is that makes you act like such a jerk when Andres is involved, but you do not ever, and I mean ever, get involved in our bonding time. Got it?"

"I do not see this as bonding time so much as it is you trying to make our son," he made sure to heavily emphasize there, "into more of a feminine boy than he already is. And while I have no issues with him embracing his feminine side, there is a limit and you are pushing him completely past that." That was when he reached for the long braid that hung down his son's back, to give an example by sight, but when he went for it the kid had moved, escaping the impending argument before it could get worse. The lack of a child being there caught him off guard. "Okay, this is no time for joking around. Where did you tell him to go in case I came in?"

When he looked to Heather to watch her respond and be able to call her on whatever lie she decided to make, he saw that she was just as confused as he was, and their eyes met after she looked around the room to see where the boy ran off to as well. "I didn't tell him anything, thank you very much. Nice to see that you trust me about as much as you trust him, though. Makes me feel really great about our relationship."

"Maybe he actually listened to me and is out doing what he should have been doing all along," Alejandro said, ignoring what his wife had just accused him of and breaking eye contact with her to head out of the room. "You stay in here and remain as beautiful as always, mi amor. I promise to you that I will handle all of this animosity and make things right, as they should be."

While he walked towards the door, he could hear her behind him, shuffling around and eventually coming to follow him, made more evident when she grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her once more. "Oh no you don't," she told him. "You're not fixing anything, because your method of fixing things with him is to make them worse. Don't think he hasn't told me about that knife incident."

"It was one time, and if there had been anything else in my hand it too would have been pointed at his face. Now let me go and do what I must, and you can stay in here and not worry about a thing. Getting too worked up here would not be good for you or the baby, and the last thing I want is for anything to happen to either of you." The way he sincerely smiled at her was enough to get her to believe him, because sure they may have been bickering, but he did love her in the end, and he did have her best intentions in mind. She let go of him and stepped back, seeming to have given up on stopping him. "As I said, I promise to you that I will make things right."

"Good luck making things right when you've been making them wrong for years," she replied, smirking at him a little. "And when you're done fixing things up with him, you're coming back here and fixing them with me. Because I am so not happy with you right now."

He gave her his word that he would do just that and went on his way, in search of the kid that seemed to have just disappeared in the middle of an argument involving him. Hoping that what he had thought was true, the first place Alejandro went to look was the main room, where the two youngest kids had started to make a mess of decorations (something that had been expected). But something there was off, as Sergio was nowhere to be found, and if there was one thing that he'd learned in his years being father to these kids was that if the adventurous kid was missing, there was some sort of terrible thing that was going to happen. After all, if there was one kid who was going to be responsible for some sort of mayhem, it was going to be the one who regularly let the animals outside where they did not belong, and didn't seem to grasp the concept that he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do when it involved life-threatening circumstances.

And that was when he looked out the window and saw someone walking outside in the snow, wearing a brightly-colored jacket and headed towards one of the biggest trees in the yard—a sure sign that everything was about to go very wrong. Without so much as bothering to put shoes or even a jacket of his own on, Alejandro ran to the closest door, threw it open, and ran outside. The snow bit at his feet but he ignored it as he chased down the boy who was wandering around by his lonesome. Like he had figured, it wasn't the kid who had disappeared but rather his younger brother, and when he asked Sergio why, exactly, he was outside without permission, the boy's answer was enough to make all worries intensify: "Because Andres came out here! If he's gonna play, I'm playing too!"

"He came out here?" There may have been snow falling from the sky, but it was still possible to see a decent amount into the distance, and there was no sight of anyone else outside but them. "Surely you are mistaken. Where would he be, if he were out here?"

After hesitating just a moment as he thought about ratting his brother out, Sergio pointed up into the tree. "There. He said he was hiding, and that's where he hides outside."

"Of course that is where he would be. How about you go inside and let your mother know about this, because I know she will be able to get him down. I will stay out here to make sure nothing happens while we wait for her." Ruffling the boy's hair and sending him on his way, Alejandro hoped that the kid wouldn't take too long doing what he was told to do. It wasn't too cold outside, but being barefoot and jacketless was not exactly the brightest thing he could have done, and he didn't want to stand around outside for much longer. But he couldn't leave where he stood, not when he knew that there was someone up in the tree who definitely was not supposed to be there, and while he also knew that waiting for someone that would get Andres down with little trouble was the best idea, he didn't want to have to wait. So that meant trying to get him down himself. "What told you that climbing a tree during a snowstorm would be a good idea?" he asked, turning his head to face the higher branches. "Get down here, before something happens and you regret this decision."

"I'm not getting down for you!" a wavering voice yelled back at him. "No way! I'm not doing it, just because I know you'll punish me for this!"

It took a few deep breaths, but somehow Alejandro was able to reply without sounding too angry. "If you get down right now, there will be no punishing at all. In fact, if I closed my eyes at this moment and opened them back up to see you standing here next to me, I would forgive everything wrong you have done today."

"Like what, wanting to be around someone who cares about me? You're a terrible father, and there's nothing that'll change that!" A few branches started to shake, giving away his location in the tree, which was about halfway up it. "I won't come down, never for someone who hates me so much!"

"Why does it always come back to this point? I do not hate you. I disapprove of some of your interests, yes, but that does not mean I hate you. It just means I wish you would become less like your mother, and—" He was cut off by a scream, one that sounded more like it had come from a wild animal than a child in a tree.

"I'm not like her at all! Do you know what she says when I'm spending time with her? No, I bet you don't, because it involves me and you hate me!" The tree shook more as it became clear that Andres was losing his temper where he was. "She always says that I'm so much like you! I look like you, I act like you, I'm pretty much exactly like you! But because I like her more than you, it means you don't want anything to do with me!" There was a split second where the tree stood still, immediately followed by a sickening snap and another scream, this one different than the unhinged one before.

This scream, lasting the time it took the boy to fall the distance from where he had been hiding to the ground, ended with a different sort of snapping sound. Naturally, it was right as he hit the snowy ground that the person who should have been the one trying to coax him down came outside, and she was greeted to the scene by the sight of her oldest child laying on the ground, in a stunned silence. "Uh, what's going on out here?" she managed to ask, before yet another kind of screaming started.

"He just fell out of the tree, much like any disobedient boy who decides that hiding on snowy branches is a good idea," Alejandro replied, over the sound of Andres and his cries that something was wrong. "While I would love to stay and make sure that he is okay, I am beginning to freeze out here and you would be more suited for the task anyway."

"No way, you're not getting out of this that easily," Heather snapped back. "You came out here improperly dressed, you're just going to have to deal with it. Besides, what good am I going to be if he's down there? Can't exactly bend down and help him up."

"Fine, I will help him to his feet and then he is yours to handle." Still ignoring the absolutely distressed crying they were talking over, he went to the side of the kid who was crumpled into a ball on the ground and bent to be closer to him. "Stop being a weak child and get up. A fall from that height surely cannot have been that bad." All he got in response was an unintelligible scream that couldn't have even begun to have been understood, and he sighed. "Why would I have assumed you would have made this easy for me? Everything with you is always so difficult."

The problem with what had happened was simple: based on the way he had fallen, Andres had landed the wrong way on his arm, causing him to scream and cry about it. However, no one there had expected the damage to have been nearly as bad as it was, especially not the one crying, because when he was standing and he saw what had happened, he fell over and had to be caught at the last second by his unwilling-to-help father who hadn't yet seen what the matter was. In fact, he didn't even think to look until after he heard Heather let out a string of curses and shocked words at it, and then it wasn't so much looking to see what was causing his son so much pain as it was to see what had made his wife react like that.

Whatever bone (or bones) it was that was sticking out of the boy's arm, it was definitely not how it was supposed to look, and it was not something that going inside and wrapping up was going to help. And since looking at it was starting to fill Alejandro not with a sense of rage like he had figured, but instead a sense of regret for letting it happen, he knew that he wasn't going to be the one who ultimately had to fix this one. So, like he always seemed to do when it was Andres involved, he let the "better" parent take charge in the situation, even though she seemed to be angrier about it than he was.

With good reason, though, as she repeated several times in the few minutes there were between then and them leaving. There was barely a week before they were supposed to be taking decent family pictures, and how decent could they be if one of the kids had his arm wrapped in a cast? But there was no denying that it was just how it was going to have to be, especially not after one lovely afternoon-to-late night spent in the emergency room having to deal with the repercussions of falling almost ten feet out of a tree. And that was enough to make an already-unstable family start to fracture more.

Regardless of all the bad things happening when the big day rolled around, there was still an air of excitement when it came to getting everyone ready for pictures. This was a household built around the love of two vain people, after all, and they had passed down their obsession with making sure they looked their best to all of their kids, even if some inherited more of it than others. For instance, on that morning, one of the boys spent just a few minutes making sure his hair looked fine and that his clothes were nice enough, but one of the others took what felt like hours making sure he was as cute as he could be. A third took somewhere in between the two, but needed help finding clothes that were appropriate for the occasion.

Then there was Andres, who normally would have been the slowest and most pristine of the four, but due to his dominant arm being immobilized by a rather ugly-looking splint, he wasn't able to really do much getting ready on his own. That left him at the mercy of his brothers, since his parents were busy getting themselves prepared for the day, and although his brothers did know a thing or two about looking nice, none of them were exactly able to do the most important thing that the oldest boy needed; because of this, when the family gathered to leave, his hair was left hanging loose and un-brushed, and would have remained as such if it hadn't bothered his mom to see it that way.

Although, if it had been up to his father, he would have just had it cut to a more manageable length, rather than pulling it back into a braid. But it was no time for new haircuts, as they had a fairly important date with a photo studio that needed to be met, lest they disappoint the extended family with a lack of good holiday cards. "I hope you look back at this and think it's the most ridiculous idea you've ever let us get suckered into." Said with a sigh and a look into one of the car mirrors, Heather did not seem pleased at all to be having to go along with this event. "I mean, pictures! Great! Best idea ever! But all of us? No thank you. There are two problems here, and I don't think anyone wants to see either of them."

"I disagree with you on one of those two 'problems' you are referring to, although the second one I can agree with. Instead of having a nice family picture to share with everyone, we will be sending out one that be ruined by the carelessness of someone." Without even naming anyone, it was clear who and what Alejandro was referring to, made all the more definite by the almost disgusted tone he spoke with. "I am sure that, if we ask nicely, we can manage to have him hidden in the back to prevent anyone from seeing his arm, and that would keep the amount of questions about it to a minimum."

"I'd say that's a great plan, but how would that work? They'd need to have some really tall stand to make him be seen, and I don't think I want to risk the chance of him getting hurt again." She turned to look to the back row of seats, over the not-very eager faces of the two youngest kids, to see what exactly the child who was being talked about was doing. To no one's surprise at all, he was facing out the window, trying his hardest to not pay attention to what was going on in the vehicle around him. "Maybe we can make it sound like he got hurt doing something, well, interesting, not something dumb like it was. Your family likes sports, maybe we could say it was a sporting thing!"

"We are not lying to everyone about what he did to earn that splint. In fact, we are either going to not let anyone see it, or we are going to leave him out of the picture. Those are our two options here, and that is just how it is going to be." Despite the muttered protests of the person seated next to him, there wasn't any way that he was going to change his mind on the matter unless something forced him to change it. There was no way he was going to show people that this family he had was as broken as it was, because he just wanted to get bragging rights that he had adorable children and a beautiful wife, not the questions about what happened to one of the kids. This was, of course, ignoring the fact that there were already going to be enough questions coming in their direction as to why they were adding another kid to this bunch. But those were good questions, ones that showed that people actually cared about their lives. Questions about what put a kid into a splint were not favorable, and needed to be avoided at all costs.

There was just one issue with that, and that was that it was going to be impossible to mask that news without leaving one kid out of the picture completely. And while everyone present knew that Andres would love to be left out, it just didn't make sense, and getting him hidden behind everyone else would take too much risk to pull off. So really there was no way to get around him having broken his arm, and it was just going to have to be a second question in the response cards that were already going to be asking about the new baby. No big deal at the end of the day, and certainly not something to make a big deal out of.

Except, well, everything that ever happened involving that boy had a big deal made out of it, and family pictures were no exception. Sure, he may have been the oldest, and he may have had to have gone through the routine more times than any of his brothers because of that, but he had no desire to be there, something he made very clear when they got to the photo studio and he refused to get out of the car. Yes, he had been subjected to listening to his father talk nothing but negatively about him, and he knew that it was because of him that things weren't going to go perfectly, but he was normally the most compliant of the kids when it came to these sorts of situations. Yet he refused to get out, even after his brothers had and his parents were ready to go in and get things over with.

Much like with the aftermath of the tree incident, handling this got left in the hands of the parent who supposedly liked him more. "You've got to come in and do this," he was told by his mom's calm voice, although he could see watching her that she was quickly losing her ability to be calm. "I know, you don't want to, but you have to. Trust me, it'll be easier if you just come in, get it over with, and forget about it. That's what I'm going to do."

"Except we'll be here for hours, and you know that my father won't make it easy for me. Maybe for the others, but not for me." Andres looked at his right arm, the one wrapped in the absolutely ugly splint, and shuddered. "He'll probably threaten to break the other one."

"He would not. You don't like him, I get it, but you don't talk bad about him like that." There was more evidence of the calmness fleeing from how Heather was approaching this situation, as she had begun to get snappish and the end of her statement. "Now get out and let's please get this over with."

"I'm not doing it." It hurt him to be defiant against the mom he loved so much, but there was only so much Andres could tolerate, and he wasn't going to subject himself to what could be likened to torture when he could easily just stay out in the car until they were done.

However, he didn't expect for said mom who also loved him so much to completely drop all attempts to be nice and start trying to get forceful to get her way. "You are doing this. I don't care if I have to drag you in there kicking and screaming, but you are going in there and being a part of this family picture day. If I have to do it, you're doing it with me."

"No, I'm not." He shook his head, before watching to see her eyes narrow at him. "I mean it, mom. I'm not going in there. Besides, you wouldn't drag me in there. I know you don't actually mean that."

In the blink of an eye, she reached in and grabbed his splinted arm, causing him to yelp a bit in pain, and she pulled it towards her. "Looks like I do mean it, huh?" she asked, seeing him quickly unbuckle himself and move closer to her so that she wasn't going to be able to pull him around. "That's why you don't talk like that to me. Got it?" He nodded rapidly, and she let go of him. "Good to see you do have some sort of sense in that head of yours. I thought I was going to have to break out your full name there for a moment, and that's just not something I want to do to you."

"I'd rather hear that than have you hurt me like this," he replied, as he finally got out of the car. "But I guess this one wouldn't always hurt. That would."

"Which is why that's the last resort. I know what gets you to do things, kid. We spend enough time together for me to have learned a thing or two about you." After closing the door to the car and making sure it was properly locked up, Heather took a moment to flip her son's braid so that it was hanging over his shoulder rather than down his back like normal before they walked inside the studio, just to show that she wasn't too angry with him about what had happened.

But for every bit angry she wasn't, there was someone who was nearly raging at the fact that there had been such a show of disobedience. That was why, when they did get inside, they were stormed at by the still-collected, but visibly angered Alejandro, who immediately pointed a finger straight into his son's face, causing the boy to try and hide behind his mom. "I cannot believe you would so much as think to ruin this day more than you already have," he said through clenched teeth. "First you cause us to need special accommodations for your arm, and then you choose to try to not participate? What is wrong with you?"

"Leave him alone, I've already dealt with him. He's going to be on his best behavior from now on, and he doesn't need you yelling at him about it." Although she spoke like she was protecting the boy, there was no real protection in what she was doing, which was getting him from behind her so that he could face his father without interruption. "Let's just ignore everything that's happened and try to make this painless, shall we?"

But when she saw that he was trembling as he was pushed into being in a one-sided stare down, it dawned on her that maybe painless wasn't going to be possible here. No matter what, there were some things that weren't going to be smoothed over just to make other things easier, and all the hatred between those two was just one of those things, no matter how sad of a reality that was. She couldn't exactly get back in the middle of things, though, not when she saw that the other kids were beginning to cause trouble in their moment without parental supervision, and that trouble happened to involve one of the employees of the photo studio.

Or, rather, it wasn't so much trouble as it was that the employee was trying to already convince the kids to be on their best behavior to make the time go by faster. Crying children in pictures was not a flattering look, and if it could be avoided at all costs the employees liked it, which meant that this poor soul was giving candies and treats to the three kids he had gathered around him. As long as it was done in the name of making them behave, there just couldn't be a problem with it, could there be? That was the hope, anyway, and for the first hour of the session it seemed to work. The three boys who had been appeased with sweets were compliant to every pose and picture that they were asked to take, and the one who wasn't only complied because of the glares he would occasionally get if he so much as tried to refuse to do as told. It seemed to be working out for the best.

And then the boys were expected to sit and be patient while their parents took just a few pictures together. While it should have been easy for them to wait the little amount of time it would take, it wasn't, not when they didn't have someone sitting with them telling them to behave, and no amount of candy would get them to not give in to their natures of being complete horrors. First it was them fighting over who got the last of the candy. Then, after everything was interrupted by the photographer having to give them more candy, it was Trevin deciding that he didn't want to keep sitting where he was told to and trying to make a break for the door, and although it was his brothers that chased after him it did cause a disruption because until he was dragged back to his seat, the pictures didn't continue. After that it was him once again deciding he didn't want to be there, but rather than running for the door he ran to his parents, stopping them once more because these were meant to be kid-free pictures, not ones with one kid in them.

But nothing, not even more kids running towards freedom, could top the disaster that occurred right after it became time for the kids to get back in the picture for the shots of the entire family. It started when the child roundup began, and only three of them were present—and the one who was missing was not the usual suspect. "Uh, I think Ryden said he was gonna wash his hands," Andres said when he was asked where the middle of his younger brothers had disappeared to. "I think. Maybe. Wasn't really paying attention."

"He did!" Sergio chimed in, miming a hand-washing motion. "He spilled candy and he was sticky and yucky! He had to go wash up!"

"And you let him go by himself? Why does that sound like it's a terrible idea?" Looking at the two boys who had spoken with a wary look, Heather had to forget that one of the kids was missing when the third one present made yet another run for the door, but she was able to stop him quickly in his tracks when she yelled after him, "Trevin Christopher, take one more step towards that door and you'll regret it!" He froze and turned to face his mom, not used to hearing both parts of his name in such a way, and when she saw his front side she had to cover her mouth and gasp. He had candy all over his face and shirt. Which meant, if the other kid had disappeared because he had spilled candy, he was probably in even dirtier of a state. And dirty kids were not going to be in the family pictures, no matter how stupid of an idea she already thought they were.

To make a long and very involved story shorter than it needed to be, the missing kid was beyond dirty, and a small amount of soap and water wasn't going to fix matters. Somehow the boys had managed to get Ryden's shirt so sticky and dirty that he wasn't going to be able to get it cleaned without a small miracle, and that meant that he needed a replacement before any more pictures with him in them could be taken. And since there was already shirt-replacing happening with him, there wasn't any point in putting in the effort to clean up the mess that had been made on Trevin's clothing, because why spend the time doing that when he too could just get a clean shirt? It wasn't the best choice, because there had been some sort of color-coordination going on with the boys and now two of them weren't matching with their older brothers, but it was what had to be done.

When everything was finally taken care of and back to working order (if that's what it could be referred to, anyway), it had been over an hour since everything had gone downhill and they were just wasting time away now. All they needed was one good family picture to show for all of this, and now it was their time to make that happen. As every adult present knew, be it the parents or the photographer, it was much easier said than done. So much as trying to get all four boys to sit on the platform was a battle that would never be won, and that meant that some sacrifices were going to have to be made. No matter how much someone suggested that one of the kids became tucked away in the back, the idea was ignored because lining the kids up in age order just seemed like the better option—and, as was repeated several times, the amount of platforms it would take to get Andres to be able to be seen over his brothers would be dangerous, not to mention impossible because it was already taking a fair number of them to get the two adults to the same height.

The struggle became getting the four boys to sit together with no fighting or bickering, which was incredibly difficult when two of the boys, having already been in trouble for the candy, wanted nothing to do with each other. After the sixth time of trying to get them seated properly in age order, and the sixth time of Ryden pushing Trevin off the platform, a new plan had to be devised. But simply sticking the youngest child somewhere else in the lineup didn't work, as he threw off some sort of imaginary balance that the photographer insisted there needed to be. To keep with the sorting by age, that meant that he needed to be kept on that side of the picture, but not sitting.

It wasn't exactly the "ideal" way to have things get done, but it was seen as the only way it could happen, and so the kid ended up being held for the picture. Did it ruin how everything turned out? Not in the slightest, as it did give the end result some sort of understood balance (something that pleased the photographer immensely). But just because of where one kid was positioned did not change the fact that of the six people in the picture, only four of them were smiling, and the two who weren't had no reason to smile for such an occasion. After all, if there was any kid who didn't want to be there, it was Andres, and Ryden was more well-known for his pouts than any smiles. It was understood by almost everyone that it was how it was going to happen, and there wasn't any use fighting that, no matter how much the guy behind the camera thought it looked bad.

There was one other person who did find the end result a bit disappointing, but he already knew that it was going to be a disappointment. That wasn't going to stop him from saying something about it, though. "If this picture gets sent out to the family in this state, everyone will think we are running some sort of madhouse and insist that we teach you children some sort of manners or respect." Looking from the picture that the photographer had pulled up on his screen over to where everyone was still posing as if more pictures were going to be taken, Alejandro shook his head. "But I see that there is no other choice, especially with how thrilled you all seem to still be here."

"Is it my face?" Ryden loudly asked, his expression changing from its usual pout to a big grin. "'Cuz if it is, I wanna say that—"

"Whatever you have to say right now, Ryden James, I do not want to hear it. In fact, I would prefer it if you ceased speaking until we return home, because you have done nothing but make this more difficult than it has needed to be." The bluntness of the statement wiped the grin off the child's face, but what had just been said to him was nothing even close to what was coming to his brother. "As for someone else here, he needs to explain himself and his choice to make the face that he did."

His eyes going wide, Andres covered his mouth with his good hand. "I-I didn't know I made a face. I was just doing what I do for pictures."

"No, you typically smile for pictures. But today, you decided to show everyone that you had no desire to be here, and for what? To anger me?" If they weren't in public, what would have followed would have been a father charging at his son to intimidate him, and the boy knew that was what could have happened. So when he didn't see his father moving towards him, he went into a defensive position—and forgot not only that the arm he was moving was in a heavily-wrapped splint, but that his mom was standing right behind him, and he hit her with enough force to make her give a small scream. Once he realized what he had done, he tried to look back at her to make sure she was okay, but he was stopped by the inevitable act of his father getting to him and grabbing his shoulders to keep him stationary. "Now you decide to take your ill feelings out on your mother? What is wrong with you?"

"I didn't mean to! I didn't…" The boy started shaking, his eyes wider than before and welling up with tears. "Father, you know I wouldn't mean to hurt her…"

"Yet you did. Just like you gave one of the nastiest expressions you are capable of and managed to ruin things today, just like you always do. I am ashamed to not only call you my son, but to share a name with you." Letting go of his shoulders and stepping back, Alejandro did nothing but give a slight shake of his head at the boy and how he was starting to cry. "Oh, do not try to get sympathy from everyone when you have been nothing but trouble all day. We have no reason to feel bad for you."

"Except you're acting like he killed me and all he did was startle me with a bit of a hit. No big deal." Now wrapping her arm around the crying one and trying to comfort him a bit, Heather raised her eyebrows in concern at how there had been some serious overreaction to what had happened. "Besides, if it was a big deal, you should have come to me first, not going to him and making him feel bad for it."

"Yes, but if there were something truly wrong, you would have said it. How else am I to teach him a lesson if he knows you are fine? There is no way to do it, and so I had to make that choice there. I am sure you understand, yes?" The way that Alejandro looked at Heather was such a gaze that he was trying to use to get her to agree with him, and after a moment or two, she rolled her eyes and sighed, giving in to his insistence. When that happened, and she admitted that she understood, that was when Andres decided he was done with his family for the moment, worming his way out of his mom's arms and hopping off the platform, headed straight to the door. Although no one was exactly thrilled with him, especially not his father, it was that man who called him out on what he was doing: "Excuse me, but where do you think you are going?"

"Outside so I don't have to be with people who hate me," Andres replied, stomping a bit to make him seem more angry than upset. "Just get me when you're leaving."

It took a moment of stunned silence, where the realization of what he had just done sunk in with everyone present, but when Alejandro had a fitting reaction for it, he made sure to act on it. "I do not think you are going to enjoy this decision when we get home later, but if this is how you want to behave, then so be it. Just know that you are in very serious trouble, mister Alejandro Andres Burromuerto, and you are never going to get to forget that."

While the boy screamed in anger from hearing his full name as he exited the building, he knew that he was going to get what he deserved. And the two parents looked to each other, knowing that before there could even be any punishing going on, there was still the need of ordering all the pictures they had spent the last many hours taking, even though they weren't going to be perfect. But the best picture out of them all was that "terrible" family picture, with the unimpressed faces and held child and all, and with how perfect it ended up actually being, had the fighting been necessary in the first place?

A/N: I apologize that this was almost a week late! To make up for it, there is a link on my profile to the family portrait, drawn by me! :D

Now for the bad news. Chapter 8 hasn't even been started yet, and that means I don't exactly know when it'll be ready for posting. What does this mean for the fic? Well, that there will be a week or two of hiatus and then the finale. Does that suck? Yes, it does. Is there anything I can do about it? Not without sacrificing the story, and trust me, you'll want to stick around for the ending. (: