Santana let Sophia sleep in. That's what Saturdays were for after all. She went down to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee, trying to decide what to make for breakfast. It was just her and Sophia, and Sophia didn't like eggs or pancakes. She rarely ate sausages and had her own bread, the whole wheat one with seeds and things all over it that Santana couldn't stand. She stood in the kitchen thinking until the coffee was ready before deciding on French toast.

She took out Sophia's bread and the normal white bread, some eggs and a bowl to beat them in, the egg substitute and custard for Sophia.

Just as she'd finished making Sophia's, her phone rang.

"Hello?" she paused the music.

"Santana, good morning. I hope I didn't wake you."

"Oh no, I was already awake." Santana frowned, taking the phone from her ear and looking down at the ID. "Cheyenne, how are you?"

"I'm great thanks for asking. Yourself?"

"I'm alright. Can't complain."

"That's good to hear. So I won't keep you, I was just calling to confirm what time I should drop Aubrey."

"Drop her….where? Here?"

"Well yes. Aubrey told me that Sophia…gosh did she not ask your permission?"

Santana spun around to look at the fridge. Sophia's calendar was empty. It was always empty. Unlike the boys Sophia almost never remembered to write anything down in the calendar.

"Um….remind me what we're talking about?"

"Sophia invited Aubrey over for a barbeque today."

"Oooh right" of course Santana had no idea what Cheyenne was talking about. Sophia hadn't talked to her about having a barbeque. As far as she knew Sophia was at Noah's indefinitely. She'd been expecting to have the house to herself today. "Slipped my mind."

"Oh good. So it is true."

"Yes it's true. Um…"

"So Aubrey says eleven, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah" Santana looked at her phone again for the time. It was 8:30. "Eleven is fine Cheyenne."

"Great. I'll bring her by at eleven then. It'll be good to see you Santana."

"Yes you too. Uh…just…sorry I can't seem to remember, who else did Sophia invite to this barbeque?"

Cheyenne laughed. "Nora, Grace and Kris."

"Right, so the whole gang."

"Yup."

"Great." Santana cringed, sitting down heavily on the stool. "So fun."

"Yes Aubrey is very excited."

"Well I can't wait to have her over. See you then."

"See you."

Feeling slightly like screaming, Santana called Brittany. It only rang twice before Brittany was picking up.

"Hey love."

"I didn't get you in the middle of-"

"No but I'm about to go in."

"Okay I'll be quick then. Sophia's barbeque?"

"OH NO!"

Santana flinched, taking the phone from her ear.

"Santana oh my god I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry, I completely forgot. Crap, I wasn't paying attention when she asked me and I forgot to tell you."

Santana sighed.

"Brit-"

"Just a second Jun-Ki. Give me five minutes and I'll be in."

"Britt, if you have to go it's fine. Just text me what exactly you agreed to."

"Just that they could come over, swim and have a barbeque lunch."

"And who's supposed to be cooking this barbeque?"

"I was going to. God, I don't even know how I messed this up. I'm really sorry babe."

"It's fine."

"Do you want me to call Quinn?"

"I know how to barbeque B, have you forgotten all the awesome grills I had back in Lima?"

Brittany laughed. "No. I just feel so bad. You shouldn't have to give up your Saturday."

"And Quinn should?" Santana giggled. "It's really fine B. She's my daughter not Quinn's. I'll do it."

"Are you sure?"

"Well I don't really have a choice. I already confirmed with Cheyenne."

"I'm really sorr-"

"Britt it's fine I promise. Just…use the calendar at least please? I swear the two of you are going to be the death of me."

"I will…Just a second sorry, I need to finish this call."

"Go back to your conference Beebee. I'll go buy the supplies."

"Okay. I'll come back as soon as possible."

"Thanks."

Brittany hung up, sounding like she was already talking to someone else.

"Guess I'm barbequing with ten years olds today" Santana sighed. As she stood up she tried not to get too annoyed by yet another day being interrupted. That was just life, she tried to tell herself.

Letting Sophia sleep in no longer felt like the right thing to do. It may have been, but it didn't feel like it. So Santana walked into her room, where Sophia had slept the night before, and pulled the curtains open.

"Mamaaaaa."

Santana laughed, her irritation dimming at Sophia's assumption. She took out her phone and searched wake up call – army boot camp. When the link took her to YouTube, she made sure her volume was at full.

If she hadn't been using her phone for the sound, she would have recorded Sophia's reaction.

She grabbed the duvet, burying her head in it and her pillow, and groaned loudly.

"Mama! It's Sa-" As she directed her frown upwards, she realised it wasn't Brittany. "Mami?"

"The one and only." Santana smirked.

"What are you doing? It's Saturday."

"Last Saturday, you woke me up earlier than was necessary because you had to go to the museum. Did you put it in the calendar?"

When Sophia realised it wasn't a rhetorical question, she looked down at her pillow and shook her head.

"Did you tell me? Mention it to me at all, even in passing?"

"No," Sophia looked up. "But I told mama."

"Don't even get me started on your mama." Santana held her hand up. "Today, you apparently invited your friends over for a barbeque-"

"Oh" Sophia's eyes widened in understanding, then cast back down to the pillow in shame.

"Did you write it on your calendar?"

"No" Sophia pouted. "But I to-"

"Don't. We put those calendars up for a reason Sophia. It's not our responsibility to make sure your stuff gets put on their. It's yours. Even Mateo makes sure his stuff gets put on there. If you'd have written it down, mama would have seen it on her way out this morning, and remembered that she isn't going to be here because she has to work. And she would have woken me up and told me, or called your friends' mums and rescheduled. Instead, I have to rearrange my whole day on the fly and go shopping on top of it. I don't like this honey."

Sophia climbed slowly out of bed.

"I'm sorry mami."

"I know you are." Santana let her features soften. "And you're going to remember to use the calendar right?"

Sophia nodded. "Promise."

"Good. Come here."

She opened her arms for a hug, which Sophia gladly gave her.

"Alright so. Here's the thing." Santana pulled away and ran her hand over Sophia's wild bed hair. "I'd wanted us to have a date today-"

"Yeeeees" Sophia squealed happily.

"Wait" Santana laughed. "You have your friends coming over remember?"

"Oh yeah." Sophia bit her bottom lip. "Can we do it tomorrow?"

"You and me?"

"No me and my friends."

"I don't know honey. Sundays is a lot of people's family days."

"We can do it next week then" Sophia shrugged.

Santana mentally patted herself on the back for being so awesome her nine year old would rather hang out with her than her friends. At nine she would have moved out of her house if given the option.

"Or, we can just do a portion of the date, and be back in time for your friends."

"That means no shopping."

Santana nodded gravely.

"But what if your new boots are out there, waiting for you right now."

"I'm sure they'll be there next week." She laughed.

"Hhmm"

"Baby we can-"

"Okay."

"Okay we do only the first half of the date?"

"Yeah. But" Sophia held up a finger. "We get both a slushie and chocolate pretzel."

"For what?" Santana asked, pretending to be in business mode and crossing her arms. "It's your fault we can't do the full thing. Your friends are the ones coming over and you're the one who doesn't want to cancel it."

"Yeah," Sophia crossed her arms. "But you're the one who wouldn't let them sleep over, cause if they did then they could come later, and the barbeque could be dinner, so we could go on the full SMLP date."

Santana narrowed her eyes. Sophia mimicked her.

"Ugh fine." Santana dropped her arms. "But just so you know, I am so getting you back for this. I was not planning on spending my day cooking for ten year old girls."

Unfazed, Sophia dropped her hands too. "Most of us are still nine. Besides, why don't you just call Tia?" she shrugged.

"Tia is boring and works on Saturdays."

"Not always."

"Enough for me to know that she's probably busy."

This wasn't strictly true. Santana had no idea if Quinn was busy or not, but since learning that Quinn was pregnant she'd decided to stop using her as her personal Chef. She had no idea what pregnancy felt like, but she imagined it was like being on your period only ten times worse. Then there was the fact that even though it had been five years since she had an infant, Santana could vividly remember the sleep deprivation. So in keeping with her vow to be a better friend to Quinn this pregnancy round, she was going to let Quinn rest as much as possible.

Sophia shrugged again and turned to make her way out of the room.

"You can come swim with us. It'll be a little weird but you can if you want to."

"Thanks" Santana scoffed, watching Sophia grin as she turned down the hallway.

An hour later, Santana and Sophia had arrived at their favourite nail salon. They'd been coming here since Sophia was 6, so they knew all the ladies and one man that worked there. Santana liked it because when they'd walked in on that first day, they hadn't immediately been recognised, and when they were eventually recognised, nobody freaked out. Nobody asked for her autograph or for her picture. They just went on for a few minutes about how they couldn't believe they hadn't recognised her, told her she was awesome, and then went on with what they'd been doing. She liked that. Then there was the fact that it was so randomly out of the way that the paparazzi were never around, which meant they could walk around the square in peace. Which was how they developed their SMLP dates. Sophia had enjoyed herself so much after that day, that when they'd gotten home she'd ran straight to Brittany and recounted the whole thing. She'd talked about it for weeks, to the point where her teacher even told Santana one day at drop off that she knew every single thing they'd done that day. Including the different colour nailpolish they'd tried.

So Santana had decided to make it an official outing. Unlike the boys, Sophia didn't have any events like sports games or dance recitals that could make her the centre of attention in the family for once, and where the boys were always asking to go on outings, she rarely ever wanted to go anywhere specific. Her being this excited about being out of the house made Santana and Brittany so happy that it really wasn't a difficult discussion to make. Brittany sometimes joined them, when the boys were at their friends or spending the day with their god parents, but on most days she'd stay home with them.

"Heeeeeey" Reema, the Indian lady, who despite owning the place was always there working on client's hair or nails greeted them with a wide smile. "My favourite customer."

Sophia skipped happily into the salon.

"Oh she's the favourite is she?" Santana asked, taking off her sunglasses.

"Course mami." Sophia turned to face Santana, her arm still around Reema's waist from the hug she'd been giving her. "I'm more awesome than you."

Santana's mouth fell open as a Reema and a few other women laughed.

Reema winked at her before turning with Sophia still at her side, to the women in the shop and Dijon, the one man.

"Now I know I don't need to tell you all this, but if I don't say it I can't fire you if you do it. No pictures, requested or otherwise, no autographs."

"Yeah, yeah" Dijon said, rolling his eyes. He walked out from the station where he was straightening a lady's hair to stand in front of Sophia. "Girl." He said with a hand on his hip. "When are you going to let me work on that beautiful mane of yours?"

Sophia giggled.

Mane was an apt description. Sophia's hair only seemed to get curlier the older she got. It was still so long it reached just above her butt, and given that she wasn't two feet tall like when Santana had first seen her, that was quite a feat. Mateo's was curly as well, but Santana and Brittany had been cutting it since he was three. His seemed even curlier than Sophia's, though it was possible that if Sophia's hair had received proper treatment it would have started off the same way. That in itself wasn't an issue, but as Mateo was constantly in the mud, or else somehow getting paint, food, powders of all kinds and various other things all over himself, long curly hair was not feasible.

Santana wouldn't have minded taking Sophia to get her hair done at a salon, but Sophia didn't like strangers touching her, let alone her hair, and Santana wasn't going to force her for anything.

"Maybe one day." Sophia said quietly.

"Sorry Dijon." Santana spoke up, saving her daughter from his begging. "That hair is mine to tame."

Huffing, Dijon bent down to Sophia's level. The two air kissed each other's cheeks, both sides of course, then he was walking to Santana.

"I will get my hands on one of you Lopierces." He said seriously, air kissing Santana too. "Every one of you has different texture, colour, length, volume ugh" he squealed, reaching out and touching the tips of Santana's hair before dropping his hand dramatically. "I'm dream boarding it so it's going to happen sis."

"Okay" Santana laughed. "Maybe next time my boys need a haircut I'll bring them over."

Dijon gasped, clutching his tongs to his chest.

"Why would you torture me like that?"

"What?" Santana looked at Reema.

"Bring me such gorgeous hair just to cut it?"

"Alright Dijon. Leave her alone. You have a client."

Narrowing his eyes at Santana, Dijon went back to his station.

"He's worse than Kurt" Sophia giggled.

Santana thought back to the time Kurt had thrown a fit and actually started crying the week leading up to Mercedes' wedding. He'd talked Mercedes into letting him do all the outfits for the line up, which included Jesus, Kyler and Sophia. Since Santana and Brittany couldn't keep flying to New York for fittings and Kurt couldn't fly to San Jose because he had a business to run, they had decided that after the initial measurements, which Kurt flew to San Jose to take, Brittany would send him full body pictures of the kids every three weeks, complete with their measurements. That way, Kurt could adjust as necessary, then only minor adjustments would need to be made when they all met up in L.A

Unfortunately for Kurt, Brittany had no idea how to use measuring tape. So all the measurements she'd sent him had been, according to Kurt, drastically wrong.

He'd been generally upset when he'd realised the mishap, but when Jesus and Kyler had come out to Mercedes living room with their pants ending halfway up their shins, he'd succumb to tears.

Brittany would later admit to Santana that she'd only measured their height once, cause she didn't think it was that important. So in the measurements she'd sent Kurt, she'd been using the same height as that first time. It had taken a month for Kurt to frgive them.

"Nobody's as bad as Kurt honey."

Jesus was tired. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so physically worn out, but right now, he would happily take nap.

He, Kyler, Nicholi, Owen and Eli had been at raging waters for four hours, and though he couldn't believe it himself, he wanted to go home. They'd ridden every slide a dozen times each, swam in the pool and played all the water related games they could think of. At one point, when he'd gotten tired of being wet, they'd convinced Owen's mum to buy them water guns, and chased each other round the park pretending to be FBI agents.

There was nothing left for them to do, and even if there was, Jesus was tired.

"Let's go guys." Owen's dad said. He had just finished packing up all the stuff at and around their table, so he had a few bags in his hands. "Mum's already on her way to the car."

"Can we go on just one more slide dad?" Owen begged. Jesus barely contained his whine. As he often did in these situations, he turned to Kyler. Kyler was sitting crossed legged on the floor with his towel round his shoulders and hair dripping all over his face. He'd had a hair tie, but it kept coming lose after every slide, so he'd put it in his bag. He had his head in his hands, but when Jesus looked at him, he found he was already looking at him. As soon as their eyes locked, Kyler opened his mouth in a silent scream. Jesus giggled, but nodded.

"Really buddy? You've already ridden them all."

"Just one more daddy. Please?"

Owen's dad sighed.

"Which one?"

"The loopy green one." Owen pointed at it.

"Oh man" Eli moaned, dropping onto the floor next to Kyler. "I can't walk that far again. And it has all the stairs."

"So many stairs" Kyler agreed.

"You guys don't want to go again?" Owen's dad asked.

"No sir" Eli said. Kyler shook his head, looking apologetically at Owen.

"Guuuys"

"Sorry Owen, but I'm super tired. Like I don't even know how I'm going to walk all the way back to the car. My legs are jelly."

"Sorry buddy." Owen's dad said. "I think we better just go."

Owen hung his head. "But daddy…."

"It doesn't make sense for me to pay for you to go again by yourself."

"I'll go with him."

Jesus couldn't believe himself. He was just as tired as Kyler and Eli looked, but watching Owen's dad begin to walk away with all their stuff had made the fact that they were leaving a reality. They were leaving raging waters, and who knew when they'd be back. This was his last chance for who knew how long.

"You want to go too?" Owen asked hopefully.

"Yeah" Jesus said. Owen slammed into him, hugging him tight.

"Alright" Owen's dad laughed. "Our time lapsed so let me go see what I can do."

It turned out you either had to pay for the hour or a turn on 5 slides. So Jesus and Owen ended up getting to go on 5 slides before they finally left. Jesus felt strangely revitalised. While Owen, Eli and Kyler fell asleep in the car, he talked with Owen's parents about music. Owen's mum was especially interested in what it was like in a recording studio.

When they got back to Owen's house, Jesus ate nachos and cheese dip and watched tv while the other boys took naps on the mattresses they hadn't removed from the living room yet.

"What time are my mums going to come pick us?" he asked Owen's mum.

"I'm not sure." She answered. "But I told them cake cutting is at 5."

After an hour's nap, all the boys woke up again. They played a few rounds of Halo before Jesus was bursting with energy and tried to convince them they should play baseball again. Owen's dad said he was too busy to join them, after which Owen said he didn't want to play, so they went to the front yard and took turns on Owen's bike and scooter.

A few of Owen's friends in the neighbourhood joined them in a game of hide and seek, which they played until his mum called them in to cut the cake.

Jesus was bouncing off the walls at this point. He'd had cup after cup of soda, eaten nothing but snacks since lunch at raging waters, which itself had been burgers and fries. The cake was more than he could handle.

"Stop it!" he shoved the boy, Andrew, as hard as he could, just like he'd learned in football. Andrew hit the floor hard.

"Ow!" He cried, lifting his arm off the ground to reveal a scrape.

"Oh are you gonna start crying? Are you gonna pretend to cry in Spanish too?"

Kyler came running from inside the house with Nicholi. He grabbed Jesus' hand and pulled him away from a now crying Andrew, though Andrew was doing a good job of concealing that fact.

"What is going on?"

"Don't touch me" Jesus shouted, shoving Kyler as well. Kyler of course had been shoved by Jesus since they were born, so he didn't go far. He instead used Jesus outstretched hands to pull him closer so he could subdue him.

"What are you doing?"

Jesus fought against him until Kyler pushed him off, making him stumble.

"He was making fun of Spanish."

Nicholi and Kyler turned to Andrew.

"No I wasn't." Andrew stood up. "I said I know how to speak Spanish."

Kyler frowned. "Really?"

"Tell him what you said?" Jesus shouted. He tried to move to push Andrew again but Kyler got in his way.

Andrew spoke gibberish.

"What ze hell?" Nicholi said, laughing.

"That's not Spanish." Kyler told him, also laughing.

"Zat's not any language."

"He was making fun of us." Jesus swung his fist and it connected with Andrew's stomach round Kyler's back.

This time Andrew didn't hide his tears. He collapsed on the floor, a little dramatically if you asked Jesus, and wailed for the whole neighbourhood to hear.

"Jesus!" Kyler cried, while Nicholi stared helplessly at a crying Andrew. "¿Por qué harías eso?"

"Zat is Spanish" Nicholi said laughing once again.

"I'm gonna tell my mum."

"Oh you're gonna tell your mummy like a wittle baby?" Jesus asked. "Did I hurt baby's wittle tummy?"

Andrew cried harder, looking from an angry Jesus to a still giggling Nicholi.

"Stop laughing" Kyler shot at Nicholi.

Taking pity on Andrew, Kyler tried to help him up, but Andrew flinched as soon as he took a first step. Before Kyler could say anything, Andrew was up and running away. He spun around.

"Why did you do that?" he shoved Jesus in the chest. "Why did you have to pick a fight at Owen's party? Now you're gonna get us in trouble."

"He was being racist." Jesus shoved him back.

"He was being stupid." Kyler said.

"That's the same thing." Jesus shouted.

Kyler shoved him again and stormed into the house.

Jesus turned to Nicholi.

"Are you going to yell at me too?"

"He was crying like a little girl" Nicholi shrugged. "I think he deserved it."

"Good."

The pair walked inside to find no one seemed to have noticed what went down outside. None of the grown up even turned to look at them, and aside from Kyler, who was sitting with Owen on the couch and threw them both a scowl, no one seemed upset with them.

"Sweet" Nicholi said, leaving Jesus to go to the kitchen.

His temper having calmed down a bit, Jesus felt a little bad for what he'd done. But then his mum had always told him that he should never accept racism, and that kid was being super racist. So he decided not to feel bad anymore.

It wasn't long after that that his mum arrived. He was once again in the front yard, this time with Eli, because Kyler was still with Owen and he was trying to avoid Kyler, playing with Owen's lightsabers when the car pulled up. He rushed to it as soon as he recognised the plate, and yanked the driver's door open.

"Mami!" He screamed.

Santana flinched.

"Amor" she laughed." Happy to see me huh?"

Jesus pulled her out of the car, not even letting her switch it off, and hugged her.

"I missed you."

"Aaaw. I missed you too my love."

"Can we go home? Is Sophia home? And Mateo? Wait is mama? I miss my bed and my other play station controller, cause I carried this one cause it's not my favourite, cause what if I dropped my bag and it broke, or one of the others boys broke it on accident? If it was my favourite I'd be super sad. Or if it got lost too, I'd be super sad. Also, I miss knowing where everything is and not having to be so polite all the time and my favourite mayo-ketchup sauce that I added a little bit of sweet chili to at home. But mostly, I miss our swimming pool, and my bike, and-" He broke off suddenly.

Santana stopped laughing at the suddenly very quick and shallow breaths that Jesus was taking. She pulled away to see his eyes watering.

"Jesus, amor what…?" she knelt down before him and brushed the hair out of his face. "What's wrong?"

"I missed you"

His lip curled and before Santana knew it, Jesus was crying. She pulled him into her and rubbed his back.

"Jesus" she breathe. "Baby I missed you too but why are you crying?"

"I don't know" he sobbed into her neck.

"Oh" she chuckled. "Baby."

She pulled back and wiped his tears, noticing that his eyes looked heavy.

"Are you tired?"

Jesus nodded, tucking himself into her shoulder again.

Santana pouted. She had not been prepared for this level of adorableness. In fact she and Brittany had played rock paper scissors for who got to go pick Mateo and who was going to have to come get the twins. She'd been expecting resistance, begging her to let them stay another night, which honestly, as she'd told Brittany before the rock, paper, scissors battle, she didn't get why she couldn't let them stay. She'd been expecting them to be disappointed that she'd come, not so happy they cried.

Then she realised that Jesus felt way too heavy in her arms. She pulled back to see, but his body slumped further against her, nearly toppling her over.

"Oookay" she breathed.

Now she knew Brittany should have been the one to come. Their sons weren't heavy, but she was small and did not exercise as often as she probably should, so lifting them was usually pretty hard. Add on to the fact that he was asleep and so would be dead weight, and she had no hope.

"Jesus" she shook him, separating him from her body as much as possible so she could stand up. "Jesus bud, wake up."

Jesus groaned.

"Get in the car honey. If you get in the car, I can go get your stuff and we can go home."

Jesus nodded, but didn't move.

It took Santana five minutes to get him into the car and buckled, by which time she was out of breath. She closed the door and locked the car, grateful that Jesus' passing out gave her a reason not to stay at the party. She knocked on the door, then almost immediately rang the bell, figuring that if she could hear screaming kids from outside, no on inside would hear a knock.

A boy with short strawberry blonde hair and another with dark brown hair shaved short at the sides opened the door. The boy with brown hair frowned immediately.

"Oh no"

Santana laughed.

"Hi Eli"

"Mrs Lopez-Pierce, can they stay just a little bit longer?" Owen asked.

"Sorry buddy, but we need to go home. It's late you know?"

"What if they sleep over another night?"

"Has your mum agreed to that?"

Owen's face fell.

"No." Then he looked up at her hopefully. "What if you asked her? She can't say no to another mummy."

"I think she'd still say no Owen." Santana smiled. "Oh, happy birthday."

Seeming to forget that he was upset, Owen grinned.

"Thank you."

"Did you have a good birthday?"

"The best. We went to the water park-"

"Raging waters!" Eli said, jumping on the spot.

"Oh wow. That place is awesome."

"Super awesome." Eli agreed.

"We rode all the slides like 50 times."

"Nice" Santana nodded. "Didn't you get tired?"

"A little." Eli answered. "But Jesus went with Owen some more times when me and Kyler didn't want to anymore."

"Jesus never gets tired." Owen said with awe.

Santana laughed at the irony of the statement, considering Jesus was passed out in the car.

"He does have a lot of energy huh?"

"Yeah. Do you give him a lot of sugar all the time?"

"Or coffee?" Owen asked. "My daddy says coffee keeps him awake."

"No" Santana said. "We don't let him drink coffee."

"Huh" Owen and Eli looked thoughtful.

"Honey who's at the door?"

"It's Jesus and Kyler's mum mummy."

"Oh."

Santana heard a few rushed footsteps before Owen's mum appeared at the door. She pulled the door open wider, looking slightly alarmed.

This was why Santana wasn't better friends with her kids' friends' parents. Aside from Nicholi's dad, they all treated her like she was some kind of royalty. They rushed to make her happy, to agree with whatever she said, laugh at her jokes and gain her approval on any and everything. It was amusing at first, and Santana revelled in it for the sake of her teenage self, but after a year the novelty of it wore off.

"Santana" Janean said, smiling nervously. "Hi, how are you?"

"Hi Jan. I'm-"

"Oh gosh. Sorry come in. I'm so sorry, I hope the boys didn't keep you standing at the door for long."

"No they-"

"Boys why don't you go back upstairs." Janean ushered the two boys away from the door and steered them towards the stairs.

"Bye Mrs Lopez-Pierce." Owen called.

"Bye"

"Uh actually, boys." They stopped to look at her. "Do you mind calling Kyler and Nicholi for me please."

"Okay." They both agreed, before running up the stairs.

"Won't you stay for some drinks?" Janean asked. "There are some grown ups here" She laughed. Santana humoured her, following her into the living room. "There's some cake too, some snacks. I can get you something to eat."

"No, no, that's very nice of you Jan, but I can't."

"You're sure you don't want something to drink? We have some wine."

"I'd love to." Santana smiled awkwardly at the three other grown-ups staring at her. "Um, but I need to get the boys home. Jesus is already asleep in the car, so I shouldn't stay."

"Oh, poor boy."

"Hi" one of the men who'd been staring at her stood up. He came to stand next to Janean, wrapping one hand around her waist. "I'm Chris."

"Hi" Santana shook his hand.

"My husband."

"Oh!" Santana smiled. She'd never even heard Janean talk about her husband and for a long time thought she was a single mother. It wasn't until she'd heard Owen talk about his dad that she realised Janean was married. "Right, nice to finally meet you Chris."

"And you too"

Santana shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like the way he was looking at her. If Puck was there he would be whispering to her about how Chris was totally checking her out.

"These are our neighbours. Joel and Casey."

"Nice to meet you" Santana nodded at them.

"Oh my god" the woman breathed before rushing to stand up. "I can't believe it's actually you."

"She's a big fan" Her husband laughed.

"Oh, thank you." Santana said honestly.

"I can't believe you're friends with Santana Lopez Jan! Her kids are at Owen's birthday party, you never told me that?!"

"Well…" Janean looked embarrassed, blushing as she shot a quick glance at Santana. "Um, they go to the same school."

Santana liked Janean a little more after that. She wouldn't have held it against her for bragging to everyone she knew that she knew Santana Lopez. That she'd been to her house multiple times and that her kids were best friends with her kids. That Janean hadn't done that made Santana respect her. So she threw her a bone.

"And you know how it is when your kids want to spend every waking hour with their best friends. The parents are a part of the deal. I'm just grateful Owen has such an awesome mum."

Janean turned red as her eyes widened in shock at Santana's comment. Her neighbour was looking at her in awe, like she'd just been appointed queen, and it was all Santana could do not to laugh.

She felt hands circle her waist and lock on her stomach, then a quiet,

"Hi mami."

She turned around and hugged Kyler properly.

"Hi amor. Are you okay?" He nodded. "Alright."

"Hi Mrs Lopierce."

"Hey Nic." She high fived the boy. "Is all your stuff packed?"

"No. Is my dad here?"

"He called and asked me to drop you home."

"So I'm coming with you?"

"Yup."

"Yes!"

"Will you guys go pack your stuff?"

"My stuff's already packed." Kyler said. Santana could hear the exhaustion in his voice. She ran her hand gently over his hair and pulled him into her side, bending down to kiss his head.

"Are you sure you're okay amor?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well you can go to the car. I need to get Jesus' bag."

"I'll get it" Kyler said. "I want to go say bye to my friends."

"Okay. Gracias amor."

Santana tuned back to the group of adults.

"It was so nice to meet you both, and you Chris. Hopefully I'll get to see more of you."

"Sure thing." He smiled. Santana tried not to cringe.

"Jan, thank you so much for having them over. I hope they weren't any trouble."

"No they were great. Jesus is an angel, I'm not surprised he's out cold."

"True. The boy was up before either of us and didn't pass out like the others after the water park."

"Yeah that's Jesus for you. He's always going, until he's not" Santana laughed.

"Well he was just amazing. It was a pleasure to have him. To have them both. They're welcome any time."

"Thank you." Santana gave her a quick hug, bent to pick Kyler's bag, which he'd dropped by her side, and turned to the door.

"Maybe we can get a rain check on those drinks?" Janean asked hopefully as she walked Santana to the door.

"Um, yeah. We can definitely plan something."

Nicholi and Kyler came down the stairs just as Santana reached it.

"We're ready." Nicholi said.

"Great. Say bye to Owen's mum guys."

"Bye Mrs Carlin." The two said in unison.

"Bye boys. Thanks for coming to Owen's party."

"You're welcome."

Santana watched them till they reached her car, which she unlocked for them.

"Nicholi seems very accustomed to going with you. Do you pick him often?"

"Yeah. They don't live far. So rather than having Nicholi bored at home with Antoine, Jean asked if he could come with us after school sometimes then he picks him from ours after work."

"Antoine?" Janean asked with a frown.

"Nicholi's brother?"

"Oh he has a younger brother? I didn't know."

"Older. Antoine is…15 I think."

"Oh wow. How did I not know that?"

Santana shrugged, unsure of what to say. "Anyway uh…" she jerked her thumb behind her. "I should go before they take off without me."

Janean laughed. "Right. Have a safe drive home."

"Thank you. Have a good night."

If she'd had known she was going to endure the car ride from hell, Santana would have left the boys at Owen's. As soon as she got to the car, she heard arguing. Kyler had apparently thrown Jesus' bag onto him as he'd gotten into the car, waking Jesus up. She put a quick stop to that argument by making Kyler apologise and thought that would be the end of it. Until she'd dropped Nicholi home.

Kyler could not seem to let Jesus be. He kept shoving him, poking him and at one point Santana was sure she'd heard a slap.

"Kyler why won't you just leave him alone amor? He's tired."

"Yeah leave me alone."

"You know what you did."

"What did I do? I'm trying to sleep."

"As if I'll believe you've forgotten when you never forget anything."

"WHAT DID I DO?"

"DON'T PRE-"

"Hey, no yelling please."

"Stop pretending you forgot. Unless you want me to tell mami."

Santana tried to ignore their conversation. She'd learned a long time ago that listening in often led to her having to listen to trivial sibling arguments that they often could have resolved by themselves. They weren't that far from home anyway, and once they got home she was sure the argument would be forgotten in favour of chatting with Brittany, Sophia and Mateo.

"I really don't know what you're so angry about. I haven't even talked to you since Mami picked us. I was sleeping."

"I know you know. You're just being-"

"Just tell me!"

"What happened before Mami came? When I came out with Nic?"

"That's why you're being so annoying? Why do you even care we don't know him, and he was being racist."

"I care because when you get all angry like that and start fighting people I have to get into it to. It doesn't matter what he did, if he started fighting you back I would have to fight him too."

"Who said you have to fight-"

"We're brothers. Of course I can't just let you be beaten up."

"Well mami said that it's okay to stand up for ourselves."

Santana tuned back in when she heard her name.

"She also said that we shouldn't start fights."

"He was racist!"

"Hold on" Santana said. "Who was racist?"

"This boy at Owen's party. He said he knew Spanish but he was just making fun of us."

"How do you know he wasn't just stupid?" Kyler asked, crossing his arms.

"Either way, he deserved it."

"Wait. What did you do to him? You fought him?"

"I only punched him once."

"Jesus" Santana said disapprovingly.

"But mum you said that if we're defending ourselves we can fight back."

"When you're being bullied. Your brother is right, you're not supposed to start fights."

"But he was being so annoying, and I wanted him to know it wasn't okay."

"You should have gone to get Owen's mum papi. I don't want you getting into fights entiendes?"

"Tia told us you used to get into fights all the time." Jesus grumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Tia said-"

"Tia shouldn't be telling you those things. And anyway, that's how I know fighting isn't the answer. I've been there and done that and all it did was get me into trouble. Mama and I do not stand for any violence whatsoever okay?"

Jesus huffed, choosing to stare out the window.

"Jesus, do you understand what I'm saying? Don't make me stop the car."

"Yes" he groaned.

"That's what I told you."

"Shut up" Jesus pushed Kyler. "Why are you still sitting in the middle anyway? Nicholi isn't here."

"I don't feel like moving."

"Well I don't want you sitting so close to me."

"You can't tell me where to sit." Kyler pushed back, refusing to be moved.

"Just move. You only want to sit here so you can keep disturbing me."

"But I'm not touching you so you can't tell me to move."

"You were poking me and shoving me."

"Now you're the one shoving me."

Jesus unclipped Kyler's seatbelt so he could push him across the seat to the window.

"Mami!" Kyler cried immediately. "Jesus removed my seatbelt."

"Jes-"

"Mami tell him to move. He's pushing me and poking me."

"I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU!"

"I SAID NO SHOUTING." Santana yelled. When the two boys went quiet and she could no longer hear their grumbling or mumbling, she took a deep breath to calm down. "Kyler move to the window and leave your brother alone."

"But-"

"I don't want to hear any more arguing. You're only sitting there to taunt him cause you know he's tired and has a short temper at the moment. You're going to give me a headache with all your back and forth so move to the window and I don't want to hear anything else from either of you."

Santana saw Kyler move through the rear view mirror and though she heard some whispering, the arguing largely subsided.

Like she'd predicted, as soon as they got home, Kyler and Jesus were distracted by the rest of the family. They talked Brittany's ear off with every detail of their sleepover, and then eagerly listened to Mateo's recounting of his time alone with uncle Noah. Halfway through his story, Sophia came down from her shower in her pink satin short sleeved shirt and shorts that had strawberries all over them, of which Britany had a matching pair.

"SOPHIA" Jesus yelled, jumping up from his seat on the floor in front of the tv and running to hug her.

Sophia giggled as he crushed her in a hug.

"Hi Jesus."

"Come with me I need to show you something."

Without waiting for her response, Jesus grabbed her hand and dragged her back up the stairs.

Kyler pouted for a few seconds before standing up and running after them.

"And she thinks they don't love her"

Brittany whispered to Santana, whose lap her head was resting on.

Mateo launched himself onto Brittany's stomach, forcing the air suddenly from her lungs and making her groan in pain. He giggled madly as he jumped off her and ran away.

"I'll be right back" Brittany said. When Santana lifted her hand from Brittany's hair, she leaned up and kissed her quickly before taking off after Mateo.

None of the kids made it to bed on time that night. Granted it was the weekend, so they wasn't really a bed time, but when it was one in the morning and all four kids were still awake, Santana figured it was safe to say they were up late. Jesus, Kyler and Sophia were watching a movie on one of their IPads, and Brittany, Mateo and Santana were watching a movie on the tv. She couldn't really complain though. It was nice having everyone back in the house after a week of everyone being away.

Santana gently tickled Mateo's feet, which were in her lap, making him shriek and pull them up.

"Mercedes is around in a couple of weeks." She said.

"Oh cool" Brittany said, turning to look for her. "That's soon though."

"Quinn wants her over."

"Do you think she's going to tell her?"

"I'm not sure. Feels like it."

"I'm so excited for her. With how everything went down with Beth-"

"Both times"

"Yeah. I'm happy she gets to see what it's like."

"It's gonna be so fun seeing her pregnant again. Do you think we'll be able to convince her to re-enact a man's world?"

Brittany burst out laughing, making Mateo laugh along with her.

"What's funny mama?"

Brittany looked quickly at the tv.

"Don't you think that dinosaur is funny bud?"

"Yeah"

"It's gonna be nice having a baby around again too" Brittany said once Mateo's attention had returned to the screen.

"I guess" Santana shrugged. "Personally I'm glad our kids are past that age."

"You don't like babies mami?"

"I love babies amor. But I like that you can talk and walk now. I didn't like having to change your diaper or figure out why you're crying."

"Yeah babies cry too much. I don't like babies."

"Right?" Santana laughed. "You get me. Babies aren't that gr-"

A withering look from Brittany cut Santana off.

"Babies don't just cry though Niki. They're cute and cuddly."

"No" he shook his head in Brittany's lap. "I remember before I went to kindergarten, we used to have lunch with the pp1 babies and they used to cry all the time mama. One time one cried for the whole of lunch time because they didn't like their fruits. Then he threw them on the floor and started crying cause they were dirty."

"So you wouldn't want a baby brother or sister?"

Santana turned from watching Mateo to stare at Brittany.

"A what?" she choked.

"No" Mateo said. "They'll just make a lot of noise all the time and no one will be able to have any fun."

"But then they'll grow up and learn to walk and talk and you'll have a new best friend."

"I already have a best friend. Her name is Jordan and she's much better than a baby."

"Okay bud" Brittany chuckled. "Anyway you were saying that Mercedes was coming?"

Santana struggled for a minute, deciding what to say. On the one hand she wanted to investigate Brittany's growing fascination with babies further, but on the other she was afraid of what broaching the subject would lead to.

"Um…babe."

"Yeah" Brittany turned to her.

"If you had something….you know on your mind or something like that, you'd talk to me right?"

"Something like what?"

"Would it matter?"

Brittany frowned.

"I'm confused. I have a lot of things on my mind all the time, like work things or like how sometimes I start craving chicken and think up all the ways I could cook it. Do you mean like that?"

"No" Santana smiled. "I mean something big. Something you want to talk to me about but are scared of how I'll react maybe."

"Sure" Brittany said. "I'd talk to you about it eventually. I always do."

"Okay."

"Why? Is something up?"

"No, just making sure."

"Okay. You'd talk to me too right?"

"Course baby. It's just that you're easier to talk to than I am, and I want you to know that I always want to know whatever you're thinking."

Brittany smiled, leaning over to affectionately brush over Santana's cheek with her fingers.

"I've known you for 21 years Santana." She pulled Santana into her so she could kiss her cheek. "I know."