Chapter 109
Family Affairs

They were already a month into the fall semester. The classes changed, the professors, the schedule and the people you met, but some things never changed. Every semester would feel so massive an undertaking before it started, and then it would be all new and in need of breaking into as it started, but then one day you'd wake up and realize you'd been at it for weeks, and you were closer to the halfway point than you expected. Then, more often than not, things would level out for a bit, only to pull the rug out from under you until you found yourself right around the corner from finals. Then that would be over, there'd be a break, and it would start all over again…

And now it was October 1st. The world was slowly but surely angling itself through early fall into the main event… at least where the Friars on the lane were concerned. Halloween may still have been weeks away, one day short of a whole month, but all it took was the turn of that calendar page and suddenly the only thing they could think about was to break out the decorations. It was Wednesday though, and they had classes, and work… So, they had to resolve themselves to wait a few more days. They'd be home, both of them free, on Saturday. That would be a reasonable wait, wouldn't it?

"Please, let's not get up at five in the morning for this, okay?" Lucas had begged as they turned in the night before. It had been a long day and he was exhausted. She wasn't much further than him, truth be told, so she was all for starting at a slightly more leisurely hour.

They woke at a quarter to seven. Whether they had been close to it or they just had those parental ears tuned in, they were startled awake by a sudden thumping sound from across the hall. All at once, they were scrambling to get up and head into the nursery, imagining any number of incidents that might befall either one of their sons. Lucas reached the door first, though Maya was right behind him when he opened it, so her heart was given means to stop rushing at the same time he did.

Noah was sitting up in his crib, looking over to his brother, though he turned his head when the door opened and was incited to rise and hold out his arms for someone to pick him up. Meanwhile, Elliott was out of his bed, standing next to the bookshelf, which was missing several of its books on one of the higher shelves. Those books were now sitting in a heap where they had fallen at the boy's feet. He had one of them in his hands, suggesting he'd reached for one and proceeded to bring all the others along with it by accident. He had the look of someone thinking 'I've been caught doing something I didn't mean to do and now I don't know what to do.'

"What happened here, uh?" Lucas asked in a kindly tone.

"Wanna read to Noah," Elliott pointed to his little brother before hugging the book in his arms.

"And the books all fell down?" Maya asked, approaching him after lifting the boy from the crib. She crouched and sat with him in her lap. Elliott nodded before reaching one arm and picking up one of the fallen books to bring it back to the shelf.

"Do you need some help?" Lucas pointed to the books. Elliott shook his head.

"I do it," he informed his parents. He would pick one up at a time, all the while guarding his selection in his other hand. They didn't all go up the right way in or in the same order they'd come down, but they were put back on the shelf, and that was what mattered. Elliott understood this was their place and that they had fallen because of him, so he'd taken on the responsibility of putting everything back. His mom and dad were only proud to see him go.

He was getting to a point now where 'I do it' was his way of life. He liked to do things on his own as much as possible. He was an observant little sprout, and he would imitate what he saw, to varying levels of success. He now liked to pick out his own clothes and was getting better and better at putting them on himself. If he got it wrong and they tried to fix it for him, he would complain. So, they would patiently explain to him what the problem was, and he would try and make it right. If he really couldn't do it, he would submit himself to assistance, though he'd have a big pout of disappointment on him.

"You'll get it next time," Maya would promise with a kiss to the top of his head, and then he'd look at her like 'yes, yes, I will, Mother, you're right.'

Once he had the books put away that morning, he let out a breath, glad that the effort was done. It sounded like he'd heard someone do that when they finished a task and he figured that was the appropriate response. That, along with his growing independence, was a continual joy to Maya and Lucas and their families. Elliott Friar was growing, evolving. Now, he sat on the floor next to where his mother and brother were, and he opened the book in his lap. He couldn't read yet, naturally, but you wouldn't know that by looking at him.

"Look, Noah, a cat!" he excitedly tipped the book so that his little brother could see. Noah saw the image and gave a contented squeal as he moved to go from Maya's lap to the floor, the better to get a closer look. "Cat," Elliott repeated. Repeating words to the smaller boy was another thing he'd seen people do, so he did it.

"Cat!" Noah said the word, to everyone's delight.

According to Shawn, Elliott would give these vocabulary assists to both his brother and his uncle whenever the three of them would be together. He didn't know that Alex couldn't see him or anything he pointed to, though that wasn't in itself a deal breaker. He would say words, and a lot of the time Alex would just repeat what he heard, and that would be good enough for his nephew.

The boys did so well, spending most of their days together. When they wouldn't be, when Alex would be at home with his parents and his own brother and sisters, Noah would get this look about him sometimes like he was searching for him, like he had to be here, somewhere. There was no doubt that Elliott would look for him. In his case, he'd just go up to his parents or his great grandfather and he would ask, 'Alex?' They'd have to tell him that he'd be there later, or that they'd see him the next day, or in two days, or whenever… It was rarely more than a day or two at this rate, so they could understand why his absence would be felt among the Friar brothers. He was practically their third brother, and how could they not put him on an equal footing to their own? Officially he was their uncle, yes, but he was smaller than Elliott, just about equal to Noah. This was a toddler, like them, and they would all be here at home together practically all day every day. How could he be anything else?

"Alex?" Elliott asked as they were all sitting to breakfast, the four of them and Pappy Joe.

The old man loved nothing more than to sneak bits of food with Noah, either swiping one from him or dropping one in front of him. He'd get surprised, confused, and then he would laugh. If he actually caught his great grandfather in the act, he would gasp and point at him or try to catch his hand in motion. Pappy Joe would let himself be caught, of course, at which point he would turn all dramatic and exaggerate in his reaction, the better to make both of his great grandsons burst out laughing. Maya and Lucas would have found it so easy to tease him about his mealtime plays – in daily representations at breakfast, lunch, and dinner – if it wasn't such a big hit with his audience.

"He'll be here in a little bit, El," Lucas promised him. "They're all coming, Alex, and MJ, and Nellie, and Gracie, and Grandma and Grandpa. And we're going to do something special, too," he went on, catching Maya's smile as she was inciting Noah to eat, same as he was doing with Elliott.

In the long run they couldn't say whether he would remember this year's Halloween, but that wasn't what this was about. This would be the first Halloween where Elliott would be old enough to really see all the decorations, the costumes, the candy, and know that there was something special about this time. Would he understand exactly what it was about? Probably not for another couple years, but until then… They were going to celebrate Halloween with their firstborn in ways they'd yet to do.

"You know, we've never had one Halloween where we didn't have both of them, not since Elliott was born," Lucas reflected, later, as they went ahead and pulled out the decorations from the basement. Maya looked at him.

"No, I guess we haven't," she slowly nodded before smiling to herself. Elliott's first Halloween, he'd been five months old, to the day. And already, Noah had been a very tiny little bee, growing inside her. The year after that, they'd had both boys, one now walking and the other as big as the first had been the last time. And this year… "So… We haven't really said anything yet, month's very young, but…"

"But it's October," Lucas filled in, putting the box back down to look at her.

That was what they'd planned, wasn't it? They had talked out their plans for adding to their family a while ago, but like new semesters, time had a way of feeling short and long when it felt like it. They'd wanted to make sure that their having this baby wouldn't get in the way of Maya's finally getting her degree, while at the same time making it so that, by the time she got a teaching job, they would have had this child and she would be able to go and accept the post. By their count, it had set October of this year as the kickoff to trying for a third little Friar.

"October," Maya repeated, then after a pause, "Probably shouldn't have put that idea in our heads right when my parents are coming over with the kids…"

"I can call right now and reschedule," he hooked his thumb toward the stairs. Maya laughed.

"See?" Maya held up her hands with a smirk. "Look, it'll happen. Clearly, you and I don't have any problems getting pregnant, did that twice without trying."

"We did do that," Lucas nodded. They could just catch the sound of their running boys back upstairs.

"Right, so, we'll get there. I just don't want this part to go and turn into a... task," she resisted the urge to air quote, even if it was heavily implied.

"Absolutely not," Lucas concurred as she came up closer to him. "No task," he hummed when she pressed her hands to his arms.

"No, this is going to be fun," she whispered.

"I'm going to take this box upstairs now, because if I keep standing this close to you, we are going to end up having a very awkward recreation of that time your parents almost walked in on us," he whispered back, and Maya laughed.

"Hey, this is our house, not theirs, they can't tell us what to do," she challenged.

"Box," Lucas shook his head and picked it up. With a sigh, Maya followed with more decorations.

"To be continued then..."

They couldn't have predicted how rewarding it would feel, to be out here and watch as the little Hunters interacted with their nephews, now that the boys were as mobile as they were, now that they were talking more and more. They had always known that they would get to this point, yes, but it was a whole other thing for them to actually be here.

"What are you going to be for Halloween, Elliott?" Nellie Hunter asked her older nephew once the little group all stopped and sat where Alex now had Whiskey laid in his lap, the better to receive his petting hand.

Nearby, as they went about sorting through the decorations, Maya, Lucas, Katy, and Shawn looked on in barely contained amusement. Elliott was looking at his aunt like he had no idea what she was talking about. He turned to look at his parents for assistance, but he needn't worry, not with his twin aunts on the case.

"There's going to be Halloween soon, and we all get dressed like other people... or animals... or monsters... anything we want. Then we go to people's houses and they give us candy, and chocolate, things like that. We don't know what we're going to be this time yet," she turned to Gracie, who had gone and crouched in front of Shadow and offered her a treat.

"Maybe... Maybe we can be mermaids," Gracie suggested to her sister, and Nellie gasped, at once liking the idea. "What do you want to be, Elliott? Anything, anyone."

In their corner of the room, the parents listened with interest, not just so they could start looking into acquiring their sons' costumes but to find out what he'd come up with, when the question was put to them. Elliott sat there for a few seconds, clearly thinking things through. Finally, he proclaimed...

"Otto!"

"What's that?" MJ asked.

"Who?" the twins chimed in together before turning when they heard their big sister and brother-in-law laugh.

Otto the Octopus was one of the residents at the aquarium they had visited with the boys, back over the summer, with the rest of their parent group and their kids. Elliott had been fascinated by the creature with its tentacles. And when they had gone to the gift shop afterward - three of them parents while the others kept the kids where they couldn't go wild over everything they saw - Lucas had found both a plush replica of Otto along with a small storybook, telling a comic tale of the octopus' adventures in friendship with a turtle and a pufferfish.

They had been presented to Elliott once they got home and had been beloved ever since. The new toy would not replace Opie Bunny at bedtime, but often Elliott would be found sitting somewhere, holding Otto in one arm while he flipped through the colorful pages of the book. It was a wonder that the other kids didn't know about it, but then after he said the name and the other three questioned him, the youngest of Maya's siblings laughed. Alex knew Otto. As Shawn would tell it, he loved when he'd be handed the toy. He would feel all those tentacles with his hands and look so happy doing it.

"You want to be Otto, El?" Maya asked her son, and he turned to her with a big nod. "We can do that, yeah?" she looked to Lucas and he added his nod to this. "But now who's going to be Tommy?" she wondered, and at once Noah was elected to become a turtle. "Alright, alright, excellent," Maya carried on. "What about Paulie?" she wondered.

"Alex!" Elliott pointed to his uncle/brother, who looked up at the sound of his name.

"Yeah?" Maya turned to see what her parents thought of the idea. It was just early enough that they might not have had plans set or costumes already bought, but it was always preferable to check. But Katy and Shawn were both on board at once, and Maya guessed she could see why. If Alex loved playing with the octopus' tentacles, he just might get a kick out of feeling at the pufferfish's very toddler friendly spines on his own costume. Plus, he was familiar with the story and the characters, and with how the three boys had become so connected since the start of the fall semester… Having them become Otto, Tommy, and Paulie was easily the most appropriate way they could celebrate this year's spooky holiday. So, it was settled. It would give them weeks to get those costumes ready for the trio.

When the decorations were all hung and draped and placed in and out of the house, Lucas and Maya were thrilled to see the boys' reactions. They'd been involved in the actual decorating, helping their parents and their grandparents, but they were at the pull back moment, seeing the result. Technically they weren't completely done, of course. There would be pumpkins, carved and lit, but it was too early to do all that right now, especially if they wanted the designs to be visible at the end of the month instead of rotten into a mess. Even without those as part of the décor already, Elliott and Noah were loving this. Thanks in great part to all the grandparents, they had some new items this year, the kind which would be ideal when you had little kids who liked to touch things. They had also needed to be conscientious of the fact that they had two cats now, who might not interact with the decorations the way the dogs had done, but they felt confident that they'd done well on that front.

"You know what's weird now?" Maya asked Lucas after the Hunters had gone on their way.

"Our house?" Lucas suggested with a smirk.

"Yeah," she laughed.

"But also…"

"I know we just did everything up for Halloween, but seeing the two of them out here… I really can't wait to see how they'll do when we turn this place into Christmas Town."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners