(Sorry I haven't updated in a while friends!)

(School has been a lot to take care of)

(I'll try harder to give you guys content though)

(Y'all deserve it)

(Also I'm skipping the whole adoption process because I don't know how the heck you do that)

(So this is gonna be Evan and Emma's first day at the Heere household)

(Also you guys keep talking about this "Deer Evan Handson" and I don't know what you're talking about??? Evan is 525600% my own character)

(Jeremy's POV)

Michael and I drove over to the orphanages to pick up Evan and Emma.

Rather, Michael was the one driving. I was in the passenger's seat, sobbing.

"You okay there, Jer?" Michael asked with a laugh.

"Y-Yeah," I got out between tears. "It's j-just s-so much, and it's incredible, a-and I'm so happy, and-"

"It's okay," he looked at me with a soft smile at a red light. "I completely understand. Do you wanna stop and get a milkshake first?"

I thought about it for a second, then shook my head. "Evan and Emma w-would want milkshakes t-too."

Michael giggled. "What a great dad," he remarked.

"W-Would they be scared if they saw me crying?" I asked him, calming down a bit.

"Evan probably would. Emma, on the other hand, would go out of her way to cheer you up."

I smiled. "True."

"Should we pick up Evan first? I don't want him staying in that hellhole any longer."

"Yeah," I said. "That sounds like a good idea."

We somehow started with a conversation about how we'd arrange the rooms and then drifted over to a serious debate about whales.

Don't ask.

"Oh," the woman at the front desk addressed us.

"Uh, hi! We're here to bring Evan home. If you need the documents, I have them in the car-"

"That won't be necessary. He's in Room Three. Make it quick."

We nodded and scurried over to the room labeled "3". The bottom part was chipped off, making it look more like a small 2.

We opened the door to find Evan sitting in a chair with two grocery bags next to him. Once he saw us, his face lit up brighter than I'd ever seen it. He jumped out of seat and hugged us.

"Hey, Evan," Michael greeted him, chuckling lightly.

"Hello!"

"How are you?" I asked, bending down to his level.

"I feel like this!" He reached his arms up to the ceiling, then fell down on the carpet. We all laughed.

"Are you ready to come with us?" Michael asked. Evan nodded. "Nothing you forgot to bring, nobody you want to say a goodbye to?"

"I have all of my stuff in hewe." He pointed to the two grocery bags.

"Oh, okay!"

I picked up the bags so that Evan wouldn't have to carry them. Michael picked up Evan so that Evan wouldn't have to carry Evan.

I sat in the backseat next to him so that he wouldn't feel lonely.

"Whewe awe we going now?" he asked, bubbling in his seat.

"We're going to get Emma, your sister," Michael responded. Evan looked at me so fast that I was afraid he hurt his neck. I gave him a smile.

The entire ride over, Evan couldn't keep still. He was too excited.

"Do you wanna play a game?" I asked him. He nodded quickly. "Do you know rock-paper-scissors?"

"No," he replied.

I explained the rules to him in what should've taken twenty seconds but ended up taking five minutes.

"Are you ready?" He nodded. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

I held out paper. Evan hugged me instead.

"I choose hug!" he exclaimed. "Hugs beat all."

We sat hugging each other for the rest of the ride. My face began to hurt from smiling so much.

We eventually pulled up to the building.

A woman and Emma waited near the entrance. Emma gasped when we walked in.

"You must be the Heeres," the woman said, smiling. Emma just stared at Evan, her eyes glittering and her mouth open in a wide smile.

"Yup, that's us!" Michael replied.

"Perfect. Do you have the documentation of the adoption with you?"

"Yes!" Michael exclaimed, getting out the car keys. "They're in our car. I'll go get them." He slipped out the door.

"Oh, also, for taking Emma's things with you, we can offer a black bag for no extra cost, or we could give you a backpack. Each backpack varies in cost, but they're about fifteen dollars."

"Dang, that's good. Can we take two?"

The woman laughed a little. "Of course!"

Michael got back with some papers. He handed them to her.

"Perfect," she said, and handed them back. "Right this way."

Michael looked confused. "They have really cheap backpacks here," I explained.

"Oh, sweet!"

She led us to a bin with different backpacks floating around in it. We let Emma and Evan choose their favorites. Evan chose a green one "because it looks like a twee" and Emma decided on a red one.

Michael laughed. "It's Christmas-themed!"

"I wove Christmas!" Emma remarked. "It's my second favorite howiday. After Hawoween."

I had only recently started celebrating Christmas, as all of Michael's family did so every year. It was fun. Hanukkah's still cooler, though. Eight days will forever be superior to one.

"What's Chwismiss?" Evan asked. Michael and Emma both gasped.

"How do you not know what Christmas is?"

Evan and Emma got into some little discussion as Michael turned to me. He spoke in a low whisper.

"We are making this the best fucking Christmas ever."

I nodded and giggled. "You know it."

"No, really. He deserves it more than anyone else in our family."

"I'll look up stuff when we get home," I told him. He nodded to me.

We paid for the backpacks, went through other small necessary things (such as actually putting Emma's stuff in the backpack), and then went back to the car.

(Evan's POV)

I sat in the same seat as before, while Emma took Jeremy's seat. Apparently she's too young to sit in the front.

"What's that?" she asked me, pointing to the grocery bags.

"That's whewe I put my stuff," I told her.

"Why didn't you put it in your backpack?"

"I didn't have one befowe," I replied, shifting my gaze down.

"Oh. I can hewp you put your stuff in there now!"

I smiled at her. "Okay!"

We spent the rest of the ride home putting the stuff in the packs, trying to figure out whose was fatter, and racing the zippers to see who's the Zipper Master. It turns out Emma's the Zipper Master. That's okay, though. We both agreed that I'm the Tree Master.

We also got these things called "milkshakes". They tasted really really good. I would've finished it quickly, but I got too full.

"Thanks... Dads?" Emma said, not knowing what to call them. Jeremy seemed happy just by hearing this.

"No problem, Emma," he replied, turning back to look at us.

I heard a conversation between my new dads in the front seat.

"Okay, so if I look up presents, you can show them around. Deal?"

"There's not much to show, though, Jer."

"You can let them draw out how they'd want their room to look or something."

"We can't do that! I don't know how you expect us to turn a bedroom into a mini forest."

"Ha, good point. Shit, did the beds come yet?"

"Shit, I don't know. What if they didn't?"

"If they didn't, we're sleeping on the couch, alright?"

"What do you mean 'we'? Only one person can fit."

"...You could hold me?"

"I would drop you."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did. I'll sleep on the floor!"

"Jer, there is no way I'm letting you sleep on the floor."

"Michael, what other option do we have?"

"Don't we have an air mattress?"

"Hey, that's right! I'll sleep on that."

"Nope. You deserve the best and only the best. I'll go on it. You get the couch."

"I'm not a princess, Michael!"

"Ha, I beg to differ."

"Why don't we just both go on the air mattress."

"We can't."

"Why not?"

"The couch would be lonely."

They both laughed together. I wonder how it feels to have someone like that in your life. I looked over at Emma. She was playing with the lock on the car door.

"Holy hell, they're here!"

"Yesssss!"

"Goodbye, air mattress!"

We pulled into the driveway of a small house. It was painted light yellow and looked cozy.

Michael hopped out of the car and tried to pick up a box on the porch. He struggled a bit, but managed to get it in his grasp.

Jeremy tried to do the same, but could barely lift up the cardboard. Michael laughed at him and he laughed along.

Michael went inside first with his box. Jeremy led me and Emma in after.

The house smelled a lot like lemons. I assumed that they scrubbed the place down for hours making sure it was good enough for me. What they didn't know was that anything would be good enough for me. It was good enough feeling loved by a family for once. I didn't care where we were or how everything looked. It was already perfect.

Michael led us to a room with a closet, a white dresser, two windows, and one of the boxes from before.

"Ooooh!"

"I have to get the other bed, I'll be right back," Michael told us, patting Emma's head as she looked around the room in delight.

"Where do you think the beds are gonna go?" Emma asked me, wandering around the open floor.

"I think they'we gonna go by the windows, so in the mowning, the sun can say 'hello' to us."

Emma giggled. "The sun can't talk, siwwy!"

I smiled. Having a younger sister was already fun. "Yes it can! But it only talks to its bestest fwiends."

She turned to look at me. "Reawwy?"

I felt a little bad for lying to her. "Well, no. But maybe if we twy hawd enough, it will!"

We both went over to one of the windows and tried to talk to the sun. We asked it how its day has been, and if it has any pets.

"Maybe the cwouds are its pets!"

I gasped. "That's why they always look like animals!"

Michael came back with the other box and set it on the ground. Emma quickly told him about our discovery with clouds.

"The sun must have a lot of pets," he said, chuckling a bit. "Do you think they play games with each other?"

"Yeah! They play wock-papew-scissows, like Dad and I did!" I told him.

"What's that?" Emma asked. I tried explaining it to her, but we both got confused. Jeremy came in to help with the beds, and I had to ask him to help me tell her about it.

By the time we had played three games, the beds were done. I was right, they put them by the windows. The side of the bed where you put your pillows were both very close to each other. Maybe Emma and I can play rock-paper-scissors at bedtime.

"Alright," Jeremy said. He pointed at the bed near the window we looked out before. "This bed is for Emma." He pointed at the other. "And that's for Evan."

Emma jumped onto her bed and emptied out all of her things onto the sheets. She sorted them in different ways.

I just looked out my window at the tree that hung close to the glass. I said "hello" to it. Not with words, as I knew the tree wouldn't understand. I just waved.