A/N: Alive again! Do comment and enjoy.  I love to read your reactions. They really make my day!

One by one and two by two, Eli has no idea how to make sense on what he has discovered. Sixteen long and troubling years he has lived on this earth and he has never been this bamboozled about anything.

 He wasn't even this confused when Lee thought she was black but very lightskin and not, you know, fucking Chinese!

Japanese?

Korean?

Filipino?

He doesn't fucking know! He only knows that he is way more confused than that. 

Eli leans against the bathroom door and sighs. His head pounds with the annoying question that makes his brains feel like mush.

"How the hell did my parents find time to reproduce another kid!", he thought in anguish.

Now Eli isn't a jealous person. Scratch that. He believes that he is not a jealous person. In fact, he is very humble if he says so himself. But, damn! He can't stop his belly feeling so twisted. 

"Eli! We gotta get going!" Rhys shouts from the bottom level.

Eli drops the test in the trash and shrugs on his hoodie. All Eli has to do is play cool. Act like he doesn't know anything at all. Not a single thought or feeling of betrayal or anguish. It doesn't matter if they will be in the car for about an hour. He doesn't care that he is about to be replaced or worse discarded like…

Maybe he is jealous. 

…

Nah!

Speeding past his daddies with no more than a glance he pushes himself into the car. Rhys and Malik glance at each other. Malik shrugs and Rhys says something along the lines of "He's in one of his moods". Eli could scoff at that. He would never get all dramatic. That's Lee's job. 

 He flips up his hood with the intention of burying himself into his mind. Eli pops in his earbuds ready to not fall deeper in his ,totally not jealous, mood. That is, if he could ever just be left alone.

"Wow Eli, you look really miserable. "Lee says and pokes his side. "Missed the new Luna album?"

"What! It's released-" Eli cuts himself off. "Oh screw you Mings."

"Hey! Mind the language Eli." Rhys reprimanded. "I know you are sixteen but she's your little sister."

Eli pouts. "Yes Daddy."

Ming Lee pokes her tongue out and Eli rolls his eyes.  She scoots her body over to him and rests her head on his shoulder. "C'mon Eli, talk to me. You know I'm going to be a psychiatrist when I grow up."

 "I thought you were going to be a lawyer." Eli asks.

"Don't forget veterinarian." Rhys chimes in.

"Gynecologist, Teacher, Judge…" Malik continues.

Lee huffs. "I'm going to be all those things. Just you all see." 

"We don't doubt you for a second, my ambitious cub." Rhys smiles. 

Lee blushes and smiles. "Thank you daddy!"

Eli bows his head, more glad that the attention is no longer on him. Too bad Lee does not forget. 

"For real Eli, why so sad? Aren't you excited we are going to Grandpa Harvey for Easter! It's like, totally the best. And all of our uncles and aunty Kique and oh! Melody! It's going to be so amazing!" Lee gushes as she grips Eli's arm.

Eli sighs. "It's nothing really. I'm fine." 

Eli's head burns from the probing looks ,not only from Lee,  from his two way too protective daddy foxes staring through the overhead mirror.

He winces internally before asking, "Daddy, when you uh….found me, what made you decide to keep me?" 

Rhys bent his lip as he thought. He turns his body around to face him better.

"Love, I didn't find you. You found me. You found me at a time where I thought the world had just given me the shits." A small smile graced his lips. " Eli, you gave me hope."

Eli didn't realize he was moving closer until his daddy's hand cups his cheek. Rhys strokes his cheek. 

"How could I not want to keep you?", he whispers.

Eli sniffed. "Yesh, stupid question wasn't it?"

Rhys shook his head. "No, not stupid. It's perfectly fine." 

He stroked his cheek one final time before letting go and shifting back into his seat. Eli leaned back in his seat as well. The lights of passing buildings and cars blur into streaks that painted his final thought. His eyes dip shut leaving him with warmth his daddy continues to fill inside of him.

~

The group arrived at Harvey's house to find that they are the first ones here. They bound up the cobbled pathway up to the cozy home. 

'It still smells like cinnamon." Eli thinks remembering their last new years stay at the home.  

"Hmm? Door unlocked?" Rhys questions pushing the door open to the foyer. 

"Uncle Harvey!" He announces.

"Rhys!" A voice calls from the top of the stairs. 

Following the voice,  Eli's eyebrow shot up into his hairline. His dear Grandpa Harvey looked like a flamboyant queen getting ready for her reunion show. Red hair streaked with many silver strands was wrapped up in a messy bun. The edges of his beard are a bit red from a fresh shave. His long white bathrobe left open and it hovered behind him as he bounds down the stairs. 

"Rhys my love." Harvey said giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Eli, Ming Lee." A kiss given to each child. Even Malik got a kiss with Harvey's rush.

"Uh, Uncle…the tax collector coming?" Rhys asks.

Harvey gives a nervous laugh. "Uh…no just behind. Got a phone call from your dad and it threw me in a loop."

Malik's hand falls to his partner's shoulder with a squeeze. "What did he want?" Rhys asks.

"He's dropping the case."

"I'm surprised he is still salty because of that punch."

"Reginald… if only he could stick to a diet like he holds grudges. " Harvey grumbles. 

"Isn't that a good thing?" Malik questions.

"Never with that man. He's planning something." He lets his hair down. "Just don't know what."

"Uncle, maybe he…" Rhys tries to put a positive spin. "No he is just fucked up."

"Exactly!" Harvey says and leans against the glass cabinet behind him. "But, that's for another time. Was the drive here well?"

Rhys smiles looking happy that the conversation shifted away from dear old dad. They sat in the kitchen catching up. Much to Eli's dismay, they did not bring up, oh you know, the upcoming child! But Eli isn't going to be the one cracking that egg. He isn't the pregnant one.

"Ey! We are the first ones here!" Jordan's voice calls from the entrance.

"Nah J. You're late. Like your pull out game." Rhys responds with a grin.

Jordan snorts and adjusts the baby carrier in his arm. "Really? My game? You and Malik must be getting zero action cause I know his pull out game is whack!" 

Rhys raises an eyebrow. "Really? And how do you know that?"

Jordan opens his mouth and pauses. His face heats up and he clears his throat. "Yeah, uh… Melody! Hurry up and come inside!"

Rhys chuckles and takes the baby carrier from Jordan. Before Jordan could respond, little baby Jabari was lifted from the carrier and into uncle Rhys's arms. 

"Dang. Feeling the love." Jordan sighs.

"Hey, he doesn't talk nonsense to me. Plus, he's so adorable." Rhys says.

"And not annoying." Malik adds.

Jordan holds his heart. "I cannot believe what I'm hearing. My own family. Oh the shame. " He says and throws his body across the top of a sofa.

"Get your ass off the chair." Ty says as he enters the room. Melody, in all her 4c hair and dark skin goodness, smiles happily on top of the shoulders of her stepfather. 

"Nice bow Ty." Malik jokes. 

Tied to one of Ty's locks was one of the many bright orange bows that Melody had attached to her many twists. Ty groans but couldn't bring himself to be angry at the eight year old on his shoulders. So, he moves attention back to his dramatic husband.

"Aren't you too grown to be acting like that?" Ty questions.

Jordan grins. "It turns you on doesn't it?"

Ty sputters. "Man, the kids."

Melody giggles. "Look Daddy, his face warm." She says touching Ty's heating face.

"I let you guys walk ahead of me and boom! You both start flirting!" Kique says, dropping the baby bag on a nearby chair. "Gotta start bringing a spray bottle with me."

"Aunty Kique!" Lee squeals and leaps into her arms. "I love your hair. It's like a grape!" 

"Thank you baby." She says smoothing her hair.

Lee turns around in her arms to face her parents. "Daddies! Can I get my hair like Aunty Kique's!"

"Think you too young to dye your hair purple." Malik says.

Lee shakes her head. "I know. Just the afro."

Eli could have burst into laughter at the looks on everyone's face. Malik looked at Rhys. Rhys looked at Jordan. Jordan looked at Kique. Kique looked back at Rhys

 And Harvey drank water and minded his own business.

"Well love, your hair can't really do that." Rhys says.

"Why not? Eli has hair like uncle Ty's. Why can't I have my hair like Aunty Kique's?" Lee tries to reason.

"It just doesn't curl like that you know?" Jordan chimes in.

Lee pouts. "But when Melody gets braids and I get braids it looks the same!"

"Yeah looks but was done two different ways." Ty says.

Melody nods. "Yeah! I got to use extensions. You just use your own hair."

"So I can't get curly hair extensions that look like Aunt Kique's hair!" Lee argues.

"Not sure it works like that." Kiques says.

In the midst of the argument of to afro and not afro, the doorbell rang. Not wanting to disturb the intense discussion, Eli ducks out and heads to the door. It was probably not anymore family because, when did his family ever ring a doorbell? 

Opening the door Eli's tongue turned to lead. Suddenly he's frozen to the ground. He can't form a sentence. His feet burn with phantom pains from wounds long since forgotten. Now they rain like a hurricane through his body. 

A tall man, fair skinned and chilled stands in a neat tailor suit. Golden hair with wisps of grey glows in the light of Grandpa Harvey's porch lights. His jaw set tight and eyes firm. To his side was a woman Eli thought to never see again as long as he lived. Her face looked aged long before its time. An old wig sits on top of her head and falls onto her bony shoulders. A blue dress that seemed too expensive for her to afford hung onto her frame like rags on a line.

"Excuse me, young man. Are you Eli ?" The man says in a deep voice.

"Uh…"

"Don't bother asking. It's him. Kid never could speak." The lady, that monster, said.

The man sends a fleeting glance at the woman. "Ms.Trisha please." He says before continuing to address the boy in front of him.. "Do you recognize this woman?"

Eli wishes he did not.

"Mh..", was his only response.

"Of course he recognizes me!" She says with a smile. Only then Eli remembers her gapped tooth smile. She moves closer to the boy and rests a dry hand on his cheek. "How could he forget his own mother?"

"Mom?" A new deep voice joins the conversation. 

Eli, finally being able to move back, takes a glance at his daddy Malik. He too takes a stunned appearance. 

The lady's smile grew. "Oh isn't this perfect! Both my sons together. Aren't I a happy mother!"

Eli never knew Grandpa Harvey's wooden floor could be so hard. Black dots clouded his mind until it all went dark.