Adam grinned at Asher and Juniper as patiently as possible. "Okay, can you guys act like you love each other?"

Asher went to hug her but her lip started to tremble dramatically. "Juniper, let's just get this over with. I'm trying to go to school too."

She whined and made a pathetic little face like her father was forcing her to do hard labor. Hazel chuckled. "She's mad we don't have Jack yet. She doesn't wanna leave him out."

Juniper started actually crying then. "We're supposed to have Jack! He's my little brother and he's going to school too!"

Adam's eye twitched. This girl was his pride and joy but good god she must have been born deaf. "I just told you Jack is gonna be here in like, five minutes. Jacob has to round up his twins and Astro first."

Juniper sat on the ground and started wailing as Asher walked a few paces away and groaned. "This is hell! Just let me go to school!"

"Asher William!" Hazel gasped. "Watch your mouth!"

He groaned again and banged his head against a tree. "I miss when she was a baby."

The dads both poked out their lip. Asher had had a harder time with Juniper growing up than Anna did, and that was saying something. He cried at every birthday, he cried about every milestone. Hell, when he was six he cried about her getting out of diapers. They used to be so close but Juniper was opinionated and sassy to the furthest extents of her personality. And god, she was a whiner.

That was Hazels fault. He had spoiled her the same way he had spoiled Asher but his brain worked differently than Junipers. He became just more emotionally dependent on his parents as a result of being spoiled whereas Juniper became a princess. And it didn't help that the other Dads spoiled her rotten either. She was so cute, they couldn't help it.

Anna rushed out with tissues, a water bottle and school lunches packed with little notes. Asher made a face at his lunch. "Everyone's gonna think I'm a Mommas Boy."

Adam stared at him. He was a Momma's Boy, just like his twin father. When he was upset or hurt or needed anything, he always wanted to know where Mom was. "Be grateful. Some kids don't have any parents. You have three."

He smirked. "More like eight. Imagine having eight parents."

Hazel started choking on laughter as discreetly as possible while Anna wrapped her arms around him and shuffled him over to Juniper. "Hey, we're a family full of love. We just want a single decent picture."

Juniper shook her head sadly. "Mommy, I don't want to do a picture without Jack."

Just then Jacob and Jack raced out the door hand in hand, with Jacob all kinds of blotchy colors and out of breath. "We— we're here!" He wheezed, collapsing on the ground. "God, wrangling twins is a total nightmare!"

Juniper squealed and hugged Jack. "Hi, Jack! You're going to first grade and I'm going to third grade!"

Jack wiggled enough that his backpack slid around. He was so freaking adorable and clearly excited from his happy bounce. "Yeah! I'm gonna make more friends this year and Dad packed me honeydew!"

Jacob blushed and went to stand by the parents while the kids socialized. "Sorry, I didn't think he'd tell the entire world."

Their kids weren't big on candy for some reason, and Jacob had tried with all of them. They liked fruits, the little freaks they were. They'd ask for apples over ice cream, bananas over cake, it was madness! Sure they were proud and it was good for their kids but it was still weird. Steven claimed to have cycled between pizza, fries and amusement park food for the first 15 years of his life, and seeing kids happily eating fruits and most of their vegetables made him feel a little like a loser. They'd all laughed at his miserably proud tone, but they still had the same problem as they'd have with candy: if one kid had some all the kids wanted some.

Hazel shrugged and kissed Jacob's cheek until he turned to get a full kiss. "S'okay, I packed her favorite kind of grapes."

Jack raced up to Asher to stare up at him with wide, amazed little eyes.

Asher raised an eyebrow with minor distain. "Jack."

Adam and Jacob had foreseen some kind of problem with Jack and the other kids, and sure enough when Asher officially found out he kind of went out of his way to avoid him, so Jack didn't see much of his big half brother. Adam had tried talking to him about it but he only told him things that hurt his feelings. He felt like Jack wasn't really one of them, even though he'd spent the majority of his life with them. Juniper was different even if they had different people who made them because it was planned, and then he called Adam a cheater to his face. And a hypocrite.

Adam had locked himself in the bathroom and cried until he was sick, both Hazel and Anna begging him to just let them comfort him to no avail. Asher apologized, but it was half-assed and he reiterated he meant what he said. The kid was blunt, and a lot like Pluto.

Hazel and Anna had tried as he got older to reintegrate Jack so Asher did attempt, but Jack just rubbed him the wrong way. He got overstimulated from him, other times he got frustrated with his clinginess and excitability. They'd essentially stopped trying and hoped he would just warm up to him with time. He was probably experiencing some big emotions, he maybe understood more about Jack than they'd thought he would. Underestimating their kids was a big downfall they had.

Adam winced at Jack, feeling annoyance at Asher but more than that, guilt. That was still biting him in the ass now that his oldest was a teen.

"Whoa, you're so tall!" Jack cried at Asher, pumping both fists in the air. "I wanna be tall like you one day, big brother!"

Jacob cooed under his breath and grabbed Adam's hand like he'd been doing it every day of his life.

Asher made Adam so proud right then; he huffed out a dry laugh, but patted him on the head affectionately. "We have the same dad, I'm sure you will be."

Jack tipped his head. "But Dad is shorter than Daddy."

Anna burst out laughing and quickly dispersed the conversation so they could take the damn picture.

Asher had a hand on Jacks shoulder and a half smile, which was all they could really expect from the broody kid. Juniper and Jack were holding hands and grinning from ear to ear.

After, Jack fingered one of Junipers barrettes before either of his parents could correct him on touching people without permission, and giggled. "Your hair is so pretty, Juniper! I like the light green barrettes."

Juniper shook her head to click them together and gasped her excitement. "Next time Daddy does my hair, you can watch. It hurts."

"I try to be gentle honey," Hazel told her achingly. "You squirm so much."

They heard the rumbling of the bus and the two raced off to the bus stop.

Before Asher could take off, he hugged Jacob and pressed his cheek to show a rare show of deep, sincere affection. "Bye."

He completely ignored his other parents and waved over his shoulder as he jogged and joined with the Conniverse Pride of children to start talking to Cosmo. Daisy ran out ahead of the others and slid her hand into Asher's like they did every morning.

Jacob's eyes filled with grateful tears he tried his hardest to hold in but between grinning from ear to ear and trying not to laugh so he wouldn't start sobbing he couldn't get himself under control. Anna, Hazel and Adam were staring at him with begrudging smiles that they'd gotten snuffed, but that was a monumental thing that just happened: the beginning of forgiveness. What a sign after Jack to witness.

Anna sighed and hugged him tight. His arms went around her and he cried his joy out loud. "I love having kids so much. I love you guys!"

*

Steven had three children attempting to climb him like a jungle gym, one crying because she wanted to get her picture taken so badly, one teenage boy complaining about his mother primping him and giving him tons of kisses he wasn't exactly fighting off, and a huge smile on his face.

Some families were good at sports. Others found their family activity in smarts, or some other unique activity.

But when he started humming their favorite song, Seraphine, Celine and even Baby Celeste stared up at him in innocent thrill, then the twins picked up the tune too.

By the time he hit the chorus, Connie was singing along even with her rueful glare at Steven as all their kids turned to sing to her, "Mama, I killed a man
I put my gun up to his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun—!"

"Picture formation!" Steven requested when Cosmo crumpled to the ground like he'd been shot. "We just need one good picture, please. Your mother will sic Lion on me again, dear children," He said with faux terror. "And he will actually eat me this time."

Connie nodded. "What your father said."

Lucky, Cosmo and Azalea took the back, the twins took the middle and Connie set Celeste in front of them with a cold teething ring to keep her attention.

Steven knelt a little and clicked his tongue at his baby to get her attention. "Celeste, can you give Daddy a big, pretty smile?" He did it first in hopes she might copy this time.

She blinked at him and he sighed, starting a steady glow. Instantly she broke into a huge grin and drooled, and Steven got a beautiful family picture.

He was relatively certain Celeste was Diamonds baby.

As soon as he sighed his relief Celine was complaining about her twin standing on her foot, Azalea asked Lucky what she was staring at, Cosmo rolled his eyes and picked up Celeste to kiss her nose and play with her. It was total chaos, but the parents managed to get hugs and snag Celeste back before their son could smuggle her to school.

They saw Adam's family including Jack join the mini circus and then the emboldened Olfax children battle crying as they mixed in too.

Connie snuggled up to Steven, kissing his chest when he pulled her closer. "What the heck goes on in that house in the morning?"

Steven snorted and kissed the top of their nine month olds head. "Knowing that house? Probably a bonfire."