A/N: It's been a while but thanks to anyone who's read so far! Enjoy...

Personal space had always been a slight issue for Number Four, right from the moment he'd grasped the concept of other people existing.

On their first birthday, Grace, using her limited knowledge of the occasion, had decided to make a small cake for the infants, blowing out most of the candles herself because all the children had wanted to reach for and hold the fire rather than get rid of it immediately.

Number Six had hated the fire with a burning passion.

Grace had only asked him to blow out the candles before he'd frowned with as much intensity as a such a small child can and accidentally whacked Number Four in his attempt to get away from the flame.

It was as if that moment had flicked a switch inside Number Four's mind.

From that moment on, he would constantly keep hold of Number Six, making sure they were physically connected in one way or another as often as he could. It made changing their clothes or putting them to bed very difficult but Grace didn't mind in the slightest.

Number Six had apparently been gifted with the patience of a virtuous saint because he never complained about Number Four's constant attempts at physical contact and quite often, he initiated it first, making grabby hands with an unusually knowing look.

It seemed to catch on with the other children very quickly and soon Number Two was following Grace around the house with Number Four first crawling next to him and eventually wobbling right behind him.

Number Five and Number Seven were soon making their way around the rooms by holding onto the walls as well as each other, occasionally being interrupted by an eager and somewhat clumsy Number Four barrelling into them.

It became common for Number Four to trail behind Number Three and point out how pretty her newest outfit was by yelling "flower!" or "I want!" in Grace's general direction.

None of the children were particularly verbal but they were mostly happy to indulge in ostensibly random conversations when Number Four started them out of the blue, much to what Grace would assume was her amusement.

She'd taught them colours as soon as possible because colour-coding their clothes made her life so much more efficient and they seemed to understand that a particular colour belonged to them.

Number Four would always mix them up for some reason, pointing to a white wall and proudly declaring "blue!" or patting a red sofa and announcing "small white!" despite her corrections. Little did she know that he wasn't actually making mistakes because he wasn't talking about the furniture in the first place.

Her colour system didn't really matter much when it came to their possessions anyway; either they weren't bothered with what exactly they were given in favour of just being excited about something new or they accepted that Number Four would eventually make them drop whatever it was and take his hand instead anyway.

Despite his reluctance to make conversation, Number Two would toddle towards Grace and slowly mumble words like 'water' or 'lift up' when any of the even-numbered brothers wanted something, the other two standing behind him with sheepish or hopeful looks.

It wasn't unusual for everyone to hear Number Four declaring things like 'sunny!' or 'bad cloud!' in the mornings when they all grudgingly woke up.

Number Five speedily clocked on to 'quiet!' and, for a while, his irritated grumble would be heard after anyone said anything in the house. That was definitely far more annoying than it was cute but Grace managed, as she did with everything else they threw her way.

Most commonly, they literally threw various objects her way whilst shouting out their names, as if gifting her with her own possessions. Well, with Mr Hargreeves' possessions, but she was the one who looked after them all so they were basically hers anyway.

The strangest part about that time of their lives was the way Number Six would simply lie down without warning and Number Four would use him as a pillow, the two of them having what, aside from the undecipherable words and a ridiculous amount of nouns, sounded like a mature conversation.

"Flooring time," Number Six would warn before just letting himself fall.

"And pillow me," Number Four would reply, falling rather harshly onto Number Six's stomach and stretching his small legs out as far as they could go.

And then they'd exchange hums and nouns and streams of mutterings before eventually falling asleep, at which point Number Two would come up to her and tug on her sleeve.

"Brothers asleep," he'd mumble, letting her know she was to remove the other two from the floor before someone tripped over them.

Number Six would be oblivious to the world once he was asleep but Number Four would whine if she picked him up, and he'd only go quiet again once he was wrapped up in his blankets.

He was the only one who paid any attention to which blanket he had and made it very clear he needed a different one for each day of the week, which meant that he'd swap with a different sibling every day.

None of them seemed to mind, getting used to the routine of swapping despite not yet having any kind of concept as to what a routine actually was.

"Night," Number Four would whisper to Grace as she'd plant a kiss on his forehead.

"It's 'goodnight', Number Four," Grace always replied, politely confused.

"Maybe," Number Four would remind her before yawning.

Number Six would often act similarly, either agreeing or disagreeing with her when she wished him goodnight.

The others went to bed without any kind of confusion, usually too tired to do more than vaguely hum back. Although Number Two always hugged her before dozing off and Number Seven would kiss her cheek in return before giggling herself to sleep.

Just from the way they went to bed, Grace could tell they would all be very different people when they grew up and she wasn't sure if she would be able to take care of them all when that happened.

But still, she was happy to humour them as long as it made them happy. After all, their happiness was directly proportional to her own happiness.

It's still slow because they're too young to have adventures but hopefully, I'll get there soon. Thanks if you read this x