Realistic or Modern Family Ties

[PunkPrince]

Give that back!"
"I need it!"
"I need to finish putting the sequins on this–Ow! Damn it, Kasha, you burnt me!"
"It's a hot glue gun, what'd you think was gonna happen, idiot?"

Jupiter slinked out into the hallway from one of the bedrooms, and Eva could see that they were struggling to close a bra through their shirt. She stopped them and clipped it closed. "Better?"

Jupiter nodded, flashing the woman an appreciative smile before adjusting the silicone breast forms that rested in the bra. She knew that Jupiter longed for breasts and feminine curves, and they had talked to a few people about getting Jupiter on a low dose of estrogen, but so far, no luck. Eva and Kennedy did what they could for them. Jupiter pushed back their messy blonde hair and looked up the stairs.

"Fighting over a glue gun," they explained. "Kyra was trying to use it to put sequins on a dress, and I guess..." They shrugged and slipped out the front door. It wasn't unusual for the children to call each other by their drag names.

"Damn it," Kennedy growled softly. "Nothing can ever go smoothly in this house." She sighed and turned to yell up the stairs. "Boys! Come here, and for god's sake be nicer to each other. There are glue guns all over this house, there's no reason for you to be arguing over that one. One of you can borrow mine, if it matters that much."

Ronan bounded over to them, Hugo creeping along slowly after him. Hugo continued to stare at the floor and apologized softly. "I'm sorry." He didn't look up at either of them. Kennedy sighed and gave the smaller twin's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "It's okay," she said softly. "I'm sorry for shouting, honey, I'm just stressed about today. I just want things to go well. I don't want to freak them out with fighting. How would you feel if Eva and I had been fighting the first day you came to live with us?"

Hugo gave a small smile and Kennedy returned it as she slipped out the front door onto the wooden porch.

Busy. That was the perfect word to describe the last week. Scrambling to get everything perfect for the pair of twins coming to live with them. The second pair, actually. It was the similarities to Hugo and Ronan that had drawn Eva and Kennedy to these two. The repeated rejection, over and over again.

Originally, they had gone looking for a younger child, one they could raise together. But these two...they just couldn't leave them behind, in the state they were in. It was too much of what that had seen before. What Eva and Kennedy had endured, in some sense, and what their children had spent their lives in before finding them.

***

"They're here! Hurry up, Hugo!"

Kennedy turned and quickly moved to stand beside Eva again as their son scrambled to close the door behind him. He, as usual, stayed close to Kennedy and his brother, standing between the two, looking anxious as ever. "I hope they like us," he said quietly as they watched the silver car pull into the driveway. Jupiter craned their neck to look at the pair as they climbed out of the car. Their feet shuffled slightly, resulting in the clicking of their high heeled shoes on the wooden porch.

Eva found herself praying that she wouldn't have to hear her birth name. Neither she nor Kennedy had been able to change their names legally as of yet. On everything legal, Eva was Eric and Kennedy was Keegan, and each time one of them had to hear it it felt like a slap in the face.

The social worker spoke as he reached them, apprehensiveness in his tone. "Hello, Eric," he greeted, spitting out the words in a tone normally reserved for something sick and vile. He looked back to the pair of twins. Well, this is Eric. He’s your new adoptive father. He and Keegan, both actually." He motioned to Kennedy. Eva flinched at the near forgotten name. She felt Kennedy gently squeeze her arm. She didn't have to look at the other woman to know that anger had begun to flare up in her eyes. "I believe the woman who approved you may have mentioned your..." he cleared his throat. "Hobby."

"Her name is Eva and she is their mother," Kennedy said, glaring at the social worker. "And my name is Kennedy. I believe we discussed this with you in the interview we had, and we told Marie too. Repeatedly."
"You could at least make an effort when you're standing on our front porch." That was Jupiter, blue eyes narrowing as they watched the man.
The social worker looked the teenager over disapprovingly. "You must be Kevin."

Jupiter ignored the use of their birth name and lifted their chin. They clearly had some sort of comeback to snap back with, but held their tongue, knowing that now wasn't the time to start a fight.
The social worker looked back to the twins. "Call me if things don't work out."
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Kennedy said coldly.

And then, the paperwork was done and the man gone off the porch. As he left, Kennedy turned to the pair. "I'm sorry about that," she said gently. "Nobody's mad at you. People like that just upset me." She paused and turned to Eva, who remained quiet and seemed slightly shaken. "Are you all right?" She directed the question to Jupiter as well.

"Fine," Jupiter said simply.

"I'm okay," Eva said. "I knew he'd do it. I just never really get used to it. But thank you." She gave her partner a small smile, and Kennedy reached up to move a piece of Eva's hair away from her face, leaning up to peck the taller woman on the cheek before turning back to the twins.

"But anyway, I think an honest introduction is in order. My name is Kennedy and this is Eva. This is Jupiter, Ronan, and Hugo."

"Hello," Jupiter greeted.
"Hi! Ronan chirped, sunny as ever. Hugo gave a small wave from where he stood, still trying to calm himself from the earlier tensions.

 

[PunkPrince]

Kennedy paused as Micah spoke. He fully expected to be sent away pretty quickly, but who could blame him? The pair had been shuffled from home to home for most of their lives. There was no reason for either one of them to believe that this time was going to be any different. She turned and looked at him, her expression softening.

"We're not going to send you away," she promised gently. "You're not going anywhere. I'd like to be friends anyway, if that's all right with you."

Jupiter, meanwhile, had been curiously gazing at Percy, the twin who hadn't said anything. They reminded Jupiter somewhat of themself when they were young. Percy's face had lit up for a moment or two at Eva and Kennedy's quick show of affection, but their gaze had dropped back to their feet as their brother spoke. Jupiter gave them a gentle, reassuring nudge as they walked past.

Eva smiled at the pair before her. The second pair of twins to be brought into their home. They reminded her so much of the way Ronan and Hugo had been when she had first met them, though in a different way. She led them into the house, followed by the others. Ronan bounced cheerfully into the house. Jupiter strode inside with their chin held high, glancing behind them once, as though to make sure the car really was gone.

Hugo slinked through the doorway and anxiously glanced over his shoulder at Percy and Micah. He didn't say anything, just offered a timid smile before skittering off up the stairs.

"He'll be back," Kennedy said as she heard the boy's bedroom door close. "He's just anxious. Probably went to calm himself down." Hugo frequently panicked at even the slightest little tiff. He had improved somewhat in the time he had spent with them, but was still terrified of even the slightest agitation. He had valium injections for when things got particularly bad, but he had begun to need them less and less.

"We thought," Eva started, her voice soft and quiet as ever, "that before we showed you your bedroom it might be best for you to get to know us a bit. So is there anything you want to ask us, or anything you want to say?"

(sorry if this one isn't great)

 

[PunkPrince]

The boy is quiet for a moment after Eva questions them. Half a second went by, and then he was pelting them with questions, only stopping when his twin leaned over to whisper something in his ear. He refused to ask whatever had been asked of him at first, and then reluctantly asked the final question, quickly scrambling for a cover. Jupiter perked up a bit at the last question, straightening up from where they had sprawled out across the couch.

"We're married," Kennedy said in answer to the first question. "We've been together almost ten years and married for five of them." She flashed her wedding ring as she spoke, and then turned to glance at Jupiter and Ronan. "Jupiter is seventeen and Hugo and Ronan are fifteen." She paused. "The social worker didn't know any of our names because the names on the paperwork were wrong and we haven't gotten around to changing them yet."

"Eva and Kennedy are transgender women," Jupiter explained. They stopped to think for a moment. "I'm most of a mostly-genderless being with some girl peppered in." They shrugged. "We just grew up as boys, that's all. Nobody ever asked me if I felt like anything else, that's for sure."

"We have nail polish!" Ronan chirped from where they sat perched on the side of the couch. "Most of the good stuff is downstairs, though." He glanced toward the basement door and looked up at Eva. "We can use it, right? You’re not saving any of the colors for anything?”

“Knock yourselves out,” Eva told him.

Jupiter looked over at the twins before standing up. “I can paint your nails for you if you want,” they offered, giving Percy a small smile.

 

[PunkPrince]

“You can come too,” Jupiter reassured Micah as they headed toward the basement door.

Eva turned her head to watch the teenagers descend the basement steps. "Be careful!" she cautioned. "You can move my mannequin out of the way if you want to. I don't want you bumping my dress. The glue on the rhinestones is still wet."

"I'll be around if you need me," she said. "I have to go finish the flyer for the show this weekend. I’m already late with it."
"Just don't use that same picture of me again," Kennedy warned. "I look a mess."
"Use that exact same picture of you?" Eva teased. "Okay, got it. Will do. You look fine.”

“I could put a paper bag over my head and you’d still tell me I was the most beautiful creature that ever lived. I’m not sure how trustworthy your judgement is.”

Eva snickered and Jupiter and Ronan led the way downstairs.

The basement was Ronan’s favorite part of the house. He suspected it was everyone else’s favorite too. “Sorry about the mess,” the boy apologized. “It’s kind of always a disaster down here no matter how much we try tidying the place up.”

The basement was only partially finished, and costumes hung off the ceiling beams and on racks pushed against the walls. Various unfinished projects were on dress forms throughout the room, most notably Eva’s dress–ruby red with long sleeves and a split in the side that stopped at the hip. Red rhinestones were clustered around the collar and scattered down the sleeves, the glue that held them in place still wet.

Various folded sheets of fabric and other art supplies were scattered about the room, wigs hanging from hooks on the back wall. Ronan bounced forward to his own work, a slimming black dress, bedecked with a spiral pattern of triangular pieces of broken mirror. He had been working to dull down the sharper edges, the unfinished pieces lying in a tray on the ground beside the mannequin. The boy leaned down to pick the tray up and set it out of the way before following Jupiter towards stack of clear plastic storage drawers which held extra makeup, various odds and ends of supplies, and of course, nail polish.

Jupiter pulled the bottom drawer open, revealing the carefully arranged bottles within.

“Take your pick.”

 

[PunkPrince]

Ronan glanced up at Micah’s comment and then shrugged. “There’s some weight to it, but at least the pieces are thin. Im just gonna wear it onstage, I’m not gonna be wandering around in it all the time.” He took the hem of the dress in his hand and held it for a moment before letting it fall back. “Eva wants me to sew something in on the inside of it so there’s more of something between the glass and me, but that’ll just make it heavier.”

The boy shrugged. "I'll figure it out. I have time before I'll actually be wearing it. I'm more worried about just finishing the damned thing. Plus I'm terrible at sewing. Half the stuff I make is just held together by hot glue and a sense of hope and desperation." This earned a laugh from Jupiter as they took the nail polish from Percy.
"You'd better figure something out," Jupiter said, leading Percy over to the battered couch. "I'd really rather not watch you remove your own appendix onstage." They paused. "I bet it'd get good tips, though."

Jupiter placed Percy's hands down on the table and started carefully applying the base coat. "Like half of this is just gonna be waiting for it to dry," they said. "But it's usually pretty fast. You guys can see your room after we're done if you want. It's sort of plain for right now--Eva and Kennedy were worried about doing too much you wouldn't like, so they decided to wait until you got here so you could decide what you liked." They continued on, adding the color to Percy's nails.

A light piano song drifted up the stairs. It had to be Eva. She was the only one who played. A skill her mother had struggled to teach her when she was young, after her death Eva had promised herself she would learn. And learn she had. She could sing too, but she did so far less often, shy about her skills.

 

[PunkPrince]

"They don't want us to get hurt," Ronan explained. "Jupiter was just teasing. But to hurt myself that badly I'd have to get really into my performance, which people would probably tip well." He paused. "Eva broke a leg doing a drop once after she landed wrong. She was meant to sort of catch herself on the way down but she didnt and landed on this metal part on the edge of the stage, She was in a cast up to her hip for a month and she spent the entire time pissed because she couldn't dance."

Jupiter finished Percy's nails and straightened up. "You don't have to do anything. Eva and Kennedy aren't going to kick you out. They own the bar we perform at, so I promise you won't have to pickpocket either. "They didn't really go about adopting us in the traditional sense. We were all already dressing up and going out to that bar before they met us, and then it just kind of evolved into, 'your families are all shit so you can be a part of my family now,' and then they legally adopted us. Not to say you can't do it if you guys actually want to, but you certainly don't have to. The tips just make for good extra pocket money."

Jupiter stood and headed toward the stairs. "Do you want to see your room now?' they asked, continuing upstairs without waiting for an answer. Ronan scampered after them.

Eva was still playing the piano upstairs, and had begun singing, likely unaware that anyone else could hear her. Kennedy was still in the kitchen. She paused for a moment and leaned against the wall, gazing into the other room. Eva would likely immediately stop singing if she realized she was being listened to. Kennedy took a tentative step forward, glancing back toward the basement door as the children emerged.

The basement door creaked, and Eva glanced up. Oh!" she squeaked, stopping abruptly and placing a hand over her mouth as her face began to redden with embarrassment. "I didn't hear you come in."

 

[PunkPrince]

Kennedy made her way over to Eva and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. “Why’d you stop?” she asked. “We were all enjoying it.” Eva blushed as Kennedy spoke, smiling slightly as Percy began to applaud her.
“Thanks,” she said softly. She stood up off the piano bench as Percy bounced forward to show off their painted nails. The child’s face had lit up. “I like your nails. That color looks nice on you.”

"Did you want to see your room now?" Kennedy asked, heading towards the stairs. "I hope sharing a room is okay. We thought you might want to stick close to one another."

Kennedy led the way up the stairs, and she paused at the sight before her. One of Hugo's curly blonde wigs--part of it speckled with sequins--was moving up and down the hallway floor. Hugo stood completely still, like he was waiting for the right time to pounce. After a moment, the wig stopped moving and the boy snatched it up, a black and white spotted rat dangling from the end of it.

"Why are you like this, Ace?" he sighed, pulling the rat off the wig and sitting it on his shoulder. "I don't come into your house and take your things away when you're using them."

Eva chuckled softly at the scene before her. Hugo looked sheepishly over his shoulder and grinned before vanishing into his room again. The group headed down the hall and Kennedy opened the door to the bedroom the twins were to share. "I'm sorry it's so plain," she apologized.

"We weren't exactly sure what you liked, so we couldn't really do much decorating," Eva added. "We can go out within the next couple days and pick out some things more to your tastes, if you'd like. There are clothes for both of you in the closet too."