new topic that will be sitting here uselessly for a week. hmm.... what a lonely existance it has...

ok, so i got an idea. that won't be touched for a week. but oh well, here it is anyway: we should write something where all of our characters are randomly little kids.....(a respectful nod back to the ff fanfictions of old )...i remembered these just the other day and thought it might be entertaining to write about all these crack-jobs as little children who are much more open and vulnerable x)....i'm a sweet person. so yeah.

haha you're a kind person with an amazing idea x) sounds amazing to me it's nice to see fun posts when you get back~

haha, and I figured out a way to start it... but with it being 12 at night....errr, the morning, I mean, it'll have to wait till later but not too much later....

haha I dont know how you stay up till 12 in the morning and post stuff...it blows my mind, actually.
but post it whenever you like that isnt too late..or early

well im a night person....and an OCD person, therefore, if my computer is up, the mentality is 'I just need to check it once, so I can formulate responses for tomorrow...' and sometimes one can't wait x) but i'm up that late normally, usually later if im not forced to sleep

haha well, whatever floats your boat is just fine with me as long as you know I wont be on past ten at the latest x)

no worries at all ok, time to start this thing....


I had set my alarm the night before knowing what the next day might possibly bring. March seventh. The unrecognized birthday of the Intertwined.... it was unrecognized because none of the other characters at all would admit to Dolan and Aleric even having a birthday, much less on the seventh of March, of all days. And only the REAL people knew why THAT was. It was still a bit insane to me, but it was no more insane than other fanfictions in which we have, in no certain order, destroyed Samantha's room, stranded people on an unliveable island, and made cars appear out of nowhere (to name a few). But anyway, I had prepared myself, so it wouldn't be so bad.
Alright, so I know you're wondering at this point what I'm talking about. Let me explain. Weird things happen with Dolan and Aleric....it's just who they are. Which, I suppose, I could claim full responsibility for...but choose not to. Anyway, each year on their birthday, something strange happens and causes them and everyone else to forget that March the seventh ever existed or had any special connotation to anyone at all. One year, I came downstairs to find out that they had all frozen in place and remained that way the entire day (which was entertaining at first, because of some assorted...strange...positions...enough said...), and another time they all became flattened cartoon characters that couldn't come off the pages of my notebook. No joke. Yeah yeah, I know it's hard to believe. But then again, so is the fact that I have twenty or so people invisible to everyone but me, living in my room and drinking my coffee....well, one that drinks my coffee. But anyway, you get the picture. I knew the drill by now. I just didn't know exactly what would happen... or realize how far it would go.

I stared at my phone as the reminder alarm went off playing "The Rescue" through my room... The little box on the screen for my calender read: "Aleric and Dolan's Birthday Today! " With a sigh I put the phone down and looked around...no one was in sight, causing me to feel slightly worried. At the same time, they come and go as they please and I dont pride myself on being motherly and always asking them where they're off to or anything, I just let them leave...Some cases that can be good and in others bad...When I let Sapphir leave, I didnt see her for over four months, which was bad... but when I had let Seth leave, he found a new home where he was more or less welcomed...I had heard recently that he had rightfully desevered some pain for breaking Shand's thumb but hey, life happens...
It was still pretty early so I decided to wait and text and or call Micaela...give her some time to wish the twins happy birthday...see what madness was going to play out today...all that good jazz.

So, with all that explained, you'd probably understand why I wasn't surprised to wake up that morning and find that my alarm clock had malfunctioned and I had slept in for an hour. Not that such a thing was unusual for me, but on any special day- especially a birthday- I like to be up and at 'em.... So I sat up and tried to get accustomed to the bright light as best I could while stretching and inwardly wishing I could go back to sleep. *Why didn't anybody wake me up?*...that was pretty strange...nobody let me just sleep in peace around here... That got my blood pumping. I decided to go investigate. Rolling out of bed, I heard noises coming from my closet. *Them, of course...* I opened the door to find that two adorable little boys were sitting in my closet floor with my shoes on.
"I told you, you were makin' too much noise!!" Said the one with dark brown eyes and an unruly head of messy blond hair.
"You know I don't make noise," the other one mumbled back, staring at him with nearly translucent, bright ice blue eyes and shook his dark head.
"Well I didn't make the noise!!" the first little boy gave the other a dirty look.
'Yeah, sorry, I did it- I'll do it again!" Another dark blond head poked out from under my clothes, this one with the same bright blue eyes as the other little boy. Of course, I knew that mischievous look- every other day of my life was preoccupied with catching that look and preventing whatever mayhem and madness might occur after it.
"...Shand?" I looked closer. "Is....is that you? Where's Aleric and Dolan?"
"Only right in front of your face," Said the boy with the bright blue eyes and dark hair. "Thanks for remembering us."
*Crap.* Okay, so compared to all the other birthdays fiascos of the past, this one was definitely going to be the most complicated. Kids, great....everyone knows how much I LOOOOOOVVE kids.

I had decided long ago that I would have to be like Micaela sleeping wise if I ever wanted to talk with her...stay up late and all...but that ship had sailed long ago when I realized that I would crash unknowingly around ten and still be up by six the next morning...I need to fix that...
I looked at my clock...was now a good time to call her? No, probably not...I needed to distract myself for at least another hour...I knew just how to do it.
Whenever I needed something to occupy my time for a while, finding all of my people was always the best answer. So, off I went to look...
I decided to start with Chantelle...she would usually be in the kitchen. As I walked down the stairs, I heard the clanging of pots and pans together, not in a cooking fashion but one that sounded as if someone was having a hard time pickingit up.
In the middle of my kitchen sat a young girl with long dark curly hair staring at a pot that had to be half the size of her and flipped upside down.
She hit the top of it, recieving a complaint from someone in it.
"Stop it!" Yelled a small voice.
She laughed, "Then come out! I'm getting bored." She then frowned.
"I dont want to come out!" The voice yelled back.
"Why not?" She crossed her arms in a little pout.
I had no idea who she was, but she had to be one of the most adorable little girls I had ever seen...but why was she in my kitchen?
"Cuz...they'll find me." The voice answered back.
"I tolds you that they're not here." She grabbed a handle of the pot and picked it up, "I promise." She looked into the opening she had created.
"Really?" The voice asked.
"Really." She smiled back.
A young boy with amber eye flipped the pot off of himself and looked around the room cautiously. Deciding he was ok, he stood up, his brown semi-wavy hair falling infront of his face.
"See, no one?" The girl that still sat on the floor looked up at him.
"Yeah...I guess..." He continued to look around unsure.
I heard a small laugh and looked at the corner of an archway leading into my kitchen to see another young boy tiptoeing behind the one with amber eyes. This young boy had a green eyes that looked like they were muted by a light brown color and his hair was wavy like the other boy's but much lighter. The boy with amber eyes turned around just in time to see the other boy before he threw several pieces of paper in his face. The young girl laughed again at the sight...I noticed was that the paper was cut out into the shape of a card and each one had either a heart, diamond, club or spade drawn on it sloppily...it was somewhat hard to actually make out that that's what the shapes actually were at first.
"Rhain?" I looked over at the young boy who hadnt noticed me until then.
He smiled, "Yup." He made a popping sound on the p.
I looked at the little girl and the other boy...judging by the face neither Sapphir or Sidra had that kind of hair, I guessed, "Chantelle?"
Her response was to smile, run over and cling onto my leg.
Then of course, "Pharris."
He didnt respond at all, he just stared at me...obviously mad that Chantelle had lied to him.
The three of them were absolutely adorable...at the same time, I was really confused by their change in age...did that mean everyone was younger now?

I sighed and rubbed my forehead before looking up again. When I did, I noticed that there were now two instead of three.
"Where did Shand go?" I asked, obviously distressed. While Aleric shrugged innocently, Dolan just scowled (which was, amazingly, still adorable on such a little face) and pointed toward my bed, where Shand was jumping up and down, all over my pillows, with his boots on, getting dirt and sand and every other dirty thing known to man on the surface upon which I sleep. I tried to take a deep breath, steady myself, close my eyes.
"Smell these!"
I opened my eyes to a handful of rose petals being pushed into my face. I gently pushed them away and saw that the short little boy holding them wore a sour expression.
"You don't think they smell pretty?" The boy's almost black eyes threatened to spill over with tears and he hung his head, sending long black hair into his face as he plopped down on the floor, obviously crushed.
"Nonono, it's ok...Vered," *of course, with all the roses...sheesh, somebody traumatized him as a kid*...wait... if all of them WERE kids, none of the traumatizing had taken full effect yet... meaning that now would be a great time to dig around in their little, under-developed brains for some character research.
And then, another realization: if all the grown-ups were now little kids...what did that make Lunath and Cinaed?!

I frowned as I continued to walk through my house in search of anyone else.
"Whatcha doin?" Asked a voice behind me. I small boy with an over sized tanktop on, shaggy brown hair and brown eyes stared up at me...
"Looking for people." I didnt know who he was...
"Like hide and seek?" He asked and tilted his head.
"Yeah, kinda." I was still trying to figure out who he was.
"I'm playing with my brother too...have you seen him?" The little boy asked.
"Who is he?" *Aeren?*
"His name is Daric." The boy smiled as he said his brother's name.
"Oh~ so you must be Xyle." No wonder I had a hard time figuring out who he was, he didnt have his huge muscles yet.
"Uhuh....so have you seen him?" Xyle asked again.
"Nope...try the living room." I didnt have the heart to tell him his brother wasnt in this house.
"Ok!" He smiled and took off running down the hall.
Four down, however many more to go...

"So...you like roses, huh?" I asked, finally relenting and allowing Vered to stuff the petals practically up my nose.
"They smell pretty. My name means rose," he said shyly, glancing up once.
"Really? That's-"
"My name means dark."
I turned around to see that Dolan had walked up behind me and was sitting in the floor with his arms hanging loosely beside him.
"Well if it meant light it'd be wrong," Aleric put in, standing over Dolan and pulling his fingers through Dolan's hair until it was all sticking up.
"I don't like you," Dolan's lip trembled a little as he looked up at Aleric. I resisted the urge to laugh... so he had been this blunt even as a little kid...
"I wanna play with Keiron. Go find somebody else to make angry," Dolan folded his arms, slowly standing up and leaving the room.
*Keiron? As in... evil villain Keiron?!* "Where is Keiron?!" I asked quickly, looking around at the three that were left, not realizing that, being little kids, how would they know?
"Before you woke... up we were playing... under the table," Shand said in intervals as he jumped, his hair flying up and back down again. He looked very different without the miscellaneous tattoos and piercings he had accumulated... and now he looked more like a little kid playing pirate dresss up, which no doubt was closer to the truth at the moment. I smiled and took Vered's hand and we both started downstairs together.

I looked outside for any sign of another one...I boy sat in the middle of my driveway with his back to me. As I began to walk over, the door opened behind me. I looked and saw Rhain.
"Hey, buddy." I smiled down at him and he smiled back.
"Where you goin?" He asked.
"To go see what that little boy is doing." I pointed over to him.
Rhain frowned, "Aeren told me he wanted to be left alone."
"So that's Aeren?" I asked.
Rhain nodded, "Yup...He's not in a good mood right now." Rhain frowned again.
"So then why did you come outside?" I bent down so I could be eye level with him.
"I wanted to see what you were doing." He smiled.
"I'm just looking for people, buddy, nothing fun."
"But I have no one to play with!" He frowned and his eyes got watery.
"Dont cry!" I picked him up, "You can come find people with me, it's ok...I was just saying it wont be fun."
He smiled, "It'll be fun with me around!" He pointed to himself.
I laughed, "I'm sure it will."
"We should look in the room with the cars." He smiled.
"The garage?" He nodded."Alright then, lead the way." I put him back down and he ran ahead.

"Everybody congregate in the living room!" I ordered as Vered and I started down the steps. On the third one from the bottom, Vered stopped without warning, making me almost drag him.
"What're you doing?" I asked.
"I wanna jump!" He insisted. I sighed, and before I could give permission or deny it, he had jumped, landed in a ball on the floor, and was up on his feet.
"I wanna do it again!"
"How is it that when little kids are doing something 'fun' and hurt themselves, its like nothing ever happened, but if they stub a toe or get scratched while they're not being entertained, it's the end of the world?" I shook my head and left Vered to his jumping- at least I knew where he'd be.
"Whats...comgra... kenya..." a little girl stopped in front of me with a look of concentration on her face, biting her lip as she tried to say..something.
"What's your name?" I asked as sweetly as I could.
"Fallon! And don't make fun of me! I'm trying hard!"
"I wasn't making fun of you..." I tried not to laugh. "Tell me again?"
"Congra... I can't get it!" She stomped her little feet in rage, sending her long, dark hair bouncing over her back. She clenched her violet eyes shut tight and stormed away.
"Callibrate, she said callibrate...or configurate, or conglamerate, I don't 'member which now," another little boy said from the kitchen table, where he was sitting in a chair on his knees, eating a bowl of cereal rather sloppily.
"I'm gonna need names for all of you, and nametags or something," I sighed.
"I'm Searc," The little boy, looking very much like Dolan except for his darker eyes and lighter hair, hopped out of the chair and caught me by surprise by shaking my hand. "And it's 'Searc' with an 'e' and an 'a', not like the scary fish with big teeth." He laughed behind his hand, like he was sharing an inside joke with himself. "I'm too nice to be that kind of shark."
I watched him hop off (looking very much like a little bunny rabbit), musing over how he was so happy all of a sudden... oh well, I had better enjoy it while it lasted...

Rhain stopped in front of the garage and waited for me, pointing inside of it, "There's one." He smiled proudly to himself.
I looked in and saw a young girl with dirty blonde hair staring up at the gardening tools.
She turned around at the sound of Rhain's voice and narrowed her deep green eyes, "Go away." She greeted us, "I'm trying to do something."
I tilted my head, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
She pointed up at a hand shovel, "I want it." She answered.
"Why?" I asked as I walked over to her.
"It's pointy." She smiled and looked up at me, "Is it a knife?"
I knew right then who this was, "No, Sidra, it's a shovel."
"Can I use it like a knife?" She frowned, her face still tilted up towards me.
"No, it's for digging holes, dear." I patted the top of her head.
"Then I dont want it." She crossed her arms.
I sighed, "Do want anything that's not a knife?"
She looked up at me, "Chalk."
I smiled even though I was confused, "Chalk? Alright..." I reached over to one of the shevles and pulled out a box of sidewalk chalk, "Here you go."
She took it with a smile and ran out to the drive way, took off the top, turned the box upside down so that all the chalk fell out, and began to draw quietly. "If only it was always that easy to amuse her..."
Rhain grabbed my hand, "Can we go look for more people now?"
"Sure thing." He smiled at my answer and ran out the garage to the back yard.
I passed by Sidra, "Stay here, ok?" She continued to draw and gave me no response.

"Why is no one congregating in the living room?" I asked exasperatedly once Searc had bounced off.
"Because we don't know what that means." A familiar face looked up at me and said matter of factly.
"Ah, Lunath, you know it's really good to see you... is all this a little weird to you?" I grinned, kneeling down to hug him.
"You using big words? No, you do that a lot."
"Alright, how about, everybody come into the living room so I can count all of you?"
It was as if a pest control man had gassed the place. They came pouring in from everywhere, anywhere, more of them than I had thought. And they all arranged themselves on the couch, the ottoman, various chairs (and some tried to arrange themselves on other pieces of furniture that had not been created for human beings to arrange themselves on, which is what I told them). I inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm as I surveyed the room, the only 'big' person in the whole place.
There was Kvanne, obviously, on the floor- who else had green eyes like that?- playing with a piece of string. As I hoped he wouldn't choke himself with it accidentally, I spied Keiron and Dolan and a little girl I didn't recognize over in the corner. *Leave it to Dolan to find all the dark corners...*
"What's your name?" I asked the little girl.
"Who wants to know, and how much'll they give me if I tell?" She asked, batting long eyelashed that framed hazel eyes. Her long, chestnut brown hair was pulled back into a loose braid and pieces fell toward her cute little face.
"Sive, you can't talk that way to the writer," Keiron hissed at her. I, having not seen Keiron in adult form OR child form in quite some time, smiled graciously at him. *Great, Sive's back for the day...make my job SOOOO much easier...*
"What's a writer?"
I looked over to see that Shand had also joined us, and was pulling toys out of the living room hutch.
"Nononono, we're not playing right now-"
"Playing?!" The whole room echoed with cheers as they all stormed the cabinets of toys, partially mauling Shand in the process.

"I found another one!" Rhain yelled from the back yard.
I walked over to where he was standing by the trampoline trying his best to get on it. On the trampoline sat a boy with dark eyes, dark hair and pale skin. As Rhain tried to get on, the boy put his hand on Rhain's head and pushed him off causing Rhain to fall to the ground. I saw the water about to overflow in Rhain's eyes, not sure if he was hurt or shocked. Quickly, I picked Rhain up and tried to wipe some tears away with my hand as I looked at the other little boy, "What was that for?"
"I dont want him up here." The little boy turned his back to me.
"You didnt have to push him." I frowned.
"Yes I did." The little boy answered coldly.
"Why?" I already knew who this little boy was, so his behavior shouldnt really have shocked me.
"Cause he's annoy-...an..ummmm..." Vrangr finally looked back at me, waiting for me to finish his sentence.
"Annoying?" I frowned again.
Vrangr nodded, "Yeah...they all are." He crossed his arms in a little pout.
I sighed, "That doesnt mean you can push him."
Vrangr tilted his head, "It doesnt?"
"No, it doesnt. Say you're sorry."
Vrangr sighed and bowed his head, "Sorry." He whispered out angrily.
Rhain looked at him, "S'ok." Then looked up at me, "Can we leave now?"
I sighed, "Yeah, we have to find the others."
Vrangr pointed towards the shed, "I saw a little boy go in there."
Rhain frowned, "It's my job to find them!"
Vrangr shrugged, stood up and began to bounce up and down on the trampoline, "Bye."
I watched him for a few seconds...he was much better as a little kid...much better.

"STOP IT!!!!" I yelled, holding my ears. Immediately, a multitude of wide, shocked little eyes turned to look at me, and all movements halted. Of coure, except for Shand, who was barely visible in the stampede, and was now pulling on the others trying to get up off the floor.
"I didn't mean to make you angry," Aleric's eyes began to fill with tears and his lip started trembling.
"He's faking it." Dolan looked up at me without remorse. "He always does that when he thinks somebody's mad....Gailen said...he said that Aleric can't handle...handle... commu-tation." Dolan nodded confidently.
"Confrontation, you mean?" I asked. "That makes sense... all of you need to just sit down and ignore the toys, ok?"
They all looked at me as if I had asked them to jump out the window. Though they would've probably done so after a few moments with gigantic smiles had I actually asked them to.
"She poked my eye out!" Shand was holding one hand over his eye and pointing with the other at a little girl with long ringlets of dark brown hair. Her hands were on her hips.
"What if I did? You were looking at me," Fallon said.
"I'm gonna haveta wear an eyepatch! And I won't be cute anymore!" Shand cried.
I just stood in the middle of the floor and held my face in my hands. I was reminded now of why I didn't want children.
"Well, happy poofday, twins," I muttered as I tried to wade through the children and out of the room into a more sane place.

As much as I wanted to put Rhain down, he wouldnt let me...I had let him go just to find him hanging onto my neck...he was amused but my neck wasnt.
Once in the shed, we both looked around inside to see a boy sitting ontop of a motorcycle trying to reach the handles of it. His eyes were a deep blue and his hair was slightly darker than mine. He turned to look at us when he heard the door open with wide eyes.
"I promise I didnt do anything!" He quickly jumped off the bike and ran infront of me.
"Did I say you did something?" I smiled down at him as I tried to pull Rhain away so I could put him down.
"Nooooo..." He looked down at his feet.
"Locke, I take it?" I cringed at Rhain pulled on some of my hair in protest.
Locke nodded, "Yes ma'am."
"Is something wrong?" I frowned.
"No...no one wanted to play with me so I came to play with the bike." He looked back at it.
"Can Rhain and I play with you?" Locke looked up at me as Rhain looked at me slightly concerned.
"Really?" I nodded then he held his hands up as I sign he wanted to be held....two kids at one time...*Alright, here we go..*
I picked him up and walked out the shed only to be greeted by a all the little kids, "Hey...what's going on?"
"You said you'd play with Locke..." Chantelle frowned.
"You never offered to play with us." Aeren said from the back of the crowd of kids. They all nodded and frowned.
"I didnt know you wanted me to play with you." I frowned at all their disappointed faces.
"Well, we do." Little Pharris looked up at me.
"Alright...well, let's all play tag then." Their faces lit up, "Who want to be it?" They all pointed at me causing Locke and Rhain to squirm out of my arms to try to get away...when they were down on the ground, all of them took off.
I watched them run away wondering if this was due to the twin's brithday...

"Hehe, poofday!" Aleric made a face and waved his arms, as if in visual representation of 'poofing'. "That sounds funny...I like it...what is it?"
"It's the day you and Dolan came into this world." I sat down and found myself smiling. Dolan just looked down and shuffled off, probably to sit alone under the table, which seemed very much in his little-kid nature.
Without warning, Shand started climbing into my lap.
"You're comfy." He started patting my face with little hands and then covered my eyes. "Guess where I am."
"On top of me...you have no idea how awkward this is, and I hope you remember none of this tomorrow..."
He let his hands down with a melodramatic frown. "You steal all my funness. I'm leaving now."
"To go where?"
"To my little house! With all my things! And you can't come and you can't touch it!!"
I glanced around. "Where would that be now?"
"Don't look! I can't tell you! It's a secret!" Shand put his finger to his lips and shhhed me, strands of dirty blond hair falling into his widened eyes. He blinked irritatedly.
"His boat, it's outside...he runs away and hides there when he doesn't get what he wants," Kvanne said uninterestedly, taking inventory of the contents of all the hutch drawers and pulling out a screwdriver. "...this is perfect!"

They were all scattered in the yard waiting for me to run after them...Perhaps tag wasnt the best idea...
I did notice that beside Vrangr was a little girl that shared his dark features and his pale skin, *Must be his daughter...This is weird...* She grabbed onto his arm but he pushed her away and ran when he saw me coming towards them. The little girl didnt even try to move, she just stood there and watched me run over to her. "You know, the whole point of tag is to run from the person that is it...in this case, that would be me." If you didnt know she would grow up to be a pain, you'd fall in love with her...she looked like the ideal little doll.
"I know...but I dont wanna play." She frowned up at me.
"Why didnt you say anything?" I was sure I had seen all of them agree on this game.
"I dont like running." She continued to frown. *That changes when you're older....*
"Well, do you want to be it with me?" I smiled down at her.
"Yeah!" She grabbed my hand quickly, and surprisingly, I didnt mind it...it was like this little girl had nothing in common with her older self.
"Watch out! They're both it!" Pharris yelled from behind a tree. I looked at the daughter who smiled and we both took off towards the tree we had heard Pharris yell from.

I sighed and waded out of the living room and into the kitchen. I nearly tripped over Dolan, who was pulling a stool up to the counter.
"Whatcha doin'?" I asked slowly, leaning on the breakfast bar.
"What's it look like I'm doin'?" He replied in the exact same tone of voice.
"Looks like you're about to make a mess."
"Coffee. I'm gonna make coffee."
I cringed. "Do you need some help? I think you need some-"
"No! I wanna do it all by myself!!" He objected waving me away, his icy eyes wide and determined.
'Well alright then...let's see if you're as good at 'doing things by yourself' as you are when you get big." I sat down and prepared to watch, possibly, the makings of the largest mess I'd ever seen.

We both walked over to the tree. I put my finger to my lips to tell her to be quiet and she nodded. She walked around one side of the tree and I walked around the other, but, before I had made it around my side of the tree, I heard Pharris scream then begin to complain. When I was finally able to see them, Pharris was on the ground flailing underneath of her and protesting.
"You can't tackle people! It's not fair! You cheated!"
"There are no rules in tag!" She said finally getting off of him.
He looked up at me with wide eyes, "She cheated! You saw her!"
I sighed, "No, I dont think tackling is cheating Pharris...but..." I smiled at him, "It does make you it."
"But I dont wanna be it!" He complained, throwing is arms in the air.
"I dont think you have a choice." I said, slowly backing away, the daughter following me.
"No tags back!" She smiled over at him before darting away. "Pharris is it!"

I watched Dolan stare down at the counter as he probably realized that he didn't exactly know how to do it on his own.
"Sure you don't need help?"
"Really sure," he nodded, sounding slightly less convinced than last time. He began chewing on his lip, then hopped off the stool to collect his assorted ingredients. He resurfaced into my line of vision with several things that I had never expected to see go into coffee... among them a few cookies and a stick of butter.
"Ah, Dolan, I don't think that-"
"I can't think when you're talking to me," he sighed, moving his mouth all around in concentration. He was trying with all his might to unscrew the coffee container, but to no avail.
"Here, lemme help," Out of nowhere, Kvanne plunged the screwdriver he had been playing with into the top of the container.
"NOOOOOOO!" Dolan threw his head back and yelled, then stomped once or twice. "I wanted to do it all by myself!!"
"you couldn't do it by yourself. I had to help you," was Kvanne's simple explanation. Dolan turned away from me and folded his arms ,still standing on the stepstool.
"Dolan...." I called. "You still gonna make that coffee?"
"No," Dolan sniffed, and I peeked around from where I was sitting to see that he was softly crying.
"It's not that bad," I walked over to where he was, but he kept turning so that he had his back to me. "Just look at me, will you?"
"No! He ruined it," Dolan sniffed again.
"Well I can help you unruin it," I suggested. "Here." I pulled a roll of tape out of the drawer and taped up the hole that Kvanne had poked into the lid. "See? All better and ready for action." Dolan wiped his eyes as his little breaths trembled from the crying.
"...Ok... do you want one cookie or two?"
"One is fine," I reached out to take it, but before I could, Dolan began whacking it to pieces and then grabbed the pieces up in handfuls and dumped them into the bottom of a coffee cup.