Asami was always very hands on with her brothers and both Mark and Yuta loved it. From the beginning, Asami always wanted to make bottles by herself, always wanted to change their diapers even though she knew what they contained (she never did it on her own and always had help), she was even willing to help put them down for naps or to bed even though she was still so little, and she always wanted to help get them dressed. The novelty of new babies eventually wore off after two months of nonstop crying and all the dirty diapers piling up, but Asami never got tired of it. She loved it all because they were her brothers and she loved them. She would tell everyone in her class all about them and what they had done the day before and it was almost like the boys were everyone’s little brothers. 

Atsumo and Akashi looked exactly like Yuta, but not only that, they acted just like him too. It was nearly comical how much they looked like their father, but then again Asami looked like Mark’s copy. They were able to have children that looked just like either of them. There was not a single ounce of Mark in the twins, but Yuta liked to claim they still had his laugh and Mark had to agree. All of their children laughed like Mark and when they were all laughing together, it was a chorus of Mark through and through at different ages. It was phenomenal. 

Atsumo and Akashi were sweethearts and they both followed Asami everywhere as they grew up. She was their role model and neither Mark nor Yuta could have asked for any better outcome. Their children were all close friends and that’s what really mattered to them. Sibling rivalry wasn’t in prominence now, could become a problem later in life, but they were the best of friends now and there were no qualms within their relationship. Asami had even helped with the potty training process. She was there to encourage them even when they had accidents and needed to be cleaned up, and was there when the boys had to sit on the pink, plastic training toilets to try and go. Every time there was a blip in the process she was there to tell them it took her some time to learn but she got there, so they can too. She was the main learning tool and why they learned so quickly and it saved Mark and Yuta many more purchases of carpet cleaner. 

The twins were a piece of work, yet another thing they had in common with Yuta. They were a pair of troublemakers and two tearaway children. When they started crawling they would get into every little thing and the parents quickly learned that they could not leave anything on the ground or at ground level unless they wanted it either torn apart or chewed on, sometimes eaten. Baby proofing the house had been quite the ordeal and it had taken several hours to protect their belongings from two eight month old babies on the move. Their house was on constant guard watch and Asami was the biggest contender for that duty. The boys always seemed to listen to her; she was their big sister after all. 

Not Mark nor Yuta were ever bored in the house. Mark had taken to working part time from home when he could and was a full time stay at home mother. When the boys were a little older he would switch to full time, but leaving them with someone else, even in capable and professional child care hands, never sat right in his gut. Staying home with them had been one of the best decisions he had ever made because he was able to watch every little change in his sons’ behaviors and actions. He was watching them grow right before his eyes and it was astonishing. 

The boys were active, energetic, and LOUD! It was a struggle with Asami on occasion but when it came to the twins, they had no inside voices and they were always using their outside voices. They were so animated when they spoke about anything and it was endearing but many times it had given Yuta and Mark headaches. They would try and calm them or tell them to speak quieter but if Asami was to shush them, telling them they needed to lower the volume, they would listen. Their parents never had to reprimand them when Asami was on the job, and they wished it was a talent they had. And just like Asami, Atsumo and Akashi were curious about how things work and why they work, but it was a lot for Mark to handle during the day on his own. 

The boys had a different approach to things. While Asami liked to ask questions or look up the answers with Mark or Yuta, the boys would try to figure it out for themselves. It was frustrating when they were given a new toy and the first thing they would do, minutes after receiving it, was tear it apart. Mark had once bought Atsumo a stuffed dog for his birthday and when Mark wasn’t looking, he had cut a hole in this poor dog’s stomach so he could see the plastic beads that were inside. They had needed to toss the dog in the trash as he was getting beads all over the floor and Atsumo had been very distressed about losing his new toy. They bought him a new one that he didn’t have to cut into but it would be nice if they didn’t have to buy doubles of everything so they could find out what was going on with the first one. It was a lot, but both Yuta and Mark could handle it. 

It was summer now and all three of the kids were home. It was a low key kind of day, no concrete plans for a Friday except later in the day, which consisted of pizza and movie night, and some candy if they so happened to have some. They didn’t today but Mark had plans to stop by a shop and grab all of his children’s favorites. For now though, he was working and watching his children at the same time as they did as they pleased. 

“Mommy! Fix this please!” Akashi begged, waving his toy for Mark to see. His eyes were downturned and upset, but Mark had to sigh under his breath. This was a common occurrence and he knew his son had wanted to see how the pieces fit together, that was the only reason he ever did that. How else was he supposed to find out how they work? It was exhausting having to fix the same toy over and over again because he wanted to look at it again, forgetting the mechanics since he was only four years old. 

“Again? I fixed him yesterday,” Mark nearly whined as he grabbed both the arms and the body of the doll his son had just torn apart, “You should be a little kinder to your toys,” Mark did his best to keep them occupied so they didn’t have to get bored and tear their toys apart but it was so difficult. The boys easily grew restless and needed constant excitement, “No more tearing his arms off or we’ll have to throw him away,” it was getting harder and harder to reattach the arm after so many times of Akashi tearing it off. The plastic of the doll was getting warped and the arm’s socket was starting to break off. He wouldn’t last another week at the hands of his four year old son and Mark knew he would have to buy a new one to replace it. 

“Thank you, Mommy!” Akashi spoke in English, turning and running back to where Asami was patiently waiting for her brother to return. She was ten now and Mark had been worried that she would lose interest in playing with her much younger brothers with age but that wasn't the case. She was still just as interested and still kind to both Atsumo and Akashi as she was when she was still little and they were babies, “Look, Sami! Mommy fixed him when I tooked his arm off!” he waved his doll proudly, poor thing hanging on by a thread. 

“He did!” Asami gasped, feigning surprise and making her little brother smile, “Now we can keep playing, but if you take his arm off again we can’t keep playing,” she spoke firmly, making it known that if Akashi acted out again Asami wouldn’t want to play anymore. It was frustrating having to take breaks because your brother kept breaking his own toys. It happened too often and they had lost too many toys, “And we’ll have to do something else.” 

“No, I will stop,” Akashi assured, plopping down so he was comfortable before returning to the universe they had created for themselves. Asami delved into the role again and they continued, just as passionate about it as before. They were back in their own little world including voice changes and multicolored dinosaurs and robots. Mark was content to watch from his spot at the dining room table, working on his laptop while he could. He had a deadline this weekend and he was so close to finishing. His children always made it easy for him to work. 

“Is Goldie over there?” Atsumo asked, breaking the silence and shaking Mark out of his stupor so he could face his son. 

Mark turned his head to his right to look at the short hair cat that sat curled up asleep in the dining room chair. They had adopted the animal three years back on accident when Yuta volunteered to watch a coworker’s cat and her kitten that they couldn’t leave at home alone. When the kitten was old enough to leave his mother and they were fine to return to their house, the kitten hadn't left the house. That had not been the plan but here Gol