Leila, Aaron, and Auria generally ate breakfast, a rather informal affair, with their father long before Erica and her children were awake; on this morning, James wandered in with Leila, rubbing sleep from his eyes and still in his nightclothes. Neither Aaron nor Auria were there yet; Leila winked at her father and sat down at the table, pulling a chair up for James and helping him with his plate. Aaron, never a morning person, wandered in as Leila began eating and ignored the other three, grabbing a biscuit and straddling a chair, eyes still half-closed. James giggled quietly.

Auria bustled in a little later, tsking at her husband’s hair. “Did you even use your hairbrush this morning, Aaron?”

“Huh?” He looked up at her, blurry-eyed. She shook her head and sat down at the table. “Good morning Father, Lily, James.”

“Morning, Auria,” Leila said nonchalantly, reaching for the biscuits. “Did you sleep well?”

“Someone decided to put a snake in our bed last night,” Auria answered, swiping the basket before Leila could reach it.

“Really, now?” Andrew asked, winking at his daughter.

“You didn’t hear her screeching?” Aaron asked, awake now that he had food in front of him, though he had to duck as his wife’s hand came sailing for the back of his head.

“No…” By this point, Leila was having trouble fighting back her giggles, and hastily picked up her glass to hide her face; Auria looked at her suspiciously, but didn’t comment.

“You wouldn’t happen to know who put it there, would you?” she asked. Leila only shook her head. “Hmm…” Auria turned to James, who had lost the struggle to remain unnoticed and was giggling through a mouth of milk. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

He managed to calm himself long enough to swallow, then pointed at Leila. “Lily did it!”

“Traitor!” Leila hissed. James giggled again.

“Lily?” Auria’s voice was deceptively sweet.

All hope was lost. Leila pointed at James. “He found it!” she protested, then added at Aaron’s glare, “And Dad didn’t tell us not to!”

“Oh, well, if Dad didn’t tell you not to…” Auria trailed off and applied herself to breakfast, seemingly dismissing the whole incident. Leila and James shared a secret grin.

Leila was the first one up from the table; Andrew had already finished and was burrowing in a stack of paperwork, while James was happily mashing all his food together to create a giant mess (or, as he termed it, ‘artwork’). As Leila stood up, Aaron commandeered her attention. Unsuspecting, Leila turned her back on Auria, who stood up quickly and sat back down with a quiet plop.

“Yes, Aaron—” She gasped and reached behind her wildly as something slid down her back—something long and wiggly—then spun to face her sister-in-law. “Oh, you didn’t…”

James was on the floor, having fallen from his seat; Andrew looked up, took in the situation, and began roaring with laughter. Auria smiled.

“Payback.”

She’d dropped the snake down the back of Leila’s dress.