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“So, a cabbage...” Mara mused to herself, peering down at the leafy vegetable on her kitchen counter.

It had been 2 weeks since she filed an adoption request for one of Dr. Akari’s children and earlier that morning a cabbage had been delivered to her door. Mara touched its leaves softly, wondering how exactly a cabbage could produce a child. Her heart raced as she pondered on what would emerge from the green plant. She looked up to see her reflection in the tall glass windows of the condo located in the middle of the city. The lights of the skyline shined warmly as the city moved below her, constantly shifting. This was home. She couldn’t think of anyplace better to be. The city was always alive, moving to the beat of a common pulse. Everything was here. People of all races, nationalities, personalities, and mentalities resided within the city limits; open and closed minds were a constant source of inspiration and influence.

Mara let out a deep sigh. There was no better place to live. She smiled to herself and walked over to the stereo in the den and put her “The Human Abstract” CD on rather loudly; Mara was rather fond of mathcore, even though she often received complaints about her choice of music (and volume) from neighbours. After doing so, she walked over to the door and unlocked it -- Leon would be coming over. Mara then proceeded to fill a watering pail and gingerly “fed” the vegetable, her attention fixed on the thought of something emerging from it to share this space in her home.

Unfortunately for her, Mara did not notice the sound of the door due to the loudness of the music. She didn’t look up to see the figure in the reflection on the window. Slowly and silently he crept up until he was directly behind her, controlling his breathing as he lowered his mouth to her ear.

“Don’t even think of moving,” a coarse grumble whispered into her ear.

Without stopping to look up at the reflection in the glass, Mara’s entire body reacted as she thrust her elbow with a considerable amount of force into the diaphragm of her ‘guest.’ This move pushed him back a considerable distance, and as she whipped around she witnessed her best friend, Leon attempting to stay on his feet.

“Oh Sh-“she began, eyes wide. “I’m so sorry!”

She rushed to his side and put her hand on his shoulder as he keeled over clutching his stomach, groaning in pain.

“You okay?” she asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

“What the hell, Mara!” he snapped back at her, frowning as he slowly straightened up, his hands still on his afflicted abdomen. “You knew I was coming!”

“I know, I know,” she replied with an embarrassed sigh. “As soon as I heard that remarkably convincing serial killer voice my body reacted without even thinking.”

Leon shook his head at her sighing. “Probably should have expected you to do that...” He straightened up to his full height. He was a bit more than a head taller than her with piercing blue eyes and shaggy blonde hair. He was relatively lanky and slim with broad shoulders, yet he still had muscle mass on him; Leon wouldn’t have been able to stand up after a blow like that if he didn’t exercise sufficiently. “So why exactly are you watering a cabbage?”

Mara held her breath and bit her lip to stop it from escaping. She had yet to tell him about the adoption.

Leon crossed his arms and smirked a little. “What?”

“We-eeell,” she began whilst looking down nervously.

“You did WHAT?” Leon was pacing back and forth around the kitchen, shaking his head. “You’ve lost it, you must have. You’ve gone crazy”

He stopped abruptly, then quickly walked up to Mara and placed his hand on her forehead to check her temperature. Seeing as she was not feverish, he resumed his routine.

“What the HELL were you thinking? You’re 23! Do you really think you can raise a kid by yourself? Plus a kid from a -- I can’t believe I’m saying this -- cabbage?”

“Well I have the time to do so: my work depends wholly on my inspiration. Plus money isn’t an issue at all in this case. I don’t see why not...I am fully ready to take on the responsibility. Plus I’m sick of being alone...” Mara’s voice began to fade at the last line.

“What the hell Mara, alone?! I'm here! I've always been here!!” Leon yelled. The two grew quiet as Mara’s expression changed to one of confusion. It was true she did have her friends, but as they were getting married and settling down they were growing more distant from her; they had their own lives. Yet something in his voice made her feel that he wasn’t referring to friends.

Leon curled his hands into fists and clenched his teeth as if he were going to say something. He then sighed and shook his head. He put his hand to his forehead and looked directly at her. “Do what you want, I’m leaving.”

“Wait, Leon!”

He closed the door loudly behind him.

Mara awoke to see the ceiling fan spinning—the fact of the matter was that the ceiling fan wasn’t on. Mara groaned loudly as the headache began to sink in. After a night of excessive drinking with her new friend Grace, Mara was exceptionally hung over. She put the back of her hand on her forehead and stared at the wooden panels of the ceiling fan moving in a swirling fashion. Mara went into the back of her mind, trying to access the memories from the previous night. What had happened?

Scraping the back of her memory, she recalled a kiss.

At this, Mara bolted upright, eyes wide. Had she and Leon kissed when he came to drop them off? No, impossible! At this motion, a surge of pain overcame her, and Mara fell back onto her pillow with a groan.

“Need...water,” she mumbled, throwing the covers off of her and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. With a heave and a ho, she managed to obtain an upright position and began a shuffle to the kitchen. The wooden panels seemed remarkably unstable as she proceeded out of her bedroom door. She moved into the kitchen, letting out an irritated “aaaaagh” as the light from the huge kitchen windows caused her pupils to rapidly decrease in size.

She blinked furiously, willing her eyes to focus more quickly. In the blurry sheen, two figures began emerging through the haze. They were covered in a yellow glow--maybe that was a product of the hangover. Mara’s mouth fell open as her eyes revealed to her two beautiful children sitting on the counter in a pile of cabbage leaves. Their figures were quite different, yet there was only one cabbage. Their skin tones contrasted, as did their facial shapes, yet both children shared similar features. They had tiny feathered wings emerging from their scapula, and wore no clothes other than two flowing scarves that covered their bodies. What appeared to be a halo circled their shining hair. The twins turned their bright eyes in her direction, shy smiles emerging on their faces.

Mara stood staring at the boys in silence, her eyes furrowed. She blinked and proceeded to rub her eyes. Her lips tightened as she positioned herself to leave the kitchen.

“I’m still drunk.”

“I don’t want to!”

The shriek could be heard echoing through the empty apartment. Mara blinked in shock as she stared at Tristan, still wrapped in his ‘birth scarf.’ Her face lost colour as she realized her perfect angels, despite their well-spoken guises and sublime features, were in fact still children. Zephyrus was latched onto his brother, as was the routine in the family. The darker brother looked his twin up and down, and mimicked his brother’s clenched fists and furrowed eyebrows, the reaction a bit late and obviously not genuine. Clothes were the issue at hand, and Tristan would have nothing of the sort. Heaven forbid they inhibit his mobility!

“Listen, kid,” Mara said, beginning to get frustrated with this game. “There is no way I’m going to let you go out stark naked. There is nothing wrong with these clothes; I think they look quite nice. They’re considerably comfortable too-- at least I would say so.”

“No!” Tristan yelled, shaking his head angrily. “I don’t want to!”

Mara took in a deep breath and clenched her teeth. This was a baby here, not a child, not a teenager and definitely not an adult. There was no way that she could express her anger in the same way that she dealt with others. She slowly let out the breath of air she was holding and crouched down in front of Tristan. She looked up into his eyes and put her hand on his head so the boy would stay focused on her face.

“Look here,” she began, donning her most patient and deliberate tone. She enunciated every word clearly and slowly. “If you both want to stay pantsless, that’s fine. However, out here there’s something called wind which is often accompanied by something called snow. These horrible aspects of the world result in a feeling called cold...it’s a terrible feeling that you will probably experience shortly if you decide to stay nude. This cold will be tenfold if you decide to stay naked while leaving the house, so I suggest that it would be in your best interest to put on these lovely clothes I bought for you.”

Tristan’s face was no longer furious as he contemplated what Mara had placed before him. His fists were still clenched, and his lips puckered out in anger. Tristan looked at his brother beside him, whose gaze went down to his feet. The icy cold floor of the kitchen had begun to take its effect: goosebumps were creeping their way up the boys’ legs. Zephyrus’ eyes went wide at this phenomenon, as his expression turned into one of intense fear. Tears began rolling down his cheeks, yet he made not a sound as he wept. At this sight, all of Mara’s anger dissipated as if it had never been there to begin with. She scooped Zephyrus up into her arms, and wiped away his tears with the silk sleeve of her robe.

“Shhh,” she cooed, wrapping the boy up in the folds of her silk robe. “It’s nothing a little fabric can’t fix.”

With a free hand, she stroked Tristan’s blonde hair. “So what about those clothes, hm?”

Tristan took Mara’s hand and allowed her to lead him back to their room, where she had initially laid out clothes. These goose bumps were strange enough, but he realized that Mara did have a point about this “cold.”
“I don’t like the cold,” he said, pouting.

“Ok, so now shirts,” Mara said, lifting up a pile of assorted coloured t-shirts.

Mara’s excitement while waiting for the cabbage to unfold had resulted in the ordering of many an article of clothing, mainly t-shirts from various websites such as threadless and the like. She also had gotten some of her friends to print off a few of their graphics onto t-shirts. To say the least, Mara was prepared. They had already gone through an exchange of pants: a slew of shorts, jeans and various pants variations. Fortunately they all seemed to fit the boys, and buying according to age worked well. The young woman placed the shirts down onto the bed so that they all lay beside each other.

“Well?” she asked, smirking proudly.

Mara was conducting an experiment. Having no preconceived notion of colour, she was testing which colours sparked an emotion from each child. Would it determine their personalities? They weren’t exactly the same as newborns, since they had some sort of knowledge and personality in place yet it would still teach her about the children as she observed their choices.

Zephyrus looked shyly between the t-shirts and his brother, eternally silent. Tristan pursed his lips and concentrated deeply on the clothes laid out before him. These shirts were fascinating, so many different colours and patterns which he could not comprehend. He tilted his head to the side and attempted to make a decision. Something about these bright colours made him intrigued. He reached out his hand to touch a shirt of a bright yellow colour. Then one which was bright red, another was pale blue. Mara mused over his choice, it seemed right according to the impression of his personality. “You like those?” she asked. Tristan nodded and smiled brightly, grabbing these pieces of fabric.

Zephyrus seemed mildly relieved at his brother’s choice. Those loud colours hurt his eyes. Instead, he navigated towards the grays and less saturated colours. Deep blue appealed to him, as did the darker reds. He proceeded to softly pull these shirts towards him.

Mara smiled and arched her eyebrows quizzically. How interesting: it was just as she had expected.