At breakfast the next morning, Zac managed to keep his hair in his face for a while, but when it started dragging through the maple syrup on his pancakes he started getting frustrated again.

Angel held her arm up in front of him, "You can use my scrunchie, Uncle Zac." She said with wide-eye innocence, "To scrunch your hair back from your face."

Isaac had choked on his coffee and sputtered a bit before getting himself under control. One dirty look from Zac made him smile broadly and dig into his own breakfast.

Giving a grateful smile, Zac accepted his niece's starry blue scrunchie, and pulled his hair back. Then, politely, he ignored the gasps from his startled family.

"Man," Taylor started his eyes wide. "What happened to your face?"

"There's a thing called tact, fat head." He grumbled in response. "Besides, there's nothing wrong with me face," His lips quirked ruefully, "I've always looked like this, you just never noticed before, dear brother."

Randy's eyes took on a sympathetic hue, "What happened, Zac?"

That only gave the girls the green light to ask as well.

Mackenzie looked at it for a few seconds before turning back to his own meal, scraping scrambled eggs onto buttered toast before taking a huge bite.

"Aren't you going to ask about it too?" Zac scoffed.

He shrugged, chewed, then swallowed, "I figure that if you wanted me to know, you'd tell me on your own anyway."

Zac smiled appreciatively, "Tay, you could take some tips off our dear younger bro here."

Taylor shook his head; "I'd rather just beat you up to find it out."

He rolled his eyes, "Great one, teach Ike's kids violence, Uncle Taylor." He mocked sardonically.

"You wouldn't hurt Uncle Zac, would you, Uncle Taylor?" Charm asked seriously, catching her trembling lip between her teeth.

Isaac arched his eyebrow expectantly at Taylor for that.

Taylor turned and smiled at Zoë, Angel, and Charm. "I would never hurt your Uncle Zac." He assured, "Not that badly anyway." He added softly to himself.

Quickly, Isaac kicked him in the shin under the table for it.

Grimacing, Taylor bit his own lip and gripped onto his orange juice glass tightly.

Angel gave him a dubious look, "Something wrong, Uncle Taylor?"

The whole table turned to look at him.

His grip tightened on his glass, "Just a leg cramp, sweetie. That's all." Turning his head, he gave Isaac a harsh glare, Isaac simply smiled brightly back in return.

Zac and Mackie snickered at their end of the table while the girls giggled as well, though they really didn't understand what was going on.