"When do we get to see them?" Frances complained, swinging her legs back and forth. She was well into being a six year old, attitude and everything. Alexander liked to pin it on her being six, but John would shake his head and say that she'd clearly inherited Alex's personality.
Frances had just gotten back from an ice skating practice, where she was still just learning the basics. Both she and John were still bundled up next to Alex in the stuffy hospital waiting room.
"Whenever Eliza's ready to see us is when they let us in." John said, reaching out to squeeze Alexander's hand.
"But I wanna see my brother now!" Frances insisted, flopping over dramatically onto John's lap. Alex looked up as a nurse came over to them, Frances leaping to her feet.
"Let's go! Let's meet my brother! Come on!" She said, tugging her dads along to their amusement.
John looked over at Alexander, meeting his eyes- the nostalgia was crazy. The girl they'd met in this hospital six years ago was now tugging them along to meet another baby.
"You ready?" John asked Frances, watching her shove open the door without another word.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh," Frances whispered, walking closer to Eliza and the baby in her lap.
"Give her space, Frances-" Alexander warned, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I have a sister? Not a brother?"
"Yes. We didn't want to ruin the surprise for you," John said, ruffling her hair.
"But I wanted a brother." Frances frowned, furrowing her eyebrow.
"Well, it doesn't matter." John tried to calm her down before she started her typical six year old meltdown.
"Okay, okay. What's her name?" Frances asked, reaching out to touch the baby's hand.
"Mary." John responded, kissing the top of Frances' head.

Six Years Later

"Your turn." John complained, burrowing further into the blankets.
"I took the kids to school yesterday. It's your turn."
"But i'm tiiiiiiired," John grumbled, huffing in complaint.
"If you come with me, i'll take you to Aaron's bakery afterwards and we can get breakfast there." John hesitated before responding,
"Do I have to get out of my pyjamas?"
"If you don't mind being looked at weird, you're good."
"Like people won't look at us funny anyway."
"Oh come on, we're in New York."
"Donald Trump is from New york."
"Oh, hush."

...

"Alex! John!" James waved at them from the counter, a few customers glancing at them before turning back to their food. Alexander waved at him, John following him to the counter.
"John, what do you want?" Alexander asked him, John shrugging in response.
"A muffin?"
"Alright," James said, putting in his order and then looking at Alexander.
"A slice of chocolate pie," Alex said, James nodding and pointing them towards a table, so they could seat themselves.
John sat down across from Alexander, smiling softly and gazing across at him, when Alexander noticed for the first time that John didn't fully meet his eyes.
And he noticed for the first time that he was okay with it.

...

Alexander loved his midnight chats with John.
They rarely happened, since John had a deeper love of sleep than Alexander did, but Alex loved when John started them.
They'd be curled up together, Alexander with his face pressed into John's hair, when John would mumble a sentence and they'd talk until one of the kids woke up.
Alex wasn't really sure he felt the same about what John said tonight.
"We need to tell the kids about Francis at some point." There was a moment of silence before Alexander responded.
"Why?" Alexander asked, shifting so he could look at John's face.
"If- God, if the kids ever met someone like him, and they didn't know-" John cut off his words with a sharp sob, tucking his face into Alexander's chest and balling his fists in the back of his shirt. "I'm supposed to be able to talk about him," John said, almost angrily.
"John, you don't have to talk about him if you don't want to."
"It's been years, Alexander. Years."
"And things don't go away because they've been there for a while. We've been married for years, John- that's not going away."
"I... still."
"If you want to talk about him, you can. If you don't, you can not talk about him too."
"I- I mean... I'm just angry. At myself, really, but at him too."
"Mhm."
"I've never really told you how it all went down, did I?"
"No," Alexander said, running his hands through John's curly hair.
"I just- it started out great, Alex. I stopped trying to convince myself I liked girls, and he yelled at my dad and tried to get him to leave me alone, and he sent me texts with heart emojis and sappy love confessions every night, and- I don't know where it all went wrong."
"Go on," Alex said, sitting up and flicking on their lamp.
"He slapped me one day, 'cause I kept bugging him. I didn't know what to do about it, so I didn't do anything. And at first, whenever he hit me, it was 'cause i'd done something bad or stupid, and then he just started hitting me because he liked it when I got scared. And I just kept trying to make it like it had been before, I tried to make him happy, and I did whatever he wanted, mostly."
"Punk phase?"
"Yeah. Sorta. He encouraged it, since he was already starting his," John snorted a little, rolling over to look up at Alexander.
"Did he ever pressure you into anything?"
"What do you think? You witnessed it one day," John sighed, pulling the pillow away from under his head and hugging it. "He guilt-tripped me all the time. But I never- I never-"
"Actually did anything?"
"Yeah."
"It still sucks that he tried," Alex frowned, tracing his thumb over the soft skin of John's hand. "But you're not giving yourself enough credit. You aren't realizing that you've gotten so much better than when I met you."
"Really?"
"Mhm. When I first started dating you... you were so fragile. You never let yourself step out of line, you bit your tongue when you wanted to argue- John, i'm glad we can squabble sometimes. I'm glad you aren't walking on eggshells anymore."
John looked up at Alexander, tears welling up in his eyes and falling down to the smile set on his face. Alex welcomed it when he sat up and kissed Alexander. Alex smiled against his mouth, not objecting when John pushed him down flat and unbuttoned his nightshirt.
John pressed his lips down to Alex's jaw, then his neck, then-
Knock knock.
"Oh come on-" John mumbled, rolling off of Alexander and getting up to go to the door.
"I'm hungry." Angie complained, holding onto her teddy bear.