The Bench In The Courtyard - Bench Trio

24 - Future

TW - swearing

TUBBO POV -

I woke up with a sore back. Ranboo and I lay on the couch, our arms wrapped around each other. I groaned and pushed my husband's arm off of me, stretching and yawning as I did. How had we fallen asleep on the couch? The last thing I remembered was watching Finding Nemo with our son, Michael.

I gently shook Ranboo awake and he sat up, rubbing his eyes. I suddenly burst out laughing. Ranboo's face and arms were covered in smiley stickers, ice cream stickers and flower stickers. Ranboo also started laughing, pointing at me. I realised that I was also covered in stickers.
"What the fuck?!" I cried, catching a glimpse of myself in the hallway mirror.
"Language," Ranboo said quickly, looking around for Michael. I just rolled my eyes and climbed off of the couch. That's when I heard a small person shout from the kitchen,
"Fuck! Dad said fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!" My eyes widened and Ranboo glared at me. I gave him a guilty smile,
"Oopsie daisy?"

"Michael sweetie don't say that!" Ranboo called, walking out of the room, ruffling my brown hair as he did, wordlessly telling me that he wasn't mad at all. I grinned and followed him into the kitchen where Michael was sitting on a stool, holding my phone.

"Whatcha doin kiddo?" I asked, walking over to the little boy. Ranboo and I had adopted Michael almost six years ago, when he was just a tiny baby that no one wanted. Ranboo and I had only been twenty two at the time and we weren't engaged yet, we just knew that it was right. Michael was meant to be ours.

"I texted Clemie's dad and asked if she can come over today, he said yes, she'll be here soon," He gave me a proud smile and handed back my phone. I laughed softly. Clementine was Michael's best friend from kindergarten, Ranboo and I had never actually met her or her parents. This should be good.

"Well Michael, these stickers are lovely but Dad and I can't meet Clementine's parents looking like this," Ranboo said, beginning to peel off the many stickers.
"No!" Michael cried, falling dramatically onto the floor at Ranboo's feet. "Dada and Dad look pretty! Stay pretty for me! Pwease," I giggled and picked Michael up, bringing him to Ranboo's height. Michael gave him a kiss on the nose and looked at him with pleading eyes.

After a moment Ranboo sighed and booped our son's nose, smiling.
"Fine, only for you sweetie," I placed Michael gently on the floor and he ran off excitedly, probably getting Minecraft ready or something.
"Softie," I said gently shoving Ranboo's shoulder. He laughed loudly and shoved me back.
"Whatever Tubbo," He began making waffles for our breakfast, singing under his breath as he did. I sat at the island, fiddling with the wedding ring on my finger, suddenly nervous.

It all of a sudden hit me, we were meeting Clementine's dad. It was always awkward when Ranboo and I were introduced to new people, especially parents. None of them understood the concept of platonic marriage. For some reason it didn't compute with their brains that Ranboo and I were married and loved each other but it was platonic love not romantic.
"Ranboo, what if they're mean to us and they try and split Clementine and Michael up. Michael will be heart broken, he doesn't understand why the other parents hate us. Our situation is normal to him Ranboo, the other kids bully him about it. Clementine accepts it but I'm just not sure about what her dad will think," My voice was barely over a whisper. I felt horrible that we were putting Michael through this. I sometimes thought maybe he'd be better off with normal parents.

Ranboo put down his stir stick and walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed circles on my back.
"It doesn't matter what they think Tubbo, Michael's the kind of kid that would fight for his friends. He reminds me of us y'know. And he knows how to ignore the bullies. Tubbo we're his dads and sure maybe our family is unique but that doesn't make it any less valuable," Deep down, I knew Ranboo was right. All that mattered was that we loved Michael and he loved us.

There came a sudden knock at the door and we broke apart from our hug. both of us were extremely nervous. We saw a little human coloured blur running past us towards the door and I laughed as I heard Michael open the door.
"CLEMIE!" He cried,
"MIKEY!" Ranboo and I walked out into the hallway and saw Michael with his arms wrapped around a little blonde girl. I smiled warmly at the sight.

Then Clementine's dad spoke. And Ranboo and I went into shock.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME. My kid really became best friends with your kid. For fucks sake," My eyes lifted from the hugging children to the tall man behind them.
"TOMMY?!" Ranboo and I yelled at the same time, both of our faces breaking into a grin. Michael and Clementine went running past us towards Michael's room and Tommy stepped into the house.

"When Michael said 'Clementine' I didn't know he meant your Clementine! Ranboo our son is best friends with his cousin," I laughed loudly and Ranboo and Tommy joined in. I lead the group into the living room and we all sat down, all of us in need of video games. Tommy was over at our house most afternoons, he just never brought Clementine with him because we thought that she and Michael didn't get along. We were definitely wrong about that.

"I can't believe our kids are best friends and we didn't know," Tommy said after a while, placing his console down. I laughed loudly, nodding.
"We really are blind, aren't we?"
"Yup. But at least now Tommy can bring Clementine over with him so Michael has someone to hang out with," Ranboo agreed, standing up and stretching. That's when Tommy took a proper look at us and noticed the stickers.
"Why the fuck do you both look like a 'Day At The Theme Park' sticker book?!" He cried as Ranboo and I burst out into fits of laughter.

"Michael," We both said at the same time, still laughing. Tommy joined in and the three of us just ended up on the floor of the living room, laughing. Our kids were in the next room playing minecraft.

Everything was perfect. Life was good.

Sometimes I would look back over the letters that were written by three lonely, misunderstood teenagers and remember the despair I felt when I first started at that school.

Even though we were all grown up now we were still best friends. And to think, it had all started with three lonely seventeen year olds who took a chance and replied to a letter. I would never forget the bench in the courtyard. The place where it all began.

That was the place where the rest of my life truly began. And now I was here with my best friend and my husband.

I was home.

The End

Word count - 1194

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