baby, I'll show you the world [muke af]

Kansas City, Missouri (Wednesday, July 13th, 2019)

Kansas City, Missouri (Wednesday, July 13th, 2019)

Luke sat on the floor with his nieces and nephews, along with Bella and Ivona. He lumped the Hood twins in with his relatives, because that's what they were. He crashed their toy cars together, making exaggerated sounds as they hit together.
The small children giggled, trying to form words telling him what to do. They were rather demanding, typical Hemmings genes. He listened intently, trying to understand what they were saying.

Michael and Calum sat on the couch, cradling their beer in their hands. They took slow sips, trying to not get overwhelmed by the many people. Neither men ever had family reunions. Their families hated their extended families. The Hemmings seemed to always have family reunions. It seemed typical for every member of their large family to be crowded into Luke's parent's family home.

"This is overwhelming," Cal whispered, scooting closer to Mike.

"I've played to twenty-two thousand people, but this is defiantly more stressful," he answered, his tone low.

Calum laughed. He pointed a quick finger to his boyfriend, "Ashton seems to be having fun though."

Michael's eyes wandered over to the older boy. All the wives of the family were crowded around him, taking turns feeling his bloating stomach. They giggled and laughed with their heads thrown back. "Well, Luke turned into a three-year-old again," he said, pointing down to the lanky noodle on the floor with toys spread around him.

Calum laughed, "How did we end up here?"

"Well, when two parents love each other very much—."

"My boyfriend is pregnant with our third child, I think I know how fucking works." Calum looked at his best friend, a smirk upon his face. "You know what I meant."

Michael hid his smile at Cal's humor. "I don't know, Cal, I guess it's a lot with luck." He got himself comfortable on the couch, his arm spread around the arm chair of the comfy cushions.

"Is it weird being married into this family?" Calum asked.

"Nah, it's kind of nice. I have a second mother, a second father, in some way, I finally have siblings, too." Michael sipped at his drink once more, knowing it wasn't going to get him drunk enough to deal with their dinner in an hour. "Are you and Ash thinking about the whole marriage thing?"

Cal shrugged, "It's an on-and-off thing."

"How so?"

Both men were looking somewhere else in the room as they carried out their conversation. They looked like such typical fathers, even though only one was.

"Ash really wanted to get married for, like, a day. Then, you and Luke had that fight back in Nashville, and he got scared and backed out again."

"Nice, we ruined your marriage before it could even start." Michael tilted his head back, getting the last of his drink. He was rather scared to grab another one, he was worried the Hemmings family would think he was an alcoholic or something. Sure, he's been in their family for three years, he's been to countless family events, but he still didn't feel like they fully accepted him as their own.

If Calum wasn't there next to Mike, he's not sure he would have gotten through the night.

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm not gonna bring it up again until the baby is born and all of that. He gets really emotional these days, and we have so many more." Calum tapped his feet against the floor, he wanted to take a nap and was debating if he could take one of his daughters and use them as an excuse for nap time.

"I agreed to start trying with Luke for kids after your boyfriend yelled at me for three straight hours."

Calum thought about making a "three straight hours? I think you mean three gay hours" joke, but decided it wasn't the right time. "I told him to leave you two alone, but I knew he wouldn't." Cal patted Mike's knee, "I know you're scared, but it's going to be so much fun."

Michael shrugged, "I don't know."

"Don't be surprised if it takes a bit longer than expected, too. Luke's probably gonna be an emotional wreck if it doesn't work out for a while, then one day, it will."

Michael scratched the back of his head and played with the empty glass bottle in his hand. He always had to have something in his hands, if it was one of his beaded bracelets, or a drink, or his phone. He had to have something to do constantly. "You know, when Ash first found out he was pregnant with Bell and Iv, they originally got the test for Luke. My loser thought he was pregnant when it was just some common cold floating around."

Cal laughed, "Really?"

Michael nodded, a casual smile on his face as he thought of their two idiots. "I can't imagine if we were the ones having a kid those years ago. I know Luke and I like to treat your girls like our own, but they're not, and we know it. That sounds weird, I know, but I don't think I was ready back then, and I'm not sure I am now."

"I have two four-year-olds and one on the way, and I still don't feel like I'm ready. But, it's part of life. We just have to keep floating on, it'll turn out alright."

Michael looked over at Luke, the smile on the older boy's lips when he made airplane noises and flew the plastic toy over one of his nephew's head made Mike a little more confident in their decision. Sometimes, Michael could just turn to Luke and smile. Luke made Michael smile for no reason, and that's love. "Yeah," he turned to Cal, "I guess you're right."

(a/n) pls don't hate me for 1,020,232 fillers