Mr Always Right (MxM)

Forty Two

"Let's go guys!" I yelled standing at the doorway.

"No!" Xander and Jamie yelled from upstairs.

"I'm on the phone!" Yelled Wil.

My family is a disaster. I'm not even the one who wanted to go out but now I'm dressed and looking cute so if we don't go out I will raise hell.

Xander wants us to go out and God alone knows his reasons but we were all on Christmas break, well except for him and if we didn't go out then we'd probably lay around and eventually go to McDonalds for about forty chicken nuggets and three medium fries. I'd get the Coke, Xan would get a vanilla milkshake (which I ask to sip from but inevitably finish on the way home), Wil gets strawberry milkshake (but ends up having my Coke) and Jay gets- well it doesn't really matter because Xan ends up having it and she plays with the toy forgetting the existence of food and her family. And for the day or so we have a strawberry milkshake in the fridge that Xander and I will slowly drink when we get up for our midnight snack that's just an excuse to check on our babies.

I'm really sacrificing here for him. But I guess that's marriage, you compromise what you love (nuggets) for the ones you love.

When we renew our vows one day I'll make him say "your cup will never empty and I will never interfere with your McDonalds." It must be done.

I pulled a chair towards the door from the dining room and pulled out my phone. I'm going to patiently wait and beat my high score in 2048.

Eventually I realised I'd been sitting for half an hour. I figured this by pregnancy bladder timing. But as luck would have it, when I got up to go pee everyone rushed down the stairs and dragged me out the house.

I watched as we drove past all the pretty Christmas decorations. The night sky was bright, it held a warm white tint due to all the lights. It was comforting but disgusting. All these damned lights are gonna blind Santa. I looked at myself in the sun visors mirror.

I looked at the face Xander adored that only got more tired. Whatever boyish charm I had that Xander had loved about me was now gone and the small yellow light that helped me see my reflection hide no flaw. I'm older. Much older. I guess I knew marriage and parenthood would bring maturity but I had no idea it'd bring so much age.

Perhaps I only felt this way because it was my birthday on Christmas day. Sure I was no where as old as baby Jesus, now alive/dead/reborn Jesus, but still. My eyes darker from sleepless nights and my cheeks full from pregnancy.

But Xander still loves and adores me. A blind man. A stupid man. My blind man. And oh how lucky I was for him to be so blind.

My gaze drifted. I now watched the faces of my children. As usual Jamie's eyes were wide open, staring at the world and her mouth sealed shut.

I watched Wil shiver next. He quaked in his seat right next to Jay's. His fingers that she held in her small hands were the only part of him that didn't shake. He shivered but nothing could shake off the smile on his face or the blush on his cheeks.

"Spoke to Lena on the phone again?" I questioned smiling.

"No, I was speaking to Evan actually" he said with a smile that only grew at the mention of his tutors name.

"You've been spending an awful lot of time with him lately and always talking about him" Xander noted teasingly.

"Yeah," I added "reminds me of how you acted when you had that crush on Lena. Is there something you'd like to tell us pop?"

"No" he said frozen but red.

"Hmm, okay. We'll we're always willing to listen" Xan said with a smirk. I giggled at his antics and placed my hand on his thigh.

We sat in a tingly silence after that. Xan and I smiled ear to ear and Wil trying to calm the raging fire on his face until finally we got to our old apartment building where Trey was now living in our old apartment.

"Why are we here?"

"It's a surprise" he smiled.

After struggling up three flights of stairs we got to our door and knocked. Suddenly the lights when off, people started hushing and the muffled voiced were quiet.

I looked up at Xander with suspicion. "You idiot."

"I don't know what you're talking about" he shrugged with a silly smile.

Trey yelled come in so we did, only to be greeted by a waves of "Merry Christmas".

"You idiot" I said at Xander.

"Okay so maybe I know what you're talking about."

I scanned the room and saw everyone from my parents to Xander's colleagues to my uni friends to parents and their toddlers from Jay's daycare.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"I wanted our first Christmas party as a family to be like the first Christmas party we ever had together" he smiled.

I hate this man and as I looked around I saw the exact same decorations we had put up together all those years ago.

"I even made a special backdrop so we can take a family photo and one of just us" he said leading me to what used to be his study. "Go mingle kids" he said while leading me away but Wil was already rushing to his grandparents with his sister in his arms.

When we got there I was astounded. The sheer size of it was enough to make my jaw drop but it held something very dear to me. It was a backdrop with our memories. "We can take it home, if you like it and maybe hang it on the wall?"

On the bright yellow canvas a great white tree stood proudly in the middle. "Family" was written on the trunk of the tree in a rainbow pride type of way. My eyes followed the end of the tree branches at the far right. It lead me to pictures we took when we had started dating.

I reminisced all the times we'd gone on dates, gone on trips and gone to the emergency room.

I saw the boyish charm Xander had fallen in love with slowly turn into maturity that you certainly only get once you have kids.

In fact I saw myself, and Xander change drastically, in the photo taken of us at the adoption agency when we held Jay for the first time. Under that picture were little leaves that slowly fell to the bottom of the canvas.

The first stated her full name, the second the day she was born and the third the day of her adoption.

I saw change on the taken of us on the lawn of our new house, at the alter, when we had both wiped tears from our eyes. When we danced with our baby girl at our wedding reception. Pictures of Jay and I, of all of us. Each momentous event had the date and small description written on little leaves like for Jay.

The further left I went, the more recent the pictures became until finally I saw one taken a few days before Wil's attack. The day we sent him to school and he held me so tight because he'd miss me.

"We'll fill in the rest" Xan whispered as he snaked his armed around me and kissed my shoulder.

"I'm the luckiest man in the world."

"Same."

We quickly got the kids and took a picture with them while they were both still awake, pretty and clean. We stood on the left and smiled brightly. Then we shooed the kids away and Xander dipped me and kissed me fiercely for the next picture.

My man makes my knees weak every time.

Then we mingled, greeted everyone and just like years ago we had an amazing time.

The night came to an end, Xander carried a sleeping Jamie down to the car and I held a sleepy Wil's hand.

"Momma? Cap?" Wil yawned.

"Yes k-pop?"

"I had a lot of fun. Thanks."

"No problem pop."

"Also, I've been speaking to Evan more because... well. He calms me I guess. Makes it okay, ya know?"

"I know exactly" I smiled looking at Xander.