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“Roseanna! Marlowe! Come downstairs please…” Luke shouted up the staircase to his and Ashton’s twin daughters. The four year old blondes came running down the stairs, one after the other, nearly dressed completely in their navy blue school uniforms. Luke himself was dressed in his suit, ready for a day of teaching mathematics at a local secondary school. Luke had always wanted to work with kids and teaching maths seemed like the perfect idea. He wasn’t sure whether he’d always want to do it, he had thought about trying to be a professional musician but once he and Ashton had had the girls through surrogacy, teaching was the better option at the time. His guitars were all over the house still and he and Ashton constantly bonded with their children over music.
He and Ashton had moved to London when they were teenagers. It had started with just travelling but they settled down and decided to start a family. They were disgustingly in love with each other.
“Rosie, your jumper’s on backwards!” Luke laughed before pulling the slightly smaller of the two girl’s jumper off of her and turning it around so it was the right way. Identical twins, Ashton and Luke always knew which one was which of course. If you looked closely, Roseanna was a little shorter than Marlowe and Marlowe’s hazel eyes were a little darker than her sister’s.
“Daddy!” Marlowe smiled up at Luke, her arms outstretched and he picked her up, holding her on his side as he walked back through the corridor and to the dining room, Roseanna right behind.
Ashton was sitting at the table, trying to get their son to eat his breakfast. Two year old Kurt was sitting on his lap and Ashton was using the ‘Here comes the aeroplane’ method to try and get him to eat the porridge. “Come on, little man.” Ashton smiled at him.
“Luke, babe, come and get Kurt to eat. He’s not listening to me today.” Luke let Marlowe down and the two girls ran across to their dad as Ashton kissed Kurt’s forehead and passed him over to Luke. They had practiced this manoeuvre many a time. Breakfast was always busy in the Irwin-Hemmings household. Ashton being a Drum technician, tended to go into work later than Luke, who got the tube every morning to the grammar school in central.
“How are my favourite girls, huh?” Ashton grinned as he pulled the two girls into a big hug, still sitting at the table. They started squealing when Ashton tickled them and Luke just laughed as he held onto Kurt, feeding him. They were pretty content there, in their nice house in the city, with their beautiful kids.
“Go put your shoes on and then we’ve got to go to school!” Ashton smiled as he stood up and the girls took each of their hands, walking him across the room and out into the hall to put their shoes on. Once Kurt had finished eating, Luke picked him up and seeing his two year old smiling happily up at him, he kissed him all over, making the tiny boy laugh.
Ashton smiled as he entered the room, seeing his lover holding their baby boy. Overwhelming love washed over him as he hugged the man from behind, resting his head on Luke’s shoulder so he was looking right at Kurt, who reached out his hand to grab Ashton growing hair. His hazel eyes were staring back and forth between his two dads as he smiled widely.
“Luke, you’d better get going otherwise you’re going to be late.” Ashton said, pulling himself away. Luke handed Kurt over to Ashton and kissed the small boy on his mop of dark blonde hair.
“You’re dropping Kurt off at playgroup and picking him up at 3 right?” Luke asked.
“Yep, and the girls have art club after school tonight so can you pick them up on your way home?” Ashton cuddled Kurt as the boy babbled and wrapped his arms around Ashton’s neck.
“Sure thing. I’ll see you tonight.” Luke leaned over and kissed his husband on the lips. “I love you…And I love you, Kurt.” He smiled at his boy and turned around, seeing the twins come in the room, giggling at something. “Bye girls.” He leant down and kissed and hugged each of them before leaving, grabbing his jacket and bag on the way.
“Marlowe, Rosie, pick up your bags sweethearts.” Ashton smiled as he took Kurt out into the hallway and sat him in his pushchair, buckling him in and throwing a bag over his own shoulder. “Girls!” He called and the two small blondes had their rucksacks on their backs, ready to go. “Once we’re outside, you must hold onto Kurt’s pushchair okay. Marlowe, you listening? This is very important. And no running, ok girls.”
Within half an hour, Ashton had managed to get the girls into school and had left Kurt at his playgroup and had headed back to the house to get changed for work. He threw on black skinny jeans and an old ACDC t-shirt. People were often surprised to find out that at only 25 years old Ashton was married with three kids, especially the musicians who came to work at the recording studio. Ashton loved it there, surrounded by the music and all the craftsmanship of making a fantastic album. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
***
“Bye Mr Irwin-Hemmings!” Two sweet girls in Luke’s year 9 class shouted as second period was over with and the students filed out.
“God, he’s so hot.” Luke heard one of the say as they scuttled out of the classroom. Luke laughed to himself. He frequently heard some of the females in his classes comment on his looks. He guessed it was because he was pretty young, especially for a maths teacher, compared to a lot of the staff and he had the thick Australian accent that was a lot different to the sound of Londoners. Ashton always told him it was because he was the hottest man to walk the planet but he’d tell him that title belonged to drummer boy.
And speaking of, Luke’s mobile rang as he sat back down at his desk in the classroom. All teachers were allowed to have their phones in the classroom, and particularly if they had young children at home, incase they needed to be contacted urgently.
Luke picked it up, hoping it was nothing bad when he saw Ashton’s name on dial.
“Hello Mr Irwin-Hemmings.”
“Hey Ash, you all right? What’s wrong?”
“Does there have to be something wrong for me to call my husband?” Luke heard Ashton laugh at the other end. Luke was a hell of a worrier, especially about the kids. “Everything’s fine. I just wanted to say I love you.” It made his heart jump a little, even now, after years of being together. Ashton was literally Luke’s best friend. But actually he was so much more to him than just his husband or his friend. Ash was his soulmate.
“I love you more.” Luke said strongly. “Are you at work?”
“Yeah, just got here. I’ll see you tonight, ok.”
“Have a good day, love.”
***
At 5pm, Luke stood in the middle of the playground with the other parents, Kurt happily sitting in his pushchair, waiting for the twins’ art club to finish. He always felt kind of awkward at parental stuff at school, especially parents’ evenings and things like it. Ashton had always been the more social charismatic one, and he enjoyed talking to anyone. Luke pushed Kurt back and forth gently, and looked up when the groups of children came out, his little girls in the middle of them.
They held hands with each other and Luke grinned widely as they came bounding up to him, hugging his long legs and then patted Kurt’s head in welcome. Luke wouldn’t have even noticed the woman who now stood close to them, holding her own son’s hand, if it weren’t for the fact she was staring intently at the four of them.
“Can I help you?” Luke asked, as politely as he could.
“Maybe you can. Your daughter was telling my son about her parents and said she doesn’t have a mother – just two dads…” The brunette woman started. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate for that to be told to other children.”
Luke literally couldn’t believe what was coming out of her mouth. “I’m sorry; I don’t understand what you’re saying?” He was dumbfounded by what other people thought was their business. He had long since cared about being picked on for being gay – he was old enough to deal with that, but when it involved his and Ashton’s beautiful children, he was infuriated. There was so much love in their home.
“I’m saying I don’t want my child to know about homosexuality, not at his age.” She spoke starkly. What you do in your own home is your business, but I don’t want it being spoken about in front of my child, okay.”
“How dare you. I love my children more than anything in this entire world and I would die for them. They are so loved and I should not have to justify that to somebody who knows nothing about my children, or me, or my family. God forbid if your son should realise he is gay when he’s a little older and he does something stupid to himself or to someone else because you didn’t want him even knowing about homosexuality, I hope it haunts you that you did not educate your son properly.”
Luke was so done. “I hope you really think about what impact you have on your own children, because I think about that of mine every single day. And as long as they are happy, and healthy and are given an education about sexuality throughout their childhood, then I know I’ve done a good job. I can’t say the same about you”. He didn’t want to be sassy but his mouth was moving a mile a minute and he couldn’t stop himself from the outburst in defence. He and Ashton shouldn’t have to deal with this shit anymore.
The woman was stunned into angry silence. “Come on girls, let’s go home.” He said and started pacing away, making sure the girls were holding onto Kurt’s pushchair. Luke was furious but once he got the kids inside, he managed to calm himself down and put a film on for the kids to watch, waiting for Ashton to get up. He loosened his tie and put the kettle on and found his glasses at the bottom of his bag. He put them on and realised he should have worn them all day really. His eyes were sore.
“Hello!” A little while later, he heard Ashton call as he came through the front door. He heard the twins run up to him and little Kurt too as he kissed and hugged them all hello. “How are you, my little jigglypuffs?”
“Good, daddy!” He heard the twins say and after a few seconds, Ashton appeared at the door of the kitchen, holding Kurt in his arms. Kurt looked a little tired as he rested in his embrace.
“Hi love.” Ashton smiled but when he saw Luke’s frustrated expression, his turned similar. “What’s up?”
“Just this stupid bitch-”
“Hey! Language in front of Kurt!” Ashton stopped him from swearing completely.
“This mother in the playground. Had the nerve to come and tell me that the girls shouldn’t tell other kids that they have two dads.” Luke muttered, drinking a sip of coffee.
“What? Are you serious?” Ashton look dumbfounded as he placed Kurt in his highchair seat at the table.
“It was ridiculous, Ash.” Luke said. The last thing he wanted to do was cry but he could feel his eyes tear up. It just made him livid. People had no idea how much he and Ashton loved their family. He was angry that people could hate their own love so much. All love is love.
“Babe, don’t be upset.” Ashton cooed as he came around the table and embraced Luke, kissing his cheek delicately. “They have no place in our lives if they don’t accept our love.”
“It just makes me so angry.” Luke murmured, wiping away his tears.
“I know, but you’ve gotta try to let it go. I’m sorry you had to go through that again. But look at our little boy. And think about our gorgeous Rosie and Marlowe. They’re what are important. Not that woman.” Ashton said quietly, kissing his love again, this time on the lips.
“I love you so much.” Luke said, looking up at him.
“I love you more.”