AU: Bundles of Joy (Josef)

[Damien Tremblay]

The second the bus stopped near the apartment, twenty two year old Damien was up and out of his seat, practically bolting out the doors. He didn’t care that he’d just sat through a mind-numbing day of classes, or that his backpack was sinfully heavy. He just cared that he was going home.

The past four years hadn’t exactly been easy for him and Josef. Quite the opposite, in fact. Between the awkward fact that Josef had been pregnant, and then the news of the twins... well, things definitely hadn’t been easy. Thankfully, Damien’s parents had been nothing short of a godsend. They’d been more than willing to help the boys out any way they could, whether it was money, helping them find a place to live so Damien could go to school and Josef could work, or simply watching the twins when they needed to. Damien had never been more grateful for the help.

Because he had already been accepted into the University of Victoria, Josef had ultimately made the choice to follow his boyfriend. They’d already discussed logistics, and he was fine to work part time while Damien went to school. It kept their weird little family together, if nothing else.

Damien ran up the stairs, ignoring the weight on his shoulders as he fumbled with his keys. The sooner he got home, the sooner he’d see the twins, and Josef. The upcoming first year in law school was going to be the death of him, he was sure, but Josef kept encouraging him to keep at it. It was no good for him to get his bachelor’s, only to drop out before law school. Logically, Damien knew that, but a whole year of full time school? He’d miss so much of the kids, and leaving Josef with them all that time wasn’t fair, even if his parents did help...

God help him, he needed to stop worrying so much. They could handle this.

Finally, he made it to the door of their apartment. It wasn’t exactly the Taj Mahal, but it was home, and Damien wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Key in lock, he twisted the knob and dropped his bag with an impressive thud. “Josef? I’m back.”

Cue two curly haired four year olds squealing from down the hall, followed by thundering feet that really only rivaled an elephant herd. It was a wonder no one complained about the noise. “Daddy!” Both of them chorused as they raced to be the first to attach themselves to his legs. Damien just grinned and scooped them both up (they were seriously getting too big to do that comfortably anymore), hugging them close. “Were you good for Dad today?” Hopefully, the answer was a big fat yes.

[Josef Muller]

The whole deal of getting pregnant had been weird enough. Weird in a way he didn’t know how to describe other than just…weird. And terrifying. His parent’s reaction had been bad, to start with. He hadn’t yet told them what he was, and finding out by having their son be pregnant was not the way to start that he’d had in mind. Then there was the whole fact that Damien had decided to stay with him. And that somehow, they’d made it work. For four whole years. The first few had been tough. Josef had never thought that he’d be a stay-at-home father. But with Damien at work and school and two small kids to manage, he’d had to be for a while. Damien’s parents helped and, surprisingly, so did Josef’s after a time, in return for some quality time with the grandkids. Eventually they’d found babysitters and Josef could go back to work. Not school, although he wanted that eventually, but for now he got work as a martial arts instructor and together, they could actually manage to pay their bills. Plus, the kids were incredibly cute.

That said, they had not had a good day today. The twins had been rambunctious and vocal and noisy and had left Josef flat-out exhausted after a day of work. By the time Damien came back, Josef was stretched out on the couch, towel over his eyes, and only groaned at the question.

Carol giggled. “Dad’s tired tonight. He doesn’t want to move.”

“We thought he was dead,” the boy said dismally. Carol had been a large part of wearing him out. Their son, on the other hand, had initially done his best to restrain her, but eventually had been drawn in on the fun, to no one’s surprise.

“They were a little hyperactive today.” Josef hauled himself to his feet and crossed to the door, leaning against the doorframe and offering his boyfriend a bit of a tired, but still warm smile. “It’s good to see you. How was your day?”

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien honestly didn’t know how he might have handled it if he had been the one pregnant. While his parents would have been more supportive than Josef’s had been... he didn’t know if he would have survived it the same. Yes, Josef had been downright cranky at times, but Damien hadn’t blamed him. Hormones, yes, but Josef? Never. (His boyfriend never got the blame for anything. ... Ever.) Regardless of his behaviour, Damien had stayed, though. The thought of straying hadn’t even occurred to him. Josef being pregnant had been his fault, and he couldn’t just abandon him, or their babies. Even after they had been born, when things looked endlessly difficult to the point he wanted to curl in a ball and hide away, he’d pushed through. They both had. And now look where they were. Both working when they could, Damien was starting his first year of law school, and the twins were walking, talking, and things were good.

... Mostly good.

He grinned at the twins, the expression only widening at Josef’s groan. He’d been there, usually on weekends if Josef had picked up extra shifts. Trying to simultaneously entertain the twins and study didn’t often go well. “Dad’s not dead,” he reassured Kieran, nuzzling his cheek against their son’s before setting both kids down. “Unless Carol killed him with her demands to play.” At that, Carol gave him a look that she had absolutely inherited from her Dad.

“Did not!”

Clearly that wasn’t the case. Damien managed a soft, sympathetic smile as he ventured through the sea of twins and closer to his boyfriend. “They always are.” After giving him a gentle kiss, he tilted his head and gave his backpack a dirty look. “Law’s going to be the death of me, I swear. It’s so... complicated.” Interesting, yes. But complicated. “If you’re dead, want me to do dinner, or entertain the monkeys?” He could try to do both, but that almost always ended with the kids with their hands in dinner prep and more policing, less cooking.

[Josef Muller]

Yes, Josef had been downright cranky. And sometimes he’d wished Damien would call him out on it. That was one of the things Josef had ended up yelling at him for, back when he was moody and his parents weren’t talking to him and he was scared out of his mind. Why don’t you get angry he’d asked. Repeatedly. But Damien never had. Or if he had, he’d never showed it. Eventually Josef had accepted that and had been quite grateful for it. Damien had stayed. Josef still wasn’t sure if it had been for him or just out of some duty, but they’d made it work. Somehow. Josef had just buried all those insecurities down. After all, even after pregnancy and a nasty scar from the c-section, he was still pretty good looking. And he was determined to keep this one, both for the kids’ sake and his own.

Josef was half-tempted to yell ‘did too’ back but he resisted, because no matter how he felt he was the adult in this situation. He was even slightly older than Damien. He returned the kiss with a smile and chuckled as he saw the backpack. “Remember. You picked it. But glad you made it back.” He shrugged. “I’d offer to help but I’d just be more confused than you currently are.” He offered the other man a wry grin, then shook his head. “No. I’ll prep dinner. You keep the twins entertained.” One thing that had surprised him was how much he enjoyed cooking. He would’ve never guessed that when he was younger, but he did enjoy the work. It was oddly soothing to him. So far, he’d only had a few outright failures. He tilted his head. “Tell me about your day while we work?”

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien had excused the attitude Josef had copped for the majority of his pregnancy, mostly because of hormones. He’d been subject to his sister’s attitude when she’d been pregnant with Roscoe, too, and she had made life a misery for nearly everyone involved. If Josef got too much, Damien had gotten into the habit of either going for a walk, or heading to the water until he calmed down. There was no point in getting angry himself, because it wasn’t really Josef’s fault. He was scared, and he hadn’t blamed him for that. At least they’d had a small support group when they’d needed it.

Besides. Damien loved Josef. Even if he was hormonal and stressed and scared, at the end of the day Damien still loved him. He couldn’t see that changing. Yes, they were young, but that didn’t matter.

As the twins giggled and both pattered off back to the living room, Damien rolled his eyes at Josef’s point. “Yeah, and it’s interesting, but holy cr-... um. Yeah. It’s hard.” Rule one about toddlers. No bad words, because they were of the age that they liked to repeat everything. “It’s okay. I’ll just study when the kids are asleep.” Which hopefully would be early tonight, if they’d already tired their Dad out with their antics. As for the division of work, he nodded and rubbed his hands together. “Sure, I’ll keep them out of the way.”

Cue Carol coming padding back to her parents, a pleading look on her face. “S’getti!” She latched to Josef’s leg, staring up at him with the toddler version of puppy eyes. “Pleeeeeaaaaaaaaase?” Damien stooped to pick her up, gently tugging on one of her messy braids.

“If Dad makes spaghetti, can you promisie me that you and Kieran will stay out of the kitchen?” Carol pouted momentarily, her little arms crossed.

“But I wanna heeeeelp.”

“You can help me instead.” He risked a glance at his backpack. “We can practice writing?” His daughter thought about this before shaking her head.

“Color.” Of course this wasn’t going to be that easy. Sighing, Damien gave in.

“Okay. We can color with Kieran while Daddy makes dinner.” He and Josef could still talk to each other, being that their apartment was fairly open.