Work Text:
Abbi's first Mother's day
Abbi waltzed into her Kindergarten classroom the Friday before Mother's Day as though it were any other day, but immediately noticed something off. The room was decorated ceiling to floor in pink and white—almost like it was Valentine's Day again.
But... It couldn't be Valentine's Day again could it? Dad didn't make her a special breakfast or present her with a small tray of Hershey's Kisses, or wish Daddy a “Happy Valentine's Day” this morning so... No. It wasn't that..
She took her usual seat by her friend, Naomi, and considered asking but didn't want to look like a dummy. She waited quietly and patiently for class to start as Naomi blabbed about a new toy her Mom had promised her if her behavior card stayed blue until the end of school.
When the teacher finally welcomed the class, she explained the reason for the decorations.
“Today we are going to make cards for your Mommies because—who knows why?” She asked animatedly. Almost every hand shot into the air—everyone except Abbi.
“Amber!” She called.
“It's Mommy's Day on Sunday!” She cried excitedly.
“Yes, Amber! And after you are done making your cards, I want each of you to stand up at the front and show it to us, maybe even tell us something about your Mommy—what you love most about her or something special you two share. But.. I know some of you may not have a 'Mommy'... Some of you may live with a Grammy or Nana, an Auntie, or a sister! So just make a card for that special woman in your life that takes care of you.” She beamed at the class, conveniently overlooking Abbi's confused face.
“I'll go around and check spelling, okay? So go ahead and get your supplies—and remember to share!” An eager crowd of enthusiastic six year olds raced to the cubbies of art supplies to nab their paper and fancy scissors.
Abbi hung back as she usually did, giving the crowd a chance to disperse rather than be trampled by over-enthused five and six year olds. Who was her “mother”? Both of her Dads did a “mother's job.” She always felt comforted and loved, they made her yummy meals and took her shopping for clothes... Both were nurturing and disciplinary when the occasions called... They wouldn't let her put make-up on them, but they have been known to play pretend with her when Yev or a neighborhood kid wasn't around. She decided she would just have to make one card for both of them, then.
Now that the cloud of children had dissipated, she went to get her supplies, choosing a soft green paper and dark blue markers. At her table, everyone else had pink and purple supplies.
“Does your mommy not like pink?” Naomi asked.
“I don't have a mommy.” Abbi replied simply, folding the paper into a card. Naomi furrowed her brow.
“So you just have a daddy? That's sad!” Naomi cried.
“I've got two daddies. Why is that sad? I don't need a mommy, I have my daddies.” Abbi asked with confusion. Naomi's cheeks flushed.
“Everyone needs a mommy! Who makes your lunches, takes you to the playground, does your makeup, cleans the kitchen so it doesn't get all gross, tucks you in every night?” Abbi furrowed her brow at Naomi.
“Both of my daddies do all of those things... Well, not the makeup but I don't really need that...” Abbi said. Naomi still looked confused.
“What about bath time?” Naomi whispered.
“What about it?” Abbi asked, bemused.
“Well, aren't mommies supposed to do bath time because of your... bathing suit parts?” Abbi's eyebrows shot up.
“I take baths by myself now, but I guess they helped me with that when I was a baby...” She replied, almost thinking aloud.
“You do?!” Naomi exclaimed. “Mommy said I can't take baths by myself yet because I could drown.” Abbi gave her a bewildered look and turned back to her card. She snagged a black marker from the center of the table and drew her fathers, borrowing an orange marker for her dad's hair.
“Is that what they look like?” Naomi asked nervously. Abbi smiled and nodded, her love for them swelling in her chest.
“Dad is tall with red hair and Daddy has black hair. It was blonde once, but he made it black again.”
“Are they nice?” Alex asked from across the table as Abbi handed her the orange marker back.
“Of course they're nice!” Abbi frowned, getting frustrated by the stupid questions. “Aren't your parents nice?” Alex didn't answer at first, instead focusing really hard on her drawing.
“My Mommy is, but Daddy doesn't talk much. He works on the computer or watches 'the game'... He yells at me if I try to talk to him when he's doing those things.” Abbi frowned.
“I'm sorry.” She muttered, focusing on her drawing now, too. She couldn't imagine her dads being mean to her, or anyone—unless they deserved it. Daddy sometimes spoke with what he called the 'Milkovich bite.' She never worried about his snappy way of talking because he always talked like that. She actually thought it was funny and would giggle at him when he talked like that more than anything. When he was actually mad, he got a look in his eye that didn't quite scare her, but clearly reflected that she should change whatever behavior was making him look like that, which didn't happen often since 99% of the time she was good.
“So...” Another girl, Paige, broke the silence. “Which one is your real daddy?” Abbi gave her what she imagined was her version of that same look from Mickey she was just thinking about.
“Both of them are real. I didn't make them up!”
“No!” Paige cried anxiously. “I know, I know! But which one made you? You don't have red or black hair so I can't tell...”
“Um... I don't know. Does it matter? Daddy says love makes the family.” Paige shrugged.
“I guess not, I was just curious.”
“How do you tell them apart? Like, how do you talk to only one if they are both around?” Naomi chimed in.
“I call this one Daddy,” Abbi replied, pointing to the figure with black hair, “and he's Dad.” She pointed to the redhead. Everyone released a simultaneous “oh!” at that. Abbi beamed, happy to teach her friends something and help them see her family was normal too.
The teacher clapped her hands and called to everyone to wrap it up, grabbing a cup of popsicle sticks off her desk. Abbi glanced down. She had drawn her Dads standing behind her, all of them smiling, with the words “Dad and Daddy,” written neatly above their heads. On the inside, she wrote “Thank you for being both my Daddies and Mommies. I love you!” and colored in some blue and green hearts around the words.
“Paige!” The teacher called, reading the name from the popsicle stick she'd pulled, “you're up first! Show us your card and tell us a bit about your mommy.” She settled down in a seat entirely too small for her in the back of the room and smiled encouragingly. About six kids were called before Abbi's turn. Nervous butterflies fluttered in her tummy as she moved to the front of the class. She held out her card.
“Umm... I don't have a mommy... and I don't live with a lady,” Abbi started. The teacher gasped as though she hadn't considered the possibility. “So I made a card for both of my Daddies. It says: Thank you for being both my Daddies and Mommies. I love you!” She exhaled sharply, moving to sit in her seat.
“Oh wait, Abbi! Tell us a bit about them! What are they like?” Abbi bit her lip.
“Umm.. Dad, that's this one--” she pointed to the shock of orange marker, “he smiles a lot and loves to give me hugs. He helps me with homework a lot and sometimes he takes me to the puppy store and we play with puppies and we watch movies every Saturday with Daddy-- that's this one,” she pointed to the fluff of black marker. “Daddy likes to pretend he's mad, but he's always joking. He doesn't like Disney movies or dolls so he teaches me fun card games. He helps me get ready for school every morning and is always home when I get off the bus...” She glanced o the teacher as though asking if that was enough.
“Thank you, Abbi. They sound lovely.” Abbi grinned and hopped back to her seat.
///
The rest of the day continued as normal and no more questions were asked of her non-traditional family. Mickey waited for her at the gate to their house as normal, cigarette burning and small smile greeting her.
“How was your day, squirt?” He asked as usual, taking his final drag of the cigarette.
“Fine.” She beamed up at him. He stamped out the cigarette on the porch railing and tucked it behind his ear as she opened the door. She hung her backpack up and looked up at him again as he shut the door behind them.
“What are you grinning at?” He asked. To anyone else, it would have sounded harsh, but Abbi knew better. This was his version of affection and as long as there wasn't an angry inflection in the tone or anger in his eyes, she knew the 'snap' had none of the 'Milkovich bite.' She tackled his waist, wrapping her arms around him in a huge hug.
“I love you, Daddy,” she murmured, looking up again. His brows pinched, but there was an affectionate glow in his eyes.
“I love you too, kid.” He ran his fingers through her brunette hair and stood straight again, a silent signal to her that it was time to release.
She dropped her arms and went to the dining room table where she fumbled with a deck of playing cards. Mickey had been teaching her some “adult card games” because “Go Fish!” bored him to tears and he could only handle so much Disney before he left the room, thereby ending any bonding opportunities. So Blackjack and Scheisskopf (the closest he'd get to poker with a six year old) it was. Abbi never complained so Mickey assumed she liked the games and was shocked by how good she got. They played until Ian came home, talking about her day (Abbi purposefully not giving much away). Once he put his gear away and changed into comfortable house clothes, she brought out her homework. He and Mickey talked as she worked, but Ian stayed at the table in case she needed help while Mickey got dinner going.
“Almost done, just one more worksheet?” Ian pulled a blank work page from her folder. She nodded and set to work.
“Good, 'cause dinner's almost ready, too.” Mickey announced. She finished the work quickly and sat in silence, undecided about whether or not to talk to them about “Mother's Day.”
“Whatcha thinking about over there? I can see smoke coming out of your ears.” Ian teased. Abbi bit her lip.
“So, today we were supposed to make cards for our mommies because of mother's day on Sunday.” Ian and Mickey both tensed.
Oh fuck. Neither of them had even thought about that. Before she started school there wasn't really any exposure to Mother's Day because Yevgeny spent weekends with Svetlana all of the time, so his absence didn't tip her off to anything out of the ordinary. And besides that she was only just starting to recognize father's day as a holiday so it's not like she would have been aware of a day she doesn't herself celebrate. Ian and Mickey exchanged glances, not sure how to proceed.
“Are you okay?” Ian asked. She looked up at him curiously.
“Yes... why wouldn't I be?”
“Oh... No reason. I just wanted to make sure you weren't sad or confused...” He trailed off not wanting to actually make her feel any of this. She shook her head.
“I told them I didn't have a mommy so they asked me about you and Daddy.” The men relaxed, realizing that she wasn't upset or hurt. It did explain to Mickey her emotional welcome that afternoon, though. Mickey served their meal and nodded at her homework, a silent order to clear the table which she obeyed.
“What did they ask?” Mickey inquired.
“Umm...” She picked up her fork and took a bite of green beans. “What you were like, how I tell you apart—”
“Tell us apart?” Ian laughed, cutting into the meat. “We're not twins!” Abbi laughed too.
“No! Like, if I want to talk to you, how do I call you? And so I told them that you are Dad and you are Daddy.” She replied gesturing to the proper owner of the name. Funny thing was, the men had noticed that she mostly called Ian “Dad” and Mickey “Daddy” but they never actually realized this was because she had actually organized their family in such a way. In almost all gay movies Ian had seen (with Mickey, though of course Mickey'd never admit to it because most gay movies were dramas and that was just too gay) the kids referred to their parents as “Mommy _____” and “Daddy _______” They had been waiting for her to refer to them that way, but this method she developed worked too.
“What else? Did anyone give you a hard time?” Ian asked as conversationally as possible.
“Well... they asked me some stupid questions like if you were nice and how we did bath time.” Abbi rolled her eyes, Ian almost choked. He and Mickey met gazes across the table. Would this turn into trouble later? Would parents complain if their kids told them about it? It seemed silly to worry like this but Ian and Mickey knew how the world worked. People were afraid of different and every week there was another news story of kids being kicked out of school for the most ridiculous of reasons. If a kid can be kicked out of school for being trans and wanting to use their proper bathroom, it wasn't too much of a stretch for some religious parents to get their knickers in a twist enough to try to get her kicked out.
“Yeah... that does sound stupid.” Mickey responded after a moment. Abbi laughed.
“It was. I think I taught them something though.” She speared a piece of meat Mickey had cut up for her and popped it into her mouth, still grinning at the idea. “That love makes the family, right Daddy?” Mickey smiled shyly and looked up to his husband who grinned back.
“That's right, squirt.”
///
Sunday morning, Abbi woke up early to make breakfast of toaster waffles and orange juice. She normally woke up before her fathers and made herself a bowl of cereal or something quick in the microwave, but today she decided to try something daring. Unfortunately, the banging around she did moving the chair to the front of the refrigerator woke Mickey who stumbled into the kitchen with a .22 down by his side. He rolled his eyes and switched the safety on, tossing it on the table. He walked briskly over to the fridge and picked Abbi up from her position standing on top of the chair reaching for the freezer.
“What in the hell are you doing?” He asked. He was trying to sound stern, but he was too tired for that. Abbi looked down at her feet.
“Everyone else in class is making their mommies breakfast in bed... I wanted to do something like that for you too... But I didn't want to make cereal, so I was going to make waffles instead.” Mickey sighed and rubbed his fingers against his eyes, clearing more of the sleep away.
“But that's Mother's Day. Father's Day is next month. If you want to do something special then you just have to ask.” He picked the chair up and put it back at the head of the table where it belonged. "We can plan something for Dad if you want." He picked up the gun and tried to subtly hide it behind his back.
“But—” Abbi sighed and looked down at her feet again. He tilted his head to one side, curious to know what she was going to say.
“But?”
“But you and Dad do both jobs, so shouldn't you get both days? And both get the surprise?” Mickey smiled at that. He pulled a chair out, inviting her to sit with him and sat down next to her. "It's not fair if one of you has to help me. Then the day is ruined for one of you!" She looked really distressed at this and it tore at Mickey's heartstrings though he tried (and likely failed) not to show it.
“You know... Father's Day is nice and all, but really it's just another day. We have all of these holidays to celebrate things we do every day and to be honest it doesn't make a difference to your Dad or me if we celebrate it or not. We do, but we don't have to. We didn't bring you into our lives for appreciation or an extra day to celebrate what we do. We have you because we wanted a kid to take care of and to love, because our family felt incomplete. So we wanted another kid to add to the family to make it complete. It's nice to show the people we care about that we care, but we don't need a special day to do that. We can do that any day of the year.” Abbi considered this.
“What if I want to celebrate both days with both of you?” Abbi insisted. Mickey laughed a little at that.
“Then that's what we'll do. But, do not climb on the furniture to do it or use kitchen appliances we haven't told you that you can use by yourself. That can get dangerous and I thought we were getting broken into.” He held up the gun to make his point. “There's no reason to scare me over a surprise, as nice as the surprise was going to be.” Abbi nodded, obviously feeling guilty. Mickey sat back and exhaled lowly, then looked to his daughter. He wasn't about to punish her for trying to do something nice, and he felt he'd made his point. “Well... since we're already up. Why don't we make that special breakfast?” Abbi grinned and nodded enthusiastically.
Ian awoke to the smell of bacon and walked in to the most adorable scene involving his husband at the stove and daughter mixing pancake batter at the dining room table.
“Dad!” Abbi cried, launching herself into Ian's arms.
“Hey!” He laughed, picking her up for a hug. “What's all this?” He asked. Mickey looked up then allowing her to explain.
“You and Daddy deserve both Father's Day and Mother's Day!”
“Oh, do we?” Ian inquired incredulously.
“Mhm! So Daddy and I are making breakfast!” Ian set her down.
“Remember that banging I heard at 6 this morning?” Mickey nodded to Abbi, “she was trying to get into the freezer to make waffles.” His tone was both teasing and disapproving. Ian swallowed his laugh because though it was one of the more adorable things she's done, he also didn't want to reward her for doing something she wasn't supposed to do. Abbi glanced at her Dad.
“We already talked about it!” She cried, not wanting any more disapproving looks or tones. Ian nodded and picked her up again, setting her in the dining room chair so she could resume her batter mixing. He made his way over to Mickey to give him a good morning kiss and get the coffee going which Mickey had surprisingly neglected to do.
The rest of the morning was kept light, the little family cracking inside jokes and working together for their breakfast.
She presented them their card after breakfast was cleaned up, shocking both her fathers.
“Abbi... Thank you!” Ian beamed. Mickey didn't have any words, just accepted her hug. “That was very sweet of you.” Mickey took the card from Ian and pinned it up on the fridge. Abbi grinned with pride.
“So, what other things did you plan for us today, squirt?” Mickey asked. Abbi's grin faded a little as she shrugged.
“How about a trip to the park? We can finally ditch those training wheels.” Ian suggested. She turned to face him and nodded excitedly.
“Go get dressed.” Mickey told her, putting the last of the dishes away. She nodded again and scrambled to her room to get dressed.
Ian sidled up next to his husband.
“Goddammit, how'd we get so lucky?” Ian whispered. Mickey shrugged, trying to hide a strong emotion he wasn't even sure he should be feeling. It was just a fucking card and just another fucking day but for some reason, this display of her love for her fathers got him emotional. It was embarrassing him. Ian perched his hand on Mickey's shoulder gently.
“Hey,” He turned Mickey's face back to his. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Mickey responded too quickly, covering his mouth the way he usually did when trying to stifle his emotion. “Just... Happy.” He turned to smile shyly at Ian who nodded. They had struggled so much to get to where they were now and it was surreal to both of them that they had been blessed with the family they had now. Abbi ran back into the room, shorts and t-shirt on, helmet in hand and rearing to go to the park.
“Alright, let's go!” Ian cheered. She raced her dad to the door and Mickey held back for a second, schooling his emotions. He took one last look at the card she'd made for them, smirked, and followed after them.