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Tonight was going to be the first night Aaron and Robert had out with Victoria in a long time. Since Seb was living with them permanently, and since having Autumn, they haven’t had much time to be alone together at all - much less to spend any time going out. They had arranged for Chas and Paddy to have both children, Seb was so excited for the sleepover at his Nana’s that he'd ended up taking three of his favourite films for a film night.
Originally, Liv had said she could look after them, but neither Aaron or Robert wanted to put the pressure of two kids on Liv for a night on her own, so she planned to go out with the boys and Vic. Aaron worried at first about going to a gay bar with Liv, as it was surrounded by harder alcohol than the pub, but she was excited to see her first gay bar.
“What time are we getting the taxi for?” Liv asked, cracker hanging from her mouth while she was brushing through her hair.
Aaron was gathering Autumn’s things from the side, “It’s booked for 8.”
“When’s Chas picking them up then?” She looked over at the clock, seeing it was only ten minutes from then.
“She should be here any minute, Rob said she texted a minute ago that she was on her way but Eve wasn’t sleeping well so it took a minute to get her down.”
Robert came down the stairs then, holding onto Seb’s hand as he followed his dad.
The door swung open, Chas rushing through, “Think you’ll find I’m on time.”
Liv scoffed, “Only just.”
“Cheeky mare.”
“Nana!”
Chas smiled as her grandson hugged at her legs, and she picked him up, him sitting happily on her hip, “You’re getting too heavy for me to do this.”
Aaron laughed, “Either that or you’re getting weak in your old age.”
Chas heard her son’s husband chuckling behind his hand, “Don’t you make me come over there.”
Victoria came in through the open door, “Are we ready?” she doesn’t look up until then, and she spots Seb and Chas still there, “Aren’t you meant to be gone?”
“Give us a break, Vic, got a baby at home, haven’t I?”
Liv stands, grabbing her shoes and tickling at Seb’s stomach, “Is Autumn asleep?”
“Yeah, she’s in her carrier so I’ll go get her and you can be off, Mum,” Aaron says, putting a bag at Chas’ feet, full of his children’s things for the night, "You want her in the chair or are you alright with the carrier?"
"Carrier's fine, love, don't worry. Seb can help me with the bag, can't you mister?"
He looks down to see his son already trying to lift it himself.
While Aaron gets their daughter, Robert takes the time to put his jacket on, putting Aaron’s on the sofa ready for him. Aaron returns and gives Autumn in the carrier to his mum after he strokes over her cheek with his thumb.
“Let’s get going then, taxi’s here.”
.
When they get to Bar West, Robert sighs when he sees the entrance’s line.
“Come on Grandad,” Vic teases.
Aaron and Liv chuckle behind the pair as they get into the line.
“Worst case scenerio, Vic buys the first round,” Aaron stands behind Robert, putting both his palms on Robert’s shoulders, and places a kiss between his shoulder blades through his shirt.
.
As soon as they get inside, Aaron goes straight to the bar while Victoria makes a beeline for the bog, and Liv and Robert find somewhere to sit.
“First gay bar, hm?” Robert announces.
“Yours too?” Liv asked.
Robert smiles, “No, your brother took me here after knowing me a few weeks, actually. 'Hated it, me.”
“He brought you here? Weren’t yous all hush-hush?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t impressed. I was proper Mr Straight then too so I was ready for a swing,” Robert said, fiddling with a coaster, a smile creeping onto his lips. “I came here that night we got back together, too. You know when Aaron followed me here like a stalker?”
“Oh! Right, I forgot that,” Liv laughed.
Aaron sat down next to Robert, placing two pints down at the table, along with a cocktail of some sort for Vic, and a fruity-looking drink for Liv.
“How the bloody hell did you carry all that?”
“Had no choice, did I, lazy oaf?”
“Hush up,” Robert smiled, putting his arm on the small of Aaron’s back.
When Victoria got back, she looked pleased with herself, and for a moment Robert let his ego take him by storm and think his baby sister was just so happy to be with her brother’s little family, and then she says, “Some girl just asked for me number in the bog!”
Robert takes a breath, knowing a stroke to his ego was just too much to ask, “And here’s me thinking my little sister just wanted to spend time with me.”
“Leave off,” she laughs, “Been a while since anyone asked for me number, nice to know I still have it.”
“Well I know I’m not going to the bog then,” Liv says, “Not in the mood to explain all that.”
Aaron squints at her, "You're in a gay bar Liv, they'll be other people that-"
"Yeah, but I'm just here for the free drink, aren't I? Not in the mood to explain me life story," Liv interrupts.
Robert smiles at her, “Me an’ all.”
“Robert Sugden doesn’t want compliments? What universe did I come back to?” Victoria says, rolling her eyes.
Robert frowns, “‘Cuse you.”
“Did I lie?”
“Just doesn’t take them from strange men, I reckon,” Liv says softly, “I don’t either to be fair.”
Victoria doesn’t miss the way her brother locks eyes with his husband and Liv like they were speaking in code.
.
The night goes along slower than Aaron anticipated, he was almost waiting for Chas to call, and he hated himself for it. He remembered laughing at the mums who used to complain about missing their kids after they were separated for all of ten minutes, and here he was, twitching to check his phone after not seeing his children for approximately… two hours and twelve minutes. By his guess, that is.
Robert’s noticed, he assumed that anyway, by the way his keeps patting Aaron’s thigh and playing with Aaron’s fingers.
“Think I might get off,” Liv announced, “I’m knackered.”
“You’re meant to be the young one!” Victoria exclaims.
Liv looks up at her, “Yeah, well the youth are all about sleeping, init?”
“Yeah, I might join her, you two should stay if you want?” Aaron says, grabbing for his jacket as Liv stands.
“You can’t leave me in a gay bar,” Robert declares, and he stands as well.
Victoria frowns, “Why?”
Liv stares at the back of Robert’s head, quickly trying to think of anything to get him out of that question when Aaron speaks up, “You know what he’s like, he’ll be drunk in five minutes if you leave him at a gay bar, drinks are proper strong in gay bars.”
“Oh,” Vic slowly gets up from her seat, “Fine, we can go home, don’t see why it’s barely nine. I'm coming back to yours."
.
After the taxi home, Robert and Vic go inside while Aaron rings his mum for an update. Liv joins him, wanting to know how they were as well.
“Nervous nellie, you. Autumn’s fast asleep, and Seb’s drifting. He made it onto the third film though, which a new record,” He can hear Chas looking around the room, the volume of the call snuffling slightly, “Eve’s asleep an’ all, I think Paddy’s going to take them up in a minute. How was it? You’re home early.”
“Yeah, Liv got tired and I was a bit bored so we all came back here. If Seb’s up, does he want to come home?”
“No, no, love, you have a night in without them - brilliant dad points an' all that, but I trump your vote because I’m your mum, have a decent night sleep for once, eh?” Chas says.
Aaron lets out a sigh, “Fine, give him a kiss from me and I’ll let you go.”
“I will do, love.”
Liv smiles at him, “Let’s go see if Vic’s on her way out or not then. Don’t see why we even went to a gay bar if we were just going to sit in the corner.”
“You never said you wanted to look about.”
Liv rolls her eyes, “As if. Just thought Vic would want to be up and about, didn’t I?”
Aaron shakes his head, “Nah, it was her idea to go to Bar West, mind. You know what Robert’s like with gay bars.”
“Yeah, obvs, thought she was going to figure that out too by the looks of it.”
They make their way through the porch to find Robert and Vic at the table, each with a brew in front of them, “None for us then?” Aaron calls over.
“I’ll put the kettle on again then,” Liv says sarcastically.
“I’m going to just get out this shirt,” Aaron states, backing away from the table - most likely to get out of making the tea himself - he hears Robert make some form of joke at it but doesn’t quite catch it.
As he changes, he sees his husband coming in, “How were they?”
“Good, fine. Autumn’s fast asleep and Seb was on his way.”
Robert nods, “Good. It was weird, though. Without them for once.”
“Yeah,” Aaron agrees, “You okay? I know gay bars aren’t your best mate.”
Robert shrugs at him, “Not that bad anymore,” they both leave the room to go down the stairs as they spoke, “Just not wanting to be in there without you.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t know, I guess just the last bit of me hating it.”
Victoria catches the tails of the conversation.
“You what?”
Liv takes her brew upstairs.
.
“Vic-”
“No, tell me, you’ve been doing that daft secret Robert and Aaron Speak all night. Why don’t you like gay bars? I’m there fine and I’m straight, this is stupid!”
Robert sits down as Aaron gets his tea from the side and takes a seat next to him, “Look, Vic, Rob just doesn’t like them all that much - I was the same for a few years, it’s normal.”
“Not this long, though, was it? Robert you’re married to a man, can’t get much gayer than that, never mind a flaming gay bar.”
“I’m not gay.”
Aaron drinks his tea, expecting the argument before he hears it.
Victoria begins to raise her voice, “Rob, I don’t get it! How do you think Aaron feels when you say stuff like that? How long are you going to pretend? You’re out now, married with kids!”
“Can I explain what I am before you hate me for no reason?”
Victoria huffs, “Fine, go ahead.”
“I’m bi, Vic,” he says, and he sees Victoria nod along, “You said to me when you first found out about me and Aaron that you didn’t put people in boxes.”
She exhales, “Yes, I did. I didn’t say I never thought shacking up with a bloke and having two and a half kids with him would ever be considered straight, though.”
“I’m not straight,” Robert grunts, “But I’m not gay either.”
“You want me to go?” Aaron says softly, “I can give you a sec.”
Victoria seems to get annoyed by this “Do you have no input? You can’t be fine with him just being opposed to being gay?”
“Doesn’t bother me anymore. Took me longer than it should have,” He says, putting his hand on his husband’s shoulder and rubbing them, “I’ve apologised for it. He doesn’t need to be gay to be with me, as long as he likes me, that’s fair enough on my end.”
“Reckon I do a bit more than like,” Robert jokingly says.
Aaron’s smile isn’t what Vic notices first, it’s the way Robert settles as soon as his husband’s hands touch him. “Right, fine, so you’re bi. That’s fine, Rob, thank you for telling me but you always go on about Aaron being so different, at your wedding you went on about him teaching you what love is so how does that work?”
“He doesn’t compare to the others,” Robert says, holding onto his husband.
“But he must if you say things like that.”
“How does Ellis compare to Adam?”
Aaron almost hears the breath caught in Vic’s throat.
Victoria looks down at her fingers, where her ring used to be, “He doesn’t.”
“There you go. It’s just the same. Just because Aaron’s a bloke doesn’t mean he’s any different to Chrissie, I just love him in a way that’s more than I have for anyone else. It’s not a gay thing, it’s an Aaron thing.”
She looks up at their hands, “So you don’t like gay bars without Aaron because…”
“Because I’m not all there yet, it took me a lot to even admit that I loved him, I’m still going through the motions to be there without him. I can be with Aaron and still not understand the whole bi thing. I can have two kids with my husband and still not fully accept who I am. All I know is I’m attracted to both and I love Aaron. That won’t change. And I'm getting there, it just takes a lot, more than a straight person has to go through.”
Aaron leaves a kiss to Robert’s head, and goes upstairs, wanting them to have their conclusion without him watching it.
.
Victoria is standing next to the door, wanting to feel less like she’s just exploded at her brother for being bisexual, because it wasn't her intention.
Robert stands in front of her.
“You know I accept you, right?” Victoria asks, “I’m not bothered what you are. I just thought you were being horrid to Aaron about the gay thing.”
He smiles, “I know, don’t worry, yeah? I’m glad you protect him too. I am just bi, Vic. I went through a lot you don’t know about to get to this place. The place where I can live with Aaron and love him and have our kids. I’m happy. Just be happy for us, don’t worry about me not liking gay bars without my husband.”
“I won’t do. I do love you being this happy.”
“Me too.”
fin.