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Michael was two hours away from losing his mind - which, to be fair - was actually quite impressive for somebody who had been teetering on the edge of mental instability for the past decade.
Why two hours? Well, that was simple. Gregory was occupied by a movie that they had rented so Michael had two hours to enjoy himself with just Jeremy. There was a problem arising in the Fitzgerald household (it was called such due to the fact that Michael wanted to understandably distance himself from the Afton family name). The problem happened to be of privacy.
See, the Fitzgerald house wasn’t grand nor large, so everybody was running into each other all the time - sometimes even physically and literally. There was already Michael’s kid and his emotional support animatronic, but then they had to bring along the other ones as well. The house was filled to the brim with robots.
In some ways, it was really nice. If Michael was ever too busy with work or Jeremy was away at his job there was always somebody to watch over Gregory. At first, neither of the men fully trusted the animatronics to watch over their son, not after everything they had been through, but after a few trial runs and more than a couple necessary times, they learned that Gregory was in good hands if he was with them.
But there were of course downsides. The most obvious being that Michael couldn’t really have any alone time with Jeremy. The two had gone from living on their own together, to “adopting” Gregory, to taking in a bunch of animatronics as if they were stray animals. Some aspects were very similar to stray pets.
Who could blame Michael for wanting a night with his boyfriend, just one night. They could do whatever they wanted, and they could be alone.
He felt a bit selfish and extremely guilty for wanting to get away, even if it was only for a little while. Michael didn’t want to leave as his own mother did, nor did he want to become the cold, abusive man his father was. He wanted to be so much more than that - better than his own parents in every possible way imaginable. In wishing for alone time, Michael felt like he was becoming that which he sought to destroy.
Michael picked up a glass from the cupboard, going to the sink to pour himself a glass. Arms wrapped around his middle from behind, “Hey, Mikey.”
He smiled softly to himself, “Hello to you too Jer.” It was a quiet, simple moment. He adored these moments. “Any reason, in particular, you’re hanging off me like a climbing frame?”
“It's called a jungle gym thank you very much, been living here since you were eight and you haven’t learned the dictionary yet?”
Michael could practically hear Jeremy’s smirk, “Oh I know your American vocabulary very well, I just love how annoyed you get sometimes.”
Jeremy scoffed, “You’re such an ass sometimes.”
Michael put a finger to Jeremy’s lips, “There’s a child in here, let’s watch the language.”
“Alright, you hypocritical bastard,” Jeremy retorted, moving Michael’s finger away. “There is something I wanted to ask you though.”
That piqued his interest, “What is it?”
Jeremy threaded their fingers together, leaning against him a little, “I thought maybe we could go out together next weekend, just the two of us.”
Now that sounded amazing, “Yes.” Michael said it before he could even think it through, “Wait, you’re sure about it right? What will we do about Gregory? Are we sure we want to leave him here alone for that long? What if-”
“Mike, he’ll be fine,” Jeremy said it so confidently, with such ease, that Michael couldn’t help but allow his anxieties to mellow as well.
“Okay.”
*****
Michael set his bag next to him; he held onto Gregory’s shoulders. “Okay, we’ll be home tomorrow night, I talked to Chica and she’s going to heat up the leftovers in the fridge. If anything goes wrong remember you can go to the neighbors for help.”
Jeremy kneeling down next to him stopped him from rambling anymore, “You can call us too, we’re always here for you.”
Gregory rolled his eyes at the two men. It was always surprising how protective Michael could be despite how much he had been against having children of his own before. “I get it, I’m ten, not stupid. Have fun doing whatever you do I guess.” The boy hugged his fathers before waving them goodbye.
Michael had a hard time leaving - Jeremy did as well - but he tried to tell himself it was all going to be alright. The two got into Michael’s pick up, the man in question had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. “He’ll be okay Mikey, it’s just one night.”
“One night, yeah, just one night.”