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"Your daughter is so adorable."
Henry's nearly chokes on his rocky road, hacking up the chocolate chunk that gets stuck in his throat, as he stares wide eyed at the saleswoman.
Missy on the other hand looks completely unbothered, just grinning as she devours her cotton candy scoop (which, what the fuck).
Piper is cackling so hard that she nearly drops her ice cream, Jasper joining with her, as Charlotte rolls her eyes and Schwoz watches them all curiously as he takes a bite from his 90% gummy bear cup.
"I like to rip off their little heads. They are powerless against me, just like real bears," Schwoz told Henry once to which Henry never asked about his food preferences ever again.
"I am not old enough to look like Missy's father," Henry complains on their walk to the park. "Right?" Jasper snorts and Henry narrows his eyes at him. "She's 13! I would've been 13 when she was born if she was actually my kid."
"We're getting older, Hen," Jasper says. "And, I mean, your years of child heroism didn't exactly help you age gracefully."
Henry scoffs dramatically with offense.
"You're still the most gorgeous guy in the world though," Jasper says. "You've got that chiseled, broody smoulder thing going on that you know I'm so into."
"Gag," Piper says, Missy pretending to retch next to her.
"Thank you, Jasper," Henry says flatly, though his smile betrays his feigned annoyance.
"And I mean," Charlotte says, "Are you not like Missy's dad, in a way?"
"Yeah!" Missy says. "You help me with my homework and you listen to me when I need advice and you believe in me when no one else does and, and... and you care about me. My dad didn't. Not like you."
Henry softens, kneeling down to get to Missy's level and pulling her into a hug, making sure not to crush their ice cream between them. "I do care about you, kid. And I couldn't have asked for a better sidekick."
"Does that mean Charlotte and Jasper are like my second mom and dad?" Missy asks.
"If you want them to be," Henry says, looking up at Charlotte and Jasper with silent question to which they both respond with soft understanding agreement.
"I'd like that a lot," Missy says. "Found family is like my number one top read tag on AO3."
"Found family?" Jasper asks.
"Family is the family you build. The family you choose. It's not just all about blood."
Henry's feels like his heart is bleeding out as he thinks about how he and Piper all but cut out their parents as they got older and realized how neglectful they were. Thinks about Jasper's abusive parents and the years it took to give Jasper safety in Henry and Charlotte. Thinks about Missy whose mom is never around leaving Missy to parent Gemma even though she's still a kid herself.
And Henry realizes that he had found a new family. Found them in not just his sister but in his partners and Missy and whatever Schwoz is.
"I'd like that too," Henry says. He pulls Missy into one more hug before ruffling her hair and going back on the path to the park.
"Fatherhood looks good on you," Charlotte says. "On both of you." She rests her head on Jasper's shoulder.
"We couldn't do it without you," Jasper says. "I don't know how we survived when you were off at university."
"I distinctly remember you didn't. You actually quite literally self imploded, temporarily ruined your relationship, fell into the claws of capitalism and fame, and nearly destroyed the multiverse."
Henry flushes. "Oh, right."
"Next time, when the world's ending, I"m going to be there," Charlotte says.
"Hopefully there won't be a next time," Jasper says. "I'd very much like to have a normal, domestic rest of my life, thank you very much."
They all give him a cocked brow of disbelief.
"Just... with a side of heroism."
And as they laugh, walking with their ice cream, they all smile knowing that they're with the family they chose.
Well, Schwoz is smiling because he's viciously ripping the heads off of gummy bears.