Chapter Text
The sun shone brightly in the bright blue sky, casting a beautiful glow over everything it touched. Trees stood tall and green, their leaves rustling softly in the quiet afternoon. Flowers bloomed into vibrant colors, adding splashes of red, yellow and purple to the landscape. One single rose stood out the most, it stood tall, like it aspired to be a tree someday. It's color a vibrant mix between red and purple, creating an extraordinary hue. The stem was dark green, covered to the brim with invisible like horns.
A couple passes by, two men dressed casually, one pregnant, the other chatting on the phone. Jos, the pregnant one, stops near the small garden in front of him and looks at each flower with rapt attention. The dandelions are the first to captivate his interest.
The soft, calm yellow hue to it sets his heart at ease, even if just for a second. That's when he decides that once his daughter is born, he'll name her Danie to honor the peace and calmness dandelions offer. Slant notices that his partner is no longer walking beside him but is instead standing over a small garden. He puts his phone away in what felt like an eternity and makes his way to the garden where Jos is standing.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Jos murmurs, still so hypnotized by the flowers infront of him. "What is?" Slant asks, clueless. "The dandelions.." Jos answers as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Oh, they look..nice, I suppose. I like the rose better, though." Slant replies, eyeing the rose with intent. "Of course you do, you always did like the more vibrant, more extravagant things in life." The almost annoyed tone in Jos's words doesn't go unnoticed by Slant, but he leaves it at that. Not having the energy to deal with his partner's wittiness today. Instead he plucks one of the dandelions and hands it to Jos, "A beauty for my beauty. Shall we go home now? It's getting a bit cold and I don't want my soon-to-be child's father to catch a cold."
Jos doesn't reply, already walking away from Slant, not even taking the dandelion from him. Slant lets out a sigh, having had enough of Jos's behaviour. For days he tried making amends, trying to convince Jos that there is nothing going on between him and Chris but his attempts always came to a dead end.
"Can we talk?" The sound of Slant's voice cuts through the tension between them. Jos stops in his tracks, glancing back at him. He still doesn't say a word but lets Slant continue.
"I know what you think, but I want you to know it's not true. I don't know who told you about this nonsense between me and Chris, but I assure you everything you heard is hoax, false news." Jos's gaze softens, but he still doesn't reply, waiting for Slant to resume. "Can we just go back to the way we were? I don't want to lose you, Jos. I love you." Jos's cold demeanor immediately melts, tears prickling at his eyes.
He walks back to Slant and pulls him into a tight embrace "I love you too," he says through sobs, "so, so much." Slant hugs him back, sliding his hands around his waist and pulling him even closer, pressing a kiss on the top of his head and letting out a content sigh.
The walk home is spent holding hands and chatting, for the first time in forever Slant actually payed attention to Jos.
Once evening comes around, everything quiets down. Their house blooming with light music and the smell of the delicious meal Jos is preparing. All the while Slant is in the nursery putting the toys away.
"Dinner's ready!" Jos calls out, but not getting any response from Slant. He calls out again, louder this time. Still no response. Muttering a small curse under his breath he makes his way to the nursery where the door is slightly ajar. Inside he's met with Slant sleeping on one of the couches. With a soft smirk, he tiptoes to where Slant is positioned and gently pokes his forehead.
He stirs slightly but doesn't fully wake up, instead murmurs "Five more minutes...". Jos sighs exaggeratedly but relents "Fine," he says, "I'll set the table, then.". With that, he's out the door, heading back to the kitchen to set the table. He starts by picking out a baby blue table cloth and putting it on the table with the outmost precision. Then, he reaches up to the cupboard to get some nice and clean plates along with two wine glasses. After placing the plates and wine glasses down on the table, smoothing out the remaining wrinkles on the table cloth in the process. Once everything's done, he slumps down on one of the chairs and closes his eyes.
The sound of Slant's footsteps down the hall echo through the house, Jos's eyes flutter open. "Oh, finally awake, sunshine?" he teases, earning an annoyed groan from Slant "Shut up.. I was tired, okay? Enough about that, what's for dinner?" he questions. "Food." Jos answers. "Wow, I wouldn't have thought of that at all." Slant says, sarcasm dripping from his tone, before he sits down he eyes the candles lit with a questioning gaze,
"What's with the candles? Are we celebrating something?" he asks only to be met with a low hum coming from Jos who already started feasting on...mac'n'cheese. Slant lets out a quiet laugh, a candle lit dinner with something as simple as mac'n'cheese. Once both of them finished eating, Slant stands up and clears the table, putting the dirty plates in the dishwasher.
Jos eyes him with a suprised look "You didn't have to do that, you know. I'm perfectly capable of handling the dishes myself." he says, almost defensely, although he does appreciate Slant helping out. "I know. But I wanted to." Slant says, before continuing "You're almost 6 months pregnant, I can't let you stress and tire yourself over some dishes.". Jos was speechless, since when has Slant started caring about him and the baby's well being? He didn't even want a child in the beginning, yet now he starts acting like a role husband and soon-to-be father? Something's not adding up here, Jos thinks.
He has to get to the bottom of why Slant started caring so deeply about him and the pregnancy.