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- Alex
It’s 2024 and Henry is having a bad day.
It doesn’t happen that often anymore, but it doesn’t mean that those days just disappeared.
This morning he woke up and he could feel the shift in the air. Thankfully Alex asked him what he needed and didn’t look disappointed or mad that the answer was “space”.
That's how Henry ended up spending his morning mostly staring at the ceiling of their bedroom.
Alex popped up twice to bring him tea, but mostly he left him alone as he wished.
He starts to regret that.
He doesn't mind his presence, he even craves it, but what he definitely doesn't want is psychical touch. At the moment even a thought of brushing someone else's fingers against his sounded unbearable. Even if it was Alex’s touch.
He can't explain why. He just knows it will make him crawl out of his skin.
Henry turns his head towards the clock on the wall and sees that it's almost noon. He should eat something, but he doesn't have the energy for that.
Few minutes later Alex comes into the room for the third time. This time carrying not only tea, but also a deliciously smelling soup.
“Hi sleeping beauty,” Alex greets him, “I bring you soup, since you gotta eat something.”
Henry watches him closely, as he is putting a tray on a nightstand.
He observes how the sunshine made his hair have a golden glow. He truly looks like an angel at this moment.
Alex stands next to the bed, eyeing the edge of it. When he looks up at Henry, he gives him a small nod.
The bed dipped under him and he reaches for the soup. He picks up a spoon and starts blowing on it. After slightly cooling it he starts feeding his love. Henry needs to sit up slightly, so Alex won’t spill it on their duvet.
He uses every bit of his will power to move and make himself swallow the spoonful of the dish.
’’Good job, baby.’’ Alex flashes him a bright smile.
Alex continues to feed him, with small brakes, untill Henry finishes it.
When his angel of a boyfriend makes a move to stand up, Henry tries to grab or even just touch his hand. He was unsuccessful, but thankfully Alex saw a movement with the corner of his eye and stops.
”What, baby?” He asks.
”Stay?” Henry whisper quietly, so quietly that he is scared he wasn’t heard.
Which isn’t true, because Alex, his gorgeous Alex, always hears him.
”Of course, darlin’.”
- Arthur
It's 2033 and all Henry wants is to be left alone.
He wishes he had told Alex to close the blinds in their bedroom tighter because a singular ray of sunshine peeks through the barely visible slit and it drives him crazy.
It seems like he can't get away from the light, even when he is covered from head to toes under a duvet.
Maybe Alex left it on purpose, so Henry wouldn't be in a total darkness?
Henry feels guilty about needing to be alone. He didn't want to leave Alex with taking care of their kids, doing laundry, washing dishes, and oh- they probably should finally wash the windows, and -
He hears the door opening. He hoped he would get more time alone before Alex needed his help.
But the footsteps, even with Alex's height, are too light to be his.
That's when he hears a quiet “Daddy?”.
And then his oldest child came into view.
“Hi,” says Arthur with a smile, “Papa said you're sick, so I made you a card.”
He holds up a very glittery piece of paper.
“It's blue, like your eyes, but the glitter is pink, because I don't have other colors.”
He holds it out for him.
Henry slowly pulls his hand out of the duvet and takes the card with a small “Thank you”.
But Arthur stays, looking at him. By the look of his eyes he can say that his son is trying to form a question from his too many thoughts.
What finally comes out of his mouth is “what are you doing?” .
“Just lying here.”
Artie puts his crossed arms on the edge of the bed, his head atop of them and he tilts it like a puppy, looking at him with his adorable eyes.
“Aren't you lonely?”
Oh.
This is what parenthood will teach you, that these innocent creatures will ask you the weirdest or the most heartbreaking question, because for them this is simple.
How is he supposed to answer it?
“Well… I just need a day to myself I think.”
There. Simple, but truthful. It should be enough, but-
“You sure? Cus’ when I was sick I didn't want you or papa to leave me alone. It was scary.” Artie's big eyes still stared at him.
“I'm sure, love.”
“Okay.”
Then he came closer, moved away his dad's bang he could and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
“When it gets scary to be alone, you can ask for me and I will lay here with you.”
That's when they heard “Arthur!” from downstairs, his son's eyes widened.
“Love, does papa know you are here?” whispers Henry.
“No…” Artie looks down apologetically.
Then he bolts out of the room, yelling “see you later, daddy!” and Henry is left alone again.
- Mateo
It's 2034 and Henry didn't hear his son coming into the bedroom.
He woke up to the low humming. He pokes his head over the bed to look at the floor and sees his four year old son sitting there and playing with his toys.
He has two plushies in his hands and holds them up in front of him, a concerned look on his face. Then as if he made some kind of choice, he puts down a dragon plushie, which he held in his left hand. He stands up and hugs a bear plushie in his arms, walking towards a bed.
Spotting awake Henry he smiles so big that it covers half of his face.
”Hi, daddy.” Then he kind of giggles to himself.
“Hi.” croaks Henry.
After a moment of silence Mateo asks “Are you sick?”
Henry debates if he should go with half truth or half lie. God, he doesn't have energy to lie.
“I'm sad, love, but don't worry about it.”
“Oh.” says his son as if he understands, but he can't, he is only 4 years old.
He still decides to continue with his questions.
“Why?”
“It's just like that sometimes.”
His brow furrows, that means he is thinking very hard.
“Why are you alone?”
“I need to be alone from time to time.”
“Oh, I get it.”
The sentence made Henry concerned.
“Mattie, what do you mean by that, sweetheart?”
“I'm sometimes sad and I don't wanna go to kindergarten and I need to brush my teeth and get dressed, but I don't wanna and then Artie is loud, Papi's coffee machine too.” Mateo seems to be deep in his thoughts, at last he adds, “but I have my fox plushie and I hug it and I try to do all the things I don't want to.” He shrugs his shoulders as if what he just said didn't break Henry's heart.
“Oh love, why didn't you say anything to your papa and I earlier.”
His son shrugs again.
“When you feel like that, please tell one of us, okay?”
This time he nodded, but he didn’t look convinced.
”Mateo, I’m serious. When you feel like that again, you tell one of us and we’ll figure something out. That’s what parents are for. Do you understand?”
This time his nod was more determined. “Will do, daddy.”
Then his son remembered he came here with a mission.
”I forgot,” he exclaimed, “I wanted to give you my plushie, so you will not be alone. It should work like my foxy for me.”
He thrusted his hand forward and presented his bear toy.
”I picked it for you,” he added.
”Thank you, love,” Henry replied, taking the plushie and hugging it to his chest.
”I have to go,” Mateo told him, “papa is making hot chocolate. I’ll see ya later.”
With that he ran out of the room.
- Carmen
It's 2038, Henry is tired, but he can't sleep.
It's only 5pm, but does he wish to just close his eyes and get some rest.
He could hear his family talking in the living room. Alex, the walking angel, kept their children entertained for the day, while he lay in their bed.
Henry was supposed to be productive today, goddammit. There was laundry to do, because Artie couldn’t keep his clothes clean to save his life. Mateo needed help with reorganizing his shelf. And Carmen, being Carmen, required a little bit more attention.
All this and he still couldn’t bring himself to get up.
He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the door opening.
“Daddy? You here?” His daughter, Carmen asked.
”Yes,” he answered and the sound of careful little footsteps could be heard.
Carmen came into his view and said “hi” with the biggest smile, holding a cup of tea in her hands.
“Darling, what are you doing?” Henry asked.
“Well… Papa made you tea, but the boys started arguing, so he got distracted and left the cup. I wasn't doing anything, so I decided to bring it to you, because I didn’t want it to get cold.”
When Henry focused more, he recognised Alex's voice coming from the kitchen being replaced by two other voices.
“Thank you, Carmen.” He sat up and took a cup from her.
“Don't you want to join us downstairs?” His daughter asked.
“Not at the moment, sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. That's what Papi said. And I get it, when I'm sick I just wanna stay in bed all day.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“No problem.”
That's when they heard someone coming upstairs towards the room.
The opened door revealed Alex.
“Carmen, what are you doing?”
“I'm bringing daddy's tea.”
“Sweetie, I would have done it. Don't worry about stuff like this. It was incredibly thoughtful of you, but not your responsibility to do that.”
Their daughter started to look a little bit upset, “I just wanted to help.”
Alex crouched down to her level and hugged her.
“I know, mija. You're a very kind soul. Just remember that you don't have to bother with things like that. I got it, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Now, say bye to daddy, he needs his rest.”
She turned to Henry and she looked so sad. His heart broke, watching his daughter's pouty face say, “Bye, daddy”. His little empathetic girl wanted nothing more than to stay by her dad's side.
At last Carmen waved to him, holding Alex's hand, when both of them went out of the room.
- Elena
It's 2042 and Henry has had enough.
The day barely started. That’s not quite right, it was almost lunch time, but he couldn’t wait for the day to be over. He hoped that by the next morning he would feel better. A foolish thought, but a hope regardless.
Turned out his hope has a sneaky way of getting into the bedroom with a homemade bouquet of flowers held in her little hands.
”Hello, daddy,” his youngest, Elena, exclaimed. Her smile was brighter than the Texan midday sun outside.
”I went to the backyard and picked flowers for you.” She proudly presented her gift.
”That is very beautiful, my little love.”
He carefully took the flowers and put them on the nightstand.
“Are you feeling alright, daddy?
He never knows what to say to that. After all these years of parenting some of the most curious kids, the questions about his wellbeing were the hardest.
”No, not really, but I’ll be tomorrow. I promise,” he finally answered.
”Are you hurting?”
Questions, questions, questions.
“No, I feel bad inside.” He shouldn’t have fucking said that. She is too young, too innocent. She doesn’t need to know that.
”Inside? Like your belly?”
It’s already too late to go back, he might as well tell her the truth.
”It’s rather in my head or heart, darling.”
“My heart hurts sometimes too,” she told him as if what she said didn’t break him into a million pieces.
He couldn't tell her that their illnesses were different. His mental, but hers physical.
“Do you get it checked by a doctor like me?” She wondered.
”Yes, I do.”
”That’s good.”
”Elena! It’s time to wash your hands,” Alex called out from downstairs. Right, it was already lunch time.
”Go on, darling. I’ll try to join you, but no promises.” That was a lie, but he didn't want to break her heart even more.
”Okay, see you at lunch.”
Elena started skipping out of the room towards the bathroom. Henry followed her with his eyes until she was gone.
+1 Family
It’s 12th March 2043, Henry’s 46th birthday.
God, he feels old.
He woke up around 15 minutes ago, but unfortunately without Alex by his side. So he decided to just close his eyes and enjoy the comfort of their bed.
He hears someone going downstairs and muffled voices, but he still doesn’t get up.
As he hears pans rattling in the kitchen he decides to finally go to the bathroom.
Since he is a birthday guy, he takes his sweet time in the shower. Which probably wasn’t such a good idea, because he started to overthink his life.
He is so grateful for how his life turned out to be. Having four amazing children and being married to the love of his life is absolutely fantastic. But… then he thinks about the fact that he will be 50 in only four years. If life taught him something is that four years is nothing.
After contemplating everything, he steps out of the shower and starts picking his outfit. He sits on the bed with three choices laid out in front of him.
While contemplating, he hears people coming up the stairs. Knowing his little family, he quickly hides his outfits and goes back to bed, so they would hopefully think he is still sleeping.
The voices are getting louder to the point he can make out the words being said.
”Shut up, Arthur, he’s going to wake up before we get there.” Whispers-yells Carmen.
”If he’ll wake up it’s going to be because of your complaining.” Responds Arthur.
”Please, be quiet, I don’t want us to ruin the surprise.” interjected Elena.
”If none of you will shut the f-’’ starts Mateo, who is cut off by Alex.
”Language! Jesus tits, y’all are noisy.”
”So you can swear but I can't?”
”Do you want to have this conversation right now or do you want to surprise your dad first?”
Henry hears Mateo sighs, loud and clear, which means they are in front of the door.
”Fine. Who is opening?” Questioned their defeated son.
”Oh, me, me, me!” Says Elena excitedly.
”Go on, sweetheart.”
With Alex's encouragement, she begins to slowly open the door.
“We're good, he's still sleeping.” she says to her companions and all of them go into the room.
Elena jumps on the bed and starts to shake him awake, chanting “wake up, daddy, wake up”.
He makes a show of yawning and stretching.
As he opens his eyes, everyone in the room starts singing happy birthday.
Firstly, he sees Elena sat on his knees, then next to the bed is Carmen with Arthur behind her holding her shoulders. To their side is Alex holding pancakes with lighted candles in them, smiling brightly at him. Finally he sees the last person, Mateo, his hip perched on the nightstand, big present bag in his hand. Jesus, he loves them so much.
After they finished a song, Alex tells him “now blow” with a wink.
Demon.
“Sorry we didn't get you a cake. We wanted to make one for you, but since you're the family baker, our efforts are in the trash.” says Mateo.
Carmen looks at him with betrayal in her eyes, “he wasn't supposed to know that!”.
“Oh, you thought he wouldn't notice a big cake in the bin?”
“Anyway,” Alex interrupts them, “we'll get you a cake don't worry, because we have plans. Before you go pick up kids from schools, you need to get a basket, it's on the countertop next to the fridge. And instead of driving home, you'll get y'all to our favourite park, where I'll meet you. Don't run behind schedule, we also have a reservation in a restaurant.”
After Alex's explanation, Elena rips out the present bag from Mateo's hands.
“We got you this.” she says innocently as her brother is glaring at her, mumbling “I wouldn't forget to give it to him”.
In the bag there were four birthday cards and one bracelet. All of it clearly hand-made by his children.
”Thank you so much, my loves.”
’’Surprise was successful,” tells Alex to their kids after each of them gave Henry a hug, ’’now get ready for school.”
After ushering them out of the room he sits down on Henry’s lap.
”Just to let you know, I also have a present for you, but it needs to wait till the very, very late evening.”
”Menace.”
”You love me”
”Yes, I do.”
Right then and there Henry gets his birthday kiss.
After a breathless moment, Alex sits up and walks out of the room.
Turning around at last he says ’’don’t forget the basket, baby!”
”I won’t!”
When he finally went downstairs, he indeed saw a picnic basket where it was supposed to be, but he also saw something else.
There was a big bouquet in the middle of the kitchen island with a card attached to it.
Happy birthday, H
I love you, A<3
Henry smelled the flowers with a soft smile on his face.
Today will be a good day.