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Alex didn’t know much about Johns family, just that he didn’t have a good relationship with his dad and that he had at least 3 siblings. So when he burst through the door on Friday night, beaming and saying that they were in town for the weekend, he was intrigued.
“What brings them here? South Carolina to New York is quite the trip.”
“They’re here for some business thing my dad has, but Martha said she can bring herself and the other 2 over when he’s in meetings.”
He could practically hear the smile in Johns voice, and it warmed his heart to see his husband so happy. The last time he saw his siblings was at the wedding, and that lasted about all of 10 minutes before Henry came up with some bull excuse for them to leave.
“Do you remember names or do you need a refresher?” John asked as he leaned into Alex’s side, grabbing his hand and intertwining their fingers as he talked. “A refresher would be nice.”
“Okay, there’s Martha, she’s 17. Reminds me of Peggy, god those two would have so much fun together. Then there’s Junior, he’s 7. Mariella is the last one, she’s 5.”
Alex listened attentively, making a mental note to somehow get Martha and Peggy together, and trying to remember what the other three looked like at the wedding.
-
Martha called a few hours later, saying that Henry would be in meetings for 6 hours the next day and setting up a good time to come over. Alex turned into a suburban mom about making sure the apartment was presentable, even though John promised him his siblings would be happy to be somewhere that didn’t need to be kept wall to wall spotless.
-
The doorbell rang the next morning, John throwing himself off the couch to answer it. Alex opted to stay where he was, letting him greet his family on his own. Martha was a spitting image of John, and their mother from the few pictures John had shown him of her. The littler ones seemed to take after their father, with lighter skin and hair.
Mariella was the first to greet Alex, running over and plopping herself down on the couch next to him and tapping him on the shoulder.
“You’re Johns kissing friend right?”
Alex giggled at the five year old terminology, nodding and looking back at John, who had since walked back the couch with Junior on his heels.
“Oh, that’s what I thought. Martha has a kissing friend too, her name i-”
“Mariella!” Martha exclaimed and leaned down over the back of the couch to clamp a hand over her mouth, John raising an eyebrow. He knew Martha was gay, she told him that at the wedding before she was forced to leave. But she had yet to fill him in on her ‘kissing friend’.
Alex watched the situation play out in amusement, John pulling Martha off her little sister to let her finish her sentence.
“Her name is Hailey and she has short hair and her and Martha are kissing friends because I was gonna go ask Martha if I could use her markers but they were kissing so I left.”
Mariella smiled proudly when she was done recounting her story, Martha's face flushing red. John pulled her into a hug, ruffling her hair as she pulled back, a small smile on her face.
“You know, Martha, if it makes you feel any bette,r our friends kid walked in on us going at it on my desk.” Alex spoke up and winked at John, Martha pretending to gag and elbowing her brother in the side. Now it was Johns turn to turn red, laughing a little as he remembered what had happened. Maria was staying at their house with her daughter for a few nights while Eliza was out of town, and said daughter had chosen the worst possible time to tell them that she broke a glass. To this day, both Maria and Eliza instilled an open door policy whenever they brought her over.
John got over his embarrassment and rolled his eyes, watching Junior look through Alex’s movie collection. He was the quiet one of the bunch, and he knew it was in part due to the fact that he received the brunt of Henry’s not-so-good parenting skills. He took Johns place as what Henry viewed as his mini-me, and he could only hope he wouldn’t turn out that way.
“You see something you wanna watch?” Alex said as he followed Johns eyes to them, Junior whipping around at the question and folding his hands in front of him.
“No sir, just looking.” He bit his lip as he left the DVD shelf to walk back to John, standing behind him as a way to ‘hide’ from Alex.
“Call me Alex kiddo, and if John helped you look do you think you would find something?”
He nodded and returned back to shelf with John in tow. They eventually settled on the first Night at the Museum movie, Martha leaving to go make popcorn as they popped it in, settling down on the couch. Mariella parked herself between John and Alex, Junior opting to curl into Johns side. As the movie started Alex couldn’t help but let his mind wander to the idea of him and John having their own children. He was amazing with his siblings, and with Maria's daughter, and the thought of watching him parent their own kid made his heart soar. But that was a conversation topic for another day.