Work Text:
“i can’t believe you would want this. after everything we’ve been through, all our hardships and our suffering, that you would choose this. mark, is this really how little this family means to you?”
jackson stared at mark, his eyes unusually serious, his smiling mouth turned downwards in a show of unhappiness. his chest shuddered as he let out a shaky breath and despairingly ran his hand through his hair.
mark blinked.
“dude, i just think our sim child would rather go to ballet class than debate club.”
jackson gasped.
“why would she want that? mark, mark mark mark, she doesn’t want that,” jackson argued back defiantly, “she needs to learn how to argue her case! like her dad can! it’s a healthy form of socialising!”
mark stared unwaveringly back at jackson.
“she told me she would rather do ballet.”
jackson gasped louder, grabbing at mark’s arm, holding him tightly.
“mark, don’t say that. how could our child talk to you before she spoke to me? i make far better decisions!” jackson leaned his head on mark’s shoulder, gently headbutting the side of his neck.
mark refused to give in, gripping tighter onto the computer’s mouse, tauntingly holding his finger over the left button to click ballet class. jackson’s eyes narrowed.
it had all started one day, unsurprisingly, with jackson. he’d found a copy of the sims on sale and well, who was he to say no? they all needed some way to pass the time. he’d gone straight up to mark, fell to one knee, and proposed they create a sim family.
(mark had called him stupid but oh boy, was it worth it for jackson to see the blush creeping up his face, the way he had thrown his head back and laughed before covering his face with his hands.)
from then on, their lives had slowly been taken over by their new sim family. they had painstakingly spent nearly two hours creating their sims, trying to craft them exactly in their own image. mark had been about to name the sims when jackson grabbed his hand from the keyboard. leaning over, he gently named the mark sim “yiēn” and the jackson one “jiāěr” before smiling proudly at mark.
“our chinese names?” mark asked tenderly.
“yeah! so we don’t get too confused with names but it’s still us!”
mark smiled back at him.
everyday, they checked on their sim family for hours at a time. they had insisted that they wouldn’t cheat but, hey, it’s a dog eat dog world in the sims and a couple’s gotta survive.
(they didn’t even try. as soon as they could, they were entering the cheat code to make themselves rich. they couldn’t, and didn’t, even try and justify it to themselves.)
they moved their little sims into a giant house, had spent nearly four hours decorating it, insisting that it had to be just right for their digital counterparts to live in. it was lavish and over the top and they loved it.
(mark thought it was a little bit too much to be honest but then, who was he to say no to jackson when his eyes had lit up like they did when he found a very impressive, but very expensive, looking plant?)
it was one day when they were watching their sims cook dinner when mark had commented on how much food they always made for two people. jackson’s eyes shot sharply to mark.
“do you think we should move someone else in?” jackson asked, curious.
“yeah, why not?” mark shrugged, watching their sims converse in their own little language.
“like, one of the other members?” jackson tried not to sound hesitant but if he was being honest, he really didn’t want to bring in another member. their little sims had already created their own special place in his heart and he didn’t want to ruin it.
(he pushed to the deepest parts of his mind that what he didn’t really want to ruin was his time alone with mark. possessiveness isn’t becoming of a person.)
“nah. how about we adopt? like, a baby?”
jackson gasped dramatically, a hand clutching his chest.
“mark...do you really mean that? are you sure?”
mark nodded solemnly.
“i think we’re ready.”
jackson squealed. mark laughed.
after their sims had finished dinner, (their real life counterparts refused to interrupt their meal) mark took the mouse and told yiēn to phone for services. just as he was about to press “child adoption agency”, he paused. jackson looked at him worryingly.
“are you having second thoughts? it’s okay if you’re not ready,” jackson began consolingly, trying to ignore his own disappointment.
“nah dude, but put your hand over mine,” mark instructed but when jackson only looked at him confusedly, he took jackson’s hand and placed it over his that was on the mouse, “so we can do it together.”
jackson gaped before grinning. mark’s hand was warm underneath his own, a comfort that he always longed for.
together, they clicked the button to adopt.
which takes us back, past the stressful baby stage where all their daughter would do was cry and past the toddler stage where they had lovingly watched yiēn and jiāěr teach her how to walk and talk, to now, her childhood. trying to decide what afterschool activity she would like the most.
mark’s finger teasingly edged towards the button.
jackson did what was necessary.
he leapt from his chair and tackled mark into the floor.
“you will not do this to her! if you wanna do ballet so bad, go and learn!” jackson grunted out as he and mark wrestled around the floor together.
“you just want her to debate because you’re loud! just because you are, doesn’t mean she has to be. what, can’t you still love her if she’s not like you?” mark growled as he found himself pinned underneath jackson.
“of course she doesn’t have to be loud! i love you and you’re nothing like me!”
jackson’s hands pinned mark’s above his head, his knees were on either side of mark’s thighs, holding him in place.
mark felt his resolve crumble.
“loving someone as a friend and loving our daughter isn’t the same,” mark said quietly, turning his head to the side so he wouldn’t have to look at jackson face on anymore.
the room was silent, overflowing with tension.
“who said it was as a friend?”
mark stilled. he felt like he wasn’t even breathing, wasn’t even blinking, couldn’t even think, couldn’t speak.
(jackson’s heart pounded so loud he was afraid it would burst. he was certain he could feel the blood running through his veins.)
“you don’t mean that,” mark breathed out eventually.
jackson’s grip around his wrists tightened.
“yiēn,” jackson sounded gently, “yiēn look at me.”
it was only when mark slowly turned his head that jackson began to speak again, “i wouldn’t do this with anyone else. i wouldn’t-“ he stumbled over his words slightly.
“i wouldn’t make a home with anyone else,” mark interrupted him.
jackson smiled gently, oh so gently.
“i wouldn’t make my home in anybody else,” he breathed out as he leant forward to lean his forehead against mark’s. “no-one’s ever felt like home more than you do,” were the last words jackson confessed before he gently, gently, gently pressed his lips to marks.
(their child never did end up doing ballet or debate club. they spent so long on the floor tangled up in each other, that their computer crashed and when they reloaded it hours later, she had signed herself up for football.)