"Mommy, mommy!"
Santana looked up from her desk in the study and cocked her head to the side, taking off her reading glasses as she did. Her son and daughter entered the room, her son sporting a split lip and her daughter giving small sniffles. She got off her chair and rushed to them, kneeling down in front of her children.
"What happened, Michael?"
"They were calling Sabrina a freak…" he mumbled, looking down at the floor. She knew he was trying hard not to cry, that he was trying to act brave in front of his sister. He was only nine, but boy could he take a punch. He was just like her, in that sense. But then again, he was just like Brittany, still soft and emotional.
Santana tutted as she touched her finger to her son's lip. She turned her eyes to look at her blonde daughter and looked her over quickly. "Did anyone hurt you, mija?"
"No, mami."
"Who was calling a freak?"
"Those older boys!" Michael answered for his sister, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. "It's not fair!"
"But why where they calling you a freak?"
The two children hung their heads and Sabrina shuffled her feet, shaking her little blonde head.
Santana sighed and sat down on the little sofa she kept in her study, right under the window. Her daughter was the first to follow and sit on her right, her son soon came to sit on her left.
"Tell me the truth, OK?"
"They said that we're not a normal family because we have two Mommies!" Sabrina blurted, swinging her feet beneath her. She was six, too small to fully reach the floor. Santana grabbed her from under the arms and hauled her daughter onto her lap, smiling down at her.
"Now listen to me, OK? A family is a group of people who love each other very much and will do anything for each other, OK? Like how Michael took the hit for you because of those boys, right? And how I stay up with Momma all night when she's feeling sick. And how Auntie Quinn goes with Auntie Rachel everywhere. That's a family. It doesn't matter what your parents are, right? Because as long as there's love, than it's a family!"
She watched her children's eyes light up and smiles break across their faces. She heard the unmistakable sound of keys turning in their door and she broke out into a grin as her wife entered the house and called out her arrival.
Brittany entered the room and grinned at her family, sitting down at the little leather sofa, and hugged her children as they ran towards her.
"Welcome home, Britt."
Brittany smiled at Santana, who leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs, inviting her wife over with a pat of her hand to the cushion next to her. Brittany answered her plea by joining her, kissing her and settling down next to her.
Yep, this was a family alright, she thought as she watched her children laugh over something only little kids would find funny, and felt her wife nuzzle into her neck. Screw whoever thought otherwise…