February 17th 2021

Chapter 48
Our Family With Brothers

The kids bolted out of the minivan as soon as they could go and then dashed off toward the house to find the rest of the party for the night. Well, most of them did. Henry Hillard still had his pie to deliver, and he was going to complete his task with care. Lucas offered to take it for him, but he insisted on going the whole way.

Moving into the house, it was impossible to think that the time they had spent in the minivan could in any way be construed as crowded and noisy. While Lucas had been picking up the Hillard and Hunter kids, Maya had gone and retrieved the Hart-Lanes and the Chens, but then on top of that they also had Sam and Dora, and Cecilia as well. They had Riley, and August and Hunter, and Desi Russell... Adding Maya herself, and Cara, and then Marianne, too... It was going to be quite a couple of nights.

"Couldn't we just stick to our own corners of the house? I'm sure it'd be fine," Maya told Lucas as she watched him hold Marianne. He was really not used to being away from the baby overnight, and to look at him... It was almost painful as a separation, and she didn't want that for him at all.

"I'll be alright," he insisted, smiling down to their girl as she prodded at his face. "It'll be good... especially the part where I get to come back." He felt Maya lean her head to his arm and he turned his so he might kiss the top of hers.

"She's going to poke your eye out if you're not careful," Maya joked.

"I can take it," he promised, kissing their daughter's head now. "Hey, so, just in case they don't bring it up themselves, something happened with the twins earlier, at school."

He was sure almost that one of her grandparents would have called and told her about it by now, but the look on her face confirmed that they had not, and now she needed to know. He told her as much as he could, about what he'd been told and what he had seen for himself, how they had almost not been permitted to come.

"Alright, I'll... I'll take care of it, I'll figure it out," she nodded. She looked so far in her own mind here, thinking about her sisters fighting with one another. As startling as it had been to him, it was a whole other thing to her.

"Keep in touch, yeah?" he told her, which was to say, 'tag me in if you need to talk.'

"I will," she promised before he handed her back the baby. Her whole focus shifted here, back to happy smiles for their girl.

With that, it was time for the guys to clear out and head on their own gathering. This time, it was to take place at Sam and Dora's apartment, as they'd have the place to themselves. The group consisted of Lucas, Sam, Wyatt, MJ, Henry, August, and Hunter. They were always the smaller group by far, but this did not stop them from having a great time. If anything, it might have helped.

In no time, the younger boys crowded around Sam's game selection, trying to decide which one they would play first. A few of them would readily admit that they were not exactly gamers, most of the time. But then there was something about all getting together here, as first timer Henry would discover, that made this prospect a very intriguing one.

Meanwhile, Lucas looked to both Sam and August in deciding what they would all do about dinner. The easiest option would be to order in, and there, pizza was usually king, but with the way the young boys were focused on the games and the console, their options did feel a bit wider, didn't they? So, what could they do?

"I do know how to make pizza dough," Sam offered. "We could just make our own. They'd like that, I think," he gestured to the boys. The idea was put to them, and it was approved, alongside several suggestions and requests for toppings. "We have most of that here, I can head to the store and get the rest right now."

"I'll go with you," August offered with a tip of the head.

"Want me to do anything while you're gone?" Lucas asked Sam.

Before long, he was in the kitchen, cutting vegetables, listening to the dramatic interpretation of whatever was going on in the game the boys had chosen. It made him laugh to hear them. He could tell exactly how they'd all look, even without seeing their faces. They all sort of fell into a chain together, didn't they? Hunter and MJ were very close, which was natural with how much time their two families spent together, and MJ and Wyatt saw themselves on the whole like brothers, thanks to the sister who existed between them. And then there was Henry, who might have been on the outside of this, but then ever since the Hillards had moved to Austin, he'd been spending that much more time with the other families, and it showed.

Something could also be said for the bond that brought Sam and August together as friends. They were seen in some ways like the younger, male version of their big sisters, much as they were still getting to know one another. Much of their lives were paralleled though, weren't they? Both born in New York, with older sisters by a similar age gap, even though Sam had not known Maya for the first ten years of his life. And then they had left New York, and though one had taken a detour through Arizona, they had both ended up in Austin. One had shot ahead of the other, finishing college even as the other was still near the beginning.

Most importantly, they had much younger siblings, both, and now they were made uncles by their big sisters, or they would be, once Riley had her baby. Lucas knew very well how much Marianne mattered to Sam, how much he loved and cherished her, and when the time came, he could already tell… August would come to care so very much for his little nephew…

Lucas smiled again here, recalling the moment he'd learned that his friends were having a son. He happened to stop by their house on the day after they'd found out themselves, and clearly, they were still tripping over their little discovery. As with Maya and him, undoubtedly, they would have been just as happy if the news had gone the other way around, but this was how it had unfolded, so here they were. When Lucas had shown up, Dylan had been so eager to show him the pictures from the sonogram, and even as he'd gone to present him with the printout, the memory must have come back to him that if he could make out what was on that picture, then so would Lucas. The realization had presented itself with him gasping 'oh, no, his…' and then he'd stopped. He'd blinked, looked back around, and there really was no point pretending like he hadn't understood exactly what he'd been about to say.

Lucas was so happy for the two of them, and now that he was able to talk about it, Dylan was just bursting with this freshly topped up paternal pride, thinking of his baby boy coming in just a few months. He'd been all for Lucas telling Maya; at this point, it was only fair, and she would keep Riley's secret for her, without a doubt.

That night, he'd gone home with a photo on his phone of the printout, the better to show his wife and then promptly delete it. The funniest part of this was easily how she'd bolted, the moment he'd told her what he was about to reveal, with the phone in his hand, like he must have snuck that picture and she was not supposed to know, and neither was he. She might have scolded him, too, until he explained that Dylan had been the one to slip up and then allowed this.

"What about Riley though? Does she know that I'm going to know?" she asked, pointing almost accusingly… definitely accusingly at him. It was more cute than threatening, even coming from her.

"Yes, she knows," Lucas chuckled. Maya was still skeptical though, so she'd ended up calling her best friend, who confirmed that it was all true.

"Oh… Okay… Well, hang on a second," she told her, approaching her husband again with a sheepish little smile as she leaned in to look at the picture he now showed again. She squinted, inspected everything like her primary concern was to make sure everything was in order with her friends' baby. Then she gasped, stood back up. "Did I see… I did… Yeah?" her face had split into a smile, and then she was sort of hopping about, and she reached out to get his hand, so he gave it over, so she could spend her giddiness.

They were the only ones who knew at this point, and there was no telling as of yet whether Riley and Dylan would let anyone else in on the secret before the birth. Standing here now though, he liked to think that, in a year's time, Dylan and his boy could join the ranks of their counterpart to the Sleepster. He would have been here tonight except he had to work and couldn't get out of it.

After Sam and August returned, everything shifted into pizza time, and not a minute too soon. As much as they were into their games, the younger boys were getting hungry, and keeping them away from the snacks would have become a problem. So, they got to work. Wyatt helped his big brother to make the dough, so happy to get to spend time with him in person again, even if they had seen each other just a few weeks ago over the holidays.

Once each of the small pizzas was given its toppings – some quantities and combinations more questionable than others – they were set off into the oven, and the wait began, something made that much harder as the scent started to fill the kitchen and then the rest of the apartment. It smelled delicious, and they were starving.

"Alright, what do you guys want to do tonight?" Lucas asked the boys, hoping to distract them. They looked like a pack of hounds who'd caught the scent they were after, and now they were ready to pounce.

"Eat pizza," Hunter Matthews hummed. MJ simply nodded, sitting next to him.

"You will," Lucas laughed. "What about after that?" The boys didn't seem to know of a time after the pizza. They just wanted to eat, and nothing else mattered. August waved his hand in front of his little brother's face, and the five-year-old merely grabbed hold of his arm so he could peer over it, as though the pizza would just float right into view.

"You know you can't just swallow up the whole thing in one bite, yeah?" Sam asked. "You have to let it cool down, too, or you'll burn yourself."

"Alright, you know what, desperate times and sleepovers. I'm breaking out the chips," Lucas declared. The hungry beasts were satisfied, and they grew more human again. If it kept up this way – and they were all wholly intent on making it so – the weekend would be a very good one, for all of them. The only thing that would have made it better, for Lucas at least, would have been his little pumpkin, right nearby where he could see and hold her. It was just as he'd told Maya though. It would be all the better once he saw her again, the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners