The moment Matthew and Alfred walked through the door after school, they bumped straight into their mother. She was standing right behind the door, crossed arms and fire burning in her eyes.

"Matthew. Your phone." She demanded, holding out her hand.

"What did I do?" Matthew asked, and Alfred ran upstairs straight away.

"I'm just checking. I've got this feeling." She snatched the phone from her son's fingers as soon as he pulled it from his pocket. She checked his texts, and wasn't amused by the things she read.
"Cutie? Handsome? Hearts? Kisses? What the hell do you think you're sending this guy?"

"Mom, it's only-"

"You really don't listen to me when I tell you to behave, you ungrateful little shit."

"But-"

"I gave you back your phone because you promised you'd be decent and not abuse the second chance I gave you."

"This isn't-"

"You're not getting it back this time. Maybe your big innocent puppy-eyes work on that guy, but not on me. Go to your room, and I don't want to see you again until dinner."

Matthew rolled is eyes and stomped upstairs. His mother was losing it.

It was surprisingly warm for the start of November.
Not as warm was the mood downstairs. It was hellfire down there, which could only mean Ellen was having a mood again. Matthew and Alfred had first noticed this rather unwanted interruption in doing their homework five minutes prior. They were sitting behind Alfred's desk to work on the report they had to hand in Monday, but they didn't quite get to it.

"Do you think everything is alright there, eh?" Matthew asked.

"I dunno. It's none of our business, right?"

"I guess you're right." Matthew said, but he sincerely doubted it.

When the shouting lasted for another five minutes, the two brothers decided to check what exactly was going on. While Alfred was only curious, Matthew was worried. Their mother was a bit of a drama-queen, but this argument did last very long.

They went downstairs, being careful not to make a sound. Skip the third, fifth and tenth step, they remembered from when they first went to the house when they were twelve.
They sat down against the door to the living room on the cold tiles. From the stairs, they had already seen their mother, facing her husband and shouting. There were windows in the door, so they had to be careful not to be seen themselves.

The two brothers just hoped that, whatever the fight was about, it wouldn't be about what they feared it was about. Unfortunately, their fears were confirmed when they picked up the exact words that were being shouted.

"What do you mean? It matters everything! Don't you ever listen to what I'm saying?!" They heard their mother shout.
"Listen to me, Ellen."
"No!" She shrieked. "You listen to me! Don't you understand?! This shouldn't be happening! Where have we gone wrong?! What have we done to deserve this?!"

Alfred and Matthew didn't understand a thing. "What are they talking about?" Alfred whispered.
"I'm afraid I don't want to know." Matthew admitted.

And the shouting went on, while Jonathan tried his very best to calm Ellen down and talk her to reason. Unfortunately, she wasn't someone to listen to reason when she was upset. "This is a disgrace! An abomination!"
"It is not, Ellen. There's nothing wrong with-"
"What?! You can't see anything wrong?! Are you blind? Are. You. Blind?! They. Are. Guys! They shouldn't be screwing other guys!"

Too blunt. Way too blunt.
Two pairs of eyes rolled and two sighs of dread were released.
Not this again. The twins knew perfectly well what their mother thought about them, they really did, but that she'd freak out over it like this was nothing they had expected and a good reason to be very concerned.

Jonathan tried to get through, but he couldn't squeeze a word in between the waterfall of shouting that followed. She just went on. And on. And on.

"I want grandchildren in the future! How is that possible if both Al and Matt are fucking queer and hellbound?! That's what's wrong!"

"Ellen!" Jonathan shouted. "You're their mother!"

"So?"

"That means you have your responsibilities. And they're my kids as well so stop being unreasonable."

"Unreasonable? Responsibilities?! I am doing exactly as I should! I'm trying to protect them from their own and their classmates' perverse behaviour, and what do I get?! They're not listening. They want to be rebellious against me!"

"That's not the point. You're forcing them to-"

Because of that, she only got angrier. "Shut up!"
She never allowed someone to oppose her by just one word, and in such an important case, she certainly did not just let it happen like that.

When would this stop? When would she start to see that they were still her kids? What did they have to do to make her realise that it shouldn't matter to her if they were dating a man or a woman? Because, really, it shouldn't matter.
Apparently, it mattered the world to her. Apparently, she just couldn't live with the idea that her two children were both gay.

"Think about your future, Jonathan." She sneered. "Don't you want to be a normal family and have grandchildren?"

"I can't see what would be abnormal about-"

"I've got enough of it. Of all of you. I've put up with their sickening behaviour for too long. I'm kicking them out."

"Ellen!"

Wait, what? What?! She was kicking them out?! She wasn't serious about that, was she?

"They can go pack their bags, right now, and leave, right now. I don't want to have them in my house as long as they walk around with such strange ideas. I don't even want to know of their existence! They are dead to me until they stop with this perverted behaviour."

"Ellen! Control yourself a little!"

So she was serious. Their mother wanted them out of her life. Those were her raw, uncensored thoughts. This had all built up since day one.

Ever since they had come out to her, all they had done was arguing, fighting and tensions were always thick whenever their mother was within hearing range. Whenever they went somewhere alone, there was suspicion. When they were home later than usual after school, they were shouted at and sent to their room.

It was the same every time. Happiness seemed to have gone since that week in Paris. It was all their fault. There had never been any problems until they had revealed that one little fact about themselves. If only they had been straight, as they were expected to be, this wouldn't have happened.

And all that was too much for the twins to bear alone.

"Al."
"Matt."
"Let's…"
"Yeah, we should." They concluded at the same time.

Leaving would be too obvious, and they wouldn't be together. Alfred took out his spare mobile phone and sent a quick text message to the only two people they could afford to involve in the mess: Arthur and Abel.

Urgent!
My house. Now! was all it said.

With their father trying to talk their mother out of disowning them and putting them out on the street in the background, the brothers waited for the two to get there.

After the longest fifteen minutes of their existence, Alfred noticed Abel crossing the front yard, closely followed by Arthur. Before they could press the doorbell and with that alarming the fighting couple, Alfred yanked the door open and launched himself at Arthur.

Matthew immediately clung tightly to Abel as soon as he stepped in, and finally released the build-up tears he had coped with for far too long. It was such a relief. He felt so utterly pathetic for crying, but it was all he could at that moment. There was just too much worry racing about in his head to allow the presence of any only slightly rational thought.

Of course Abel didn't have the faintest idea of what was going on, but whatever it was, it had certainly made impact. He didn't quite know what to do besides stroking his trembling boyfriend's hair.
When Matthew pulled away, Abel took his tear-stained glasses off. They were only in the way right now.
He gave Arthur a questioning look, but Arthur could only answer with the same expression. He tried to shrug, but that wasn't possible with Alfred crying on his shoulder.

Before having explained anything, the four ran upstairs. This time, they couldn't care less if they were heard.
And they were. Jonathan cut himself off in mid-sentence and looked over is wife's shoulder through the window in the door. He caught one last glimpse of Matthew running upstairs. It was just then he realised what happened.
"Shit." He hissed.

"What did you just say?" Ellen asked.

"Shut it." He retorted, placing his hand over her mouth before she could say only one more word. He set his hands on her shoulders and looked her straight into the eyes over his glasses. "They heard you."

Ellen's eyes narrowed, and if a looks could kill, it would have been a serious blood-bath.
"Eavesdropping, hm?" She hissed. "I've had enough of them now. I'll teach the little bastards a good lesson before throwing them out onto the street with my bare hands!"
With clenched fists and eyes spitting fire, she made her way to the stairs. "Oh, this isn't over yet. I'll show them-" She had stomped up the first two steps already when she got grabbed at her wrist and roughly yanked to a halt.
"What the-let me go, you little-"

"Ellen, calm the fuck down!" The four upstairs heard Jonathan bark. The sudden change in character was unexpected, something not even Alfred and Matthew had heard before. Not in their entire life had they experienced their father snapping, shouting or being seriously angry in any way, and now it made Matthew's blood turned to ice in his veins. Abel's arms protectively tightened around him, but the shouting went through everything. And it wasn't anywhere near over.

"You go back to the living room, right now!" Jonathan took a deep breath. "You don't show your face anywhere near Matthew or Alfred until I say you can. Understood?" Jonathan hissed, softer this time, but at the same time urging her to listen even more effectively than by shouting.
Ellen tried her best to keep her cool, but she eventually had to give in and do as she was told.

When she closed the door behind her and dropped onto the couch, Jonathan sighed. He hated getting angry, especially if it was directed towards someone he really loved, but he hadn't gotten much of a choice. Ellen could be unpredictable when angered, and letting her get upstairs probably would have been disastrous. She had had bad moods before, but this was really bad.

As soon as he had calmed down again, the father ran upstairs.
He wiped his glasses to mentally prepare himself for the conversation he had to start. He didn't know in what state he could expect to find his sons. Would they be angry, shocked, confused, mortified? Neither? Bit of all? He didn't have the slightest clue.

He slowly opened the door and looked inside and kept his hopes up there wasn't too much damage done.
"Hey, guys. Oh, are you here too?" He said when he spotted also Arthur and Abel right there. "Hello then."
He entered and shut the door behind him. He leaned back against the desk opposite where the four were sitting. With nothing more than a glance, he could tell this probably wouldn't be going very smoothly. Just the notion that Alfred had been crying was enough to see they had gotten quite a bit of what had been said downstairs.

Before talking to Alfred and Matthew, he needed the two unexpected guests out of the room for some privacy.
"Hey, thanks for being here, you guys, but would you please give us a moment, eh? I won't take long."

But none of that. No. They needed security first. Abel didn't need to look to know that Matthew wasn't in a state to be left alone now. The same probably also went for Alfred.
"No plans to explain what happened first?" Arthur asked, still protectively stroking Alfred's hair. "As you might imagine, we haven't really gotten much out of those two."

Jonathan couldn't argue with that. Of course they didn't want to leave. Of course you, being a teenager, wouldn't want to leave your boyfriend's side if he was crying his eyes out on your shoulder and you had no idea what was going on.
"Ellen had a bit of a falling-out, and I'm afraid you two overheard it, am I right?"

Matthew nodded against Abel's chest.

"Arthur, Abel. I'll come back to you two later, if I can just have a word with them alone?"

"'kay." Abel replied, almost in a whisper. He stood up, gave Matthew a reassuring stroke over the shoulder and left, closely followed by Arthur, who had to wrench himself out of Alfred's grip first. They shut the door behind them and leaned against the wall opposite the door.

Both Alfred and Matthew stayed exactly where they were on the side of Matthew's bed. Their father crouched in front of them, looking up at them over his glasses.
"Okay, you two. From where have you followed the, eh, rant?" Optimistically hoping they had only picked up a tiny fragment of the full verbal fight, even though their current state told him otherwise.

"Aaah…Abomination." Alfred stammered.

"Ow." Jonathan bit his lip, the last bit of optimism he had sinking away instantly. "Yeah. That was rather…unsubtle. Was that before or after she said 'queer'?"

"Before."

"Ow. That's bad." He moaned. The man tried to find where to start in his story. This was a very difficult situation for everyone. There was so much to tell, so much to explain…It was a lot, especially on a late Friday evening.

"Look, guys. I know this must be quite a shock for you to hear. Believe me, you weren't supposed to have caught any of that." He looked at the floor; thoughts just wouldn't transfer into words.

"We already knew her thoughts about it." Matthew said, trying to sound light-hearted despite the knot in his throat. "She has been quite…open about that in the past two months."
"It wasn't like we didn't see it coming or anything." Alfred said, but his voice was still a bit choked because of crying.

Jonathan wished so hard he could turn back time and delete that bit from history. If only he could.
"Your mother is has had quite a tough time lately, and she has mood swings any now and then. I just want you to know that she didn't mean what she said right there."

"I can hardly believe that." Alfred admitted. "There would be no reason for her to ground us for texting our boyfriends if she didn't mean a thing of what she said."

Jonathan bit his lip. Alfred was right. How much he hated to admit it, Alfred was right. Ellen had never been too positive about anything outside of the box. It wasn't her fault. It was just how she was raised.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Matthew interfered. "Can we still, you know, even look at her? I don't think I can look her in the eye for the next few months now that I've had a peek inside her thoughts."

"Now, don't say that, Matt. She's still your mother."

"Does she realise that as well?" Matthew asked, having to bite his lip to keep himself from shouting. "She is the one who shouted about kicking us out and denying our very existence."

Jonathan looked away for a few seconds, thinking hard about a proper answer.

Outside of the room, Abel and Arthur were still waiting in utter tension of what would be the outcome of this conversation.
"Pffft. I hope they'll be fine." Arthur said, crossing his arms. "I'd never thought to see Alfred this…quiet."

"I've never seen either of them actually down before, have you?" Abel asked, also concerned.

"I have once, but that was in first year." He sniggered, remembering the image of them when they were younger. "Because Kiku kicked him in the face."

"Wow. That's a long time ago."

"Yes, it is." He sighed and gritted his teeth. "Ugh. When are they done in there?"

Jonathan came out of Matthew's room a few minutes later. It was now Arthur and Abel's turn to have a talk with him. "So, gentlemen. May I ask: How did you get here? You certainly weren't brought here by your mother, I assume."

The two remained silent under the kind, but neutral look in the man's eyes.

Arthur replied first. "No, sir. We walked-"

"Ran." Abel corrected absently while staring at the floor.

Arthur swallowed. "Ran here."

"Ah, I see. Since it would be irresponsible of me to let you two walk all the way in the middle of the night, and I cannot bring you home because I am afraid my wife will do terrible things to herself or Alfred and Matthew if I leave her alone, I'd like you to stay here for the night. Ellen is going to kill me for it, but I don't really care about that at the moment. Besides, it seems like Matthew and Alfred could use some company right now."

"Of course!" The two replied immediately.

"I'll call your parents to tell them you'll be staying here for the night. We'll discuss things tomorrow." His eyes lost the serious stare and got back to the usual kind-spirited and relaxed shimmer again. He smiled as well now. "Good night." He gave them both a good pat on the shoulder and went downstairs to call Beth and Chloé. Especially the latter could expect a rather long late-night conversation.

Abel and Arthur exchanged a glance before rushing to Matthew's bedroom again, both at the same time. Surprisingly enough, they seemed a lot calmer and less tensed. Whatever it was their father had told them, it had worked. A little.

"Hey, guys." Abel broke the silence.

Matthew stood up and immediately hugged Abel again.

"Gotten over the shock a little, Matty?" He stroked Matthew's hair and kissed the top of his head.

"Yeah." Matthew responded in a broken whisper. He took off his glasses, pressed his face against Abel's chest and sobbed silently. He just needed to get it all off his chest. Confusion, anger, disbelief, doubt, sadness. Everything. He was just glad to have Abel by his side. Because that was the reassurance he needed that Abel wouldn't break it off because of Ellen making it so difficult for them. That he wasn't going to let inconveniences or difficulties spoil it for them.
He really actually cared about him.

There was one tiny little detail they had all overlooked in the rush, though. Since Arthur and Abel hadn't really expected they'd be sleeping over, they hadn't taken anything with them. Still a little shakily, Matthew had to improvise because he had explicitly forbidden Abel to sleep in his underwear.
"Just…take whichever set you like from the second right drawer." He rubbed his eyes again before putting his glasses back on.

Abel searched around a little in Matthew's wardrobe. "Wait…you have maple leaf pyjamas?" He asked and pulled out the white shirt with big red maple leaf.

"Put that back! Those are old! I got them from my grandparents when we moved to the US!"

Abel unfolded the thing and held it in front of him. Far too small, unsurprisingly. "Geez, Matty. How old were you when you fit in this? Five?"

"Eight."

Still on the verge of laughing, Abel put them back. It took all of his self-restraint, but he eventually decided against also pulling out a set that was covered in polar bear-print. He settled with a red-black striped shirt and black trousers. Although that brought him to the next problem.
"Erm, Matty?" He asked. "Do those come with a belt?"

Matthew turned around after having pulled his shirt over his head. "No wh-Oh, dear." He sniggered. He had seen it coming that those trousers would be way too short, but the sight of those thin legs poking out so far was just ridiculous. And the fact Abel had to hold them up. That too.
"Won't they really just stay like that?"

Abel let go of the waist band, and the trousers dropped to his ankles right away. "No." He deadpanned, and this time, Matthew laughed out loud. His boyfriend was such a nutcase at times.
But at least he could laugh again. For pretty much the first time in two months, Matthew laughed again.

~o~o~o~

Not feeling too confident about this chapter, tried to re-write it five times and failed six.

Please review?