"What's up Superman? You look like you have ants in your pants," Buck teased, as he turned back to chopping the vegetables for a side salad to go with dinner. Christopher was sitting at the dining table with his math homework, but rather than focusing on his questions, he kept shifting around.
Christopher paused in his movements to think for a few minutes. He wasn't really sure what to ask, but knew that he had to start somewhere if he ever wanted to get some answers. "How did you know that Dad was the one?" he settled on, looking over at Buck for his reaction.
Buck stopped his cutting, setting the sharp knife down and moving it into a safe position. He turned to look at Chris, slightly surprised by the question. "Well, it's different for everyone," Buck started off, leaning back against the counter. "But your dad and I, we started as really good friends, and then gradually realized that we loved each other," Buck explained, trying to keep it relatively simple.
Christopher rolled his eyes, his dad and Buck had been rather oblivious. Everyone else knew that they liked liked each other long before they realized it; he likes to think that asking for Buck to come over more helped to help push them in the right direction. But then he re-focused back to his original train of thought. "Okay...Denny's been my best friend for the last two years, does that mean that we should be together?"
Eddie stepped into the kitchen right at the start of Christopher's last question and looked at Buck questionably. Buck looked back at Eddie, equally mystified at Christopher's line of questioning, but then could also see his train of thought. Pulling out a chair, Buck sat down next to Christoper, getting the feeling that this might be a fairly involved conversation.
"Not necessarily," Buck said, glancing over at Eddie to see if he wanted to step in or not. But Eddie just smiled at him, and so he figured he was safe to keep going. "You're still pretty young to be thinking about who you are going to be with when you grow up," Buck said gently, thinking hard about how he was going to ask his next question. "Can I ask why you're asking these questions?"
"Well, we've been talking about non-traditional families in class," Christopher explained, using air quotes to emphasize non-traditional families. Buck and Eddie exchanged a look, neither particularly happy with the choice of terminology that was being used. "And my teacher explained how some families have two dads, or two moms. But she didn't really explain why. And you and Dad don't really talk about why either. So I don't understand," Christopher blurted out, confused at the whole concept.
At this point, Eddie sat down at the table too, wrapping his one arm around Christopher and grabbing Buck's hand with the other. "I'm not going to lie to you kiddo, sometimes it is confusing." Eddie said honestly, thinking back to his own struggles with his sexuality. "But all that really matters is that you're happy, safe, and loved. If you discover that you like boys when you're older, then that's perfectly fine with us. If you realize that you like girls, or both boys and girls, or neither, then that's also perfectly fine with us. It might take you a while to figure out who you want to be with and that's okay."
"We will always love and support you, Superman," Buck added, ruffling Christopher's curly hair.
"Because we're family, right?" Christopher asked, feeling a bit better after having this discussion.
"That's right," Eddie agreed, smiling as he looked around at his son and his lover, this conversation reminding him of all the love he had for his family. "We're family."