July 12, 2017
- Honey -
Honey stands in the office that until yesterday, was Deanna's domain. It feels off kilter to be standing here without any of Deanna's careful staging which made the place a cozy politician's den. She offered to create an office elsewhere for her and Spencer to share, but Deanna waved it off. Retirement is retirement, according to the Monroe matriarch.
"Is it too late to oppose my mother's last edict to us?" Spencer asks, startling Honey from where she's staring out the windows that overlook the main street which cuts through Alexandria.
Outside, Alexandria is sunny and normal, with residents walking by chatting and children playing tag and riding bicycles. The scene is as far as is possible from the gloom and despair which clung to the Sanctuary even after Honey made changes. It's not Homestead, but there's a tickle in her mind whispering it could be home.
Turning, she offers him a smile that's half grimace. "I guess she has a point that we might as well keep using the space Alexandria is used to seeing as the leadership's domain."
Spencer sets down the box he's carrying on the coffee table. They'd picked out new furniture when Deanna shuffled most of hers upstairs to the secondary study. Neither of them has decided what image they're supposed to project yet. They don't have Deanna's decades of experience with it. Then again, that's part of why Deanna wanted this change.
Surveying the jumble of furniture and random boxes, she sighs. "Should we actually get a second desk, or are we sharing?"
"Sharing." The lack of hesitation in Spencer's answer draws her attention. "It's more of a united front. No one can see us as being able to be pitted against each other that way. And to be honest, as busy as we both are, I don't see either of us spending a lot of time behind a desk, especially needing to be there at the same time."
It makes sense. Spencer hasn't even had an official workspace all these years he's run Alexandria under Deanna's guidance. Every meeting Honey ever attended had him sitting next to her in the seats facing Deanna's desk, or else relaxing alongside her on the elegant sofa.
"I vote we go a little less aristocratic in decor."
Spencer chuckles, nodding his head. "I think that's what my mother expects us to do. She has a perfectly furnished study upstairs, complete with as many stuffy antiques as this one."
Stepping around the jumble, he crosses to her side, hand going out but stopping just short of her shoulder. The hesitation is unlike him, but she understands. Most of Alexandria and the Alliance will probably remain ignorant of the methods Honey used to undercut Negan at the Sanctuary, but Spencer knows. He's been her friend - and more - for far too long not to share the darkness.
In answer to the unspoken question, Honey closes the gap between them and wraps her arms around his waist. He's one of the few people outside her family to have enough height to make her feel like she can lean her head on his shoulder. Pressing her face into the junction of his shoulder and neck, she breathes in the clean scent of his cologne and indulges herself further by pressing a kiss to his skin. Just like being close to Eugene, Spencer brings up only good memories.
"How does this work for you now?" she asks, and she knows she doesn't have to specify she's referring to personal and not public things.
"I don't want to give up what we have, all three of us. You both understand me, and the expectations are good." He presses a kiss to her temple. "Maybe that's a conversation we need to have with Eugene. Make sure it's not different for him now."
The fact that Spencer instantly considers Eugene just makes Honey so much more sure she's made the right decision to stay here in Alexandria. She and Eugene are fine on their own, and what happened with Negan isn't going to change how they live their private lives. It did bring to mind how much trust needs to be part of anything they share with others, and there's no one they trust more to share with than Spencer.
"He's in the workshop." It's a territory originally home solely to a journeyman level engineer for the years Honey and Eugene lived at Hilltop. Considering the journeyman was once Eugene's apprentice, they'll share workspace easily.
"We could take him lunch."
"What about Jana?" Spencer usually has lunch with his young daughter if he's in Alexandria, and the last thing Honey wants to do is upend Jana's routine further than it already will be with new residents in her home.
"Jana will be happy to join us for a picnic, and she's already aware of what we are, you know."
The statement startles Honey. She knows they haven't always been discrete with occasional kissing around Jana, but at four years old, discussing the more complex dynamic isn't something she's considered Jana needed. Then again, she's always admired Spencer's devotion to being Jana's sole parent, so it shouldn't be surprising he's as open and honest with his daughter as age appropriate.
"What does she think we are?"
"She knows that Daddy has two partners." Spencer's smile is definitely more shy than Honey's used to seeing. "At first, it made things easier when she'd ask if I was going to get married like most of her friends' parents are. She loves you and Eugene, so she didn't want me replacing either of you with someone she might not like so much."
"And us not living here full time didn't bother her?"
Spencer shakes his head, leading Honey toward the kitchen to settle the beginnings of a picnic lunch on the kitchen island. "You know she's always looked forward to your visits."
"It'll be different now."
"Of course. But those will be good differences for her." He pauses in layering peanut butter onto bread to study Honey as she sets sports bottles of water on the counter. "I'm not asking you to be her mother, Honey. I know motherhood hasn't been something you've really wanted. If that's a role you and she feel fits later on, that's good, but you love her like family and that's all I ever ask of you."
Sighing softly, Honey leans on the counter. "Ready or not, it's happening, and I don't mean Jana."
Laying down his knife, Spencer's eyes widen. She hadn't shared this news when she filled him in about her weeks spent at the Sanctuary, still too uneasy about the pregnancy. He doesn't comment, which makes her think it might be one thing too many for him.
"You don't sound happy," he says at last. "I know Eugene doesn't want kids, but surely..."
Cutting him off with a jerk of her head, she takes a deep breath. "Eugene doesn't want biological kids. He's fine with this one. I'm the one still trying to come to terms with it."
Spencer makes the connection easily, but he doesn't offer her any soft, comforting words. "Yeah? Well, you were goddamn gorgeous pregnant before, yanno?"
They both know that's not what has her disconcerted. But combined with his intrigued expression, it's a balm to her nerves the same way Eugene's determined 'ours' toward the baby had been. His fingers brush across her midsection from hip to hip. The reminder of this extra between them never wavering when Honey was pregnant with MJ makes more of the unsettled mess still remaining in her mind settle into place one more degree.
Returning to the task of making lunch for four, Honey finds herself smiling. They'll work around to whatever new relationship they manage, all three of them.
- Spencer -
Spencer's parents were an oddity among political circles, dedicated to each other and their marriage in a way most of their social class weren't. Even Deanna admits Reg's life took a backseat to hers, though. As happy as Spencer knows his father was in their life before, he thinks these years of semi-retirement with Deanna have been even happier.
One on one, his inability to distinguish between the feeling he has for his family and friends and what a romantic couple feels is a time bomb waiting to happen. Honey and Eugene's devotion to each other has always been intriguing to him, despite never quite comprehending what inspires the romantic love they obviously feel. Being invited to share in what they have between them kept his own feeling of being misaligned at bay.
When Spencer first spotted how drawn and exhausted Honey and Eugene were after the battles at the Kingdom and the Sanctuary, he concentrated on long-term plans. The odds seemed against him succeeding in convincing them to stay, but he had to try. He adores his daughter, and loving Jana is the closest he's ever felt to the overwhelming intensity people describe for being in love.
He knows he isn't in love with Honey or Eugene, but he needs them with him in a way he has no words to describe.
Half his plans succeeded because Honey is leading Alexandria at his side, with Eugene ensconced in the workshop here Spencer already has builders scheduled to expand. The other half? Those are going to settle out among the summer sunshine, while Jana chases ducks on the shore of the miniature lake at the heart of Alexandria.
"You look about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."
Eugene's drawl interrupts Spencer's thoughts, drawing his attention back from Jana's childish giggles as she's swarmed by small ducklings. The calm and outright affectionate expression on Eugene's face settles some of Spencer's nerves. It's foolish that he's worried, because if he were no longer welcome with them, Honey would have shut him down hard before he ever got near Eugene.
Most people think Eugene follows where Honey leads. Spencer learned over the years that Honey blazes the trails Eugene wants to journey down.
"It feels like asking too much." Spencer sighs and lets his eyes slide shut. The memory of Honey pressing soft lips against his neck earlier keeps the words coming, though. "Days here and there, that's when you don't notice things that become important when it's day in and day out."
When his hand is gripped in another, it takes Spencer a moment to distinguish it's Eugene and not Honey. She's always been the spontaneously demonstrative one. When he opens his eyes, Honey is close by, but Eugene is closer.
"You think we don't know you're a few degrees off what general society deems the norm by now?" Eugene asks, squeezing Spencer's hand lightly. His thumb traces a pattern on Spencer's palm that sends a shiver down Spencer's spine. "Haven't you figured out that's why this functions as delightfully as it does?"
Honey nods, capturing his other hand. "I asked you earlier how this works now because we need to know where your limits are. This only works as long as you're as comfortable as we are."
They'd never discussed things before because they hadn't needed to. He'd join them in their bed for an hour or three, then drift back through the bathroom to sleep alone. Staying hadn't been entirely abhorrent, but it did mean revealing far more than he wanted even as much as he trusted them both. In Honey's eyes, all he sees is understanding.
And when he turns to Eugene? The bemused affection is still there, and Spencer lets himself lean in, resting his forehead against Eugene's.
"We've talked about it." Honey is closer now, her breath ghosting across his cheek as she speaks. "Extensively. We're keeping you, if that's what you want." Her fingers brush the hair above his ear before tracing his jawline, and the feeling is electrifying.
Spencer lets a small gasp escape before Eugene's lips skim across his. They've kissed before, something far filthier than this, because although Eugene wishes to watch and Honey wishes to use Spencer as her stage to Spencer's unending gratification, that's not the only way they've come together as a trio. This isn't just sex, though.
It isn't even fucking close to just sex.
He kisses Eugene back, thrilling in the absolute purr Honey lets out. They're in public, where anyone might see, and he doesn't care. What they are isn't a secret anymore, kept solely to themselves in the dark hours between connecting rooms.
It's theirs.
It's beautiful.
It's something he never intends to let go.
- Eugene -
Before Negan, no one, not even Spencer, had ever stayed the night with Honey and Eugene. It still doesn't count, not to Eugene, because Negan was never someone they would have chosen in any other circumstances. He never would have accepted Eugene's place in Honey's life, and Eugene knew the truth long before Negan ordered his death at Honey's blade.
Tonight, however?
They aren't in the smaller Monroe guest room anymore, with the bathroom as a dividing line excluding Spencer the way Eugene was excluded at the Sanctuary. Honey and Spencer are in the king-sized bed Spencer used to sleep in alone, long legs entwined as they sleep. They aren't naked, wearing a minimum of clothing in deference to the possibility Jana might need her father in the night. The sight still somehow entices Eugene far more than anytime he's watched them heated, sweaty, and glorying in each other.
He didn't watch from afar tonight. Between them, he and Honey had taken Spencer apart, touch by touch, kiss by kiss, in a way they never tried when Spencer still needed his space.
After showering, they fell asleep quickly, but Eugene is used to his mind spinning in the dark hours of the night. His welcome here is blatantly obvious by the drafting board set up, lamp angled to give him light while letting them sleep. Everything that felt tainted to design at the Sanctuary, he is revising here to bring Alexandria on par with Homestead and Hilltop.
The next time he surfaces from his work, it's because a change in breathing pattern alerts him that at least one of his partners is awake. Somehow, he's not surprised to glance over and see Spencer raising up to one elbow as best he can without dislodging Honey.
"Let your brain rest and solve all our problems tomorrow." Spencer speaks softly enough it doesn't alert Honey, either, but the pregnancy makes her sleep deeply. "Come to bed."
Laying aside his work, Eugene rises and crosses the room. He knows Spencer expects him to take Honey's other side, but Eugene remembers Honey's soft caution all too well. This doesn't work, doesn't last, if the only way Eugene is close to Spencer is when Eugene is gripped between Spencer's thighs.
There's plenty of room when he joins them, facing Spencer and smiling at the sleepy, confused blinking. Behind Spencer, spooned to his back, Honey snores softly. Eugene runs his fingers through Spencer's hair, easing it back from his face.
"Better get used to the snoring. It'll stick around until the baby is born."
Honey is rarely ever wrong about people's needs, so Eugene isn't surprised when Spencer just laughs softly before leaning in for a tender, teasing kiss.
"Worth it."
As Spencer drifts back to sleep, Eugene can only agree. They're both worth it.