Chapter 37

December 28th, Victoria Rose Kinney-Taylor's 1st birthday

“Tell me again why we are doing this?” Brian asked, sounding exasperated by all the chaos in his kitchen and living-room.

“Because it's our daughter's 1st birthday and we are throwing her a big party,” Justin explained patiently for what felt like the hundredth time. He knew that Brian was mostly pulling his leg and just pretended to be more annoyed than he really was.

“But we saw everyone just three days ago for Christmas. They all came here, ate our food, received gifts from us. Why do we have to do it all over again just three days later?” Brian sighed.

“Because that was her first Christmas and this is her first birthday. Now shut up and help me with the cake.”

“Oooh, someone's bossy!What do you want me to do? I can't bake,” Brian replied, lifting his hands as if to indicate that he wouldn't be touching any cakes.

“But I am sure you'll be able to stick the candle into the middle of the cake, so we can light it later,” Justin smiled patiently, handing the candle over to Brian.

“Oh, I know how to stick one in,” Brian smirked, suddenly liking where the conversation was going. Once he had put the candle on the cake, he came over to where Justin was using some icing to decorate another cake, wrapping his arms around him from behind. “I am actually quite good at it, rumour has it.”

“Really? I didn't know,” Justin said innocently. “How come I have never heard about this rumour?”

“You probably talk to the wrong people,” Brian pointed out. “I would be very shocked if your bestie or your mother would know anything about my talents.”

Justin snorted then, putting the icing on the kitchen counter, turning in Brian's arms. “I am sorry to disappoint you, but I think even my mother is aware of your reputation, Stud.”

Brian made a face, before he pulled Justin closer and kissed him slowly, enjoying the dance of their tongues. When the kiss broke, Brian rested his forehead against Justin's. “Rather unfortunate, I agree.”

“It's funny how things have changed, you know? How you have gone from “that Brian” who was stealing my innocence and teaching me all kinds of evil things to “Brian, honey!”. Sometimes I wonder if she loves you more than she loves me,” Justin mused, having done a great imitation of his mother's voice.

“You know that's not true,” Brian said, now turning serious. He knew that things had been strained between Justin and his mother for quite some time after he had first returned home from New York and had found out about Luke, but in recent years their relationship had recovered and they were pretty close nowadays. Yes, Jennifer loved him as well, which looking at the circumstances of how they had gotten to know each other was quite unbelievable at times, but Brian had no doubt that she loved Justin more than him and always would. “I mean, I am very charming and no one can resist me, but I've got it on good authority that your baby blues seem to work wonders with ladies of a certain age as well.”

“Only the ladies?” Justin laughed, flashing those baby blues at Brian, winking at him seductively.

“Okay, gays as well,” Brian admitted, pulling Justin in for another kiss, before they were interrupted by Gus coming into the kitchen.

“Really?” He just said, before shaking his head in disbelief. He was now 14 and at an age where parents were annoying on the best of days and he made no secret of what he thought about his fathers' continous displays of affections. It wasn't that there were any homophobic feelings there, it was just a teenage boy being annoyed by his parents kissing in public. Just like in any other family.

“I told you before, get used to it,” Brian rolled his eyes, never letting go of Justin in his arms. “Though the offer of moving you in with Debbie and Carl still stands,” he winked.

A couple of weeks ago, they had had an argument about Gus going to a party and how long he would be allowed to stay at his age and when the argument had escalated, Gus had screamed at his fathers how much he hated them and how much he would love to move away if he only had the chance. Brian, in his usual sarcastic ways, had quickly offered that he was sure they would be able to find someone to take him in and had then decided on Debbie and Carl, pointing out how Debbie loved to take care of her lost boys.

When Justin had helpfully pointed out that he knew what living at Debbie's house was like and had added some more embarrassing anecdotes from his time living at her house, mostly of her storming into his room unannounced and doing searches for drugs and cigarettes in his private stuff quite regularly, Gus had quickly relented and had accepted that maybe his fathers weren't that bad after all. At least they trusted him and didn't search his private stuff without him knowing.

Not that they had any reason to. His grades were good, they knew his friends, all of whom seemed rather normal and down to earth and they knew that they could trust him not to do anything too crazy. So far he hadn't given them any reason not to trust him and he knew from the stories that his friends shared with him that as far as parents were concerned, his fathers weren't really that bad, but rather cool. Most of his friends envied him for having cool fathers like that and after hearing some of the more annoying stories about Debbie's house, he had quickly accepted that maybe his life wasn't as bad as he had made it out to be during their argument.

“Yeah, thanks. As much as I love her, thanks, but no!” Gus just announced as he walked over to the kitchen counter and looked at the five cakes there.

“Are you sure we have enough cakes?” He teased, looking at Justin with a twinkle in his eye that reminded Justin so much of Brian. It was scary how much Gus had grown up to look like a younger version of his father. Thank God he didn't seem to show any interest in girls – or boys for that matter – yet, but both Brian and Justin were only too aware that Gus would be breaking hearts once he started.

“Not you as well,” Justin sighed, turning around in Brian's embrace and looking at him, then the cakes and then him again. “We'll have Debbie, Carl, my mom and Molly, Emmett and Drew, Ted and Blake, Daphne, Paul and Simon (her boyfriend and her son), you, Luke and Vicky and your Dad and me.”

“Which makes five cakes for 15 people plus Vicky, who I am sure won't eat much anyway and will smear most of the cake on her face,” Brian pointed out, for once agreeing with Gus.

“Stop complaining,” Justin said, meeting Gus' gaze. “People like to have a choice and at least with this selection they can choose what they like. And I don't think I'll hear you and Luke complaining if you get to eat cake for the next couple of days.”

“So Wasp-y,” Brian chuckled, earning himself a glare from Justin. “You make such a perfect housewife.”

“Fuck you,” Justin harrumphed, using his elbow to give Brian a shove.

“Ouch,” Brian exclaimed when Justin's elbow hit him in his stomach.

“That's for calling me a housewife,” Justin hissed, before turning around and smiling sweetly at Brian. “I'll punish you later for that one.”

The gleam in his eyes left no doubt what he was refering to and Brian just looked at him excitedly. “Can't wait.”

“God, really! Get a room,” Gus exclaimed, throwing up his arms, before he decided to leave the kitchen in search of his brother and sister. Hopefully they would be less annoying than his fathers were.

“Maybe we should, you know?” Brian suggested with a leer, but stopped when he saw Justin shaking his head.

“I would love to, but we don't have time. Later,” he promised, then leaned in for one last kiss.

Brian kissed him back, accepting that now wasn't a good time for a fuck, seeing how their guests would be arriving any minute.

Forcing themselves to concentrate on the party ahead of them, Brian gave Justin's waist one last squeeze before he pulled back.

“Anything you need me to do?” He asked, offering his help. It wasn't like he was a total asshole all the time even though some people might think so. To be honest, many people would actually be surprised by how evenly the tasks were divided in the Kinney-Taylor household. It wasn't all Justin doing the tasks at home, quite on the contrary. Yes, they had a cleaning lady that came twice a week and also took care of their laundry, but Brian would also cook at times, having learned quite a bit about cooking when it had just been him and Gus and Luke, knowing that the boys needed something more than just takeaway food every night, he was also quite good at helping the boys with their school work and projects as well as organising after school events, schedules and getting everyone to their different appointments on time.

In fact, in the last few months, after he had taken a step back at Kinnetik, Brian had done more at home than Justin at times. While they tried to split the time with the kids as evenly as possible, Brian had been the first to encourage Justin when he had been offered two new shows after his baby break had officially been over and had done what he could to give Justin the time he needed to finish the pieces needed for those shows.

Brian had always been a supporter of Justin's career and that hadn't changed. He would be the first one to make it possible for Justin to attend a show opening or join him at a local show to show his face when it was needed. He was quite supportive like that. Not that too much of that had happened in recent months. Justin had mostly wanted to concentrate on being a father and had only painted part-time if at all. If he painted, it was usually at times when Vicky was taking a nap or out with one of her grandmothers. Justin would never miss out on any time with her or the boys to paint. That just wasn't him and never had been.

“Can you check that the decorations are up and that Luke and Vicky aren't destroying our living-room?” Justin asked and Brian nodded.

Luke, after having helped his auntie Em decorate for Vicky's homecoming party earlier that year, had offered to take care of decorating the house for her first birthday.

Both Brian and Justin had felt slightly scared, remembering the pink bomb that had exploded in their living-room that day and they had agreed only on the condition that Luke would decorate with decorations they had chosen. At least that way they could make sure that it wouldn't be too crazy, too much and most of all too pink.

Luke hadn't been happy with that condition, but had agreed in the end, knowing that it was the only way he would be allowed to decorate.

As Brian made his way into the living-room, he smiled as he saw Gus sitting on the sofa, holding Vicky in his lap, pointing at several of the ballons and garlands which she was eyeing from her big, blue eyes that were so much like her father's. Just like with Luke it seemed that she had gotten the best of her Papa's genes, having his blue eyes, blond hair and sunshine smile. He wondered what it was about Justin and him making babies that ended with them being little mini-me's of Justin. Not that he minded. He loved Justin and he loved his children and thought that they were better of with their Papa's looks than his anyway. And it wasn't like they didn't look like him at all. Luke had his nose and lips and had clearly inherited his sense of humour, while Vicky had also gotten his nose, his ears and his stubbornness. As far as he was concerned, all three of his children were perfect just the way they were. Gus was his own mini-me, so he didn't mind that Luke and Vicky resembled Justin more than him.

At times he had wondered if Gus minded, seeing how he was the only child in the family that wasn't blond and blue-eyed, but so far the boy hadn't said anything and even despite being a moody teenager it was more than obvious that he loved his siblings and was very protective of them.

“Da-dy!” Vicky exclaimed when she saw him coming into the room, reaching out her little arms to him, wanting to be picked up by him. Brian immediately obliged, picking her out of Gus' lap, holding her tight.

“Hi princess. Are you excited for your party?” Brian asked her, tickling her tummy which made her squeal in delight in his arms.

In recent months after she had been released from hospital, Vicky had developed quite well for a child her age and was now almost on the same developmental stage as if she had been born at the end of the pregnancy, not prematurely. The doctors said that they had no doubt that within the next year or two she would catch up completely to children born at the end of a pregnancy and so far she was very healthy and doing very well and there seemed to be no sign of any lasting damage from her having been delivered that early, something for which both Brian and Justin had been more than glad. They had been so relieved when it had started to show that Vicky would most likely grow up a perfectly healthy girl.

“Bahdee,” Vicky exclaimed excitedly, trying her own version of the word party. It was obvious that she didn't quite understand what was going on, but earlier this morning when her Dads and brothers had sung Happy Birthday for her and she had received presents again, just like on Christmas, she had been very excited.

At this stage she mostly loved being the centre of attention, which was clearly something she had inherited from her Daddy, no doubt.

“Yeah, a big party. Everyone will be arriving soon and you'll get many more presents,” Brian teased, rubbing his nose against her and holding her close when she giggled in his arms at the gesture.

He looked around the room and was quite impressed with the decorations that Luke had put up. There were some coloured ballons saying Happy Birthday and 1, some pink garlands and some garlands saying Happy Birthday, but all in all, it was still very nice and he could still recognise their living-room.

“Well done, sonny boy,” Brian said as he walked over to where Luke was putting away the last of the trash and clapped him on the shoulder.

“You like it, Daddy?”

“I love it,” Brian said, smiling at his son.

Luke smiled from ear to ear, then ruffled Vicky's hair gently, making her look at him with a big smile. “You like it as well?”

“'uk!” she exclaimed, her own baby version of his name, immediately holding out her arms to her brother. Brian carefully let her down, settling her down on the floor, where Luke knelt by her side and talked to her.

Justin entered the room a few seconds later with one of the cakes and placed it on the table, then joined them with a smile.

“Someone looks excited,” he smiled as he looked down at Vicky, who was eagerly pointing at this and that and all the things that now looked different to what the room normally looked like.

“Well, she's your daughter, so she's obviously excited,” Brian pointed out, laughing when Vicky realised that Justin had joined them as well and quickly made her way over, crawling to his legs. She pulled on his pants, trying to get his attention and smiled when he leaned down and picked her up. She leaned into his embrace, running her chubby fingers over his nose and chin.

Just then the doorbell rang and the first of the family arrived.

“Looks like your guests are here,” Justin smiled, happily taking Vicky to open the door for her first guests.

Once everyone had arrived, they started cutting the cake, blowing out the candle (of course accompanied by inappropriate jokes about her blowing skills) and last but not least unwrapping the presents.

Much like at Christmas Vicky seemed to enjoy the wrapping paper much more than the presents itself, but no one was very surprised by that. They had all had or seen children at their first birthdays before and knew what kids that age were like.

When Vicky got tired, Justin and Brian lay her down for her nap, allowing her a break from all the attention.

Once she was asleep, Justin leaned into Brian's side, sighing happily. Brian wrapped his arms around Justin as they watched their daughter sleep.

“Can you believe that it's been a year already?” Justin whispered, not wanting to wake her up after she had just fallen asleep.

“Not really, but to be fair, a lot of it just seems like a blur now, especially the first couple of months,” Brian admitted quietly.

Justin nodded, knowing what Brian meant. This time last year had been so chaotic, a time of fear and turmoil for their family. Just a year ago they hadn't even known if Brian or Vicky would even see this day. There had been a real chance that both would die and Justin thanked the Gods again that both had made it and were doing fine.

Brian still had regular check-ups with his oncologist, but so far everything looked good. It seemed like they had gotten all of the tumour and that the chemotherapy had destroyed any remaining cancerous cells and had stopped them from spreading. So far Brian was healthy and there had been no sign of the cancer coming back. Of course they knew that there was always a chance that it could come back one day, but both of them had decided not to focus on that. They had decided to focus on the here and now and their family. And here and now Brian was healthy and that was all that mattered.

This year Christmas had been quite different to last year. While last year Christmas had mostly been a date on the calendar that they had tried to make as special as they could for the boys' sake under the circumstances, this year they had gone all out to celebrate their daughter's first Christmas and make it special.

Brian and Justin had attended Luke's Christmas play at school and had seen him star as one of the reindeers which had been extremely cute as far as they were concerned and Luke had been beyond happy that this year both his fathers had been able to make it.

They had attended Gus' Christmas show at his art school that he attended after classes where he and his fellow students exhibited the work they had done that semester and both Justin and Brian had been impressed by the work Gus had done. It was incredible how talented he was. Probably the one good thing he had inherited from Lindsay as far as Brian was concerned.

Vicky had cried inconsolably when they had taken her to the mall to see Santa, but Justin guessed that that was part of the experience as well. Brian had claimed that he didn't see why parents would torture their children by taking them to an overcrowded mall in the run-up to Christmas to sit on the lap of a weird-looking guy that they didn't know, but Justin had insisted that it would be cute. When Vicky had yelled and screamed for the better part of an hour, Justin had changed his mind and had admitted to Brian that he had been right. Next year they would definitely not repeat that experience. Well, at least they had learned their lesson.

The whole family had gathered at Debbie's house for Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and had then gathered at Britin for Christmas Day. There was no way the grandparents and godparents would have missed the children opening their presents and everyone had enjoyed two nice dinners together.

Thankfully both Gus and Luke were now at an age where they were still excited about Christmas and presents, but not in the way that they would wake up their fathers at 6am. Both boys were now old enough to sleep in and unwrap their presents at a decent time for which Brian and Justin were very grateful.

Their own Christmas celebration had taken them quite long into the early hours of Christmas day, so they had been quite happy about any additional hour of sleep they were able to get.

“Last year, I didn't think we'd make it here, you know?” Justin whispered, leaning into Brian's embrace some more. “I was so scared to lose you...”

“Hey, it's okay. I am here,” Brian whispered, holding his partner close. “We're both fine.”

Justin nodded, sighing happily. “I am not sure what I would have done if you weren't,” he admitted.

“You would have carried on as you always do. You would have found out that you're stronger than you give yourself credit for and would have made it. You always do.”

“I am glad I never had to find out,” Justin admitted, turning in Brian's embrace, looking at him from glassy eyes. “I never want to find out,” he whispered as he leaned in for a gentle kiss.

“I know,” Brian replied, kissing him back, though not promising him that it would never come to that. Both of them knew better than to make a promise like that. Both of them knew that it wasn't in their hands and all they could do was make the best of whatever life threw their way. “Neither do I.”

Justin ran his fingers through Brian's hair which by now had pretty much grown out to his pre-cancer length again and sighed happily. “I love you, Brian. I love the man you have become, the father you are to our children and the husband you're going to be to me.”

Brian smiled, gently running his fingers over Justin's cheek, the golden band on his ring finger glinting in the light of the room.

After they had decided to get married, but to wait a bit longer until Vicky was older, Brian had surprised Justin with golden engagement rings on the day he had received his six months all clear from his oncologist. He had surprised Justin with a candlelight dinner and a night at the loft and before they had left the next morning, he had presented the rings to Justin, asking him if he wanted to wear them.

Justin had only been too happy and by now their whole family knew about their wedding plans. There was no way they could have kept it secret after they had started wearing the rings, but in the end they didn't really care. They knew they would get married. There was no question, so it didn't really make a difference to them if everyone else in their little family knew as well.

The first time they had worn the rings there had been quite a few questions and it had been obvious that some people (namely Debbie and Emmett) had expected them to have gotten married in secret already without anyone knowing, but once they had explained to everyone about their plan to get married once Vicky was older, the whole family had only been too happy for them.

They had promised Emmett that he would be the one to plan their wedding when it came to it and had promised both Debbie and Jennifer that they would never dare to get married without them being present. God forbid the wrath of the grandmothers they would have to face if they got married in secret.

Gus and Luke had been excited, liking the idea of their fathers getting married and both taking the name of Kinney-Taylor once that happened.

They had also talked to Gus, explaining to him about the current legal situation of Justin's guardianship and the differences to an adoption, knowing that at 14 years old he was old enough to understand the differences and to make a decision and Brian hadn't been surprised when Gus had insisted on getting the adoption process started. He had claimed that Justin had been his father for much longer than his mother had ever been in his life and that he loved Justin as his second father and had never considered him any less since Brian and Justin had reconciled and that he wanted nothing more than to make it legal and to become a Kinney-Taylor as well like the rest of his family. Justin had seemed quite shocked when Gus had announced his desire to be adopted by him, but had been overjoyed. He loved Gus like his own, had always considered him his son and would love nothing more than to make him his son legally as well.

They had had a couple of meetings with lawyers in recent months concerning the process and had gotten it started. They had been warned that it could take up to a year to get the adoption legalised, but neither of them were in a rush, knowing that at the end of the day it was just a piece of paper telling them what they knew anyway: That they were a family and Gus was Justin's son as well.

“I love you, too, Justin Kinney-Taylor. You're the one man who would put up with me and my bullshit and you have no idea how grateful I am that you did and saw through it all. I love you for being the father that you are to our children and I love you for being by my side this last year and not giving up on me, no matter what. I love you,” Brian whispered, his eyes shining with the love he felt for the man in his arms.

Their lips met in a kiss, when they heard Luke behind them. “Is everything okay? You've been up here a long time. Everyone is worried about you.”

Brian raised an eyebrow at Justin, as if to say 'As if' but refrained from making a comment in the presence of their son. Instead he pulled back from Justin, taking his hand in his own, squeezing it tightly.

“I guess we better head back down there, Sunshine, looks like the family can't do without us.”

Justin smiled and nodded as they made their way over to Luke and then followed him downstairs to continue celebrating Vicky's birthday with their loved ones, even though the guest of honour was sleeping peacefully in her room.

The End