BIRDS OF A FEATHER THAT FLOCK TOGETHER

It's a sunny day of late May, the weather is lovely, and Blaine is free but he is also stuck in the kitchen, pitting tons of cherries. He would be annoyed if Leo wasn't making homemade jam. The process sounds complicated and mysterious enough to keep Blaine interested and entertained. Besides, his plan of taking his kids to the park was totally ruined by Harper stating that she and her brother were going to some girl's party alone. Emphasis on alone.

The twins are going through that annoying phase of their life where they feel grown up enough to go places by themselves. Having given them permission to go alone wherever they want as long as it's in a three miles range is not helping.

Since he went through everything with Timothy already, Blaine knows that the only thing worse than this phase is puberty and now he dreads it because Harper is already getting on his nerves now that she's only ten. If it goes on like this, he will have to kill her by the time she turns fifteen.

“How is it going?” Leo asks. He's sitting at the other end of the table, a bowl on his lap and pitter in hand. It's a torture looking tool, coming straight out of the Dark Ages, and it took Blaine half an hour to get it work, but Leo looks like he was born knowing how to use it. He's taking out pits and leaving perfectly rounded cherries at full speed.

There must be fifty pounds of cherries, stored in carefully piled boxes with the name of Alex and Timmy's farm on them. And by the look of it, Blaine won't do much of the work. He's still working on how to hold the cherry to perform the surgical operation he's been entrusted with. “At least I didn't drop this one.” He said it like it's a great accomplishment. And it sort of is, judging by the amount of maimed, smashed cherries that lies at his feet.

“It felt weird not to pay for that,” Leo says. Timmy just randomly showed up the day before and unloaded all those boxes from his pick up. Apparently, the first harvest was very good and he ended up with too many cherries. So he gave them some. Blaine offered to pay but Timmy wouldn't hear about it. “Maybe we should buy them something. It would be like paying for the cherries but without actually giving him money.”

“Something like what?” Blaine asks as the cherry slips from his hands and flies all the way across the room, missing Leo's head by an inch.

He doesn't even flinch. “I don't know. What does he want? A cow, maybe? Or a pig. He likes pig.”

“Honestly, I wouldn't even know where to buy a pig, honey.” Blaine chuckles. “Besides, who knows how many pigs are all these cherries worth? One? Two? Three pigs and a cow?”

“Now you're just mocking me,” Leo glares at him but he's also smiling, so Blaine doesn't worry.

“Maybe a little,” Blaine chuckles and then he drops the fifth cherry that he managed to pit in an hour in his half empty bowl, feeling quite accomplished too.

Fifteen minutes pass without them saying a word. The silence interrupted only by the rhythmic drop of Leo's pitted cherries and Blaine's quiet curses. Then Leo speaks, quietly. “I was thinking,” he says. And those words have the ability of throwing Blaine into a bottomless pit of worry. Especially when they are spoken so calmly as Leo is speaking them now. When Leo has a weird idea and Blaine turns out to be against it, the line between a simple fight and a disaster is always thin.

“About what?” Blaine asks, as casually as he can.

“About what you said in the chicken coop at Timmy's farm the other day,” Leo says. “Maybe we should start planning it now.”

For a moment – a very long one, actually – Blaine has no idea of what he's talking about. He's getting old, but his memory is still very strong, so it might be a matter of something so trivial that he just didn't register it. They were in the chicken coop because the eggs were hatching. Timmy was very excited about it – as he gets excited for everything concerning the farm – and then he became very emotional when it turned out one of the chicks was dead.

“You don't remember, do you?” Leo frowns.
Blaine thinks harder. He remembers comforting Timothy. And after that...

After that Blaine was so emotional himself – by seeing his son being so emotional – that he suggested that it would have been nice to have another baby. “You mean the baby?” He asks, hoping he managed to hide the incredulity in his voice. He wasn't speaking seriously.

“Yes,” Leo says. “We should go back to the same clinic we went to for the twins. That was good, wasn't it? And then go through all those surrogate mothers' profiles. Last time it took us almost three months to agree on Michelle, so we better start as soon as we can.”

Leo is smiling. And somehow that smile is even more frightening that his previous frown. He's looking calm, relaxed, the same way he does when something has already been decided and it's something that gives him peace, which puts Blaine in a very bad position. One thing is just turning Leo's casual plans upside down. Another is planning to take away from him something that he clearly cares for, even if it would be reasonable doing so.

“Honey,” he starts, his voice sweet to tame the beast. “Shouldn't we discuss this first?”

“Aren't we?” Leo blinks.

“I mean, about whether or not we should do this,” he says with a sigh.

Leo puts down the pitter and the look on his face is already one of disappointment. Blaine doesn't like to see that face on him. He'd rather have anger from him. Sadness makes him feel a little anxious and brings back memories that are still difficult to deal with after fifteen years. And that's because usually Leo gets angry for the silliest things and more often than not he's wrong. But when he gets sad, Blaine usually did something – maybe not voluntarily but it's his fault anyway.

“But I thought we had agreed,” Leo says, in fact. “Actually, you proposed it. Do you remember that?”

“Yes, yes. I remember,” Blaine nods. “But it was a random thought.”

“No, you asked me and I said yes,” Leo says.

Blaine is sure he never asked. It was just a suggestion, and Leo happened to agree with it. In fact, his actual words were It would be nice, if we had another baby, implying that they were not gonna have it, despite it being a nice thought. How many times he said it would be nice if they visit India? But has Leo ever showed any interest in flying to Mumbai? Of course not.

“Alright, but that one time in the chicken coop was the only time we've ever talked about it, Leo. And it was five minutes top. We should think this through.”

Leo nods. “Fine. Let's think this through, then.” He said. “But I thought you wanted it.”

“It's not a matter of me wanting it or not. Of course I'd like to have another kid,” he says, to make sure not to come across like an horrible husband hating the mere idea of having a bigger family, like Leo's brain is probably picturing him right now. “But should we really have another baby, now? Let's just ask ourselves this question before even considering the idea.”

“Well, money is not a problem,” Leo begins to list. “And now that we're both working at home, taking care of a baby won't be a problem anymore. The twins are big enough not to need us 24/7 and this house has more rooms than we ever gonna need. We can spare one for another baby.”

“You're forgetting something. Actually, the most important thing here.”

“What is it?” Leo asks, shrugging. Honestly, he thinks the most important thing as far as this whole endeavor is concerned is money, and they have plenty of it.

Blaine sighs. “That I'm not young anymore.”

“You're not old either.”

“Despite your denial, I'll be sixty in a few months, which means I'll be eighty by the time this kid is twenty,” Blaine clarifies, his voice turning almost into a whine when he says the numbers. “Even saying it aloud is frightening.”

Leo looks unfazed, tho. “At twenty, he or she will be a grownup. Problem solved.”

“Not everybody turns magically into a grownup when they come of age. And yes, I'm looking at you,” Blaine insists. “I love you to bits, but you were a mess when you were twenty, and you had two forty-something years old dads.”

“But I wasn't one of your kids!” Leo says. “You raise incredibly independent kids. Look at Timmy! At fifteen he was so self-contained already. Now he's twenty-five and he's got his own business already up and running. And the twins? Your daughter is ten and doesn't need us to organize her weekly schedule and Logan can very well take care of his own meals when I can't. This kid would be just fine.”
Blaine sighs, knowing that no word he could possibly use will make Leo see what he's trying to say here; and that's because they are at that point in their life where they should really sit down and talk about something they won't be able to avoid, when it happens. But Leo has been in denial for years, now. He has probably been in denial since day one. “Leo, don't make me say it,” he pleads, eventually.

When Blaine looks at his husband, he still sees the young kid he fell in love with; past all the new lines on his face, nothing's changed. And he knows that's the same for Leo, that he really doesn't care if he's not the man he met when he was just a boy. Blaine only wishes that Leo could accept the truth after facing it and not because he's shrinking from it like he so obviously does.

“I only think that there's plenty of time,” Leo says, shrugging. “And you wouldn't even be the first older man having a kid at your age.”

Leo stands up and grabs the bowl of pits. He walks in silence all the way to the trashcan, his face tense. Blaine can read it clearly on his body that he's closing up, withdrawing inside himself where he feels more secure and he won't lash out. He learned how to do that when the kids came along. The trick has been not to get stuck inside his own mind.

Blaine feels a surge of tenderness towards him for all he overcame. “Why is this so important to you?” He asks, softly.

Leo shrugs, putting the bowl back on the table to start pitting a new batch of cherries. “I don't know. Because I wasn't even thinking about it, and then you said it and something clicked inside of him,” he whispers. He's disappointed, but still determined. And Blaine sees that in his eyes when he looks up. “I want this, Blaine. I feel more ready now than I did when we had the twins.”

Blaine remembers very well what it took him to convince Leo to have a kid back then. He stubbornly refused for months before even taking the idea into consideration. He was scared, but most of all he was jealous. He wanted Blaine all to himself. Timothy was already a person too many to share him with. He was against the idea like a child that has been told he is not gonna be the only one for much longer. Then things changed, but in the beginning Leo behaved like his older child. That suddenly makes him realize something.

“I think that's our curse, isn't it?” Blaine says with a little laugh. “You being ready for something always about 15 years later than me.”

Leo can't help but chuckle, and then looks at him tentatively. “Is that a yes?”

Blaine sighs. “Let's say that I'll think about it.”

*





Blaine has never turned a I'll think about it into a no in all his life.
He's a man of strong opinions. So when he agrees or disagree on something, he makes himself clear right away, and there's usually no way to make him change his mind – also because he always assumes he's right to begin with. Telling someone that he'll think about it, it's his way to give himself a last, useless chance to do the right thing and say no when he already knows he will say yes and that yes is a mistake.

It took him two weeks, during which Leo lived hanging on a thread, almost holding his breath, and then he capitulated. Now that he accepted to live his retirement years potty training a toddler, the next step is telling the family.

They gather everyone in the living room. The twins – Harper looking like she'd rather be in Hell than sitting there – and even Timothy, who shows up in his farmer gear and with straw in his blonde hair, which is still an unusual sight in Lima, Ohio, despite it being a rural town.

“Listen, I love the little family reunion, even though we literally saw each other two days ago,” Timmy says, putting in his mouth a handful of the chips Leo place in a bowl on the coffee table, “but let's make it quick. I've got a pregnant sow.”

Blaine chuckles, nervously. “Oh the irony.”

“What is a sow?” Logan asks.

“A female pig,” Timmy answers, sitting with his legs spread between his brother and sister. Harper instantly curls at his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

“You stink,” she says, but as anything else concerning her big brother, even bad smell doesn't seem to bother her.

“Does it mean that we're gonna have piglets?” Logan realizes, suddenly. He kneels on the couch, leaning against his brother's shoulder.

“Hopefully, yes. You can come and see them, if dads let you.”

“Speaking of which,” Leo says, and then glares at Blaine, nodding towards their progeny.

Blaine sighs, and then he claps his hands. “Can I have your attention for five minutes, youngsters?” In a second, there's silence in the living room, and three sets of eyes are looking at him. “Good. Where was this obedience when you were growing up? Anyway, we have a special announcement to make. Your father and I have talked about something and we made a decision.”

The kids and Timmy look at him knowing what it means. They are not here to give their opinion on anything. They will be merely informed about some choice their parents have already made about something that must be very important to require a family meeting, which is kind of annoying. But this is not the first time that happens. This family has never been a democracy, but some sort of lenient dictatorship.

“So, after long consideration,” Blaine continues, knowing that he's lying but not showing it in the slightest, “we have decided to have another baby.”

The silence that follows is heavy and uncomfortable. It's not exactly the reaction Leo was expecting, but Blaine is almost scared of it. His children are looking at him like he's crazy, which may be true. The moment he dreaded so much for so long has finally come.

“Nobody has anything to say?” Leo butts in, opening his arms. “That's great news, right?”

“In what universe this is great news?” Harper asks, shocked. She can't believe they really believed this was a good idea.

“Well, I'd like to have a baby brother,” Logan says, thoughtfully. With his sister being so overpowering, he's technically the youngest children, and of course he doesn't like that very much.

“Thank you!” Leo cries out. “At least one of you is happy. A new member of the family, that's exciting!”

Harper doesn't seem very excited at all. If anything, she looks annoyed. If the fact that her face right now is so much like Leo's at her age is of any indication, they're in for quite a few tiring years with her. “Where is he gonna sleep?”

“He or she will sleep with us until he or she is old enough to have his or her own room,” Blaine says, “But it's too early to talk about that. What's ahead of us it's a very busy period, and we're asking for your patience and support. As your brother Timmy knows already, there are a lot of things to do when a baby comes.”

“Yes, about that...” Timmy clears his throat. His face has that seriousness to it that he only reserves to questions of life and death, and to comments on their parents' silly behavior, as this must be the case. “Can I have a word with you two? In the kitchen.”

Leo and Blaine look at each other, and then Blaine nods. “Sure. Kids, just give us a minute,” he says to the twins, before following his older son and his husband in the other room. “And then, if you have any questions, dad and I will answer them.”

Once both his parents are in the kitchen, Timmy closes the door and then pushes them towards the other side of the room, so the twins won't hear even if they eavesdrop. “Have you two gone completely nuts for good?” He asks, when they are both with their back against the wall.

“Now, can we just sit and talk?” Blaine asks, trying to be reasonable. It's hard enough to deal with what's coming without his son freaking out about it.

“You can't do this,” Timmy goes on, unfazed.

“Excuse me?” The note in Leo's voice is already dangerously irritated, so Blaine just steps in front of him and leads his son towards the table.

“Let's just sit down and talk,” he repeats more sternly.

“Listen, I'm gonna sit down and talk,” Timmy says, actually sitting down on a chair, “but this is still crazy. Dad, you're a thousand years old now!”

Blaine lets out a tired sigh. “I'm always impressed at your subtle attempts to not let me feel so old, son. Thank you,” he says with sarcasm.

Timmy snorts. “Come on, you know what I mean! Just, this should be the time for you to go places and do things together and be free or whatever. I know you have always acted like you didn't have responsibilities, but I'm telling you that this is actually the time when you can really take time for yourselves and nobody will think you two are bad people. Why can't you do that?”

“Nobody thinks we are bad people,” Leo says, totally missing the point.

Blaine butts in before Timmy can say something they will regret all the way down to the next year. “I understand that this comes as a surprise for you, and that it's unusual--”

“No, for you to have a barbecue and invite the neighborhood would be unusual,” Timmy interrupts him. “This is just plain crazy. Have you done the math? This kid will bury both of you before he turns twenty, how about that?”

“Hey, I'm just forty! Thank you,” Leo protests. “And your father will be here too.”

“Are you aware that if Alex and I decide to have a baby, my child and my brother will be virtually the same age?” Timmy insists. “How fucked up is that? You two are already society's worst nightmare, and if things had gone differently, I could be now married with my aunt. My aunt! Why do you want to turn this family into a Freak Circus more than it already is?”

As he usually does, Leo just tunes out everything he doesn't care to listen to, Timmy's complaints in this case. What's left is what he cares about. “Are you and Alex thinking about having a baby?” He inquires.

“No!” Timmy cries out in exasperation. A baby is exactly the last thing he wants to have ever in his life. “It was just an example.”

“Well, I can't base my decision on what ifs, don't you think?” Leo says. “And even if you were having a baby, I don't see why that should stop us from having ours. Actually, I don't even see why we're having this conversation at all. We just wanted to inform you before beginning the process, it seemed the right thing to do.”

“No, the right thing to do would be stop this madness before it even begins,” Timmy says, but his voice has lost all its strength. He worked all day, he's got a fifty miles ride awaiting for him and he knows Leo – because this is Leo's idea for sure – enough to know that he won't change his mind and Blaine will forever stand by him if he already decided to do so. “But you won't and I can't fight this battle now,” he gives up with a sigh. “Who's it gonna be?”

Blaine smiles, realizing they just avoided this storm. They haven't talked about who's gonna be the biological father yet, but it seems pretty clear to him. “Leo.”

Or maybe not.

“Blaine,” Leo says instantly. He feels his husband's eyes upon him but he doesn't turn towards him. That's Timmy's cue not to inquire any further. Whatever is happening here, they clearly didn't talk about it, and he doesn't wanna be here when it happens.

“Fine. I will say this, though. I won't be your emergency baby-sitter, if you suddenly realize that a baby takes up all your time and you can't fuck each other's brain out anymore. You want this baby, you take care of the baby. End of story. Are we clear?”

“Yes, we are,” Leo spits out, annoyed. “Nobody was asking you that anyway.”

Timmy decides it's better not to answer him. At some point, in about a year or so, Blaine will call him, begging him to watch over his kids, and he will hung up on him, laughing.

*

“What about this one?” Blaine shows him a picture on his tablet. It's a woman with long, curly black hair. She's got a beautiful, open smile but she looks at least thirty-five.

“She's too old,” Leo says.

“It's says here she was born in 2024, that makes her thirty-two.”

Leo turns the page on his own tablet with a swipe of his finger. “Exactly. Too old.”

“But it says here that she's healthy and she only had a baby before, and she's got the right colors,” Blaine goes on. They are not adamant about that, but someone with at least black hair would preferable, and this woman has also blue eyes like Leo.

“I'm not denying that. I'm sure she's healthy,” Leo shrugs. “But I think we need someone younger.”

Blaine chuckles, amused. “Isn't that a little hypocritical?” He asks. “After all, she's still younger than both of us.”

“Honestly? It's not,” Leo answers, way more seriously than the question would require. “I don't have to physically have this baby. The state of my body right now has nothing to do with my baby's health. Her body, on the contrary, is another matter. I want someone whose pregnancy is less likely to be problematic.”

“Alright, alright!” Blaine chuckles, discarding the woman's file. “Here, she's gone. Oh! What about this one, then?”

Leo leans over, his reading glasses sliding along his nose. “She's got freckles,” he says, instantly going back to his profiles. There are so many of those to go through that they had to split them into to group and take one each.

“So? Timmy's got freckles,” Blaine points out.

“Yes, but he's different. And I didn't choose his mother,” Leo says, discarding two more profiles with the flick of a finger.

“Well, actually neither did I,” Blaine chuckles, clicking on the X. “I'm sorry, young lady with a pretty nose, my better half banished freckles from this realm.”

“I haven't seen a good looking woman in twenty pages,” Leo complains with a sigh. It's hard to believe that, but Blaine knows Leo's got weird standards when it comes to women. His struggle to find someone he likes doesn't come as a surprise at all.

“I've got one!” He tries again, excitedly. His plan is to present him with a great amount of women so to increase the chances of him choosing one within the year. “Look.”

Leo turns his head and looks at the smiling face on the screen. At least this girl is young and pretty. “But she's blonde,” he comments, uncertainly.

“I thought we had agreed that every color would do, as long as we didn't have a better black haired candidate,” Blaine says. “And we don't have one at the moment. She's pretty, isn't she?”

Leo thinks about it and then he nods, even though he doesn't look exactly excited. “Okay, flag her as maybe.”

“Wow. How generous, m'lord, ” Blaine chuckles. “And with this lovely lady here, we have an astounding total of ... one possibile-not-yet-approved candidate. We're going strong!”

“Shut up,” Leo mutters. “Keep working.”

Blaine looks at him and smiles affectionately. He's pretty used to see his husband pouting – being that Leo's natural condition – but this time is different and he's pretty sure it has nothing to do with his remark and a lot to do with what they are looking for right now.

“Aren't you being a little too picky even for you?” He asks, tentatively.

“I'm not being picky,” Leo protests. “I'm evaluating.”

“An evaluation process requires a choice at the end,” Blaine insists, “and you seem to have an hard time choosing right now.”

Leo sighs, sensing the beginning of a discussion – not necessarily an argument, but still an exchange of thoughts he doesn't want right now – coming his way. “I'm not bailing out by not choosing a surrogate mother, if that's what you're hinting at. I want this. I'm not scared. I'm just carefully choosing the perfect candidate, and that takes time.”

“That is my point exactly,” Blaine keeps smiling. “We will never find the perfect candidate, kid.”

“That's not true. We did the first time.”

Blaine chuckles. “No, we didn't,” he says, amused. Somehow he just knew this was the problem. “We looked for a suitable candidate and then Michelle turned out to be also a wonderful human being, but that was just random. We were very lucky, that's all. We don't have to find someone who's perfect from any point of view. We have to find someone suitable for the task, if she's also another Michelle, that will be great but it's not mandatory.”

Leo sighs. “You're right. It's just,” he takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes, “it was so easy the first time. We turned a page and she was there. I thought we would have the same kind of revelation.”

“Actually,” Blaine chuckles again, “that's not exactly how it went down, you know? You refused to go through the profiles with me for the first three weeks. So I went through them by myself and I presented you with a selection of the best candidates, and there she was in all her raven haired glory. You just skipped the worst part, which you don't get to skip this time. Come on, let's pin the number down to at least five women.”

“Five is a big number,” Leo murmurs.

Blaine sends him two hundreds more profiles to his tablet with a swipe of his finger. “Then you better keep reading,” he smiles. Then he remember something. “Love?”

“Hmn?”

“Do you remember what you said to Timmy?” He asks, carefully.

“It depends, I told him a lot of things in the past ten years.”

“I mean the other day,” Blaine explains, “when we told him. You said it's gonna be me.”

“Yes,” Leo looks up. “I mean, I would love that.”

“And why me?” He asks again. Not angry, just curious.

“Why not?” Leo instantly replies, his mouth set in a hard line. He doesn't sound aggressive, but there's a dark shadow in his eyes when he looks at Blaine. “Since there's a strong chance that we already fathered one each, you are a choice as good as me. And I'd rather choose you.”

Blaine senses something in those words, something is not quite sure he wants to dig up right now, so he nods. “Alright, but be aware that it could be more difficult,” he warns him. “For obvious reasons.”

“We'll see about that.”

*

It took them another couple of weeks, but they finally made a choice. Once again, it was Blaine who was keeping more than discarding, but it was Leo who literally had a revelation when the right picture turned up on the screen. Blaine just went along, since the girl was already in the suitable pile for him.

Madison is twenty-five. She's tall, slim and she's got the perfect colors. And if being healthy and beautiful hadn't been enough – which it was, by the way – she moved to Lima for work, but she comes from the border, which gives her two perks that made Leo go crazy: she's of Mexican descendants and she's got a southern accent so strong than when she opens her mouth, it's like being in Dallas.

She's doing this because she needs the money for a year long trip around the world – beside wanting to help a couple of gay men making their wish come true, of course. Blaine chuckled when she hastily added that pro-rights bit, as if that was mandatory or something. He also chuckled at the face she made when they explained to her that it was actually their fourth wish coming true.

They got along well right from the start – with Leo loving her and all – and everything was set within a couple of months. They wanted to try as soon as possible when she was ready, and she pretty much was. So, it was just a matter of medical exams, donation and boring waits at the clinic, three sets of finger crossed.

Now, five months later and three into the pregnancy, everything seems fine.

Actually, everything is going so well that they could merge Madison's schedule into their own very easily. They hang out with her a couple of times before the process begun to set details, hows and whens, but now they only see her on medical exam days, and that's enough for the three of them.

Leo is so excited about the whole thing – which is both funny and irritating since he wasn't at all the first time around – that his inspiration's got a boost and now he's always writing in his studio when he's not planning the room for the newborn, with Blaine and Madison at the medical center or playing with his younger kids.

Blaine is relieved about this last bit. Leo was so caught in this new baby thing that Blaine was afraid his husband was forgetting he has two other kids – it wouldn't have been so unlikely, Leo being Leo. But he didn't. He spends as much time as he can with the twins, which apparently is even too much for Harper – she's quickly growing out of her sci-fi passion, or at least now she rather talks about movies and books with her friends than his father. Leo's working on that, trying to find something to do with her that she would actually enjoy, but teen girls are way harder to deal with, and he's finding that out firsthand.

Logan, on the other hand, would play video games for the rest of his life if he could, which sits well with Leo who would happily do the same thing. Once they sit on the floor of the living room – Why the floor? It's always the floor. Blaine really can't get what's wrong with their couch – they don't move from there unless Blaine calls them for dinner.

That's why it's weird to see Logan sluggishly drag himself into the kitchen while the dark, obsessive music of Symphony of blood is still playing from the living room.

Blaine looks up from the screen of his laptop and smiles. He's writing a review for a play he saw three days ago, and no matter how he rephrases his thoughts, the author's gonna cry. He can very well take a break from destroying people's carriers to talk with his son. “Hey, little bear. I thought you were killing dragons.”

“They're humanoid aliens, dad,” he says in a resigned tone, as if his father was hopelessly unable to grasp the difference between a game and the other, which unfortunately he is. “Anyway, I came here for some snacks.”

“Oh no. We have dinner in two hours, you tell your father it is too late for snacks,” he chuckles. He knows the evil mastermind behind this request is Leo. Logan hardly eat enough, even when he's hungry.

Logan's expression doesn't even change. He's calm and pacific and borderline apathetic sometimes as his sister is fiery, hotblooded and mettlesome. “He says that there are dried apricots in the cabinet, and those are fruit so they don't count as snack.”

Blaine can't help but laugh. “You tell your father that he's very smart,” he says, opening said cabinet. He grabs the little pack of dried apricot that is in there and gives it to him.

Logan smiles. “Oh, he knows that.” Instead of running back to the living room though, he lingers there. He fumbles with his pack of apricots, taking ages to open it. “Dad?”

“Yes, little bear?” Blaine asks, pretending not to know that he's got a big question to ask. He knows kids don't ask you big questions if you act too eager to hear them. They feel embarrassed.

“Can I ask you something?” He asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Sure. Whatever you want.”

Logan climbs on the stool at the kitchen's island and sighs. A very big, heavy sigh. It must be something very important. “The baby is on its way, right?” He begins. “It means that it's in the lady's belly.”

“Hm-hm,” Blaine nods. “He or she will be here in about six months.”

“Is it the same fake mom me and Harp had?”

“It's called a surrogate mother, and no, she's a different lady,” Blaine answers patiently.

Logan seems to think this through for a little while. Blaine and Leo told the twins how they were born right from the start. Besides, there was no way out of it being them two men, and telling them stories about adoptions didn't seem right. “But... dad?”

“Yes, honey?” Blaine looks at him with a smile while Logan only looks at him every now and then, while he tortures his hands in confusion as sometimes kids do.

“That sex thing is involved in this, isn't it?” He asks again, not very convinced about his words, tho. “In making the baby, I mean.”

“Generally speaking yes, but not exactly,” Blaine frowns. “What do you mean?”

Seeing confusion in his father's eyes makes him confused too, but he started the conversation and he's old enough to know that he has to at least say something more to explain what he wanted to know. “I thought you said that sex is something you do with someone you love, why aren't you angry at each other for this lady's baby? Harp says cheating is bad because you're not supposed to have sex with anybody but your husband or wife. But she didn't know which one of you did that.”

Blaine can't help but laugh, which makes Logan frown. “Nobody did that!” He says, chuckling some more. “Is that what you were thinking? That me or your dad had been with this lady to make this baby?”

“Isn't that what happened?” Logan asks, mentally taking note of telling his sister she's so very wrong.

“No. No, honey, it's not. Neither me nor your father cheated,” Blaine says. Then, he sighs, sitting straight. “We've already talked about babies and how they're made, right? And you studied it at a school.”

Logan nods. “The special egg, the special seed, all that stuff,” he says. He vaguely remember his father showing him a book with drawings of internal girl and boy parts, and a very weird lesson in class during which he and his friends just chuckled a lot.

Blaine sighs. “Yes, right. All that stuff,” he gives in to his ten years old son's vocabulary. “Well this egg and this seed can meet when two people have sex, or you can give the seed to a doctor and he can put it in the egg, which is exactly what happened this time.”

“Like how?” Logan asks, but there's something in his eyes, some sort of recognition. “With a shot?”

“Now, the procedure is a little bit more complicated than that,” Blaine slowly admits, “but let's say it's some sort of shot.”

“So, this baby has been made in a laboratory!” He cries out, his eyes beaming with what can only be described as the holy fire of science-fiction's beliefs.

“A clinic,” Blaine instantly corrects him, almost choking. “Your brother or sister has been made in a clinic.”

But Logan is too far gone in his mental confused image of androids lying on a slab with cables and tubes coming out of their head. “It's like in Symphony of Blood!” He declares, excited.

“What?”

“Yes! At the beginning of the game Mako gets attacked by an alien during an expedition, and she comes back to Earth with a baby alien in her belly. But she dies, and you think the baby alien is also dead. But he's not. Or at least, they got the alien dad seed somehow, now I get it!” He explains to his father, all excited. “They give a shot to Maja and she has a baby alien, which is like a normal baby but blue and with big black eyes. And then a few years later there are more and more of these baby aliens because someone wanted to build an army and the aliens are stronger. And Maja is supposed to kill them, 'cause she's a soldier too, but it turns out all the human-aliens have a hivemind and somehow she can hear what they want and feel too, maybe because she's the mother of one of them, and she doesn't want to kill them!”

Blaine is flabbergasted, to say the least. During some parts of this story he was plain appalled. “Wait. Is this what that game of yours is about?” He asks. Raping aliens and in vitro alien fecondation. He has to speak with Leo.

Either Logan ignores the question or he doesn't hear it, anyway he's out of the kitchen before Blaine can do anything about it. After a few seconds, the music coming from the living room changes and turns into a very deep, mysterious chorus – like some black church chanting – followed by shootings and screams. He wonders if he should go there and stop that game right away, but that would violate the first rule of good parenting: never show disagreement with your partner in front of the kids. They do that too much already.

He will have to sit this through until tonight, and trust Leo that their son is not growing to be a psychopath.

*

By the time the new baby comes, Logan isn't any crazier than he was before and he's not allowed to play Symphony of Blood anymore, not even with Leo. The new rule caused a bit of a fuss and Leo was accused of betrayal because he agreed with it, but ultimately Logan accepted it and turned his interest to a more suitable game.

His parents are very tired, tho. They've spent the past months preparing everything for the new arrival and dividing their time between work, Madison and the twins, lest they thought they were abandoning them. Their days begin with them crawling out of the bed and end with them crawling back in, barely awake enough to cuddle.

So, it's no surprise that when the phone rings at three in the morning, they don't even stir. After a ridiculous number of rings, the phone goes quiet and Harper shows up at their bedroom door. “Dads?” She calls in a mercilessly loud voice.

Blaine immediately sits up, looking frantically around. The house must be on fire, criminals broke in or someone is sick. “What?” He asks, scared. That gives Leo the time to realize that people are making a fuss in his bedroom.

Harper sighs and hands his father the phone. “It's the surrogate mom from the hospital,” she announces, totally unimpressed. “I think the baby's coming.”

Leo sits up too, sleep gone in the blink of an eye. “What?”

“Are you alright? What's going on?” Blaine is asking Madison. He listens to the answer, and then he nods. “We're going to be at the hospital in twenty minutes. Hang in there, okay?”

“What? Is she having the baby?” Leo asks, following Blaine out of the bed. “But it's two week early!”

Blaine grabs his pants and puts them on, quickly. “Sometimes it happens. Don't worry, it's still okay if it comes now,” he says. Then he seems to realize his daughter is still there. “Harper, baby, wake up your brother. We're leaving in five minutes.”

She frowns. “Can't we stay here?”

“Not alone,” Leo answers, slipping in the cleanest t-shirt he managed to find. “Come on, girl.”

Harper whines. “But it's a school night. I can't even watch a movie during school nights, and now I get to go out?” She protests, as a barefooted Leo pushes her gently along the halls and towards her and her brother's room.

“I'd say a new member of the family can be considered a special occasion,” Leo says. “Logan, honey, wake up. The baby's coming.”

Harper drags herself to her wardrobe and looks at the endless line of clothes she owns as if she was really considering what to wear for a run to the hospital. Her brother crawls out of the bed very confused. “What's going on?”

Leo sits down on their panda chair to tie his shoes. He looks ridiculously tall and long in this room where everything is still kid-size. “The baby's coming. We need to go to the hospital,” he answers, finally drawing Logan's attention on himself. The boy looks at him as if it made no sense that he's there. “Harper, please, just put on what you were wearing yesterday.”

“Are you crazy? This is the first time I see our second fake mom, I can't wear dirty clothes.”

Leo rolls his eyes and pushes some shirt and shorts into Logan's chest before the kid too can protests about his outfit. “One, she's not yours or anybody else's fake mom. She's just a lady who helped us out. Two, you won't probably see her. Three, even if that happens, those clothes are not dirty and she has no idea you were wearing them yesterday. Now, please, just put some clothes on or I'll be forced to drag you out in your pajamas.”

As Harper gives in and starts wearing her flowery skirt with an annoyed sigh, Blaine appears at the door. “Are we ready?”

“In a moment,” Leo answers, helping a very sleepy Logan with his shoes. Leo's hair is a mess. It'd need to meet a brush, but there's no time and he probably wouldn't bother even if there was.

Blaine nods. “I've got all the documentation, grab the baby's bag,” he says, running away before he finishes talking. Leo hears the rest of his words coming from the hall. “I'm starting the car. Hurry up!”

In the few minutes that follow, Leo grabs the bag they prepared for the baby's first days, he grabs the twins and drags them out of the house where a very impatient Blaine is already honking, making all kind of gestures towards the car. If this is of any indication of the times that await them, Leo is now sure they're pretty much screwed.