You And I: Family Time

Connor III

The next morning, Aiden slept late, probably because of his lack of sleep last night. It gave Troye and I some time to talk. We wanted to get on the track of adoption as soon as possible because it could take a while once the wheels were set in motion. So we made a plan to bring up the idea with Aiden that afternoon.

After a while, Aiden came shuffling out of his room, one hand clutching his teddy bear and the other rubbing his eyes. He looked so cute as I bent down from the bar stool I was sitting on to pick him up.

"Hey, little man. Are you feeling better today?" I asked, kissing the top of his head.

"Yeah. The monsters didn't come back." He assured me with a yawn.

"You look tired, sweetie." Troye said from the other side of the kitchen counter where he was sipping at his coffee.

"No I'm not." Aiden hurried to stop his yawn, making us laugh.

"It's okay. I always get tired after bad dreams."

"You get bad dreams too?" Aiden was surprised but Troye nodded solemnly.

"I do. But your papa makes me feel better."

"Does he give you cuddles like he gave me?"

"Something like that." I couldn't help but laugh and Aiden turned to me.

"Do you get bad dreams too papa?"

"Sometimes." I hugged him. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Yes please. Can I have Nutella on toast?" Over the years, Aiden had picked up the same love for Nutella that Troye had, always asking for it for breakfast.

"I think we can do that today." Troye said, already getting bread out to toast it.

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Troye and I spent the morning cleaning although there didn't seem to be mich point to it because whenever we had finished an area, Aiden would come and make a mess again.

After lunch Troye went into our room to wait as I went to find Aiden in his room.

"Aiden, can you come into our room for a minute? Daddy and I want to ask you something." I asked and he looked at me in surprise but followed me anyway. In our room, Troye was sitting cross-legged on the bed, his eyes blank as his thoughts were a million miles away. I was about to say something but Aiden beat me to it, bouncing onto the bed and into Troye's lap.

"Daddy, don't be sad." He said. Troye looked at him and smiled.

"I'm not sad. I'm just thinking."

"Oh." He let that sink in for a second. "Papa said you want to ask me something." Troye nodded.

"We do." I could see that he didn't know where to start so I spoke up, sitting on the bed beside them and taking Aiden's hand.

"You know that your daddy and I love you very much,  right?"

"Not as much as I love you papa. And daddy." Troye smiled and hugged our son a little tighter.

"Thank you, sweetie." I said, smiling at him. "What we wanted to ask you, is something that will make everything different."

"Different?"

"Yeah. Do you remember we told you how you came to be our son?"

"You said that I have a different mommy and daddy who couldn't look after me so they asked you instead."

"Exactly. Well, your daddy and I are thinking about asking another mommy who can't look after her baby if we can look after it. Do you understand?"

"I-I think so..." He furrowed his brow in thought, trying to put the pieces together in his mind. "So, I might get a little brother like Rachel has?"

"Something like that." Troye agreed. "It will be a bit different because Rachel and her little brother were both born to their mommy and daddy."

"But me and my little brother will be from a different mommy and daddy?"

"Yes. But you have to remember, it might not be a little brother. It might be a little sister." I said.

"Like Scarlett has Isabella?"

"Yeah." I smiled at how he was using his cousins and friends to make sense of all this. "Do you think you might like a little brother or sister?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe? Why only maybe?" Troye asked quietly. I could tell he was disappointed in Aiden's answer.

"Will I be able to play with them? Will they play spies with me?" I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me. If that was Aiden's biggest worry about getting a new sibling, we were in the clear.

"Of course. But maybe not straight away." I said, still laughing.

"Why?"

"Because little babies can't play games very well. You've seen how Charlotte doesn't play games, right?"

"Yeah. She just cries and sleeps."

"Exactly. That's what babies do. That's what you did too."

"I did?" This time Troye laughed.

"You definitely did. For a long time too. But now you're grown up and you can play spies and all sorts of things."

"Oh." Aiden was silent for a moment and then began bouncing up and down excitedly. "When do I get to meet my new little brother or sister?"

"Not for a while yet, sweetie. There's a lot of things we have to do first."

"Like what?" But I shook my head.

"You don't need to worry about these things. They're just things that daddy and I have to do before the mommy and daddy let us look after their baby."

"So you would be okay with us getting another little boy or girl to look after?" Troye asked.

"Yeah! I want to have someone to play with everyday!"

"You won't think that we love you less?" I made eyes at Troye but he just shook his head at me.

"No. I know you love me. That's why you give me ice-cream and lollipops." The four-year-old logic made me laugh and I scooped him up off Troye's lap to hug him.

"You're so cute, buddy. We love you so much."

"We really do." Troye agreed, joining in the hug. After a moment, Aiden began to wriggle, wanting out.

"Can I go back to my room now? I was playing with my dinosaurs."

"Sure. Make sure you clean them up when you're done, though."

"Yes papa." He said over his shoulder, already halfway out the door.

"Are you happy now?" I asked Troye, pulling him closer.

"Very." He sighed and looked me in the eye. "Connor, we're growing our family."

"We are. I love that I get to have a family with you."

"I love that I get a family with you." He kissed me, just a soft, sweet kiss but I knew what it meant.