TWICE // D.S.

THIRTY-ONE

aubrielle and daniel walked into the living room through the sliding door. they hadn't even realized how long they spent in the studio, nor did either of them mind.

christian had left to go hang out with some friends and tyler had given himself a break and decided to go out and eat lunch with one of his friends. but before they left, anna had came over and is now currently attempting to walk around with james-as far as walking around goes with a toddler who's learning how to. once anna noticed the two, she swiftly scooped up james and walked over to the pair.

"tyler and christian went out and now im babysitting this little cutie" anna said, her voice raising an octave when she turned her head to james. a smile displayed on each of their faces, "he has such pretty eyes, absolutely gorgeous" she admired, still in shock from his light blue eyes.

"well i'm glad you met him, you're his first and only aunt, did you know that?" aubrielle asked, standing next to anna to give her a side hug.

"i am? yes!" she cheered and tickled james with her left hand, "i'll be the best aunt ever, oh my gosh i can't get over how cute you are" she excitedly spoke, her left hand moving up to touch james cheek to pinch it gently. "oh my gosh, he has freckles" she discovered and aubrielle nodded her head in amusement, a smile on herown face.

"when is mom and dad coming? i want them to meet" daniel questioned, his eyes traveling from aubrielle, to james, to anna.

"they will be here shortly, mom needed to pick up some medicine from the store" anna said, "everything's fine, it's just for my damn craps" she explained, spinning around with james on her hip before stopping to speak, "i love him already, i hope you know that"

aubrielle lightly laughed at anna's fondness with her son. then she briefly thought how lovely it would be to grow up with a sister, for anna to be her sister. briefly.

daniel sat on the back of the couch aubrielle leaned on, she brought the hair-tie that was around her wrist and used it to make a topknot. "you know what's crazy?" daniel asked and aubrielle hummed in response, "that my parents have a grandson that they've known about, and yet haven't met him" he explained, "yeah, our schedules don't line up but certainly it shouldn't have taken this long"

"...yeah" aubrielle said, hopping up on the back of the couch. quickly moving her hand on daniel's thigh to steady herself, so she didn't go flying backwards-the worse that would've happened is she fell onto a soft cushion. she placed her hand in her lap and stared at the colorful painting she had admired the first time she came to his house, "at least they're meeting him" she said and hesitated before speaking again, "...not everyone would want to"

daniel stiffened his posture and took his gaze that was on his leg to the girl next to him, "im sorry, i didn-"

"it's fine, i know you didn't. but i can agree that it's nice that he'll have some grandparents that will be around" aubrielle said, her eyes still on the painting. each minute she looked she found something new that she didn't see before and it amazed her how well everything fit together and how it was essentially hidden before she found it.

"can i ask? have you not talked to your parents since you moved out?" daniel slowly let the words fall out of his lips. his voice gentle and cautious, he didn't want to step over any line there might be.

"yeah, my mom has called a few times, both before and after my pregnancy with james. it's not much but she asks a few questions about him" aubrielle answered, pausing to take in a breath, "and my dad hasn't called at all, so it's been around two years since i've talked to him" her voice was soft as she spoke which matched the vulnerability she felt. this time she felt open to it, she didn't feel like yelling, she didn't feel like lying, she just felt like telling him, telling daniel.