People Like Us: Part I [MxFxM]

Chapter Five

River had always liked the Bowman household. It wasn’t a very small house, but it wasn’t huge either. Unlike his own parents’ place, the siblings shared rooms here. Tor and Bartley had one to themselves, Faing and Devland, and then Aila shared one with Cinnia. Those three bedrooms were all upstairs, split by a large bathroom.

Downstairs was the relatively small kitchen and spacious dining room connection, the living room lavish and equally large to the right of the front door and the space between it and the hallway that lead to Kai and Ryleigh’s room adjoined with a nursery.

Everytime River had seen the nursery, it was always in a state of prepare, decorated with all the objects needed for a baby. Clothes were folded in piles, diapers stacked on a shelf, and various other necessities waiting for usage.

Probably because everytime he saw Ryleigh, she was always pregnant. Like right now, her stomach protruding almost unnaturally far from the rest of her. She was slow in moving around the house, one hand either always pressed to her lower back or her side, and her breathing was a little labored, but River didn’t blame her. If he were her and that pregnant, he’d probably be breathing hard too.

Still, nobody ever acknowledged her pregnancy. It was never spoken about, never gestured too. Nobody asked her if she was excited, or what she hoped it was. It was almost like pregnancy was just there in the Bowman house.

At the moment she was putting ice into a bag from the freezer for his shoulder, and Bartley bent to pull a small towel from a drawer for her, handing it over and hugging his mom before he clapped River on his uninjured shoulder.

“Meet you upstairs?”

“What game is it this time?” River asked, feeling himself smile.

“Hide and seek.”

“Yeah.” River replied before Bartley took off for the stairs.

“Aren’t you a little old for that?” came Kai’s voice from the living room. She was making her way across it for the kitchen, having just come down the stairs.

“Feasgar mhath.” Ryleigh said from the counter, finishing up wrapping the ice in the cloth.

“Good afternoon to you too.” Kai told her spouse, smiling at her.

It was always cute to see them interacting with each other. Having grown up in a same-sex household, it wasn’t considered unusual for River to see them so sweet with each other. Many a time they’d kissed each other in greeting in front of him. It was just an accepted fact that Kai and Ryleigh loved one another.

Kind of like his parents. There was no doubt they cared for each other deeply. After everything they’d been through though, that wasn’t unexpected.

“Here you are.” Ryleigh said to River as she held out the cloth-wrapped ice.

How did he say “thank you” again? Tapadh...something. Leibh? He thought that was it.

“Tapadh leibh.”