What's Next? || Ant x Stephen

Christmas Day - Chapter Twenty-Six

It was 6am, and Ant was woken up by the sound of children running around the house, all of them knocking on doors to wake the Adults up, shouting "it's time for presents" and "come on, hurry up!!"

Ant stretched his arms above his head, as Stephen huffed out a laugh, all he could think about was the Christmas' that he and Ant would spend with kids of their own, rather than Ant's nieces and nephews. Not that Stephen minded spending Christmas with Ant's family. His siblings kids loved Stephen, he'd always do magic tricks for them and make them laugh, he'd even play fight with some of them, and watching Stephen lose to a 6 year old was always funny to Ant, and kind of cute. Ant's noticed over the last year or so, how good The younger man is with kids.

As Ant went to say something, his 5 year old nephew Ethan came bursting in, as he ran over to the pair, who were still half asleep. He instantly jumped onto their bed, as he landed on Stephen's stomach, which definitely woke the younger man up, and Ant looked over and laughed. "Come on uncle Ant and uncle Stephen!" He said pulling on the boys arms trying to get them out of the bed. "Okay Ethan, we'll be there now" Ant said as Stephen was still holding his arm across his stomach, huffing a laugh.

Ant and Stephen got together when Ethan was around 3 years old. So Stephen is the only person he's known Ant to be dating, and he barley even understands it. But he absolutely adores Stephen, and since about 6 months ago, he's started calling Stephen 'uncle Stephen' which melts both Ant and Stephens hearts.

Ethan smiled and ran out of the room and back downstairs, as Ant sat up, the younger man turned and laid facing Ant as he wiped the sleep out of his eyes, the older man laughed "I swear to god, that kid likes you more than me" Ant and his family always joke that Ethan likes Stephen more than he does Ant. Stephen laughed as he stood up and grabbed his hoodie, as motioned for Ant to hurry up. "You know he'll just come running back up"

Ant reluctantly got out of bed and made his way over to Stephen, he gave him a quick kiss and then they made their way down stairs.

As they get to the living room they could see the kids running round the living room looking at the different sized presents, and seeing who's was who's. The boys made their way into the kitchen, to see Ant mother, and two sisters sitting by the counter drinking tea and coffee. "Morning love" Ant's mother said as Ant nodded to her.

Ant's sister, Emma, smiled at the boys as she took her mug over to the kitchen sink. "Ethan wake you up?" She asked, as Stephen looked over at her laughing to himself. "Yep. By jumping on my stomach" he explained, trying to hold back the little laugh, but failed as everyone laughed along. Christine put a cup of tea in front of Ant and Stephen, and they all continued to chat for a while, until the kids came running in, pulling on the adults arms, wanting to open presents.

*TIME SKIP*

The kids had finally finished opening their presents, and they all loved them. They had gone off playing with all their toys, the adults had be given their presents, Ant had got Stephen a personalised pack of playing cards because he hadn't had a new pack in years, so he could do magic a lot more often now, and Stephen had given Ant a Newcastle united goalies shirt signed by the teams goalie Rob Elliot. The smile on both of their faces when they opened their presents, was massive. They both equally loved the present they were given.

They weren't planning on doing much today, mainly just staying in the house, later on they were hoping to go for a walk, just the two of them. But other than that they were just going to chill for the day.

*TIME SKIP*

Everyone had just finished eating Christmas dinner, and Ant and Stephen were getting ready for their walk, Stephen was waiting in the kitchen for Ant and the older man was grabbing his jacket, when Ethan came running over with a hopeful smile on his face. "Hey Ethan, you alright?" Ant asked the kid as he smiled up at Ant "what do you need?" Ant asked, laughing nervously, as he was putting his jacket on. "Can I come with you and uncle Stephen?" Ethan asked, with a huge smile on his face, which melted Ants heart. Ant kneeled down to the kid and smiled "Go and ask uncle Stevie" Ant said with a smile knowing that Stephen would say yes, he always says yes. He just loves the relationship that Stephen has made with Ants family, and especially with his nieces and nephews.

Ethan ran into the kitchen with a huge smile on his face and jumped in front of Stephen.

"Hey kid, you alright" Stephen said as he picked Ethan up and placed him on his side. "Uncle Ant said to ask you if I could come with you guys on your walk?" Ethan asked with a smile, as Stephen huffed out a laugh "did he now?" Ethan nodded slowly, with a cheeky smirk on his face, Stephen laughed and just nodded at Ethan "course you can buddy" Ethan was so happy now, he jumped out of Stephens arms to go get ready to leave.

Stephen smiled as the kid ran out of the kitchen, he turned to face Ants sister, who he was having a conversation with prior to Ethan bursting in, Emma looked at Stephen with a grin, and Stephen returned her glance with a confused expression. "You know Ethan really likes you" Stephen huffed out a laugh, just as he was about to take a sip of his tea. "I like Ethan, he's a good kid" Stephen responded.

Stephen doesn't get to spend much time with his siblings kids, he doesn't live very close to his brother and sister, and obviously Vinny and Stephen don't exactly have the most healthy relationship, so that's out of the picture. So the fact that Ant's family doesn't care about the fact he's gay, or doesn't make sure their kids stay away from him incase they 'turn gay' too, makes Stephen feel comfortable, and the last day or so has really helped Stephen keep his mind off the fact he just had, probably the biggest argument with his dad. Because even when he and his dad don't agree on something, or when they did get into arguments, Stephen has never yelled at his dad about anything, so yesterday was a first and Stephen doesn't like the fact that his dad completely ignored what had been happening between him and his brother and still tried to get him to talk to Vinny. He never does that and he's usually very respectful of Stephen and his decisions, even if he didn't agree.

Ant and Stephen were walking around the block, with Ethan sitting on Ant's shoulders, half asleep, and less than 5 minutes later, he was sleeping whilst Ant slowly moved him from his shoulders to his waist.

Ant had been in deep thought for the last 10 minutes or so, which Stephen noticed almost instantly and as they were making their way back to Ant's mothers house, Stephen decided to ask about it.

"What you thinking about" the younger man asked, loud enough for Ant to hear, but not so loud as to wake up Ethan, and as Ant snapped out of his thoughts he looked over at Stephen "huh? Oh- nothing" Ant replied, as Stephen huffed out a laugh. "Didn't look like nothing, come on, tell me"

Ant looked back and forth from Stephen and the path ahead of them, he smiled to himself as he saw than, in the corner of his eye, moving to get comfortable on Ants waist. "Oh, I don't know, just thinking about the future" the older man finally said with a grin "todays made me think... a lot" Stephen wasn't sure whether the thoughts were good or not, and all of a sudden got very nervous, which Ant could detect, so he explained further. "Like what Christmas' with our kids will be like, and..." he trailed off, thinking to himself before speaking "and how good you are with kids" Ant smiled at the younger man, making him blush.

They were coming up to the door of Ant's mothers house, and as Ant passed Ethan off to Stephen so that he could open the door, the older man said "but that's the future, we've got a bit of time before then"

Stephen looked to the floor smiling to himself knowing that the future, might be closer than Ant realises.