The Curran Sea

Beard Genes

Alfred said he wanted to be there, for the meeting with his great grandfather.
   "I do not think it wise." Before his son could object, he continued "But you are an adult. I am not as free to say what you can, or cannot do."
   He lightly punched his father's arm. "Dam--darned straight."
   They hugged, as tightly as he dared, with both of the lab's residents injured, and then Alf left for the day. It was growing late, and the others would notice his absence.
   The night was rough, but Ibrahim only had to restart his infant son's heart once. That was progress.
   Up top, the Smith kids were updating their siblings. More accurately, the lack of an update, which made Nina growl, and Nero pine to join them.
   When they hung up, Liam asked Shawn how likely it was that they would be able to keep any of their secrets.
   The tallest Smith blinked. "We know secrets?"
   Cara snorted. "You think we show just anyone the smithy?"
   "Edi Sub?" Edison added. "I am very protective of my baby."
   Alfred, mostly dry, and changed for bed, said "Curran privilege, kiddos. You've got it, to an extent."
   "Kiddos?" Shawn scoffed. "I've got ten months on you, young'un."
   Alfie and the grand twins grinned. "Yeah, but we grow faster'n y'all do, the first year of life. We might be nineteen, and fifteen, respectively, but I am, developmentally speaking, twenty five, and they are basically eighteen."
   The Smith kids, more human than they, didn't know what to do with that information. It was, predictably, Shawn who bounced back first.
   "Then how come you don't have a beard?" He rubbed his stubble, which was very audible, with the Curran genes.
   Pierre raised a hand. "Though I have your father as a base template, that is what I was, as Liam says, 'working with,' beforehand."
   The clone in question shrugged. "I don't miss the beard as much as I thought I would." He rubbed his smooth cheeks. "Though I would have liked to play around with shaping... But hey, I don't have to shave every day to be this chiseled, so there's that."
   Alfie half shrugged. "I can grow a little, but it's all patchy, so I do shave. Dad said..." He caught himself. "He said I might have to wait for it to grow in better, before I had a beard like him. This was back at the old house, though." He didn't have to work hard to find a few tears. The latest upset to his equilibrium was still fresh. Besides, Ibrahim had told him that his beard genes were uncertain, when he was a child.
   "I hadn't made up my mind whether or not I wanted one, yet. I'm still not sure, but... it can wait. There are more important things than facial hair."
   Judah joked to the contrary, as did Shawn. Liam agreed with Alfred. The grand twins, who also didn't seem to have inherited strong beard genes, were undecided, as well.
   They had to admit, the hairless Curran boys, that it would be nice to have something to stroke when they thought, as Judah was known to do. As their father was known to. Even Jonah was showing signs of future growth, at seventeen.
   They did tease Shawn, when he tried to mimic the gesture, with two days' worth of stubble, but none of it was malicious. He took it all in stride, calling them jealous.
   "When did Papa start to grow his beard?" Jamie asked. He patted his lighter whiskers, self-consciously. Though there were more follicles per square inch than Alfred could grow, it was not as dense as his brother's was.
   Judah reached to pat his knee. "Do not compare yourself to him, Jamie. To me, either, I suppose. Well, definitely not me, 'cause I 'sprang forth' with an unfair advantage, on the beard front."
   When the laughter died down, Ed said that Ibrahim had had Shawn's growth at Jamie's age; a full, if short, beard by college.
   "As if it wasn't already hard enough to feel manly around the guy," he grumbled. "Sorry for the baby face, kids." He shrugged, flicked a glance at his twins carefully, but mostly aimed it at Jonah. "Your dad did the best he could, but all I could ever scrounge together was a goatee. Since it was blue, I sort of gave up. Looked like a muppet."
   The twins caught his glance at them, the plural of "kids". Their wide eyes darted between their biological father, and their adoptive fathers, but none of them seemed overly bothered by the slip. Was it a slip? Did he know?
   It was Aiden who asked, when they were walking home.
   Pierre must've told Liam already, because he had already made his peace with it.
   "Ed never did get into the whole dad thing," Liam said quietly. "I think he would've preferred it this way, had he been given the choice. Don't get me wrong, he does love you kids. All five of you. He never showed an ounce of feeling for his other kids, but throw in Ibro genes, and suddenly..." He thought for a while, looking out at the water. "They really are as tight as brothers, those two. Would do anything for each other."
   "It is no wonder that he would gift the one Curran who could not carry a pod his own two sons," Pierre said softly, hand resting on the taller man's back.
   "I could now, but..." He looked down at the boys. "I guess I never needed to, did I?"
   Andrew asked if he'd ever thought about trying, in his new body.
   "Of course. Thought you might want a baby sister. I never got around to it, is all," he lied.