we don't care [muke af]

forty one

forty one

Luke could hear the front door unlocking and he was bursting with excitement. He stood up from the couch, steadying his feet and very, very slowly making his way to the foyer in time to see the Clifford parents.

"This is home, welcome," Michael said, keeping the door open for them.

Ms. Clifford dropped her bags, automatically going straight to Luke to hug him. Side-hug him. "You've got so big! Oh, my!" She looked up at Luke, seeing him smiling, too. "Can I feel?"

"Mom, leave him alone." Michael closed and locked the front door. He took his father's coat, hanging it in the hall closet. He didn't even know he had a hall closet.

Ms. Clifford already had her hands on Luke's stomach, feeling the top of the bump. "Oh, my God. I remember when you were just a little thing." She stood up, facing her son. "You weren't kidding when you said he got big."

Mike smiled a proud smile. "Yeah, he's getting there." He lead them all to the living room, he mostly wanted Luke to sit down and stay. They were nearing forty weeks and Michael didn't like Luke moving around when he didn't need to.

"This place is a mess, Michael." His mother picked up books laying around on the couch, putting them away in a nearby bookshelf. "Do you ever clean?"

"Stop touching everything," he scolded from the kitchen.

Luke gave Michael's mother a smile. He looked up when Michael came back into the room, his hands full of Luke's favorite tea and bowls of popcorn.

"We forgot to go grocery shopping."

"This is why Luke is so small!" Ms. Clifford took the popcorn, regardless.

"You were telling me how big he was two minutes ago." Michael sat close to Luke, as if protecting him from his mother trying to feel his stomach once more. He rested his arm around Luke's shoulder, his fingers mindlessly pulling at Luke's torn tee shirt collar.

It was New Years Eve and everything finally felt calm. The Cliffords were supposed to arrive two days prior, but snow and ice and planes refusing to take off delayed them. It was hectic and stressful but ended up alright.

Everything ends up alright.

Luke knew he wasn't going to make it to midnight. He was barely able to make it past nine o'clock most nights. He had his eyes closed, his nose tucked into the crook of Michael's neck.

He was content, the voices of Michael and his mother going back and forth, the hum of the television, the buzz of the heater. Luke believes that he has found his happy place.

Everyone is looking for their happy place, and Luke knows that tucked in Michael's arms is his happy place. He liked the feeling of one of Mike's hands on his stomach, the other rubbing circles on his shoulder.

Luke knows that when Michael leans down, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead, that he is sure that this is his forever.

It's a new year. In one year, he would like to believe he'll be in the same place, except their baby in his arms.

He doesn't want anything to change, he just wants everything to get better.