Strings Attached (lashton, editing)

Epilogue Three.

This is a long one, it's also the final one.

-

As Luke grew more and more pregnant, Ashton grew more and more fretful of his husband. Every time Luke would leave the house or get off the couch to do something for himself Ashton would be right by his side to make sure nothing happened. 

"Ash, sweetheart, I'm fine. Please let me at least walk up the stairs on my own," Luke huffed out. He was trying to get ready for work, it was his last day before he took maternity leave to wait for their little baby to arrive, and all he wanted to do was get dressed. 

"But what if you fall and hurt yourself or hurt them?" Ashton was refusing to stop following Luke around, even as the older man grumbled on and on about it. "I just wanna make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine, they're fine. I promise," Luke turned and cupped his hands around Ashtons face who was standing just a step below him. "I don't know if you forgot, but I've done this before." 

"I know, but I haven't and I worry," Ashton huffed out. Luke could see the terror in the younger mans eyes as he stared at him, he knew that terror; he'd felt it all before he had Tim. He'd been constantly worried he'd accidentally do something to hurt his baby,  that when the baby came he wouldn't be able to handle it. However, once that baby arrived and was in his arms he just knew he would do everything in his power to care for and protect the small boy. 

"I know sweetheart," Luke slowly lowered his body down in front of his husband so he was sitting on one of the steps. "We've got this, I promise you we will be okay. You're going to be the best father there ever was to this little baby."

"Are you sure?" Ashton's eyebrows were furrowed as he gnawed on his bottom lip. He looked almost like a child again, almost like he was nineteen again and being left alone with Tim for the first time. 

"I promise you," Luke smiled as he leant forward to wrap his arms around his husband and press a sweet kiss to his lips. 

Ashton, being the absolute worrisome one of the two, just nodded his head at Luke's words. He eventually allowed his husband to leave his tight grip and cautious eyes, feeling somewhat assured that both Luke and his baby would never come under harm. 

-

"Two," Ashton breathed as he looked down at the little baby sleeping in his arms. "For nine months we thought we were getting one little baby, and now we have two."

"I know," Luke breathed out from his spot on the hospital bed. 

Two weeks after Luke had gone on maternity leave, he had gone into labour. Everyone had thought he was going to carry full term, but there he was with two babies two weeks before he was supposed to give birth. 

When the doctor took out their first baby, a tiny little girl, both men had sighed a relief and had felt the tears well in their eyes at the thought of their little baby finally coming into the world. But when the doctor told Ashton he had a second umbilical cord to cut for their even tinier baby boy, the two men had started to truly cry. 

Never once had someone said anything to them about two babies, one of the two having managed to hide away during each of their doctors visits. 

"So, I guess we're using both the boy and girl names we'd decided on huh?" Ashton spoke again, looking over to the little boy in his husbands arms. 

"I guess so," Luke looked up from the boy in his arms to his husband. "We have our two little babies, can you believe it?" 

"Not in the slightest," Ashton laughed. He stood up to move next to his tired husband. "Our little Mateo and Julia."