Love after Five

Chapter 18

      Kin and Teum dragged Bright into their bedroom once they arrived back home.
      "Here's our bedroom. We've got lots of toys and we have bunk beds. Aren't they cool?" Kin asked, holding Bright's hands in his.
      "Cool! I wish I had bunk beds." Bright said. Their room was larger than hers and decorated in blues and greens, a huge dinosaur mural painted on one wall. "That's so awesome!" She said pointing at the wall.
      "Our mom painted it." Teum said. "We love dinosaurs."
      "So are Uncle Tul and Uncle Max going to get married?" Kin asked, sitting cross legged on the rug on the floor and grabbing a box of legos dumping them on the ground. Bright crouched down next to him and began to sort through them.
        "I don't know." Bright said.
        "Do you want them to?" Kin asked.
        "I don't know." She said. "Would I get to be a flower girl? I saw one in a movie once and she got to wear a pretty dress, and I like pretty dresses."
         "I don't know. I've never been to a wedding." Kin said.
         "Well I want to be a flower girl." Bright declared, sticking a piece of Lego together emphatically.
The twins mother came into the bedroom, wiping her hands on a tea towel.
"Hey kids, let's put on our pjs, and we can have ice cream and watch a movie."
"Hey momma?" Kin asked.
"Yes sweetie?"
"Are Uncle Max and Uncle Tul getting married?" Their mother looked momentarily stunned by their query.
"Uhm, I'm not sure. Why?" She asked.
"I want to be a flower girl!" Bright said. "I want to wear a pretty dress and have flowers in my hair."
"Well, I'm sure you can wear a pretty dress and flowers in your hair regardless sweetie. Now let's get our pjs on shall we? How do we feel about the lion king?"

    At around midnight Max roused himself from sleep, looking over at Tul who was sleeping contentedly, his bare torso exposed in the dim light. He took a moment to gently caress his back, and then got out of bed to get a drink of water, and a cup to put next to Tul in case he woke up early.
      His phone was sitting on the couch where he'd apparently tossed it earlier, and he picked it up, seeing there were several text messages.
Well that's odd. He thought to himself. He didn't usually get many texts on the weekend.
     The first was from Neung who had texted a picture of Bright and the twins sitting on the couch and eating ice cream in their pyjamas.
   Bright told me she wants to be your flower girl. I guess she's already decided you two should get married. The text read. Max grinned and shook his head. He saved the picture to his phone to show Tul later.
I'll have to get a nice picture of the three of us to use for my phone background. And to hang on the walls here. He thought to himself as he clicked the next message. It was from the school secretary, an older woman who had never once in his memory texted him.
I've had some teachers contact me concerned about something they heard about you. Please call me tomorrow so we can get this cleared up.
Max frowned. He'd never once had any sort of issue that parents would bring up with Mrs. Pattrisvat, he'd always been very careful to keep his personal and his private life separate... well until he'd started dating Tul, but there wasn't really any reason why anyone would know or contact his secretary about it. He decided to worry about that later, and clicked on the next one, which was from his mother.
Hi sweetheart. It was very nice seeing you and nong'Tul again today. Bright is so sweet too. I'm happy you finally told us that you liked men, we never would have suspected but we love you and support you always. Tell Tul he's always welcome in our house and should call me Mom like you do. He seems like a very nice man.
He smiled before reading the next text from her.
Your father wants to know if you've always liked men or if this is a new thing. I told him it doesn't matter but you know your father. He gets questions in his mind and can never let it go. He had way more questions but that was the least stupid. Prepare for the inquisition the next time you come over.
He laughed and clicked back for the next one, from Nong'Heart from school.
Hi sir, I had a student's parent contact me about your private life raising concerns. I didn't know if I should contact you but I didn't want you to get blindsided or anything. Apparently a few mothers in the group chat have a rumour that you seduced a parent or something. They made it seem very salacious and inappropriate, and I'm worried because I know that it could affect you if it get out of hand rumour or not. I was just really worried and didn't want you to suddenly have parents coming after you.
Max frowned. A salacious and inappropriate seduction? He looked back at the open bedroom door. How did anyone know about him and Tul? Mind you, he wouldn't consider their relationship to be salacious or inappropriate but he knew how bigoted some people could be.
Could this be why Mrs. Pattrisvat had texted me too? He wondered. While he had no shame about his private life, and knew it was above board, he really didn't want this to effect the reputation of his school if it got out of hand.
Tul suddenly emerged from the bedroom fully nude, scratching his head. Max smiled at his sleepy inhibition.
"Are you okay babes?" Max asked, tossing his phone back on the couch. "You aren't normally one to wake up in the middle of the night."
"I need to pee." Tul said with a big yawn.
"That way big boy." Max laughed, directing him toward the bathroom. Tul sleepily nodded, padding down the hall and going into the bathroom, not even bothering to shut the door before beginning.
"We're going to be one of those couples huh?" Max called out. Tul leaned backwards looking around the doorframe.
"What?" He asked, his voice coated with sleep.
"Nothing baby, nothing at all." Max replied, shaking his head.

Bright suddenly woke up, her heart pounding in her chest. She sat up suddenly, scared of something she couldn't articulate.
"What's the matter?" Kin asked from next to her on the floor. Auntie Neung had laid out tatami mats on the floor and each of the twin had decided to sleep on either side of her in the living room.
"I had a bad dream." She said.
"Don't worry. I'll hold your hand while we sleep so that you feel safe." Kin said.
"Why would you do that?" She said, confused.
"Well Uncle Max loves Uncle Tul which means we're family, and family has to take care of each other and help each other and love each other. My mommy used to hold my hand when I had a bad dream, and it made me feel better, so maybe it'll make you feel better too."
His little hands curled around hers and Bright laid back down, sighing. His hand was making her feel better, and she slowly fell back asleep.

Neung came to check on the kids, smiling when she saw Bright and Kin holding hands above the covers, Teum had his leg crossed over her ankle. It was absolutely adorable and she grabbed her phone to take a picture, smiling at it as she attached it to a text to Max and sent it.
"What are you doing honey?" Her husband Johk asked, coming up behind her and putting his arms around her waist, chuckling at the three sleeping children.
"I was just checking on the kids after I fed Gold." She explained. "Don't they look cute?"
"Kids always look so angelic when they aren't awake and being chaotic huh?" Johk said with a chuckle.
"Bright is such a nice kid. Such a shame about her family. I'm so happy for Max too. He and Tul seem really well matched, and I know how happy he is."
"You knew he was gay?" Johk asked. "That was quite a blindside for the rest of us."
"Sorry I didn't tell you, but you know I'd never out anyone, not even to you." She replied.
"No it's fine. I'm just worried about if his school finds out, I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him, he loves running the school and he loves kids. But people..." Johk sighed.
"People can be absolute assholes." Neung finished for him, shutting the door to the kids room as quietly as possible. "I'm not too worried. Max is a good, honest man who's never done anything inappropriate in his life. Even as a child he was so annoyingly perfect. He'll always come out on top." She said with a laugh.
"I hope for his sake you're right." Johk replied. "Let's go back to bed so the kids don't run us ragged tomorrow morning."