U-N-I Ch. 32 - Coming Home Pt. 02

He shook his head and stood up to face me, his face was filled with more annoyance and anger.

"Putain, il y en a sérieusement marre de tes conneries, ca n'arrête pas. Ca fait dix ans que je devrais être débarrassé de toi mais t'as beau être parti, tu continues de m'emmerder tous les jours, on a failli être obligé de déménager à cause de toi!"

I couldn't help but let out a satisfied chuckle. He had just told me that even though I'd been gone for ten years, I was still a nuisance to him everyday and that they almost had to move out because of me.

"Tes fier de toi?!" he said, asking if I was proud of myself.

"You bet I am!" I said with a smug smile.

I wasn't going to apologize for being successful. I knew what he was complaining to me about - the fans, the paparazzi.

It was one of the reasons why we had bought Rob's parents' a new place as soon as we had been financially able to do so - to make sure that they wouldn't be constantly bothered by fans making the pilgrimage to visit the neighbourhood and houses we had grown up in.

"C'est juste pas possible," he complained, still speaking French, which annoyed me because although I was pretty sure that Rob and my mother had understood him as well as me, his parents and Jordan couldn't understand all the bullshit that was coming out of his mouth, "Je savais que c'était une belle connerie de te laisser le garder!" he said directly to my mother and telling her right in front of me that he'd made a big mistake when he let her keep me.

"Vas y, arrête de parler en français pour qu'ils puissent pas comprendre. Si t'as quelque chose à dire, aies au moins les couilles de le dire devant tout le monde," I sneered, telling that if he had something to say, he should have the balls to say it in front everyone.

"Eh beh, tu parles encore bien Français, pour ça, t'étais pas si con, dommage que ça t'ai pas servi à grand chose! Et si j'avais eu quelque chose à te dire, je l'aurais fait depuis bien longtemps, tu connais la vérité maintenant donc que veux-tu que je te dises de plus? Je t'ai élevé, tu pourrais être un peu plus reconnaissant hein!"

I stood there, stunned that he was actually telling me that now that the truth was out, there was nothing he had to say to me, except that he thought I should be grateful that he had raised me.

"Reconnaissant? Mais reconnaissant de quoi?!" I exploded. "De pas avoir eu le droit d'exister, d'être obligé de faire tout ce que tu me disais de faire et de fermer ma gueule pour pas me faire frapper? D'être forcé de parler français. Fuck," I said, switching back to English. "Is being able to speak French something I should be grateful for? More like one more thing I was bullied into doing!"

"Putain, je t'ai élevé que je sache, j'avais pas à le faire, mais je l'ai fait, pour ta mère je l'ai fait. Tout l'argent que j'ai dépensé pour toi, pour recevoir quoi en retour? Que des emmerdes! Et en plus de ca, elle a fait de toi un pédé!"

I felt my anger rise as he told me that he didn't have to raise me but that he'd done it for my mother, he complained about having to spend money on me, only to be given nothing in return, only trouble. And on top of that, he thought I was gay because of the way my mother had raised me!

"Fuck, he should be grateful to you for all you did for him?!" Rob yelled, "Since when shouldanybody be grateful for being abused by a drunken, neglectful, ignorant cunt like you?"

"Actually, Iam grateful for something!" I shot back, "Everything I've achieved, I've achieved it to prove you fucking wrong, so thank you for being such a shitty abusive father!" I said sarcastically.

"Everything you've achieved? What have you done? You and your useless dreams...," he said in English this time, obviously he wasn't impressed by our success. I hadn't expected him to be.

"Unbeliavable," I saw Jordan mutter to Rob.

That's when Edward, Rob's dad, decided to step in. He just walked past me and pushed me aside a little.

"You foul-mouthed, drunken ass-hole, who the fuck do you think you are?" he snarled and grabbed James by the collar, totally ignoring his own expletive-filled tirade, then pushed James hard away from him, making James stumble.

"What the fuck are you doing?" James asked Rob's dad, startled.

"I told you, don't you dare speak to him ever again, fuck, I'm so ashamed I once called you my friend."

"My friend? You haven't been my friend since the day you thought you had the right to tell me how to raise my kids!" James yelled.

"You're fucking right I had the right to tell you how to raise your kid! You weren't raising him, you were putting up with him and putting him through hell!" Edward yelled back.

James rolled his eyes and let out a deep huff,

"Come on, get outta here Ed, you've said it yourself, he's your responsibilty now and I don't want anything to do with him, and he wasnever my kid!" he said spitefully with annoyance to all of us.

"Fucking hell," I couldn't help but say.

I looked at Rob, who had the exact same expression as mine on his face, astonishment, as we understood why all those years ago, after Rob and I got together, my parents had completely stopped caring about where I was or what I was doing and that Rob's dad had obviously had something to do with their seeming total neglect.

"Yeah, we're gonna go." Edward said. "We're gonna go the 3000 square feet housemy queer son and hishusband bought for his dad, something you could've had if you hadn't been such a selfish piece of shit!"

"Yeah and see that car outside," I added, "mine, bought it with our useless dreams! And our useless dreams also bought a fucking enormous apartment in London and our useless dreams bought a ten million dollar Caribbean island home."

"See if I care. I don't need your money," he said directly to me, "and neither does Amy!"

"Then I'm gonna continue buying her everything she needs and everything she wants," I told him condescendingly, "cause I've got millions in the bank and I can give her what you will never be able to give her. You see, my useless dreams have brought me everythingyou've never had, wealth, fun, friends, a great life and love. You, you're just a pathetic excuse for a man, so go back to your narrow-minded life, pig-ignorant life, drink yourself to death if you must but if Iever find out you've raised your voice let alone a hand to Amy or to my mother, my exceedingly expensive and exceptionally successful lawyers will make sure your sorry ass is hauled into court for domesticand child abuse."

Then it struck me that all the time I'd been speaking I'd also been stalking towards him and I was lookingdown on him. I'd been the same height since I was sixteen, yet he'd always seemed taller than me, probably because he'd hadall of us so emotionally cowed by his bullying nature.

"Oh, and before I forget, take a look at this," I took my phone from my pocket to show him the photo I had as my cover picture, it showed Rob and I with my French family, we were all laughing,

"See this man right here?" I pointed at the screen, "he's myreal father."

He seemed more than a little shocked as his eyes briefly settled on the screen, then he cast a quick quizzical look at my mother. It was exactly the reaction I had expected.

"And he's been more of a father to me in the two years I've known him than you ever were just like Ed always was . . . yet another thing my useless dreams have brought me, areal family, just like I hadreal parents in Rob's."

I turned to see Rob and Jordan applauding me, enormous grins plastered on their faces.

Rob held his hand out to me and this timeevery part of me wanted to take it in mine but I wanted more than that so I kissed him long and hard.

"Come on babe," I said when our lips parted, "Let's get outta here and never come back again! I'm driving."

Before leaving, I turned to my mother, she looked at me aghast so I did what I had never truly been able to do as a kid, I gave her a hug.

"Mum," I whispered. "if you ever wanna leave, I'll help you," I said and felt her nod so slightly it was almost imperceptible, "I'm sorry I came back," I added before letting go and walking out.

Rob and I didn't stick around much longer, we signed a few more autographs, took a few more selfies and then we got back into the car and drove off.

---

Dinner that night was so pleasant. Jordan arrived with Grainne and his parents, late as expected, and we all enjoyed a terrific Italian meal, somehow polishing off a few bottles of wine in the process and talking about so many different things. The meal ended with the opening of a bottle of champagne when Jordan announced his engagement to his folks, which he'd told us he'd do.

His mum became ever so slightly hysterical when Jord put Grainne's ring back on her finger and we all laughed as she told Grainne that they hadn't suspected a thing - since she hadn't been wearing it during dinner.

Rob, Jord and I played a game of poker with Rob's and Jordan's dads and talked way past midnight. I had a great time - because I was with family and the moments spent with them were always happy. The simplest things in life always gave me the most pleasure, cooking a good meal, enjoying time with my friends, being with the people I cared about the most in the world. It really was the most important thing, family, friendship, love.

"I feel like I should be thanking you," I said quietly to Rob's dad as he stood in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine - watching the flames of the fire - after we'd both been eliminated from the poker game, Grainne and the two mums were deep in wedding talk no-one was paying attention to us.

"Hey kid," he said, and I smiled that he still called me that, "I did what anyone would have done given the circumstances. You're family. That's what you do for family," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder and patting it.

"I just wish I had done it sooner," he said, as if he was regretful, "but I didn't know that he wasn't your father, until - until you were thirteen or fourteen - Jane only told me when you started staying over even more," he confessed.

I 'd always assumed that he'd known as long as Jane had and was surprised to find out that Jane hadn't even told him.

"It wasn't an easy situation to be in. But you can ask her, I'd always said to Jane, 'as soon as he turns eighteen, I don't want him stepping foot in that house anymore', he'd put you through enough, I wasn't gonna let him damage you more than he already had, physically or emotionally, you deserved better - so I just made sure he'd leave you alone, especially since, well you know.."

I nodded. I knew - since I was gay. I frowned at little,

"When did you know about Rob and I?" I asked softly with more curiosity in my voice than I had expected.

"Oh, way before he had the balls to tell me!"

I chuckled,

"Oh ok."

"Walls have ears." he smirked, "I didn't want James finding out for as long as possible. Cost me three broken ribs at the time," he said.

"What, are you serious? You fought him?" I asked, already feeling bad that he had - and that he'd got hurt because of me.

He nodded,

"It was worth it Mark, trouble is drunks are hard to put down due to being anaesthetised to the pain, but he did leave you alone!"

"If I'm not allowed to say thank you for being so caring and selfless, then I don't know what I can say."

He smiled,

"You should be proud of the man you've become. Life forced you to grow up a bit too fast but let me tell you, you're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. You've managed to come through all of that pretty much unscathed."

"Got a lot to do with you, Jane and Rob, if I have. I..."

"Do you remember what I said at your wedding?" he asked before I could continue, so I tried to recall his speech, "You and Rob, you give each other a lot of strength, and I don't know how you do it but you always seem to turn any negative into a positive."

"Well, I guess every situation is an opportunity to grow," I said.

He nodded,

"And you have grown a lot, both of you. I know you can handle anything life throws at you because of the love you have for each other. Keep doing the best you can and I promise you I'll always be there for you if you need me. You could never count on James, but you know you can always count on me so keep being strong, alright, you're doing great, I can't wait to see what you're gonna do next!" he said and gave me a warm hug before going to sit on the couch.

--

When Rob and I eventually went to bed, we cuddled and talked a little bit. Rob knew it'd upset me to talk about my parents so he steered clear of that topic - for the time being.

After a while, he settled behind me and spooned me. He kissed my shoulders and caressed my arm, chest and stomach. I was hard and so was he because the mere action of lying in bed together and touching each other was enough to give us both an erection but we didn't feel the need to do anything about it.

"How're you feeling?" he asked with care in his voice, clearly trying to give me the chance to express what I was thinking about the scene with James and my mother.

"Really good", I said, reassuring him.

I by-passed the subject I knew he really wanted me to talk about and instead began telling him about the conversation I'd had with his dad and he told me that he wasn't surprised by what he had done to protect me. He just wondered why he hadn't said anything to us at the time.

"I'm so proud of you, you know," he said, squeezing my body tight. "Don't you feel so much better now that you've had it out with him?"

I shrugged,

"I'm not giving you that satisfaction," I said and we both laughed a little.

"Fine. But I knew you could do it! We all did," he said with pride in his voice.

I turned around and my heart melted a little when I saw the loving look in his eyes.

"It's weird," I said.

"What is?"

"I feel - I dunno - all grown up!" I said, feeling quite content.

He smiled and gave a slight nod,

"I think I see what you mean."

I didn't want to talk more. It was really late and it felt like it had been areally long day. I was in no condition to have a deep and meaningful conversation about anything.

I was the first one to lean forward, my lips enveloping his. There was more passion in the way we kissed than I had expected and we began reaching behind each other's back and pressing our crotches together.

As we were kissing, a small laugh moved through Rob's lips,

"You know, I'm not sure I'm comfortable having sex with you with my parents in the house."

I chuckled,

"Nothing we haven't done before!"

"Yeah, but I'm not eighteen anymore, I don't think my dick can take over my brain as well as it did back then."

I let out a laugh,

"I think I'm too tired to even want to have sex right now to be honest," I said.

"So let's just keep making out," he suggested seductively, kissing my cheek, letting his tongue slip out a little, then moving to my chin.

I sighed as he started kissing my neck, moving down to my collarbone.

"I don't think I could ever get tired of making out with you," he told me and I opened my eyes to look at him.

He stayed quiet, contentedly gazing into my eyes. Part of me felt quite giddy as he grazed his lips against mine and we kissed again. We made out and massaged each other's bodies for a while, eventually Rob turned around and I was the one spooning him, my hand firmly rubbing his strong pectoral muscle.

"You're still hard," he murmured after a few moments.

"So? So are you -" I whispered.

"Well, make him go to sleep," he said with a giggle.

"I can't, he's got a mind of his own," I joked, nuzzling even closer to him.

"Then, tell him his best friend won't play with him tonight," he joked.

"Aw, are you trying to make him cry? Not the right thing to say to him!" I joked too.

Rob moved a little so he wouldn't feel my erection pressing against his flesh anymore and we settled down in a comfortable sleeping position. I was too exhausted to even realise I was falling asleep, all I could remember was feeling so many things. I felt love and I felt sorrow, I felt pride and I felt modesty, I felt hope and I felt a little anxiety for the future. I had always lived my life thinking that what I did could never be good enough, that I always needed to do more and to get better but that if I tried really hard, if I worked really hard, then I could get everything I wanted out of life - would that always be true? It had been thus far.

Falling asleep, Rob's body right next to mine, all I wanted was to live a life with no regrets and be happy with the person who I knew would always love me above all others.

---

"Guys I have an emergency," Rachel said as Rob opened the door to our apartment after she'd rung the bell, "Damon and I need to go to the gallery for a couple of hours, can Callum stay with you?"

"Yeah, sure he can, we're not going anywhere this morning." Rob told her, "Hey, Mag, look who's here!" he said to our two-year-old daughter.

"Yaaah," she hollered with the most adorable smile on her face when she looked up and saw Callum, who was now four and like a big brother to her.

"Yah," Rob and Callum hollered back in unison.

"We'll be back around eleven!" Rachel told us.

"Take your time, it's cool!" I told her.

She kissed Callum good-bye and picked up Magie,

"Hey beautiful," she smiled brightly and gave Magie a quick playful hug and a kiss; Magie laughed as Rachel tickled her a little and then she put her down.

I think it was fair to say that we loved each other's children as much as we loved our own. Rachel was pregnant again and expecting a girl this time, Dylan and Alicia had a three-year-old-son and Jordan and Grainne had waited a bit longer but now had a six-month-old daughter as well.

I watched as my god-son began playing with my daughter. Even though Rob and I had decided to use both our sperms and to let nature choose for us, we'd noticed as soon as she was born that, just like me, she had a tiny strawberry birthmark so high on the inside of her right thigh it was in the crease there. It didn't matter at all to me, but I knew that Rob loved the fact that she was biologically mine.

Now that she was a toddler, it was honestly hard to tell which of us was her biological dad. It all had to do with the egg donor we'd picked; Mag had some of my features, with big expressive green eyes like Rob's, a soft and cute baby face and light brown hair.

We hadn't been able to prevent paparazzi from photographing her so after weighing the pros and cons for a long time, we had finally decided to let the fans see her face and had shared a couple of pictures with her after her second birthday; it had been fun to see that people really couldn't decide whether she was mine or Rob's and everyone had a different opinion.

Her birth had been, as you would imagine, the most magical moment of our lives. I'll always remember what Rob had said when he'd first held her, because it was exactly what I was thinking too - that she looked so tiny and fragile, and perfect, andterrifying.

We had found a great surrogate through the highly reputable agency our lawyer had found for us. In the end finding her hadn't been as difficult as we'd imagined, thanks to the efficiency of the agency; she'd got pregnant on the first try and really made the whole process a lot less stressful than what we had expected and now we were blessed with an amazing little person who we loved more than words can say.

Picking a name for her hadn't been too brain racking, it had already become an option the day I had first suggested it to Rob and became self-evident as soon as we held her into our arms.