forgot to post this after fridays queue but finally got an updated family photo🥳💛

greg and his new other dad

“You like it,” Lysander answered, sticking his cigarette between his teeth, phone already opened to his Uber app. “Is this your way of telling me you 𝘥𝘰 want kids?” “This is my way of telling you I wanna go home and fuck you till you’re—” “𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺!”

Lysander shook his head though. “Randy thinks I can’t get you pregnant, but I’m gonna try real hard anyway.” Choking on his own spit, Max burst into laughter. “There’s something so fucking wrong with you!”

‘Work trip’ was Max’s very nice way of saying ‘planned assassination’. He didn’t have many details about it, but he knew Lysander and Ren would be gone for a few weeks, if not more. It would be the first time the two had been separated since Max had returned.

Lysander nodded. “We can get an Uber or something. Let them eat whatever Mom’s cooking, I wanna spend time with you.” He couldn’t help the smile that crept onto his face. “Is this because you’re leaving on your ‘work trip’ soon?”

Max squinted. “Right now?” Lysander nodded. “Birdie wanted to feed us,” he started with a shrug, “but sure, lemme go get everyone else—” “No,” Lysander cut in. “Just us.” Max blinked. “You wanna leave them here?”

“I’m sorry, baby…” His husband shook his head, retrieving his cigarette once more. Taking a drag, he knocked his shoulder into Max’s, and on the exhale he asked, “Wanna go home?”

“My head hurts,” he answered finally, “There are too many people here. I want to lay down.” Max nodded, chest tight. He’d thought about canceling before they’d even left the apartment that morning, had known when Lysander insisted he was fine with going it was because Max wanted to go.

And then he blew a lungful of smoke into Max’s face, trapping him somewhere between coughing and laughing. “Fucking hell—!” he choked out, “Is that a no then?” Lysander shrugged, letting Max take the cigarette from his fingers when he reached for it.

“You okay?” Max had asked it already well aware of the answer, but he thought it was better to ask than to assume. When Lysander turned to meet his eye, he looked nothing short of exhausted.

My spotify has been dedicated to Lysander and Lysander alone for like four years now (except hamilton hi babe how’d you get in there)

He stood. Excused himself from the table. Motioned for Max to come with him. “Where are you and your wide innocent eyes going?” Miranda called after him obnoxiously. “To smoke, ugly bitch!” he yelled back. His mother gasped in horror, but Miranda was cackling.

Lysander closed his eyes as his uncle spoke. It felt like listening to stories of another child, someone he’d never met. If they had met, it had been a long time since, the memories bricked behind a wall with everything else he didn’t care to recall.

Cy turned to give his nephew a grin, Lysander answering with a good natured nod. “He was always a sweet kid though. Even when he was making trouble, you could never be mad at him for it because he’d look at you with these wide, innocent eyes and suddenly you’d forget he’d done anything wrong.”

“So I’m trying to give him a hug, because it’s time to go already and I won’t be back until Thanksgiving, and this little shit starts kicking me! Screaming ‘get lost!’ like he hasn’t been glued to my hip since he learned to walk!” Sasha was cracking up, Miranda shaking her head as if unsurprised.

And it made sense. To Lysander anyway. Nico’s reasons for living would continue on right beside him. Cyprus’ would not.

Cyprus’ mortality was a touchy subject, something the family didn’t dare discuss, not with Nico in the room; the fact that one day his baby brother would die and Nico never would. Immortality was an offer he’d refused many times though.

Grey streaked through orange hair he’d cut short at some point since Lysander had seen him last, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he laughed at his own story. The lines in his forehead had begun with the twins, but Zinnia and the years that had passed raising his children had deepened them.

He didn’t look a day older than he had when his wife had given him a piece of her own immortality. Perpetually a mid-twenty something year old. It didn’t cross Lysander’s mind for a moment that it had been two decades since then. Not until he looked at his uncle anyway.

It was easy to forget how old his father was, especially when his age seemed so inconsequential in comparison to his mother’s. He wasn’t eight hundred years old the way Birdie was, so surely he wasn’t that old at all?

“Hey, bud, happy birthday!” There wasn’t enough time for Lysander to even acknowledge what had been said before Leith shouted, “Sandy and Max got married!” Uncle Cy blinked. “Oh…”

It was a voice Lysander knew as well as his own but hadn’t heard regularly in several years at that point—through nobody’s fault but his own, he knew that. Still, there was something strange about turning and finding his Uncle Cyprus approaching them.

Aby, face as stony as usual, simply shook her head. Turning to Max, she squinted at the guilty smile he gave her. “I expected better from you.” “What?!” “What happened?” someone asked from behind the group.

“And you didn’t feel the need to tell anyone?!” his brother demanded, their parents simply staring wide eyed from behind him. “I’m not surprised, he hates us!” Sasha yelled, stamping her foot petulantly.

when she bikinis on my bottom or whatever the kids these days would say

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?!”

He’d said it to shut them up, and it did exactly that, but only for a moment. “What? What are you talking about?” “I proposed the first night we were in Sulani. Finished the paperwork when we got home.”

Lysander rolled his eyes, but Max’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Who said we were having kids? You want kids?” Grinning, Miranda opened her mouth, no doubt to say something stupid, but Lysander cut her off before she could. “Max and I 𝘢𝘳𝘦 married.”

Reading over his shoulder, Ren snorted. “It’s not that fucking funny.” “What isn’t?” Max asked, glancing up at them. Instead of answering him, Ren told his brother, “No children before marriage. It’s impure.”

[no matter how hard you try, you cant get that boy pregnant] [not how it works] He turned to shoot her an incredulous glare and Miranda shrugged innocently. [just lettin you know big dawg]

Leith was easily won and quick to trust, so it hadn’t taken long for him to decide he loved Max. Max still carried the same love he had had the day Leith was born though. Had never stopped loving him, not in death or anything beyond it. You could see it in his eyes when he looked at the boy.

Like a dog or a needy plant, Leith needed to go outside at least once a day or he thought he’d die. Not that Lysander could say he minded—it was an excuse to watch Max run around with him.

His father smiled, but Lysander was saved from the risk of the conversation getting any sappier by Leith racing back into the living room, shoes on his feet and the hat Max had been wearing on his head. “Let’s go already!” he exclaimed, “Everyone else is ready to go!”

The lighter was black, gold engravings decorating the sides. Obviously far nicer and far more expensive than the one he currently carried. “Maxi said you’d been getting back into music a bit and… I know you’ll never 𝘯𝘰𝘵 need a lighter,” Nico explained hesitantly. “Thanks, Dad.”

Begrudgingly, Lysander accepted the gift his father had been fiddling with. Lifting the lid of the little box, he found a lighter tucked into the paper, a pack of new guitar picks beneath it.

“I know you don’t need us for every little thing like you did when you were little… you certainly don’t need us to protect you anymore,” he muttered with a chuckle. “But… it would be nice to be needed every once in a while. Even if it’s just for presents on your birthday.”

The girls knew better, had had their paycheck threatened if they tried it, but there was really nothing that could be done about his parents. “You haven’t let us do anything for you in years,” his father murmured, gift in hand as he joined his son on the couch, careful to leave space between them.

Despite the fact that anyone and everyone who knew it was his birthday had been told numerous times that Lysander did not want gifts and would not accept gifts, there was still a present to open when they had finished with the cake.

yall think birdie knows her children grew up to be evil?

got my entire back tatted on monday and this bitch itches so bad I’m ready to beat a man to death

“These have been the longest twenty three years of my life, but I would do every single one of them over ten times for you, baby boy.” Lysander breathed a laugh. “I love you too, Mamma.”

When he had, their mother reached out, waiting for permission the way she had seen Max do before cupping his face. Her smile was tight, but her eyes overflowed with pride. “My sweet baby,” she crooned as he leaned into her touch.

Leith and their father competing to see who could sing louder, Ren laughed and sang along with the rest of his family, but he knew his brother was chewing a hole in his cheek. Still, he forced a smile, taking a second to pretend he was making a wish before blowing out the candles.

“Lysie, we finished frosting the cake, do you wanna do your candles now or later?” their mother called. The look on Lysander’s face said he’d rather have killed himself if that was an option, but he did a good job of hiding it, pushing himself up from the couch. “We can do it now.”

“You sure?” He didn’t answer at first, as if still trying to decide, but when he did he nodded, sighing. “Yeah… nothing worse than usual. I’ll take some more medicine later.” Ren let the conversation drop there. Lysander was trying, that was really all he could ask of him.

Ren dropped himself onto one of the new couches, Lysander already there waiting for him, his phone in his hand but seemingly forgetten. “How’s your head?” “Fine,” his brother lied. And then, remembering who he was talking to, he corrected himself. “Manageable.”

Not all of the change was bad either. The girls’ laughter joined his mother’s, new mixing seamlessly with the old. Leith had climbed into Sasha’s arms, squealing as she danced around with him. When Max let go of Aby it was so she could curl into Benji’s chest, giggling about how dizzy she was.