Give Me Hope

Stoffel grinned as his phone buzzed. He knew exactly who it was from, he'd been waiting to hear from Kevin all night.

Unlocking his phone, he opened the Messages app and instantly his heart dropped to his feet.

From; Kevin
This needs to end, I don't love you anymore. We're breaking up.
Seen 18:43

Stoffel reread the text several times, hand covering his mouth as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

"Stoff?" A voice asked, and the Belgian quickly wiped his eyes and looked down at the owner of the voice.

Sergey, the elder of the twins he had been asked to babysit that evening, had somehow managed to clamber up onto the sofa (though Stoffel assumed from the brown eyes peeking up at him from the floor, his younger brother had something to do with it) and had crawled over to rest his arms on Stoffel's leg.

"Yes, Serg?" The Belgian gave him a small smile.

"Why're you sad?"

"It's just some bad news, it's nothing to worry about." He dismissed.

"Waffle sad!" Lance declared as he pulled himself onto the sofa cushions with the help of his brother. "Is nothing if Waffle sad!"

Which reminded Stoffel of why he loved babysitting the Williams' kids.

Sergey climbed into Stoff's lap and looked at the message on the phone.

"Who's Kefin?" The elder asked.

"He's my boyfriend, well was." Stoffel shrugged as Lance leaned over his shoulder. "Lance, how did you get up there?" He turned to the brown-haired twin who was sprawled spread-eagle out on the top of the sofa.

"Was easy." The younger shrugged, looking at his brother.

"Kefin made Stoff cry." Sergey frowned and grabbed the phone. "I'm gonna give 'im a piece o' my mind!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean- LANCE!"

Lance had slipped off the back of the couch and stumbled on wobbly legs towards the cabinet, tugging the slightly ajar door open.

The toddler grabbed the small training baseball bat out of the cupboard and toddled over to the door.

Stoffel jumped up from the sofa, dislodging Sergey who let out an indignant yelp and scrambled to stay on the sofa.

"I'm gonna beat up the jerk that hurt you!" Lance exclaimed as he shuffled towards the door.

Stoffel scooped him up and eased the bat out of his grasp, putting it back in the cupboard.

"That's very sweet, but it's not worth it, honestly."

He sat back down on the couch and Sergey handed him the phone with a massive grin which made Stoffel groan internally, knowing the blonde had used the time during his brother's distraction to send something to Kevin.

From; Stoffel
You made Waffle cry. Get ready for venge.
Sent 18:50

His phone buzzed with a reply, which Stoffel was quite surprised at.

From; Kevin
Either you're drunk, or one of those brats has gotten hold of your phone. In any case, don't talk to me again. We're through.
Seen 18:54

Stoffel bit his lip, hearing the growls of the twins on either side of him. He went into his contacts and deleted Kevin's number.

"There, you don't have to worry about him." He told the boys, who were now stretched out half over his lap, half over the sofa.
"Do you want to watch a movie before your parents get back?"

"YES!" The two shrieked, and Stoffel turned on the Netflix box Sergio and Esteban had installed for nights like these.

The boys curled up on the sofa either side of Stoffel, their heads resting on his chest as Coco played on the screen.

And that's how Sergio and Esteban found them two hours later, fast asleep on the sofa, the twins using Stoffel as a pillow and Netflix open on the TV.

Sergio took the twins to bed while Esteban laid Stoff out on the sofa bed and covered him with a blanket from the cupboard. They didn't mind, the young Belgian had particularly joined their family.

It didn't matter that Stoff had Uni the next morning, or he didn't get to complete that assignment the night before and had to hand in some regurgitated garbage just to avoid a detention (he'd email his professor a better one later in the week after a thorough chewing out), all that mattered was the boys that gave him hope.