Luke walked with both his hands occupied as they were clasping onto his kids. Leon was on his left while Peach was on his right as they walked towards the preschool.
The toddlers we're excited to go back to the preschool after being away for three days, but as much as Luke wants to keep them away from this place, there were no better place he could send them to.
Both him and Ashton were working, just like their family and friends were. Either it was work or school, and that left Luke with the only choice of leaving his kids at the preschool for the day, even though he was absolutely against doing it.
Ashton thought it would be okay. He had set up a meeting with a few of the teachers so him and Luke could talk about the issues, and even though Luke had agreed to it, he didn't believe it would do any good.
He wanted to do something drastic, but Ashton had reminded him that they needed to talk and listen things through before using drastic measures.
Luke thought that his son getting seriously hurt was enough, but thanks to Ashton's calm words - and slightly more mature act - Luke had calmed down and agreed on it.
It was just for today anyway, since the meeting would be held after both him and Ashton had got out from work.
"Dad, look!" Leon said and brought Luke out of his thoughts.
"Hm? What, bud?" Luke asked and looked down at his son who was looking up at him with excited eyes.
"That's the tree I fell down from!" Leon said with an excited tone in his voice, making Luke frown.
The father turned his head and looked at the tree on the side of the preschool, and frowned even deeper when seeing that the branch that had fallen with Leon was still lying on the ground for any kid to get hurt on.
Luke clenched his jaw and nodded his head at his son before tugging his kids inside the preschool to avoid any other stuff that would tick him off.
As they entered the building, Luke sighed when seeing some of the parents still there saying goodbye to their kids. Luke secretly despised all the parents on this preschool, since they had always spoken badly about him behind his back.
He didn't understand it though. Just because he was young and still slightly immature didn't mean he was a bad father. He had actually grown to think he was a quite amazing one, so the words they spoke didn't set on him.
"Dad, I can't take off my shoes if you keep holding my hand" Peach spoke and Luke shook his head to get himself out of his thoughts once again before smiling down at Peach sweetly.
"Sorry, cutie" he said and released her hand so she could sit down and take off her shoes and jacket. He did the same thing with Leon, but the small boy was only fixated on his cast.
"Start taking off your shoes, bud. You'll be late if you don't" Luke spoke as he looked at the clock and tapped his foot against the floor in a stressed matter when seeing his work was starting very soon.
"He has two kids now? God, the youth these days never seem to use protection" one of the mothers said form further away and Luke already knew they were talking about him without checking.
He just rolled his eyes and ignored their looks as he crouched down and smiled at his two kids. "Have a nice day, okay? Don't let anyone bring you down, and be safe. Take care of each other and later me and dad will pick you up around 2:30, okay?"
The two toddlers nodded their heads before Luke leaned in and placed soft kisses on their foreheads. "Bye!" both of them said before running off further in the building.
"Oh, that's the gay couple kids! Jamie has told me about those two. It can't be easy to grow up like that" Luke heard the mothers speak again and he shook his head while laughing quietly to himself as he stood up and got ready to leave.
"Oh, Mr. Hemmings!" a voice spoke, making Luke turn around to see one of the older teachers at the school. Luke turned around with a tight smile as he impatiently waited for her to speak.
"I just wanted to welcome you back again and I hope Leon had a good recovery. It was unfortunate that this happened" she spoke and smiled sadly, though Luke didn't believe it.
"Yeah, really unfortunate," he spoke and nodded his head with the same tight smile, "It's also very unfortunate that what happened could have easily been stopped, but didn't"
The older woman nodded her head and laughed lightly, "Yeah, well you know how kids are. It's all games and it's all fun. It takes some mistakes to learn, but some are not old enough to know right from wrong. Leon is one of the youngest here and when you're the youngest, you're a bit after the others-"
"Wait," Luke spoke and put a hand up to silence the woman, "Are you accusing this accident on my son?"
The woman eyed his in confusion before speaking, "Well, I wouldn't accuse since it was simply an accident, but-"
"No," Luke spoke and chuckled humorlessly, "You're actually saying that it's my son's fault he got hurt? That it's Leon's fault he fell from that tree with that fucking dead branch because he's the youngest and 'simply not developed enough'?"
"I don't know what else to tell you, Mr. Hemmi-"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Luke snapped, causing the mothers further away to gasp, "This accident has nothing to do with how 'developed' my son is. It has to do with the fact that you are too damn stupid to let a fucking 4 year old climb a dead fucking three without anyone checking on them.
"What if he would have fell with his head down first? What if he would have died or broken something more serious that would cause him to be paralyzed? Would you really blame that on my kid's fucking 'stupidity' when yours is much worse?" Luke asked and eyed the older woman with burning eyes.
"Mr. Hemmings, I think you are misunderstanding-"
"No, I don't think I am," Luke spoke and shook his head, "I think you aren't taking my words seriously though. Because this wasn't my kid's fault, it was yours. All the people working here, it was your fault my kid has a broken wrist, just because you didn't care enough about my kids"
"Or maybe it's because he's a kid himself and taught his son how to play like a drunk high school student. Like how he was made" one of the mothers whispered again, causing the others to laugh.
Luke gritted his teeth and turned to the group of posh mothers by the corner of the room. He walked over and pointed an accusing finger at them.
"And you," he said and laughed humorlessly, "You can fucking shut up. You talk shit day in and day out, trying to bring me down to boost your own fucking egos, but it's not working" Luke spoke and rolled his eyes when seeing the women gasp and widen their eyes.
"You're calling me and my boyfriend bad parents, but here you are talking shit about us while teaching your kids how to be homophobes and fucking bullies, making my kids the targets. If it was your kids getting treated like that, you'd go fucking mental, but me and my boyfriend calmly take it and teaches our kids right from wrong. While being bullied by you, may I add.
"And all I get from this shitty school is people who don't give a fuck about a pair of children who lives their life the right way. So fuck all of you. I'm taking my kids and I'm leaving because I will not fucking let them stay with you kind of people who think anything out of the ordinary is wrong" Luke spoke and turned back to the teacher again.
"And for you; both my son and daughter are extremely smart and they listen to every word a grown up says them. So if a stupid grown up tells them that it's okay to climb a dead fucking tree without guardians, they will fucking believe that's the right thing to do. So no, they are not dumb, you fucking are" Luke spoke and took a deep breath to catch his breath.
He eyes the room and watched all the parents and teachers who had stopped to stare at him. Even a few kids were staring with terrified looks on their faces, but Luke couldn't care less.
"Peach, Leon," Luke called out and ignore all eyes on him.
"Yeah?" the small ones asked with big eyes as they carefully came out to the hallway again.
"Get dressed, we're going home" Luke said and never once let his eyes leave his kids.
"Why?" Peach asked as she walked over to her shoes again and let Luke help her put them on.
"Because everyone here are stupid" Leon spoke, causing people in the room to gasp and Luke to turn his head and look at his son who was smiling brightly at him.
Luke cracked a smile and nodded his head before picking up both toddlers in his arms and made his way over to the exit as he spoke,
"Yeah, everyone here are really stupid"
**
Luke was seated on the couch in his apartment as he heard his kids' happy laughs from Leon's room. A smile was spread on his lips as he laid his head back and sighed out in content.
He was happy with what happened. He was actually really proud of how everything had turned out because he couldn't take another day of those careless teachers and those pathetic parents.
All he wanted was to have his kids happy, and they were happy now.
The door to the apartment opened and Luke knew just who it was, so he smiled big when hearing Ashton walk into the living room. His smile faltered though when seeing the angry look on his boyfriend's face
"Hi, baby" Luke spoke carefully and sat up in the couch but stopped when Ashton put a finger up to silence him.
"Do not 'baby' me right now, Luke," Ashton spoke and pursed his lips, "I just got a call from the preschool, saying a certain 'Mr. Hemmings' was causing commotion in the school today, in front of the kids and everything"
"Oh yeah, about that-" Luke spoke but Ashton cut him off again.
"She said that she had never heard that many cuss words in her life and she also said you attacked a teacher and the parents? What were you thinking?!" Ashton asked and threw his hands up in frustration.
"Thinking?" Luke asked and frowned, "Ash, baby, I didn't think because I didn't need to. They said that it was Leon's fault that he broke his arm because he was stupid"
"Did she say that?" Ashton asked and Luke bit his bottom lip.
"Well no, not in those words, but-"
"Luke," Ashton sighed and ran a hand over his face before walking over and sitting down beside Luke on the couch, "Why couldn't you have held your mouth shut for just a few hours more? If you had, we would be at the meeting right now and get what we deserved, but now we're kicked out of the preschool with no single chance of getting in again and won't get anything back for Leon's injury"
"Kicked out?" Luke asked and watched Ashton tiredly run his hands over his face again, "Who cares if we're kicked out. That school was dangerous, the teachers were untrustworthy, and the parents were fucking homophobes"
"But they don't have a preschool to go to now Luke. And we need to find one fast because neither you or me have time to stay home with them because we need the money we work for. If you forgot, we're moving in two weeks" Ashton spoke and waved his hand around to show off all the boxes in the living room.
"Ash," I spoke and moved closer to him, "This is all good. We didn't lose anything that means something to us. Not even the kids are sad that they won't get to go back.
"I'm just happy that we're out of there, because I never again want to step a foot in a place where people insult my family" Luke sighed.
"They insulted you?" Ashton asked and lifted his head from his hands to look at Luke with worried eyes.
"They threw trash at me like if I was a trash can," Luke spoke, "If it wasn't how bad of a father I am because I'm young, it was because I'm in a gay relationship"
"God," Ashton sighed before moving closer to Luke and laid down so his head was in Luke's lap, "I'm starting to give up on humankind"
"I think I already have," Luke mumbled and leaned down to place a soft kiss on Ashton's forehead, "I'm sorry for making such a scene though. This didn't help the situation as much as your suggestion would"
Ashton chuckled and shook his head before reaching one hand up and caressed Luke's newly shaved cheeks.
"No Luke, I'm sorry. What you did was the right thing and I'm extremely happy that you stood up for me and our kids. I didn't want them to stay in that school either, but I'm just so stressed with this whole moving thing and we don't have the money at this point and I don't know what to do-"
Luke cut Ashton off by planting his lips on his. Ashton was stiff at first but relaxed only seconds after when feeling Luke's soothing lips work against his own.
"It will be okay," Luke spoke softly as he pulled away just an inch to speak, "It will always be okay with us"
"What makes you so sure?" Ashton whispered.
"Because it's us. Everything always works out in the end," Luke spoke and gave Ashton a cheesy smile, "Plus, as long as I have you and our kids, I'm good"
•••
god i'm so sorry for this chapter but i've just had a few days where i didn't feel like writing at all. idk, hopes it gets better soon because i wanna update all my books but you know
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