Troye was going through the baby clothes for the thousandth time that day when Jacob walked in, hands shoved into his pockets. "Sir?" Troye asked, pushing the clothes from his lap. He was sitting in the middle of their bed, the bags of clothes surrounding him, they've been in his possession for a week but he couldn't get over how they felt or how small they were. He'd been examining them fondly all afternoon. "Looks like Grimmy isn't going to wait much longer. He wants us on his show pretty badly,"
Jacob told the sub, watching as he pouted, folding a yellow onesie. "I told him that we weren't going to go but he's made an announcement about it today, said we'd be on there this evening," Jacob added. He wanted to wait one more month, the douchebag couldn't wait one more month. Troye was only ten weeks, things could still go wrong. "Everyone would want to know," Troye curled both his hands around his belly. The twins had gone through a much needed growth spurt and now Troye's belly, if you knew he was pregnant, was unmistakable. He had a little pouch that stuck out two fingers past the lip of his pants, he's grown out of many of his jeans and moved onto jeggings and tights.
"They're growing though. That means everything's good right?" He asked, scooting himself off the bed so he could walk to Jacob and snuggle himself in the Dom's warm chest. Jacob sighed, pulling his hands from his pockets to wrap them around Troye, holding him as tight as he dared. "Luke has assured they're perfectly fine. In two weeks we can do another ultrasound and get more pictures, their heartbeats," Jacob told Troye, nodding toward the baby book the sub had started to make. Troye nodded, looking up at Jacob with wide blue eyes and a huge smile. "I'm going to tell Grimmy that we'll be there," Jacob added and Troye smile went away, the sub furrowed his brows.
"I don't like him," he voiced, pulling from Jacob's grip to start putting the baby clothes away. It wasn't good to just leave them out, he didn't want to lose any. "Luke and Tommy will join us to help make sure everything goes smoothly. With the paps and all, I need Luke to be close to make sure nothing happens," Jacob said, turning to leave the room. He had to type the email out. "Can I go with you? I'll be quiet," Troye promised, folding his arms around his middle, it was habit now, Jacob figured it was something motherly.
"You can come with me," Jacob agreed, holding a hand out in invitation for Troye to join him. The boy quickly hanged up the baby clothes so he could join Jacob, tucking himself under Jacob's arm. The Dom led them to his office, but he released Troye so that Troye could sit on his usual couch and he could sit at his desk. Troye was quiet like he promised as Jacob typed up the email, but he was quietly pouting as he rubbed soft circles onto his belly. It wasn't Jacob's fault that they had to go talk on Nick Grimshaw's show, and Troye wasn't at all angry with him. He simply wanted the talk show host to fall off the face of the earth. In the back of his mind he could almost hear Jacob's light scolding, telling him that good boys don't have violent thoughts like that, but then again Jacob had also told Troye to treat Nick Grimshaw however he pleased. If Troye could follow through with it without embarrassing Jacob on live television again, then he would give Grimshaw a piece of his mind. He'd tell him to get away from Jacob because Jacob was Troye's. Jacob was his Dom and he wasn't going to just let other subs get all handsy and flirty with the older man. "Sweets, why are you scowling?" Jacob broke Troye from his train of thought, and Troye's head snapped up in surprise.
"Oh," Troye croaked, embarrassed at being caught seething, but he couldn't lie to his Dom. "Because I don't like Nick Grimshaw." The Dom sighed, shutting his laptop and leaning back in his chair, "Come here, pet." Troye hurried over, preparing to sit on Jacob's lap before his hand fluttered nervously to his stomach, "I'm getting bigger, if I sit on your lap I might hurt you and I-" "Sit," Jacob insisted, patting his lap. "Come on Troye, you aren't going to hurt me. Sit." The sub climbed onto Jacob's lap, curling as best as he could with his growing belly and tucking his head into Jacob's neck like he always did. Jacob was quiet, and it took Troye a few moments that Jacob was waiting on Troye to explain further about why he was scowling over Nick Grimshaw. Pressing his lips to Jacob's neck, Troye muffled his words as he spoke fast, "I hate Nick Grimshaw because he's a pushy sub and he always touches you and flirts with you and I know he hates me too because he treats me like he's above me when he's a sub too!" Jacob stroked soothingly at Troye's hair, pulling gently at Troye's arm so he'd sit up and look at the Dom, "You don't have to be jealous, pet. Nick is a stunningly handsome man but-" at Troye's wide eyed look of horror, Jacob laughed, cupping the smaller man's face.
"I'm kidding. He kind of looks like a giraffe, yeah? And not even a cute one. I don't have any eyes at all for Nick Grimshaw, just you. You're tiny, you're smart, you're sweet. Grimshaw is your complete opposite. I wasn't matched with Nick Grimshaw, I was matched with you. Don't be jealous of him and don't feel inferior because it just so happens that I think you're much better than him." "I just don't like when he touches you," Troye mumbled sadly, the urge to cry suddenly overtaking him. He blamed it on his hormones, but Jacob seemed to think otherwise.
"Okay, okay, there's no need to get that upset, sweets, no tears," Jacob insisted softly. "It's okay. I'll avoid his touchiness, I'll always be touching you so that he stays away, hmm? I love you." "I love you, too..." "I don't love Nick. In fact I don't even like Nick, I'm just civilized with him so that he won't totally slander my name," Jacob explained in amusement "Which means I have to be nice to him on his show," Troye sighed. "I'll be a good boy. For you, sir, I won't mess up this time." Jacob smiled, kissing Troye's forehead, "I know you'll be good for me. We'll keep it simple. Talk to Nick, he'll most likely make us announce the news about our Little Fuzzies-"
the name brought a small giggle from Troye, and Jacob chuckled a bit as well. "And then we can come back here, or we can go out for dinner, maybe go look at some more baby clothes?" Troye nodded slowly. If they got to do all of that, then maybe Troye could tolerate Nick Grimshaw for an hour or two. He rested his head on Jacob's chest once more, pulling Jacob's hand hesitantly to rest on his belly, "With Tommy and Luke, right? To keep Luke around in case of paps?" "Mhmm," Jacob hummed, rubbing soft little circles on Troye's tummy. "But if we must be there this evening, you should go get ready. Shower, I'll pick your outfit." The younger boy did as he was told, standing in the warm water a bit longer than necessary so he could admire his baby bump, "Maybe now that we're telling people about you Little Fuzzies, they won't be so pushy with us. I want you both to be safe and healthy in there, we have to be very careful."
When Troye got out of the shower, he found that the clothes Jacob had picked for him clung very close to the skin. Jacob was clearly trying to show off Troye's bump, it was after all the reason that they were going on Nick's show in the first place. The Dom appeared from his closet in a black shirt, black pants, and a grey blazer, and he nodded at the clothes on the bed. "I think you'll look very nice in those," Jacob explained. "You're so beautiful like this with your baby bump, you practically glow more than you usually do." Troye blushed, "You look even better, sir, you're so handsome." Jacob smiled,
"Go use the hairdryer before you put on your clothes, you're still dripping. Just keep your hair that way, Nick's stylists might have other ideas for it. Troye didn't bother keeping his towel up as he dried his hair, standing in front of the mirror and combing it as he dried it. He thought Jacob had gone off to find Luke and Tommy, but in the mirror he spotted Jacob leaning in the doorway of the bathroom, gazing at him fondly.
"Hello, sir..." Troye said softly. "I'm almost done and then I can get dressed." "I wish you didn't have to get dressed," Jacob sighed, almost sadly. Troye felt his blood rush to not only his face, but to his dick as well, and the comb slipped from his hand and fell into the sink. "O-oh," he squeaked, scrambling to turn off the hair dryer so he could comb his hair out. "I don't think I could go naked onto Nick's show-" "Of course not," Jacob hummed. "Public humiliation used to be one of my greens, but ever since I showed thousands of people your bum on national television I've decided that I don't like other people seeing what only I should be able to see."
"I don't mind some forms of it," Troye mumbled. "If I deserve it, then I understand why you would have to do it." Jacob walked up behind the naked boy, wrapping his arms around him from behind, "But you're always very good for me now, we don't have to worry about that. We do need to get you clothed before I make you stay naked a while longer and make us late to Nick's show."
"Yes sir," Troye nodded, turning to scramble from the room, but Jacob kept a hold on his arms. "Your hair got the floor a little wet, sweets, don't slip." Once Troye was dressed, he placed a hand over his baby bump and made his way downstairs. Luke and Jacob were near the front door with Tommy tucked under Luke's arm happily. The boy smiled wider as he saw Troye,
"It's a bit sooner than planned, but it should be good! Telling people about your babies, I mean." They took two separate vehicles so that Tommy and Luke wouldn't have to squish into the back of Jacob's Mustang, but when they reached Nick Grimshaw's studio Luke and Tommy made their way through the swarm of paps that were already present to reach Jacob's car. The Dom reached over and stopped Troye from opening his door, and Troye was so incredibly grateful.
Paps were all over, pushing and yelling, and Troye was slightly terrified. "Stay in the car, sweets, I'm going to walk around and get you. Luke and Tommy will help us get inside from there," Jacob informed him, glancing in his rear view mirror at all the paparazzi. The older man climbed from his side, brushing people none to gently out of the way to reach Troye's side where he opened the door and shielded Troye from the cameras with his body. Luke and Tommy had pressed close as well, and despite Troye shielding his tummy with his hands, the blonde and his Dom walked in front of Troye so Jacob could walk behind him, and together they made it into the studio without the paps even so much as brushing against Troye.
Inside, Luke breathed out a sigh of relief, "We made it in, we just have to make it out. Once they know for sure that big business man Jacob Bixenman and his sub are having children, they'll go mad out there. We might have to spend the night or something." Troye frowned at that, "They won't be gentler?" "They don't care about who they hurt," Luke explained to the sub. "They just want money." The tiny sub tried to look towards Jacob for comfort, but all Jacob could do was kiss Troye's temple before he was tugged away to get his hair fixed and prepared for being on camera. Troye couldn't even follow, because his own lady motioned for him to follow her, and then he was sat in a chair as she went to work on him. He sat, shielding his tummy with two hands and searching for Jacob, Luke, Tommy, someone familiar. The strange hands touching his hair, applying some gross powder to his face, it was all coming much too overwhelming.
And yet he was trying to force himself to stay calm for his Little Fuzzies, the woman fixing his hair wasn't trying to bring him harm. In fact, she was trying to help him in a sense. But then, much to his relief, he spotted Jacob speaking to a man who pointed the Dom in Troye's direction. Jacob smiled as he saw Troye, and the sub was breathless once more at how flawless Jacob looked with his hair pushed up into a quiff and his cheekbones more prominent from whatever had been put on his face. He completely ignored the woman fixing Troye's hair as he stopped in front of the smaller boy, leaning to cup Troye's face. "How are you, pet?" Jacob asked. "Much better now that you're here," Troye breathed, and he hadn't meant to use one of the cheesiest pickup lines ever, he was simply being honest, but it brought a chuckle from Jacob anyway. "Is he always this tense?" the stylist asked with a huff.
"It's like I'm back to styling the hair on mannequins." Jacob crouched in front of Troye, looking to the woman, "New people make him nervous as do strange hands touching him. He's surrounded by new people and you're touching his hair, of course he's going to be tense," Jacob turned his attention back to Troye, patting the boy's knees reassuringly. "But there's nothing to worry about, Troye, you're alright." And Troye trusted him, he could actually feel himself starting to calm with Jacob's hand touching his leg. He could just focus on his Dom and ignore the hands touching his hair.
But then Nick Grimshaw appeared, dressed and styled already, a mic attached to his shirt as he strode over to the Dom and sub. "Jacob! So glad you could make it, I've been so excited ever since we started planning this!" Nick exclaimed. "Well considering you just kind of forced this at us today-" "Anyway, I am so excited to talk you about the pregnancy! Are you ready to announce it? I see that little bump there." Troye automatically curled his arms around his middle better, trying to hide his stomach from Nick. Jacob stood, smiling stiffly at Nick.
"Do you know where the mic people are? Troye and I haven't been given mics yet." Nick reached to link arms with Jacob, and Troye made a slight noise of protest as the man spoke, "I can take you to get a mic." "I'll just wait to go with Troye," Jacob slyly moved his arms to link behind his back. The stylist patted Troye's shoulder, "Well Troye's free to go now, so go ahead and show them both." Troye breathed a sigh of relief, scrambling up and pressing himself to Jacob's side. The black haired Dom wrapped a soothing arm around the boy, rubbing his arm gently, and the two followed Grimmy to get microphones pinned to the front of their shirt.
Before Troye was aware of what was happening, he and Jacob were sitting on stage with Nick, lights shining hot down on them, and already live on the air. Their chairs had been pushed together, several feet away from Nick's, and Troye had Jacob's hand in a nervous grip on the armrests. The camera couldn't see it, but Jacob's thumb was softly stroking over Troye's knuckles in attempts to relax him. "So," Nick Grimshaw began after he had introduced the show. "Jacob and Troye, you two are definitely different than the last time we had you on the show." Jacob nodded,
"It's been about half a year, but yes, I agree." "From what I've seen, you aren't the strict Dom you were when you and Troye were first matched," Nick chuckled. "You've got soft." "I don't think so," Jacob shook his head. "I think Troye and I just know how what the other expects now, we aren't inexperienced. I'm still strict, Troye just doesn't give me reason to use it negatively." Nick smiled, a smile that was clearly fake, "How sweet. It's so good to see you're finally settling down. At thirty-three most people already are married to their match." Troye spoke up in confusion, his voice soft and high, "But my Dom is thirty-two..." Nick gave a bark of laughter,
"Please tell me you're joking... you do know that he really is thirty-three, right?" "No, he's-" Troye looked to Jacob to back him up, but the Dom's nose had scrunched a bit. "Oh my God. Sir, you're... you aren't thirty-two?" "I was when we met, but I'm thirty-three now, pet," Jacob told him quietly. Troye couldn't tell if Jacob was angry with him or not, but it didn't matter. He was furious with himself. Jacob was everything to him and he didn't even know Jacob had turned thirty-three. He didn't even remember when Jacob's birthday was. It was on Jacob's Dom papers, Troye knew that, but he hadn't focused on it. He had expected more of a heads up. 6 "Great sub skills there," Nick cackled.
"He didn't even know you had a birthday!" "I-I," Troye tried, his face reddening in embarrassment before he dropped his head into his hands and fought the urge to cry. It was probably the worst possible thing he could do as a sub, forgetting Jacob's birthday. But then he felt a hand on the back of his neck, just above his collar, rubbing softly as Jacob spoke out, "Nick, don't, a lot has happened. Troye was only with me for about a month before I had my birthday, and on my birthday Troye was actually getting his stitches looked at by my friend Dr. Gilford. He's a fantastic sub, he was simply a bit preoccupied at the time to even think about other things."
"I should have remembered your birthday," Troye looked up at Jacob. "I'm sorry, Sir, I'm so sorry." "I wouldn't have wanted to celebrate anyway," Jacob assured. "There's a reason you didn't hear about it from Tommy or Brandon, we usually don't talk about my birthdays. They just happen. So let's move on, shall we?" "Moving on I guess," Nick chuckled. "Back to the matter of settling down. From what I heard, you two really are settling down. Let's watch a quick video, shall we?" Of course, the video a pap had gotten of Troye pressing his face into Jacob as he was being swarmed played, the audio of Troye crying out heightened,
"Don't let them hurt my babies!" As the video stopped, Nick raised his eyebrows at them, "Care to explain?" Like always, Jacob spoke as Troye's throat closed up and his mouth ran dry, "Well, what the papers are saying aren't wrong. Troye is ten weeks pregnant with twins." The audience cheered, and Troye felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders. Cheering was a positive response. Nick waited until things had quieted before he spoke again, "Twins. That is certainly something. But I recall last time you saying that you didn't want any kids at all, yes? But I'm guessing you never did get Troye on that shot?" "I didn't want kids, but Troye and I are going to have kids now ready or not. My past views are not going to at all affect the love I'll have for my children."
"That sounds like it's going to take away a lot of time from your work, your work is your pride and joy," Nick pointed out. And Troye wanted to go home, he remembered right away why he had colored out last time. Nick pushed into places he wasn't welcome, he was nosey and rude and cruel. Troye didn't want to cry on national television, but he found himself scrubbing at his eyes and breathing hard. "My work is not more important than Troye and our family," Jacob said firmly, but Troye heard the man's breath rush out in a sudden gust, and he knew that he'd been caught trying to conceal his tears.
"I'm sure you've got more important people to talk to today, so Troye and I will just-" "Oh goodness, no, this is all about you all today," Nick declared, and Troye felt like he was going to puke. "I was just so surprised that you hadn't terminated the pregnancy the moment you found about it." Troye finally croaked out, "He wouldn't do that. He said he didn't want kids, but now that we're going to be having babies he just wants to be ready for them so-" "Of course he'll be ready, he's got plenty of practice taking care of little brats like you," Nick smirked. Troye made a choked noise, a dry sob of sorts, and Jacob hissed out, "Nick that isn't at all true and you fucking know that. I think we're done here-" "Just a little bit longer, please! I was hoping I'd get to talk to Troye about the whole incident with him and Brandon Flynn." Troye turned away from Nick, his hand grabbing onto Jacob's arm as his stomach churned, "S-sir-"
"Go find Luke and I'll be there in a second," Jacob said immediately, his hand covering Troye's. The boy darted off, bursting into tears just as he was out of sight of the cameras. Luke and Tommy were backstage, watching with wide eyes, and Tommy held out his arms to hug Troye as the sub hurried towards them with his hands shielding his belly. Troye accepted the hug gratefully, sobbing into Tommy's shoulder as the blonde sub patted Troye's back. "It's okay... he was such an asshole to you, but it's alright," Tommy assured in a friendly voice. "I know Jacob is going to take care of it." And sure enough, Troye turned his attention onto the tv screen backstage that was showing what was happening on stage. Jacob had scooted forward in his seat, and he was staring blankly at Nick. Nick craned his head to look off stage, arching a brow, "Should we cut to commercial break and let him come back, or-" "No," Jacob said immediately. "He won't be coming back. You've done quite enough." Nick laughed nervously, "Aww, but the fun had only just started." Jacob's face grew dark,
"Okay, so I'm going to be blunt here and do something no one else has dared to do yet because they're afraid you'll shit talk them out of the country. You are one of the biggest assholes I have ever come into contact with. You're pushy and rude, and I won't stand for it any longer. Frankly, I don't give a shit what you ask me, I'll answer it to the best of my ability. But I'm not going to sit around and watch you freak out Troye by asking things he isn't comfortable with. Either you're very stupid or very inconsiderate, because you know anyone who went through something like that couldn't just talk about it so openly on live television. So all in all, fuck off. We aren't going to come back, if this is your idea of entertainment then you're a sick man. I'd hit you if I could, but you'd probably like that. Does your Dom know that you like to get handsy with other Dom's?"
Nick was frantically trying to get his cameramen to stop rolling, but to no avail, "Jacob, I don't know where all this came from, you can't just-" "I don't appreciate people making my boy cry, that's where this came from," Jacob replied, standing and pulling the mic from his shirt so he could deposit it in the chair and storm off of the stage. The screen finally went black, but Troye was too busy scanning the stage entrance to see if he could make out Jacob approaching through the scrambling crew workers. And finally, Jacob finally broke through the throng of people with long strides, his face still enraged as he approached Troye.
Troye was terrified that Jacob was mad at him as well, but he pulled away from Tommy and launched himself at Jacob with a hand shielding his baby bump. "I'm so sorry!" he wailed, sobbing harder than before as he clutched onto Jacob's blazer with his free hand. "I didn't mean to forget your birthday and embarrass you and I didn't mean to panic but he was asking so many questions that made me think about how much trouble I've been for you and about how I'm a brat that you have to take care of and-"
"Breathe, sweets," Jacob murmured, and his voice sounded sad, which only panicked Troye more. Troye pulled back in alarm, and Jacob's face was upset looking, no longer angry, and he shook his head, "I really am sorry, please sir, p-please don't be upset with me-" Jacob gently tugged Troye's head to his chest, hugging him just tight enough that Troye would feel safe but so that Troye's tummy wouldn't be getting squished,
"I'm not upset with you, baby, everything is okay. Nothing Nick said about you or me is true. You aren't a brat. I won't hate our babies, I do want them now. Our Little Fuzzies, right? Don't cry, just calm down for me and we can go get some food for you three. You're my good boy, you did so well during the interview. So polite, my sweet little Troye. I love you, pet, I really do." Troye hiccupped out a few more sobs, but he focused on Jacob's hands and Jacob's voice, trying to force himself into breathing evenly again, "I l-love you, too, sir." They were both silent for a few minutes, simply holding each other and waiting for Troye to relax. Eventually Luke spoke out, "Is he okay?" "His breathing is normal again," Jacob mumbled. "Are you alright, pet?" "Yes sir," Troye whispered, but he didn't pull away. "Did they get all of what you said to Grimshaw on camera?" Tommy asked in awe. "I really hope so, because that was... you really put him in his place."
"And we should get out of here before he tries to come confront me about it," Jacob chuckled. But Troye peeked up at the screen where Nick was coming back from commercial break. He didn't look happy at all, and a camera that focused on his Dom in the audience showed that he wasn't very happy either. "Looks like you might have just gotten him in a lot of shit," Luke smirked. "Good, his Dom deserved to know if Nick was flirting with other Doms." Jacob hummed in agreement, but he stroked Troye's hair out of the style the lady had given him, smoothing it back into its usual style,
"Are you ready to go, sweets? We can go eat and then go shop for clothes for the baby Fuzzies, hmm?" "Yes sir," Troye nodded slowly, and Jacob tilted Troye's face up so he could kiss the boy. And of course, like usual, Jacob knew how to make Troye feel safe again. He could always take away the bad and keep Troye grounded. Jacob was in all forms, Troye's rock, his anchor. And Troye loved him with his entire being. When Jacob had gotten Troye safely to the car once more, he drove them to the place of Troye's choice to eat. On the way,
Troye had his fingers entangled with Jacob's and his other hand resting on his tummy. He peeked at his Dom, softly speaking out. "Back in January when I wrote that paper about being paired with you... I still stand by the main subject of it. You're still the best thing that has ever happened to me." Troye could feel himself growing teary again, but they were happy tears. Jacob gave Troye's hand a gentle squeeze,
"And just like I told you when you were hurt, but I don't think you heard me because you were sleeping, you're the best thing that's happened to me, too." Troye sniffled, taking his hand off of his belly to wipe at his eyes, and then he brought their entwined hands up so he could nuzzle his face against Jacob's hand. He stayed like that all the way to the restaurant.