[ E D I T E D ]

[6]: "Family Is Not Defined By Blood Ties."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Axel paused the game and threw his controller down on the bed with force, standing up from his bean bag to glare at me.

What can I say? It was not really my fault that I wasn't focusing on a virtual game when so much stuff was happening in my real life, and I had so little time to think.

Yep, it was eight o' clock at night, and I still haven't decided.

Hey! Don't give me that look, alright? This is not a choice between Oreos and Bourbons.

Although, even that could be complicated at times, but well, this was my freaking life.

After that meeting with the Kincaids, I had gone downstairs and hung out with Rory for a little while. I had to admit that I had been pretty surprised when I had entered his room and saw what they had done for him. I didn't know why, but I had automatically assumed that his 'room' as they called it, would just be one of the plenty guest-rooms in the huge mansion decorated to resemble a makeshift child's room, with a few colorful stickers on the wall and a crib.

But nope, I had forgotten that the Kincaids never did anything halfway.

The room was painted a vibrant shade of Robin's egg blue, the whole expanse decorated with a mild print of cartoons on a darker shade that looked like a random pattern until you paid it proper attention. The whole thing was Mickey-Mouse themed, so one wall had a huge-ass picture of Mickey and Minnie dancing in the middle. There was a small single cot pushed against one wall with identical white and blue sheets, the edge of which's surface was decorated with a variety of stuffed toys.

The rest of the room had every single item available under the Mickey Mouse room decor franchise, ranging from lamps to a huge chest of what I assumed to be more toys and even a freaking ceiling fan and a carpet. The center of the room was dominated by a white crib, inside which my beloved nephew had been sleeping peacefully, wrapped in matching blue sheets.

So freaking adorable.

I hadn't wanted to wake up the little baby just because I was there to see him. Also, I hadn't seen him in a long while and was very unsure about how he would react to me, because the last time I had seen him, Rory had been at an age where he couldn't recognize faces. Now that five months have passed since he had entered this earth, he would definitely be smart enough to know who was who.

At least, he'd be able to tell apart the familiar faces from the other irresponsible ones, like me, who couldn't pull their head out of their asses long enough to come and visit.

And, I didn't think I'd be able to take it if he started wailing the moment I picked him up, given the volatile mood I was already in—thanks to the never-ending supply of problems in my life.

So, I had waved away Valentina's suggestions to shake him awake, and stayed around for a while just watching in silence.

Apparently, after keeping her awake the whole night, he had just gone to sleep a little while back. So if left undisturbed, he would probably be asleep for the next couple of hours.

I had never realized until this morning that babies were so cute even in their sleep.

It didn't hurt that Rory had inherited the same shade of dark-golden blond curls my mom and sister had had. Instead of their mocha eyes though, he had taken after my Dad and me in that department and sported a pair of sparkling baby blues.

Which I didn't get to catch a glimpse of, thanks to my cowardice.

Anyway, it had been a pretty entertaining hour watching him squirm and frown and grin in his sleep. He was a pretty heavy sleeper and didn't rouse at a touch, so I had carefully maneuvered his little arms to make them look like they were crossed across his little chest, then laying on both sides of his head and then I even stretched his limbs to the side as wide as they went like he was making a snow angel—after which I had clicked like, a hundred-thousand photos on my phone.

Axel couldn't stop rolling his eyes at how cheesy I was being, but had stayed behind and given me company in the end.

Later, we had gone out to the mall for some cheap lunch and roamed around it for some time before finally going back to his place. I had been less talkative than normal since I was secretly wondering about what I was supposed to do after that ultimatum I had been issued with. But, we had run into some classmates and all the food and the conversation had taken the focus off of me and thankfully, no one had noticed me being almost completely mentally absent.

All that mental leave hadn't been enough to give me enough thinking power to make a concrete decision, though. I had told Axel that I wasn't about to do a thing, but that didn't mean that I wholeheartedly agreed with it. My mind kept going back to Rory, and I just couldn't help it.

I was so damn confused.

We were currently supposed to be playing some game on his X-box, but my mind had just refused to cooperate. I could tell that Axel had sensed that my mind wasn't really in the game from the beginning. My strikes were half-hearted at best and it was clearly showing because I was never not up for X-box.

I didn't know what excuse to give.

"You're considering it, aren't you?" Axel dragged the beanbag from beside me to put it a couple of feet away so that we were facing each other. "Seriously? You'd marry a guy for Rory? I mean, no offense, but you should've told me you swung that way. I'm drastically offended as your best friend to have not been informed about this sooner." He plopped back down on the beanbag and put a palm over his heart, looking me up and down with mock-anger.

"I'm not gay," I rolled my eyes and put the controller down on the carpeted floor beside me as well. Sighing, I put my head in my palms and ran my fingers through my dark locks, wondering why I had never considered telling Axel the truth before.

I couldn't really come up with any reason except that I was a pussy.

I sighed again. I then took a deep breath and forced down my nerves, looking up and into his eyes with purpose, "I'm bi."

Axel's red brows shot past his even redder bangs, "Oh."

There was an infinitesimal pause, and in that micro-second, I wondered if I had just made things awkward between us forever.

"Well, well." He smirked, making me relax my tense posture a little, "Twice as much fish in the sea. You're one lucky son of a bitch."

My erratic heart slowed down at that and a sigh of relief escaped my lips. I should've known that Axel would definitely be understanding. Now, I felt like an idiot for holding this off for so long.

Although, it didn't matter because I had never liked a guy enough to pursue him before. So, my not coming out didn't affect anyone much.

"Whatever, man." I chuckled, "I just can't seem to make a decision and stick to it. My mind is just one huge mess, right now."

"Yeah, having that many options to choose from will do that to you," The sarcasm in his tone was rising to new levels, "Like seriously, that marriage is just complicating your list of options a little bit."

"Yes, I got the hint, Sergeant Sarcasm!" I waved him off, scowling, "I know that there's nothing else I can do. Except for giving in, which I won't. Because I refuse to accept that there's no other way here. I mean, c'mon! There has to be something I could do!"

"You could just move in with them and let them have guardianship." Axel shrugged, "That way, you won't have to pretend like you're with Gideon, 24/7."

"No," I shook my head, denying it despite the option sounding a lot more convenient than the only other alternative I seemed to have, "The Kincaids are never home and when they rarely do come home, they're just gonna give Rory some money and agree to buy him whatever he's asking for, without giving it much thought. And they're not gonna give him the attention he needs, either. Let's say he gets bad grades, I obviously won't be living with them at that point, so I can't watch him all the time, or ask him what's going on with him. They obviously won't reprimand him for his grades cause they won't even be aware of it, and he's just gonna keep going down a bad path. Plus, he's not gonna feel like answering to me, because in his eyes, I'd just be the uncle who couldn't be bothered to take responsibility for him. He's just gonna roll his eyes at me and tell me to fuck off."

Axel's eyebrows went up in surprise. Yes, I had thought that far ahead, "You could get guardianship when he's around 8 or 10, maybe? Surely, you'll have a well paying job by then?"

"Yeah, I could," I agreed, recounting all the negatives of that option I had wondered about, "Thing is, at that point, Rory might not be willing to move to a smaller, much less extravagant place and a much simpler lifestyle, where he can't switch mobile phones every six months. If he tells the court that he's happy where he is, it would be almost impossible to fight my case after that. I might as well forget about him then."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"So . . . you wanna keep your cake, but also eat it."

"Um, what?"

"Yeah, you want to be his legal guardian so that you can give him the love and tough love he needs, but you don't want to marry into the Kincaid family either."

"When you put it like that . . ."  I sighed.

"I'm sorry to do this man, but I'll be Dr. Common Sense and give you a reality check." He spread his hands for emphasis, and his expression said, 'ugh, kids these days', "There. Is. No. Other. Way. The only option you have is to just freaking marry him and move in with them!"

"I could maybe, possibly use the life insurance money and try to brave my way through college,"

"That won't even cover two years' of tuition, Harvey." Axel shook his head, "Besides, I'd suggest student loans and ramen noodles for 4 years, but you're not alone. You have a kid dependant on you. There's no way I see here that'd help you go through college and take care of Rory properly without just saying yes and accepting all the help that comes with the marriage."

"Or," I held up a hand to stop him from saying anything further, as a slow grin formed on my face with the new idea formulating in my head, "I could quit school and get a full-time job that pays enough to convince the courts that I can take care of him now."

Axel shot me such a flat look after my little speech, that I had to be offended, "What?"

"Seriously?"

"What!?" I exclaimed, my defensiveness ratcheting up a few more notches.

"Are you really serious?" The amusement in his tone was killing me, "Because lemme tell you, that's the dumbest suggestion I've heard from you all my life."

"Why!?"

"O-kay, Suggestion box. Let's say that hypothetically, I did let you quit school and ruin your entire life with the 'high school dropout' label, what kind of a job would you get with that sparkling qualification you put in your resume? A waiter at Mel's Diner? A block-lifter at some construction site? A grass-trimmer at our school's stadium?" Axel cried, like that was the absolute worst job anyone could ever have.

He then closed his eyes and took in a slow breath, seemingly calming himself down, "Okay, let's say you did get all three of the jobs that I just mentioned. How much do you think they'd pay you?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at me in that scarily calm way of his, pursing his lips.

"Um, mayb—"

"Minimum wage." He cut me off, glaring.

Well, apparently that was rhetoric.

"And do you know how much that is?"

This time, I smartly shut my mouth and listened, although I couldn't contain a snippy remark, "Enlighten me."

"You can kiss your beloved car goodbye." He ignored my sass, continuing like I hadn't even spoken, "Heck, considering the fees of preschools these days, you might not even be able to afford to bus it to these wonderful three jobs of yours. You'd be walking with your God-given wonderful feet and sleeping two hours a day, all for what?"

My stomach dropped with every word out of his mouth. This time, I wasn't feeling funny. So, like the super brave person I am, I looked down at my hands without replying.

"A miserable, debt-filled existence where you count every penny in your pocket before you agree to get Rory a freaking candy bar when he asks for one in the supermarket!" Axel burst out, standing up and glowering down at me with the force of a nuclear bomb.

My voice was stuck in my throat.

"Okay, let's say that even that is tolerable!" He threw his hands up and shook his head, "What will you do when all his classmates buy new bags and shoes and freaking lunch boxes every year and your kid is stuck with hand-me-downs from charity? How would you like to see Rory be bullied by all the other snooty little assholes in school for being the underprivileged one? How are you gonna look him in the eye and say, 'I'm sorry, kid. But we can't afford it' when all of Rory's class goes on a fucking field trip!?"

"Stop it!" I couldn't take this anymore. I couldn't accept that there was even a remote possibility that all of that would happen, that my life would be that miserable.

No, it can't be.

"Huh?" Axel chuckled sardonically, "You can't even hear me say it? How are you gonna handle it? Because that's what will happen, Harv." His tone softened to a comforting one as he crouched on the floor, placing a hand on my knee, "I'm not saying that everyone who doesn't graduate high school is gonna be some poor, miserable sod. But what I am saying is that there is a high chance of becoming one. Why would you wanna subject yourself to that?"

"I don't know, man." I felt the back of my eyes pricking with tears and knew that the dam was about to break. I thought I'd be able to do this, but I really couldn't. I was completely, one-hundred percent alone with an infant who was solely dependent on me, and I didn't know how to handle it.

I didn't know . . .

"Aw, shucks, I didn't mean to make you cry!" Axel growled in frustration, gripping my shoulders and shaking me hard, "This is not the time to lose your shit, Remington! Come on, pull it together. We are making a decision and taking control of this shitty situation. Stop all that 'I'm alone' bullshit right now because you know it's not true. Family is not defined only by blood ties."

"You're right," I swallowed, nodding frantically as I struggled to regain my cool, "I've still got some family. Thanks, man."

Axel let go of me and stood up, taking a step back as he finally seemed satisfied, "Good. And no need to thank me because I distinctly remember you saying the same words a few years ago."

And that did it. I burst into tears as I buried my face in my hands, but this time, they were tears of happiness, tears of relief, tears of hope.

Hope that I could maybe do this. That this could work out.

That I would never be completely alone.

I could hear Axel let out a string of curses in the background, and I chuckled, wiping furiously at my eyes and looking up to meet his annoyed gaze, "Don't worry. This is the last time this is happening in front of you."

A reluctant smile spread across his face at that, "Whatever. Does that mean I can take it as a yes?"

"Yes," I breathed, wetting my lips and finally allowing myself to say the words out loud, "Yes, I'm gonna marry him."

Dedicated to rikki3011! :D Thanks for the votes and comments! :)

Question: How did you enter the amazeballs world of boyxboy romance? By watching yaoi? TV series? A book?

For me, it was a spin-off book in a science fiction series (Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer). One of the four brothers was gay and I loved their family so much that I took a leap and tried boyxboy for the first time.

And the rest is history as they say it.

Hope you liked this chapter!

Please don't forget to,

VOTE, COMMENT, AND FAN!♡