One year later…


Much to everyone’s surprise and happiness, they made it through the next year with little to no complications. Adrian was thriving and hadn’t come down with a single illness that resulted in him being hospitalized, despite his premature birth. Nothing could’ve made Andy and Ash happier than to know that, despite his rough start to life, their son was perfectly healthy. They still counted their blessings and thanked every deity out there that he was alive and well, but moved on with life as if he’d been born on his due date.

Jake’s and CC’s second child, a beautiful baby girl they named after the color of her eyes and her late aunt, had been born two days shy of her due date on June thirtieth. She’d grown a little too big for the drummer to deliver naturally and, like his bandmate, had to have a C-section. During said C-section, he opted to have a hysterectomy as well, which suited his husband just fine. They had two beautiful children together that were miracles, considering that, according to Nature, they never should’ve been born in the first place. They saw no reason and felt no need to push their luck by trying for a third, just in case things went downhill or blew up in their faces altogether.

As for Jinxx and Sammi, they’d celebrated their second anniversary that fall, after the rest of the guys had celebrated their third, and were just as happy as they’d been back in high school. Their own sons, Logan and Miles, were thriving just as well as the rest of the BVB Brats, and they were extremely thankful. Nothing made these three couples happier than to see their families happy and healthy.

The guys had even managed to finish their fourth album and release it, although they were postponing any tours to support it. Their fanbase was huge as it was, and they felt no need to tour too much, especially what with raising their families full-time. That, and the frontman and bassist didn’t want to drag four children on the road with them, possibly jeopardizing little Adrian’s health, or have to leave them at home with Marissa, Shelby, Sammi, and Amy for extended periods of time. All five of them agreed that it was just easier and better of they kept the touring for this album to a minimum, if they even bothered touring for it at all, for all their childrens’ sake. And for once, that was an easy mutual decision.

“Mommy! Look at me!” Rori cried, swinging as high as she could on the swingset in the Biersacks’ back yard.

“Be careful, Princess!” Ash answered, grinning as he watched her. His oldest baby had turned six the previous month, and had started kindergarten the previous fall.

“Guys, watch out!” Andy yelled at the twins, who got a little too close to their sister for either of their parents’ liking.

“We’ll be more careful, Daddy!” Leila answered, squealing when Levi pushed her.

“Levi Briar-Andrew Biersack! Over here! Now!” the bassist called, frowning at his older son’s behavior.

“What, Mommy?” he asked innocently, trying to act like he’d done nothing wrong.

“Time-out for three minutes,” he told him, pointing to the little kids’ picnic table on the back deck. “You know better than to push Leila into Rori’s path.”

Grumbling, the little boy did as told.

“Mama!” Adrian called out, pointing at the slide.

“You wanna go slide, Adrian?” Ash asked, following his gaze.

“Yeah!” he answered excitedly, nodding.

“All right. Let’s get Daddy to help us,” he said, catching Andy’s attention.

The young frontman followed his husband and younger son over to the playset that was attached to the swings, ready to lift the little boy up to the top of the slide. The bassist crouched at the bottom, ready to catch him when he got there, so he wouldn’t fall and get hurt. With a cry of pure happiness, the little boy slid down when his daddy let him go, giggling and squirming as he crashed into his mommy’s chest.

Ash lifted him up into the air over his head and spun him around a couple times before they repeated the process, his child’s happiness infectious. The rest of the kids wanted to take turns sliding as well, and while he made sure to catch them so they wouldn’t get hurt, his lover kept a semblance of order as they fought over who was next. They’d always worked well as a team, which was probably why they’d been together without breaking up for over seven years, married for over three. All the memories they’d made together, both with and without their children, never failed to bring a smile to the older man’s face.

Before long, the kids had dog-piled their mother at the bottom of the slide, all of them laying in a heap of tangled limbs and hair. Andy laughed as he started pulling children off his husband and helped him up, then wrapped his arms around him and drew him in for a kiss. Neither of them had imagined back when they first met that, at the ages of twenty-four and twenty-seven, they’d be happily married and raising a family. Apparently that’d been their destiny, whether Ash had carried the children or they’d adopted, and it worked for them.

When they broke the kiss and noticed Amy standing on the back deck with a camera, they beckoned her over to get a family shot of them. Her own son sat down on the ground at the bottom of the slide, pulling his sweetheart with him so he was by his side. Once they were settled, he pulled the twins into his lap and managed to wrap one long arm around them, the other around the shoulders of his sweetheart. Ash pulled Rori and Adrian into his own lap, wrapping one arm around them, particularly his miracle baby, while wrapping the other around his lover’s waist. With them all in a position that she could catch all of them in the same frame, Andy’s mother snapped the picture before showing it to them.

“It’s beautiful, mio profeta,” the bassist said, grinning.

“I have to agree, mio deviante,” he told him, pulling him close for another kiss.

“And to think that, had I succeeded when I attempted suicide out at that old cabin all those years ago, we wouldn’t have any of this,” Ash mused, resting his head on his chest.

“I don’t even wanna imagine my life without you or our babies,” his lover said softly, the words meant for his ears only.

“Even though I wanted to die back then, I’m glad you saved me,” he told him.

“I’m glad I did, too. I wouldn’t have what I have now if I hadn’t,” Andy agreed.

They moved back up to the deck to watch their kids running around the yard like chickens with their heads cut off, laughing and screaming with joy as they played together. The bassist sat in his lover’s lap, his head resting on his chest with his arms wrapped around his waist, as he watched them. Back when they’d met, he’d been pining for love in ways that most wouldn’t understand, and had tried to end his life because of it.

Without having to look very far, he’d found what he sought most in the most unexpected of places, and then more still. Andy and Ash had had a wonderful seven years together so far, and they hoped they had many more together in their future. Life just wouldn’t be the same without one another, hence why they kept striving to be their very best for each other and to keep their marriage alive. They’d been given the gift of love at a time when both men sorely needed it; that love had given them far more than they’d expected in return. Like a romance movie, they basked in their love and happiness as they watched their kids play and the sun set once again.

Notes