Love Never Fades

Another five years passed for the Purdy family, and now Ash was completely on his own. Six months after Andy and his fiancé, Juliet, finally tied the knot on New Year’s Eve, 2017, his grandmother’d passed away from old age. The girls were sad to see their granny become an angel, but they knew she was in a better place and happy to be reunited with their papa.

He still had no idea Leana’d sent his best friend a response, and that he lived a bit more peacefully knowing that he was alive. Andy still had no clue about his daughters, and therefore the reason he’d taken off in the first place, but that was okay. He’d only wanted to know that the older man was still breathing, so he was happy.

Now that Legacy and Magick were ten, he found himself struggling to cope with the onset of puberty. They’d sprouted very small breasts a couple years ago, but he knew they were going to be very blessed, in that department. They already told him that they had little boys at school staring at their chests, and he remembered being like those little boys many years ago. It was a long time before he figured out that he was gay, but until he made that realization, he’d been innately attracted to breasts.

“Hello?” he said, answering his phone before it got sent to voice mail.

“Is this Ashley Purdy?” the caller asked.

“It is,” he answered, curious as to where this was going.

“This is the school nurse at Carter Middle School,” the woman responded. “I was wondering if you could bring your daughters a change of clothes, or come sign them out.”

“What happened?” Ash asked, immediately worried about both of them.

“It appears they both started their first period, Mr. Purdy,” she answered, chuckling a bit. “Bringing them a change of clothes would be ideal for them to finish out the school day, but if you’re unable to, I doubt they’d wanna stay in bloody clothes any more than we could allow them to.”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t quite finished the laundry, so I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he answered, understanding all too well.

“I’ll let the principal and receptionist know, sir,” the nurse told him.

“Thanks for giving me a call,” he answered, quickly ending the phone call before she could say anything else.

Ash’d known from the moment he found out he was having little girls that this was going to happen eventually, and he couldn’t help chuckling. Thankfully, because he’d been a hermaphrodite all his life, he knew their pain—and embarrassment. If they thought they were embarrassed by starting their periods in the middle of the school day, he’d had it far worse since boys weren’t supposed to have them at all.

Upon arriving at the middle school five or so miles away, he saw his daughters sitting in the office, their faces red with embarrassment. He managed to stifle a chuckle as he walked in, his keys clipped to his belt loop. No one really noticed the slight hitch to his step, brought on by his own period-induced backache, and if they did, they said nothing.

He quickly got Legacy and Magick signed out, having to squat down so he could give the former a piggy-back ride while carrying the latter in his arms. The entire small town of Strawberry Plains was still amazed at how well a job he was doing with them, even ten years after their births. They were surprised that he still refused to tell their father about them, but once they knew his reason, they understood. Many had thought he was a freak until he’d told them it was something he was born with, something he didn’t have a choice as to whether he got it or not.

When they got home, he took the girls upstairs to his suite and grabbed them an unopened box of tampons. He chuckled when their faces turned even redder as they realized he knew what was wrong before leading them back to their own bathroom. They’d since taken over Leana’s suite since she obviously wasn’t using it anymore, which meant they had their own bathroom and didn’t really have to fight. He considered that a blessing since he remembered how he’d been as a teenager.

“You girls understand now?” he asked after explaining how to use the tampons.

“Yeah, Mama,” they answered, nodding.

“I’m sorry this had to happen when it did,” Ash told them, gently kissing their foreheads. “If it helps, I got my first period in the middle of the school day, too.”

“Really?” Legacy asked.

“Really, really,” he answered, chuckling. “Imagine how embarrassing it was for me, since boys aren’t supposed to have to put up with such a thing.”

“But without having a period, you wouldn’t have us,” Magick said.

“No, I wouldn’t have the two of you,” he agreed, kissing her forehead again.

“Did Granny and Papa ever take any pictures of you while we were in your belly?” his older daughter asked.

“So many that I eventually threatened to break their cameras,” Ash laughed. “I’ve got a whole photo album I call my pregnancy album. C’mon, and I’ll show it to you.”

Both girls cheered as they headed downstairs ahead of him.

Shaking his head, he stored the box of tampons he was giving them under their sink, then followed them down to the living room. They didn’t know which photo album he was talking about, so they waited on the couch patiently. With a smile on his face, he went over to the entertainment center, where he’d stored all the photo albums he had for many years.

After the grabbing the one he sought, he headed over to the couch and sat down between them, the beautifully-made album resting on his lap. The very first picture in it was his first ultrasound, the one taken when he was only about four weeks pregnant and thought they’d looked like little grains of rice. Aside from the positive pregnancy test taken only a week or so before then, it was the first confirmation that his drunken tryst with Andy had produced two little miracles.

Legacy and Magick couldn’t help the coos and laughter that erupted from them as he turned the pages, letting them see what he looked like several years ago. They thought he looked so young, so innocent, and aside from the innocent remark, he really had been. It was hard to believe that he was only twenty-six through the majority of his pregnancy, had been only twenty-seven when he had them. Granted, thirty-seven wasn’t that old, even by today’s standards, but he still found it hard to believe that a decade had passed since then, more than a decade since he’d last seen or had any contact with his best friend.

The pair continued giggling as they looked at a picture where he’d somehow managed to write Suck it with an arrow pointing down to his crotch across his belly. It was under his navel, over which a tattoo saying Outlaw now arched, unlike back when he was pregnant. He’d even pulled his shirt up to reveal the slight swell, rather than running around shirtless as he preferred to do, his pajama pants riding low on his hips.

“You looked so cute in this picture, Mama,” Legacy said, her finger on the edge of one.

“Having you girls growing in my belly made me tired a lot,” he chuckled, looking at the one she meant. In it, he was so tired that he’d passed out on the couch, one hand resting on his belly, which his shirt had ridden up to reveal part of.

“I think he looked sweet in it, holding his belly like that,” Magick spoke up.

“Well, I do, too,” her twin agreed. “It was almost like he was holding our hands, or hugging us, while we were still inside him.”

Ash smiled as they talked about it, remembering how it was more of a protective gesture than anything.

“Was this when you were in the hospital having us?” his younger daughter asked, pointing to a different picture.

“It was,” he answered, nodding. “I’d just gotten my epidural shortly beforehand, so I was tired and still kinda cranky from the pain I’d been through all day.”

“It must’ve taken a loooong time for us to be born,” she said.

“Eh, about fifteen hours,” he answered. “But all the pain and discomfort was worth it when I got to hold y’all for the first time.”

Both girls cooed at the sweet expression on his face as he recalled those moments, of seeing their little faces and looking up at his grandparents with a smile on his. They finally reached the end of the album and still thought he’d looked cute throughout his pregnancy, even toward the end when he’d looked to be only about seven months. Despite having carried identical twins, his abdominal wall had been so strong it made him look a month or two less further along than he’d actually been his entire pregnancy.

Neither of his girls really asked about their daddy, even now, but they knew who he was. He might not’ve wanted to tell Andy about them, but he didn’t keep such knowledge from Legacy and Magick. When they’d asked one day a couple years ago why they didn’t have a daddy, he’d been truthful with them.

However, he kinda wondered what would happen if he finally contacted the younger man, if he finally told him why he’d run away so many years before. He hadn’t wanted to tell him back then because he was scared, and while he still was, he couldn’t help but think he might ruin his best friend’s marriage. From all appearances online, it was a happy one, but he doubted that, deep down, Andy loved Juliet as much as he claimed to love him. Then again, their marriage could be just as loving as appearances led everyone to believe, and if it was, he didn’t want to be the cause of it falling apart.

It wasn’t much longer before Legacy and Magick decided they were tired, and since it was seven, he decided to make dinner while they took a bath. He hadn’t realized they’d spent so much time going through the album after he’d shown them how to use tampons, but that was okay. He loved spending time with his daughters, his precious little miracles, and he was thankful for every moment he got to spend with them.

Notes