#jackbittyparse

“I apologized, didn’t I?” Kentsighs, and at least he finally looks like he’s regretting his decision.

“Shouldn’t have offered to cookfor all of them, then!” Bitty smilesa bright, slightly manic grin, and Kent flinches. Ha. He still can’t believe Kent had decided that they wouldcook a Thanksgiving dinner for the entirety of the Aces—it’s ridiculous!

“Sorry,” Kent murmurs. But then aflash of worry darts across his face. “Are you mad?”

His voice is actually somber foronce—both Bitty and Jack stare at him.

“Shit,” Jack says, as he’sdropped the potato he’d been holding.

Bitty crosses his arms andsoftens his smile—oh, Kent. “I’m not mad at you, Kenny,” he promises. “Stressed,yeah. Annoyed? Yeah. Not mad, okay?”

“Okay,” Kent says, and his smilecomes back. Sometimes Kent worries too much—he’s kind of like Jack, in thatregard, Bitty thinks. But unlike Jack, it can be harder to tell when Kent’sfeeling insecure, so Bitty has to try his hardest to catch it and soothe itaway.

“That doesn’t mean you’re gettingoutta helping me,” Bitty raises an eyebrow.

Kent rolls his eyes good-naturedly,grabbing the apron Bitty had bought him from the hook on the wall. “Yeah, yeah,I know.”

“Kenny?” Jack says, letting along spiral of potato peel fall into the trash. “He loves you, you know.”

Kent flushes. “I know,” he says,and Bitty laughs at the grin on Jack’s face. It’s fun to make Kent flush; they’vebeen tag-teaming at it for years now.

“Okay,” Bitty takes a deep breath,surveying the kitchen. “Let’s do this.”

Everything is a blur after that,a shifting mess of timers and heat and ‘nononodon’t take that out of the oven yet!’ and checking to make sure that Jackhasn’t inadvertently knocked anything over—Lord.

And then at one point Jackexcuses himself to go to the bathroom and Bitty turns around to start the nexttask and realizes—they’re done. All they’re waiting on is the turkey.

“Oh my God,” he says, and wiltsinto the nearest chair. He’s so tired. They’re done. Oh God.

“You okay, Bits?” Kent splays hisfingers over his shoulders and starts to knead his thumbs into the stiff muscle—Bittysighs and leans into it, because goodness that feels nice right now.

“I’m so glad we have two ovens,”Bitty murmurs, letting his eyes slip shut. Maybe he can even get a nap inbefore they’re set to eat.

“Me too,” Kent murmurs frombehind him.

Bitty chuckles, then jumps alittle when Kent presses over a particularly tight knot. “You only ever use oneof them,” he points out. Even Bitty rarely uses the other one; it’s served himmostly as a back-up for when he’s expecting company. He spends enough timebaking at either of his small bakeries in Providence and Vegas that he doesn’tfeel as much need to bake at home anymore.

“Well, yeah, but I mean, you’llprobably use both of them a lot more when we have our kids, right?” Kent says,and Bitty’s so lulled by the smoothness of his voice and the gentle massage ofhis fingers that it takes him a second for the words to process.

He stands straight up and whirlsaround, eyes flying open. “Kent Parson,”he chokes out. “We’ve never—you never said you wanted—“ he swallows, the wordsevading him. They’d discussed marriage, decided it wasn’t for them because thenone of them would be left out, but kids—andKent’s chuckling, of course he is.

“What’s wrong, Bitty?” Jack comesin from the bathroom, brow furrowed upon seeing Bitty’s face.

“Kent—he said—he wanted kids—“ Bitty cuts off, shaking his head.

“Oh,” Jack says. “Is that aproblem? I want kids,” he shrugs, coming over and resting his arms over bothBitty and Kent’s shoulders.

“It’s not a problem, I just—“Bitty sighs, and oh Lord, he’s going to cry, isn’t he? He’d never wanted toask, had assumed it would be too difficult what with him going back and forthbetween Providence and Vegas all the time, and with Jack and Kent not seeingenough of each other as it is. “I never thought it would work out,” he saysquietly.

“Bits—you should’ve said something.We can make it work out, you know? I’d—maybe not just yet, but I’d considerretiring in a few years if it meant we could—“ Kent shrugs.

And yep, Bitty’s crying now. Heturns and buries his face into Jack’s shoulder. “Why does he always springthings like this on us at the worst times?” he laughs, feeling trembly.

“He’s good at that, eh?” Jackagrees, rubbing his back with the arm that isn’t around Kent.

“Hey, stop ignoring me,” Kentgrumbles, and Bitty pulls away from Jack and falls straight into Kent’s arms.

“We’ll talk about this morelater,” Bitty presses his face into Kent’s neck. “Your team’s probably gonnastart getting here any minute, but—Kenny, thank you,” he breathes.

“I’m sure Jack would do it, if hehad to,” Kent shrugs, shoulder moving against Bitty’s face.

Jack nods. “You know we want tomake you happy.”

“I don’t deserve y’all,” Bitty letsout an incredulous laugh.

“Yes, you do,” Kent and Jack saymore or less at the same time, and Bitty reaches out and finds Jack’s arm too.They stand in a tangle of limbs for a few precious moments, warm and happy.

Then, of course, the doorbellrings.

“I’ll get it,” Kent moves first.

“Jack, can you make sure thetable’s set?” Bitty wipes his face off, and Jack presses a quick kiss to hischeek.

“Of course.”

Bitty hurries down to the bathroomto splash water on his face, hoping his skin doesn’t look too blotchy. Oh,goodness, his boys. Every single day, he wakes up with one or both of them andthinks to himself—this couldn’t get any better.