Chapter Text
6 months later
Trying to arrange a party when one of your daughters was currently obsessed with vehicles, and the other loved elephants and princesses was quite the challenge. They’d settled on a bouncy castle in the garden and invited over a few of the children from their nursery, plus Alfie, Ellie and Liam. Tomorrow was the family party, but today was all about having children running around everywhere.
“Who decided this was a good idea?” Rae groaned when she came inside to where Yaz was refilling jugs of juice.
Yaz chuckled, “I believe it was your idea actually.”
“Oh yeah,” she mumbled, but smiled as she wrapped her arms around her wife from behind. Yaz smiled, looking out into the garden through the kitchen window. “We need to get back out there.”
“Mmm in a minute,” Rae mumbled into her shoulder. “Have you got the cakes sorted yet?”
They’d gone for cupcakes for today’s party, arranged in the shape of the first letters of their names and decorated with their favourite things. “Yep, all ready to go. Left them in the back room for now though, it’s cooler in there. Might be time to take the savoury bits out now?”
“Ooo yes! I’ll get them,” Rae immediately disappeared, making Yaz roll her eyes.
She took the juice out, and one of the other mums offered to pour it for the children who ran over while Yaz went back in to collect the food with Rae.
Soon enough they had a garden full of children sitting on the grass with plates of sausage rolls, crisps and all the classic picnic food. It was the quietest their house had been all day.
Yaz had just got up from sorting a scotch egg vs grass incident out for Amirah when Clara appeared beside her. “You’re gonna sleep well tonight,” she chuckled.
“You think? Tomorrow’s their actual birthday and Nana and Grandad are coming. I’ve got no chance,” Yaz pointed out.
“Damn yeah, sucks to be you I guess,” Clara shrugged and Yaz hit her playfully. “It’s nice to see you all so relaxed and happy though.”
Yaz nodded, “things have really settled down now. Being back at work has been great, the girls are loving Hayley’s place and nursery and Ayla’s much happier being back doing what she loves.”
“She’s adapted well to the changes,” Clara agreed.
“Yeah, her gym coach has been amazing at adapting to her needs, and it was her decision not to go back to dance and focus on skating instead. She’s been really mature about the whole thing actually, but I’m glad she can just be a kid again sometimes,” Yaz told them.
“Is that why you sent her out today?”
Yaz nodded, “she’d just be looking after the kids if she was here. I gave her the option, she wanted to go skating. Georgia’s taking them out for dinner too.”
“Gone are the days where she wouldn’t leave your side, huh?” Clara chuckled.
“Long gone. Sometimes I miss it, but she’s happy - that’s the main thing.”
1 year later
“Aliana, your top is back to front, come back here!” Yaz moved out of the way as Rae chased a giggling Ali down the hall. She continued her route into the twins’ bedroom where she found Amirah sitting on her bed, dressed in her uniform and playing with the bottom of her skirt.
Yaz sat down beside her. “Are you worried about school?”
Amirah nodded. “Lots of new people. Scary.”
“I know baby, but you and Ali will be together, and you’ll meet lots of nice new people and make new friends,” Yaz told her.
“Ali good at talking,” Amirah cuddled into her Mummy. “I bad.”
Yaz kissed her head gently. “Come and sit in front of me so I can do your hair baby,” she moved and grabbed some hair bands and hairbrush to put her hair up. Once they were settled she continued the conversation. “I know talking to new people is really scary, but you’ll have a really nice teacher you can talk to as well if you’re upset.”
“Why can’t you stay, Mummy?” Amirah asked. Yaz had to hold herself together very well and continued focussing on plaiting her daughter’s hair.
“Because school isn’t for grown ups like us. But you’re only in school in the morning this week,” she told her. “Remember what I promised?”
“You pick us up at lunchtime,” Amirah repeated what she’d been told.
“Yep, Mama and I will be there every day this week to pick you up while you settle in,” Yaz told her, finishing up the first plait and moving onto the other side. “You’ll have lots of fun at school. You’re excited to learn?”
“Yeah, I like numbers and reading.”
That much was very true. While Aliana was the socialite of the two, Amirah was definitely showing as more academic so far. She’d spend hours sitting with one of her Mums or Ayla trying to read a book herself, and Ayla had even started teaching her little sums. “You’ll get to do numbers and reading at school.”
“That’s good,” she agreed.
Rae reappeared with a now properly dressed Aliana with her hair in a ponytail - the most you could get from her at the moment. She had trousers on, rather than the dress - they’d let both girls choose and neither had come as a surprise.
“Are we ready for breakfast?” Yaz asked.
“Yeah!” They both responded enthusiastically.
They went downstairs where Ayla was already waiting for them. She stopped what she was doing to hug her sisters. “You both look so grown up!” she said to them. “We’ll take some pictures after breakfast,” she smiled.
Sitting and having breakfast together was definitely not going to happen every morning, but they’d managed it for the first day which Yaz was pleased about, and in good time too. After eating, they had a little photoshoot with all three girls, and before they knew it, it was time to leave.
First stop was dropping Ayla at Lily’s house. Lily had moved last year, and they lived within walking distance of the school now, so they’d arranged for Ayla to walk with her this year. After some very quick hugs, she disappeared into the house and they drove onto the twins’ school.
It was the same primary school that Ayla had attended, and it was somewhat strange driving back to it again. It was a very different situation to when she’d first dropped Ayla off here. For one, she didn’t even know Rae back then.
Her thought process halted when they pulled up and it was time to get the girls out. They’d parked a couple of minutes walk away, as Yaz knew from experience that it would be much easier than parking nearer the school.
Once both girls were out of their car seats, they got their little bags out and locked the car up, walking towards the school. Everything was fine, until they got to the gate. Aliana went to run towards the door, but Amirah didn’t take the hand her sister had stuck out, and instead burrowed herself in Rae’s legs.
“Mummy, why is Ami sad?” Aliana asked.
Yaz crouched down. “She’s just a little scared sweetheart. Just wait here for me,” she said and approached Amirah. “Hey baby, remember what we talked about this morning?”
Amirah nodded, but didn’t move.
“You’re going to be alright, I promise. Mummy and Mama are going to take you right to your teacher today, and you’ll be with Ali,” she told her. “And remember it’s only until lunchtime today, so we’ll be here to pick you up and then we’re going to have a super fun afternoon.” Finally she stepped back a touch. “Why don’t you hold Ali’s hand? We’ll be right here.”
Surprisingly, that worked. They were guided in the right direction and found their way to where their class was meeting outside. “Hello! You must be Aliana and Amirah?” the teacher asked when they went over.
“Yeah, I’m Ali, this Ami. Ami scared, I’m not,” Aliana announced.
“Well it’s okay to be scared,” the teacher said to them. “My name’s Miss Powell and I’m going to be your teacher this year, and I’ll let you into a little secret - it’s my first day at this school too.”
“You new?” Ami asked quietly.
Miss Powell nodded, “yep, and it’s scary going somewhere new isn’t it? But I reckon between us we can get through it. How does that sound?” Ami nodded. “Awesome,” she held her hands up and got a high five from both of them.
Just as they did so, another little girl came over. “Come play dinosaurs!” she announced. Amirah glanced back up to Yaz who nodded with a smile, as did Rae, and they both followed her off to the small group of children playing nearby.
“You’re Aliana and Amirah’s Mums?” Miss Powell asked.
“Yeah, thanks for that - Amirah’s been very nervous. Aliana meanwhile will jump into anything - you’ll soon learn they’re complete opposites in many ways,” Yaz explained.
Miss Powell smiled, “don’t worry, in my mind they’re just two children in my class and I never expect two children to be the same.”
“Well they seem distracted now, probably a good time for us to disappear,” Rae suggested.
Yaz nodded. “Tempting as it is to grab them and say goodbye, I think it’s better we run while we can.”
“Good move. See you at half 12,” Miss Powell agreed, and they headed home.
Yaz had been lost all morning. She’d attempted work, but been too distracted. Instead she settled on housework. It was the longest 3 hours of her life.
Still, they’d had no calls from the school and that was a good sign. They drove back to the school, parking in the same place as before and walking round to the entrance. “I think I’m more nervous picking them up than I was dropping them off.”
“What’s worrying you more? That Ami might be upset, or that Ali might have caused chaos?” Rae asked, making Yaz chuckle. “They’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know how you’re so calm,” Yaz groaned.
“Oh I’m not, I’m just focusing on keeping you calm instead,” Rae shrugged. “Oh here we go,” she said as the doors opened. Each child was matched with their guardian and soon it was their turn.
“Mummy! Mama!” Two voices appeared at the door and they opened their arms to receive the whirlwinds. “It was so fun!” Ali said as she hugged Yaz.
“Yeah? That’s really good,” Yaz smiled. “How about you Ami?”
Amirah poked out of Rae’s arms. “Miss Powell said I good at numbers,” Amirah said shyly.
“That’s awesome, well done kiddo,” Rae high fived her daughter. “I reckon this needs ice cream to celebrate.”
Yaz smiled and they stood up, walking back to the car as a family, children chatting away about their morning. It was a world away from Ayla’s first day at school, but Yaz couldn’t help but feel proud of how far she’d come. Never did she imagine being here, all these years later, picking up her twin daughters from school with her wife, but here they were. Through all the difficulties, they’d made it - together. And they would continue through life as a family, because they worked so well.