This Is Us - Chapter 40: Chapter 40

THOMAS POV
"Are you okay?"
I asked Luca as his big blue eyes wandered over the crowd that had gathered in front of the airport. A wide mix of fans and paparazzi who knew our flight to New York was leaving soon.
The Escalade parked and the security detail marked with NTB t-shirts, made their way outside the car to gather our luggage first. I asked one of the guys to bring Cooper into the lounge for us so there would be less to worry about as we made our way through the crowd.
"Luca?"
I called out to him against and he slowly shifted in his seat, tilting his head toward me.
"It's funny, I was always the one protecting you guys...it feels weird to be in the direct line of fire for a change," He giggled nervously and I clasped his hand in mine, giving it a tight squeeze.
"I'm right next to you," I reminded him and he nodded with a small gulp, fixing his jean jacket with a small tug.
"Okay," He said and went to let go of my hand but I latched onto it and he gave me a look.
"Are you sure?" he asked and I nodded.
"Luca, I have two great loves in my life. One of them is in the airport and the other is right next to me. Now come on, we don't want Matty to get too lonely without us," I told him and he nodded but I could tell he was still nervous.
"Here, this will help," I took off my sunglasses, sliding them over the bridge of his nose with a gentle kiss before giving him my wireless air pods, currently playing my bass boosting Spotify playlist.
I let security open the door for us after I knocked on the window and they deemed it safe to exit. Walking into the crowd of flashing lights hand in hand with my lover for the first time was a shock to all of them and screams of 'cheater' flooded in from the crowd.
I tried to keep my head down so it would be a little less blinding but that never really helped. I was thankful that the first timer next to me was in the comfort of darkened shades and altered noise so he wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit the press was spewing right now.
We finally make it in and security fast passes us through TSA as we walked to the private guest lounge. I let go of his sweaty palm and he let out a sigh of relief.
"That was a lot easier than I thought it would be," He says and I looked around for Matty. I found Milo in the corner playing with Jaydean and Kai off to the side on her phone in her own world but there was no sign of our Matty. And since Jayde was here, he had to be here somewhere.
"There he is," Luca pointed to a seat in front of the window where the familiar waves of light brown hair bobbed up and down. I quickly jogged over to him, finding him with his head in his hands and his legs shaking like crazy as he moaned into his palms.
"Matty? Baby are you okay?" I asked him but he kept his eyes squeezed shut as he shook his head.
"Yeah, I'm just really nauseous and my head feels like it's going to implode. I think all the bright lights brought on a migraine or something," He explains and I quickly slide into the seat next to Matty, protectively wrapping my arms around him. Luca crouched down in front of him, placing his hands on Matty's knees.
"Do you need anything hon? Meds? Water? Migraine stuff?" He asked and Matty's eyes slowly opened, meeting Luca's concerned gaze.
"Migraine stuff?" Matty stuttered and Luca shrugged.
"I've never really had a migraine so I don't really know what to do but I'm trying," Luca quickly explains, letting Matty's painful frown break into a tiny smile. He reached forward and gently caressed Luca's cheek, lifting the sunglasses from his eyes.
"I'll be okay, I just need to get over it is all. I can't take anything for it because don't want to hurt the babies," Matty sighs and rests his head against my shoulder.
"We only have a few minutes until the jet is ready, then I hope I can just sleep on the plane," He groans and I kiss the top of his head.
"You know, we're going to New York," Matty croaks and I run my fingers through his hair. Luca kisses Matty's hands and picks the seat on the other side of him.
"Yeah? And?" I said and he stops talking for a few moments, a wave of pain, clear as day on his face. He sucks in a breath before letting it out.
"NTB?" A flight attendant calls and the squad assembles. Luca stands and takes Jayde off Milo's hands while Kai goes ahead of us and Matty and I hang back. I take his backpack off his back and carry it myself as I let him lean against me for support. Watching his back as we boarded the private jet and sat in our seats, waiting for take off.
"You were saying?" I asked and he rubbed his temples.
"New York is where all my lovers are hiding," He says and my heart falters. I decide it's best to say my piece now before we're too deep and people get hurt.
"I want to close the trio. I want just you, Luca, and I as one solid relationship, no sides," I told him and he tilted his head up.
"Are sides considered cheating now?" He asked and gave him an affirmative nod.
Luca wasn't a problem.
Matty is.
"Sure," Matty tiredly sighs without giving much of a fight. I was kind of disappointed considering I had prepared so many comebacks.
"I don't want anyone else anyway. It's not like when I was pregnant with Jaydean. Now I have four little lives depending on me and I have to be responsible. I'm scared to do anything that might hurt them or cause a miscarriage...which is why I haven't really been in my usual horny mood lately," Matty explains, taking a glass of water from the flight attendant and downing it like it was a shot.
"You know...there are ways around that," I told him and he blushed slightly.
"When we get back," He says and that makes it a promise as I lean back in my seat. Watching Luca as he sat across from us with his feet tangled between us, off in his own world with the earbuds I gave him.
"We still need to think of three more names," Matty brought up and I frowned.
"But it was so hard to name Jayde and TJ, can't we just name them Mika, then Matty the 2nd, Matty the 3rd, and Matty the 4th?" I joked and he smacked my shoulder.
"I'm being serious, and Mika still needs a middle name," He continued and I kissed his cheek, pulling him close to me. Luca tilted his head away from the window and towards us, resting his cheek on his fist as he let out a loving sigh.
"You two are so cute together," Luca says and Matty sends him a kiss through the space between us.
"You're cute," I tell him and he chuckles a little, shaking his head as he looked back at the window, snuggling up to the Starbucks drink Matty had ordered for him.
I thought back to when we were naming TJ and I had one idea.
"Well since there's four instead of one, can we name one of the boys Rumi this time?" I asked and Matty gritted his teeth.
*Pronounced Roo-Me*
"And as I told you last time, Rumi Jackson is still a stupid name. No one respects a man named Rumi," he argues, closing his eyes.
"But we could call him Roo, it would be so cute," I coo, rubbing his shoulder as if that might rub some warmth into his heart towards the name.
"I want a presidential birth giver veto that we will not name our son Rumi," He grunted.
"And I want a, I'm half their DNA, baby daddy override that I get to name one baby out of the four and you can't say shit," I huff and he groans.
"Come on, you named Mika and I didn't even bother arguing with you," I tried to plead my case.
"That's different. It's my Appa's name and if it weren't for my Appa you would be rotting in prison, unable to meet any of these babies," He retorts and I could feel the burn like a lashing.
"Come on, you wouldn't stroll the four of them to my cell? So I could meet them once?" I joked and even though he had his eyes closed, I knew there was an eye roll in there somewhere.
"Over my dead body," He said and he ran his hands over his little baby bump. Because he's so fit, lean, and tiny, the bump wasn't out there but you noticed it if he put his hands on it.
"Fine, I'll give you one baby, Luca one baby, and the last one we have to agree on. Fair?" He says and I'll take his white flag any day.
"Fair, so Rumi Jackson it is," I agree and he even growls a bit.
"Are you sure you want to use you're one pass on Rumi?" He asks, crossing his arms protectively as if the name would hurt little Roo.
"Yup, never been surer," I told him and he finally caved.
"Come on, I have a feeling you'll grow to love it too," I told him and he gave me this look that said it all. He regretted everything he said and hated me with a passion.
"Fine, Mika and Rumi...now we just need two more be-,"
"Nakoa," Luca says out of the blue, stopping Matty in his tracks.
"I like the name Nakoa and I knew a Nakoa. He was a good man who fought beside me in the field but died in my arms. I always wanted to name my son after him and now I can." Luca reveals. Matty scratched his chin and sighed.
"Nakoa Jackson, it's beautiful baby," He coos and I elbow him.
"It's beautiful! Why do you take his suggestion so easily over mine!" I argue and Matty kicks me.
"Because I don't like your suggestions! Luca's are sensible. Nakoa is a strong, sensible name and it was out of honor for someone else. Our son will have a heritage. I don't like Rumi!" Matty spits out and now I crossed my arms.
"I just want you to be a little more open to my suggestions," I point out. He pulls away from me, leaning against the hard wall of the airplane instead and closes his eyes.
"Fuck you and your suggestions, I'm going to sleep so I can get rid of this head ache and ponder how much I hate the fact you're going to name our son Rumi,"