This Is Us - Chapter 63: Chapter 63

*THOMAS POV*
"AHHHH"
"AHHHH"
"AHHHH"
The three of us screamed in unison as I bent my legs, kicking them out and pulling them back with all were stuck in a perpetual state of fear and awe. I reached out my arms and touched the legs, my legs and a strange sensation ran up my spine.
The sensation of a single touch; which I hadn't felt in five years, was so overstimulating that I nearly threw up. I quickly put my hands up and kicked my legs back to a straight position.
I blinked a few times as I just stared at my toes when I quickly tilted my head to the side and the magical curtain was yanked down.
The legs weren't actually mine.
I grew up with big toes that were shaped liked thumbs and was often made fun of for my hand like feet by my sister.
These toes were too perfect, they matched my skin tone almost too precisely and when I touched the skin again it was so realistic that it was warm. I slowly turned my body with my legs following off in a natural way, following where I imagined they would go and sliding off the bed. The pads of my feet touched the cool floor and I felt exactly how cold the floor beneath my feet was, quickly wishing for the first time in years that I had something to protect them.
"Baby are you okay?" Matty whispered as he cupped my cheeks, wiping away tears that I didn't know I was released as I hugged my arms.
"I-" I could barely get out any words as I felt a small vibration through the floor from Cooper trotting over to see what was wrong.
"I what? What do you need?" A concerned Luca asked me with his hands roughly gripping my shoulders and shaking me.
"I need..." I stuttered, looking into the eyes of my concerned lovers as they froze in place. I reached up my hands, cupping each of their cute pouted cheeks in my large hands.
"I need socks," I finally confessed and their faces turned from fear to laughter as we all broke down together. Laughing until we were in tears as they hugged me.
"Fuck baby, I'll buy you one hundred pairs of socks and shoes and sandals," Matty chuckled and Luca kissed my forehead.
"I guess now that we've calmed down, we should go see where we are huh?" Luca shuffled as he looked towards the open wall revealing the beautiful ocean and crystal clear sky.
I finally got a look at them and realized they were wearing colors they usually never wear, with Matty in a yellow jumpsuit of sorts and Luca in hot pink.
I looked down and found myself in the same outfit as Luca, a lot simpler than the one I came here in, the purple t-shirt felt softer than silk as it fell taunt against my muscles and the cargo shorts were something I'd never wear considering my leg situation.
"Yeah..." I agreed, slowly getting up and testing my legs, feeling balanced as I took a step forward without swaying, my ankle contorting the way it should on a hinged joint that was previously nonexistent, a knee joint that popped a little as I walked before returning to normal, and muscles that contracted as I took that first step.
"Holy shit," I gaped as I took another few steps, Matty knew I would be just fine and lead the way down the hall while Luca was more cautious, standing beside me to catch me if I fell. But of course, I didn't.
Together we walked down a tall winding staircase into the main living room where the strange blonde headed doctor bounced out little redhead on his knee.
"JAYDEAN!" Matthias nearly tripped over himself as he screamed out daughters name and rushed forward. He snatched her up from Mari's arms in an instant and cradled her to his body.
"I told you she would be just fine," Mari yawned but Matthias had no mercy for his cousin as he cradled the most precious thing in the world to him.
"You nasty mother fucker! You call yourself my cousin but you kidnapped my daughter! You took her from me against my will, without my consent, and now I hope you rot in hell for it!" He went off but Mari remained unamused. His doe-eyed gray orbs focused on me now.
"Do you like the new prosthetic legs? I noticed the ones you had were so outdated that they belonged in a museum. So I took the liberty of replacing them, hope you don't mind. When I saw them it was only another reminder that Bridgeport is so many decades ahead of everyone else that it's quite sad actually," Marius pointed out and Matty covered our daughter's cheeks in little kisses while still glaring at Mari.
"Hey, I wasn't done talking sunshine," Matty hissed but Marius stood up and hopped over the back of the couch he was sitting on, coming to me and walking around in a circle.
"I have to admit, they look a lot better than I expected. I have a friend who specializes in prosthetics and said these were the updated concept with small sensors that connect to your spinal cord. It might be a bit overwhelming at first but she said eventually you'll get used to it," Marius smiled as he met my gaze. The three of us towering over his short stature as he stood in a button up dress shirt and work khakis.
"Thank you, Marius, it means the world to me but you really didn't have to. These must have been so expensive," I thanked him as I looked down at my new feet, unable to get enough of them.
But as soon as I thanked him he burst out laughing and I looked up again, confused by his reaction and slightly embarrassed. Unlike Matthias, I didn't come from a wealthy family of the rich and famous. I grew up in a lower-middle-class house that was just barely staying afloat and every penny was a luxury.
Before NTB had formed due to a class assignment where the four of us were forced to produce covers for a national contest, the four of us thought we would amount to nothing, until a day after releasing our first cover of new rules we placed number one in the class.
Then our next challenge, an international challenge, we were the only boys in the class assigned an all-girl song to perform. Du-Du-DDu by black pink which started a controversial wildfire around the country. With millions of hate comments pouring in on our masculinity and sexualities. Ending with Milo being kicked out of his house for being transgender and me being kicked out of my own home for coming out as queer and gender nonconforming.
Both of us were homeless and broken, coming to school to find our subscriber count went over 10 million and the ad revenue was used to buy a penthouse was beyond our wildest imagination.
Even though now I'm beyond upper class since I invested some of my income and received a great return, I was never one to flash it in others faces and it was never my dream to buy a million dollar mansion in the hills.
Our farmhouse could fit the eight of us comfortably if we made a few modifications but it wasn't anything revolutionary. The rest of the money Matty and I made was divided into savings for the two of us and savings for Jaydean.
The fact I even have savings for my daughter is something I don't take for granted considering the word 'saving' was a joke in my household growing up where we were living paycheck to paycheck.
And even though my religious mother and father had forgotten about me, I never forgot about them. After our first song hit the top charts, I bought my sister's bakery and my parents house. A house I never got to visit or see them live in, but hear they enjoy it nonetheless.
I almost said something as Mari stopped laughing, gently standing on his tip toes and patting my shoulder.
"Ah Thomas you're so sweet, but it's unnecessary. Prosthetics like this are free here because walking is a right, not a privilege. Amputees get upgrades like this once a year for free, my husband lost his arm when we were younger and I brought him here so they could do the same," Mari tells me and I let out a small sigh of relief, thankful he wasn't making fun of my perspective, just my home country.
"Is there anything else you stole?" Matty barks and Marius turns to face him, I didn't have to know Mari for very long to tell he was the complete opposite of my husband.
"Matthias, I understand you're frustrated and you hate me right now but listen to me. You raised a tough little girl alright. I've never seen any child like her or any person per se. Usually, when the patients wake up from surgery they're groggy and very sickly but Jaydean was alert and ready to hop off the bed claiming she felt just fine. She pushed past any pain just because she wanted to see you three again." He says and I put my hands on my hips, looking over at my strong little nugget as she snuggled with her mommy.
"How is she?" Luca asked and Marius gave us a reassuring smile.
"The project Kaleb device works by creating small microscopic cells that are specifically designed to destroy cancer cells and die on their own. It works surprisingly fast because cells are always reproducing but I never like to make a call until after a month," He says and spreads his arms out, pointing to the house.
"Until then, you guys can stay here. It's the house I had back when I was single but Hamie-yah and I had to move after we had six babies toddling about. I didn't like the walls being so open since they're so tiny, but I didn't want to give it up because of the view. Hamie and I come here sometimes to get away but that's about it," He explains and Matty's mouth drops.
"You have six kids?" He gasps and Mari giggles in a way that if I didn't know any better, I could honestly confuse him for a sixteen-year-old.
"Don't give me that look when you're about to have five," Marius points and I chuckled at Matty's face dropping.
"How did you know?" He asked and Mari shrugged.
"Your Appa told me and we did an ultrasound while you were passed out. Sorry about that by the way, but all the babies are still doing good even though you've been under ridiculous amounts of stress. They must be really strong to last this long and I'm sure that as long as you stay here, you'll deliver four perfect little babies," Marius announces and Matthias laughs.
"It's too bad I'm not staying that long," He grunts, toying with Jaydean's loose hair.
"You guys should at least consider it. Grayson Memorial has the best NICU in the world and we see people like you every single day. While in the states you're treated like a phenomenon, here men get pregnant all the time and it's nothing new. Transgender men, intersex men, uterus transplant, we don't even think twice about it,"
Mari suggests more toward Luca and I as if we actually had a say in where Matty would have these little ones. When it comes to that I'm pretty sure we all know who's really in charge.
"Appa had me in America and I had Jaydean in America, we were just fine," Matty retorts, revealing a now sleeping Jayde now fast asleep in his lap.
"I'm not going to force you, I'm just asking you to think about it. In the meantime, the midwife at the hospital prescribed a supplement for you to take that would be good for the babies growth, especially the smallest one since they're starting to fall behind," He points to the small metallic box on the kitchen counter and walks over to the island. His hand hovers over the counter and suddenly what had once looked like a beautiful countertop transformed into a large touchscreen running services that reminded me of Amazon.
"Here, you guys don't know how to use this just yet but you'll learn. This is where you can order groceries and they'll be delivered by a drone in a half hour or so all of the instructions are on this tablet here where-"
Mari's explanation is cut off by the loud beeping of the front door as it unlocks and a guy with dark brown hair, nerdy black glasses in thick plastic frames, with a wide smile. He looked American more than anything else which made me wonder if there was such thing as what a true citizen of Bridgeport would look like.
"Hamie!" Mari shouts out the name of his husband who perks up when he sees us.
"Oh, hey guys! I'm Jamie, the one who you spoke to on the phone," He says in a deep New York accent that I heard over the phone as he kisses Mari before grabbing my hand and pulling me into a hug, doing the same to Luca.
"I'm Thomas," I introduce myself and he nods, raking his hands through his messy hair.
"And I'm Luca," My fiance does the same with a small smile, keeping close to me as if I could give him the boost of confidence he needed.
"Well it's nice to finally meet both of you and I'm more than happy to see you arrived safely. Even if I wish it was under better circumstances," Jamie said before turning to Mari.
"Where Kae?" Mari asked and the door opened once more, in stepped a shorter man than Jamie, although not as short as Mari, with a neat light brown fade that complimented his light brown eyes.
Eyes that were trained on one person and one person alone.
"Luca?"
"Kaeden?"
The two call out each other's names before Luca steps out from behind me and slowly approaches this guy who I felt like I recognized, but didn't know personally.
Kaeden drops the backpack he was holding and the door swinging shut behind him was the only sound coming from the room other than that of the ocean in the distance as the two approached each other with large amounts of unnecessary caution.
"My God, it really is you," Kaeden cries, suddenly bursting into tears before the two jumps into each others arms.
"KAE!" Luca cries out and buries himself in the stranger's shoulder, gripping him so tightly that it was as if he was determining whether or not this Kaeden was a dream.
"Luca, Oh sweet Luca," Kaeden sighs, kissing Luca's cheek and pressing his forehead against my fiance's cheek.
"I thought you were dead," Kaeden cries and squeezes Luca tighter.
I looked at Matty, both of us wondering who this man was and if he was about to steal Luca away from us by the looks of how they were holding each other.
"Do you two already know each other?" Jamie asked for the rest of us stuck in confusion and this Kaeden scoffs.
"Do we know each other? This is my son, Luca Evans,"