Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Duen’s alarm rang at 5 AM sharp, causing the young doctor to sit up immediately and shake the clingy mass that called itself his husband by the shoulder.

“Come on, go wake up the boys or we’ll all be late.”

“Noooooo…” Bohn moaned before rubbing his face in to the shirt fabric at Duen’s waist. “Sleepy time.”

“P'Bohn!”

“Five more minutes…”

“The boys will ask you for ten if I agree. Now please?”

Bohn tilted his face up. “Good morning kiss.”

Duen sighed softly before pecking Bohn’s lips. “Good morning kiss. Now please go wake up Con and Call?”

Bohn moved to pull Duen back down but a yowl from behind their door made him pull away. “Damn it, Cat…”

Duen smugly pulled away to open the door so that Cat (“It’s short for Catherine,” Bohn had insisted) could enter and claim the warm spot Duen had left behind. His reason for staying in bed removed, Bohn sluggishly got up, pecking another kiss to Duen’s cheek before he walked down the hall to the last two bedrooms on opposite sides. Duen headed for the kitchen to start the rice cooker as Bohn knocked on both doors at the same time.

“Con! Call! Time to get up!”

The door on the right responded with the sound of a muffled thump.

“Don’t you give me that attitude, Call,” Bohn said sternly through the door. “You already got disciplined yesterday for being late to homeroom.”

The door on the left opened quietly as a brown haired boy that just reached Bohn’s shoulder emerged, immediately reaching for Bohn for a hug.

“Morning daddy.”

“Good morning, Con,” Bohn said before kissing Con’s forehead. “Go on, papa is making breakfast now.” Hug accomplished, Con bumped his forehead to Bohn’s shoulder before going to the bathroom. It was enough time for Call to throw open his door, looking like the mirror image of Con, but his hair was a mess. “And good morning to you too, Call.”

“Mrph,” Call said before walking to the bathroom and banging on the door until Con squawked and let him enter.

“P'Call, can’t you wait until I’m done?!”

“You literally don’t have anything I haven’t seen now move over!”

With the twins squabbling away, Bohn followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen, pausing only to peek in on Cat, already fast asleep on Duen’s side of the bed. “Yeah yeah, enjoy another nap, ungrateful monster.”

Cat’s only reply was a yawn.

By the time Bohn reached the kitchen, Duen had already begun to fry up omelets to place over rice and quickly stir fried veggies for breakfast. Bohn wrapped himself around Duen and kissed his neck and cheek. Although Duen sighed with some exasperation, he didn’t elbow him away.

“Go set the table so I can get showered and dressed please.”

“One more kiss first.” Bohn leaned in with puckered lips and this time Duen pushed him away with his oily spatula.

“Come on, we’ll all be late.”

“I’m the project manager. I can be late if I want to.”

“That’s irresponsible and as a junior doctor, I’m not allowed to be late.”

“Duueeeennnnnnn….” Duen’s only reply was to wipe the oil from Bohn’s face with a clean dishtowel before putting a stack of plates and a bowl of rice into his arms and pushing him away.

As Bohn set the table, Duen lightly slapped his ass with the dishtowel before walking off to the master bathroom.

“Oh… So it’s like that is it…” Bohn smirked before chasing after his husband. “Oi, let me shower with you. That saves time, right?”

“BOHN!”

Con and Call emerged first, dressed in their high school uniforms. Call dished out rice portions while Con carefully spooned vegetables and omelet on top. As Call poured water into glasses, Con pulled out a can of cat food. At the sound of the first hiss and scrape of the lid, Cat padded into the kitchen, already licking her lips. Con pet her gently as he placed the food into her bowl. Cat nuzzled his hand and nipped it gently just once before beginning to eat.

By then, Duen emerged, dress shirt and pants well pressed with a neat tie. Con ran up to hug him while Call coolly sat at the table and allowed himself to be hugged from behind as Duen took his seat. Bohn emerged not long after, dressed in far more casual attire.

As soon as breakfast began, Duen held out his hand in front of Call’s face. “Call, take it off.”

“But papa!”

“Your school already said it wasn’t in dress code for you to wear the dangling earring. I know Prin gave it to you and you really like it, but please, no more trips to the disciplinary office.”

Call looked to Bohn who could only shake his head. “Sorry kid. Until you graduate from there, we’ve got to follow the rules too.”

“This is a dumb double standard!”

“P'Call… Girls aren’t allowed to wear them either…”

“Shh!”

“How about you take it off now and when we go shopping this weekend, I’ll let you buy another one?” Bohn offered despite how Duen shot him a look. “And I’ll even buy you one that you can give Prin.”

‘Deal!“ Call placed the offending piece of jewelry into Duen’s hand and resumed eating his breakfast. Duen sighed and looked at Bohn who only shrugged.

"Um… Daddy? Can I go study with P'Tangmo tonight?” Con asked while pushing his rice around.

“No fair! If he gets to go study with Mo on a school night, then I want to go study with Prin!”

Duen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “They can both come here and study tonight. I’ll be home early anyway because I’m trading shifts with P'Thara tomorrow. I’ll make some snacks when I get home.”

“Umm… Well… We were…” Con began to fidget and Call elbowed him.

“You weren’t going to study at all!”

“P'Call!”

“Well that’s extra reason for all of you to study here,” Bohn interjected. “And I’ll bring home extra food for dinner.”

“Daddy! We weren’t going to-”

“You totally were!” Call began to laugh so hard he could hardly stay in his seat. Con began to kick at Call’s chair to knock him out of it. Duen looked to Bohn to help stop the two, but Bohn only looked away and sipped at his coffee.

“Boys! If you don’t behave, no one is studying anywhere with anyone.” Duen pointed at Con. “Con, you may invite N'Tangmo over.” He moved to Call. “Call, you may invite N'Prin. They are both invited to dinner. I’ll call Ram and P'King. Your dad will call P'Mek and P'Boss. They all might as well come too so they can pick up N'Tangmo and Prin afterwards. And I expect your grades to be good on the next test after all this trouble.” The twins looked to Bohn and Bohn only nodded with a mouth full of rice to which Duen sighed with relief. “Now will you all finish eating? P'Bohn, it’s your turn to drop the twins off at school today.”

This statement started the bickering over who got to sit in the front passenger seat and Bohn and Duen could only sigh.

Chapter Text

Dinner in the Rattananumchok-Sirikarnkul household was hardly ever a peaceful affair. Duen usually had to get Call to stop blasting music, get Bohn to stop headbanging along to Call’s music, get Con to stop doing homework with noise canceling headphones on, and to get Cat settled after being agitated by all the above before he could peacefully begin cooking with Con and Call at his side helping.

Today was starkly different.

Today the house was silent and Duen found Con crying in Bohn’s lap, his gangly adolescent form curled up perfectly while clutching a note in his hand. Bohn was doing his best to soothe him. Call was nowhere to be found, although judging by the lack of Cat’s presence, Duen assumed the more cavalier of his children was being comforted by her.

Duen set down his grocery bags and walked over to the pair he found easily enough and caught Bohn’s eye. Bohn twisted his lips into some sort of grimace before gently shaking Con.

“Con, baby, Papa is here. You have to tell us what happened now, okay?”

Con hickuped and turned his red and teary eyes on Duen, immediately breaking his heart. “Papa… Papa you have to help P'Call!”

“What is it? What happened?” Duen opened his arms and Con fell into them before offering the note clutched in his hand. Bohn took it and began to read aloud.

“We regret to inform you that due to several accounts of misbehavior and fighting that we must… EXPELL CALL SIRIKARNKUL? ARE YOU JOKING?” Bohn’s expression turned thunderous and Duen also felt a frown forming on his lips. “Unbelievable!”

Duen turned to Con, who had started shaking some more. “Baby, what happened? Why did Call get in trouble?”

“He… Phi, he…” Another bout of tears poured over and Duen could do nothing but rock him back and forth to soothe him. Bohn set his face and marched over to Call’s room.

“Call, your papa is home and we’ve read the note. Are you going to come out and explain this to us or-”

“Go away!”

“Call Sirikarnkul, you listen to me. We are not going to fight you. We are not trying to punish you. We want to understand what happened and why the school has decided to do this.”

The door cracked open a sliver. “You promise to not be mad at me?”

Bohn opened his arms. “We want to be on your side, Call. Tell us what happened.” Before Bohn could blink, the door was thrown open and Call threw himself into Bohn’s arms, leaving tears on his shoulder, just like his twin. Bohn rubbed Call’s back to soothe him. Call would never admit to being as emotional as his twin, but he was probably the most emotional out of both.

After a few minutes of more crying, Bohn and Duen were able to unite the two and get the full story. The son of the school’s principal had been enrolled and chose to flaunt his status, in particular, by picking on the twins and the very public information that both had gay fathers. Call had rightfully stood up to the principal’s son while Prin and Tangmo had comforted Con. It had ended in a brawl and the principal, in his anger and lack of discretion, had opted to save his own son and expel Call.

“Just don’t return me to the orphanage…” Call begged after the full story. “I’ll be good! I won’t fight in my new school!”

“Are you kidding? We would NEVER return either of you!” Bohn pulled Call in for a tight hug. “You are our children. We raised you from babies to the young men you are today! I’d sooner cut off my own arm than return you or Con.”

Duen also frowned at the note in his hands. “And I have plenty of mind to talk to that principal.”

“Why talk to him? We can talk to people higher than him.” Bohn wiggled his cellphone. “We have some friends in higher places than even him.”

Duen tried very hard to keep his face neutral. “Fighting fire with fire will not help.”

“But it will put him in his place better than a lawsuit for discrimination.”

Con and Call looked up at Duen carefully. Duen sighed. “Okay, but just this one time.”

Bohn scooped up both twins and spun them around. “Time to go punish bad people, kids! Ice cream for dessert for everyone!”

Duen opened his mouth to object, but instead moved to the freezer. “How about ice cream for dinner?”

“YAY!”

Chapter Text

Bohn effortlessly pulled Call off the kitchen counter before he could climb any further towards the cabinet with snacks before adjusting his cell phone on his shoulder while Con waddled behind, tugging on his pajama pants.

“Listen, I have a right to work from home,” Bohn said sternly to his manager. “We set up the VPN and access for this reason and I’m literally not leaving my kids at home without supervision.”

“Bohn, this project-”

“Is going to be done in time, sir.” Bohn finally heaved Call into his high chair despite the toddler’s protests. Con went much more willingly. “All the designs are done. The team is running final numbers. My job is just to double check everything which I can do from home. If you continue to persist, I’m going to call HR.”

“That’s-”

“Also within my rights because you’re not respecting my needs as a parent and I think not having a babysitter and a partner working shifts at the hospital qualifies as a family emergency of sorts.” Bohn then pointed a finger at both twins who giggled before he finally placed bowls of congee in front of them and handed over their spoons. “Eat slowly, no rice on your shirts today,” Bohn told them both with a hand over his phone. “We’re gonna surprise your papa with clean shirts today, right?”

Con paused mid raising his spoon to nod and Call had already smeared his first bite over his right cheek. Bohn sighed. “Anyway, I’ll call you back later with an update. Expect it before lunch,” Bohn told his manager before hanging up. “And you, messy little brat, what am I to do with you?” Bohn picked up a napkin and wiped Call’s face, smiling as his son giggled. “You’re a troublemaker like your daddy, but that’ll have to do.”

Bohn’s phone rang, but this time, Bohn sighed fondly as he picked up. “What’s up my sweet doctor?”

“Hush you.” Bohn’s smile grew as he heard his husband’s blush over the phone. “How are the kids doing? Did your manager agree to let you work from home today?”

“I didn’t give him a choice.” Bohn pressed a kiss to Con’s temple as he continued to eat neatly and then threw the balled up napkin in his other hand at Call as he carefully smeared more congee on his other cheek deliberately. “The kids are being the kids.” Bohn held the phone out. “Say hi to papa, kids.”

“Papa!” Con put down his spoon and clapped. “Hi, papa!”

“Papa, daddy threw a napkin at me!” Call complained.

“Little snitch,” Bohn muttered under his breath before bringing the phone back near his face. “Uh, Duen…”

“I see you’re up to your usual antics as well.” Exasperation, fondness, love, Bohn picked up on it all. “I’ll buy some groceries on the way home to make pork chops for dinner.”

“You’re the best.” Bohn smacked his lips in an approximation of a kiss and the twins echoed it with giggles. “We all love you.”

“…I love all of you too.” Duen paused. “Also I better not hear you took them to the park and fed them ice cream before lunch.”

“…no promises.”

Chapter Text

Bohn was definitely not a trained boxer like Ram, he was a brawler through and through. When not brawling with his fists, Bohn tackled verbal arguments (provided they were not against Duen) in much the same way, an unrelenting stream of attack that might occasionally leave him open, but often left his opponents, such as one Vice Principal Kat, stunned into silence.

“In a school where we are expected to trust our children to be educated fairly and equally, I cannot believe that YOU, the VICE PRINCIPAL, have elected to discriminate against my children because I have a husband instead of a wife,” Bohn said as he leaned forward to look Vice Principal Kat in the eye in her office. “And that you would dare take out that prejudice on CHILDREN.”

“Mr. Sirikarnkul, if I may-”

“No, you may not,” Bohn cut in. “But please, let me hear your justification.”

“We did not elect to discriminate against your children. Participation in the activity was reliant on drawing a picture of a family and the picture your children drew did not fit our definition within the assignment-”

“So now we have to argue about the definition of family?” Bohn crossed his arms. “Now you’re going to tell me that any child who participates in your school must have a traditional family of one father and one mother, which further discriminates not only against children with queer parents, but also children of single parents, children who are adopted by family or non-family…”

“That is an entirely different issue-”

“No. It is the same issue. They are not a ‘traditional family’ which fits your definition. You simply change the definition to make yourself feel better.” Bohn rolled his eyes. “But that’s besides the point. My children will not be returning to this institution.”

Vice Principal Kat coolly nodded. “That might be for the best, Mr. Sirikarnkul.”

“And the Sirikarnkul family will also be withdrawing it’s regular donations to the school.”

“That-” Vice Principal Kat’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t.”

“I can!” Bohn smiled, a wicked and horrifying thing that he hadn’t used in years. “I am, in fact, currently that Sirikarnkul in charge of maintaining that regular donation on behalf of my family.”

Vice Principal Kat’s eyes widened and her face turned white. “Mr. Sirikarnkul, maybe we should both avoid making brash decisions… The contributions of the Sirikarnkul family have always been very thoughtful and helpful to our school…”

“Nope! I’ve made the decision. The decision is done and settled. Here’s the paperwork.” Bohn removed a set of papers from his briefcase and handed them over. “I hope you’ll explain to Principal Lom what happened in full, but in case you don’t, I’ve had my lawyers already send him an email.”

“No… I really must insist that we discuss this again, perhaps after we’ve… both had time to reconsider…”

Bohn shrugged. “You should have thought about it harder before you acted in a bigoted, archaic, and idiotic manner.” Bohn turned to walk away. “And for your information, any discussions with my father about the matter of the donations will be redirected to me. His attorneys have been well informed about the fact that I’ve taken over management of that and will not be of any help to you.”

With that, Bohn walked out of the office as if he had not a care in the world. Out in the hallway, Call and Con sat quietly in their chairs, still just a little too short for their feet to reach the floor. Bohn tucked his briefcase under his arm and offered each child a hand.

“Daddy… did we do a bad thing?” Con asked as he took Bohn’s hand.

“No baby, you didn’t do a single thing wrong. Neither of you did.” Bohn smiled down at his sons and sighed. “But the school did a bad thing. So you’re both not going to school here anymore. Daddy will talk to papa and find you a nicer school. One worth the tuition money.”

Call pouted. “But daddy, Prin comes to this school too.”

“Tangmo does too…” Con added sadly.

“I’ll remind you both that Prin and Tangmo both have two dads, if we’re taking the both of you out of this school, there’s no way Uncle King, Ram, Mek, and Boss will allow Prin or Tangmo to stay here either.” Bohn stopped for a moment. “You know what, I’m gonna call them right now. You guys were supposed to be at recess right now right? Go get Prin and Tangmo. Let’s all leave early and go get something really nice for lunch with a big dessert, hm?”

Con and Call’s faces immediately lit up as they ran off to collect the two missing members of their group. Bohn pulled out his phone and started a conference call. “Hey, King… Mek… So how do you feel about switching your kids out of this shithole school?”

Chapter Text

Parents often said they knew the true character of their children and Duen supposed he wouldn’t be much of an exception. He knew Con was a soft and sweet boy from the moment he smiled up at him from his crib. He knew Call had a rowdy and contrary streak a mile wide, even before the incident at school with the dangling earring, but deeper inside, he was just as sweet as Con. Call’s emotional range ran into deeper extremes when moved if one broke his mask. Where as Con wore his emotions on his sleeves and was much easier to mitigate.

It was only natural that such things would eventually lead to their fashion sense, Duen supposed as he picked up their laundry baskets from their rooms as Bohn took both boys to their afterschool activities. Con’s was full of fluffy sweaters, at least two new crop tops, three of Tangmo’s t-shirts, and two pairs of shorts that were getting dangerously short and tight. Call’s basket was full of ripped jeans, patchwork vintage t-shirts sewn together, and so much steel chain that would have to be removed before it could go in the washing machine or it would clang all day.

Duen sighed as he set about sorting the clothes and thought back to the days where both boys were happy to be dressed as Bohn and Duen saw fit. “What’s wrong?” Duen felt his husband drape himself over his shoulders as he was far too fond of doing. “Did Call spill something on his uniform shirt again and forget to rinse it off first?”

“Do you ever look at what Con and Call wear these days and wonder when they grew up?” Duen asked as he pushed the laundry away from himself.

“Well… It could be worse,” Bohn mused as he picked at the strings of one of Con’s baby pink hoodies. “They could be wearing those clear plastic pants I saw on the internet last year.”

“P'Bohn!”

“I’m serious! It is a little concerning how much of a punk Call’s being and Con doesn’t need to wear shorts that high up near his crotch yet… but they’re good kids.” Bohn kissed Duen’s temple and pulled some of the laundry back closer to them to help sort it. “What they wear in their free time doesn’t- Hey, when did Call steal this shirt of mine and cut it up?”

Duen snickered. “I gave him that one to cut up because I hate it so much.”

Bohn clutched his chest. “N'Duen, you wound me! You picked this shirt out when we first started dating!”

“I picked it out of spite. How was I supposed to know you’d actually like the design?” Duen pulled the shirt out of Bohn’s hands and shoved it into the appropriate pile. “Now make yourself useful and take all the chains off of Call’s pants.”

Bohn grumbled but did as he was told. “Anyway, they’re good kids at heart, they’ll make the right decisions when push comes to shove.”

“It’s about how they’re perceived, phi.” Duen pulled another basket near to continue sorting. “You had a reputation for getting into fights, didn’t that bother you? Do you want Con and Call to be bothered for how they dress?”

“Of course not. But we’re in an enlightened society. People shouldn’t really be judging anyone based on how they dress anymore.” Bohn held up one of Call’s shirts which had slipped under the radar and had two wolves humping each other on it. “Huh, N'Prin needs to be more subtle sometimes.”

“Don’t remind me,” Duen groaned before finding an open condom wrapper in one of Con’s pockets. “Oh… not already.”

Bohn snatched the wrapper out of Duen’s hands and started laughing. “Babe, it’s one of ours. Teenagers can’t afford this brand.”

Duen’s face turned bright red and he smacked Bohn’s shoulder. “Phi! You promised me you cleaned up last time!”

“I did!” Bohn protested. “This one must have slipped away some how. What a good boy, cleaning up after us anyway.”

“Don’t be so irresponsible next time!”

“Anyway,” Bohn said amid his laughter and soothing rubs to Duen’s arms, “Our kids might dress up in all sorts of ways, but they’re still our kids. I chose to get into fights all the time. They’ve been working out their feelings in much better ways. Don’t be so scared.” Bohn held up one of Con’s shirts which had several embroidered sunflowers all over it before putting it on top of the correct pile. “They’re stuck wearing uniforms to school for the next eight years, who knows how their fashion sense will change in the meantime?” Bohn stuck his hand in the basket again and pulled out a pair of silk briefs. “Uh… This isn’t yours is it?”

“That’s too small- CON, NO!”

Chapter Text

Duen sighed as it only took two steps onto the beautiful white sand before Bohn, Con, and Call were pulling off t-shirts and running for the water. Con and Call were, naturally, a little more clumsy attempting to navigate the difficulty of running on sand, but Bohn eventually picked the twins up and booked it to the shallows before dumping them into the cold ocean water. Con shrieked at the coolness of the water while Call splashed his father in retaliation of having some sort of clump of seaweed waved in his face.

“Not too far out,” Duen called as he set up their towels and umbrella. “The tide will be changing soon.”

"I've got them," Bohn replied as Con and Call latched onto his legs as the retreating waters gently pulled on them all. "No further than here, okay boys?"

"Okay daddy!" Con let go of Bohn's leg for a second to scoop up the wet sand. "Is this good for sand castles?"

"Too wet, it won't hold shape." Bohn scooped up a larger handful himself and showed the twins how it flowed out of his hands. Call eyed the mass with a look that spoke of more trouble than construction like Con. "But , if we add a little more dry sand, you'll see it holds nicely."

“Can we build a really big sand castle?”

"We can certainly try." Bohn rinsed his hand in another bout of retreating waves. "And what are you going to be doing you little troublemaker?" Bohn asked as he looked at Call.

“Dig a hole to America.”

Bohn looked down at his son for a second. “I would tell you to go for it, but your papa has already warned me that digging holes is bad because you can cause someone to twist their ankles in the sand. Can I persuade you to dig a shallow moat for your brother's castle in exchange for one ice cream."

Call scrunched up his face in consideration while Con had already run back to Duen for his sand shaping toys. “Three ice creams.”

"One and a half and Con is the one that gets the other half."

Call extended a hand. “Deal.”

Bohn shook on it and pulled Call up. "I'll give you an extra order of french fries with your lunch if you help cart over some wet sand for the building too." Call grinned with manic energy and immediately ran for his bucket. Bohn watched the toddler run and sighed. “Man, parenting is so easy. What were mom and dad complaining about?”

"They were complaining because you're nowhere near as well behaved as the boys are," Duen said as he came up beside Bohn and looked out over the water. "Your mother showed me pictures. You were a menace at the beach."

“I was using healthy mechanisms to deal with my childhood.”

"You were throwing sand at people sunbathing."

"Yeah, that's healthier than making my cousins ​​eat it."