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After much wrestling and one more ruined set of pajamas, Skeppy, Bad, and their adopted child finally stepped out of the house. “For however much he resists getting ready,” Skeppy complained to Bad, “He’s just soooooo energetic when he actually gets out. Ughhhhhh.”
Bad’s chuckle sounded a bit strained as he tried to keep hold of the kid leash that Sapnap was trying his absolute best to snap. Along with his dads sanity. That gremlin child was running ahead of the thankfully quite empty sidewalk, smooshing his face against the display windows of the various shops and just staring at random passerbys for whatever reason that was going around in his kid mind
The two always tensed when Sapnap was touching random places, partly because kid blaze hybrid with untrained fire powers, and partly because of the parental instinct cultivated from a few years of rearing Sapnap to not let child touch potentially dangerous and ridden-with-bacteria objects. Thankfully a majority of their research of care-taking of a Sapnap had many books on how to teach young hybrids how to have some resemblance of control so that they weren’t a danger to themselves and others. And Skeppy would occasionally run ahead to pull Sapnap away from things like trashcans, so Bad hoped they were doing a good enough job as parents?
Today’s agenda, make it to the specialised hybrid clothing shop for fire proof clothes on the other side of the town.
It had only taken the two of them a few days into their newfound parenthood to realise it would be good to get some fireproof clothes for their kid, as well as fireproof gloves for themselves. At the start, Bad had felt horrible for letting Skeppy being the only person able to handle Sapnap without getting burned due to his diamondling hybrid genes, but Skeppy had easily managed to calm his fellow dad down. That first set of clothes was made two years ago (“Oh gosh we’ve been fathers for two whole year Geppy.” “...OH LET’S FUCKING GOOO!” “Language, and lower your volume the child is sleeping.” “That means I can swear now right-” “No!”) and now they had to get another set of clothes for their growing child.
Nothing that they wouldn’t do for their little spark.
Back in the present, Skeppy and Bad both realised with mounting confusion as more people slowly arrived on the street, seemingly all united in the same purpose.
First things first, Bad quickly moved to grab Sapnap in a hug. One, being near one of his fathers would help Sapnap stay calm and not get too excited or nervous that his fire flared up. Two, Sapnap could easily get lost amongst the sudden crush of people. Three…it was also partially for Bad’s and Skeppy’s comfort; they did not want to not have their child right by their side in this scenario. Sapnap squealed as Bad swung him around, totally trusting of his Papa to not drop him. Bad cooed to Sapnap as he deposited the child on his shoulders. Sapnap was perfectly content to grip Bad’s demon horns and kick his legs as he rode on his Papa’s shoulders. He giggled as he watched all these people from high above, like a king on his throne. Or a knight riding his horse. Yeah, Sapnap decided that he like the second option. Kings are boring, sitting on their thrones all day, knights get to fight dragons.
Back down on earth, Bad and Skeppy pressed themselves against the wall as to not get in the way of the crowd of people that had washed over in the streets. One of Bad’s hands was holding onto Sapnap’s ankle, and the other was clasped in Skeppy’s. “Bad,” Skeppy nearly shouted to be heard over the ruckus, “Was there an evacuation drill scheduled for today?”
“No silly, it’s pride month.” Skeppy yelped like a cartoon figure as an avian with metallic blue feathers informed him. She had the asexual flag under her wings, over her shoulders, and pinned the corners of it over his chestbones with a heart pin of the colours yellow, pink, white, grey and black.
“Oh.” Skeppy’s cheeks heated up, “Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.” “It’s alright,” She waved him, “The two of you are definitely not homophobic, that I can tell.”
“It’s already June?” Bad muttered, seeming a bit disbelieving, “I could have sworn it was…February “Do you three want to join in?” She offered.
–
“Oi! Punz! These dudes need flags.” A dragon hybrid turned away from their conversation with a blonde with a green hoodie at Cali’s call, wearing a flag with the aroace and the non-binary colours in a similar fashion to the blue-jay hybrid over their white hoodie. Their ice blue eyes widened similarly to his friend’s emerald green, seemingly surprised by the new three. Without prompting they pulled out a gay flag that they passed to Skeppy, and gave Bad a “free dag hugs shirt”
The three(Cali had been pulled away by her partner) thanked them and headed off to mingle with the crowd.
Bad turned around for one last look at the dragon hybrid before he dived into the crowd. Another hoodie wearing person joined the two, this time an alien hybrid judging by the antenna, carrying a meter long flagpole of the nonbinary flag with a smaller neopronoun flag in his other hand. The three of them talked amongst themselves, the white hoodie pal pointing a thumb at Bad and Skeppy. Bad quickly turned back and tried to pretend everything was normal. But the green hoodie person was so familiar, that sandy blonde hair framing vibrant emerald that shone in the light. But the only other person that Bad remembered with green eyes was Puffy’s child(who he had not meant, only known through letters. They really should find time to visit Puffy shouldn’t they). Eh, probably not important. Bad had more important things like keeping up with Skeppy.
–
Along the way, the three met with a group of teens. One was a goat hybrid with a burn/explosion scar across half his face that was partially covered by his brown hair. On the sleeve of his bomber jacket was a flag spilt horizontally into sky blue, white, and back to blue, with a green flower in the middle. At his side was an endermen hybrid with an interesting half and half split of white and black across the middle of his face that looked extremely nervous, even with the seven striped(dark grey, light grey, sky blue, and a middle white before it repeated) mask that covered their mouth.
They also seemed to be married(questionable, considering their age), with rings that caught Skeppy’s eye as it glinted. Oh yeah, not to mention the obvious matching T-shirts. The shorter goat hybrid had words in block letters printed out “Missing partner. Tall white and black Endermen hybrid. Very nervous. If found, please contact XXX/XXX.” The taller had “Missing husband. Please be cautious as he is short and therefore angry. Oh yeah, he has nukes. If found, DO NOT ENGAGE. Instead, contact XXX/XXX”
And the third member of their trio was a blonde teen with a confident grin, a pride merch shirt Not a rickroll I swear, I promise on my life wearing a neck neckerchief around their neck. His phoenix wings fluttered and Sapnap was instantly attracted to the flames.(Not in that way)
“Oh hello there kiddo,” The bomber jacket teen had cooed at Sapnap, “Is this your first pride parade?”
Sapnap blinked and shifted, nervous around someone new. Bad chuckled, “Yeah, the last few times we were too busy with stuff that kept us at home.”
“Well then, let the great Tommy Innit give you the grand tour!” The red neckerchief kid crowed, “That blue and green flag you have is the gay flag, meaning male love male love. My goat friend over here, Tubbo, has the Achillean flag, which means men and non-binary, which are people who use pronouns they/them because they feel like the traditional one or the other boy or girl terms don’t suit that, love men and other enbys.”
“Yes, and,” Tubbo slid his jacket off, turning around as he passed it to his partner, “this is the polyamorous flag, meaning you love more than one person at a time, and are equally committed to all of them. Just like the three of us.”
Tubbo leaned in for a quick kiss with Tommy, and Skeppy and Sapnap shared a brain cell to react the same way, fake gagging. Like father like son. Bad slapped the top of Skeppy’s head playfully.
On the back of Tubbo’s shirt was another missing poster, “Missing husband. Feral british child(teen), blonde hair, phoenix wearing a demon shirt. Proceed with caution, he might have rabies. If found, pls contact XXX/XXX.”
When Tommy was done, he brought out two actual posters, as in printed out on pieces of paper, one hand holding one for each of his partners. Tubbo continued explaining, “Tommy has the pansexual flag, meaning he is attracted to women, men, non-binary, fish, rocks, anything and everything.”
“Rocks.” Sapnap echoed in the way small children do. “HEY, OI! JUST BECAUSE WIL DID IT, DOESN’T MEAN IT RUN IN THE FAMILY YOU FUC–FISH!” Tommy corrected himself in time, sending an apologetic look towards the child and his offended father. One of them.
“Now, there's a women's version of being gay, it’s called lesbian, like that sheep hybrid over there,” Tubbo pointed, and Skeppy caught a glimpse of Puffy?! And her lesbian flag. Well, yes Puffy was lesbian, but she wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near here. Huh. Eh, there were a lot of sheep hybrids in the world.
“Sapphic is the female term for Achillean. And then it’s onto gender.” Tommy waved excitedly to a fox hybrid with a pastel pink, blue and white flag, “There are people who don’t agree with the gender assigned to them, and decide that they are something else. They can take medicine and surgery to change their body so that it aligns with what they decide they are helping them feel more comfortable. Or they can don’t as well, up to them. That furry over there is my friend Fundy, he’s trans, was a girl but decided that he was a boy. Boob boy, you wanna continue?”
“My name's Ranboo, don’t listen to him” The Endermen hybrid fiddled with the ring on his finger, “I’m a demi-boy, I use pronouns they/them and also he/him, so I’m also trans.”
“They’re the whole reason me and Tommy updated our flags,” Tubbo said, teasingly to let Ranboo know that they didn’t actually blame him.
Ranboo’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at his partners, “There’s also demi-girls, and all of us are under the non-binary umbrella. Later on, another one of our friends is going to be speaking at the plaza-”
“AND SO ARE WE PEOPLE COME LISTEN TO US”
“-And they’re another example of not fitting in the black and white mold. She’s genderfluid, meaning he’s alright with being referred to with all genders at any time. There’s some people who on some days feels more connected to being called a certain gender, but Eret doesn’t mind.” Ranboo checked his watch, “So sorry, but we’ve got to gather for the speeches. Tubbo, Tommy come on!” The three teens waved goodbye to the family and then ran off.
What an interesting bunch.
–
Skeppy, Bad and Sapnap slowly made their way to plaza to hear the speeches that the teens told them about.
After squeezing their way through the crowd, they ended up between:
A pair of cosplayer one with a boar mask and regal cloak finished off with a crown and the other with a bucket hat fitted with a veil and a crow mask, a bit unnecessary considering the massive black wings. The piglin hybrid wore a aroace shirt under the cape, the crow guy had a t-shirt with the straight ally flag printed on it, with the words “FREE DAG HUGS”. The crow guy gave Bad a nod of respect. Skeppy sulked silently, why couldn’t the other cool guy also notice him.
And a trio of triplets it seemed, one a ghost hybrid with bright blue tear streaks the same colour as their eyes wearing a yellow sweater, the middle one with a white streak in his brown hair and red tinted circle specs, one hand holding a cigarette(Bad switched with Skeppy to get Sapnap further away from the harmful smoke), the other arm swung around the shoulders of a confused looking fellow with some sort of blue uniform, like one of those old time revolution outfits. All three of them shared one very long pansexual flag.
Soon enough, the first speaker stood up, presumably the Eret Ranboo was talking about. The crowd cheered loudly for him, who was wearing a rainbow mini skirt with the bisexual flag as a cape.
“Erets speech:Credit goes to the creator”
As Eret spoke, Skeppy suddenly had a thought. “Hey Bad?” he asked avoiding eye contact, “What are we? We’re raising a child together, we live together, we’ve known for nearly a decade.”
“...I have no idea,” Bad admitted, voice low, “But I do know that I want to spend many many more decades with you.”
Skeppy squeezed Bad’s hand, “Me too.”
“Then we don’t need to know what we are.” Bad squeezed Skeppy’s hand back.
On top of his Papa’s shoulders, Sapnap locked eyes with a trio standing across the plaza that was looking at him weirdly. Yet another hoodie person, a brunette with fluffy hair wearing a purple hoodie that was closer to pink-purple mix with a spiral pattern in teal; A beanie wearing duck hybrid, with neglected yellow wings and a scar that tore its way down from his eye to his teeth, Sapnap felt a sense of fear, but also, sympathy(or something close enough that a 3 year old mind can comprehend); and the third one…wore a black sweater under his white crop top that had a flame symbol on it, with a white bandana.
Sapnap stared