#he's chubby now. they all look like perfectly formed little cats. big for six months

[hussyknee]

Wabbit.

[aggresivelyfriendly]

Hi all! I’m back with new fic!!

 This one is a doozy and deals with some complicated issues- such as a relationship between a man and woman separated by 20 years but connected by the woman’s son. Fair warning! If I haven’t scared you off- let’s see where these peeps take us!!!

Also-This piece wouldn’t have been without @bleedinglove4h, @nocontrolforlouis, and @dirtystyles who made all the amazing art!! They are amazing!!

 Prologue-The Creation of Adam

"What in the bloody fuck?" Jo asked herself whilst stress eating a chocolate bar in her pantry. It had been a shit show of a day.

She'd woken up in the morning with a giant grin on her face. Her boy, her Ethan, was coming home today and she hadn't seen him in three months. Their school schedules should have lined up perfectly, the theoretical perk of having a child at university when you yourself were a professor. But her upstanding young man had taken it upon himself to get a work study job straight off in his first semester.

"Mum, I know you will help me, but I want to help you as much as I can, too. Plus, you have the baby, so there are lots of extra expenses right now," he'd told her on his first actual phone call home. Ethan was right about some things. There were new expenses. Those had more to do with the divorce lawyers than the baby, though. Truth was, other than diapers, the first couple of years were as expensive as you chose to make them. With Ethan, she had been completely on her own. Jo's parents had been livid that she was even considering keeping the baby, especially without a man. She had tried to explain that the man who had got Ethan on her was better off gone, but her mum just couldn't see how she was going to make it on her own. The lack of confidence hurt, but she'd done it. Still was doing it.

She had taken her certification tests and found a school near a housing estate. Those were always turning over teachers. And she loved it, and the students. They had shitty choices to make, but they made rational choices, whether the government saw that or not. Every couple of years, she was able to spot an artistic spirit like her own - someone with an eye. She'd take those ones under her wing and together they would find their medium and Jo would enter them in as many art competitions as she could find. She even got a few to uni that way. It also let her flex her artistic muscles, which were atrophying while she taught general courses

When Ethan got a little older, and they could afford it, she moved out a little farther, to a nice little village. Jo still worked in the city, where she could do the most good, but the apartment she could afford there wasn't a place where she could send Ethan out to play. He needed a garden and space to grow.

He'd brought Harry home when he was 12 years old. They had both been gangly boys, their feet growing faster than they were able to manage. Ethan seemed to use his size well, though. He excelled at soccer, where he had met Harry. And Ethan continued to play long after Harry quit and joined her on the sidelines instead.

Harry was a lovely, fluffy boy. He was all curly hair and teeth and dimples. His pants seemed two sizes too big and his jumpers perhaps a size too small. But he was so well-mannered, helped with the dishes and nudged Ethan when he was giving her a hard time. And he had that spark.

Harry would come 'round sometimes and find his schoolmate was not about the house. Jo would still invite him in lots of times and serve him tea and biscuits while she subtly fished for information on what her son was like at school. Harry was sweet and polite, but astute - she never got anything out of him.

One day, he came in the middle of a painting frenzy. Jo had spoken to her mother and left the conversation simultaneously riddled with guilt and full of resentment. Her mother was a pleasant person, but a dreadful mum. She seemed to like Ethan, but still loathed the idea of him. Jo was angsty and angry, and taking it out on the canvas.

"Oh, hi Harry," she answered the door breathlessly with green and blue fingertips and a speckled tee shirt. "Ethan isn't here. Think I saw him dribbling a ball towards the fields." She gestured with her head.

Harry looked her up and down. Jo hated when Ethan's friends did that, but this wasn't the same obvious ogle she had shut down so many times. His was a look of avid interest for what was on her clothes, not under them.

"What're you doing?" He sounded like she was going to read his tarot cards. A bit of his future in her answer.

"I'm painting." she had answered honestly and wanted to be abrupt and leave the door swinging, even if it hit his sweet face. Jo had some feelings she needed to splash out in bold hues.

"Can I watch?" Harry asked with eyes as wide as the Montana sky.

"Yeah, come on in." Her Englishness asserted itself. "Cuppa?" She wanted to curse politeness.

"Nah, you seem busy. I'm just..." He looked sheepish. "I can tell you're wanting to get back to it, but I just like, want to watch. Ok Miss Joanne?" She hated that too.

"Just Jo, Harry." And she led him back to her tiny sunroom-cum-studio.

He was quiet the entire time he watched her - three full hours - until she started cleaning up the paints.

"Miss Joanne." She gave him an eye roll. "Jo," he showed her a tube with licorice written on it. "Who names the colors?"

"I'm not sure Harry, but I think when you're the painter, you do."

He had looked awed, and that was how she always saw him in her mind's eye. Wide eyed and full cheeked with a silly scarf around his thin neck. Standing in the sunlight watching her paint, getting brave enough to ask questions, and eventually painting alongside her. She was aware that over the three years he spent popping in and out of her studio he had changed, in that way only a very young person can, like going from a raw egg to a cooked one. But she always thought of him as that kid who came to the studio the first time, eyes full of wonder.

That was not how Harry looked when he walked into her kitchen two hours after Ethan. Jo had been rubbing at the spattering of baby puke Zoe had left on her shoulder, the dribble almost making it to her nipple. The screen had been unlatched on the kitchen door, and the smack of it had made her look up.

"Hey Miss Joanne," she hadn't even had time, or tongue to correct him, before he said. "Miss Jo, I mean. Is Ethan about?" He'd rocked up onto his toes and then back to his heels and it was similar to the motion her neck wanted to do in order to follow his form as he made his way into the house and up to Ethan's room.

"Whoa!" Jo found herself saying out loud. That was a fucking butterfly, she thought.

Harry was not the chubby-cheeked awkward boy she remembered. He had been adorable, but that was not the right word to describe him now.

He was wearing jeans two sizes to tight, which he had coupled with a very thin, soft looking green t shirt that clung to him better than any plastic wrap she'd ever found.

"Damn," she muttered. Do not have impure thoughts about your son's best mate. His changes had come over time when she saw him weekly, and she knew they hadn't happened overnight, but they were grander now. Like he'd crawled into a little cocoon and sat there for the three months he'd been at school. He had come out with wings.

Where had all that muscle come from? Jo could clearly see abs and chest and even v lines under that clingy top.

She shook her head blowing out a big breath and released her surprise attraction. She checked the video monitor to find Zoe still sleeping. So she snuck to the pantry to break into her hidden chocolate stash.

Had Harry been looking like that for a while and she had missed it? It must be nearly four months since she saw him last, but she didn't remember his nipples looking like that before. He looked so good, so grown. What was he doing at university to change like that? Had he exchanged time in the library for time at the gym?

The chocolates lowly melted over her tongue and Jo found herself thinking about peeling his shirt off like opening a belgian chocolate, slow and reverently. Her eyes closed involuntarily and she was startled to find her fingers at her own nipple.

Her eyes opened abruptly when she heard the whine from the tiny monitor speaker. Zoe was ramping up, finishing her cat nap earlier that Jo needed her to, she hadn't even gotten the washing done yet. That may have been because she was too busy thinking about getting off with her son's mate in the pantry. She scoffed and pushed her hands down to her sides.

The baby was wiggling, but hadn't flipped yet, so she knew her six month old wasn't entirely awake. She had about five minutes to get up there before the screaming started in earnest.

Jo was throwing in the wash and hitting the button, thinking about how it's been ages since she felt anything sexual. First because Colin's increasing detachment from the pregnancy killed the mood, and then because she was sad about Ethan leaving for school, and then because she was as big as a house. Her dry spell had continued as she found herself once again a single mum of an infant. It was hard to feel sexy on such little sleep. Maybe her thoughts were inappropriate, but Jo was glad to find that part of her wasn't dead, just dormant.

Realization dawned that Zoe wasn't screaming and it had been more than five minutes. A momentary panic seized Jo and she rushed out, smearing melted chocolate on her black yoga pants and throwing the wrapper just outside the bin. She'd have to pick that up later.

On the monitor was a sight that had her covering her mouth. The baby was back to sleep, on Harry's shoulder and her big brother was rubbing her back. Her little arms were bound up under her body and she was almost safe to put down. Just a few more minutes and she'd be back into deep sleep, well, deep for an infant. She saw Ethan motion to the crib and cringed, too soon. She exhaled relief when Harry shook his head 'no' and pointed Ethan out of the room.

Jo watched Harry rock her and felt Ethan come up behind her, he hugged her from behind. Her sweet affectionate boy. She felt bad that he had to be her partner so often as they grew up together, but they were close. Despite their dynamic and because of it.

"She got so big? Do all babies grow like that?" Ethan asked and she could hear him rummaging in the pantry. Her smile was one she couldn't fight. She'd got the shop in and picked up his favorite things on purpose. "Oh mum!" She heard him find his biscuits, the expensive ones she used to buy when he did well on exams. The ones she could only afford once a month, when she got paid.

"Yes, all babies change rapidly. Change almost before your eyes. I imagine it's a shock after a few months." She tried not to layer a guilt trip into her voice, but she missed him. She heard him sigh, so Ethan could hear it too. Jo needed to knock that off, he should have a great time at uni, not worry about his lonely, sad mum struggling at home. And she wanted him to want to come home. She looked from her son who was rapidly eating biscuits to her daughter being gently laid in her crib. Harry's back muscles strained against the green cloth of his shirt.

Speaking of rapid changes.

Jo may not have noticed Harry's entrance into manhood before. The last year the boys were in college, she was falling in love. Colin had seemed ideal, they both worked at the university, and he was an adult male who seemed to have it together. He was her first real relationship since Ethan's twat of a father, not counting a few bad dates and a fuck buddy or two. Since they were both of a certain age, they had rushed things. Jo had rushed to the altar and the maternity ward. By the time she hit six months along in her pregnancy, she knew her marriage wasn't going to last. She could not imagine Colin as a loving father, let alone devoted. She'd had to beg him to come to the appointment where they learned the baby's sex. He had chosen to attend a lecture on horse bridles in Arthurian tales instead. That's when she knew, but she ignored it and tried harder. Until he left when she was right near the end and then couldn't even be bothered to show up for the birth until Jo needed a ride home. Colin had the car seat. Which he left when he dropped them off. New baby and new divorce, all in one go, she was an efficient lass.

But she couldn't help but notice now. Harry was looking full grown and the sight of him with her baby...well, it was doing uncomfortable things to her. Feelings and sensations dormant for the last year were roaring back to life. She barely had time to eat, let alone seek arousal.

"Did Harry's mum have a new baby?" Jo found herself asking after watching him with her own new one before she could rein herself in. Nothing about her felt bridled, let alone her horses.

Ethan came over and slung a cookie filled hand attached to a strong arm around her. "Nah, you would think so though, right? Just has a touch with kids. Only boy I knew who had three regular babysitting gigs!" Ethan sounded proud of his mate and Jo smiled at his sweetness.

"You missed him?" She nudged Ethan's ribs.

"Yeah! Was happy he would be about."

"Why's he home this weekend anyway?" Jo tried to ask plainly, with less interest than she was feeling, obviously.

"Harry lives at home. He goes to your university, Mum! Studies in your department!" Ethan laughed at her fish face.

"Well, I've not had him in any of my classes, I guess. And you'll excuse me love, but I have been a wee bit busy." She poked him in his tickle spot, the one he'd had since he was two and a half and that she fondly remembered prodding when they played tickle monster.

While she was so fucking tired trying to do this again, alone and much older to boot, she couldn't wait to find Zoe's tickle spots.

"Mum, stop looking at me like that." Ethan rolled his eyes affectionately.

"Like what?" Jo hit him upside his cheeky head with the burp cloth and hoped a little spit up made contact.

"Ew, mum! That's wet! Is that wee?" Ethan was frantically wiping his face with a paper cloth.

"Calm down, just spit up!" She guffawed. It felt so good to have her kids under one roof and to be giving Ethan what for.

"What the bloody... that's throw up!"

"Of a sort, it's just breast milk!" She said just to see his face. He paled as Harry walked into the kitchen.

Jo was bent double with laughter and she was aware of just how tight her lounge pants were.

"Mate." He pointed at Ethan. "You see a ghost?"

Jo laughed harder and couldn't even explain why. It was a release she didn't even know she needed. Tears were leaking and she was glad they were happy.

"I wish! Got baptized with my mum's regurgitated breast milk, yech!" Ethan complained while still wiping furiously at his face.

"Mate, the breast milk is better for your skin than what you are doing now. Actually really good for skin." Harry walked over to the fruit bowl and plucked a banana and ate it like he lived there. Jo loved the picture he made.

"How the hell do you know that?" Jo was thinking it, but her son was the one who said it.

"Dunno, think I read it on a flyer at a nurse in or something at school." He shrugged and ate his last bite, tossing the peel and missing the trash can.

Jo picked it up and put it in the bin, with only a small groan. She didn't remember being this sore after long nights with Ethan. "Ethan said you go to Manchester?"

She looked up at Harry then and caught him with his eyes glued to her cleavage. It was the one body part she wished she could take with her post pregnancy and nursing. Her nipples responded to his gaze, and she was right back to feeling that unfamiliar lust he had brought up in her earlier. It felt like a caress, like he'd extended his fingers, not just his gaze, and used the tips to pluck at her. Harry brought his eyes up and for a second he looked like that pink cheeked boy she taught to paint. It was a moment's expression, before his skin tone evened out and he smirked. Those pink cheeks turned out to be contagious.

"MUM!" Ethan said a little too loud and Jo jerked her eyes to him.

"What?" She sniped back. It wasn't nice to be yelled at in your own home, or caught out. Her face soured and she wished for another chocolate when she heard a wail start from upstairs. She looked up to give Ethan a tongue lashing and found him looking sorry, so she let it go and turned with a sigh.

"Do you want me to get her?" Both boys asked in chorus.

That sparked a smile. "No, lovely boys, she needs to nurse." She chuckled under her breath at the look on Ethan's face. "But, you could start dinner, that would be a massive help." Ethan looked like a nineteen year old tasked with a chore, but Harry nodded and shouldered his friend out of the way of the fridge.

They were both good boys, nearly men, and they needed to know how to cook a meal, for themselves, And any lady, or gentleman, lucky enough to catch either. Jo would come shore up the damage later.

The cries were piercing by the time she reached crib side, but when she reached down, Zoe quieted nicely in her arms. She kept eye contact while she emptied Jo's tingling breasts.

Jo was tired, covered in spit up half the time, and hated to be doing this alone again. But these years were short, and she had wished them away with Ethan. She wanted to do better this time.

Jo carried her cooing baby down stairs and set her up in her walker while she helped the boys finish some salad and mash and sausages. It was a curious mix, but nice to not have to cook for a change. She looked around her table and smiled. It was also nice to watch them laugh.

Harry was making Zoe scream with baby giggles by making a popping noise with his cheek, and Ethan was filming it for his insta story. She'd have to ask him if anyone at school was at all interested in his baby sister. The sounds at her table woke her up a little.

By the time she got Zoe down hours later, her feet and head were heavy again. The boys had tossed her about once Jo had declared they were a safe distance from her nursing and mushy peas. At least they were likely to avoid an exorcist-like scene. They'd tickled her and cuddled her and found a tender spot exactly where Ethan's was. Harry had located it and looked at Ethan, "Exactly where yours is!" Which Jo found curious.

Zoe had been riled up, and while Jo wouldn't erase the hours of watching Ethan play with his little sister, she was a little miffed at dealing with the fallout. It took her 10 minutes to get Zoe to latch on, and she was raw from the baby pulling off at every small sound looking for her playmates. As she finally nursed to sleep, Jo kept thinking about her curious interaction with Harry. They had spent lots of time together, usually over tins of paint and canvases, and she had never once seen him look down her shirt.

He was a respectful boy, or gay, and Jo never really thought about him like that at all. He was always handsome, but a baby.

He did not look like a baby anymore and her reaction to him was troubling, to say the least. Jo was sure it was horrible to feel any sort of sexual interest in her son's best mate. But it was just the one time. She'd let it go and focus on and enjoying the long weekend with Ethan. And maybe she'd see Harry around at school.

There was one positive side effect. Her desire that had been buried six feet under with her marriage was back. Jo hadn't even thought about her lady parts since the doctor declared them good as new. Colin had rebuffed her advances as soon as her bump made itself apparent; he found it off-putting. She'd put her interest away as best she could to avoid rejection. It was worrisome to think about what her body may look like after a pregnancy at 40, and if her husband was not into a pregnant body, she had a feeling he would not be able to ignore the stretch marks. Jo had once been flattered by his repeated compliment that she had the face and body of a 25 year old. Now she was just irritated. But her body was back, albeit with better boobs for the term of her breast feeding and some extra tiger stripes where Zoe had made her mark. And everything seemed to be working. It was confusing that Harry was the one to rouse her sleeping libido. Those were thoughts she wanted to avoid. So she left them where they lie and stood gently and square on her toes.

Zoe didn't stir as Jo padded over to the crib. A kiss on the head and deep inhalation of that baby smell before putting her down softly, and Jo was ready to float down to her own bed. She wished there was somebody to carry her to her mattress as she had just done for her baby.

Jo was blearily rubbing her eyes when the bathroom door opened and steam started to pour out. She was just about to admonition Ethan about opening windows unless he wanted to repaint the bathroom when Harry walked right into her. Slick and tan and confusingly covered in tattoos. She wasn't able to make out the shape on his torso before he was pressed up against her, but it was big. So was he, tall. Her nose was at his collarbone and there were swallows on either side. When had he gotten all these tattoos?

"Sorry Miss Joanne." He caught her by the arms and she could smell that body wash she bought Ethan, it smelled different right now.

"You're really wet!" She said stupidly, and looked up to his amused face.

Harry looked cheeky and there were words on the tip of his tongue, poised to spring off like an Olympic diver. Instead he bit his lip and Jo could feel her eyes widen and her nipples contract. "You have a lot of tattoos," she said, and she was surprised by the breathiness suddenly present in her voice.

His arms moved from her elbows to circle around her waist and Harry nodded, "I do, wanna see them?"

He was flirting with her! Was he flirting with her? And she was still pressed up against him. His arms were tighter around her than the corset she wore on her wedding day, at least she assumed so because she was breathless.

"Um, I've, no, not right now." She started to squirm and he grinned and let her go.

She hurried down the stairs and looked back from the middle landing. Harry had a hand on the knot of his towel and a firm shape was just below the tips of his fingers. That made a mental impression, but it didn't press into her mind as much as his face. Harry's eyes looked emerald green and his lip was beneath his teeth.

Jo averted her gaze from his skin and rushed to her room. Rather than straight to bed like she hoped 20 minutes ago, she found herself in her bathroom, doing the skincare routine she had forgotten about 7 months ago at least. Her color was high in her cheeks and she couldn't help but admire it, and herself for a moment before brushing her teeth and shaking herself. Awoken libido indeed, she thought with a glance at her tits.

Jo stripped down to a t-shirt and put shorts by the bed for Zoe's 3am feeding. She needed to get some sleep.

An hour later, she was still shifting around and rubbing her thighs together to alleviate the knot of tension there. Jo finally gave in, and dug through her bedside drawer for the vibrator she resorted to in her second trimester after one too many rebuffs.

It didn't take long, she was so pent up. That wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the pink lipped face she pictured between her thighs as she finished.

This was trouble.