William brings John with him to the next sibling dinner. Callum’s face is hilarious when he finds out. It cycles through a range of emotions that has him snickering into John’s shoulder when they show up at Charlotte’s home hand-in-hand.

Callum takes one look at them, goes from shocked to disgusted to angry and slams the door in William’s face. John has his shocked face on, which is a slight tightening at the corners of his mouth. William is laughing too hard to be upset. To be fair, he is a little nervous and it tends to manifest in inappropriate laughter.

“Don’t mind him, John,” he wheezes. “Callum is just like that.” They let themselves seeing as Callum did not kindly do so himself.

Peter is carrying Lenny and he does a doubletake when he sees Johnathan. William’s head swivels back and forth between the two of them. 

“Do you two know each other?” he wonders aloud. 

John nods. “We have met at functions.”

William is confused. “Functions? What kind of functions? Sounds like a fancy word for party.”

“Hm,” John agrees. “It is. They are business functions.”

“Oh,” blinks William. “Why wasn’t I invited?” 

John makes a face. William laughs at his disgruntled look, though no one else seems to see the difference. “They are…business functions,” he says.

“Ah, no wonder I’ve never been. Once upon a time, I might have tried to sneak in, but well, the only good thing about those places is the free flow of alcohol,” he declares. “I’m just a lowly regional manager. Callum and Charlotte go to those.”

“You are not lowly,” is all John says. He shoots a tiny glare at Callum that William giggles at. 

“Hey, how come you get to go?” he asks. 

John blinks. It’s his surprised face. Though William isn’t sure about what he’s surprised at. 

“William, you idiot!” Callum yells. “Are you dating him without knowing what he does?”

William turns to Callum with a put-upon look. “Of course, I know what John does! He’s a pilot!”

Callum stares at him in disbelief. “I can’t deal with this. Peter, give me the baby. You settle with this demon spawn.” 

William blinks as his brother takes the baby and storms away. Peter looks awkwardly bereft without his son. He elects to help his wife set the dinner table. “What’s his deal?” he pouts. 

“Will,” John looks fondly at him. William smiles because he loves that look. “I am Chief Financial Officer of Azure Airways.”

His mouth is an ’O’ of surprise. 

“Did you not know?” John asks.

William shakes his head mutely. “John,” he says slowly, with a fair amount of concern. “You’ve been my pilot for a little more than a year. Have you been working and flying me around this whole time?”

John hesitates for a second and nods once. 

He exhales incredulously. “But, why?” he demands. “How could you overwork yourself like that?” 

This time, John takes much longer to reply. William tugs ceaselessly at his sleeves and pokes and prods until John, finally with crimson ears, tells him. “I had a crush and I wanted to be near you.” Someone groans. It’s Callum, who had returned to grab Lenny’s bottle.

William smothers himself with a pillow, wailing. John sits quietly with his hands in his lap, mortified. William tosses the cushion aside and clings to John like a koala. “John,” he cries. “I can’t believe you had such a huge crush on me! That is kinda embarrassing.”

John only nods and says, “And now we are together.” It only starts another round of wailing. Callum rolls his eyes.

~

At the dinner table, William jitters in his seat. 

“Stop that,” Callum tells him with an annoyed frown. “What’s wrong with you?”

William laughs. “Nothing!” he glances at John but quickly turns back to his food. John doesn’t say much, content to listen. But he does take William’s hand under the table. It is reassuring.

He manages two more bites of food until he can’t take it anymore. “Okay, fine. I have an announcement to make,” he declares. “John and I are engaged!”

There is a beat of silence. 

“Congratulations, Will!” Charlotte says, clapping delightedly. “Oh, I know Lily already told me, but I didn’t think you would tell us so soon,” she smiles.

William laughs. “You thought I could keep a secret from my sister?”

Charlotte giggles. “My mistake. I’m so happy for you both!”

Peter looks between him and John like he can’t believe William is getting married to John of all people. Which is sort of fair, since most people would not expect him to get with someone as stoic as John. William did not think he would be with someone like John either until he’d met him and all previous requirements that he thought he needed for partners went flying out the window. John is great!

“When did this happen?” Callum demands. 

William chuckles awkwardly. “If you mean our engagement, last week. If you mean how long we’ve been together? Also last week. But! Arguably I’ve always been into John, so maybe we can start counting from the time you made me go look at John’s planes.” Callum looks apoplectic. 

John decides this is the meal he will talk at, and he says, “I also liked Will immediately.”

William beams at him with hearts in his eyes. His fiancé is so romantic!

“You know what, fine!” Callum scoffs at him. “You two deserve each other. But if Johnathan does anything to hurt you, he’ll answer to me.”

“Oh, Callum!” William exclaims. “You do care!”

“Whatever! Just stop that!” Callum yells back. 

Lenny, in all the excitement, is also yelling incoherently. They are all being very noisy. Peter hands him Lenny to hold while his wife goes to grab a bottle of champagne.

She brings four glasses since John has declined any alcohol. But much to everyone’s shock, William rejects the glass of bubbly. 

“Will, you don’t want champagne?” Charlotte says with raised eyebrows.

Callum frowns at him. “Who are you and what have you done with William?” 

William’s face is red as he rolls his eyes and laughs. “Callum, stop being so dramatic. I just don’t want to drink, what’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is that you don’t want to drink!” his brother fires back. 

But Charlotte gasps. Her eyes are suspiciously bright. “Will…” she says.

William purses his lips. He was going to save it, but honestly, he really is bad at keeping secrets, especially about things he actually wants to yell from rooftops. “Yes, okay, fine. Stop looking at me like that!”

“What are you talking about, you devil spawn?” Callum rolls his eyes.

William places a hand on his belly. Charlotte gasps. Callum’s eyes are huge and comically round. “William, what did you do? Are you pregnant? How?”

“Well, you see, Callum, when two people love each other very much—”

“Not that, William! Johnathan!” he thunders. “What have you done to my brother? How dare you try to trap him in marriage?”

“I have not done anything Will did not ask me to do,” he answers steely, making cold, unwavering eye contact with Callum.

“Everybody calm down,” William says. “John didn’t do anything I didn’t want, Callum. Stop yelling at him. I wanted this too, okay. No one is being trapped, except John with me.”

John turns to him. “I am not trapped. I want to be here with you.”

“Okay, okay. No one is trapped. Callum, John, sit down and stop glaring at each other. Seriously. This is supposed to be a happy occasion, yes?”

John immediately looks contrite and sits. Callum sits too. It is his version of contrition and William will take it. 

“I am happy for you, Will,” Charlotte beams at him. “I’m sure Callum is too.”

Callum harrumphs. “Are you sure you like him? And he’s not coercing you into this? I don’t care if he’s king. I will sue.”

William is glad this is going better than expected already. At least Callum is bothering to ask. He takes his brother’s hand. “Callum, I really, really like John, okay? You know nobody can make me do anything I don’t want to do, don’t you?”

Callum is only a little appeased. “Are you really pregnant?” he asks.

William nods. “Yes,” he answers with a blush. “John and I want the baby. Don’t be mad, okay Callum?” he says pleadingly. “I’ll let you have a picture of my baby.”

Callum snorts but settles down. “What picture? You haven’t had the baby.”

John pulls out the thin stack of photos kept neatly in an envelope. They are photocopies, the original stuck on William’s refrigerator at home. William distributes the ultrasound photos to his siblings.

Charlotte admires them and makes appropriate ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s. Peter actually smiles and toasts him. William privately admits that it’s the one area the Peacock has more experience than him over, so he doesn’t get annoyed. Callum surreptitiously wipes his eyes, which William is too distracted to notice, but John does.

John is a very proud father already. That, William does notice and kisses him very soundly at the first chance they get.