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"being a teacher is like being in high school. I love teaching but none of them ever listen. I wasn't that much of a smart-a** as a child! And Tim certainly wasn't! It's horrible! I saw a girl picking her nose and then wipe it on the desk!"

"Children are horrifying. I'm glad we only had one."

"And then I tried teaching them the difference between nickles and quarters and one girl didn't get any of them right and kept laughing."

Tim gave a small smile, patting her back, "Well, children learn at different rates, right? I didn't learn my colors until second grade."

"It's so awful and I still have tests to grade and lessons to plan."

"I was thinking about it, the school year is already halfway over, would it be too late to implement a storefront?" She sighed, thinking about this,

"I think the main thing is to not ruin a kid's creativity." Rachel said, "I see too many kids lose that so young, but you're right, generation gap as well."

"Are any of them like me?" TIm asked, hoping to help.

"No, thank god." That made her son laugh and turn to Daren.

"When I was little and I didn't understand something I'd just cry until Mom would come over and explain it or vice versa."

"We spent many hours trying to get you to stop crying and understand it. And it was with all of his math too, and look at the field he's in." Rachel grinned, "At least he enjoys it. Stopped crying about it in ninth grade."

"Mom!" Tim exclaimed, cheeks reddening at that information.

"I know. But I'd need to get it passed with the school board which is a pain."

"I keep telling her to ******** the school board and do whatever she wants. But she sticks to the rules. Tim gets that from her."

"Rules are important." Tim defended before smiling at Daren's defending. "I'll be sure to never cry around you, then."

"He'll probably cry if you get him a puppy." Amanda teased.

Rachel stared at the man before looking at Amanda and standing, "Anyways. We just wanted to check up on the both of you. Thank you for the snack." She ruffled Daren's hair like he was six, going over to hug Tim. "Don't be strangers okay? You both are more than welcomed to come over. It's normally polite to bring your boyfriend over once for dinner."

"I won't cook his favorite." Amanda whispered, kissing Tim's head, "But not anytime soon. It's testing week and I have to prepare tests. Maybe sometimes next month."

"But thanks for letting us in. Don't clean too much and eat a bit more, the both of you." Rachel saw her and Amanda out, waving bye before closing the door behind them.

That was fast. The redhead was just staring at the door before chuckling and looking at Daren. "You helped me when I was frustrated once."

"Daren?" Tim questioned, seeing the wet eyes. His name seemed to snap him out of it, though the red-head grew worried at the broken voice. "Lemonade sounds nice. Daren are you all right?" and stood as well, gently touching his cheek, "What's wrong? Are you crying?"

He gave a small smile as his boyfriend looked away. Daren remembered a happy memory. "It's not stupid. This is a good thing to cry over." and gently stroked his cheek, "But you remembered, and that's good. Right?" Kissing Daren would have been too much, so Tim had to be satisfied with holding his cheek. "You can cry all you want, I would cry too. I want to cry. They were so nice to you."

Tim held the other tightly, burying his face into the shoulder, glasses sliding up as he did so. He emitted a small whine, eyes growing wet. It was hard to cry, he realized, but this was more for Daren then for him, so he let the other cry on his shoulder, and Tim found himself slip a few tears of happiness for the man. "They were! They'll probably be nice in the future, then, won't they?" and chuckled, following him into the kitchen. "I like being a real family." At the mention of lemonade he looked up. "Oh! If it wasn't ready you don't have to!"