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Antonio carefully pulled the full laundry basket down the stairs leading to the basement. It had been almost a full week past the day that it was supposed to be taken care of, but they were so busy taking care of the three children that were currently running around the house without the knowledge of Adult Responsibilities.Jean-paul was busy dealing with cleaning the rooms upstairs, so there was no help dealing with the oversized load of laundry. When he finally got the basket down to the basement, he mentally celebrated and began sorting the lightly colored clothes out of the pile. After all the lightly colored clothes were separated, he put them in the washing machine and made sure to put it on the correct setting.He went back upstairs to get all the bedding stuff from each room . The sound of a vacuum cleaner filtered into his ears in a single file line as he came closer to their room. As he opened the door, he saw Jean-paul, still in his pajamas, moving the vacuum throughout their bedroom. “Hey, could you give me the bedsheet and the pillow coverings?”The vacuum’s electrical humming stopped. Jean-paul tossed Antonio the items he requested for. “Thank you, amor!” As he ran down the stairs to the living room again, he could hear a faded ‘welcome’. Antonio was greeted by the buzzing of the washing machine and the scent of the sensitive skin detergent used because José has eczema. He sorted all the clothes into different piles so that when each cycle completed he could just put the next one in without wasting a few minutes.After putting in the second cycle, Antonio went back to the living room only to get bodied by José and Anaïs. He yelped as they clung to him like koalas to a eucalyptus tree. Some moments of struggling later, he had succeeded in pulling them off of him. They then forced him into a half an hour long tea party where he came out wearing a tutu and Jean-paul’s pearl jewelry set. Jean-paul laughed when he appeared at the door before carefully taking off each piece and putting them back in their display case.After cleaning the bathroom and the rest of the rooms with Jean-paul’s help, he went back downstairs to the basement to switch the third load into the washing machine. It was beginning to get dark when he came back upstairs to put the clothes where they belonged. Jean-paul took the basket from him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.“I’ll do this.”“But-” Jean-paul turned around without letting him finish.“Go, rest.” Antonio heard Jean-paul yell from the top of the stairs. He sighed in resignation and climbed the stairs to take a nap because he was tired from walking up and down for hours.Antonio wasn’t awake for Jean-paul kissing him on his forehead, or for Anaïs, José and Carlos cuddling up beside him, or any of the bedtime stories Jean-paul read. He did wake up to the four people he loved most cuddling against him, and that was enough to say, yes, leaving out the laundry for almost an extra week was worth it.