Chapter Text
Michael pried his eyes open, blinking a few times to focus them in the early morning light. He turned his head to Alex’s side of the bed slowly, expecting to see his husband’s sleeping face. Instead, he was met by a small, black, fuzzy one, and it took his pre-coffee brain far too long to determine that George the gorilla was sharing his pillow. It was then that Michael registered the two small, cold feet that were pressed up against his upper leg.
Rolling fulling onto his side, Michael assessed the situation in the bed. Besides George, he had two other additional bedmates who had not been there when he had gone to sleep the night before. Gus lay sprawled on his stomach in the center of the bed between him and Alex, a riot of messy curls and limbs. Ruby, the family beagle, was stationed at the foot of the bed, keeping watch over the scene. Already awake, she eyed Michael with speculation and a hint of expectation, probably wondering how long it would take him to lever himself out of bed and go put out her breakfast.
“Morning girl,” Michael said around a yawn.
Movement from the far side of the bed had him looking over to meet sleep-softened dark brown eyes that were just blinking into wakefulness. Alex, who was on his side facing Michael, gave him a gentle smile and a slightly husky “good morning”.
“Morning,” Michael replied, returning the smile. Mindful of Gus between them, he carefully leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Alex’s mouth, earning him another, wider smile.
“So, to what do we owe all of the company?” Michael questioned.
“The storm last night,” Alex responded. “Gus came in around three. According to him, ‘George’ was afraid of the thunder.”
“You should have woken me,” Michael said, a frown forming between his eyes.
Alex smiled and shook his head. “There was no need for both of us to be up in the middle of the night. You know I’ve been a light sleeper since the Air Force.”
When Michael still looked troubled, Alex reached over and used his thumb to smooth the skin of his forehead. Then he trailed his hand down to cup Michael's stubbly cheek briefly before continuing to finally rest at the back of his skull, massaging gently through the curls until Michael finally relaxed.
Michael reached up to tangle his fingers with Alex’s, bringing his hand to his mouth for a brief kiss before allowing their intertwined digits to rest between them over Gus, who was just starting to stir.
Gus rolled over onto his back and his eyes popped open, fully awake with an energy that Michael envied, especially without caffeine.
“Morning Daddy!” Gus declared, moving to wrap both his arms and legs tightly around Michael’s body.
“Morning Kiddo!” Michael responded around an armful of Gus. “I didn’t know there were two monkeys in my bed this morning!” Gus pulled back suddenly, disentangling himself from Michael and sitting up in the bed.
“Daddy,” Gus lectured, “George is a gorilla, and gorillas are great apes, not monkeys. If you had said that there were two primates in the bed, that would have been correct.”
“Yeah Daddy,” Alex smirked from behind Gus, “get your taxonomy straight.”
Michael resisted rolling his eyes and responding that there was nothing straight about him. Instead, he tried to look conciliatory and switched his attention back to Gus, who was still eyeing him with judgement.
“You’re right,” Michael said. Then, trying not to cringe, “I guess I need to watch that nature documentary again, make sure to get my facts right.” Since Gus had become obsessed with all things Animal Planet and especially gorillas, they had to have watched the primate documentary at least ten times. Granted, he had stopped trying to pay attention after the third time.
“Ok then,” Michael said, trying to change the subject and save face in the eyes of his six-year-old. “Who’s ready for breakfast?”
“Me!” cried Gus. Ruby snuffled an approval from the end of the bed. Then, “can we have pancakes?”
“It is Saturday,” Michael responded with a smile, “maybe Papa will even let us put chocolate chips in them.”
“Can we Papa, can we?!” Gus exclaimed, turning his big dark eyes on Alex.
“As long as Daddy’s making them, go for it” Alex smiled fondly at Gus, then caste a slightly exasperated look at Michael, who just smiled back.
“Thanks, love you!” With that, Gus planted a quick kiss on Alex’s cheek and then he was leaping off of the bed accompanied by George, with Ruby hot on his heels as he careened down the hall towards the kitchen.
“I guess I’m off to make pancakes,” said Michael.
“And coffee,” Alex directed.
“And coffee,” Michael parroted back before leaning in for a final kiss that lingered, but only slightly. With that, he leveraged himself out of bed with a groan and headed off to the kitchen, leaving Alex a few minutes of solitary peace to get himself out of bed and put on his prosthetic.
By the time Michael had reached the kitchen, fed the waiting dog, and started the coffee going, Gus was already rambling off shape requests, many of which went beyond Michael’s artistic abilities with pancake batter. Maybe with a little help from his powers?
Taking a moment to revel in the fact that he was up way too early on a Saturday morning about to make pancakes for his son and his husband, who he could just hear exiting the bedroom and making his way down the hall, Michael got out the mixing bowl and the ingredients and got to work.