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The smell of fresh brewed coffee and slightly burned pancakes was in the air of the kitchen in the Kim-Schmitt household. Paxton and Noah, their 10 and 6 year old sons, were already eating their pancakes while Levi sipped on his black coffee, leaning against the kitchen island counter. The sun shined brightly through the windows and made the room shine in a golden light, which was weird but a nice alternative for Seattles usually very rainy wheather.
"Morning." Nico said to his little but precious family while entering the kitchen, then making his way to his husband to give him a quick good morning kiss on the lips.
„Morning Dad," his older son, Paxton, said with mouth full of pancakes which earned him an eyebrow raise from both of his dads.
„You don't speak when you're still chewing," his little brother Noah reminded him, but Paxton just rolled his eyes. It was always like this. Noah was the goody two shoes, already skipped first grade and still managed to bring home only A's. Nico couldn't think of one rule Noah disregarded and he likes to annoy his brother with that. Pax on the other hand was a lovely and happy kid, always excited and optimistic but well...not as obedient as his brother. He still loved both of them to death.
"How long does your shift last today?" Nico asked his husband while pouring himself some coffee in his mug and stealing a pancake from Paxton's plate.
„Get your own pancakes!“ Paxton complained but Nico just smirked and ruffled the boy through his thick, black hair.
"I only work until 3pm. Because you know Paxton's football lessons start at 3:30 and someone has to drive him. And I thought I'm gonna do it because you told me the other day you had tons of patients this week."
Nico nearly chocked on his pancake and looked at Levi with big eyes. "Football practice? I thought that topic was off the table."
"It's not."
„I didn't sign up for it."
"Dad did. That's enough. They only need the consent of one parent." Pax said and a big smile appeared on his face.
"Babe, you know why I don't want him to play football."
"No one died while playing football yet."
"First of all, I don't think that's true. Second, how many broken bones and concussions, that are results from very brutal Football games, do you think I treat in year? Little tip it's a big number."
"That doesn't mean something will happen to Pax. And even if it does, you are the Ortho God here." Levi smirked but Nico just looked at him with a cold glare. His son getting hurt wasn't something he could laugh about.
"I'll be careful Dad, I promise!" Pax exclaimed.
"It's not that I don't trust you but...like a certain someone," Nico looked at Levi before he continued to speak "you are very clumsy."
"He doesn't even have my genes and isn't as far as clumsy as I am. You are overreacting."
"Papa is right, biologically I‘m your son and I know you played football in high school. Maybe this is my hidden talent!"
"I just don't want you to get hurt is that so hard to understand?"
Nico was frustrated. He always had to worry about Levi and now that they had kids he was in a constant state of being worried. Paxton being as clumsy as his dad didn't help much, since he would also worry about him if he would manage to take care of himself, but this way it was ten times worse.
"Daddy is right. Football is very dangerous, the entire game is about big guys jumping on you." Noah said which earned him a glare from Pax that could kill.
"You don't know anything about football Noah. It's not about getting jumped on, but rather about winning!" Pax said excited. His explanation wasn't that fitting Nico thought, but kept it to himself. He loved how excited Pax got about small things like football but that still wasn't enough for Nico to let him play football. He has always been a worrier when it came to the people he loved the most. Nothing scared him as much as the thought of his loved ones being hurt or in danger, which is why he always tried to protect them from such things that could hurt them.
"I still don't like the thought of it." Nico said while shaking his head. "We will talk about this."
"Yeah. After football." Paxton said with a wide and sassy grin.
"Pax." Levi and Nico said in union, which made Noah chuckle and Pax just rolled his eyes for the probably 15th time this morning.
"Get your shoes and backpacks, whoever isn't at the car in 15 minutes can walk to school." Levi said which caused Noah to jump out of his chair and run to get this shoes, slowly followed by his brother.
"Babe why didn't you talk to me about this? You can't just make a descision like this without me." Nico said while putting his arms around Levi who started to pout.
„I know...but he was so excited about it. I didn't want to crush his hopes by talking to you again. Nico I get why you are worried, I don't want him to get hurt either, I really just want the best for him but if that means playing football then it's okay for me but I also don't want us to fight about this and-" Levi was babbling, so Nico did what he always did when this happened: He pulled his husband into a deep, passionate kiss.
„Just trust me with this Nico, he will be fine." Levi mumbled before continuing to kiss Nico, who pulled Levi closer to his own body. Nicos hands moved up to Levis hair and he started to run his fingers through it while continuely kissing him. Even though they've been together for a long time now, they still couldn't get enough of each other, even if it's 8am in the morning after having slept for 5 hours only.
"Dad! Papa! We need to go now, I don't wanna be late! I want to win the best attendance price at the end of the year!" Noah yelled, which resulted in the couple breaking the kiss and smirking about Noah's wish to be in school on time. But to be fair, he's been talking about the price, which is some kind of stuffed animal, for months now, so they really don't want to ruin his chance of winning because they were to busy making out.
"Are you okay with the football thing though? I can probably still cancel but do you really want to see Pax being sad? You know it's a rare and horrible sight."
Nico sighed and took Levi's smaller hands in his own. "I love you and I trust you. So if you think Pax will be fine, he will be fine. Lets go now, before Noah calls himself an Uber to get to school in time."
His shift was nearly over but it wasn't as exhausting as he thought it would be, which is why he decided to take a look into the ER to see if he could be a helping hand there. It was actually pretty empty and it looked like his help wasn't needed, so Nico was mentally getting ready to go home when Andrew DeLuca spotted him and made his way up to Nico.
"Hey Kim. Quiet a calm day.“
"Actually yeah. But I need all my energy for when I get home anyway. Pax started playing football today and the moment I enter the house he's going to be all over me, telling me every single detail of every little thing that happened." The thought of his happy and excited son put a smile to his face.
"I thought you didn't want him to play?" DeLuca asked but Nico only shrugged.
„You know Levi kinda convinced me and I-" he stopped talking when he noticed a change on the electronic ER board that said which patients are currently in the ER. A new name appeared.
"DeLuca?"
"Hm?"
"Why is my sons’ name on the ER board?"
"Kim-Schmitt, Paxton, Trauma Room 3, Dr Lincoln." DeLuca read the sentence that disturbed Nico out loud.
„I had no idea he was here dude, you know how slowly this thing changes the names." DeLuca said but Nico wasn't really listening, just yelled that he had to go and ran into Trauma Room 3.
The moment he reached for the knob to open the door he prepared for the worst. He imagined his son being full of blood, eyes shut and dead. He knew this probably wasn't the case as it was a very calm day, even in the ER, and a child dying is anything but calm, but still, he was worried sick.
What he saw when he opened the door was pretty calming compared to what he imagined: His son sat upright on the bed, Link was on his left side, putting a cast on his arm. On the right side was Levi with Noah in his lap, both patiently watching Link do his work.
Even though Paxton was hurt, the atmosphere in the room was pretty peaceful, until Nico started to yell "What the hell happened?"
Four heads turned to him and Pax started to smile when he saw his dad. "Hey Dad! Look, I'm getting a blue cast!"
Helplessly Nico looked at Levi who sunk a little bit in the chair he sat in.
"Promise me to not freak out but...well...so..." Levi stuttered.
"Paxton broke his arm during football practice, just like you said it would happen!" Noah told him with his big brown eyes wide open and Levi frowned.
"Noah I love you, but you are really really honest. If you want to start being rebellious, you have my permission."
Nico just looked at them and didn't know what to say. They all looked so calm and he saw that Paxton was smiling but he was about to freak out. Luckily Link noticed and explained to him that Paxton only fractured his forearm and it was expected to be properly healed after 6 weeks in a cast. No surgery needed.
"Why did no one call me? I wanna know when my son is hurt!" Nico exclaimed and Levi started to blush.
"I swear I was just about to call you. But I didn't want Pax to worry so much as he was actually pretty scared and you know...you freaking out isn't really helpful."
Nico sighed and made his way over to Pax, laying an arm around his sons' shoulder.
"You know I love you. And I only freak out because I love you so much and don't want to get hurt, you know that, right?"
"Of course I know that, Dad. I think Papa was the one who was afraid of you losing it because, well, he was the one who allowed me to go to practice.“
"That's true!" Noah confirmed. "He told me in the car when we went to pick Pax up.“
"Okay, okay just expose me like this." Levi sighed while Paxton and Noah started to giggle.
"It's just...I said he would be fine and I was wrong. He broke his arm and it's kinda my fault. You are the one with common sense here, I'm just irresponsible."
"Babe, that's not true." Nico left his sons' side to sit on the armrest of the chair Levi sat on with Noah. "You just wanted him to be happy, that's it. And that makes you a great dad. Thousands of kids play football every day and our son was one of the unlucky ones that got hurt. This isn't your fault."
Nico pressed a kiss on Levis cheek and started to run his fingers through his hair.
"But you knew it would happen."
"I'm really just way too overprotective. And I know that you are too, but you still manage to have faith in our kids and let them try new things while I'm in constantly worrying. I think that's actually a good match. We balance each other out and stuff." Nico grinned, especially when he saw how his little speech also put a smile on Levis face.
He gave Levi a kiss on the head when Link announced that his work here was done.
"I don't think I need to tell you guys what he shouldn't do with his arm and of course that he has to go to the regular check ups. But you were very brave Pax." Link said and Pax gave him a high five with his healthy arm.
The family left the hospital, as Nicos shift was over anyway and Noah already fell asleep in Levis arms.
"Can you carry him to the car? I don't understand how a small child can be this heavy." Levi complained and handed his tiny, but somehow heavy son over to his husband, who took him in his strong arms.
"I should be the one who's getting carried." Paxton suddenly said and Nico gave him a confused look.
"I'm obviously not even capable of walking on my own," he said and waved around with his casted arm, when Nico abruptly stopped walking, causing Levi and Pax to stop as well.
"Wait how did you even break your arm?" Nico asked when he noticed that they never actually told him how it happened.
"I tripped. While running. There was no one in my way, no one pushed me, the ground wasn't uneven and my shoelaces were tied. I just tripped."
"Sounds just like something that would happen to your dad."
Even though Nico now had to worry about two clumsy people in his life, he was also glad that Paxton was so similar to Levi.
Because Levi was not only clumsy, but also so wonderful and extraordinary, that his son being like his husband was totally worth it having to worry all time.