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A quiet alarm beeped on Dedue’s phone to remind him of the time, and he glanced away from the screen. In truth, he’d been staring at the chapter header for at least five minutes, so he probably needed to take a break from writing anyway.
He got up out of his chair, stretching in an attempt to get the crick out of his neck. He wandered first towards the kitchen, where he checked quickly on the bread he’d left to rise in one of the cupboards; nearly done. From there, he set out for the car to pick Dimitri up from work.
The drive was the same as always, the roads obnoxiously busy as they always were in the hour following the end of the school day. Dedue almost missed the city where they used to live, with all the public transport and far fewer middle aged parents in too-large cars, but it was nicer out of the centre. Cheaper, too.
When he arrived at the elementary school, he caught sight of Dimitri standing at the entrance with a woman and her child. The child looked decidedly like they didn’t want to be there, and Dedue immediately understood why; the woman was clearly angry about something or other.
Dimitri’s hair was pulled up in all directions in what must have been five or six different clumps, with one or two braided clumsily. Combined with the bright hair clips in various places, it was clear that the kids had been at his hair again in what Dedue knew must be one of their favourite games.
Dedue glanced at his watch; it was way past school hours by now and the woman and her child were the only people left in the playground, so he felt justified in getting out of the car and heading towards the school. It looked like Dimitri needed an excuse to get out of all this at the very least.
“...Completely inappropriate as a discussion for children,” the woman said, and Dimitri nodded sagely, clearly not agreeing with her. His face lit up when he spotted Dedue’s approach.
“I apologise, Mrs Aegir, but you’ll have to excuse me for a moment. Good afternoon, Mr Molinaro!” Dimitri’s smile was nothing more than something suited for a greeting, but his eye communicated a message closer to ‘please get me out of here’. “Thank you for being so punctual. I know finding time away from home life to discuss your child’s education is vitally important, so thank you for coming.”
“It was no bother,” Dedue said, a small smile on his face. He didn’t think he’d ever played at being a concerned parent before.
“I truly am sorry,” Dimitri said when he turned back to the mother, his voice dripping with an earnestness Dedue hadn’t realised Dimitri could feign. Even after all these years, he learned something new about him every day. “I can speak to you about the issue some other time, if you’d like.”
The woman looked between the pair of them, eyes showing her distrust, but finally she nodded. “I think that would be for the best,” she said. “I’ll see you again.”
Dimitri nodded and Dedue watched his face ease into a smile that was far more genuine as he leaned down to catch the child’s eyes. “Goodbye, Ferdinand,” he said. “I’ll see you again tomorrow!”
Ferdinand’s face brightened considerably. “Bye bye Mr Dima!” he said with a wave. With that, the pair turned around and walked back down the playground, leaving Dimitri and Dedue alone to head into the building.
When they got inside, Dimitri let out a heavy sigh, running his fingers down his face and slumping down the wall next to the brightly painted coat pegs. Dedue’s eyes were briefly drawn to the clumsily painted giraffe with laser eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked, trying to keep his voice even and soft.
Dimitri made a small frustrated noise. “I told you about Marianne, yes?” he asked. Dedue nodded; the child in his class who had expressed that she was a girl less than a week ago. “I spoke with her parents recently, and they wanted me to help her explain things to the class.”
Dedue smiled and nodded. “I hope that went well,” he said.
Dimitri’s expression briefly brightened. “It did!” he said. There was a small note of pride in his voice. “However, the other children in my class then took those discussions home to their parents, and this particular parent took issue with it.”
Dedue frowned. “I hope she doesn’t pose too much of an issue,” he said.
Dimitri pulled a face. “It’s a little more of a problem than I’d like,” he admitted. “She occupies a senior position on the PTA, and was part of the discussions surrounding the school’s more inclusive staffing policy.” Dedue was familiar with the discussions; Dimitri attributed them to his promotion from a part time to full time position a year earlier.
“I think I can guess what her opinions were on that,” he said, trying to inject just a little levity into his tone. Dimitri offered up a slightly weak smile in reply.
“Quite,” he said. “She intends to file a complaint against me for bringing my ‘agenda’ to the children.”
“Are you concerned about the results of that?” Dedue asked, reaching out to take one of Dimitri’s hands in his. He ran his thumb over the back of his husband’s hand in an attempt to soothe him a little.
“Not particularly,” he said. “I’ve only received positive responses from other parents, so I think my position is safe. That doesn’t mean she won’t attempt to make my life at least a little hellish.”
Dedue nodded. “I hope something can be done to prevent that,” he said. He wasn’t optimistic, but the other staff at the school had been almost overwhelmingly supportive in the past.
Dimitri pushed himself off the wall to stand fully upright. He looked a lot happier than he had when they’d entered the school. “That’s enough about me,” he said firmly. “What about your day?”
Dedue thought for a moment. “It was fine,” he said. “Good, even. I did everything I planned to, at least.”
Dimitri smiled. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “How are Olwen and Ascot getting on?”
“I finished up the redraft of the second chapter,” he said. Often, he’d felt a little self conscious talking about his work, but he knew Dimitri genuinely wanted to hear it. “Ascot recently returned to his childhood home, only to find that people aren’t as welcoming of Olwen as he’d like. The challenge of the next section is developing an understanding between the pair of them that goes beyond actions taken in the heat of the moment.”
As Dedue spoke, Dimitri’s expression took on something resembling awe. There was a tiny smile on his face, one that never failed to confuse him just a little; there was no reason for his husband to care so much about a book for young adults, but he cared anyway. It was heartening.
As they spoke, they turned to go back to the car, and Dedue stopped just short of the door. “Do you think we should perhaps fix your hair before we go outside?” he asked with a chuckle.
Dimitri brought a hand to his head, his eye widening slightly when his hand brushed the tuft tied with a fluffy purple band. “I’d forgotten about it,” he said with a laugh. “Yes, I think we probably should.”
They entered Dimitri’s classroom, and Dimitri went straight for his chair. Dedue paused for a moment, looking around the rest of the room, and Dimitri realised his mistake; every other chair in the room was for five year olds. “Oh!” he said, standing up again. “Please, Dedue, sit down.”
Dedue chuckled. “Are you going to go for a tiny chair?” he asked. Dimitri shook his head and sat down on the floor, his legs crossed. He winced.
“I don’t know how they sit down here every day,” he said, and Dedue laughed. He sat down in the chair and began the process of carefully extricating the various clips and ties from Dimitri’s hair. When he was done, he gently combed his fingers through it, smiling when Dimitri leaned into his touch.
“There you go,” he said, standing again and taking Dimitri’s hand in his. “Free of the terror of cheap hair accessories.”
“Thank you, my dashing knight. You’ve truly saved me from a great peril,” Dimitri replied, squeezing Dedue’s hand and they walked back out to the car.
Dedue smiled. Perhaps the trials of earlier that afternoon couldn’t be completely forgotten, but they could be pushed to the side by a much happier evening to come.