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As ways of being woken up went, the sound of children laughing wasn’t the worst. Certainly not compared to some of the shit that had woken Chris up while he was on the bus.
It was the start of the Christmas holidays, and it had snowed heavily overnight, so Chris knew there was no way he was getting any more sleep this morning. All the kids in the apartment block were going to be way to excited to stop screaming and shouting for at least the rest of the morning, so Chris might as well get up and make some coffee.
He looked out of the kitchen window while the coffee was brewing, and smiled at the sight unfolding a few floors below. There were kids everywhere in the open space in between the six apartment buildings that made up the estate Christ lived on. Even though Chris didn’t want kids himself, that didn’t make him some kind of child-hating asshole. There was a difference between knowing he neither wanted or would be suited to parenthood and hating kids. Kids were fine – a little annoying sometimes, but they also had their moments of being funny as hell.
Like the three teenagers that trying to build a dick out of snow as tall as they were. That would’ve been funny as hell to Chris when he was their age – and at his current age, he found it hilarious that they were trying it while one of their moms was standing behind them, arms crossed over her chest and foot tapping in the snow.
Chris watched as one of the teens turned round…and froze. It took his friends a few seconds to catch on to the sudden discomfort in the air, but when they did, they did the slow turn to see what was causing it…and then froze themselves.
Watching them get chewed out, even though Chris couldn’t hear it, was fucking funny.
He remembered getting caught doing stupid shit as a kid…although he’d been smart enough been smart – and lucky – enough to not get caught by his parents. That would’ve just been embarrassing.
Luckily, Chris had only ever been caught by strangers – but that had been mortifying enough to make him embarrassed to this day, so instead of watching the boys get chewed out, he wondered over to couch to drink his coffee and channel surf until he found something interesting to watch.
Or until there was an urgent knock on the front door, that Chris took his time answering. It sounded like someone wanted his attention…but that someone was either one of the guys needing something decidedly not important or urgent, or it was…
“Hi mister Chris!” or his neighbour’s niece and nephew, staying with her while her sister was working. As usual, it was her niece Alex doing the speaking, while her younger brother Lian held her hand: “Auntie Gabby got your mail again.”
“Hi Alex and Lian, thank you.” Chris took the proffered stack of letters from Alex’s hand with a smile, putting them on the table next to the door before crouching down to speak to the kids: “How comes you two are delivering post this morning?”
“We’re gonna go play in the snow. But first we’re helping auntie Gabby with her jobs.” Alex said proudly, while Lian nodded.
“Because she’s taking so long.” he added, so earnestly Chris had to work not to laugh at his impatience.
‘Auntie Gabbie’ – or, as Chris knew her, Gabrielle – was a kind of…a friend of Chris’s? Or something like that; it was like a friends with benefits arrangement when Chris wasn’t on tour, because he was struggling after his last relationship to commit to another one, and she was quite happy being single, only…they were actually friends. And they hung out outside of having sex. And after the last year, where Motionless hadn’t done any shows…Chris wasn’t really sure where they stood at the moment.
It felt like they were dating. They had ‘dates’ – although they labelled them more as hang-outs – that didn’t end in sex, they bought each other presents for their birthdays and Christmas and even just because, they’d slept in each other’s beds when they couldn’t be bothered to leave the other’s apartment…
…But they hadn’t put a label on anything. And neither of them had brought up making their relationship exclusive – although Chris certainly wasn’t seeing anyone else, and neither was Gabrielle, at least to his knowledge. Not that he wanted to know; Chris was pretty sure it would crush him to find out Gabrielle was seeing someone else, because Chris actually wanted nothing more than for to Gabrielle to be his girlfriend.
He just needed to work up the guts to ask her…but until then, he was going to leave her to hang out with her niece and nephew.
“Sounds like it’s going to be fun!” he smiled: “You should go back and check on your aunt, to see if she’s finished her jobs.”
Alex nodded and started to head back over to Gabrielle’s apartment – but Lian stayed in front of Chris’s door, looking up at him with big, serious eyes: “Are you going to go and play in the snow with someone, mister Chris?”
Chris was taken aback for a second, but quickly smiled at Lian: “I’m not, no.”
“Would you like to come and play with us and auntie Gabby?”
Chris was touched; Lian was such a generous and kind kid. From what Gabrielle said, he was always making cards for his family members, offering to help around the house, and asking other kids to play so they wouldn’t feel left out.
“That’s very kind of you to offer, Lian, but I think your aunt might want to spend some time with just the two of you.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind you joining us. She really likes you!” Lian insisted: “Also, we’re building a snowman, and we might need someone tall to help.”
Chris couldn’t suppress the smile that came to his face when he heard Lian say Gabrielle liked him – but he knew how much she loved spending time with her niece and nephew, and didn’t know if she’d want him intruding on that time: “I’ll tell you what, you ask your aunt, and we’ll let her decide, okay?”
Lian nodded earnestly, and then rushed back to Gabrielle’s front door. Chris was fairly sure he wouldn’t hear anything…but he went and changed into some warmer clothes, just in case. If Gabrielle wanted him to join in on her time with her niece and nephew, Chris didn’t want to waste it by having to get redressed, not when he knew how important it was to her.
It probably wouldn’t happen…but just in case. It wasn’t the coolest thing he’d ever done, but no-one would ever have to know how lame he was if no-one saw he’d changed clothes. Which they probably wouldn’t, because Gabrielle wasn’t going to invite him out to play in the snow with her and the kids.
Only, ten minutes later, there was another knock on the door.
Chris opened the door to find Gabrielle, Alex, and Lian, all bundled up and waiting for him, with Gabrielle smirking from under her fur-lined hood: “Come on, Skellington Jack. We’ve got a snowman to build.”
“…I do not want to accept that nickname, but I do want to go build a snowman.”
“Okay, Anna.” Gabrielle smirked even wider.
“Yeah, I walked right into that one.” Chris nodded, stepping out into the hallway and locking his front door behind him.
Alex skipped ahead, singing Do You Want To Build A Snowman as she hopped down the stairs, while Lian ran along a few steps behind her, shouting ‘yes’ every time Alex sung the titular question. It was cute as hell…and distracted them both enough for Gabrielle to slip her hand into his.
Chris couldn’t be happier. Even when the cold smacked him in the face the second they walked outside.
It didn’t take long to get over the cold, though. Alex and Lian’s excitement was infectious: and soon Chris was helping Lian roll a small ball of snow around, packing the snow tightly to make the bottom of the snowman, while the girls worked on the middle section. They rolled and rolled and rolled, until the snowball was almost the size of Lian, and they had to decide where they were going to start building their snowman.
The kids bickered for a little bit, with Gabrielle standing next to Chris a few feet away from them, holding his hand and occasionally weighing in to stop them from getting too nasty, in-between snippets of conversation with him:
“Thank you for coming to build the snowman with us today,” she said softly: “the kids were really excited to see you.”
“I was happy to be invited. I know how much you love seeing the kids.”
“Yeah, well…I love seeing you too, you know.” Gabrielle murmured: “I know what we have isn’t…conventional, but…”
“It could be.” Chris said, before he could stop himself: “If that’s what you wanted.”
Gabrielle was silent for a few seconds…but she didn’t let go of Chris’s hand. And that was probably a good thing.
Probably.
“I’d…I’d really like that.”
Chris turned to look at Gabrielle: “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Chris could’ve tried to come up with something witty or sexy or charming…but for someone who wrote songs for a living, his brain was pretty empty of anything to say right now.
So he leant down to kiss Gabrielle instead.
It wasn’t their first kiss…but it was the one Chris enjoyed the most. It was the first kiss he and Gabrielle shared as a real couple.
“Ew! Alex, auntie Gabby and mister Chris are kissing!”
Not even the kids groaning in disgust could make this kiss any less special. And neither could finishing the snowman they had come downstairs to build; Chris was just too happy, his soul literally filled with joy.
And besides, as he found out after the kids had been picked up by their dad...the longer he and Gabrielle spent out in the cold, the more he got to warm her up.
He had no complaints.