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“Bloody hell, was it this complicated when we adopted Matthew?” Arthur mumbled,filling out what felt like the 70th paper of the day.
Arthur and Francis were run ragged. They had spent the last few weeks finalizing paperwork to officially adopt the baby, and setting up some of Matthew’s old baby stuff in their spare room, all while hiding the whole ordeal from Matthew. After all, they didn’t want to get the toddlers' hopes up until everything was confirmed. Adoptions could be time consuming and even fall through on occasion, so it would be cruel to get the poor boys hopes up.
However, the issue was that Matthew-ever the perceptive toddler, had picked up on something being wrong.Of course he did. His fathers were being weird, but he didn’t know why.
“Daddy. Did I do something wrong?” Matthew asked him one day as they were having breakfast. Francis wasn’t there though, which was very odd. Even when he had work early, Papa always tried to have breakfast with them for at least a few minutes.
“Of course not poppet. Why ever would you think that?”
Matthew frowned, looking down at his plate a half eaten scrambled eggs. His daddy was not a very good cook. His Papa was though. He wished his Papa was there too.
“You and Papa have been ignoring me.” He pouted, cheeks puffing.
“Love, me and Papa are just busy. We’re planning for something big.”
That cheered Matthew up. He swerved back around to face his father with wide, glittering eyes.
“Big? Like what? Are we getting a puppy?”
Arthur laughed nervously. “Not quite. But it’s a surprise. You have to be patient.”
Matthew deflated a bit. “Oh ok. I like surprises. As long as it’s a good surprise.”
Arthur smiled softly. “Well then you’ll like this one. Because it’s not a good surprise, it’s a great surprise.”
…………………………………………………….
“It went through! It went through!” Francis cheered, taking Arthur into his arms and squeezing him much too tight.
Arthur, who had just gotten home from work and picked Matthew up from daycare, was a bit disoriented and only managed a single “what?”
Francis eased his hug a bit and looked down at his husband, face practically glittering with excitement. “All the paperwork. He’s officially ours! We’re having another baby.” He squealed.
Arthur laughed, wrapping his own arms around Francis' shoulders. “That is the best news I’ve heard all day, love.”
They stood there for a while, just caught in each other's embrace before finally separating.
“Now when can we see him?”
“The adoption agency says we can take him home on Friday.”
Arthur exhaled a little. “That is fairly soon. I’ll have to finish setting the nursery up.”
Francis nodded. “Oui. There is still so much left to do. But we’ve done it before, and everything worked out. We’ve got this.”
………………………………………………….
“Papa, where are we going?” Matthew asked as Francis buckled him into his car seat.
“Remember that surprise I told you about?”
Matthew nodded.
“Well, we’re going to get it.”
Matthew’s eyes lit up and he squirmed a bit in his car seat. “Really?”
“Yes really.” Arthur chuckled. “But you’ve got to sit tight and be a good boy the whole ride there ok?”
Matthew quickly nodded. “I will, I’ll be super duper good.”
Arthur only chuckled again. “Of course you will poppet.”
The car ride- at least to Matthew’s toddler brain, took forever. He didn’t like long car rides, especially when his daddy got to choose the music, but he had promised he would be good so he didn’t complain about it.
After about an hour the trio arrived at a big gray building and Francis unbuckled Matthew’s car seat. He helped Matthew out of the car and held his hand in his much larger one as they walked into the building.
He waited anxiously as they walked into the building.
He waited anxiously while his dads talked about something boring with the lady at the front desk. He waited anxiously as they walked to a little room with a number on the placard and then-
“This is your little brother.” Francis whispered. Some distinguished looking man handed him what looked like a really big potato in a blanket while Arthur was sent off to sign some final papers.
“Brother?” Matthew piped, looking closer at the potato. He looked sort of like an old man to Matthew. Or at least a really, really tiny old man. Matthew had never really seen a baby before. Not in person, and definitely never this close up. It was sort of weird.
“Yes, Matthieu. This is your baby brother, isn’t he adorable?” Francis cooed, already absolutely smitten.
“Um.” Matthew tilted his head, trying to see the little old man from another angle.
Arthur was back a few minutes later, and Francis happily handed the infant to him. “God he’s so perfect. He looks just like Matthew did when he was a baby.” He murmured.
The distinguished man came back in and handed Arthur a little slip.
“Now before we leave, it seems this little guy needs a name.”
Arthur and Francis exchanged shocked looks. When they had adopted Matthew he had already had his first name and since the two had the same mother, they assumed this baby would already have a name as well. They had thought of no names beforehand.
“Um..”
“Alfred.” Matthew interrupted.
Arthur gave him an odd look. “Alfred?”
“Yeah! Like the butler from Batman. Alfred.”
Francis burst out laughing. “The old man?”
“Mhm.”
Arthur paused and tapped Francis on the shoulder. “Wait no. I actually quite like it.”
Francis stopped laughing and looked up at him in pure shock. “What?”
“It’s distinguished, besides we don’t always have to call him Alfred. We could call him Al or Alfie.”
Matthew seemed to take a shine to that. “Alfie!”
Francis’ laugh seemed to slow to a light chuckle as he peered down at the infant, studying him for a moment.
“You know what, I think I like it too. Alfred.”
“Alright.” Arthur smiled, first at Matthew, then at the baby. “Then I guess his name is Alfred.”