Archive of Our Own ^beta

"And make sure he doesn't eat too much candies, he can't sleep well with too much sugar in-"

"Simon, please, shut the- just shut up!" Rosh interrupted his rant before he could even get another word in, correcting herself when she obviously wanted to add a curse word in. Oskar's delicate ears couldn't handle the vulgarity.

Oskar hadn't moved from his bowl of cereals, very focused on swirling around the chocolate puffs. Simon opened his mouth to argue, but Rosh was quick to shut him down again. "I already took care of him several times! I'm not dumb, Simon. I know his diet, his habits, hell I even know the names of the eighteen plushies he keeps in his bed!" 

"Don't curse, Rosh!"

"Simon. You're going to be late, go! I'll handle the kid, he's going to be just fine, as always." She sighed, throwing Simon his backpack. 

He caught it awkwardly, and winced because Rosh wass right, he already had her on babysitting duty before and she was honestly the most responsible person he knew, if he didn't acccount for his mother. Oskar would be in good hands, and he knew it. Still, he couldn't help acting like a mother hen around him. He gave the kid a peck on his forehead, and Oskar barely reacted, his eyes still heavy with sleep. He had trouble sleeping the night before, and Simon warned Rosh he might need a long nap. 

"I'll be back around five, if they don't make me do overtime again!" He added while wrapping a scarf around his neck. "Have fun, you two!" 

Once he was out on the street, Simon allowed himself to lose his smile and walk with his head down. He really was tired too, and would kill to be able to actually spend his Saturday chilling at home with Oskar, play games and watch cartoons under a nice plaid blanket. But no, he had to go to his second job and spend his December week-ends at the mall. 

But every penny he made was worth it. He needed the money to afford the repairs on his car after that damned alternator broke two weeks ago, meaning he had no way to come down to his mother's house for Christmas. And that was out of the question. 

Ayub suggested he'd take the train instead, but taking the train with a kid and Christmas presents was a hassle. Rosh suggested he'd tell Linda to come to his place instead, but he wanted to perpetuate the tradition of celebrating Christmas in Bjärstad. Madison suggested he'd ask Linda for financial help to pay for the repair, and repay her later, but Simon's ego wouldn't allow for that. 

Instead, Simon got a job as a Christmas elf at the mall. From 12 to 4, every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas, and it paid just enough to pay for that damn alternator. He'd even bargained with his boss to have a weekly pay so he could pay the garage before Christmas and have the car on time. The only down to this was that he had to sacrifice his week-ends and his time with Oskar. 

And the outfit he had to wear was downright ridiculous too. Some cheaply-made elf costume, with the hat and the ears as well. The things you do for love… 

His job was fairly easy, once you forgot the itchy outfit. He had to welcome parents and kids, make sure they stayed in line and walk the kids to Santa, let them ask for whichever toy they fancied, and walk them back to their parents. Easy, but repetitive and downright boring when his only wish was to take his own kid around town to enjoy the Christmas season. 

Around 2 pm, Simon was already checking his watch discreetly whenever he could, waiting for his shift to end already. Everything was running smoothly, and no kid had yelled at Simon for pulling them out of Santa's lap, yet. He smiled up at a little girl with blonde hair tied up with a large red bow, who was next in line to meet Santa. The girl didn't mirror his smile, and hid a little behind the woman holding her hand. Said woman shot him an apologetic smile. 

"She's a little shy, sorry." Simon shook his head: he was used to it. He crouched down and waved at the girl, still sporting his wide smile. 

"Hiii there! I really like your bow, did you pick it yourself?" 

The girl scrunched her nose a little, and nodded. Her hand went up to replace the accessory on her ponytail. "It's shiny." She explained, as if Simon couldn't see the little glitters on it. 

"Oh that's soooo cool!! I wish my hat was shiny too!" Simon gestured to his hat with an exaggered pout. It was working, as the little girl gave a little smile. "Ah but I'm impolite, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Simon, nice to meet you! What's your name, Little Miss Shiny Bow?" 

"Elizabet, but my friends call me Lita." She answered, finally stepping from behind the woman. 

"Am I allowed to call you Lita, then?" Simon asked, still making a point to be very expressive with his face. Lita nodded, and he gestured to the employee dressed up as Santa who just finished with another kid. "Do you want to meet Santa, Lita?" 

Lita nodded again, eyeing "Santa" warily. Simon offered his hand to guide her, and took her along the little red carpet leading up to Santa. She closed up a little, but the guy playing Santa was very good at making shy kids smile and talk at least a little. Lita got her photo, and another one with the woman who Simon assumed was her nanny, or some relative, because Lita referred to her with her given name, Felice. 

Simon took the pictures, and watched as Santa asked the little girl what she wanted for Christmas the most. As he turned around to go fetch the next kid, he overheard Lita's answer. 

"I want my pappa to play with me."

Simon turned around, surprised and troubled by that peculiar wish. Santa had his own moment of hesitation, and tried to save it up. Simon turned to Felice, raising an eyebrow. She was biting her lower lip with a concerned look. When her gaze met Simon's, she let out a sigh. 

"Her dad's very busy. Lawyer with crazy hours. That's actually why I'm the one taking her here." 

Giving her an empathetic smile, Simon felt bad for that little girl. She reminded him of Oskar in a sense, but at least their situation was temporary… Still, Simon went a little bit out of his way to give Lita some chocolate candies when he walked them back out of the stand. 

He almost forgot about this little encounter by the end of his shift. He helped with closing up the stand and got changed quickly as he wanted to go back home as fast as possible. Thankfully, they managed to close a little after 4, and Simon found himself waiting for the bus to take him home. 

He was looking at this phone, texting Rosh that he was on his way back, when he heard a kid's voice behind him. 

"I don't want to go home!"

Simon turned around and recognized Felice and Lita, walking in his direction, or most likely, the bus station's direction. Lita had her arms crossed, a frown on her face, and Felice looked downright desperate. Simon couldn't help but listened in to their conversation. 

"Come on, Lita! It's cold out, we can play at home! And have a snack behind your pappa's back!" 

"I don't want to go home if he's not back, it's not fun!" 

"Are you calling me boring?" Felice yelled in mock offense, obviously trying to make the girl smile. But it didn't work. 

"No, I'm calling home boring!" 

"Excuse me?" 

Both girls turned to Simon, who couldn't help himself from chiming in. He mentally slapped himself for even thinking about giving his two cents, but now that the cat was out of the box… 

"Ehm… Sorry I… Couldn't help but hear you and…" Fuck he sounded so nosy too. "I thought. Maybe-"

"Get it out, it's okay." Felice encouraged him with an amused smile. Clearly, Simon's struggle was entertaining. 

"Huh. Well, I thought Lita could use a friend? I have a kid around her age at home. Why not have them have like a playdate? Until her dad comes back and she agrees to come home?" 

Lita seemed to like the idea, judging by her excited smile. But Felice shifted on her feet. "That's kind of you to offer this but… I'm not sure about bringing Lita to a stranger's place… What if you're a weird liar? No offense!"

Simon chuckled, of course his idea was dumb and frankly out of place. "Understandable. And none taken! I'm honest though! Look." He showed Felice his lockscreen, which was a picture of himself, or rather the top part of his head, holding Oskar on his shoulders as Oskar tried to catch confettis at a kid's show. 

Felice's face softened at the sight. "Oh my god he's adorable!" 

"His name is Oskar, he's six! My friend is babysitting him right now." Simon explained, mirroring Felice's smile as he looked down at his own phone. The bus he was waiting for chose this moment to pull up in front of them. "The offer still stands, by the way!" 

He hopped on the bus, flashed his card, and when he turned around to sit down at the back of the bus, he saw Felice and Lita had followed him. Felice gave him a smile and sat in the opposite seat with Lita by her side. "If you turn out to be a weirdo, I'll kick your a- butt." She giggled, mimicking some boxing moves that made Lita laugh. Simon's smile grew wider. It was a bit weird, but hey, maybe the two kids could get along and have some fun. 

"Can I ask who you are for Lita? I didn't want to assume stuff…" 

Felice didn't seem offended by the question, and threw her arm around the girl's shoulders to keep her from falling over in a sharp turn the bus took. "I'm her dad's best friend. We go way back to kindergarten! I'm often on babysitter duties since I work from home a lot. Not that I mind 'cause this one is so fun to be around!" She added, attempting to tickle Lita who squealed and tried to get away from her attack. 

"Oh, so you weren't lying about the crazy hours…" Simon winced, he couldn't picture handling a job that kept him away from Oskar too much. That was also a core argument for him to give up his singing career. 

"Yeah, Saturdays are rare though, happened a couple times before, when they're understaffed." Felice shrugged. 

"And what about-" Simon cut himself off. He was about to mention a potential mom, but he realized just on time that if Felice hadn't mentioned her, it was surely because she was out of the picture. He guessed he was right, because Felice shot him a grateful smile. 

"How old is Oskar?" Lita asked, finally piping up in their conversation. 

"He's six! He just started elementary in September. And you are…?"

"Seven! I'm the oldest!" She bounced on her seat, apparently being older was some kind of honor. She started bombarding Simon with questions about Oskar. What kind of toys he liked, was he one of those boys who only played football at recess, was he as nice as Simon? The last one made Simon preen like a peacock. 

They finally reached Simon's stop and got off the bus. Simon guided them through the buildings to his own, explaining how he found the place at a curious Felice. He was actually lucky to have found it before he'd gotten Oskar, because moving with a toddler around would've been a nightmare. 

He held the door for the girls, and shouted for Rosh and Oskar that he was home, and that he brought some company. 

"Company, did you catch a stray, Simme?" Rosh asked from the couch were she was watching Oskar cutting pieces of paper on the coffee table. 

"We could say that." He said, closing the door behind him. "Oskar, come say hi!" 

Rosh's eyes widened when she turned around and saw Felice and Lita. She shot Simon a questioning look, and he shrugged, meaning he'd tell her more later. It seemed to be enough for her, as she got up and picked Oskar off of the floor to make him stop with his scissors and be polite to Simon's guests. 

As Simon, and maybe Felice, expected, Lita started hiding behind Felice as soon as they got in. She almost didn't answer when Rosh introduced herself by crouching to her level. Oskar, on the other hand, held out his hand for Felice to shake, introducing himself by his full name like a proper little gentleman, making them all laugh. 

"Oh my, I've never met someone so polite, mister Oskar. Glad to meet you! I'm Felice, and this is Lita!" She gestured to the little girl who eyed Oskar like he was a threat. 

"Lita… L! I! T! A!" Oskar recited, showing off his newly acquired spelling skills. "I can write your name! It's so easy!" 

For some reason, it did the trick for Lita and she followed Oskar to the coffee table where he started to show her his attempts at making paper stars. Felice, Simon and Rosh all watched with fond smiles as the two kids got to work on making actual stars, because Oskar's ones looked more like… nothing, actually. He wasn't the most skilled at cutting. 

"Alright, I'm gonna dip, Maja's waiting for me." Rosh finally said, snapping both Simon and Felice from their kids-being-cute induced trance. 

Simon walked her to the door, inquiring about her day with Oskar. Apparently he wasn't too bothered about Simon's absence this time. Last week had been a nightmare, as Oskar apparently decided he wanted Simon to be there for every activity Rosh proposed, and only stopped his tantrum when Rosh facetimed Linda to distract him. 

"Want some coffee?" Simon offered to Felice, who hovered around the living room, watching the kids and obviously not knowing what to do with herself. 

"Sure! Sorry, I feel a little bad to invade your space…"

"I literally invited you, it's all good." Simon went to the coffee machine and started on two cups of the Christmas-themed drinks he bought last time he went grocery shopping. He gave Felice a mug and gestured for her to sit down with him at the dining table, away from the glitter being thrown everywhere. It'll be later-Simon's nightmare to clean up. 

"So, how what do you do, outside of the elf thing?" Felice asked, blowing on her fuming mug. 

"I'm a music teacher at a highschool. It's pretty chill. Allows me to work a bit from home so Oskar doesn't miss me too much." 

"That's good!" Felice's eyes went between Simon and Oskar, and she leaned down a little towards Simon. "Excuse me for asking this but… When did you get him? You look so young…"

Simon snorted, almost spilling his coffee. "Woah, thanks? I'm actually 28, though!"

"Wait really?!" Felice exclaimed with wide eyes. "We're the same age, what the fuck? Boy, give me that skincare routine!"

Simon giggled. He was a bit used to people thinking he was younger than he actually was. Genetics blessed him in some way. "Water and lack of sleep, I guess?" 

"Unfair, really. So you had him at 22? Must've been a lot of work." 

Simon shook his head, pursing his lips. He lowered his voice a little. "I didn't. Oskar isn't actually my child. He's my sister's." 

Felice's eyes widened as she took in the information. She didn't need to ask more to guess what Simon didn't tell. Her hand went to grab his and squeeze it in sympathy. "Oh, I'm so sorry for assuming…"

"You're fine. It's not written on his face, we're still related so…" He gave Oskar a look. With his curly brown hair and his button nose, Oskar took a lot of the Erikssons features, and his eyes were definitely Sara's, both in shape and color. Only thing his father gave him was the thin lips and ears that stuck out from his head of curls. If you asked Simon, it was a blessing that he didn't take more after his father, appearance-wise. 

Felice stayed silent, maybe she was afraid to go into that territory and ask intrusive questions, but Simon didn't mind sharing. "They both passed in an accident when he was two. It was really awful, and we didn't know who should take custody. His father was an only child with elderly parents, and my own mother is a nurse, that's not a good job to raise a toddler on her own, especially at her age. So I took him in. Couldn't leave him." 

Still squeezing his hand, Felice gave him a fond smile. "And you're brave for that, not everyone is able to do it. It must've been hard." 

Simon turned his palm up to hold Felice's hand properly, nodding to her words. "I hope everyday she's happy with how her baby is turning out." He whispered, not because he didn't want the kids to overhear them, but mostly because he wasn't sure of his voice. 

"Surely she is. Look at him, making friends with Lita. She's usually so shy…" 

Simon did in fact look. Both kids were focused on their little stars, but Oskar chatted non-stop about the way they could make a whole galaxy of them so the Christmas tree would be entirely covered. Lita didn't speak much, but she looked like she was enjoying herself, carefully placing shiny stickers on her star. 

"She's hard to please, y'know. I love her with all my heart, but I'm afraid she inherited her father's temper." 

"What's he like? I'm picturing the 6 foot tall working in finance type of guy."

Felice laughed at that, finally letting go of Simon's hand. "Oh my god but you're right actually! Not finance but yeah, tall and looks like a bitch."

"Way to talk about your friend, Felice!"

"Eh I'm also his biggest bully."

Felice then proceeded to tell Simon about Lita's dad latest mishap with pancake-making, burning them because he got distracted watching a tutorial on how to do fish braids for Lita.

They kept talking and talking, exchanging little tales about their daily lives and the kids' shenanigans, marvelling at the stars said kids finally finished making, Simon hanging Oskar's and carefully placing Lita's in an empty ice cream container he kept in lieu of tupperwares to prevent them from being crushed when she took them home. 

Felice then announced to Lita that her father was on his way home, and the little girl ran to put her shoes back on, struggling with the shoe laces. Both girls thanked Simon for his hospitality, and Lita allowed Oskar to give her a hug. Before they left, Felice handed Simon her cellphone. 

"Could you give me your number? I really enjoyed hanging out with you! Maybe we could be friends? And I think Lita would like spending more time with Oskar." She said, sticking her tongue out to Lita when she whined that Felice was too slow at taking her home. 

Simon smiled widely and did give her his number. He didn't often make friends, since he stopped hanging out as often when he started taking care of Oskar, so he wouldn't refuse a spontaneous application.

Ayub thankfully showed up early the next morning, meaning Simon could get ready without Oskar invading his personal space asking for whatever thing that crossed his mind. Instead, he was very focused on trying to convince Ayub to let him do his hair. Simon knew Ayub would eventually let him, but he did need some convincing.

A loud shriek coming from the living room told him Oskar won the argument, and Simon abandoned the idea of trying to tame his curls: he'd need to put a Christmas hat on for his shift anyway. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and gave it a look, half expecting his manager to tell him to hurry up to come as soon as possible. 

But the text came from an unknown number. Simon opened it without thinking twice about it. 

Unknown: Hi, is this Simon? 

Frowning, Simon leaned against the tiled wall of his bathroom and typed a quick response. 

Simon: There's a lot of Simons, which one are you looking for? 

Unknown: The Christmas elf one.

Simon: Well that's not my usual descriptor but until December 24 that'll be me. Who is this? 

Unknown: Hi Simon! My name's Wille, I'm Lita's father. Felice told me what you did yesterday, and she gave me your number so I could properly thank you. Lita was very happy with her day, thanks to you and your son. 

Simon's lips turned up to a smile. Felice did say Wille was kind of a bitch, but Simin hadn't believed her - how could she be friends with a bad person - and this text was confirming Simon's gut feeling. 

Simon: No need to thank me! Oskar was very happy to meet a new friend! Did she show you the stars they made? 

Wille (Lita's dad): Yes! They're on our tree. [picture attached]

Simon opened the picture Wille sent with his text. It was a part of a nice-looking Christmas tree, lit up with a whole lot of golden and red decorations. Three paper stars stood out of the bunch, two of them placed at a child's height, another one a little above. 

Simon: Looks nice, she's got an eye for crafts! 

Wille (Lita's dad): She didn't learn that from me haha. 

Wille (Lita's dad): Say Simon, I have something to suggest. Felice told me you're working all week-end and can't bring Oskar out, but would the person taking care of him be interested in taking him to a Christmas show? I'm taking Lita this afternoon, too. 

Simon's eyebrow shot up at the suggestion. He hadn't expected that, but that was actually a sweet idea. He didn't doubt Ayub would like the idea too. Before he could get out of the bathroom to ask him about it, he got another text.

Wille (Lita's dad): You don't have to say yes! I know it's weird, we don't even know each other. I can just send you the link to the show if you're interested, it's free for kids. 

Simon: Hahaha don't worry I think it's a cute idea. Let me ask Ayub!

"Ayub!" Simon yelled as he entered the living room, and he had to stop in his tracks when he saw the mess they already made of the cushions and blankets. Apparently, Oskar started a pillow fight with the new gliterry cushion, making loose glitter fly everywhere. 

"Get him off, Simme!" Ayub half yelled from under the cushion Oskar was pressing on his face with a manic grin. 

Simon hoisted Oskar up, making the kid squeal: "Let me go! I need to defeat the evil!" 

"I gotta talk with the bad guy, then I'll release you, you monster." Simon kept Oskar over his shoulder, trying to avoid the kicks of his feet. "Hey Ayub, would you like to take Oskar to see a Christmas show?" 

"A show? What kind?" Ayub asked, trying to dust the glitter of off his face. But Simon couldn't answer as Oskar started wailing that yes, he wanted to go to a show. "Maybe you shouldn't have asked that when he could hear you, I can't refuse now!" Ayub chuckled. 

Simon made a face, he didn't take that into account. "Whoops, I didn't think this one through." He put Oskar down on the floor as he was starting to feel heavy. "I didn't tell you but yesterday, Oskar made a new friend. Her father just suggested y'all go to a Christmas show in town." 

"Oh you made a friend Ogge? You're so popular, not like Simme here!" With that, Ayub earned a smack on the head. Though, he found the idea of the show to be pretty nice, and Simon gave him Wille's number so they could set that up. Simon still had to play the elf, after all. 

He hugged Oskar goodbye and left after Ayub almost kicked him out saying he'd be late. The day went as usual, with its lot of annoying parents and whiny children amongst the masses of people actually happy to be there. During a bathroom break, Simon checked his phone, only to see he received a video of Oskar belting a clumsy version of Feliz Navidad, perched on his seat at the Christmas show. 

He was dancing around the little space, and the camera turned to the little girl next to him, singing along as well and jumping on her seat. At the end of the video, Simon saw a glimpse of another man as he caught Lita before she slipped off of her seat. There was only a flurry of arms in a green sweater, so Simon couldn't make out his features. 

Simon texted Ayub, complimenting Oskar's and Lita's performing skills, and asked if the man with them was Lita's dad. 

Ayub: yep! he's chill!

Ayub: and toooootally ur type lmao

Simon: omg stfu already i wONT thirst over lita's dad

Ayub: if u dont then i will 

Simon cursed when he saw he spent a little too much time in the bathroom, and he pocketed his phone to go back to work, making up for his absence with renewed energy. Everything went smoothly, and he barely saw the next couple of hours pass. 

"SIMON!!!!!" 

Startled by the shrill voice that called out to him, Simon almost dropped the box of candies he was taking out from the table to put away for the night. He looked around, and soon enough, he saw Oskar waving at him, perched on Ayub's shoulders. They were standing a little on the side, smiling up at him. Simon waved back and went back to put the box back in its place inside of Santa's house. 

When he came back out, he looked around to see if Ayub and Oskar were still there. Sure enough, they hadn't moved from their spot. Only this time they weren't alone. Next to them was Lita, all radiant in her bright red dress and fluffly scrunchies holding her pigtails. She was holding the hand of a man in a black coat and a green sweater. 

And god, Ayub didn't lie when he said this man was Simon's type. 

Towering easily over Ayub, he was tall. Simon already pictured needing to tilt his head up to talk to him. With dark blonde hair falling in front of his face, almond-shaped eyes and high cheekbones, he really was a pleasant sight. Simon shook out of his trance when the hottie in question turned his attention to him, as Lita pointed to Simon. Wille smiled up at him and Simon swore he could feel his cheeks take the same shade of red as his costume. 

Quickly, he went up to finish his little tasks and close Santa's stand. People were still hovering around, inquiring about the opening hours or the prices for the extra services they offered. When Simon finally closed the barrier, he noticed Wille leaning on the fake picked fence. 

"Careful, those aren't really sturdy." He warned him as he got closer. A look around, and he saw Ayub in front of the mall's carousel, taking pictures of the kids riding two glittery horses. 

"Are you saying Santa's little elves didn't do a good job at building his house?" Wille teased, and Simon's only answer was to stick his tongue out. "We're underpaid!"

Wille shook his head, but still listened to Simon's advice and stopped leaning on the fence. "A shame, truly." 

"Was the show good?" Simon quickly asked: he really wanted to make conversation with this stranger, because he raised a nice kid and had a pretty nice friend, not because he was hot, definitely not. 

Wille's smile widened, and he gave the kids behind him a look before nodding. "It was. They had a lot of fun. It was Iceland-themed. Did you know they had thirteen Christmas elves messing with kids before Christmas?" 

"I didn't, but I'm curious as to how they managed to fit 'Feliz Navidad' in an icelandic theme." 

"Oh they just put in the most popular Christmas songs, honestly. I don't think the kids would've been able to sing 'Komdu um jólin' properly." 

"Can you?" Simon asked cheekily, liking how the conversation felt easy between them, light, even. 

"Only with a beer or two in." Wille chuckled. "Anyways, thanks for agreeing to this, Lita had a blast, mostly thanks to Oskar. I don't think she would've dared to participate if he wasn't there." 

"Hey, don't thank me! I was literally here bustling in all day. Felice already told me she was shy, doesn't she have little friends from school you could've taken to the show too?" Simon inquired, a bit curious about the little family they formed. 

Wille's smile faded a bit, and he shook his head. "Sadly, no. She has a hard time making friends at school. She feels like others are judging her, because she does poorly in class." He let out a sigh. "She got diagnosed with ADHD, so it's a bit hard for her to sit still through lessons. She hates writing, too, and only wants to read about dragons and Alice in Wonderland." 

"And you're telling me that doesn't make her the most popular kid at school? Shocking!" Simon tried to joke to ease Wille's mood. That worked a little, as he rolled his eyes, amused by Simon's tone. 

"I know, right? I would've loved a friend like that when I was her age." He gave the kids another look, as they switched places on the carousel, sharing a bright pink plane now. "I hope that won't last though. It's been hard for her, and I don't know how to help properly. I read books and watched documentaries, I listen to her therapist, but she's still crying about her school performances." 

Simon couldn't help himself, and he put his hand on Wille's shoulder. "Hey. I know it's scary, and I won't lie, you will never feel like you're doing enough. My sister had ADHD too. It was hard for her, but she had a good support system, and she… Well, if Lita is surrounded by the right people, she'll do great, I'm sure of it."

Wille didn't seem to know if he should smile or not, as his lips twitched between a smile and a pout. "I don't know if I'm the right person for her." He finally whispered. 

Simon squeezed his shoulder. How many times had he asked himself that very question when he felt helpless around Oskar? When the kid wasn't calming down at night? When he asked Simon about his parents? When he couldn't afford the same toy his friend at school boasted about? But still… "You have to try anyway. That's our job, right?" 

Wille could only nod. At loss for words, Simon seized the opportunity. "I need to get changed, the elf costume is really not doing it for me."

Wille eyed him up and down, and a smirk formed on his face. "Really now? I think you should keep it, you look cute."

Feeling himself blush hard at that, and not grasping if it was sincere flirting or a joke, Simon elbowed him. "Hell no, you're not complimenting my looks when I look like I'm out of an Astrid Lindgren book. I'll be right back!"

Wille's laughter followed him as he retreated in the staff room to change to his normal clothes. He tried to be quick, strangely giddy at the idea of resuming his interaction with the hot single dad that just called him cute . 

When he got out, Ayub and the kids were back from the carousel. Ayub excused himself then, handing his nephew back to Simon. He wanted to make use of the last hours of opening time of the mall to do some shopping for new sneakers, so he bid them goodbye and ruffled both Oskar's and Simon's hair, for "balance". 

Simon let out a groan, while Oskar giggled. Two different reactions, and while Oskar let his hair stick out in every direction outside of his earmuffs, Simon hid his under a beanie. "Ready to go home, Ogge?" 

Wille cleared his throat. "Do… Do you need a ride?" He offered, and quickly added: "Since I drove Oskar and Ayub there, my car is in the parking lot, I don't mind dropping you off!"

Glad to escape the public transportation with an excited Oskar trailing him, Simon accepted eagerly. He listened to the kids telling him about the show. Oskar's favorite moment was when the scary cat ate the children that didn't get new clothes for Christmas, while Lita's was when the elves made a mess in the kitchen. 

"And pappa said his favorite was the singing!" Lita added as Wille held the car door open for her to climb into. He rolled his eyes and buckled her up. 

"Are you into singing, Wille?" Simon chuckled, watching as he opened the other door for Oskar to be settled in too. "Not really, I'm bad at it. I prefer to listen."

"Simon is the best singer ever!!!" Oskar yelled, startling Simon who was crouching down to buckle him up. He almost hit his head on the car roof, but Wille's hand instantly shot up to protect him. 

He muttered a thank you before slipping out of the car. "Don't yell, Oskar!" 

"But it's truuuuuue!! You should show Wille! And Lita! And make a Christmas show so everyone can see! And then you will be like Abba!" 

"Abba is a band, Oskar. And I'm not skilled enough for that." He closed the car door before Oskar could talk his ear off about how he could be basically as famous as the Teletubbies. 

Wille, next to him, was shaking silently, biting his bottom lip to keep his laughter in. "Oh my god, don't make fun of me or else-"

"Or else what, ô future heir of Abba?" Wille barked a laugh and held open the passenger seat for Simon, visibly amused by both his and Oskar's shenanigans. 

Huffing, Simon sat down and crossed his arms on his chest. "I hate you both." 

"Belt on, pouty face." Wille ordered, only starting the car when Simon's belt hook clicked shut. Simon had to bite the inside of his cheek to refrain from making a crude joke about belts and how he wished they were off instead: the kids were still there. 

"How come you have an extra kid seat, though?" He asked instead as they got out of the parking lot. 

"Hand-me-down from my brother. I didn't think to ask him if he used my nephew's one before buying Lita's, and I ended up with two. Never bothered to donate or throw it away." He shrugged, and handed Simon his phone with Spotify open so he could choose the music. 

The ride was quiet, the car filled with some classics as Simon didn't dare subjecting Wille to his obscure tastes. The kids stopped talking before they even reached the main road, both of them falling asleep pretty quickly. As to not disrupt their sleep, Wille and Simon only whispered when they addressed each other. 

Pulling up in front of Simon's building, Wille stopped the car and went out to help Simon unbuckle Oskar without waking him up. Simon almost protested, saying he could to that on his own, but he was rendered speechless when he felt Wille's fingers touch his as the man settled Oskar's form in his arms. 

"I'd help you get him home, but I can't leave Lita alone in the car." Wille apologized in a whisper, gesturing to his daughter, completely unaware of Simon's sudden panic. 

Shaking himself off of said panic, Simon shook his head before whispering too. "You're fine. He's not that heavy." 

Wille closed the car door and gave him a large smile. "Well, good night then, Simon. And thank you, again, for this." He gestured between their two kids, and Simon managed to kick him slightly in the shin without shaking Oskar too much. 

"Stop thanking me for basic human kindness, you animal."

Wille had the decency to fake being hurt by Simon's very powerful kick. "Alright alright, no need to bully me! Take him home now, it's freezing!" 

Simon stuck his tongue out. "Tss, I'm going. Have a good night!" 

He didn't wait for Wille to say anything before he hopped on the front porch, smiling to himself as he brought Oskar to the couch so he could start on dinner. 

The smile that man put on his face stayed on all evening. 

During the following days, Oskar would not shut up about his week-end. It was always "Lita this" and "Wille that", as if the two had casted some kind of spell on him. Even his teachers got word of how much of a good time he had, and Simon laughed at the drawing he made under his "writing jogging", a writing ritual where the kids built a sentence of their choice with the teacher and then copied and illustrated it. Oskar had opted for "On Sunday, my friend's dad gave us candied apple.", and he drew stick figures of Lita and he holding very red apples on sticks. He even added the details of them smearing red sugar on their faces, and Simon couldn't stop his laughter. 

He had texted Wille the drawing, which he complimented profusely before apologizing for providing Oskar with candies behind his back. Simon didn't think much of it, and joked about it out loud. Oskar looked positively catastrophed, his hands on his mouth: "I forgot it was a secret!!!". So much for secrets. 

He didn't want to come out as too eager, but he really wanted to suggest they hung out on the following week-end. Wille's nice looks aside, he seemed like he was a good person, and a good dad, and people showing basic human kindness was, according to Rosh, Simon's biggest weakness. Sue him. 

Still, he didn't reach out for that, planning to ask on Thursday evening if Wille didn't suggest it on his own beforehand. So he dropped Oskar to school on Wednesday before going to his own and do his lessons to tired teenagers that only wanted to get out, not to listen to a man trying to teach them the structure of an orchestra. 

Simon's days in school weren't very long, but he made sure to stay behind about an hour longer to actually get some work done instead of bringing everything home to do there, with Oskar nagging him to play. Because most of the time, he couldn't resist him. 

He wrapped up his lesson plan and went to pick up Oskar from his theatre practice, to which he begged to be enrolled as if Simon would refuse him anything. Anything besides candies before bed. 

"Today I had to be a squirrel!" Oskar yelled in lieu of a greeting when Simon showed up at the leisure center. Laughing, he lifted him up and propped him up on his hip to make small talk with the theatre teacher. He was about to turn around to go home when he heard his ringtone. Setting Oskar down, he picked up the device and frowned when he saw Felice was calling. He took the call anyway.

Felice's voice came rushed, and quite low, as if she wasn't able to speak up. "Simon?! Oh my god, are you free, per chance?!" 

Not missing the urgency in her voice, Simon answered. "Depends for what, I just picked Oskar up. Is there a problem, you sound weird…"

"I do have a problem! I feel really bad asking you this but I don't know who to reach out for. Wille's not picking up his phone, I think he's in court or something, and the school called me to say Lita's been taken to the hospital! I'm out of town for a meeting, I can't make it, and Wille's not-" 

"Hey, hey! Calm down, easy, Felice!" Simon tried to cut her rant, sensing the panic she exuded. "Isn't there an emergency contact for Lita…?"

"Well I AM the emergency contact, Simon!" She squealed, and Simon winced, giving Oskar a tight smile to make him stop squirming in place. 

"Doesn't she have grandparents? An uncle? I know Wille told me about a brother, surely he-"

"Don't get me started on the Norlings or god help me I'll cut a bitch!" She let out a loud sigh. "Grandparents out of the picture, and they live in Linköping anyway. Erik lives in Oslo, why do you think I- wait no, wait." She took a deep breath, and Simon waited patiently for her to compose herself. "Here. Sorry for being short with you. I don't think it's my place to explain the situation to you, and I can't exactly stay on the phone long enough for that. I'm sorry to ask you that, I know we barely met, but. Would you be able to pick her up? Or stay with her until I get a grip on Wille?" 

Simon frowned, he saw it coming, but still, it felt weird. Didn't Wille have like, friends, to do this? Rather than a virtual stranger. He asked Felice as much. 

"Afraid not. He moved in recently, and cut ties with a lot of people. It's just him and Lita… Listen, I understand if you don't want to, I'll try to call a friend of mine up, even if Wille doesn't-"

"It's fine Felice, I'll go." 

"REALLY?! Oh thank god Simon you're a life-saver!! I owe you one!!" 

"You don't, go back to work before I change my mind." Simon chuckled, but let Felice thank him profusely as he started walking to the bus stop. She hung up and texted him all the informations the school gave her. 

Thankfully, the hospital was not very far, and the bus picked them up like five minutes after Felice's call. Simon informed Oskar about the change of plans, and he let him watch a cartoon on his phone after he texted Wille to tell him he was on his way and had things under control. 

He didn't exactly had the heart to refuse Felice, and he knew it was again his too-good-hearted nature at play. But how was he supposed to say he wouldn't help a kid out? Still, it felt weird to be trusted with Lita's well-being when he met her and her father only three days ago. If anything, it made him feel sad for Wille. Having so little people to turn to was hard. Himself only had Ayub, Rosh, and to a lesser extent, Madison, his exhuberant colleague he tried to match with Rosh a few years ago. 

The hospital wasn't as busy as the last time he went. Oskar had been very feverish back then, his temperature rising rapidly, and the emergency room was the only logical option for Simon. Luckily, nothing bad happened, and Oskar was back to running around the apartment three days afer. 

"Excuse me, I'm sent here by Karlsbergskola, my friends' daughter has been admitted there after a fall at school, could you help me?" He asked the lady at the front desk, who eyed him up and down before typing rapidly on her keyboard. 

"Name?"

"Elizabet Norling." 

"And you are?"

"Simon Eriksson."

She typed a little, then frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry, mister Eriksson, but you're not allowed to pick Elizabet up. You're not on the list the school provided." 

Simon sighed. Of course that would happen, he felt stupid to not have thought about this. "I know, but her father doesn't answer his phone and her usual caretaker is out of town, she told me to come pick her up…"

Shaking her head again, the receptionnist was not budging. "I can't hand a child out to anyone, I'm sure you understand. If the father is not able to pick her up we'll have to inform the police so they can keep her."

"But I'm right here! Don't send her to the police station!" He retrieved his phone, hoping for Wille to finally answer his text, but nothing had came. 

"And you're a stranger in the eyes of the administration. Unless her legal guardian gives us permission for us to hand her to you, I can't help you." 

Her tone was final, and Simon knew it was useless to argue about it. He thanked her anyway, and got away from the desk.

"Simon, what are we gonna do?" Oskar asked, having obviously heard the whole conversation. He saw how helpless Simon looked, and he squeezed his hand. Simon gave him a small smile. "We're gonna wait for Wille to call, let's just hope he doesn't take forever…"

As if on cue, his phone rang with Wille's call. He picked up immediately and explained the situation. Wille apologized profusely and said he was on his way, but he didn't know how much traffic there was. He sent his signed authorization to the receptionnist when Simon gave her the phone, and so Simon took Oskar up to the room where Lita was. 

The little girl was sitting with her legs crossed on a bed, her nose bandaged up, holding a little bundle of tissues. The nurse quickly explained to Simon that she fell while playing, and broke her front tooth. Thankfully, it was a baby tooth, but she also nicked her nose. After an x-ray, it appeared that it wasn't broken, only bruised. Simon thanked the nurse and approached Lita, lifting Oskar up so he could sit on the bed too. 

"So… How's our little adventurer feeling?" He asked, smiling and hoping she'd mirror his smile. 

But she didn't. Instead, she crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "Like shit."

Simon immediately covered Oskar's ears. "Lita! No bad words! What would your pappa say?"

"He isn't here to say anything, is he?" She spat, avoiding Simon and Oskar's eyes. 

Oh . So she was angry at Wille for not picking her up. Understandable. 

"He's on his way! He was at-"

"Work, I know. Can we go now?" She asked in a little voice, and Simon's heart broke a little. 

He listened to her wish though, and helped Oskar and her out of the bed. Holding both kids' hands, he got out of the hospital, and decided that, for once, he could use a taxi. So he sat both kids in the backseat of the one he called up, sitting in the middle so he could hold them properly. Lita let herself be held, but her mouth was sewed shut. Oskar was also uncharacteristically quiet. 

Finally home, Simon hanged both kids' coats and prepared them a quick snack of hot chocolate and cookies. Oskar devoured his share, but Lita eyed the mug like the thing personally offended her. 

"Come on, eat something, it'll make you feel better!" Simon pleaded, kneeling on the rug in front of the couch. Lita shook her head, her arms still crossed firmly on her chest. 

"If you don't eat them, I will!" Oskar threatened. He reached out to Lita's plate, but his threat must've worked, because Lita snatched it up before he could grab a cookie. She stuffed her mouth with one, and Simon felt relieved. 

"See, isn't that good?" He tried, really wanting to cheer her up a little. 

"It is, but I want pappa to get me."

"He's on his way, princesa. He's going to be here in no time. He's in the car as we speak."

"Simon can be your pappa for a little! He's good at it!" Oskar chimed in, his mouth covered in chocolate. "I know that!" 

Both Simon and Lita chuckled at his comment. Simon felt his heart swell at the compliment that was maybe nothing much for Oskar, but meant the world for him. 

"Simon's nice, but he's your pappa, not mine. I want mine." She picked at her cookie, losing the little smile Oskar managed to put on her face. "My pappa's always busy. He says he loves me but he's never there. I could've died like mamma did and he won't know. I'm not sure he'd care."

"Don't say that!" Simon half-yelled, startling the little girl. Apologizing for his outburst, he continued on: "Adults have a lot of responsibilities you know, that's why he trusts Felice to look after you. He wants to provide for you, and I'm sure he's really sad he can't be with you always."

Again, on cue, the doorbell rang. Simon jumped on his feet and went to open it. Sure enough, Wille was there, his hair a mess, his cheeks red with the cold and worry clear in his eyes. "Where is she?" 

Simon sighed, and stepped out of the apartment, pulling the door slightly closed behind him. "She's fine, broken tooth, bruised nose, but she's okay. Or well, physically."

"What do you mean?!" Wille's voice was too high, and he was bouncing on his feet, visibly confused as to why Simon was keeping him up from seeing his daughter. 

"She said… Oh Wille she's really mad at you." He lifted up a hand to touch Wille, but changed his mind. "Wille, I… What happened to you? How come it's me, a literal stranger, who had to pick your daughter up from the hospital? Where's her mother? Your family? I'm sorry but you can't rely on me for-"

"I know that, and I'm sorry it happened at all. It won't anymore, I'll make sure I'll have my phone on even during court meetings. I didn't remember Felice was out of town today…" Wille let out a shaky sigh after taking a deep breath. "Listen. I can explain, I swear. But right now I just wanna see my daughter, please…"

Simon looked him up and down, and nodded before stepping away from the door, letting Wille in. He followed him to the living room, watching from behind the couch as Wille crouched in front of Lita, who had put her angry mask back up. She didn't even look at him, and took her hand off of his when he reached for it. 

"Lita… I'm so so sorry gumman, it's all my fault. I wasn't careful. I swear this won't happen again…" His voice was soft, and he tried to reach out to push a strand of hair out of her face, but she slapped it away. 

"Simon told me about your tooth. What do you say we put it under your pillow tonight for the tooth fairy?" 

It didn't work, and Simon felt the awkwardness only rise the more Lita sulked. 

"What about your favorite tonight? Breakfast for dinner?" Wille tried, going for a more playful tone. 

"Breakfast for dinner?!" Oskar gasped, turning around to look at Simon. "Why did you never make that?!" He barreled on, sounding offended Simon hadn't thought about that being a possibility. 

Still, the situation was awkward enough, and Simon shushed him, a finger on his lips. 

"I'd rather have breakfast for dinner with Simon, since he's a better dad anyway."

If Simon's shushing didn't work on Oskar, that did. In fact, Lita's words made them all shut up. Horrified, Simon looked at Wille, whose face was now drained of any colour. He looked on the verge of tears, his lower lip trembling slightly. He must've sensed Simon's gaze, because he gave him a look before closing his eyes. He took a breath and stood up straight, his trembling hands now balled at his sides. 

If his voice was soft before, it now held some kind of authority, his tone firm. "Okay, that's enough, let's go now. We're not bothering Simon and Oskar any longer." 

Lita shook her head, but before she could speak again, Wille insisted. "You're not under Simon's responsibility, but mine. We're going, now, and I'm not arguing with you on this." 

"Then you go!" Lita all but screamed, her eyes filled with unshed tears. "You go! You go away forever! Like mamma did! Why do you even try! You don't care anyway, just leave me with Simon! At least he- " 

"Elizabet!" 

This time, Simon raised his voice. Lita's outburst was too much, on her, and on Wille too. Simon watched with horror how the man was slowly crumbling on himself. 

"You don't get to say things like that, apologize, right now!" Simon scolded, his brow furrowed. He knew how much these words could impact them, and he also knew Lita didn't mean them. 

"No!" She screamed again, and stood up. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she ran away in the corridor, slamming a door behind her. Simon turned around, and saw Oskar's door now closed at the end of the hallway. His eyes went from the door to Wille. Helplessly, he wondered who he should try to comfort first, when a tiny sniff, coming from Wille, settled the matter. 

"Ogge, cariño, go see Lita, will you? Give her your horse plushie to hold, I'll be right with you, okay?" He asked in a hushed voice. Oskar didn't argue and jumped off the couch to run to his room, only sparing Wille a glance before disappearing behind the door. 

Simon went around the couch and took Wille's hand. Slowly, he unfolded his cramped fingers one by one, and guided him to sit on the couch. He all but slumped down on it, his head low, his shoulders held high. Simon sat up on his feet to prop himself up to Wille's height and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, squeezing him slightly. 

That sealed the deal for Wille, and loud sobs erupted from his throat. He gripped at Simon's sweater, his whole body shaking with the force of his cries. Simon ran a hand through his hair, rocking him a bit back and forth. "Shhh, it's okay, she didn't mean that… She's angry… It'll pass…" He murmured in Wille's hair, trying to ease his sorrow. 

"I'm the worst dad ever!" He cried out, his voice muffled by Simon's sweater as he was pressing his face against Simon's shoulder. "She hates me… She hates me and she's so right! I can't do anything right…" 

Simon shook his head, feeling the tears build up in his own eyes. "No… That's not true. We all make mistakes sometimes, and it's okay."

"I always make mistakes though. I always do. I was never enough, for my mom, for my brother, for Lita's mom… and now for her too. I hate this… I hate this so much." He took a shaky breath, and Simon almost choked when he heard what Wille muttered next. "I'm so done with all this, I can't do it anymore."

"Wille!" He squeaked out, and pushed Wille off of his shoulder to make him look at him. "You can't say that! It's only a fight! You guys will be fine!" 

Wille shook his head, his eyes avoiding Simon's. "You don't get it… It's not just a fight it's. It's the whole thing. You don't understand…"

"Then explain it to me." 

Wille looked up at him, then let out a sigh. "It's. It's just… It's a lot." 

"I have time. Come on. Start with your mom, you said something about her." 

Silence settled between them for a while, Wille gathering his thoughts. He wiped his nose with his sleeve. "She hates me. I've never been good enough for her. I'm too sensitive, too weak, too stupid." He sniffed loudly. "I know it's true, I'm not making it up. I only studied law to please her. I dated Astrid to please her too. The only thing I refused to do was getting rid of Lita when Astrid…" He shook his head. "She said being a single dad wasn't good for me. That I should put her up for adoption. Maybe she was ri-"

"Tell me about your brother." Simon interrupted him before he launched on a self-deprecative rant again. He was slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together. 

"He's not here. He moved to Oslo with his family. He was… He is… He's the perfect child. Everything I can't be. He's got a wife, two kids, a nice job and the whole deal. I love him but… But I can't ask him to come back and help me. I don't deserv-"

"Tell me about Astrid." Simon kept his strategy up. A shit mom, a perfect brother, what else? 

Wille shook his head. "She's dead, now. Has been for a while. I just… I didn't know." He swallowed loudly, wiping a tear that rolled down his cheek. "We kind of dated to please our parents. We were friends… When she got pregnant everyone thought we'd get married and everything… But she got post-partum depression. I tried to get her help, but she refused, and her parents were even shittier than mine. One day, she simply disappeared, leaving a note asking me to take care of Lita."

Simon kept silent, letting Wille tell his story. His thumb traced patterns on the back of Wille's hand. "I thought she just ran. I couldn't get ahold of her. Her parents cut contact with me, her friends, our mutual friends, didn't have much informations either. It's only… Only last year that I found out she actually hanged herself. Her parents were ashamed of it." 

He turned his hands up and started playing with Simon's fingers. Simon let him do as he pleased, focused on the terrible things he was sharing with him. "I didn't tell Lita about it, I didn't want to hurt her. But she heard my mother and I argue about it during Erik's last birthday. She's been pulling away since then. She never said things like tonight but…" 

Simon's mental puzzle was now complete. And he decided that he hated every single person that made Wille, and Lita, live through all this. 

"I'm so sorry Wille… I. I wish I could help, truly. I just… I don't know what to say…"

Wille gave him a tired smile. "I know, it's a lot, and it's shitty. I don't know why I even keep trying at this point."

"For Lita?" Simon supplied. 

"Yeah, but she hates me. I ruined everything. All that for this shit job I don't even like." He muttered between his teeth. 

"None of that. You made a mistake, it's fine, we all do. No one was hurt in the end, and Lita's a kid, she will eventually understand that sometimes, adults can't do whatever they want." He tried to smile, shaking Wille's arms. "And if you hate your job, just quit! Find something you like to do. Find your happiness outside of just being a father, because if you're only finding joy in that, you'll break whenever you won't feel adequate, like right now." 

Wille studied him a little, his nose scrunched up in a way that reminded Simon of Lita. "I can't do that… What if I don't find anything? What if the pay sucks? I can't risk it." 

Simon let out a loud sigh. "Make a plan, then. Lita's seven, she doesn't need those fancy clothes you dress her with, or the fancy Karlsberg school. Thrift stores and public schools are fine! She'll like you even if you don't get her an overpriced Barbie for Christmas."

"She hates those, she prefers the ponies." Wille countered with a little smile, and Simon laughed. "Then off-brand ponies it is! Seriously though. I'm not the best at parenting, but what I see is that your little girl just wants her pappa by her side, and if that means taking less cases or switching careers or whatever you can do, maybe it's worth trying?" 

Wille nodded slowly. "I don't know who placed you on my path, Simon, but thank you." He kept looking at him, suddenly very serious. "You're like a Christmas miracle or something." 

Simon chuckled and shoved him a little with his foot. "Nope, I'm not. Listen, I'm gonna see how Lita is doing, and I'll call you if she's ready to talk to you, okay?" 

Wille agreed, and Simon stood up to go to Oskar's room. There, he found both kids sitting on the bed, Lita holding the horse plushie close to her chest and listening to Oskar showing her his favorite picture book. Simon suggested Oskar joined Wille to ask him to show him how to prepare a good breakfast for dinner. Oskar gave Lita a look, before hopping on his feet to do as Simon said. Simon then sat down in front of Lita. 

"How are you feeling?"

"Bad. I hurt pappa, but I'm still angry. And I'm scared, because now he'll leave, right?" She mumbled behind the horse. 

Simon shook his head and ran a hand through her hair, putting it back in place. "No, he won't. Your words did hurt him, but he loves you and he won't leave for a little fight."

"My mom left before we could even fight." Lita moved around and laid down on the bed, letting her head rest on Simon's lap. "What if he doesn't love me enough, like she did?" 

Simon stroked her hair and started to undo the braids as they got messy. "Your mom didn't leave because she didn't love you enough. She had her own issues. Sometimes people are broken, and it's not anyone's fault. Your pappa loves you, more than anything, and he will stay as long as you want him to, and then more."

"He's always busy though, why isn't he like you?" 

Simon snorted. "Because he works hard! Me too, but we don't have the same amount of money. Your pappa prioritized that because he wants to provide for you, princesa. Adults sometimes have to make though choices." 

"I don't want to be a "princesa" if it means my pappa is always working." She mumbled against Simon's lap, turning her head so he could access the other braids. 

"You're a princesa for me, don't worry." He giggled, and tried to tickle her. She laughed a little, and turned around to face him, a pout on her face. 

"Do you think pappa will understand what I want?"

"He's not stupid, you just have to tell him." 

"I don't know how to. I feel angry and sad and all bad when I try. It's hard, Simon."

Simon hummed a little. He understood the issue, but for him, it was easy to resolve: communication, and a good thoughtout plan for Wille to follow. Still, he came up with something Lita could do. "Write it then. Write a letter where you say everything you need to say, and give it to him."

Lita's face turned grim, and she shook her head. "My handwriting is ugly, I can't do that." 

"Then you tell me what to write and I'll help you copy it into pretty letters. What about that?" 

She stared at him in silence, then sat up, her now messy hair flying everywhere. "Okay, I can do that. But we have to ask pappa to do my hair again because you ruined it." 

Simon laughed and lifted her on his back to go to the living room, where a nice breakfast for dinner waited for them on the dining table, Oskar just putting a plate of slightly overcooked toasts on the table as they walked in. 

Lita went to apologize to Wille for her words, and Wille held her, apologizing again for sending Simon to fetch her, and promising he wouldn't do it again. 

"I'm not sorry you did that, Wille!" Oskar piped in, already slapping some chocolate spread on a toast. 

"Because you got to spend time with your friend?" Simon giggled, rolling his eyes at his nephew's raw honesty. 

"That, and because now we get to eat dinner like a real family!" He smiled widely, before starting to devour his toast, that was more a "toast with chocolate" than the other way around now. 

Simon froze at the implications behind that single, childish sentence. Judging by the look he saw on Wille's face, he came to the same conclusions. They both cleared their throats, and giggled when they noticed how synchronized they were. Wille tried to hide his embarrassment by helping the kids out with the hot chocolate, but Simon definitely noticed the red tint of his ears. 

Oskar was right though. The whole dinner felt very domestic, and Simon felt at ease with Wille and Lita sharing his space. Wille was funny with the kids, and soft-spoken with Simon. He helped around to clear the table when they had too much to eat to continue with this unusual dinner, and braided Lita's hair back in place with expert hands. He tried with Oskar's hair too when he begged for it, but only managed to tie it into mini-braids that wouldn't survive the night. And when Oskar started rubbing his eyes, Wille took the hint and announced they should head home. 

Before he thought too much about it, Simon suggested he took the kids with him on Friday afternoon: he could be out of school early enough for that. 

"I don't want to bother you. You already did a lot tonight, so-"

"I know, but Lita and I have a very important mission to accomplish on Friday." Simon argued back, winking at Lita, who beamed as she remembered the letter Simon promised to help her with. 

"Yes pappa! Please, please, can I go with Simon?" 

Surprised that Lita would ask for it, Wille stepped back before a chuckle came out of him. "Alright, alright, I see you teamed up!" He put his hands up in mock surrender, then his smile widened as he looked up at Simon. "You win this one." 

"I always win, Wille." 

As promised, Simon picked Lita up on Friday afternoon, shortly after picking up Oskar. She literally jumped in his arms, announcing she had an amazing idea for her letter. He let her explain how it would be great if they made it a Christmas card, with glitters and little stickers, so it could look pretty. 

Oskar had listened to it all, because he bolted to his room as soon as they made it to their apartment, and came out with his box of crafts. They set everything up on the dining table, and Simon brought some orange juice and satsumas on the table for them to drink and snack on. 

The kids started working on their crafts, Lita carefully drawing snowmen out of candlewax to make them appear after she smeared paint over the paper, and Oskar focusing on a pencil drawing that he didn't want Simon to look at. Meanwhile, Simon dutifully copied the words Lita wanted in her letter. He resisted the urge to fix the syntax of certain sentences: the words had to be Lita's, not his. After writing them down once, he copied them with large, easy to trace letters. His handwriting wasn't the best either, but for Lita's sake, he took his time forming his letters accordingly.

The hard part was for her to copy them down. She obviously hated to write, and her grip on her pen wasn't as steady as Oskar's. Simon offered to write it himself and she could trace over the letters, but she refused, saying she was a big girl now. Defeated by that argument, Simon could only offer the well-needed breaks and praise over particularly well-executed letters. To make things fun, Oskar lended her his precious shiny ballpoint pens. 

In her letter, Lita told Wille about her feelings, how she felt alone, and wanted him to be there more often. How school was hard but it would be easier if he had the time to help her with her work. How she saw how alone he actually was, but that was okay because they could be alone together if he tried. She also apologized again for her harsh words on Wednesday, and Simon clapped with pride when she announced she was done with it. 

He didn't have any nice enveloppe laying around, so he used the time Lita took to write to actually fold one himself out of brown craft paper, using a Youtube tutorial on his phone. That made Lita giggle a bit. 

"Pappa always does that, he watches a lot of videos that explain things!"

"Oh really? Like what? How to be a troll? Because he doesn't need them!" Simon joked,  making both kids laugh. 

"I'll tell him you said that!" Oskar pointed out, and Simon clutched at his heart dramatically. Lita, still giggling, corrected Simon anyway: "He watches cooking stuff, and how to make cool hairstyles! He does my hair every morning!"

She smiled brightly and turned her head around to show the intricate braids adorned with little butterfly clips in her hair. Simon's heart swelled, only for his adoration for Wille's little gestures to be forgotten as soon as Oskar opened his mouth complaining Simon never did his hair like that. 

"Have you seen the mop on your head?!" He protested, grabbing a handful of Oskar's brown curls to mess with. "It's already hard to keep it clean those leaves and whatever things you put in it!" 

Oskar groaned and smeared glitter on Simon's face by pushing him back with his dirty hands. "You have the same! You should ask Wille to do your hair too because clearly you don't know how to do it!" 

Simon stuck his tongue out and ran a hand through his own curls. He did know how to take care of his hair, he just didn't care much about how it looked. Oskar usually didn't either, finding joy in sticking pens in it when he drew. Still, his sudden care for their curls made him second-guess his hair-related opinions. "Does it look that bad?"

Oskar shook his head. "You'd look cool even if you were bald!"

"Maybe I should shave everything off then!" He giggled, not considering it for one second, because the thought was horrifying. 

"Don't, pappa will cry if you do that." Lita spilled out, busying herself with peeling a satsuma now that she was done with her letter. Simon froze. 

"Why would you say that…" He laughed a bit at the absurdity of her statement. 

"Because he said he loved your hair. And he cries when things he loves disappear. I saw him crying over a dead plant once." 

Simon wasn't sure if he should be happy Wille liked his hair, or if he should worry about his sanity because crying over a plant sure didn't sound healthy. Still, the first feeling stuck, and he found himself smiling stupidly at the mere thought of the other man enjoying his looks. 

They switched topics as he resumed on his enveloppe-making duty. He slipped Lita's letter in, along with Oskar's neatly folded up drawing, that he still wasn't allowed to look at. And as he finally sealed the enveloppe, the doorbell rang. 

Expecting some neighbor or a package incoming, Simon actually was surprised to see Wille stand behind the door, an expectant smile on his face, carrying a box of lussekatter with him. "Hi, is your mission over? I thought I'd bring a little pick-me up for the hard workers in here." 

"How are you here this early? We weren't expecting you for at least an hour more!" Simon exclaimed, and stepped aside to let Wille in. 

"I actually asked to leave early as compensation for working all Saturday last week." He managed to explain before he was cut off by Lita's shriek. The girl ran to her dad and Wille caught her mid-run, lifting her up to properly hug her. Simon was left to catch the treat box before it landed on the floor. 

Showering his daughter with kisses, Wille asked her about her day. Lita launched into a rant about a very complicated math problem that she managed to solve when the teacher gave her little cubes to count the tens. Simon went to clean up the dining table so they could share those buns Wille brought, but also so he could hide the drafts of Lita's letter from Wille. He noticed Oskar was eerily quiet, eyes on Lita and her dad. 

Suddenly, he jumped from his chair and went up to Wille. As a greeting, the man ruffled Oskar's hair, but that didn't seem enough for Oskar who lifted his arm up. "Pick me up too! Please?"

Raising an eyebrow, Simon stopped in his cleaning to watch the interaction. Wille gave him a questioning look, and Simon shrugged in response: if Oskar asked for it, it was up to Wille's will now. He eyed both kids, and Simon could clearly see on his face the moment he thought "fuck it" and balanced Lita on one side only to bend down and pick Oskar up on the other. 

"Oh wow, don't hurt your back old man." Simon giggled, more concerned for their stability than for Wille's back, actually. 

"I'll be fine. But one of you has to go down at some point." He told the kids before he leaned on the wall for support. 

"Lita can go down! I never get to be this high!" Oskar exclaimed, and Simon closed his eyes, feeling the bomb coming down on him. 

Wille frowned in confusion. "Doesn't Simon ever pick you up? That's rude!" 

"He does, but he's wayyyy smaller than you!" 

Here it was. 

Wille snorted, and Simon turned around, his arms crossed. "Oh excuse me for not being a giant-ass troll, Ogge!"

"You said ass! You owe me a lollipop!" 

Simon groaned: he'd forgotten their no curse policy. But he got some unexpected support from Wille. "You should focus on eating your veggies rather than candies, Oskar. Otherwise you won't ever grow taller than him." 

Well, he could've used some better form of support. 

The week-end came, and with it, Simon's shifts at the mall. Relying on Ayub on Saturday to watch Oskar, Simon actually agreed for Wille to watch him on Sunday, as he had offered to take him and Lita to the ice rink. Despite them only knowing each other for a week, Simon felt some kind of connection he couldn't really ignore. Maybe later he would regret letting Wille into his life, but seeing the smile on Oskar's face as he pulled up his Christmas sweater that Sunday morning made it worth it.

Wille went out of his way again to pick Simon up from the mall after his shift with Santa. They shared some hot chocolate on a bench in a playground, watching Lita and Oskar alternate between the slide, the swings and a simple snowball battle. The whole time, Simon noticed Wille's eyes often going back and forth between Oskar and him. He looked like he wanted to ask something, but he never did, and Simon didn't press on. If Wille really had something important on his mind, he'd come around eventually. 

They parted ways when it got closer to dinner time, and promised the kids they'd hang out another time. Simon noticed Oskar's hug to Wille was a little longer than necessary, but the other man was kind enough to let the boy have his fix of affection. 

"Simon?" Oskar asked as he served him a bowl of mushroom soup. "Why is it that you don't have a lover, like tia Rosh has?" 

Simon paused, the ladle hovering over the pot. The truth was that he didn't have the time to look out for potential partners. His last boyfriend broke up with him when he decided to take Oskar in, claiming he wasn't ready for kids. Simon respected that, even if he was hurt the other wouldn't even try to stay with him anyway. He felt like he wasn't enough at the time, and eventually got over him. But he didn't want to tell Oskar he wasn't looking because he had him to care about. 

He chose this answer: "Because I don't feel the need for one right now."

Oskar stared at him before pursing his lips in disbelief. Still, he didn't press on, and instead complained about the mushrooms in the soup, and their usual dinner banter resumed. The question lingered at the back of Simon's mind when he got to sleep that night, wondering what triggered it. 

On the next morning, Oskar's preoccupations with Simon's love life were long forgotten as they woke up late thanks to Simon hitting the snooze button. They rushed through the door, and barely made it on time before the school gate closed. Simon scrambled his way to his own school, with no time to spare for copies, so he winged his first lessons however he could. 

During lunch break, he excused himself from the teacher's lounge to call up the garage. He received his pay that morning and wanted to send them the money so they could fix his car on time for Christmas. But the receptionist on the other side of the line was surprised to hear from him. 

"Mister Eriksson, you paid your bill this morning already, we scheduled your car on the deck for tomorrow." 

"Did I now?" Simon checked his account while still on the phone. No, he hadn't sent anything just yet. "That must be a mistake…"

"Not on our part, sir. I have the file right here, we got the payment at 9:32 this morning, after our phone call. Your new bank is way faster than the older one, I must say, 'cause we got it instantly!" 

Simon apologized for the confusion and hung up, still very confused as to who in the hell paid for his car bill. Only Rosh, Ayub and Madison knew about it. Rosh would've given the money to him in person, Ayub would've tried to make it look like a random gift, and Madison simply didn't have the means to pay up since she spent her whole salary on trips to New York on every break. So who? 

The answer came when Simon picked Oskar up from the leisure center. The kid was happy to show him the nice tealight holder he made during arts and crafts, and asked Simon about maybe making more out of jam jars in the future. Simon found the idea lovely and they bought some jam from the nearby grocery store to start on this with nice warm toasts. 

Simon announced they would go to Bjärstad after all, since the car was paid for. Oskar hollered in joy, dropping the toast on the floor in the process. "He did it! I knew he would!" 

Simon frowned as he kneeled down to clean the jam off of the floor. "Who did what, Ogge?"

"Wille! I told him about our car yesterday! He said that maybe he could help!" Oskar jumped from his seat to hug Simon, and Simon was left flabbergasted. Wille did what ? 

"Wait, wait, Oskar, what did you tell him exactly?" He asked, holding the kid against him. 

"I told him you didn't have money to pay for the car to see abuela, and that's why you had to be away to be an elf!" Oskar replied with a toothy grin, obviously pleased with himself. 

Simon stared at him for a while. Of course, Oskar thought he did a good thing by sharing their situation with Wille. It wasn't his fault Wille overstepped. Simon took a deep breath and sat down, taking his phone out to text Wille. He told him he needed to talk to him and to meet up as soon as possible. 

Wille's reply was quick, not ten minutes later he texted him the address of his office, asking if everything was fine. Simon didn't grace him with an answer and asked his elderly neighbor to watch Oskar for about an hour, give or take, so he could take the trip back and forth. 

He didn't lose any time and went straight to the office, texting Wille when he arrived in front of the building. He only waited for about five minutes until Wille stepped outside, his coat hanging precariously on his shoulders. 

"Simon, is everything alrigh-"

"Did you really pay my car bill, Wilhelm?"

Wille closed his mouth instantly, Simon's tone being harsh, and leaving no place for arguing. "... I-... I did." He admitted, defensively taking a step back. 

Simon took a deep breath and crossed his arms. "And did I ask you to?"

"... You didn't." Wille stepped back again, weary of Simon's wrath that was clearly building. 

"Then why the fuck did you do that?" This time, his voice got louder, despite him wanting to keep control over his anger. 

Wille started fidgeting with his sleeves, avoiding Simon's gaze. "I did-... I thought… I just wanted to help… Oskar was saying all these things about-"

"Since when do you listen to a child to make real life adult decisions?" 

"I'm sorry, I should've talked to you before-"

"No shit Wilhelm!" Simon straight up shouted. "I don't need your fucking pity!"

"It's not pity, Simon! I just wanted to help you both! I know how hard it is, okay, you don't need to do everything by yourself!" 

"I always did everything by myself! I don't need help, I'm fine! We are fine!" Simon took the crumpled enveloppe he forgot to give him over the week end, containing Lita's letter. "Focus on your own fucked up situation before trying to solve others'!" 

With that, he pushed the enveloppe onto Wille's chest and turned around, not giving him the time to say anything back. He left before he said anything he'd regret later, like a personal attack on Wille's character or a remark on his parenting capacities. Even if Wille crossed a boundary, Simon wasn't as cruel as to stab him back like that. 

However, his anger didn't die down during the next few days. He dutifully ignored all of Wille's calls and texts, which became scarser as the days went by. No amount of sorrys and pleas was enough for Simon to calm down and accept the fact that the other genuinely wanted to help and simply didn't think twice. 

When he told Madison about it, as she picked up on his sour mood, she at first thought it was a nice gesture. Her opinion changed a bit when Simon explained that he felt it was a breach of his privacy and the act of someone too privileged to see you can't simply throw money at people to solve everything. Still, she said something that stuck with Simon: "You know, if that's how he's been raised, maybe he just doesn't know better."

Simon tried to save appearances in front of Oskar, who seemingly didn't pick up that something was wrong. He asked about Lita and Wille, but Simon brushed it off as schedule conflicts. Until that Friday morning where Oskar asked Simon about their week-end plans. "Can we see Lita and Wille tomorrow then? It's Saturday!"

Simon swallowed his mouthful of coffee before shaking his head. "No, tomorrow it's Rosh and Maja who are taking care of you." 

Oskar dropped his spoon, splashing milk everywhere. "What?! But why?!"

"Careful, you made a mess…" Simon sighed, handing him a napkin to clean that up. "Because Wille can't-"

"I meant why do they have to watch me?! I can't stay with you?!" Oskar barreled on, sounding offended. 

Simon frowned, and wiped the milk off himself. "Because I still can't take you with me at the mall, Oskar. Come on, it's only this week-end and-"

"But the car is fine now! You're picking it up today you said!" 

Then Simon understood. Oskar probably thought that Wille's intervention was enough to make Simon drop his job at the mall, since he didn't "need" the money anymore. But Simon wasn't one you could buy off. "I don't want Wille's money, Ogge. I'm gonna pay him back with the elf money." 

"But you don't have to! Why don't you spend time with me instead? Or with your friends! Wille did that so you could stop being an elf!" Oskar protested, and Simon sighed loudly, already tired by the conversation. 

"I'm not arguing with you Oskar. I didn't ask for his help, nor yours. I'm sorry I'm not as present as I should these days, but it's temporary. We're gonna spend Christmas as a family and everything's going to be just fine. Now finish your cereals."

Oskar sulked the whole rest of the meal and the way to school as well. Simon felt a tug at his heart to see him walk in the school yard without sparing him a glance. Oskar was usually always waving back at him, but not today. 

And Oskar's mood wasn't better when Simon picked him up, with his car this time. He apparently made his teachers go mad with his short temper all day, and got scolded more than once for snapping at others. Simon didn't have the heart to do it, but had to lecture him on his behavior, and how his emotions shouldn't take the control over his heart and mind. 

"I'm just like you, I'm angry so I don't want people around." Oskar retorted, and Simon hated the way children's filters were never on. 

He didn't have the time to argue with him about it though, because his doorbell rang. 

Lita greeted him with a bright smile when he opened it, Wille a few steps behind. Simon frowned. He wanted nothing more than to close the door on Wille's face, but Lita here changed things. He didn't know if he liked that he brought her with him: this felt wrong. 

"Hello princesa!" He smiled down at Lita, giving her a quick hug. He looked up at Wille, raising a questioning eyebrow. Wille gestured for them to talk, so Simon invited Lita in, telling her to join Oskar in his room as he was still sulking after their argument. 

"Did you seriously bring her here so I couldn't refuse to talk to you?" He accused, and Wille lifted both hands in surrender. 

"No. I mean, it looks like it, but I had something else in mind by coming here. Actually, it was more Lita's idea."

Simon crossed his arms, leaning on the doorframe. "Explain?"

Wille put his hands in his pockets and gave a sheepish smile. "Well, I obviously failed at pleasing you with that stunt with your bill. I already apologized, so the ball is in your court. But I also wanted to thank Oskar for the support he gave Lita, and she told me what he'd love. So I'm here to make his wish come true." 

"What wish?" 

"Can't say, Lita said Oskar didn't want to show it to you." 

"So what's your plan? Taking my kid away for god-knows-what and expect me to be fine with it?" 

"Oh, no. You're coming too. And I know you will, because you care more about Oskar than our argument, don't you?" 

Oh he hated how smug Wille looked right now, but he was right. Simon would drop everything to please his nephew. So of course, he sighed loudly and agreed to follow Wille and Lita wherever they fancied tonight. He called the kids back up, and Oskar's mood was significantly better, surely thanks to Lita's presence. 

They settled in Wille's car and he drove them to the center of Stockholm, a Christmas playlist playing on the speakers so the kids could belt out the lyrics. Simon almost let their glee catch up to him, but he stood strong on his "i'm not happy to be there" hill. 

Wille finally parked in front of a game center, with a lot of neons lights and kids running in all directions as they passed in front of various playgrounds. Apparently, their plan wasn't to let the kids roam in the ball pits. Which would've surprised Simon, because if Oskar liked playgrounds, he wasn't exactly deprived of them. The employee guided them to the back of the building, and opened the door to a karaoke room. He explained that they used the family-friendly settings, and gave the instructions as to handle the microphones properly, and how to select the songs. 

Confused, Simon waited until the employee left to ask Wille what it was all about. "Told you, Oskar wanted this." 

"Oskar wanted to do karao-"

"SIMON! You gotta sing first! You're the best singer!" Oskar yelled, pushing the microphone in Simon's hands. His smile was wide, and how could Simon refuse him, really? 

"Alright, alright, but you gotta sing with me, I'm a bit rusty!" 

And sing they did. They started with popular songs Oskar knew from the radio or Simon's cooking playlists. Lita joined in for about half of them, but Wille stayed a bit behind. Apparently, only Abba could sway him as he joined off-mic for " Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ". 

Simon loved to sing. Somehow, he felt the gift was more for him than for Oskar, but he didn't miss how excited his nephew was. Maybe he shared Simon's passion? That was something he would have to study later on… 

But for now, he simply sat down and watched Oskar and Lita scream, more than sing, the opening song for Miraculous Ladybug. Wille, next to him, was quietly laughing at their antics. 

"So, Oskar wanted to sing, really?" He questioned, and Wille gave him a pointed look. 

"No, he wanted you to sing." 

"Me? What are you even saying…" Wille cut him by shoving his phone in his hands. Simon stared down at the screen. It was a picture. Of a drawing. There were three stick figures in a corner, arms up and yelling a clumsily-written "hurra" in a big speech bubble. On a brown rectangle, stood another figure, of someone obviously singing in a purple microphone. 

Confused at first, Simon's eyes widened when he understood: the singer was him. He had the curls on his head and everything about his drawn self was purple. The three other characters were obviously Oskar, sporting the same head of curls, Lita, with a big red bow on her yellow stick hair, and Wille, drawn way taller than necessary. 

"He… But.. How? Why-" 

"That was with Lita's letter. The one you helped her write. Thank you for that, by the way. I cried like a f- like a baby." He chuckled, and gave a thumbs up to Lita when she asked if they could do the Spongebob opening song that came next. "I didn't understand that drawing, but Lita told me what Oskar meant. I think he wanted to write that letter to you, but didn't dare to. So he gave me the message."

"But why? He can always talk to me…" 

"He can, but sometimes it's hard to, doesn't mean you're doing a bad job at being his guardian." 

Simon looked at him with a frown. "But I never-"

"He said your mother always showed videos of you singing when you were younger. She said it was your dream before your sister passed. He isn't stupid, he understood you dropped it for him." 

Stunned, Simon stared at Oskar as he tried to dance along to Lita's rendition of the Little Mermaid's song. He didn't know if he should be amazed or horrified at how many things that little guy picked up. "He's too smart for me, I'm doomed." 

Wille snorted, and offered his hand. "Come on, you gotta teach him some techniques, because he's wringing my ears." 

Simon smiled and took it. He enjoyed what was left of their rental of the room, singing song after song. For the last one though, he trapped Wille into singing " Komdu um jolin " with him. Wille objectively sang it better than him, as Simon didn't understand half of the lyrics. 

"How in the hell do you even know an icelandic song? Are you from there?" Simon protested as they settled back in the car. 

Wille chuckled, checking behind if all the seatbelts were on. "I just had an obsession with christmas songs as a whole one year, and I liked that one." 

"What's it even about?" 

Wille explained it was a song about wanting someone to stay with the singer on Christmas, that it was a perfect holiday, classical Christmas song. He went on a rant about the various Christmas songs he liked, and Simon listened religiously. 

They reached Simon's apartment, and Simon offered they ordered some pizza for dinner, to which Wille agreed before the kids could voice their excitement. Simon had decided that Wille redeemed himself enough, and pushed the whole car issue at the back of his mind. 

When Lita and Oskar were done with their slices, they got permission to go play a little in Oskar's room before Wille had to bring Lita home. He helped Simon clear out the table and put the leftovers away in the fridge. He accepted the cup of tea Simon offered, and they finally sat down on the couch in a comfortable silence. 

A silence during which Simon took his time to look properly at Wille. He seemed more relaxed than the first time he met him, the bags under his eyes less prominent, and his smile easily widening under his gaze. 

"What are you thinking about?"

Simon hid a little behind his mug, and chose to steer the conversation away from his observations. "So, Oskar told you everything?"

"He told me how you stepped up when his parents died, yes. I'm amazed you were so honest with him about it, though." 

Smiling a little, Simon waved the sentiment away. "It was easier to tell him than to hide the truth. I never wanted him to think of me as his father, it feels wrong. His real parents deserved a shot at raising him, y'know. So I don't want him to forget about them."

Wille nodded, swirling his tea around. "I think he still sees you as some kind of fatherly figure, with how he talks about you. And you did take that role." He smiled a little. "If he wants you to be, would you refuse him?"

"Of course not, but I don't want to impose it either. So I'm just Simon, until he decides otherwise."

"Just Simon is already a whole lot." 

Simon looked down at his lap, pondering on Wille's words. If Oskar was in need of a father, then of course, he would step up. But for now… 

"Do you want to tell me? About her?"

"Her?" 

"Your sister." 

Wille's tone was inviting, and his eyes soft when Simon looked up at him. Suddenly, he was reminded of the week before, where Wille sat on this very couch, crying about his losses, his failures and fears. He was so desperate, then, even hinting at giving up. Now, he was holding his hand out, metaphorically, for Simon to share a bit of his burden with him. 

So Simon did. Simon talked. He talked about Sara, about the sister he grew with, the one he loved, loved to hate when he was a teen and they would fight over the pettiest things. He told him about her love for horses, her studies to become a veterinarian, and how she met Oskar's father while taking care of a stable as her part-time job. He told him about her struggles, the bullying she was victim to in school and how Simon switched schools with her to help her have a fresh start. He told him about how she learned to drive with their father and took Simon along to a road trip over the following summer, driving along the coast of Sweden with no exact plan in mind. How she slapped him during her wedding because he fought with his then boyfriend, causing a scene, but they ended up crying in each other's arms about an hour later. 

Wille listened, to everything. He reacted accordingly, asked follow-up questions, laughed at Simon's jokes and squeezed his hand when Simon felt the tears build up in his eyes, the weight of the memories and the grief weighting down on his shoulders. 

Minutes passed by, morphing into hours, and at some point, Wille panicked, remembering the kids were in Oskar's room, and had been awfully quiet for the past hour or so. He went to check on them while Simon cleaned up their mugs. 

He returned without the kids, a fond smile on his face. "They're sleeping. They made a blanket fort and they're all bundled up inside." 

Simon chuckled and tiptoed to the room to see this for himself. And indeed, under what could be described as a blanket fort if you squinted hard enough, Oskar and Lita were curled up with a lot of Oskar's plushies keeping them company. Simon gave Wille a look, to which he shrugged and smiled. 

"I don't want to disturb them…" Simon whispered as he got out of the room, closing the door behind them. 

"We don't have to, they don't have school tomorrow." 

The question hanged in the air, but before Simon could finish his "I'll take the couch", Wille had decided he'd take it. Simon tried to argue, and it quickly evolved into a hushed argument, each of them fighting for the couch. Wille because he didn't want to bother Simon, Simon because he didn't want to make a guest sleep on it. 

Until Simon felt bold enough to put an end to it. "Then we both take my bed." 

Wille's eyes widened. "Your… I mean you-"

"I don't snore, pinky promise."

Simon did, in fact, snore. But Wille was gentleman enough to not mention it as they awoke to the sound of Lita looking for Wille in the apartment. Wille stared at Simon wordlessly for a moment, before he rose up and joined his daughter. 

Meanwhile, Simon stayed a while longer in the warm bed, switching sides so he laid his head on Wille's pillow, inhaling the scent he left behind. He knew he had to get up at some point, but for once, someone else was taking care of fixing his kid a breakfast, so he savored the little peace he had. 

It was decided Wille would stay with the kids, so Simon called Rosh to tell her she was free to do as she pleased that afternoon. She relentlessly teased him for his obvious infatuation for Wille, but Simon couldn't help but feel giddy: she hadn't had the opportunity to tease him about a crush in so long, it felt good to be on the other side of the stick again. 

Strangely, Simon's shift went by way faster than usual. Customers came and went, not all polite and nice to be around, but nothing seemed to bring him down. He doubled his efforts with shy or scared kids, offered candies left and right and even sang a Christmas carol to make up for the wait during Santa's bathroom break. 

What he hadn't expected was Wille, holding both of the kids' hands, showing up in the queue about an hour before his shift ended. When they reached the front of the queue, Simon could actually ask Wille why the hell they were here. 

"Oskar didn't have his meeting with Santa!" Wille explained, and Oskar stuck his tongue out to Lita as she claimed he was just jealous Santa will give her what she wanted. 

Chuckling, Simon made a show to greet Oskar as if he was a complete stranger, taking him to Santa like he would any other kid. Oskar played his part well too, and waved at Wille and Lita when he was propped up on Santa's lap. 

Simon stayed around to take pictures with Wille's phone, like he would for most kids if the parents asked. He didn't always hear the kids' wishes to Santa, because a lot of them whispered into his ear. Oskar, though, didn't know how to whisper properly, so Simon could hear everything he said, and almost dropped the phone when he did. 

"Can you make my friend's pappa marry my papá? So we can be together forever and play all the time!" 

His eyes wide, he turned around to look at Wille. Judging by the confusion painted on the other's man face upon seeing the sheer panic in his eyes, he wasn't aware of Oskar's wish. No, he wasn't. Because while he was adorably socially awkward, he wasn't as bold as to ask Oskar to pull a stunt like that. It was Oskar's doing and-

And he called him papá? 

That was too many things at once for Simon to handle. He pushed through, ending the encounter with Oskar, and inquiring as to what Wille and the kids were up to next. Wille said he wanted to take them eat some pancakes to wait for Simon to finish working, so they left, and Simon excused himself for a bathroom break. Break during which he positively freaked out, sending numerous texts about Oskar's words to Rosh and Ayub in their shared group chat. 

But the world was against him, as neither of them answered quickly enough for Simon to see it before he had to go back out. He had to go back and work as if he hadn't just heard two life-changing things at once. He tried to rationalize it: Oskar only wanted them to be close so he could play with Lita, and he used the word "papá" solely to make things easier. Right? 

Simon was still mulling over it when he joined them in the food court. He was still mulling over it when he got to eat the leftover of Oskar's gigantic chocolate pancake that he couldn't finish. And he was still mulling over it when they agreed to let them have a carousel ride before going home. 

"Are you okay?" Wille asked when the carousel started spinning, waving at the kids for good measure. "You look a little off."

"Did you hear what Oskar asked Santa?" 

Wille shook his head. "Nope. Did you?" 

"He called me his 'papá'." 

Wille side-eyed him, a chuckle escaping his lips when he saw Simon's look. "He always does." 

Simon's head snapped to the side. "What?! No he doesn't!" 

"When you're not there, he does. I noticed this when I first met you guys. He was boasting about his papá all day, and Ayub never corrected him, so I thought he was your son. But I got confused when he called you by your name. You didn't correct him either." 

Simon stared in disbelief. All this time, everyone knew Oskar was using that word to refer to him, and no one told him? "Do you think he does that to avoid explaining everything…?" 

Wille shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe he just likes to call you that."

"So that's why you said he already saw me as a fatherly figure…" 

Wille's smile widened, and he elbowed him slightly. "Quick wit, Simon." 

Huffing, Simon crossed his arms, now facing Wille. "You find that funny, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, I do. Very much." 

"He said you should marry me so he and Lita could be friends forever." 

Wille choked on air, making Simon laugh, delighted with his little revenge. If he had to be flustered to no end by this childish wish, so should Wille, after all. 

"He said what now?"

"You heard me, big troll." 

Wille used his hand to fan his face, suddenly red with embarrassment, and Simon enjoyed himself a little too much despite his own blush. "You're kidding."

"Am not." 

He pursed his lips, avoiding Simon's eyes as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. Then, his smug smirk appeared again. "Well, maybe you should take me out to dinner before asking for my hand then, mister elf." 

Simon's jaw dropped. He hadn't expected Wille to recover so quickly. He shoved him on the shoulder, and Wille threw his head back in laughter. They bickered a little more, until Oskar's screams of protest made them stop. He apparently wanted to go home already, and he was all tired and antsy. 

They didn't waste more time and went down to the parking lot. This time, Wille wouldn't drop them off, as Simon took his car to work. So they said their goodbyes as they reached Simon's car. 

Done with settling Oskar up on the backseat, Simon hugged Lita goodbye, and stood in front of Wille, unsure on how to properly say bye. Wille chose for him, and he pulled him into a tight hug. 

Simon melted in his embrace, letting his own arms wrap around Wille's middle, his nose burying in his shoulder. It felt like they fitted together, and Simon already dreaded the moment he'd need to let go. Or maybe… Maybe he didn't have to? 

"Wille?" He asked, pulling away from the hug. 

"Mh?" Wille looked down at him, his smile soft, and his eyes even softer. 

"Is Felice free tomorrow evening?" 

That made Wille frown. "Eh… I think? Why?" 

"Tell her she's on babysitter duty then." And to Wille's questioning look, Simon added: "I'm taking you out to dinner."

Felice was delighted to watch the kids, and she was actually the one to greet Simon and Oskar when they arrived at Wille's place. She was also the one pushing both Wille and Simon out of the door as soon as the kids started to raid the big box of crayons she'd laid out on the dining table. Simon couldn't even get his usual start of recommendations before the door closed in his face. 

But since Wille had trusted her with Lita since day one, Simon thought he might as well trust her with Oskar. He had his phone on anyway so if anything went wrong he was only a phone call and a fifteen-minute drive away. 

Managing to find a table on such short notice in a good enough restaurant had been a challenge. But with Ayub knowing someone who knows someone who could get ahold of someone who managed the reservations at a semi-fancy restaurant on Gamla Stan. With the right calls, they managed to find them a table, and Simon really enjoyed the look on Wille's face when he held the door out for him. 

"Simon… This place is- how did you even get us a table?" He whispered over their menus once they were settled. 

Simon chuckled a little, and with a wave of his hand, brushed the efforts away. "I have my ways." 

"And it's crazy expensive, shouldn't we-"

"Tonight's on me." He cut him off instantly. "Or on you. Because I'm using the money I initially wanted to give you back for the car. I decided to forgive you for it, and to make things right I'm treating us tonight, and the rest will go to the kids' Christmas." 

Wille raised an eyebrow, and a soft smile stretched his lips. "Kids, as in plural? You're planning to get Lita a present for Christmas?" 

"Duh." Simon stopped talking as the waiter showed up to take their orders. He spoke again when said orders were placed and the waiter away to fetch their drinks. "Why wouldn't I?" 

"I don't know, you're not obligated to…"

"I don't feel like I have to, I want to. Unless you find it inappropriate, that is…"

Wille shook his head vehemently. "No no! I mean, it's not! I just… I guess I'm not used to people actually caring about her like I do. I mean. I've tried it, like, dating, for a while, when she was like two… three, or so. But each time they expected me to prioritize them over her and… I'm not doing that."

That was one of Simon's fears in regards to dating, so he nodded in understanding. "Well my ex wanted me to choose between Oskar and him. That's my ex for a reason."

"Ow, that's shitty…" 

"We were young and suddenly I got a kid under my responsibility, I don't blame him as much now. But anyway, let's talk about something nicer: what are your plans for Christmas, flying to Oslo?"

Wille was not planning to fly to Oslo. He had an excellent reason: his parents were spending Christmas with Erik's little family, and Wille didn't want to be near them. So Christmas would be him and Lita, maybe Felice would join them the day after for some board games. 

They got their drinks and meals soon, and the conversation steered towards Christmas gifts, as Simon hadn't bought half of them and scrolled through the list he made Oskar do out of ads in toys magazines. His collage was pretty funny to look at, and he had been reasonable with most of his gifts. The only thing Simon couldn't really afford was the Playmobil set. 

"I could get it for him, if you want? I know you don't like me spending too much for you guys but I have too much for myself and Lita anyway so…" 

Simon sighed a bit. "It's not that I don't like you spending. I'm just afraid you're doing that to buy people's affections. Not that it's a conscious thing or what but-"

Wille shook his head, again. "I'm not. Or at least I don't intend to? I just… I have it, and I don't have any grand plan to save it for, so if I can just solve a problem with it, I will, you see?"

"I see, but you also have to teach those kids that sometimes you have to work hard and make sacrifices to get what you want."

Wille's gave him a tight smile. "I'm already doing that, remember?"

Staring at him for a long time, Simon dropped his phone on the table. Yes, Wille gave a lot to get Lita everything she needed, and still felt like he failed at doing just this. Simon, with his little life lessons, only made it worse. So he reached out to grab Wille's hand. 

"Get him that set, Santa can be a little fancy this year." He smiled, squeezing his hand. "What did you get for Lita?"

"That My Little Pony thing she looked at in the store. I need to go back though, she said in her letter that she didn't care about fancy toys but I don't know what to get her then, what if she thinks I didn't listen to her?"

Simon hummed around his mouthful of food. Lita did say that, but Simon wasn't sure she meant Wille should stop buying them altogether. She didn't have much sense of money just yet, and Simon was pretty sure she only meant that as a way to tell Wille to stop working so much, that she'd rather play with him than with nice toys. 

Then, he remembered Oskar's collage. "I have an idea, let me call Felice real quick." 

He quickly stepped outside of the restaurant to make his phone call. Felice alost berated him for his mother hen tendencies, as he called during his date, but Simon exposed his idea. Immediately on board, Felice told him she'd send them pictures of Lita's Christmas list as soon as they were done with it. 

He came back to Wille and exposed his plans: they would look at Lita's list and gift her whatever she wanted from there, and Wille would play with her on Christmas, as he didn't have any other plans anyway. Once Wille agreed though, Simon asked for one thing: that they stopped talking about their kids. "I'm taking you on a date, you're the one I want to know better."

And that's what they did. They talked about themselves, their little habits, their needs and wants. Wille exposed his passion for sea animals and aquariums, to which Simon responded that he had fishes for a while. Simon told him about his passion for music, and how he used to write songs in his free time. Wille told him about how he'd always wanted a cat, but his mother didn't want to deal with any pet at all. Simon shared his secret fear of horses, and how he actually hated to accompany Sara to her horse-related events. 

Wille held his hand, and admitted he found Simon to be the most beautiful man he's ever seen, from day one. Yes, with the elf ears and the bells on his shoes. 

Simon leaned against him as they walked outside, surrounded by snowflakes lazily falling around them, and he told Wille about how Ayub warned him that he was totally his type. And yes, he was right about that. 

Their date ended with then sleeping in Wille's bed as none of them really wanted to wake Oskar up so Simon could drive him home. This time, they took their time whispering sweet nothings to each other, Wille finding great joy in playing with Simon's fingers. When he saw Simon's eyelids drop, he pressed a kiss on the back of his hand, and Simon fell asleep with the warmth of his lips against his skin. 

The next day, they were both awoken by a loud commotion coming from the kitchen. Panicked, Simon fell off the bed in his haste to check on the kids. Wille was faster than him, and when Simon finally got up and in the kitchen, he found Wille trying hard to hide his laughter, while Oskar was sitting on the floor, covered in cornflakes and a pout on his face. Lita was standing up next to him, a guilty look on her as she held the now empty box of cereals. 

"We wanted to make breakfast on our own…" She explained simply, and Simon too had to bite his cheeks to avoid bursting in laughter. 

"That's Wille's fault, he put the bowls too high up!" Oskar flailed his arms around, getting even more cornflakes on the floor, and that broke both Wille and Simon's resolve to try not to laugh at their kids' antics. 

Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the cereals were picked up in no time and thrown in the bin. Toasts replaced them on the breakfast table, and once everyone got their share, Simon allowed himself a look at his texts. Felice had sent him the picture of Lita's list, and he showed it to Wille discreetly. 

"Pappa, you don't work today, right?" Lita asked, her voice laced with hope. 

Wille, still trying to decipher his daughter's messy handwriting, took a second to react, and shot her a wide smile. "I don't! I have the whole week off, gumman." 

Reassured, the girl finished her plate and asked what they were doing today. Wille and Simon exchanged glances. Lita would want to be with her dad today, but said dad had some Christmas shopping to do. 

"Why don't you show Oskar your beads, I have to ask Simon something." Wille tried, and Lita took the bait, pulling Oskar along even if he wasn't done with his toast yet. 

"I can't let her see me shopping!" He whispered to Simon as soon as they were out of ear's reach. 

"I know, but I can't go with Oskar, he still believes in Santa!" 

"What if I watch them?" 

"Oskar will be mad I'm going without him or- oh." Simon smiled, an idea crossing his mind. These days, he felt like a genius. 

"What, oh? Spill!" 

"It's gonna be difficult, but with the right timing we can pull it off." Simon grabbed a pen and the notepad that was laying around on the kitchen counter and started writing down Lita's list, dividing it in several sections. "You already got the pony set so we're good. She wants beads and a puzzle so that's gonna be at the toys store, there's Oskar's Playmobil set there too. I think we can find the cookie cutters in the kitchen stuff, they have a kiddie section. The hair accessories we'll need to go to the accessories shops, near the kids apparel… and the pencil box at the craft store. There we can also buy more wrapping paper, and bam we're done!" 

"And how do you suggest we do that with the kids trailing us?"

"Easy. We go to the mall, we say we want to have snacks and look at stuff for home, like decorations or something, but noting is nice enough, so we spend time browsing. You have a 'call' from uncle Erik, and you can't hear anything, so you leave, go buy the toys, run to the car, go back. Next I have to answer my mama, same problem, how convenient, I grab stuff too, and so on, you get me?"

Wille's eyes opened wide as Simon explained his genius plan. It was clumsy, it sounded out of a dumb movie, but it could work pretty well if they managed to never cross each other's paths. So Wille agreed, and went to go help the kids dress up while Simon took a quick shower. 

When they entered the mall, Simon couldn't shake the feeling they were starting to look like a family, with Wille holding both Lita's and Oskar's hands, and Simon on the other side of Oskar. Maybe Wille thought so as well, judging by the sheepish smile he sent his way.

They moved according to their plan, making sure they didn't get out of stores before the one running errands sent a message to clear the path. Simon was especially good at distracting them, making Oskar and Lita try on several pairs of shoes for funsies and ending up buying the shiny sneakers Oskar eyed the whole time behind his back. 

Wille sat them in the food court to share some waffles and a weird-looking ice cream that Oskar begged for. When Simon came back from his "bathroom break", he winced at the sight of the bright blue ice cream. Oskar always made him buy the weirdest ice creams and ended up never finishing them, leaving it up to Simon to gobble the rest of the icy monstrosity. Wille left him alone on that one, claiming he couldn't stand that thing's sugar levels, but Simon had seen the remnants of strawberry sauce and whipped cream on his plate. 

He got his petty revenge when Wille finished the last round of gift buying and joined them in a chocolate store where Oskar and Lita were busy choosing chocolates to fill a box Simon would bring to Linda on Christmas. Wille had waved at them and tried to step in the store, only for his face to collide with the glass panel that was sllightly broken, reacting slower than usual to arriving customers. Simon had a hard time to stop laughing. 

Part one of their plan went by smoothly. None of the kids noticed they actually went to raid other stores behind their back. But now they had to wrap them, as only the toys store offered the wrapping service. Thankfully, the items, save from Oskar's shoebox, were kinda small, so Wille managed to make them all fit into one large shopping bag, that he hid behind Simon's couch. 

Simon announced board games, and let Wille handle the kids while he claimed to pack his and Oskar's bags for their trip on the next day. He actually did pack their bags, but that was way quicker than to wrap the gifts. Still, he thought he did a pretty good job, and stuffed them all into separate bags for Wille to take Lita's ones with him. Oskar also had his fair share, as Wille had also added a beanie with bear ears and a Pokémon plushie to the mix. 

He joined the game, and won the first two rounds. It was just his luck: he always won board games, whether he wanted it or not actually. Ayub had him banned from Monopoly since they were teens. 

Finally, Simon called it a day, as he wanted to rest well: they were leaving pretty early tomorrow. They bid their goodbyes, exchanging hugs and Wille's cheeks went beet red when Simon planted a kiss there.  

Before he could finish tucking Oskar into bed for the night, he got a text from Wille. It was a picture, or rather, a part of a picture: the bottom of Lita's Christmas list that they apparently missed. 

"- a movie Christmas" 

Wille wondered what the hell that meant. Did she want to see a Christmas movie? Or buy a DVD? Simon was as confused, then he remembered Oskar was there when Lita made that list. 

"Oskar, do you remember what Lita asked Santa in her list yesterday? Something about a movie Christmas?" 

Oskar frowned, his lips pursed as they always were when he was focusing. "Felice showed us a Christmas movie, and Lita said she wanted a Christmas like that! Why, did Santa have trouble with her handwriting?"

"Oh no, she didn't specify things so… What was the Christmas like, in the movie?" 

"The dad and the mom fell in love and they opened presents and had dinner like a family with the dad's parents! She said she would love to have actual grandparents and not an evil granny that made her pappa always sad and angry. Do you think my dad's parents are evil, Simon? Because they didn't take care of me?"

Simon shook his head. "No, cariño. They're too old to take care of you, but we'll visit them soon, I promise." He kissed Oskar's forehead. "Try to sleep now, we have a lot to do tomorrow." 

Oskar gave him a hug and settled himself under his comforter. Simon left the room quietly, shutting down the lights behind him, but leaving the door slightly ajar as Oskar liked it to be. 

He looked down at his phone, and at Wille's question marks at the end of his text about Lita's last wish. He bit his lower lip, unsure of what to do, because Wille couldn't fulfill that one, he couldn't create a whole picture perfect family out of thin air… unless-

He pressed the call button.

"Mama? Would you mind if I brought two guests for Christmas?" 

Wille wasn't hard to convince. Once Simon explained what Oskar told him and the idea he had, Wille started crying. He tried to hide it with some background noise, but Simon heard the sniffs and the rustle of him wiping his eyes and nose over the phone. 

Simon decided to not tell Oskar anything the following morning. He helped him get ready as if nothing in their plans had changed. Oskar was mostly quiet, still sleepy as they settled in the car. Simon set off, but did a little detour to pick Wille and Lita up. 

That woke Oskar up.

"LITA! WILLE! We're going to ABUELA'S!" He yelled when Wille opened the door to the backseat. He chuckled and settled Lita's car seat down. "I know, gubben, I know." 

"Are you coming too?!" "Are we going?!" 

Both kids yelled at the same time, and both Simon and Wille giggled, nodding in affirmation. They had a hard time calming them down, as Lita jumped around, wanting to hug Simon, but he hushered her in the car, so they could actually drive there. 

The beginning of the ride was loud, and Simon had to raise his voice at some point to make them pipe down enough so he could concentrate on the road. Wille handled the situation by giving the kids the hard task to make some scoubidous out of the colorful plastic threads he brought with him. Neither Lita nor Oskar were very dexterous, so it kept them occupied for a while. In the end, they both managed to make some wonky ones Wille proudly hanged on his key chain. 

When Simon pulled up in front of his childhood home, they were greeted by Linda, waiting with open arms on the front porch for Oskar to run to her. Simon had briefly explained Wille and Lita's situation on the phone the day before, so Linda greeted them like family, shoving Wille's shoulder when he apologized for the short notice and that he came empty-handed. 

She still put them both to work, while she was marvelling at the kids' abilities to help her with the cookie decorations. Wille and Simon had to clean up the nice silverware, to cut veggies and prepare the meat, fetch some missing jam from the nearest convenience store before it closed, and set the table up with the decorations Linda and the kids made in the meantime. Then Linda banned them from the kitchen to finish the cooking, hushering them to get the kids and themselves ready for dinner. 

Oskar was all proud to show off his new Christmas sweater, green with little reindeers. But the main attraction was the golden bow Wille gave him from his own old box of accessories. Simon took like a dozen pictures to send to his friends, like the proud uncle (dad?) he was. 

Lita sported her usual bows in her hair, and she chose the red and gold ones to match with Oskar. She beamed with pride when Linda complimented her choice with her bracelets, made of the beads she already had at home. 

Simon made an effort, for the second time in a week, a record, to dress nicely. His white shirt was slightly big on him, as even at 28 he still didn't know how to properly pick his size. Wille wore a similar one, but his was so fitting Simon only dreamt about tearing it off of him. Thankfully, Wille had enough mercy to put on a red sweater over it, letting the collar out. Simon kept the shirt only, and rolled up his sleeves as he took over Linda in the kitchen while she got changed in her usual glittery black dress she wore every year.

While the food was slowly finishing cooking on the stove, they got to the presents, miraculously placed under the tree while the kids were being dressed up. Linda sat down in the armchair, taking pictures with her phone and marvelling at the presents they showed up once the wrapping paper was torn off. 

Simon and Wille occupied the couch, Simon leaning against Wille rather than agains the armrest, Wille's arm wrapped around his back. They faked surprise and wonder at each present, exchanging complicit smiles. Linda had also gifted Oskar with a little trumpet, and Simon wanted to curse her for that. She also gave him some new board game where he had to guess a word with other words or mimes. And she, surprisingly, managed to score a last-minute gift for Lita: a craft book about beads, showing several techniques to make more intricate bracelets.

Her generosity didn't stop to the kids, as Simon got his share of his usual box of treats he liked, and some vintage vinyls he could add to his collection. He got his mom her usual chocolates and jewelry she instantly put on to show it off. 

Simon hadn't managed to get Wille anything, and apologized in his ear when he was sure the kids weren't hearing. Wille shook his head and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lita calling out to Simon.

"You got another one, Simon!" 

Surprised, Simon took the package from Lita's hands. The wrapping paper was different from the ones they and Linda used. Shooting Wille a glance, he saw the smug smile on his face. He ripped the paper off and discovered a notebook. Black, sleek and elegant-looking, it had the word "simon's songs" engraved in pretty golden letters on the cover. Flipping through it, he saw the notebook was actually half lined paper, half sheet music. 

Wiping his head to Wille, he saw how the other was waiting on his reaction with batted breath. "I think Santa wants you to find happiness out of 'unclehood'." Simon bit his lips, looking down at the notebook to try and keep his tears at bay. 

Thankfully, Oskar took this as an opportunity to ask for a song, followed by Lita, and then Linda. Simon made a show of refusing at first, only to cave in when Wille pushed him out of the couch. 

He grabbed a spoon on the table and used it as a makeshift microphone, singing an energic cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is You", quickly joined by the kids improvising themselves as both backup dancers and vocals. Wille and Linda clapped along, and cheered at the end, laughing along while Oskar claimed Simon was a rockstar. 

With a conspiring look on her face, Linda leaned in Wille's direction, whispering loudly enough for Simon to hear anyway: "That's how he used to catch boys, back in the days!"

Wille chuckled behind his hand, mirth in his eyes as he looked at Simon before "whispering" in the same manner: "It's still working!"

Simon could die on the spot. 

Dinner was perfect as well, and Simon lost count of how many compliments Wille gave Linda on her cooking, despite them doing all the prep work. Oskar ate too much dessert and started complaining about his stomach hurting, so Simon put him down to sleep quite early in Sara's old room. Lita stayed with them for a while, playing cards in a quiet peace, sitting down on her dad's lap the whole time, so she cheated by looking at his cards. Eventually, Oskar got up and went to lay down against Simon, falling asleep again in his arms. 

In the end, Lita won several rounds of cards, courtesy of Simon "accidentally" forgetting to use his best cards. Linda offered a last glass of liquor to Wille, who politely refused, and they decided it was best to call it a night, as Simon felt his pant leg wetten with Oskar drooling on it. 

They settled both Oskar and Lita in Sara's room, her old bed large enough for two small kids. Each of them got their good night kisses, and Linda offered the couch to Wille. Simon answered for him, sliding his hand in his. "He won't need it." 

With a knowing smile, Linda bid them good night and ordered for them to steer away from the cleaning in the morning. 

They got ready for bed in a comfortable silence, sliding under the covers in Simon's old bed that was way too small for two adults to sleep comfortably in. Still, they enjoyed the forced proximity, and they easily found a position that was comfy enough, Wille's arms around Simon's back, and Simon's arm fitting around Wille's middle, his head against Wille's chest. 

"How did you get this idea? For the notebook?" Simon whispered in the darkness of the room. 

"Oskar said you wrote songs, and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect. Ayub told me you used to write songs, the day we met."

"You do remember everything, don't you?"

"It's because no one remembers things about me, so I do it for others." 

"I remember things about you, Wille."

"Do you now?" Wille chucked, burying his nose in Simon's hair. 

"I remember Lita saying you liked my hair." Simon joked, remembering that conversation about hairstyles. 

"See now that's wrong. I don't like it, I love it." 

"I'll let you try and do braids in it if you want." 

"For real?" Wille sounded like a little kid being promised a pony on his birthday, and Simon laughed quietly. 

"For real." He paused a bit. "You know what? I think I really like this. This little family kind of thing we have going on."

"We? A family? Is that what you want, Simon?" Wille asked cautiously after a beat of silence.

Simon nodded against him, not daring to look up at him. "I think I do, yes. What do you think?"

Wille's hand came down to grab his chin and tilt his head up, the gesture soft and his fingers lightly caressing his skin. He smiled down at him, his eyes full of something Simon dared to read as fondness- love, even? 

"I think you're my Christmas miracle." He whispered, before pressing his lips against Simon's in the first of many, many kisses to come.