Work Text:
December brings a particular kind of joy to the Grant-Nash household.
This has become particularly true since Bobby retired, leaving him with ample free time to devote to festivities of all kinds. Too much time, if you’re asking some people.
Every year, it’s something new. It started with expanding the decorations, first indoor and then outdoor. The next year, there was a semi-disastrous gingerbread house party. The year after that, elaborate cookie boxes. This one was a smashing success— which was great for everyone else, and a little less great for anyone hoping to use the kitchen counters for anything but cookies during the weeks leading up to Christmas, since the boxes have become tradition.
And, look— Athena loves her husband. She even loves Christmas. She enjoys having the house full of their family as much as Bobby does. It’s just—
“Alright,” she sighs, one hand on her hip as she picks up another thrifted cookie tin off of the counter in an attempt to reach the coffee maker and turns in Bobby’s direction. “I don’t know how many more cookie boxes I have in me here.”
He looks up, a caught expression on his face, and offers her an apologetic smile.
“Sorry,” he says, slipping out of his chair and between her and the counter, carefully extracting his stack of tins and offering her another smile.
Athena sighs, affectionate.
“What am I going to do with you?”
Bobby grins. “I have some ideas.”
Rolling her eyes, Athena reaches for the pot of coffee on its stand and the mug he’d left for her next to it.
“I’m sure you do.” She looks unimpressed, but there’s softness and laughter in her voice, that unbearable fondness that is just for him.
He smiles again, squeezing her waist lightly with his free hand but giving up the joke.
“Actually,” he says, stepping around her to store his cookie tins, “as much as I would love to have those kinds of plans, you’re already getting a break from cookie baking today.”
“Oh?” Athena tracks his easy movement around the island with her eyes, watching him return to his chair at the table and the still-hot cup of coffee he’d been working on. “Why is that?”
Bobby beams.
“I’m taking Lucas skating today.”
Athena hesitates.
Admittedly, this is a tricky one. Something to be handled with care. On one hand, there’s the bright, big smile on Bobby’s face and the way it’s lighting up his eyes and her general inability to look at his face like that and deny him what he wants.
On that same hand, though thankfully not right in front of her, there’s Lucas— who, despite herself, Athena has a true and deep soft spot for. The kid is all Buck, with Eddie’s warm softness. He calls her Grandma and if she once thought she would hate it, it was mostly because she hadn’t heard him say it yet. And he lights up around Bobby. It’s hard to deny him much of anything.
On the other hand, Athena is pragmatic. Her husband— though eager as ever— is getting older. He’s retired. He’s not in the shape he used to be. She worries, even when he sighs like she’s being ridiculous. She weighs her options now, and he watches her like the whole thing is amusing.
Eventually, she sighs.
“You know what I’m going to say.”
Bobby smiles a little. “I could guess,” he admits.
Athena narrows her eyes, one hand on her hip. It’s a losing game and she knows it. Still. “You’re not gonna listen to anything I say, are you?”
Bobby’s smile gets bigger then, taking up his whole face. It’s pretty much over for Athena, and then it’s only more so when he holds his hand out to her, palm up and waiting.
She sighs, but goes over to take it and lets him draw her in, shaking her head as his arm snakes low around her waist and he looks up at her, the sun from the window dancing lightly on his features, settling into the lines around his eyes.
“If you’re worried,” he says, “you could always come with us.”
She means to say no. She really does.
And she would have made it, probably. If it were just Bobby, she would have managed it. But then mid-morning the doorbell rings, and she opens it to Buck and Eddie with a squirming, excited four-year-old on his hip, and Lucas lights up at the sight of her.
“Grandma!” he gasps, tapping impatiently at Eddie’s chest in a desperate bid to be put down. Eddie rolls his eyes fondly where Lucas can’t see him, then sets him gently on his feet, and before she can blink Athena has little arms around her legs and an affectionate blonde head of curls smushed against her waist.
“Good morning, boys,” Bobby’s voice comes from behind her as Athena smooths her hand over the back of Lucas’ head.
“Good morning,” Buck says, grinning as he steps over the threshold into the house. Lucas, meanwhile, looks up with wild, bright blue eyes and takes off in a matter of seconds in Bobby’s direction.
“Grandpa!” he cries, flinging himself with abandon into Bobby’s open, waiting arms.
“Oh, hi kiddo!” Bobby says, his voice muffled in Lucas’ shoulder as he lifts him clean off his feet. “Are you ready to go skating?”
Athena wonders briefly how this had all been planned without her notice. She levels a look in Buck’s direction.
“Skating, huh?” she says, raising her eyebrows.
Buck takes a half-step behind Eddie, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
“Don’t look at me,” he pleads. “I swear I didn’t even know about it until last night.”
Across the room, Bobby smiles pleasantly with Lucas still in his arms. “We planned it all out in secret, didn’t we?” he asks, and Lucas nods his head so hard that his curls bounce up and down as Bobby pats him lightly on the hip, then puts him down.
“Say goodbye to your dads, okay?” he says, and Lucas obediently trots back over to Buck with outstretched arms. Buck lifts him up and kisses his cheek.
“Bye, Daddy,” Lucas says cheerfully, already reaching for Eddie like he’s more than eager to get through his goodbyes and onto the fun of the day.
With a shared look between them, Eddie scoops him out of his husband’s arms and presses several quick kisses to his face as he squirms.
“Be good, baby,” he says with a little squeeze. “And have fun with Grandpa!”
Still in Eddie’s arms, Lucas tilts his head back and casts lethally hopeful blue eyes in Athena’s direction.
“And Grandma?” he asks, all sugar and sweetness.
So, really, it was hopeless.
Athena melts.
“Okay,” she relents. “With Grandma, too. Somebody’s gotta keep an eye on you two.”
And that’s how Athena ends up walking into a makeshift holiday skating rink on a weekday morning, hand in hand with Lucas who is hand in hand with Bobby on his other side. Thanks to the hour, the place is almost deserted except for one skater in a ponytail doing circles on the ice and a couple of other people with very small kids. It’s outdoors and pleasantly warm despite the nature of the activity, and above the wide rectangle of stimulated ice there are tangles of garland and lights twinkling faintly against the backdrop of what’s turning out to be a rare overcast day. Christmas decorations abound and holiday music plays quietly and in the corner next to the skates there’s a cabinesque stand selling hot chocolate and cider and little holiday treats, its roof draped in sparkly tinsel and little bunches of holly.
Bobby frowns as they approach, then looks down at Lucas next to him.
“Just so you know,” he says, gesturing, “this isn’t real ice.”
Lucas hesitates, looking between the rink and Bobby. “Ice is cold,” he offers sensibly.
“Yes!” Bobby agrees. “Exactly. This ice is not cold, though.”
Lucas frowns, like he’s thinking hard about that.
“You can’t skate on it?” he asks.
“Yes, baby,” Athena intervenes, sensing that Bobby might not clock the oncoming worry until it’s too late. Lucas is not prone to tantrums, but just in case. She squeezes his little hand and smiles when he looks over at her. “You can skate on it,” she assures him. “Like they’re doing. See?”
Lucas turns, noticing for the first time the skilled skater in the center of the rink, and his eyes light up.
“Wow,” he breathes, looking back up at Bobby. “Can you do that?”
Bobby grins. “Not anymore, kid.”
Lucas leans up on his tippy-toes, stars in his eyes. “I want to do that,” he says dreamily.
Athena glances over at Bobby. “Good luck,” she says.
But Bobby just laughs.
He goes to gather the skates while Athena helps Lucas with his shoes next to the rink on an otherwise empty set of bleachers. He insists that he doesn’t need help, so she waits patiently while he undoes the little zipper on the side of his boots and tugs them off of his feet, revealing socks patterned with Christmas lights underneath.
It’s hard to feel anything but joy when she’s around Lucas. There’s a part of her that wonders, sometimes, what a younger version of herself would think if she could see this life now. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter— but she’s pretty sure that quietly, every version of her would have found it kind of magical.
Except for maybe the one who’d just met Evan Buckley and truly couldn’t stand him. That Athena might have some choice words.
But it all worked out, she thinks now as Lucas leans back to show her the socks, wiggling his toes in them and telling her all about how he saw them at the store with his Dad and promised he would be really good if he could have them before Christmas.
“And are you being really good?” she asks, leaning in a little.
Lucas nods earnestly. “Really good,” he assures her.
Bobby makes his way back to them with the skates, which is where Athena draws the line. She assures Lucas that she’ll watch him the whole time as Bobby laces up his skates attentively and then does his own. Lucas examines them— his being the kind made for little kids with bright red safety guards and extra balance.
“I like them!” he says, beaming up at them.
“Good,” Bobby chuckles as he finishes with his own and stands with what is honestly impressive ease. “You ready to try them out?”
Lucas nods, fearless and eager, and takes Bobby’s hand.
Athena looks up at her husband. “If you fall,” she says, “I better not hear a thing about it.”
Bobby flashes her a smile. “No promises,” he answers, and then he’s gone, with Lucas waving at her as he toddles on his skates alongside Bobby until they reach the edge of the ice.
It’s only minorly nerve-wracking, watching and listening as Bobby steps onto the ice and then leads Lucas after him.
“Woah!” Lucas says, slipping as Bobby laughs and just holds him steady.
“You’re okay,” Bobby assures him, holding both of his hands. “See? Look how good you’re doing, you’re a natural!”
He tugs Lucas along and Lucas breaks into peals of giggles, high and light and perfectly audible even from where Athena is sitting to watch.
It’s hard not to melt in the face of all that. Athena is a little surprised there’s any ice left.
“Grandma, look!” Lucas yells a few minutes later as Bobby leads him carefully over near the railing where she’s sitting. “I am skating!”
Athena laughs. “You look great,” she praises, then glances up at her husband in his element. “You have a good teacher, huh?”
Lucas looks up too, then— the picture of a little Buck, beaming adoringly up at Bobby, blue eyes alight with the pure kind of love that only a four-year-old can have.
“Yeah!” he laughs, and Bobby smiles down at him.
“Come on,” he says. “Let’s see if we can get you spinning.”
Lucas cheers and they’re off again. Athena pulls out her phone and takes a few pictures and videos for the benefit of Lucas’ Dads, then watches for a few more minutes. For all that she was nervous, she didn’t need to be. Bobby is steady and calm on his skates, and he has Lucas in absolute stitches spinning him in small circles over the slick surface. Eventually, Lucas laughs so hard that he collapses to the ice, his little body splayed out like a snow angel as Bobby laughs openly above him.
All in all, it’s kind of perfect.
Four-year-old attention spans are not lengthy, though, and it’s not long at all before Lucas starts to flag. Bobby guides him off of the ice with the promise of treats and a few minutes later he’s back in his boots and sitting on the side of the bleachers, happily munching on an iced gingerbread man.
Athena smiles as Bobby hands her a hot chocolate, and they sit on either side of Lucas as he goes on and on in between bites about how much he loves ice skating.
“I want to skate every day,” Lucas declares, and Bobby laughs, patting him lightly on his knee.
“That’s something you can take up with your Dads, huh?”
“Okay!” Lucas agrees, and Athena shakes her head.
“You are not a nice man, Bobby Nash,” she says under her breath, and he just laughs— that big, open-hearted thing that he’d kept buried once upon a time.
Athena still counts herself lucky every day that she gets to hear it.
The morning winds down and they take Lucas out for a quick chicken nugget lunch, his appetite untouched by the cookie; after a few minutes in the attached playground, they buckle him back into the carseat that Bobby keeps for him in his truck and deliver him safely back to Buck and Eddie’s.
Both parents step outside when they arrive, and Lucas leaps easily off of the truck down onto the driveway, racing up to Eddie and throwing himself into his arms as Bobby ambles behind him, offering a smile to Buck.
“Hi, sunshine!” she hears Buck coo at Lucas. “Did you have so much fun?”
Lucas nods enthusiastically. “Daddy,” he gasps, “I love ice skating!”
Buck and Eddie both laugh, Eddie leaning in to kiss him on the head. “That’s good, honey,” he says.
Buck cuts his gaze over to Bobby, a sly expression on his face as he leans in to stage-whisper to Lucas. “Did Grandpa fall on his butt?” he asks.
“Hey, now,” Bobby objects mildly.
“No!” Lucas giggles. “Only I did!”
“You did, huh?” Eddie laughs. “Okay. Well then we better get you and your butt inside, huh?”
“Hugs and kisses first!” Lucas insists, and in a second he’s racing back over to Bobby and Athena, letting them scoop him up and showering them with all the affection that a four-year-old knows as they promise to see him soon before sending him back inside with his parents, all of them waving.
Back in the truck, Bobby glances over at her and Athena looks back, feeling unbearably fond.
“You know you’re gonna be feeling that tomorrow, right?” she asks.
Bobby grins. “It’s so worth it.”
Athena looks back at the house, spying Lucas in the front window waving at them wildly through the glass, and thinks— yeah. He’s right about that one.