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“It’s almost Christmas!” Rudie says, bounding into Looey and Yatta and Blot's apartment. He’s so super-duper excited to see Looey and play with him! He always has the bestest ideas for playing, and he doesn’t even mind playing Christmas all the time!
This time, it is almost Christmas, though! It's a few days before. Exactly six days – that's how old he is, too! He knows that, ‘cause him and his mamas have an advent calendar they do every year. They’ve been doing lots and lots of fun stuff, too, like decorating their Christmas tree, and making snowmen, and…
“Rudie! You’re here!” Looey says, and– gosh, he’s so-so tall, Rudie always forgets how tall he is! He’s taller than either of his mamas!
Looey picks him up– picks him up! Eek! And squeezes him super-duper tight, before setting him back down. “Woah…” He says, a bit dizzy. “Tha’s super strong!” Looey grins down at him, and it makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Looey is such a good friend.
“Well, yeah! I’ve gotta be strong for my performances! Right, Blot?” He asks, and his caregiver walks up behind him.
“Mhm, kiddo! You’re real strong.”
His voice is slightly muffled from the mask he always wears, but Rudie’s used to that by now. And he can tell Blot is smiling, too, even with the mask, ‘cause his eyes are crinkled. He remembers something about a performance he’d done gone wrong..? He knows that Blot had told him all about it before, when he was feeling a bit bigger, but right now he’s just little and doesn’t need to worry about grown-up stuff like that.
“Blot!” He says, and he gets his hair ruffled in return. Blot is taller than him, but not as tall as Looey… ‘s kinda silly, that his caregiver is lots shorter than him. But that's okay! He knows plenty of tall littles and short caregivers, hehe. He sees them all out Christmas shopping!
“Blot! Talk with my mamas!” He says, ‘cause they’re still standing at the door. He guesses there was a lot going on just now. Or maybe they were just kissing. His mamas do that a lot – they love each other lots and lots, they say, but they love him, too! Can be both!
“Okay, cutie!” Mommy says, and he grabs her and his mama’s hand, pulling them over to sit on the couch. “You guys do… caregiver stuffs!” He says, looking towards Looey.
“Yeah!” Looey says, then, “Let's go play, Rudie! I got a new lego set!”
His mama kisses his forehead before letting him go, and he blushes. He follows Looey into his room – Yatta isn’t here today. He knows, ‘cause he can’t hear her. She’s real loud. Or… because his mama had told him she wouldn’t be? He’s not sure. He can hear Blot talking to both of them, now – “So, Bobette, Ginger, how have you two been…?”
They’re probably holding hands. His mamas are always so lovey-dovey. He’s so happy to have two mamas. Looey has only one papa! That’s okay, though, ‘cause Blot is super cool. He’s been to their shows – they’re awesome!
“...So, legos, or we could play mario kart, I know my switch is around here somewhere…” Looey is saying, so Rudie sits on his bed while he digs around his room. Looey is lots older than him – so his room looks a lot different than his own. He has a bunk bed, but Rudie’s bed at home has a knotted bedrail over it ‘cause he kept falling out. Looey mostly has big-boy toys, too, like video games that are usually too confusing for him, so he always picks the easier ones to play with Rudie. He never minds that Rudie is littler, even when Yatta is playing with them, which is really nice!
She’s older than Rudie, but not as old as Looey, he thinks? Anyways, he knows Blot is actually sorta younger than him when he’s small! ‘Cause he’s a flip. But he’s never seen a small-Blot. He’s real curious about it, actually!
“Rudie? Rudie!” Looey asks, and he realizes he wasn’t paying attention at all, hehe!
“Y-yeah?” he asks, and Looey smiles at him.
“You wanna do legos or mario kart? I found my christmas set!”
Rudie jumps up at the mention of Christmas legos! “Christmas! Please!” He says, and Looey ruffles his hair (did he learn that from Blot?) and tells him to sit down on the floor. He has to shove some crafts and performance-stuff away, but they make room. Looey dumps all of the bags on the floor and sets the instructions between them.
“So… this is a house, right? And Santa’s there, and there's a tree…” Looey is talking, but Rudie gets distracted looking at a shiny present lego piece. It's gold, and so shiny! He remembers him and mama had wrapped mommy’s present up in gold wrapping paper, with a bow on top. They’d hidden it in the hallway closet, and mama had made him giggle lots and lots by putting a bow on his nose. Mama's so silly – he’s not a present, he’s a boy! Or maybe a reindeer. He thinks being a reindeer would be super cool.
“Are there reindeer?” He asks Looey, who’s opening up the first bag. Looey nods, pointing to the instructions.
“Yeah! Look, they’re on-top of the house, with Santa’s sleigh!” Rudie smiles real big at that, ‘cause he loves reindeer. Sometimes mommy calls him her little reindeer boy, and that makes him giggle, too.
“Rudie! Can you hand me the pieces while I start building?” Looey asks, and Rudie nods lots, up and down.
“Uh-huh!” He says, and Looey smiles and thanks him, saying he needs this one green piece… Rudie finds it, and hands it to him.
“Good boy!” Looey says, and Rudie can’t help but smile and kick his feet. Looey is always so-so nice to him!
Looey’s getting bored. Rudie is always fun to play with, even though he’s a lot littler. It does mean he can’t play his favorite games with him, though. He sets down the lego piece he’s holding, and thinks. What else could they do?
Before he can say anything, though, Blot is standing in the doorway. “Hey, kiddos,” He says, and Looey smiles. He taps Rudie on the shoulder, where he’s all engrossed in building a little house out of extra pieces that were supposed to be for the set they were building.
“Pizza’s ready… thought you two might be hungry.” Blot says, which, awesome! None of them are the best at cooking – well, Blot’s okay, but Looey guesses there are lots of people here, even if Yatta is doing a performance at a school nearby.
“Okay!” He says, then turns to Rudie.
“Can you help me put the pieces back in the box?” He asks, and Rudie nods, happy to be able to help. The scoop up all of the bags and pieces and put them in the box, setting it on his desk with the half-built house on-top of it. “We should finish it next time!” He says to his friend.
“Uh-huh!” Rudie agrees, but he yawns. Maybe he’s getting sleepy. Does he normally take a nap? Maybe? Looey isn’t sure. He doesn’t need naps, he’s a big kid – well, unless they’ve had a big performance. Then sometimes him, and Yatta, and Blot will all pile onto one of their beds or the couch and fall asleep together.
He holds the boy's hand to the kitchen, but it does mean he has to sorta lean down a bit. Rudie is short – shorter than Blot! Makes him look littler and cute, though.
As soon as they’re in the living room, Rudie runs over to his mamas, and Ginger pulls him into her lap. “Mama..” He says, rubbing his eyes.
“Is our boy getting all sleepy?” Bobette asks, so Looey thinks he was right. Rudie does need a nap.
“Nuh-uh…” Rudie says, shaking his head. Bobette boops his nose and smiles down at him.
“Well, how about we get our tummy all full, and then we can see?”
Looey shudders a bit at the baby talk, but then Blot is calling him into the kitchen. “Can you help me get the pizza on plates for everyone?” He asks, and Looey likes helping, so he gets five plates out. And then he sees the pizzas.
“Papa! You made my favorite!” He says, smiling big, and Blot nods at him.
“Of course, Looey.” He pulls his papa into a hug, wanting to pick him up but deciding against it. They’re right next to the oven, and that can be dangerous. Papa had said so.
He lays his head on-top of papas while he cuts the pizzas, watching him. One is just cheese, and the other is half-pepperoni and half his favorite – it has a bunch of stuff on it! Sausage and mushroom and onion and pineapple! He can’t wait!
He gets pizza on plates for everyone, carrying his and Rudie’s out. He’d tried to carry more, but papa had told him no, he didn’t want him to accidentally drop it. Looey scoffed at that – he's a big kid! – but had listened anyways.
Rudie looks super sleepy now, sitting between his mamas and leaning onto Bobette's shoulder. Ginger ends up feeding him most of his pizza, so he talks lots to Bobette – she asks about his performances (they’re going well!), anything fun he’s done recently (went to the playground with Yatta!), and if he’s going to be doing any kind of Christmas event (yeah, on Christmas eve!).
By the time they’re all done, Looey feels nice and full and also sorta tired, too. He gives Rudie a hug. He loves his friend lots and lots, so he says that – “I love you, Rudie! You’re one of my bestest friends, and I only have… four? Five, six, of them? There’s you, Blot, Yatta, oh, and Goob, obviously, and…”
Rudie giggles at that; “I love you too, Looey… thank you for not mindin’ me bein’ littler.”
Looey thinks it's silly that Rudie thinks he would ever mind that. He has lots of friends, and it doesn’t matter how little or big or both they are!
Once Rudie and his mamas are gone, papa turns on The Polar Express for him. He takes his mask and gloves off, too. Looey thinks he could’ve taken it off while they were here – he doesn’t think they would’ve minded his scars. He says so, and papa smiles at him. “Really?”
“Really, papa.” He says, and then lays his head in his papa’s lap. “Not to nap!” He says, “‘m a big boy. Just… restin’.”
He’s asleep within ten minutes, his papa’s fingers carding through his hair.