Chapter Text
The sound of Alex’s key turning in the lock, is easily one of Henry’s favourite sounds. Back at the beginning of their relationship, Henry had remained giddy for months whenever he heard it, in the brownstone. It was Alex, Alex the love of his life, Alex his boyfriend, Alex who he lived with, using his key, in their house!
Now, along with the joy of seeing his husband, there is the added relief, of no longer being the only one looking after two ten-month-olds. Victoria, having crawled faster than a Ninja all day, is passed out on the rug, still holding an empty beaker, looking like she had had too much to drink on a night out.
‘Hey’ Alex beams when he appears in the living room door, immediately sitting down beside Henry, and kissing him, before he picks up Eleanor and kisses her head.
‘Hi, my precious girl. What did you and Daddy and Victoria get up to all day?’
‘Well’ Henry grins and he takes Eleanor and puts her back down, sitting her on the rug in front of both of them.
Henry claps, his smile wide, and Eleanor beams and claps her little hands together.
‘Oh my god, Eleanor!’ Alex exclaims, clapping too ‘you learned to clap, you’re so clever!’
‘Yeah’ Henry says, clapping again as Eleanor does so, cooing with delight ‘I got absolutely nothing else done all day, once I taught her that.’
‘Yay’ Alex grins and claps his hands and Eleanor bounces up and down and claps her hands again.
‘Yeah, I can see why you’d get nothing else done all day’ Alex chuckles before he leans over to Victoria and gently kisses her head.
‘Victoria wasn’t fussed about clapping, but she was very keen to pick up every single thing we own. If baby crawl count was a thing, she’d be hitting her 10k, no problem. She crashed like ten minutes ago.’
‘Well’ Alex sighs ‘I could join her right now, I’m zonked.’
‘Long day?’
‘Busy’ Alex says ‘but so were you, I’m happy just doing this.’
‘Yeah’ Henry smiles as they start clapping again ‘me too.’
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‘Why is it’ Alex shouts to Henry as he turns the page ‘that one of the first things kids learn is animal noises? Like how often does that come up in real life?’
Victoria in response slams her pudgy little hand down on the picture of a cow and loudly says ‘moo!’.
Alex wants to pick up her tiny hand and kiss the knuckle dimples but she’s already turning the page and declaring ‘woof!’
Alex chuckles, kisses her head and says ‘so clever, darling girl.’
‘I think’ Henry says, walking into the living room, with a laundry basket under his arm ‘because it’s an easy thing to learn? Like moo and meow is easier than aerodynamics?’
‘Maybe I should start teaching them the constitution?’ Alex says with a grin, turning to look at Henry, before Victoria pulls at his hands, making frustrated noises.
‘Sorry baby girl, where were we? Oh yes, of course, the goat bleats.’
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It’s a warm night, and the sky is bright above them, full of stars and stories. Henry holds his arm up and points out the celestial objects easiest to see. He turns his head, grinning at his two girls and Alex on the other side of them, all staring rapturously.
‘That is the moon, little loves. It’s a long long way away but we can always see it at night.’
‘That’s a waning gibbous moon’ Alex says.
‘Gold star for Papa.’
‘I look forward to it, baby.’
‘White stars, Daddy’ Victoria pipes up, wriggling beside Henry like a worm, trying to get comfy on the blanket.
‘They do look white’ Henry agrees, knowing now is not the time to explain light years to their three-year-olds ‘Do you see that? That’s the North Star, it’s the brightest star in the sky. And that there, that’s Venus. Do you see?’
‘I see the penis!’ Victoria exclaims, throwing her hand up to point.
Henry manages to bite his lip but he could probably hear Alex’s snort three doors down. Before Victoria can question why this is so hilarious, Henry points again and says ‘That’s Pleiades, it’s known as the seven sisters, like how you each have one sister.’
‘Who?’ Eleanor asks, and Henry can’t help it this time, he bursts out laughing, and the star gazing gets set aside in favour of a giggly, toddler limbs sticking in uncomfortable places, family cuddle.
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Alex sometimes feels like he lives at the grocery store, he’s become the type of person that gets annoyed when they change the layout because he can no longer find anything. Though, if he’d been told a decade ago that he’d even be allowed to push a cart around a grocery store, he wouldn’t have believed it.
He and Henry still get people saying hello to them all the time, or gasping as they walk by, but there aren’t hordes like there used to be in New York, there wasn’t arguments with PPOs about where he was allowed to go. It was up to him and Henry now, to figure all that out. Thankfully, there’s no one to accost him in the cheese aisle as he picks out some fancy cheeses for his husband; there’s just his extremely friendly four-year-old who wanted to talk to everyone.
Alex isn’t going to complain though, not when Henry’s at home with their old ailing dog, their new puppy, and Eleanor, who had got upset that morning because she thought her shoes had feelings, and that she might be hurting them.
‘You look like a painting!’
‘Oh, aren’t you sweet.’
Alex turns his gaze from the Roquefort in his hand, to see a tall woman with vitiligo, kneeling down to talk to Victoria. She raises her head when she notices Alex looking at her, her mouth forming a small perfect ‘o’. Alex smiles at her and gives her a small nod. He’d found that if questions were asked in curiosity, rather than rudeness, the vast majority of people were happy to talk to Victoria.
‘I have a thing called vitiligo, it means my body destroys this thing called pigment or melanin, which creates patches of skin which are a different colour.’
‘Papa has more Melanie than Daddy, becauses his family is from Mexico, which is hotter than England, wheres Daddy is from, there’s lots of rain there.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Uhuh’ Victoria nods and turns her head to look at Alex ‘yeah, Papa?’
‘It’s called mel-a-nin, sweetie, not Melanie, but good job. And yes, there’s lots of rain where Daddy is from.’
‘Do you ever colour them in?’ Victoria asks, placing the tip of her finger on the woman’s arm.
The woman laughs, her smile wide across her face.
‘No, I haven’t ever coloured them in, though that’s a great idea. What colour would you use?’
‘I likes purple’ Victoria grins.
‘Well, purple it is then. It was nice to meet you—’
‘I’m Vic-tor-ia, what’s your name?’
God Alex loves that Victoria still enunciates her name, he puts his hand on the back of her head and she blindly reaches for his hand, which he takes and squeezes.
‘I’m Athena.’
‘Like in the stories!’
‘Yeah’ Athena smiles ‘like in the stories.’
‘Thank you’ Alex says as Athena stands up again ‘for talking to her.’
‘Oh it’s no problem’ she waves her hand ‘she’s a very sweet girl, you’re doing a great job. It was nice to meet you and Victoria, Alex.’
‘Yeah’ Alex smiles ‘you too, Athena, have a good day.’
‘You too, bye bye Victoria.’
‘Bye bye’ Victoria waves enthusiastically before she turns to Alex and asks ‘can we get ice cream, please, Papa?’
‘Sure, mija, we can get some ice cream.’
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‘911, what’s your emergency?’
‘Hiiiii, is this 911 for help?’
‘Yes sweetie, it is. Are you ok? Do you need help?’
‘I’m just practicing. My daddies were teaching us how to call if we need help.’
‘Well you did a good job, sweetie. And you definitely don’t need help?’
‘No thank—’
‘Victoria, sweetie, who are you talking to? Is that Grandma Ellen?’
‘No, it’s 911.’
‘Victoria, oh my god, no, you ring in emergencies. There’s no emergency.’
‘I was practicing!’
‘Hi, sorry, so sorry, everything’s fine here. We were just teaching them how to dial in case of emergencies, sorry again.’
‘I did a good job!’
‘We’ll talk about it a second, darling. Sorry again.’
‘That’s ok, sir, it happens more than you’d think, you have a good day.’
‘You too.’
‘…. was that Alex Claremont-Diaz?’
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