Anthony couldn't help smiling as his car turned onto his street and he saw Rey and Sören waving to him from outside their flat, Rey calling out "PAPA! PAPA! HI PAPA! HI PAPA!"
This time Anthony honked. It was Friday the twelfth, he was home for the weekend, he had one more week to go before his chambers would close for the holidays and he'd be home till the second week of January. Though he was fiercely dedicated to his job, nonetheless this week had dragged and the sight of his Omega mate and their child lifted his spirits.
Anthony rushed out of the Audi Q7 and over to take Sören and Rey into his arms. "Hi." He kissed Rey's cheeks, and gave Sören a gentle, chaste kiss with their daughter watching. "Hi. Hi."
"Hi, elskan." Sören kissed the tip of Anthony's nose. "Missed you."
"God, I missed both of you." Anthony squeezed them tighter.
"Papa, look." Rey pointed at a large snowball on the ground.
"It's finally sticking," Sören said - they'd had some flurries earlier that week but now they had a few inches of snow on the ground. "She wanted to start making a snowman while we waited for you."
"Do we have to go inside right now?" Rey looked up at her fathers, pouting. "Can we build the snowman? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"
As much as Anthony had been looking forward to having a hot cup of tea when he got home from a cold winter day, he had been missing his family even more and he couldn't deny his daughter her fun. And it had been quite some time since he'd built a snowman himself - he knew as he got to work on his hands and knees packing snow that it wasn't just for Rey, but the chance to play and be a kid again for a little while.
Sören kissed the tip of his nose, and when Sören bit his lower lip Anthony's heart skipped a beat. That still got him every single time. He fought the urge to push Sören into the snow and kiss him breathless, and instead took joy in the sight of Sören rolling and packing snow along with them.
They added more snow to the bottom of the snowman, so they could build him taller, with a sturdier base. As they began putting together a second snowball to go on top of the base, Nicholas's Jaguar started coming down the street and Rey leapt up and ran to the edge of the curb, her arms flailing as she called out, "SAINT NICK! HI SAINT NICK! HI SAINT NICK! COME SEE OUR SNOWMAN! COME SEE OUR SNOWMAN, SAINT NICK!"
Anthony tried not to facepalm with his snow-cold glove. At some point they were going to have to sit Rey down and have a talk with her about how Nicholas wasn't Father Christmas, and he was glad Nicholas didn't seem to mind too much.
Nicholas chuckled when he got out of his car. "Good evening," he said.
"See?" Rey started tugging on his sleeve, pointing. "That's our snowman."
"Snowman in progress," Sören corrected. "He's not done yet. He won't be done yet for awhile."
"We need to go faster," Rey said.
Now it was Anthony's turn to laugh. "How very corporate of you."
"What?" Rey gave him a confused look, and Anthony had to remind himself she was only four.
Sören snickered. Then Rey looked at Nicholas. "Help us build our snowman!"
"Er..." Nicholas glanced nervously at her parents, then at Rey.
"I'm sorry," Anthony volunteered. "She's very forward. I know you must have things to do..."
"Please?" Now Rey was pouting at him. "The snowman would be extra good with Father Christmas magic."
Oh god, now she's done it. Anthony made a wounded noise as he packed more snow onto the second snowball.
But Nicholas just smiled indulgently. "If your parents don't mind me helping, I suppose I could."
"We don't mind," Sören said, grinning.
Anthony had to admit he didn't mind either, and he tried not to steal glances at Nicholas working along with them, looking dashing as always. His face flushed even though it was bitter cold and getting colder all the time, and he wasn't wearing a hat. He noticed Sören taking looks at Nicholas as well, and Anthony once again wondered if Sören also found him attractive. Wondered if Sören found Nicholas's Alpha scent attractive.
Sören also seemed to notice Anthony noticing, and Sören paused and took off his knit cap and slammed it down on Anthony's head. "I produce more body heat than you do," Sören said. "You can wear this for now."
Anthony felt ridiculous and gave Sören a look, who smiled innocently, then Anthony felt even more ridiculous when Nicholas chuckled at them.
But the most ridiculous moment was to come. First Rey began singing a song from the Frozen soundtrack - she had only just stopped obsessing over Frozen a couple of months ago, and as soon as Rey started to sing Anthony and Sören exchanged glances to say oh no, not again.
Do you wanna build a snowman?
Come on, let's go and play!
I never see you anymore
Come out the door
It's like you've gone away
We used to be best buddies
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me why!
Do you wanna build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman...
"Is that from Frozen?" Nicholas asked.
Sören nodded vehemently.
"I haven't seen it," Nicholas said.
Anthony let out an "oh no" just as Rey gasped and shrieked, "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN FROZEN? PAPA, MUMDAD, HE HAS TO WATCH FROZEN WITH US!"
"Oh lord," Sören said. Then he patted Rey and said, "Can we get through building the snowman first?"
"Kay," Rey said.
After the second snowball, Anthony and Nicholas began shaping the head, and Rey tapped Sören and said, "He needs arms."
"Hmmm. Do you see any sticks anywhere?" Sören scratched his head.
"He needs real arms, not sticks," Rey said.
"Oh, so you want me to make him arms out of snow?" Sören raised an eyebrow.
Rey nodded solemnly.
Sören began sculpting an arm out of snow, and Anthony couldn't help noticing it had a crude phallic shape. After a moment Sören noticed it too and tried not to laugh, and failed. "Oh god," Sören choked.
"That's... quite an interesting arm," Anthony said.
"Yeah." Sören looked at the bottom snowball as if he were going to stick it there, then he looked at their innocent four-year-old daughter and thought better of it... and Sören stuck the unfortunately phallic-looking snow part on what was to become the face of the snowman. "There. He has a nose."
Anthony thought he was going to die laughing. Now Nicholas was beetroot. He rolled his eyes and gave Sören a disapproving glance, but Anthony saw Nicholas shaking with silent laughter. "Oh dear," Nicholas sighed.
"That's a weird nose, Mumdad," Rey said.
"Some people have weird noses," Sören said.
"Not like that. His nose is big and weird."
"Well, he's a snowman," Sören said. "He's not human. Snowpeople have, uh, even more diversity in body shapes than humans do."
"What's a diversity?" Rey asked.
"When things are different," Sören said.
"Then why not just say that it's different?"
Sören shrugged. "It's fun to use a diversity of words."
"I agree," Nicholas said. "It's good to utilize a plethora of diverse words."
Rey gave him a filthy look. "What's a... a... plethora? Is it a kind of fish? Sounds like a shark."
Sören snorted and Anthony glared; Sören stuck his tongue out. "Did you know Papa's a shark?" Rey asked; she'd overheard her parents' discussions referring to Anthony's epithet in the legal community, the Shark of Lincoln's Inn.
"Is he?" Nicholas smirked. "I suppose there are worse things to be."
"Honey, let's talk about something else," Anthony said, not wanting to get into talk of his reputation or talk of his job at all.
"OK," Rey said. "You should watch Frozen." Rey gave Nicholas a very serious look. "It will change your life."
Anthony chuckled, amused. Sören lost it, doubling over. Sören patted her and said, "Rey, krútt mitt, you're four."
"So?"
At last the snowman had arms that didn't look like penises, and the snowman's head was on. Rey cheered, jumping up and down. "Yayyy, a snowman!" She hugged Sören, then Anthony. "Thank you, Mumdad. Thank you, Papa." Then she looked up at Nicholas - while he wasn't completely a stranger, he was still unfamiliar enough that Rey knew not to hug him. But she put out her hand instead. "Thank you, Saint Nick."
"You're welcome, dear. The pleasure was mine." Nicholas took her hand and shook it, and at last he rose to his feet, wincing a little; Anthony imagined he probably had a touch of arthritis, though he was otherwise in good shape. Too good. Heat once again rose in Anthony's cheeks, trying not to notice how attractive Nicholas was. How good he smelled. Trying not to remember how delicious Alpha-on-Alpha sex was, all teasing and rough conquest... trying not to think about what it would be like for Nicholas to heat partner Sören.
Anthony and Sören helped each other up, and now Sören, too, was shaking Nicholas's hand. "Thank you," Sören said. "You just made a little girl very happy."
"And we're sorry," Anthony said, glancing at Rey skipping around the snowman, and then back at Nicholas. "She's... a lot, I know." Anthony loved his daughter and they didn't want to break her spirit, but he sometimes worried how she would fare when she got to school.
"You needn't apologize," Nicholas said. "I... enjoyed myself." Now Nicholas's cheeks were pink. "I haven't built a snowman since I was a child. It felt good to... let loose a little, I suppose."
"Yes." Sören nodded vehemently. "I recommend it. You should do it more often." Sören grinned. "The snowman could use some friends."
"Sören." Anthony laughed.
"I didn't mean right now," Sören assured him. Sören turned back to Nicholas. "Would you like to come have tea with us?"
Anthony offered one better, feeling like it would be good to be on friendly terms with a neighbor, and of course that had nothing whatsoever to do with wanting to look at Nicholas some more. "You could stay for dinner, perhaps?"
"Another time," Nicholas said, nodding. "I have some items that need to be cooked tonight..."
"Oh. O-OK." Sören looked a bit disappointed.
And Nicholas looked a little wistful. "Have a good evening, gentlemen." And he waved to Rey, who waved back at him. "And you yourself, dear."
"Bye Saint Nick! Night!" Rey waved.
Just before Nicholas could walk through his door, Rey called out, "What's a plethora?"
Nicholas paused and laughed. "It's a multitude."
"What's a multitude?"
"A lot."
"Just like you," Anthony said, booping her nose.
"I'm the alot," Rey corrected him.
"I care about this alot," Sören said, scooping her up to take her inside.
I like him a lot, Anthony thought, watching Nicholas go through the door, one last small wave before he closed it.