Chapter 11
(Cooper)
Snowmageddon part two wound up dumping almost a foot of fresh snow on the region, leading him to beg Song, Zachy, and Gage, who’d joined in on the final one, to put an end to the snow-snow dances for a while.
While he’d never been a superstitious man, he’d begun to wish that Shanny had never taught him the dance or gotten so many of the littles involved in it, as he’d heard through the grapevine of Daddies he communicated with about snow dances being held all over town.
Of course, Gage had just chuckled at that, wiggled his ass, and mouthed the word "snow," prompting Cooper to smack him with a pillow that ignited a full-fledged pillow fight when Song and Zachy joined in.
How nothing had gotten broken in the ensuing melee was beyond his scope of understanding, with how fiercely the boys had battled before Gage and Cooper had abandoned their pillows in favor of tickling them.
While Zachy had surrendered after several seconds, Song had shoved his hands up Cooper’s shirt and found a few of his ticklish spots, even managing to roll and reverse their positions so he was on top, tickling until Cooper gasped and squirmed before finally admitting defeat.
His giggling boy had collapsed on him to snuggle against his chest and pin him to the floor, growing heavier until Cooper realized the little imp was attempting to take a nap on him.
They had all been up late the night before, so he’d dragged a nearby pillow under his head and insisted on staying right there until Song had the chance to catch up on his sleep.
Gage draped a blanket over them before sitting on the couch with Zachy, who’d promptly fallen asleep snuggled up to Gage on the couch, the TV on low as he and Gage watched one of their favorite Christmas movies.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
So what if the humor was a bit off-color and the disasters a bit far-fetched? The cast was hilarious, while the dysfunction was so over the top that it didn’t trigger memories of real holiday disasters he’d experienced over the years.
Fingers carded through his hair as Gage separated the strands, the soothing motion making his eyes feel heavy, especially with Song’s warm body pressed against him while he lightly snored in Cooper’s ear.
If a more perfect moment existed, he wasn’t in the mood to think about it.
Even the movie was growing hazy as Gage caressed his cheek, drawing Cooper’s attention from the television to him.
“Take a nap; you look like you need it,” Gage urged, his voice a low, rumbly whisper that didn’t disturb either boy in the slightest.
As much as he wanted to protest, keeping his eyes open and formulating words took too much effort.
Best to sneak a bit of rest in while he could, because something told him that when the boys got up again, they’d be all riled up and ready for some time in the playroom.
Just as he was beginning to tumble over the edge between wakefulness and slumber, Born to be Wild erupted from someone’s phone, startling him and Song, who sat up blinking, bleary-eyed, and looking completely disoriented.
“Shit, sorry,” Song muttered, gaze darting around as he searched for the basket they kept their phones in when they were enjoying family time.
“To your left, sweetheart,” Gage said, pointing Song over to where it sat on the top of the turntable stand just inside the entryway to the living room.
As Song shambled over to it, Cooper sat up, cracked his neck, and decided to relocate to the other end of the wraparound couch, where he and Song would be more comfortable.
“Hey, Solo, what’s going on?” Song said by way of greeting.
The only one who hadn’t twitched was Zachy, who could sleep through a hailstorm as long as nothing hit him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cooper watched Gage prop himself up as much as he could, eyes trained on their boy the same way Cooper's were, waiting with bated breath to hear that everything was okay with his family.
“Oh, okay, yeah, you’re looking for the green tote in the far left-hand corner of the garage,” Song explained.
“I think we need to start writing on them with Sharpies. The label idea was nice, until half of them melted off the plastic over the summer. There’s an extra one in my room too if you need it; it’s hanging on the hook over the bed. I kept forgetting to put it back.”
More silence, but Gage eased back down on the cushions again and gently rubbed circles on Zachy’s back.
“Cool,” Song said. “Check the hall closet if you need extra blankets; I washed a couple loads of them the other night and put them back in there.”
When Song laughed, his whole face lit up, his head tipped back, and his hair spilled from the messy bun he’d tied it up in. Their boy was stunning as he paced with the phone, looking rather pleased with himself.
“Yeah, they weren’t kidding; we did a great big snow-snow dance the other night at the club and several little ones too. Sorry, sis, I know how you feel about the fluffy white stuff, but it was so much fun.”
There was a pause, then Song’s nose scrunched up as he started glaring at his phone like it had personally offended him.
“Don’t you dare! That’s not even a thing! Sun dances don’t exist.”
More silence; this time Song’s expression changed several times, from bewildered to downright exasperated by the time his sister finished speaking.
“Okay, okay, brainiac, sun dances exist, I get it,” Song declared.
“Didn’t need a whole-ass history lesson.
You made your point. I don’t require a demonstration, especially not in the middle of summer.
Burned to a crisp and drooping from heat exhaustion isn’t a good look on me, and you know that better than anyone. ”
Cooper immediately committed that bit of information to memory with the intent of getting him to elaborate more on that later, despite summer being several months away.
If there were things they needed to know or keep on hand to better prepare for summer activities, then it was best to start planning now rather than have something happen and be caught off guard.
“So far, we haven’t lost power out here, but my daddies have prepared for it if it happens, so we’re all good.
Yeah, you heard me, my daddies. We made it official last night.
Uh-huh, they’re coming to New York with me too, so you can stop worrying so much about the trip; I won’t be unsupervised. Ajay’s daddy is going too.”
There was a brief pause as Song shook his head, lips moving, though Cooper couldn’t hear what he was saying. Finally, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I will, and I’ll call you as soon as we get back.
The forecast looks good for next week, so I don’t think it will be an issue, but Mark has already texted everyone in the band about potential replacement dates if we do have to cancel anything.
We’re going to head up a day earlier than planned too, just in case.
The hotel is central to all the venues, and Mark has everything mapped out, so it’s all good, I promise.
Yeah, yup, I’ll tell them. Uh-huh. Later, Solo. ”
He was chuckling as he hung up and shaking his head too as he returned his phone to the basket.
“The power is out all over the city, and she couldn’t remember which tote we’d put the spare lanterns in,” he explained, keeping his voice low as he crossed the room to return to Cooper’s side.
“She wanted to thank you guys for going to New York with me too; it’s the furthest away from home that I’ve ever been, and with her promotion she wasn’t going to be able to go with me, so she was glad it wouldn’t just be me and the band.
I wish she’d quit worrying so much. The biggest issue has already been dealt with, and good riddance. ”
“She’s your family; she’s always going to worry,” Cooper explained as he cuddled back up beside him. “You’d better get used to more worrying now that you have Gage and me in your life.”
He flopped dramatically along Cooper’s side and groaned. “Not another pair of mother hens.”
“Cluck, cluck,” Gage muttered, making Song giggle, groan, and cover his eyes.
“I’m doomed,” Song whined, so adorably cute and playful that it was easy to tell he was just giving us crap.
“Yeah, you are,” Cooper said. “Doomed to find yourself swathed in bubble wrap if it ever looks like you’re about to come home bruised again.
Doomed to be coddled whenever you’re sad and cuddled whenever it looks like you could use a hug.
And doomed to be peppered with questions whenever one of us is worried about you. Like right now.”
“I’m good,” Song insisted. “Why would you be worried?”
“Overhearing the part of your conversation with Solo where you mentioned having heat exhaustion,” Cooper explained.
“Is that something that happens often? Do you overheat easily? Should we be worried about prolonged sun exposure? Is there a type of sunscreen we need to keep on hand for outings, and do we need to keep an eye on how long we’re outdoors without shade or taking breaks to go indoors? ”
When Song wiggled, Cooper loosened the hold he had on him so Song could roll over in his embrace.
The fierceness with which Song hugged him stunned him at first as his boy clung to him, but he quickly recovered and remembered to hug back.
For several moments they just stayed that way, Cooper stroking Song’s hair as they held one another.
Even when Song drew back so Cooper could see his face, they never lost contact with one another.
“Thank you,” Song murmured before leaning in and brushing the sweetest kiss over Cooper’s lips.
Stunned, Cooper could only stare at him. “For what?”