here we go again.

♛ If it weren’t for Thomas, Casper would have middle-fingered his husband with a roll of his eyes. Instead, he just smiled with a nod of his head. “Chocolate chip pancakes, got it. Just don’t scream at me if they’re burnt.” He never had finished learning how to cook and was still a mess at it.

♛ “How come? It’s only the start of the day and the start of the day is the worst part.” Casper wasn’t a morning person by any definition. He just kind of floated through most mornings. “I’ll go get breakfast ready–want anything specific?” he asked, looking at Thomas as well as Aster.

♛ A soft smile formed in his face as he stepped away from the three year old’s bed. He just let the scene unfold in front of him. After all the craziness in his life, it was nice to see something so sickeningly domestic as a father waking his child.  After all the craziness of the Valentine’s ball, Casper wouldn’t blame his son if he stayed in bed all day.

♛ Casper nodded. He beamed, covering his face, “Don’t say things like that–you’ll make me blush.” He twisted the fork he had grabbed around in his fingers. “You don’t say? Well that’s the sappiest thing I’ve heard all night.”

♛ Sitting down, he just let himself get lost in the moment. Casper hadn’t been to anything extravagant since college, which would have made him sad, but he didn’t really like parties anyways. “They sure have nice music tonight,” he said, attempting to make light conversation.

♛ “That’s what they told me in college when I was still a journalist,” he said with a laugh. Casper stole a quick kiss over the three year old’s head, for once glad that Thomas was so small. “Glad your here,” he said, taking his plate of food and started to head back to the table.

♛ Casper laughed at the memory. “Oh yeah. It was brutal. Fun, but brutal.” Between gathering his own food and making sure Thomas didn’t spill his, the male barely noticed the rest of the crowd. “But you want to know what makes it all worth it?” he said, barely above a whisper, “Waking up every morning for the past four years to see your face. It just gets me to fall in love all over again every time.”

♛ Casper nodded, “Sounds good.” He started heading towards the food. The male didn’t know how to navigate the throngs of people who had joined in the festivities, but he managed to find his way, never once letting the other’s hand slip from his grip. There would be plenty of time for everything else.

♛ “Why wouldn’t they be? It’s the holiday of love,” The LaBouff male smiled, taking the other’s hands–one of Aster’s and one of Thomas’s–in his own. “And there’s no one I love more than you two and my family.” Casper’s smile held onto his face as he looked around, trying to spot anyone else he recognized. With no one in sight, he tugged on his husband’s hand. “What should we do first? Food, dancing, something else?”

@asterthethorn

♛ Casper hadn’t expected to be bringing a little kid to a ball, but after seeing the small kid’s face when he saw his dads leaving made him not want to leave without him. So after dressing him up and taking Aster’s hand, he went off to the ball. The LaBouff male smiled, setting Thomas down–three year old’s were heavy. “Hope you’re having a nice night,” he said, pecking his husband’s lips.

rosetta chuckled at his son, his face reminding her of when he stole cookies from the kitchen when he was younger “naughty, young man.” she shook her head playfully. her eyes running over the decadent selection “are you trying to make your mother fat?” the red head brought a finder to her chin thinking over her options “okay i’ll take blueberry! they are so delicious.” she reached for said muffin.

Giving an affectionate shake of his head, he turned his attention to wiping down the counter. “Just making sure my loved ones get the best of the best,” Aster promised prior to resuming his work. After all, there were some jobs that were never done, especially keeping the cafe in prim and proper shape. Thank goodness that he had an amazing staff to help out, but he couldn’t help but remember the early days when he was just starting out with a few friends by his side. “Time flies, seems just like yesterday this place was opened,” he remarked.

♛ Sleepy, Casper rolled his eyes at the sweet gesture. “Ugh, don’t say it like that–it makes me sound like a criminal for waking our son up.” He walked over to Thomas’s bed, gently nuzzling the child’s face, “Hey, Tommy, wake up. We’ve got a big day ahead of us,” the male spoke quietly, his voice probably not even reaching the child’s ears.

rosetta laughed at his expression, placing an arm around her son’s waist she started to walk to the counter so she could grab a bite to eat before having to go back to work. she smiled at his words “i’m glad you are happy, petal. that’s all i ever wanted for you.” she sat down, rosetta felt like she was the proudest mother both her children have amazing lives of their own and she was beyond happy they let her stay around them so much.

At that, Aster gave his brightest grin yet then it quickly morphed into a content smile. Taking one more glance around the cafe before heading off to sneakily grab a few muffins, the youngest Thorn sat down by Rosetta. Holding a finger up to his lips with a small chuckle, he set the tray down on the counter. “We’ve got strawberry, banana, chocolate, blueberry, cinnamon muffins galore. If any of those don’t pique your interest, then we’ve got loads more sweet treats.”

“oh stop it.” she said waving her hand dismissively “okay never mind you can continue.” she said walking in on his arms and returning the hug. after pulling away rosetta pinched her son’s cheeks, she didn’t care he was a father himself he would always be her little boy. “how are things going? how is business?” she asked with a matching grin.

Somethings about life never changed for Aster, especially the mock exhaustion that always appeared on his face whenever Rosetta pinched his cheeks. He gave a small chuckle almost immediately though, breaking the serious expression. Smiling contentedly for a few moments, a proud grin made way across his features. “It’s going really well, something to be proud of. Casper and I are great, so is little Tommy. In short, life’s fantastic.”

♛ “Sounds like a plan, Stan,” he said with a mini salute. Casper supposed that it was silly for a grown man such as himself to still say old-timey phrase like that. He just didn’t care when it came to family. The LaBouff grinned at the other as he sat up. “Shall we go wake the little monster?”

♛ It was great hearing how much his husband valued his coworkers. The snow it brought to his own face was filled with love. “Want to bundle Thomas up and have a father-soon snowball fight? Ya know–give him an awesome snow day before he even starts school.” An odd idea, Casper would admit that, but he was a sticker for nostalgia and making things better. And a snow break was the perfect way to bring back old memories as well as make some amazing new ones.

♛ "Hm, I think I will. After all, I trust you to not abandon your employees,“ Casper let out a small laugh as he sighed contently, sitting up from his position. It was times like these that he cherished the most. Ones where it was simple and just the three of them. “The best day off? That’s a pretty big challenge, we’ve had some awesome ones. Especially back in high school. Snow days were seriously the best.”