Sleptember Glapes

"Put them down, I can take them to the bin," James reached for him as he got up, one hand circling his waist while the other reached around to take on of the watermelons from him, "You're not supposed to lift anything."

"Anything heavy," Will corrected, but even as he spoke James had set the first one down and taken the other one from him, "This is all within the limit, I can still lift two fucking melons."

"But you don't need to," James touched his arm and brought him in closer to the seat he'd just vacated, "I'll do the tidying up, yeah? You'll sit there and relax."

"I don't need a sit down, Jamie," Will groused but didn’t fight him this time, his eyes catching instead of the watch that now decorated James' wrist, "Looks good on you."

"Thank you, Will." James dipped to kiss his head. He was glad that Will’s attention had shortened with the brain fog, else he knew the other man might've thrown more of a tantrum about being coddled.

But James couldn't help it. He needed to see that Will was alright, even if it earned him a few annoyed swats and some whinging. Even if it meant that he had to get Juno from Will’s arms whenever he caught him carrying her around; the watermelons might be under the weight limit, but an almost four year old wasn't.

"We're cutting up two of them for people to scran," Will caught him before he picked them up again, "The one that had the box and the dropped one can go on the bin... if you could bring us a slice?"

"Of course... is that what Lyra wants?" He knelt by him, speaking almost conspiratorially, hand reaching where he knew the baby lay.

"Maybe? Just fancy something a bit fresh, I think," Will touched his wrist with a gentle squeeze, "You don’t have to be so touchy, you know... I don’t expect you to make up for anything."

bro wants that cookie so effing bad

(u should click 4 better quality)

It was strange to be in such a busy house and to be in complete silence. He supposed everyone else had gone to bed though. Will’s parents had the guest room, while Chris, George and Arthur where in the room that would become Lyras nursery, a comfy air mattress had been put in place even if it was just three nights.

All of the guests had gone to sleep hours ago, either tires from a long drive from up North, or, in Chris' case, too heavy now to have energy left over.

Juno had lasted a bit longer but he'd carried her up when she started doing long blinks. Will had gone to sleep the earliest, he had still a fair bit to recover and having this many people around wasn’t easy: not for someone that gave birth a week earlier.

So James perched on the sofa alone with just the lights coming from the solar fairy lights outside streaming through the window, his eight day old baby on his lap looking up at him.

"Longest you've been awake, huh?" He rubbed her tummy and she made a weird snorting noise, "You got fed half an hour ago, let him rest a while longer."

She didn’t cry which he was thankful for, he was able to stay on the couch just holding her two tiny hands in his massive ones, admiring the tiny nails and creases, the small freckle on her wrist. She looked like a doll, too perfect to be real, to be his... but she was both of those things.

"Been four years exactly," he told her quietly, glad that she was too young to remember this, "Four years to the day..."

She pressed her feet into him as she tried to shuffle up unsuccessfully.