#eli blumenthal

AJ Hamilton rolled over when the sunbeams snuck under the blinds and lanced across his eyes in an attempt to escape consciousness for a few more minutes. He flopped over into his other side with a low groan, hoping to ignore the days’ worth of papers and meetings and files that he knew was waiting for him. Just a little longer in bed…

But of course, that wasn’t going to happen.

As he moved, he shifted the whole delicate balance they they’d all fallen into during the night and suddenly a warm, heavy weight fell across his chest and the wind was knocked out of him by his one-year-old daughter deciding to use his body as a bed. He tried not to yelp out loud; his unexpected fatherhood had involved a lot of learning in the job but one thing he definitely knew was that babies didn’t like being woken up.

Eli didn’t get away with it, however, and AJ got a very nice moment where he watched his husband’s wide dark eyes flicker open and a warm, loving light dawn in them as they focused on his face.

“Morning, baby,” AJ grinned, wheezing a little as Althea took up most of the space his lungs wanted to occupy.

Eli smiled sleepily, wondering how he ever lived before he got to wake up to the sight of his little family every day, “Morning.”

“I would lean over and kiss you but…” AJ kept his voice low, gesturing at the sleeping baby on his chest pinning him onto his back.

Eli gave a raspy chuckle, stretching his long arms above his head, easing the sleep out of his muscles before sitting up and freeing AJ. Eli was always better with the gentle touches, lifting Althea and settling her back down between them without so much as a snuffle from the little girl. AJ’s hugs were always a little too fierce, he just couldn’t help himself. More than once, Eli had found his husband with his face buried in Thea’s fluffy cloud of tight, black bouncy curls, having a bit of a moment while their daughter cheeped and wriggled, apparently done with the hug before her Pops was.

“My hero,” AJ chuckled, propping himself up on his forearms.

Eli rolled his eyes fondly, “My damsel in distress…we should let her sleep for a while longer. She needs the rest, she’s had a rough few nights.”

AJ didn’t need telling, he’d been right there alongside Eli as they’d spent majority of the last few nights rocking and trying to soothe Thea as she wailed and cried miserably, sniffling and coughing and whimpering rather than sleeping. For most of her short life, poor Thea seemed to have had disease after disease, ones even paediatrician Eli had to admit were just ‘bugs’. Neither of her fathers would trade her for anything, however unexpectedly she’d come into their lives, but even they had to admit that she was a difficult baby. And it was only understandable that she couldn’t stand to sleep on her own just yet, what with her blindness and her abandonment issues, she needed the comforting warmth of her daddy and her Pops on either side of her while she slept. Both of them were more than willing to make that little concession for her.

“Yeah,” AJ nods, looking down at their tiny little girl with a soft expression, tucking the duvet up and in around her a little more, “It’s been a trip.”

Eli huffed a laugh, his eyes fixed on AJ’s face, “Hey…what was that you said about a kiss?”

AJ looked up, his eyes brightening, “I think I might have mentioned something…”

There was a sense of relief as their lips met, as AJ rose to meet Eli, his hands resting on his shoulders and pulling them closer. One thing they’d found about having a child was that their moments together, their chances to be close where now almost non-existent. AJ felt more than a little guilty for thinking this, now that he had a daughter to take care of, it was hardly fatherly. But going from spending every night so tangled up in each other it was hard to tell whose limbs where whose to nothing was a little jarring for him.

There may or may not have been a slightly desperate text to his Pops and his brother Philip (who seemed to be following in their father’s footsteps with three kids of his own already and plans for another), after he and Eli had been making out on the couch and Thea had come toddling over, deciding she wanted to play the game where she sat on AJ’s chest and ran her fingers through his long hair. For the third time this week. That’s when he’d decided that drastic action needed to be taken.

Both Alex and Pip had given him the same tip (they were used to kind of weird texts from AJ by this point in all their lives) and today, now Althea was finally getting a good, solid sleep uninterrupted by vomiting or sniffling, he had a mind to put it into practise.

Eli was already giving him a look, seeing a familiar expression growing on his face, “I can hear you thinking.”

“I am,” AJ admitted, his grin playfully coy, something that Eli knew was a damn lie. His husband didn’t have it in him to be bashful, “I’m thinking that we could use a shower before the long work day ahead. And, naturally, with climate change becoming such an issue in our world today, wasting water is a huge factor. I have some scientific articles I could show you, actually…”

Eli rolled his eyes, his dark cheeks flushing, “You’re going to pull scientific articles to convince me to get in the shower with you?”

“I might be?”

“You dork.”

Just before they exited, as AJ was dragging Eli out towards the bathroom almost frantically, he did pause and look back at Thea, looking awfully small all curled up and tucked in the middle of that big bed all by herself.

“She’ll be okay, right?” he checked, feeling guilty. Lord almighty, AJ was feeling guilty for going off to have sex with Eli, what on earth was happening to him…

“She’ll be fine, the poor pumpkin’s out like a light,” Eli reassured him gently.

That was all AJ needed, he’d never crossed the hall so quickly in his life.

 Thea woke up feeling decidedly confused, mainly because she was cold.

Why was she cold? Her daddies should be curled around her on both sides, keeping her nice and toasty between them. But as she woke up slowly and began patting around, trying to feel for where they might be…nothing.

Where were they?

There was a moment of blind panic in her chest, tears threatened, she started to shake. But, oh, then everything was okay again. Because she could hear them, there was her Pops’ higher voice and her daddy’s lower baritone, their laughter ringing out from a little way away. That sound alone was enough to calm her down. She trusted her dads implicitly, even in the dark world she’d lived in all her short life, their voices and touches and kisses were her guide, her light.

So, she wasn’t scared, now she was just a little offended. Why on earth where they having fun without her, laughing and messing around but leaving her all alone? It was just plain rude.

And she was going to fix it.

Thea had learned to toddle very quickly, AJ and Eli had both been shocked by how quickly she went from crawling to getting around on her own two feet, though she still preferred to be carried.

But now it was an emergency. Thea rolled herself out of bed like a little hedgehog, landing on her feet and off she went, her sweet face set in suspicion. She got to the bathroom pretty easily, keeping one hand on the wall to guide her though she got very good at remembering the layout of the apartment very quickly. AJ and Eli were always very careful not to move the furniture so she could get around with safety.

The bathroom door was open and she could hear her dads even better now, they were laughing loudly. Pops was always so silly, always making Thea and Daddy laugh, doing silly voices and tickling and singing for her. He was singing now, she could hear, and she got even grumpier, why was she being left out?

She could hear another noise, a regular rapping, like the rain daddy would hold her up to the window to listen to sometimes because it soothed her when she felt bad. Thea decided to ignore that, she was more preoccupied with their voices, that was what she wanted to get to. That’s what she sought as she moved through the bathroom on her hands and knees, jumped up the little step that she felt there and moved past the weird crunchy sounding curtain that was there.

And then Thea fell on her butt with a loud shout of shock.

Why was she all wet?!

 AJ and Eli were more than a little surprised to suddenly find their daughter crashing through the shower curtain, tumbling to the floor and suddenly finding herself taking a shower whole still in her pyjamas. They’d been a little busy kissing and it brought the mood down ever so slightly. Although in moments, they were both cooing and giggling helplessly at their little girl looking completely and totally ticked off, her face set in a grumpy pout, as her hair plastered to her face and her little space rocket patterned footie pyjamas soaked through. She didn’t cry, she just folded her arms and huffed, looking for all the world like someone better explain why it was raining indoors and do it fast because she is very cross.

She was quickly rescued by Eli who carried her out and cuddled her up in a big fluffy towel and covered her in kisses while AJ tried not to laugh too hard, petting her curls and trying to tease them back into their usual bouncy life.

 And the rest of the Hamilton and Burr families got their Wednesdays off to a great start when they were texted a frankly adorable picture of Althea Hamilton, wrapped up in a white towel like a polar bear cub and a soaked onesie, with an expression that could curdle milk.