#futurefics

February 11, 2020

“Are you ready?”

“I’ve always been ready for this, for her.”

“Why are your knees shaking then?”

“Because I’m walking to my happily ever after Lauren. I think a guy is allowed to be nervous.”

“You’re happy.”

“So much.”

She grins at him, and she wraps her arms around him. “My little brother, the first one of us to take the fall.”

“It wasn’t easy let me tell you that.”

---

May 2016

“You left the toilet seat up!”

“You squeezed the toothpaste from the middle.”

“James!”

“Nadine!”

They both huffed at each other before Nadine pinches his cheek and crawls on top of him on their shared bed.

“You’re annoying but I still love you.”

“Right back at you love.”

“Okay, so seven things. We’ll both have seven things we can agree on that is our ultimate pet peeves and we’ll promise never to do it again.”

“Seven?”

“It’s a compromise now Jem, we are going to live together forever.”

“Okay. First... bikinis.”

“Jem...”

“Bikinis. Not in public. My eyes. Only.”

“Fine, your drop armhole tanks.”

“But it’s hot!”

“Do you think I like it when you’re walking around all but shirtless and girls oggle you?”

He grins at her and rests his head on his arms so he can look at her better, perched on top of him.

“We’re both old people aren’t we?”

“Sue me.”

“Alright fine, no drop tanks. As long as you promise no durian in the house.”

“Fine. No Vegemite.”

His eyes widen and she bites her lip because her Jem was a little pasty arsed Australian to the core and you cannot take away his Vegemite. Even if it tasted like the devil’s armpits.

“Naddie love, there is not a single Australian in the world who will allow you to take away his or her Vegemite.”

“I’m not letting Clarky near that stuff again. If you want Vegemite go over to your brother’s. We live next door afterall.”

“Fine. No Taylor Swift.”

She slapped his chest and sat on her haunches, her butt digging into his stomach and he groans lightly, holding her hips steady against him. 

“You said you liked Sparks Fly?”

“When you sing it, not when she whiny blares it out.”

“Fine! No Justin Timberlake!”

“You said you liked me singing Justin Timberlake.”

“It was my way to get you to admit you liked me, not because I like hearing his nasally voice!”

He growls at her and sits up on the bed, forcing her to arch closer to him and he grins at the sudden hitch in her voice. 

“No snacks on the bed. You’re crumby, love. Very, very crumby. I live in fear that one day we’d have an ant infestation on our beds.”

“I told you I clean up after myself!”

“Do you vacuum the floors after you change the sheets?”

“No.”

“For an OC person you’re very crumby.”

“You’re dirty! You drink from the gallon of milk. No.”

“Okay deal. No panties when you’re in bed with me.”

She chokes on her laughter as his hands snake under her shorts where she was, indeed pantsless. She rarely bothered because James had a tendency of ripping them all off.

She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him, hissing when his roaming fingers hit a particularly sensitive spot.

“Deal, as long as you always hold me tight, like this, when I’m in bed with you.”

“Even when we’re not. No shutting me out when you get mad.”

She grins and holds him closer, breathing in his Jamesy smell and resting her head on his shoulder.

“No pretending you don’t hear what I’m saying when you’re mad.”

He lifts her hair away and kisses her neck, smiling when she huffs out a breathe and tucks her head against his own on a groan.

“No sleeping when we’re mad.”

She pulls away, cupping his cheeks and resting her forehead against his. “No sleeping when we’re mad.”

“Love?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for being in my life.”

She smiles and tackles him to the bed, he lands on an oof and she’s there, lips, tongue and he’s drowning in the scent of her.

“Thank you for being in mine.”

And she kisses him until day break.

---

February 11, 2020

“Are you ready?”

“I’ve been waiting for him all my life.”

“I can’t believe you and James are finally getting married!”

“It’s been a roller coaster ride wasn’t it?”

She grins at her best friend, flowers in hair, a gorgeous white dress on her, and his ring in a necklace around her neck. 

“I can’t believe that ring is moving from your neck to your fingers.”

She fiddles with the small pendant, as had been her habit for the past five years and grins at Yassi taking off the clasp, sliding her ring from the necklace and placing the simple gold band on her ring finger, together with the simple diamond he gave her to mark his official proposal.

“We were always going to end up here, we just took a longer route to get here.”

---

May 2016

“Let’s get married.”

“What in the world Jem?”

She stopped trying to kill the large alien devouring her causing her to die and James simply cast aside his controller and turned to face her.

“Let’s do it. Get married. Be my wife.”

“As proposals go Jem that’s not really romantic. What has gotten into you?”

She threw her controller to the couch, rising to go to his kitchen but he intercepts her and pulls out his ring on a chain that he never leaves without. Her ring. The one she put on his finger a year ago.

“I want to marry you, again. Renew my vows to you, after what happened.”

“And you think Vegas is the way to go?”

She hipchecks him and angrily opens the fridge and he hugs her from behind, resting his cheek on her shoulder and holding her tight.

“I know. We said next time we do it, we’d do it right. With our family there and our loved ones there, and in a church and we’re not pregnant. And one day we’ll do it, soon, tomorrow if only we can. But I want to renew my vows to you, make new ones... Please. Marry me again love. This time it’ll be forever.”

She hooks an arm around his neck, grinning as her heart raced because her husband is being all sorts of cute and sweet.

“Okay.”

---

February 11, 2020

He lost count of the number of times she has walked down the aisle towards him. He should be used to it by now. 

But there was still something that took his breath away seeing her in the bone colored dress, with flowers in her hair. There was something in the way she looked up from the moment the doors of the small church opened and she met his eyes and held and she smiled as if... as if he was enough for a hundred different lifetimes.

He feels his eyes tearing up, watching her take that first step, as a shower of glitter fell over her and she was shining so brightly his heart was hurting and his brother pats him on the back and he clasps Tom’s hand and they grin at each other, brother to brother, both with tears in their eyes because she was here... his wife, the love of his life. And he was so glad he got to share his joy with his brother.

He turns back to her and she’s toeing off her shoes and her dad and her mom are laughing at her as she takes their hands and runs down the aisle, and he’s rushing down the steps and her laughter was in his ears as he catches her around her waist and lifts her into his arms and she wipes his tears away and presses her lips to him.

She breaks away with a giggle as the priest clears his throat and she takes his hand and leans on his shoulder.

“Sorry Father, I couldn’t wait any longer.”

---

May 2016

“Naddie will you get a bite of something to eat?”

“Later Laurie. Yung asawa ko hindi pa kumakain.”

She pinches Nadine’s arm and rolls her eyes at her. 

“Asawa again. Your entire life revolves around James now.”

“When you get married you’ll understand.”

“I don’t wanna if I end up like that.”

Nadine elbows her and wraps more meat in lettuce for James who was still out of it due to his pain meds and stuffs the lettuce in his mouth.

“Babe, chew. You can’t sleep on me yet.” Nadine mutters as she cups James’ jaw and turns his head side to side.

James grins wanly at her and rubs at his eyes and Lauren’s heart melts because he used to do that too, when he was a kid and he was getting sleepy.

“Sorry love I really want to rest now.”

He leans on her shoulder and Nadine wipes her hands on a towel and hooks an arm around James.

“Baby ko, you want to go back to the hotel?”

“No. You eat, I’ll just rest for a while.”

True to his word James fell asleep on Nadine as she stuffed her mouth quickly with food, keeping one arm hooked around James keeping him steady against her.

“Ate Ca, what time yung next niyang inom ng gamot?”

“Mamaya pang 11 PM ateng.”

Nadine clucks her tongue and brushes James’ hair away from his forehead.

“Medyo nilalagnat eh, sige na patulugin muna may jet lag pa kawawa naman. Sabihin mo Ate Ca cancel muna lahat ng pupuntahan tomorrow ha, patulugin muna ito.”

“Nako Ateng magwawala ang fans.”

“Hayaan mo sila, yung asawa ko mas importante.”

Lauren grins as Nadine shifts so James can rest more comfortably against her, as she worriedly lays her hand on his forehead to monitor his temperature.

“We should head back, let him get some rest, he’s really tired.”

That was the first time she realized how lucky her brother was to have someone like Nadine.

---

She held his hand throughout the ceremony, just giddily smiling at him as the priest spoke of love being honest, of love letting you grow, of love being something that makes you want to be a better person.

She held his hand and watched as the tears came into his eyes as the priest asked him to say his vows.

“Bakit ka umiiyak!” She asks him laughingly as she slaps his arm and she feels the tears start to clog her throat as well as he takes her hand once more and grips her tight, like he did the first time he told her he loved her. The first time he said it to the world.

“Nadine...I...”

The first tear spills from his cheek and she laughs, raising their joined hands to wipe it away as she feels her own tears spill from her cheeks.

“I love you. I had an entire speech planned, and I’m good at memorizing lines you know that but... God my brain is so blank right now because you’re here, and you’re becoming my wife and you have no idea how that is the best thing that has ever happened in my life.”

But she can. She can understand it, because he was the best thing that ever happened in her life too. He was... prince charming come to life.

You know how when you’re a kid you dream about prince charming and how one day he’ll come to save you. Over the years she grew up learning the prince charming is not real and that we save ourselves.

Then James came into her life. 

James of the sad eyes and the mysterious smile and the warmth of his cheek against her lips remained for a solid week after they shot that music video.

He was her prince, come to life. Not someone who would save her, but someone who looks at her and tells her to fight her battles and when she’d look back he’s right there behind her watching her back.

He was everything she’d dreamed of, every hope and wish she had.

“If there is one thing I’d like you to know it’s that the moment you came into my life I knew. I was across the hall from you, and we were surrounded by people and mirrors and I was so scared, out of my mind scared because I was just a kid from Australia and I did not know what to do with life... but you walked into that room and in that moment I knew. Like you were someone I knew from a past life and I was always meant to find you here. And from the moment you walked into my life, there was only you.”

She raises her eyebrows at him because she could name a few that came in between her walking into the rehearsal room for the acting workshop, late as usual and the time he told her he loved her. 

He laughs and swipes her mouth in that way of his and she clutches his hands as he tugs her hands to his lips and presses a warm kiss on her knuckles.

“There were detours along the way sure because I refused to see that all roads lead to you. And no matter where I go, no matter what I do, I will always, always, come home to you. So I want to promise you today that I will always call you my home, and I will always be home to you. I promise you that kingdoms may fall, and armies might get in the way, but I will always be by your side, even if it’s just you and me against the world.”

He brushes the tears away from her eyes and cups her face, resting his forehead against hers and hooking his pinky around hers, in the way she always sought comfort from him whenever she doubted, whenever he sometimes gave her a reason to doubt.

“I promise to love you, even when I hate you, every single day for the rest of my life. I promise to be faithful, to see only you, to be with you and you alone. I promise that even though every day won’t be joyful, I would be happy being miserable with you than being okay without you. I promise to make our life an adventure, and I promise you won’t ever regret loving me. I promise to always put your happiness first but I promise to love myself first, because you deserve someone whole, and I give myself fully to you.”

He was also openly crying now and she nudges his nose with hers clutching the hand she has over her cheek and just basking in his warmth.

“When we have children soon, very soon, I want them to be like you. Strong, kind... the best kind of woman I know. I love you Nadine, and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

---

May 2016

“Where are you going?”

“Love I just...”

“You’re not moving. Don’t make me make you pee in a bottle Robert James.”

“I just want to get the remote. I just want to move.”

She grinned at her poor baby. James hated being idle. The man was restless, always on the move, always doing something productive or the other. He was a very energetic man, and he needed his outlets.

Otherwise he gets restless and bored.

And she tried to distract him with books or games, because James does tend to lose himself in a good book or a good game but sadly his need to be up and about is overpowering his focus.

She sits beside him on the bed bringing the remote and handing it to him with a kiss to his forehead and she tucks herself against him, her nose burying itself in his neck and sniffing.

“How was practice?”

“It was good. I think I can manage the good dance sequence next time so you can rest your knee more.”

“You took on more work because of me. Sorry about that love.”

“Jem... it’s nothing. I want you to get better. And right now, not moving will make you better.”

“I just... it sucks being cooped up here and all. I can’t wait for the kids to go on holiday so they can accompany Uncle James. Andy has to go to work and Laurie’s scouting for jobs and a place she can move in. I just want to be up and about and doing something too. I just want to do something really. I can’t stand being idle.”

“How about you start building our future?”

“Our future?”

“Yeah... you know one day, what kind of house we’ll have, how many kids we’ll have, that sort of thing.”

She feels his head move away from hers and she leans back, staring at him with a grin on her face as he scrutinized her.

“You think about having kids and houses and dogs with me.”

“Yes.”

“You. Miss Independent. You think about a future with me?”

“Of course. I dream about it a lot you know... little you’s running around bugging Lauren the way you did and having a dog they can play with and a little house, away from the city and the noise and you bake cookies on Sundays while I set up the game room for movie night. I want a boy. Looks like you, with the floppy hair and your eyes... I really want our kids to have your beautiful eyes. Gosh I love your eyes.”

She leans forward and kisses him on said eyes and he holds her hips and drags her close to him.

“It’s killing me that you’re so sexy right now talking about our future son and my knees all banged up and I can’t do anything about it.”

She grins, glad that he’s finally distracted from thinking about not being able to move or bathe until Tuesday and she quickly rises from her perch and straddles him, raising his hands above his head and leaning down to lick his lips.

“You may be an invalid babe. I’m not.”

And she gets her wicked way with him.

---

February 11, 2070

His hair was white now, and the strong jaw she loved covered with sagging skin, and he had spots and wrinkles all over.

But his eyes remained the same. Warm and brown like... hot chocolate on a rainy day and your mom tries to cheer you up. And when his eyes seek her out and look at her in that same way he did when they first met, she still feels it.

A kind of knowing, a tingle in her spine, a misbeat in her heart that tells her, you, it’s you. I have been looking for you.

And when he takes her hand with his thin and papery hands and holds her tight, she thinks thank God. Thank God I found you.

He smiles at her, as he holds her close their feet dancing to an old song they used to love at the prime of their youth, and their bodies may be stiff but her soul was still very much the twenty one year old girl who took one look at James Reid and knew he was the one.

His smile was the same too, something that can make the darkest day the brightest. Even when her back ails her, or her age is catching up with her, he just smiles at her from across the bed, or across the table or beside her by the rocking chair they placed in front of the fireplace and she’d be okay.

Fifty years, she thinks. It’s been fifty years and he’s always there beside her. Always keeping his promise.

To love her, even if he hated her.

To make her happy.

To love her everyday for the rest of his life.

And she’s grown used to him, to looking at her left, and reaching out a hand and holding him, touching him and having him.

Her life with him... was the best and her seven children, a bajillion grand children and her three great grand children was proof of that.

She cups his face, and her own hand was now wrinkly and papery too, but he holds her hand and presses his lips against her palm and she still feels like the most beautiful woman in the world.

“I love you Jem.”

He leans down to kiss her, and her entire family cheers and she breaks out in a gummy smile as he pulls her close and rests his forehead on hers and for a second, looking at his eyes, and feeling his warmth and loving his touch he was twenty one again, looking at her with eyes that see her as all of the stars in the universe combined. 

And she nudges his nose and 50 years did not dim the warmth of the laughter they share together. 

50 years and he can still make her heart skit a beat.

“I love you, my love. My wife. My only.”

“Happy anniversary.”

“Happy anniversary. I can’t wait for the next one to come.”

And she wraps her arms around his neck and he buries his face against her shoulder and their son captures that moment, when two old crones looked very much the same with their 22 year old selves on their very first wedding day.

---

June 2015

She wore a simple white dress she got from the store with her aunt and she had flowers in her hair, from a wreathe he bought and placed over her crown, kissing her forehead and calling her beautiful.

Her mother and father were on an iPad and James’ brother was officiating while he held his phone to his entire family grinning at them.

“Do you Robert James Reid take Nadine Alexis Lustre as your lawfully wedded wife in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, until death do you part?”

He takes her hand, wrapping his pinky tight around hers and locking and grinning at her as she let out a surprised laugh and she cups his hands and kisses his knuckles.

“I do.”

They were so young and so in love, and this was the wrong time at the wrong place. It was all sorts of wrong but he was right. And because he was everything else ceased to matter.

“And do you, Nadine Alexis Lustre, take Robert James Reid as your lawfully wedded husband in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, until death do you part?”

“LAUREN NAOMI REID!”

“Dad, come on, calm down.”

He glared at his eighteen year old son who got into a fist fight, causing him and Nadine to be pulled out of work and be called into school.

It was the worst hour of their lives driving from the studio to Xavier because SJ was the perfect student. President of the Sangguniang Kabataan, said to graduate valedictorian and was a winner of various decathlons and quiz bees. And he was a very friendly person. SJ was not the type to get into fist fights... until James heard the reason why.

SJ caught a schoolmate of his and his baby sister making out in the parking lot beside ICA, where his girls go to school.

His innocent baby, making out with a boy in his backseat. He could feel the heart attack coming through.

“You got into a fist fight over this son, and you expect me to calm down?”

SJ sighed and wrung his hands together before turning over to his mom.

“Mom... you have to stop him. He’ll build that tower and keep Luna there.”

His wife wrapped an arm around their son and glared at her husband.

“You’re not screaming at our daughter and alienating her from us James.”

“SHE WAS MAKING OUT WITH A BOY!”

“As were you when you were her age. Now, calm down. I know you’re worried Jaye, but this is not the way to go.”

He huffed and took the hand his wife offered him and gripped her tight.

“They’re growing up way too fast.”

His eyes started to sting, blurring the loving face of his wife and she sighed.

“SJ anak, go up to your room first okay? Can you ask Yaya Cel to put ice on that bruise.”

“Okay mom.”

Nadine let go of his hand and laid her hands on SJ’s shoulder. He was taller than her now, looking so much like James she gets nostalgic when she sees his face and she kisses her son’s bruised eyes.

“I know you love your sister, but you know violence is never right.”

“Yes mom.”

His son hung his head and Nadine wrapped her arms around their son, rubbing his back. 

“This won’t be on your record since it’s a first offense, and your Dean accepted your apology plus your voluntary community service. But you know you have to apologize to Jackson.”

“MOM!”

SJ pulls back rapidly from Nadine and she gives him the death glare. 

“Sirius James Reid. You know you have to.”

SJ scowls darkly, and looks down at his shoes. “I know, doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“That’s my son. Now go on up, and wash up for dinner. And send Luna down when you see her okay.”

“Sure mom, and.... sorry, for causing trouble for you guys.”

Nadine pats SJ’s cheek and smiles at him. “It’s about time you did. I was beginning to wonder if you were really a Reid.”

“Hey!”

SJ snorts at her statement and with his lanky limbs, climbs up the stairs into his room. 

She then turns to him, and saying nothing wraps her arms around him and leans back to look him in the eyes.

“Baby, don’t be mad at Luna.”

He sighs wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning down to bury his face against her neck.

“They’re growing up too fast. SJ is off to college, Luna is kissing boys, the twins are in football camp, and Libby’s almost a teenager now too and I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she told me she wanted a microscope and lip gloss. She used to just want dolls that she can run over with her brother’s trucks and now... she’s growing up! What’s next? Remy stopped calling me daddy. Said that was for babies and that I was dad now, because he’s a big boy. How can he be big he’s just ten! And Lexie... she was walking in your shoes the other day, telling me she wanted to be just like momma. They grow up way too fast Nadine and.... it’s just really fast.”

She can feel his tears against her skin and she tries to stem the flow of tears from hers too.

“It’s good right, it means we’re raising them right.”

“Dad? Mom?”

She turned to see her daughter fidgeting with the hem of her Harry Potter shirt she shares with James, her hair pulled back in a tail and the glasses on her face making her look younger than sixteen. Gosh her baby was sixteen, and kissing boys. How time flies.

“Are you mad? I’m sorry, I just... it wasn’t like we were doing anything wrong daddy, I love Jackson...”

“Stop right there.”

She turns back to look at James, his eyes still puffy and his nose all red and he couldn’t look at Luna. “James.”

She cups his face and raises it to her but he takes her hands away and grips them tight as he sighs.

“I’m tired. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

He kisses his wife’s forehead and brushes past Luna as he climbs up the stairs.

“Dad?”

His daughter was the most adorable thing in the entire universe. 

He’d just like to make that clear. There is nothing in the world cuter than his daughter and she was the one girl he’d love more than he loved her mother.

Except.

Except on days like this when his favorite show was on TV, and it was a rare happy day when he did not have some big meeting for the restaurants, or he did not have a shoot or an endorsement and he could just stay at home and play with the kids and watch Jane the Virgin (yeah he loved the show, you got anything to say about it?), and she was scream crying at him for switching the channel from her favorite cartoon in the universe Baby Einstein.

“Luna, come on, see look at that, that’s Rafael, he’s pretty right baby girl? You like that don’t you? Come on Loon, daddy loves this show.”

She was sitting up now, able to get on her tummy and somehow push herself up to sit. He was also on his tummy, facing her, and he was blowing raspberries on her foot, but she still kept crying.

She just kept looking at him like he was the boogie monster, her face all puffy and red and snot was dripping down her nose and crocodile tears pooled out of her eyes.

Did he mention the fact that his daughter was the only girl he’ll love more than her mom?

Yeah, so he couldn’t really take it when she cried.

“Okay baby, okay.” He got up from the bed and scooped up his still crying daughter, supporting her with one arm as she clung around his neck and held on for dear life, her loud sobs now dying down. With his free hand he grabbed the remote and switched the channel back to Baby Einstein and immediately Luna’s tears stopped. She turned around in his arms, resting her head on the crook of his neck as she kept her focus on the TV, finally gurgling once more.

He was about to set Luna down when she began sobbing again and held on to his neck tight again.

He grinned, rubbing his daughter’s back and pressing a kiss to her head. As much as she was the girl he loved the most, he was the guy she loved the most.

He swayed Luna gently around until she was settled again and sitting back on the bed once more, Luna on his lap, he resigned himself to watching Baby Einstein.

---

That was how she found them. Her husband resting against the headboard of their bed, almost dozing off as the Baby Einsteins sang a lullaby Luna was so focused on. 

She grinned because she knew Luna had her daddy wrapped around her little finger and she probably used crocodile tears to get him to switch the channel, especially since she knew Jane the Virgin was on tonight.

“Daddy babe, nagpauto ka nanaman diyan sa anak mo.”

James blinked up at her voice on the door and he gave her a sleepy smile.

“Hi mommy love, how was work?”

They were trying to incorporate calling each other daddy and mommy because somehow, at a year old, Luna still can’t recognize them. Her first word was banana, her second was milk. No mama, no dada, no nothing.

Sometimes she things her daughter thinks of them as the people with food.

But then when she walked in, her daughter turned away from the TV and clapped gleefully at her, raising her arms and asking to be held.

She bent down to brush a kiss on her husband’s forehead before picking up her daughter and attaching her at her hip.

Luna began to babble a mile a minute most likely telling her of her recent victory over her father. 

“Yes baby, you fooled daddy, yes you did, yes you did you little cutie.”

She kisses Luna’s forehead before handing her back to James and then bending down, she cups James’ jaw and hauled his face up to hers, giving him a long kiss that was as warm as it was sweet, that is until Luna’s tiny hands battered her face away.

With a laugh she breaks away from James’ lips and Luna immediately tugs on her hair and pouts her lips for a kiss.

“Ikaw baby ha, niloloko mo nanaman daddy mo. Work was okay. Sue and Dan had a fight so it registered a bit in the scenes so I had to talk them out of being poopy people.” 

They also had to resort to baby friendly curse words because SJ, their oldest child was in his terrible threes phase where he repeats everything you say.

“How about you babe?”

She started stripping off and throwing her clothes to the hamper, sitting in front of her vanity in just her underpants and removing her make-up.

She catches James’ eye from the mirror and he’s smirking in that James way of his and she throws him a look over his shoulder.

“James, behave ka diyan. Baby pa yang anak mo.”

“What, I’m just appreciating the view.”

“The last time you appreciated the view Luna happened, so i would appreciate it...”

He simply winks at her in return and she laughs because even after 4 years of marriage, she still feels like she falls in love with her husband everyday.

“My day was okay, sad because you weren’t here. Sometimes I miss acting because then I’d get to be with you 24/7.”

She tosses a cotton pad in his direction and he chuckles, picking up Luna from his lap when she started fussing and cradled her in his arms lulling her to sleep. 

“I just dropped off SJ at dad’s for their monthly fishing trip, God help us all. Your father bought him a floppy hat.”

He shudders at the thought and she smiles, thinking of how his dad and hers bonded so much over the years and discovered a mutual love for sitting in a boat, saying nothing and waiting for fish to bite. SJ, by some weird reason loved it too, and they’d often take him to have sleep overs with lolo and grampa to go fishing.

It was the bane of her mother’s existence as she had all sorts of fish now stored in her freezer.

“And then Yassi came along, she picked up some of your maternity books and clothes like that and then she wanted me to ask you-”

“Da!”

He stopped in his tracks and looked down at his daughter who was tugging at his shirt with a grumpy look on her face.

“Dada! Up! Up!”

Robotically he shifted his hold on her, allowing her to crawl away from him and push herself up again. She turned her little head, and looking so much like Nadine she gurgled.

“Dada!”

She saw the tears pool in James’ eyes, the same sort of happy tears he had when SJ first called him dad and he clambered off the bed scooping Luna up and holding her close, just swaying side to side gently.

Luna frowns, seeing her dad cry and with a pudgy hand she touched James’ cheek. 

“Dada?”

James takes her little hand and presses his lips against them.

“Yes baby, I’m your daddy.”

Touched with the love James has for his entire family, for all of them she rises from her vanity and she hugs James from behind, kissing his shoulder blades and resting her cheek on his back just being so glad that at the end of the day she can go home to him, and he comes home to her.

---

He shifts Luna so that he’s supporting her with one arm and lifts his hand, so he could tuck Nadine against his side.

Inspired by: Little Baby James

She did not know what drugs she and James were taking the night they sat down and said ‘let’s take our five children to Disney World!’

Okay, to be fair, when she was not this exhausted, her kids were angels in her eyes.

Her oldest, Sirius James who looked exactly like his father, down to the same puppy dog eyes that can just about cajole her into doing anything, was now eight, and very much the picture of goodness. 

But SJ looked exactly like his father, and sadly he was also very much his father’s son, and so when her eyes are turned away, SJ’s horns come out to play and he can usually coerce his minions - Fred and George, her twin boys aged 4 to do pretty much anything he wanted them to.

Fred and George also share James’ face, but their eyes were more hers and so they’re less lethal than their brother. But the twins have the power to kiss her cheeks at the same time and they still had that adorable lisp that comes with kids in that their R’s aren’t 100% rollable yet (another trait they got from their father) and when they tell her to “pwease fowgive us momma” she immediately caves in, especially when the cuteness is paired with the puppy hang dog expression on SJ and James’ face. 

Their father was usually in on the trick as well.

Her only consolation were her girls, Luna, aged 6 and Libby aged 2. Well, that’s mostly because Luna, though sharing her face, inherited her father’s silence. Preferring nooks and crannies and burrying her nose in books.

She and her daddy, together with her brothers had been reading Harry Potter for bedtime, and Luna loved her father enough not to tell him that when he’s off at work she reads the books herself and she’s halfway through the Sorcerer’s Stone. 

She actually rues that day when Luna turns 16 and starts to like boys because she knows just how much that would break James’ heart (and just how much she would have to listen to him whine about it). Luna was very much a daddy’s girl, as was evidenced by the fact that her hand was now caught in his, sticking close to his side as big crowds then to overwhelm her.

And Libby... well Libby was a consolation because Libby could barely walk yet.

But she is often broken out of the nursery by her four siblings who often include her in their playtime, even is she if the T-Rex that ruins the cities they built. Still it amazes her that her kids are closely bonded together and that they are actually enjoying each other’s company.

That must be the benefit, of having kids close to each other in age... or just having a family environment that encourages siblings to be friends.

But today... today with the California sun beating down her back and the huge crowd in line for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was beginning to overwhelm her she was less than excited with her 5 children.

Especially since it was 5 in the afternoon, and SJ was itching to go to Space Mountain, the twins were already getting a little bit temperamental, and Libby was already asleep in James’ arms in her baby caddy.

She just wanted a nap, a cold place and just peace and quiet and maybe, maybe if she’s lucky, her husband to hug her while they slept.

She felt a tug at her shorts and saw George, looking so much like his dad in his red tank top, with his hair slicked back from his forehead and his chubby cheeks winking at her as he grinned up at her, and all the heat and the exhaustion vanished.

When they were babies she often worried that she was actually mistaking Fred for George or vice versa... but now she made sure to keep them color coordinated. Nothing Fred owned had the same color as George. She’d worry about differentiating them when they get older.

“Yes baby?”

“Momma can I pwease have watew?”

“Sure baby, you’re thirsty? It’s really hot right?”

She pulls George’s Cinderella jug from her giant bag. James and her were doing this progressive parenting thing that they don’t tell their kids that certain things are for boys and certain things are for girls. Whatever they want is for boys because they were a boy, and it makes life so much easier for them because their kids were open, kind and non-judgemental people she knows will grow up to be outstanding pillars of society one day. 

George takes the jug, still a bit too big for his tiny hands and with an amazing look of concentration on his face, pops the cap open and with a triumphant glee, raises the jug to her.

“Hewe momma!”

She furrows his eyebrows in confusion and she slides her hand across her son’s sweat slicked hair and his eyebrows furrow. 

“Momma...”

“Right sorry, baby, no one touches your hair. Manang mana sa tatay mo. Why are you handing me your water?”

“You dwink it! I saw you, you wook sad. Dada says it’s cause you’we hot! So dwink this momma!”

In that moment, she had never been prouder of her son, look at him so caring and kind and in a move of affection she picked George up and hugged him tight.

“Bait naman ng baby ko. Kiss mo nga si mommy!”

She puckered her lips and with a sigh George plants a kiss on them. 

“Wuv you momma!”

“Love you anak.”

“Hey, hey, hey, why does Georgie get a kiss and all of us are left in the dust?”

James turns to her, Libby tucked in the crook of his shoulder, fast asleep, Luna, holding his hand and in front of him, SJ who was holding Fred’s hand and looking longingly at Space Mountain.

It was hot, it was tiring but look at her family.

Not once did James complain that Libby was too heavy, only happy to cart her from one place to another as she squealed with glee. He never, not once, thought to hand over their kids to nannies to make life easier because he genuinely loved raising their brood.

He also patiently held Luna’s hand, as she was all but plastered to his leg, allowing her to adjust to the environment and enjoy at her own pace.

SJ may be a mischief maker, but he loved his family, and his siblings, and knowing that Libby and the twins can’t ride Space Mountain yet, he never made a tantrum or a peep about it, and just continued to stare longingly at the ride. But he still held Fred’s hand, taking him to the kiddie rides and having fun with his brother. 

He was so much like James in that sense, loving and caring and so very selfless.

And her twin boys who knew that momma was sad, and wanted to make her feel better by giving her water.

She felt her eyes sting as she realized just how lucky and blessed she is to have a family like this one.

“Well that’s because Georgie gave me water while all of you were busy waiting for our turn to ride the tea cups!”

“But momma it was my idea to send Georgie to you! Promise!”

SJ piped up from his perch, grinning mercilessly at her, looking so much like James that she swooped down and kissed his forehead.

“Fine, little monster, what do you want from Momma as a prize?”

“You already gave it, true love’s kiss! And maybe candy before bed?”

He batted those wonderful brown eyes at her as he smiled at her widely with his gap toothed grin, his 2 front teeth missing as his milk teeth were falling off. And because his teeth were already falling off anyway, SJ had a please just let me eat candy phase.

“Just one kuya ha.”

“YAY, you’re the best momma!”

And she knows James will sneak him 5 more, so her 1 is justified.

Fred walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her legs.

“And you, what do you want little man?”

“Bwothewr, momma, a baby bwothewr.”

She looked over as James guffawed and Freddie ran back to him and they high fived and she pouted, but the smile breaking away in her face made her pout senseless.

“I’ll have to talk to the stork about that Freddie. We said four years...”

And James only winked at her and she flushed despite herself.

“Look look, it’s our turn!”

Luna exclaimed from beside her dad, and now being more excited than shy, dropped James’ hand and grabbed SJ’s hand dragging Fred with him.

“Georgie come on!”

George wiggled in her arms and the minute she set him down, he took off after his siblings.

They watched as SJ shepherded their kids into a tea cup and they were all giggling and waving at them for the ride and she leans her head against James’ shoulder and his hands reach up to hold hers and she presses a kiss to his knuckles.

“We did good, didn’t we?”

“They’re really good kids Naddie love.”

“They’re the best.”

She looks up a bit to see his eyes and she grins at him. 

“I love you.”

Looking around them he swoops down and presses a smacking kiss to her lips.

“Love you.”

Thank you to @askikamle for the inspiration :D

The soft whimpers of his son woke him up from his deep slumber.

They say mothers were more attuned to the sound of their crying babies, and more often than not it’s true, I mean, Nadine could literally be in SJ’s crib as he just takes in the first gasp of air so he can wail his lungs out.

But tonight... his wife was in a girl’s night out with Yassi and Myrtle.

They were just hanging out in some tea shop near their house to catch up.

He literally had to boot her out of the house to go with her friends because they swore to each other that they wouldn’t be so consumed with their son that they forget to have lives outside of him.

It wouldn’t be healthy for them being so attached to SJ.

And it would not be healthy for SJ to be so smothered by his parents.

Loving someone is not the same as smothering someone, as their pediatrician often reminded them.

So they have mommy-me time, where Nadine goes out with Yassi and Myrtle to get tea or coffee somewhere and she can vent and talk to her friends about James (though most of the time, Nadine just swoons about her perfect husband).

He has daddy-me time which is basically spent with Bret and Alex and Jude in his deck, or in Bret and Yassi’s new house, just grilling steaks, playing poker and marvelling that 4 rakes and wastrels were now all proud husbands. He was home before 11 most days.

They also have mommy and daddy alone times where the over eager grand parents, aunts and uncles come in to their home to watch over SJ with glee as they are literally shoved out the door to go on a date.

So far they have been good at evading all three, preferring to have what they call Reid Time but their friends and even sometimes each other, have been adamant that they keep up and maintain the good start that they have established.

So once a month Nadine goes out, once a month he goes out and every week they go on a date.

Eventually they all got used to the routine, so much so that when Nadine is not here, his senses are hyper aware as well of his sleeping infant. They tried the when he sleeps you sleep routine and so far it has been working out well for them.

So rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he makes his way to the nursery.

SJ was not crying until there was no tomorrow, which means he doesn’t have a wet nappy - which was reasonable because James changed his nappy only half an hour before.

He wasn’t wailing pathetically as if he was being starved so milk time was also out of the question.

No SJ was quietly sniffle crying his way through the night, as if asking his da why he wasn’t here to spend time with him.

The minute James entered the nursery, SJ’s sniffles died down and quiet gurgles were heard from the crib and James smirked at how much like his mother was his son and he picked him up and SJ smiled at him.

At six months he has been hitting his milestones early. He already rolled over, started crawling a few weeks ago and now he was smiling.

Not gas smiling just... hey there’s my dad smiling.

Cradling SJ in his arm, he gave his son his index finger and though people may say it’s just reflex, he knows his son really holds him in that moment. And they are one.

“You’re lonely? I guess staying in this nursery all by yourself gets a bit lonely hmm? Tell you what, this night I’m moving you into mine and mommy’s room. Only for tonight though because the books say you need a really quiet really warm place and our room is not the best place for that because mommy snores. Really loud.”

SJ grinned at him, his gums and being all exposed and his saliva dripping down. James grinned at him and disentangling his finger from SJ he grabbed a towel from the cubby holes and wiped it away before grinning conspiratorially at his son.

“Fine. Daddy snores too. It’s really late though SJ, why aren’t you sleeping hmm? Were you lonely? You want some bonding time with daddy? You want to hover?”

He took SJ’s gummy grin as a sign of assent and walked out of the nursery to bring his son to the living room.

He got the keys to the hoverboard and when SJ heard the tell tale click of the machine he let out a happy gurgle. He hasn’t laughed yet, but James feels that he’s getting there.

He stepped onto his hoverboard and gently began his back and forth rocking motion with SJ in his arms. His son continued to gurgle as they hovered here and there and with a grin he kissed his son’s forehead.

“I know, you love escaping into the hoverboard when Mommy is not around. When you’re sixteen I’ll teach you to drive. Mommy won’t like it, but we’ll find a way to sneak away from her. You can pick up girls then. I promise to let you use my car. But make sure your grades don’t slip or your mom will have my head.”

SJ’s eyes were drooping now, but he was still gurgling at his dad, gripping James’ finger tight in his hands.

James continued his smooth rocking motions with SJ until finally his son was asleep and he stepped off gently from the hoverboard, making sure not to jostle SJ.

“I see you and our son find it a great hobby to sneak away when I am gone.” 

He started at the dry tone of Nadine from behind him and turning slowly he fixed her a smile.

“Love. You’re home early.”

Nadine smirked at him and placed her hands on her waist. 

“Baby you have some explaining to do.”

“Ang ganda naman ng asawa ko today. I missed you.”

“Flattery won’t work mister.”

Nadine laughed as she made her way to James, kissing his lips and then kissing SJ’s forehead which caused her child to whimper.

“See, look at your son. I carry him in me for nine months and I push him out of my vagina and he loves you more. Typical male.”

“I’ll bring him to the nursery, then you can tell me about your day.”

Nadine grinned at him and laid her head on his shoulder and for a second he felt like the luckiest bastard alive, with his wife and his son in her arms.

“Good, then we can talk about your dangerous habit of bringing our son on your hoverboard and you coup de grace plan when he is sixteen and how this will cost you three nights without sleeping in my bed.”

Nadine pinched her butt as she made her way to the stairs and his jaw dropped.

“Hey Nadine, he really loves going on it! Naddie!”

But his wife only gave him a saucy wink which he took to mean that he had a challenge now to try to change her mind.

He grinned down at his son.