CHRISTMASTUCK

Christmas is not a festivity to Leo, it's a war.

Having been raised by Kurt Hummel – basically the incarnation on Earth of Santa's crazy interior designer elf – in the very heart of that Midwestern Winter Wonderland that is Lima, Ohio, Leo officially starts with Christmas preparation in mid-November and ends around December 23th at the latest. If anything exceeds the time window, that is considered a catastrophe and nobody wants to talk about that, or being around Leo for that matter.

When he was a kid, Kurt would involve him in the preparations, whether Leo wanted to be involved or not. There was no end to the things Kurt had to do to secure a perfect Christmas for his family. He would roam the state, visiting every greenhouse worthy of his attention, to find the proper tree while everybody else was still busy with Thanksgiving, and then enslave Dave to bring it home on the roof of the car.

Then he would choose the color scheme of the tree – which was different every year, of course – and consequentially the colors of the decorations in the rest of the house. After that it was time to decide what kind of illuminations he wanted both inside and outside the house, and of course which one of everyone's beloved Christmas characters would show up in their garden in the form of a life-size wooden statue perfect in every detail.

One year it was Rudolph, another one it was the Gingerbread Man, the next one Santa himself, but never the same character two years in a row. One glorious year Leo convinced Kurt to have Jack Frost – his all time favorite winter character – sitting on a big snowball, and it was a real tragedy to do without him the next year, when Kurt proved to be adamant on his different-character-every-year policy even facing the tears of disappointment of his five years old son. That year they had a stupid lame elf, and Leo hated its guts all the way till the time came to take him in.

Next on the list was the picture for the cards to send to family and friends, which required not only the collaboration of Leo – who was actually dressed up and posed like a doll well past the age when such a thing is shameful for both parents and child – but also Dave, who never wanted more out of the family than when they had to take the Christmas picture. Clothes, setting, combination of the family members, pose and words to write on the card were carefully chosen by Kurt during the weeks before the actual shooting, and nobody was allowed to go on with their life until the photo was exactly as he had pictured it in his mind, which would prove to be almost impossible more often than not.

As they were gradually getting closer to Christmas, Kurt would decide the menu of the lunch he would give, choose the centerpiece, the tablecloth, the placeholders that would arrange everyone in a suitable order – not to be broken, of course. Despite the military rigor, that would actually be a necessary measure when Finn, Santana, Rachel, Dave and Blaine were sitting at the same table. There were powers to balance and personalities to keep separated as at a round table for a peace treaty. Leo still remembers how his father would place him as a divider between Blaine and Dave, which was cute to see back then – his ten years old self in a designer outfit, all grumpy and pouty to be seated next to the man he hated the most in the whole world – now it just freaks people out, since he married said man. Every time he tells some old story of his childhood and Blaine ends up being in it, people look various shades of uncomfortable. At the beginning, this would annoy him. Now he has fun with it, much to Blaine's dismay, never missing the chance to stress the fact that, by the time he was six years old, Blaine was already a man.

Last but not least, the presents. The majority of them had already been bought by the end of the first week of December – Kurt never liked the crowd in the shops much – but there was always some little present to buy here and there, and of course there was Dave's present from Leo. As a kid – even a very young one – Leo had an allowance that would allow him to buy his parents Christmas presents, which he did. But they were little things a kid could buy and, despite being very proud of what he could buy on his own, it was important to him to buy Dave and Kurt proper presents, so he would arrange to go out with one father first and then the other to choose the perfect thing that his parents would basically buy for each other on his behalf.

Now, if this was a funny, relaxed bonding moment between him and Dave, it would turn into a mission from God when he had to go out with Kurt to find something suitable to give Dave. His father would drag him all around the city – and that city could sometimes be New York, depending on what they were doing at the time – until Leo's eyes would literally beam with recognition, looking inside a shop window. In retrospect, Kurt was just trying to help, but the whole procedure was stressful nonetheless.

That is why he sworn that, as much as he loved Christmas, he would never become like his father when he grew up.

Unfortunately the oath was completely pointless, since the imprinting had already happened long before he made it. Kurt's idea of Christmas was already molding Leo's very festivity core, and that was perfectly clear, if not to him to everybody else, by the time he moved in with Adam. Their brand new, awfully small and messy house wasn't spared from the Christmas frenzy at all.

A tree was bought and with that enough decorations to cover their house and probably the whole college dorms too. Even Leo's room, usually the scene of a nuclear fallout, was tidied up and subjected to a full Christmas renovation. There were stickers of snowmen on the windowpanes, angels hanging from every handle and elves scattered all over the place. He even organized a small dinner party for the two of them and Annie the day before the family one he was going to attend at his parents' house.

His heart was slowly turning red and white like a candy cane. It was just a matter of time.

And then, one day of November, in his late 20s, almost completely out of his darkest hour, married and with a five years old son, he had woken up to find out that the transformation was complete. As far as Christmas was concerned, he had turned into his father.

It took him five minutes to accept his fate, really.

It took Blaine a little longer to get used to his lazy younger husband turning into a Christmas Nazi killer machine once a year – it took him a few years, to be honest, during which the number of their children tripled – but he did get used to it. So, he thinks he's ready to deal with him this year too, and that's where he's totally and catastrophically wrong.

Since the moment he was allowed to invite Matt to their annual Christmas lunch and, most of all, since the moment Matt called to say he was coming, Leo has been on cloud nine. Matt has a very special place in his heart. The guy was there when Leo had nobody else to turn to. He took him in, cared for him, gave him a place to stay and take a breath from the mess his life was at that time. And he put up with him, with all his coming and going, and never asked for anything in return.

Blaine is aware that, without Matt, he probably would have had nothing to return to and fix.
In some way, he and Leo own him everything they have now. That is why Blaine instantly agreed to have him for Christmas. He is even ready to bear with their inside jokes, that cultist language they use and their excess of intimacy and indifference for each other personal space.

What he hasn't prepared for is his husband's frenzy.

Leo is like his father, but not quite. He wants the house to be decorated, but he doesn't care about interior design. He doesn't choose color schemes or the perfect style. He just wants the house to look festive, and to smell of chocolate and cinnamon. He needs to feel the Christmas spirit. On December, his life must feel like he's living in one of those Christmas movies where the entire family get involved in the holiday madness, then Christmas risks to get ruined but it's obviously saved in the end. Possibly without the risking part.

And unlike Kurt, he likes to do things with his hands.

No place is more alluring to him than the Jo-Ann Store around Christmas. The first time ever Leo told him he was going there, Blaine had to wonder who was that young man claiming to be his husband but acting anything like him. He couldn't understand why in the world Leo would want to even pass by a store that he mostly associated with old ladies, crafty moms and preschool teachers. He didn't even know Leo was aware of such a store! It turned out Leo not only knew the store very well, but also knew how to use most of the things that were sold in there.

Leo has known how to use a glue gun on a piece of felt since the age of ten, and he still can't change a tire for his life. As far as stereotypes go, Blaine still wonder how nobody noticed he was on the gay-side before he was fifteen.

So, Blaine is not surprised when the door opens and lets in a gust of cold wind and snow, a huge cardboard box, followed by his husband and another tiny box, behind which he supposes there's his son. “Hi dad! We're back,” Leo says, putting down his box on the living room table, and taking off his gloves.

Blaine shivers. He's sitting on the couch, feeding one of the twins on his lap, while the other is in the sleeper next to him. “Every time you say that, a part of me crawls in a corner and cries,” he says, tilting his head back to have a kiss.

Leo chuckles and leans down to kiss him. “It didn't look like that last night,” he jokes.

“What didn't look like that last night?” Timmy asks, wandering blindly across the living room. Leo grabs him by his hood before he can crush against the sleeper and knock his sister over.

“Where are you going?” Leo asks.
“I don't know,” Timmy protests, trying to look around the box he's holding, and failing. “I can't see anything!”
Leo snorts, but tries not to be too obvious about it. Timmy is in that phase where children are filled with self-importance and get offended very easily. Blaine mocks Leo, saying he never came out of it.

“Here, let me,” Leo says, taking the box from his son's hands and putting it down on the table next to his own. Then he helps Timmy undress, since he's pulling at his scarf and he's more likely to strangle himself than taking it off.

“Dad! Dad!” Timmy says excitedly, wiggling away from his coat. He places both hands on the arm Blaine keeps bent to hold Logan against his chest. He is not jealous of his siblings – Blaine invested him with too much responsibilities to be really jealous – but he never misses the chance to touch his fathers and make his presence known every time they're holding one of the twins. “We bought tons of stuff!”

“I had a feeling you might have,” he says, glancing over at Leo. “Did you pillage the store?”

“There wasn't much left to pillage,” Leo comments. “But we got what we went there for. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Now?” Timmy asks, looking up. Logan follows his voice with adoring eyes.

“No, after lunch. Go wash your hands, I'll fix something up,” Leo answers. He waits for the kid to run to the first floor bathroom, and he sits next to Blaine, kissing him once more. “How was your day?”

“I got puked on twice, and I've changed a number of poopy diapers incredibly high for these two tiny things,” he answers. “How can they poop so much is behind me.”

“You promised me they will learn to clean themselves some day,” Leo reminds him.

“Well, Timmy did, so I just suppose they will do the same,” Blaine says very seriously, as this was a real scientific conversation.

“You suppose?”

Blaine shrugs. “Pooping is not an exact science,” he says.

Leo chuckles. “Right. Anyway, I'm sorry you had to stay here alone with them,” Leo says.
He rarely apologizes, but there's nothing he knows better than the dread of being left alone in the house with two newborns set to cry, poop and being hungry always at the same time. Blaine was out of town for three days last month and Leo almost had a breakdown.

That is why Blaine decided to take a break from work at least until the twins won't be so very tiny anymore. By then, he hopes Leo won't be so scared to do something wrong all the time and it'll be possible to leave him alone with them without him going insane. Taking a break wasn't a suffered decision, anyway. Blaine is so in love with the twins that he would spend hours just looking at them – he has always been emotional, but he's even more so now – so staying at home during these first few months to take care of them is not a burden at all. The only one complaining is Dotty, but nobody listens to her. Exactly as nobody listens to Mark, who's been trying to get in touch with Leo for two days now, but Leo is too busy decorating the house for Christmas to send him the fifty pages he wants, provided he wrote them at all.

“Don't worry,” Blaine says, leaving a kiss on his husband's forehead. Logan squirms between them, trying to get their attention. “As long as you have the heir with you, I've got everything under control.”

“That much I can do. Actually,” Leo says, gently pushing Harper's nose with a finger. She curls her lips in a concentrated pout as he tries to see what's happening to her face, “he's gonna help me decorating, so if we get these two beans napping, you've got yourself a free afternoon.”

“Deal.”

*

Despite a rocky beginning and the problems they still have dealing with two babies instead of one as they had planned, they have managed to slip into some sort of routine very quickly, possibly because Blaine made sure that it was established more around them than the twins.

He always put his kids first of course, but he knew that organizing his time and Leo's by only taking into consideration the children's needs wasn't going to work. He had tried it with Timmy – who's half the burden the twins are – and it didn't work. He and Leo need time alone, and Leo need to deal with things his own way in his own time, especially if it's something he has never done before.

So, Blaine gets more things done if he always takes care of feeding and changing the twins, rather than insisting on Leo doing that for once. In exchange, Leo prepares all their meals and usually helps Timmy with his homework too. As far as the twins are concerned, Leo takes them to sleep – something he likes to do because he can sing – to give Blaine time to relax and possibly spend some time with his older son. Blaine knows that if he keeps quiet and leaves him be, one day Leo will grab a bottle and feed Logan and Harper as if it were nothing special. Or he will take them out for a walk alone.

It was the same with Timmy. One day he was ignoring him, the day after he was playing together with him, blowing his nose and scolding him for something bad he had done. Now he acts like a father with him. He just needs to learn how to be a father of three.

That is exactly what happened today. After lunch, Leo took the twins to his and Blaine's bedroom, leaving his two men to tidy up the kitchen. They cleaned the table, swept the floor, and Blaine unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it again – him being reigning house champion of dishwasher's Tetris – as Timmy carefully dried all the dishes and put everything away. By the time Leo is back the kitchen looks brand new, and they can move to the living room table, where all the Christmas magic usually happens.

Timmy climbs on a chair and kneels on it, so to be tall enough to work freely on the table's surface. He grabs his box and starts taking out tools and materials looking like he knows exactly what he's doing. Blaine is so fascinated by Timmy's self-confidence around these things that he sits down too to observe him as he does things he himself knows nothing about.

This is not the first time Leo and Timmy do some project together. They started with fingers painting when Timmy was very young. There's a whole gallery of his masterpieces on the wall of Leo's office, showing the evolution of his son's painting skill through time, from two to approximately six years of age, when he stopped wanting to paint with his fingers because it was a thing for little kids. Then they moved to polymer clay – which is something Timmy goes crazy for, so it is expected to be a long lasting passion – but Blaine knows for a fact that one of Leo's Christmas presents for Timmy this year is going to be his very own first resin figurine to paint – just like those Leo paints –, and Blaine can't wait to see his son's face when he'll open the box and see it.

“So, what are you two making today?” He asks, as pieces of colorful thin cardboard are taken out of their packages and placed in orderly manner on the table.

“Cardboard characters and felt stockings,” Timmy answers. He can't look up because he's too busy sorting out the pieces of felt by color and size, but he's not ignoring his father. In fact, he continues to speak. “Dad's gonna let me use the glue gun this year.”

Blaine can hear the excitement in his voice and chuckles. Apparently, he's gonna witness one of the many rites of passage his son will have to face. Who could have known! “Good for you,” he says. “Can I help?”

Timmy thinks about it for a moment, and then grabs some black cardboard and gives it to his father, together with a pair of round tip scissors and a pencil. “Draw circles on the cardboard and then cut them. We need two sizes, smaller for the eyes and bigger to make buttons and such.”

“Timmy doesn't like to cut,” Leo explains with a smile as he gives his son some pre-cut shapes he can use to draw the characters on the cardboard.

“It's boring, so you can do it,” Timmy decides. He bends over on the table, keeping the cardboard still with his whole body as he carefully draw the silhouette of a snowman, his tongue out in concentration.

Blaine accepts his sad fate with a patient sigh – after all newbies are expected to do the most boring jobs – and he concludes that he can very well make some conversation while he draws circle after circle. “So, did you hear from Matt? When is he coming?” He asks.

Leo has laid down a sheet of paper, and on it he's placing polymer clay balls. He carefully made them one by one, all the same freaking size. “He'll get here on the 23h. It's a long trip, so I thought he could arrive one day early and get some rest before the dinner.”

“And spend more time with you,” Blaine jokes.

“That too, yeah.” Leo smiles. He doesn't even bother to defend himself because it would be pointless. Blaine knows how excited he is to have Matt in the house.

“Things with his family are still bad?” Blaine asks. He knows Matt and his parents weren't in good terms back then, but it was more than ten years ago. Things change. Even Leo, who still hates Kurt enough to avoid him as much as he possibly could, found some common ground with him. Sort of. He's working on it, at least.

“Last time he heard from them was five years ago. His cousin was getting married, and his mother specifically called him to tell him not to come,” Leo says. “This answers your question?”

“Geez,” Blaine comments. “Every time you think your faith in humanity is restored, there's always someone ready to prove you wrong.”

Unlike all the other children who look like they're not listening to the nonsense their parents say, but they actually hear everything, Timmy is a very serious kid, so he always kinda looks like he's listening to something and judging the crap out of it too. “Who's Matt?” He asks, without looking up. He drew three snowmen and now he moved on to Rudolph. The reindeer's red rounded nose is pretty challenging, so the inches of tongue out of Timmy's mouth are slowly increasing.

“He's dad's friend,” Blaine answers. “A very tall one.”

“Taller than Adam?” Timmy asks. Leo and Blaine keep track of his height since he was a baby, and seeing his marks on the door going higher and higher is one of the things that make Timmy prouder. He declared a long time ago that he wants to be tall when he grows up – he's absolutely convinced that it will depend on him – and so tall people fascinate him as if they found some height secret they might be willing to share.
At the moment, the taller person in his life is Adam, who beat the ultimate record by being even taller
than his fathers, something that Timmy, in his infinite love and adoration for both his parents, would have never thought possible, until one day he was old enough to see with his own eyes that it was an undeniable truth. So, being shorter or taller than the current champion is a very important matter to him.
It's the first question he asks right after the name.

Blaine frowns, as he tries to mentally compare the two men. “Let's see...”

“Yes, he is,” Leo answers, easily enough. “Matt is definitely taller than Adam. A lot taller, actually.”

“Of course your father would know that,” Blaine says. Leo pretends he didn't hear that.

Luckily, Timmy doesn't get sarcasm yet, but he looks up. “Really?” He asks, bewildered. Is there any limit to how much a person can grow? “How tall?”

“Well, I think you will see that soon. He's gonna stay with us a few days at Christmas,” Leo answers, standing up and taking his tray of little polymer clay balls with him to the kitchen where he will cook them in the oven. “Actually, I think you will like him. He's very funny.”

“Is he now?” Blaine asks, arching an eyebrow. He thinks he cut enough eyes and buttons for one day, so he stands up and follows his husband. Timmy rolls his eyes, sensing the change in tone in his parents' voices. Now they will hide in the kitchen to kiss, and then smooch forever. By the time they're back, it'll be summer again.

*
On December 23th – a date that, in the Anderson Karofsky-Hummel household will be compared from now on to the Moon landing or the Berlin Wall fall as far as enthusiasm and emotional investment are concerned – the house itself seems to shake in anticipation of Matt's arrival.

The house is so shiny as Blaine has never seen it before with Leo inside since the day he bought it.
Rooms have been tidied up, bathrooms have been cleaned, children have been bathed, and the t-shirt of the great occasions has been put on some very skinny jeans of which Blaine was mildly suspicious but didn't say anything about.

Matt called a couple of hours ago, checking in with Leo and assuring him that, despite the snow in New York, the airport was still open and his flight had left on time, but Leo was in such a frenzy after the call that Blaine had to sent him playing videogames with Timmy to calm down. It was either that or knocking him down for good with a baseball bat.

That proved to be a great idea. Matt is expected to arrive any minute now, and Leo and Timmy are still sitting on the carpet, shooting at pink baloons and collecting coins as they ride little dragon-like creatures that look like dinosaurs but, as Blaine's been instructed multiple times by his own son, are something called Drath. He doesn't know and doesn't want to know more than that. Blaine is pretty content just with sitting on the couch and trying to read a book over the pew pew sound and the annoying music of the videogame.

When the doorbell finally rings, Leo pauses the game without warning – something he never does because there's a gamer rule in the house, and in fact Timmy instantly protests – and drops the controller on the floor, running towards the entrance, his socked feet padding on the parquet. "I get the door!"

Blaine doesn't even move, he just keeps reading. Hopefully, withouth the music, he will finally manage to finish this page. "I wasn't even dreaming of doing that for you," he says. "Anyway, if you moved so fast any other day of the year, we would have a lot more free time, you know that?"

"Shut up, Blaine!" Leo screams from the entrance, and then opens the door with a big, beaming smile.

Behind it, Matt is smiling. The mask of usual calmness and perfect relaxation as always straightening his features, making him look a lot sweeter than his sharp bone structure should make possible. "Hey, bro!" His smile widens, as he shivers a little. With his simple purple hoodie and a pair of jeans, he is – as always – pretty underdressed, especially for this time of the year in Lima, Ohio

Leo shamelessly throws his arms around his neck and hugs him. "Ah! You made it!"

"'Course I made it," he says smiling. He hugs Leo tight and smiles against his cheek as he leaves a small kiss there. "Even with my messed up sense of direction, it'd have been pretty impossible to miss your house. Looks like a freaking Harrods Christmas window minus the London look. "

Leo chuckles. "Hey, first rule of the house, never mock the motherfucking decorations, bro." He instantly falls back in their common language. "Christmas is a silly human tradition, but it's tradition and you get to respect that. But I can compensate for the missing London look by offering you tea." He grabs him by the hand and drags him along. "Come inside, I don't want you to freeze on my doorstep. It'd make a bad impression with the neighbors."

"You know what, I was expecting it to be colder. Instead look at me, came all the way down here without freezing my ass," Matt says conversationally as he walks in the sitting room, following Leo, and then stops when he sees everybody there. He lifts a hand to wave in mid air. "Hello, family!"

Leo smiles stupidly, as he always does when he's insanely happy. Having Matt meet his husband and children means way more than just a friend being introduced to his family. It's one of the most important people in his life meeting the others, having some of his loves in just one room. That always makes him happy, even more so when it's Matt who actually made it possible for all of them to be here. "So, you already know Blaine, of course..."

Blaine stands up from the couch and shakes his hand. "Hi, Matt. How are you?"
Hearing the noise Leo just made after opening the door, Timmy stood up to see what was going on and watched the stranger's entrance with curiousity, but he's cautious. So, he takes three steps forward to have a better look, but remaining in Blaine's safe surroundings.

"I'm fine, thanks," Matt answers, nodding at Blaine with a smile. "Thanks for having me,".

Leo points at Timothy. "And the blondie hiding behind his father is Timmy," he says with a smile.

"I'm not hiding!" Timmy says, instantly stepping forward to prove it.

Matt chuckles, amused at Timmy's instant display of bravery. "'Course you're not hiding, why would you? Ya look straight out some fairy tales book, lil' prince, you know? You seem cool," he says, his strong Texas accent seeping through each word that comes out of his broad mouth. He stands right in front of Timmy in all his impossible height, and then he kneels, lifting an arm. "C'mon, gimme a high one. I'm Matt, nice to meet ya."

Timmy looks at him in complete awe. Matt is the longest, tallest human being he has ever seen. He can't even believe his eyes. Matt must definitely be a giant, there's no other explanation. That, he thinks, that is how tall I wanna be. He gives Matt a big five, his initial ditrust of him dissolving into admiration. "You talk strange," he notices, tho. He is not that used to hear different accents, except when his dad takes him on holiday somewhere far far away where they don't even speak English and he doesn't understand a word.

"That's cos I'm from Texas, lil' bro," Matt explains, nodding, as he pretends to wear a cowboy hat and tilts it. "The Lone Star State. All hail the mighty State! So wonderful, so great!" He half-sings the anthem of his motherland.

Leo chuckles, shaking his head. "You're such a clown!"

Timmy beams. "I know where Texas is!" He exclaims, happily. School is not exactly is favorite thing – except for sports, he plays a lot of them – but he does his best to get good grades because he knows it's important. So, every time he actually knows something and he can show the world that he knows it, he simply has to say it. He lost count of the times his teacher rolled her eyes and told him to raise his hand to speak before actually speaking. "It confines with New Mexico and... Oklahoma and... Louisiana!" He frowns, shaking his head. "But I've never been to Texas. Isn't it right, daddy?"
He keeps track of all the places he has been – he's even got a map on the wall in his room for that –, and at such a young age he's been in a lot of places already.

"No, honey. You've never been to Texas," Blaine confirms.
"Great, you're not missing out," Matt smiles, standing straight on his legs once again. "A bunch of cows, some men with a very weird accent, cowboys and deserts. It's prettier here, innit?"

He doesn't know about that. He likes Lima, and he likes snow, but when he goes visit his aunt Tana – the older one, not the girl he's in love with and whom he's gonna marry, who's also is his aunt Tana – at her holiday house in California, he really likes the sea too. So he's pretty sure he would probably also like the desert. And he likes all the animals.

"I like cows," he says. But then the long, articulate speech he was about to make on farm animals and the like just disappears from his mind, as he gets distracted again by Matt's impossible height. "You are taller than Adam for real."

Leo chuckles. "I told you he was."

Matt laughs his deep, throaty laugh. The kid is something. "Hey, you wanna try and see the world from up here?" He asks. A lot of kids come to the restaurant where he works, and he's used to deal with them. The older ones can be tricky and the very small ones are too easily scared, but he's got no problem with children Timmy's age, especially if they are amusing like him.

Timmy beams. No offer has ever been better than the one that has just been made to him. He turns to Blaine, almost jumping on the spot. "Can I?"
Blaine scoffs a little laughter. What can he say? Apparently all the men in his life are destined to fall in love with this insanely tall human being. "Of course you can."
Matt leans in and takes him from under his arms, turning him around in mid air with a little bounce and then placing him effortlessly on his shoulders. "Now sit. Don't worry, I've gotcha."

"Whoa!" Timmy drapes himself around Matt's head like an headband. "Look, dad! I can almost touch the ceiling from here!"

Blaine spent a fortune on a house with ceilings so high that you can bring a 7' tall Christmas tree inside and still have room for an entire new tree just on top of it, so Timmy's sense of measures is a little messed up, but he's cute anyway. "I think you just bought him," Leo says to Matt.
Blaine chuckles in amusement and tenderness. "You're so very tall, powder puff."

"It's cool, innit? Maybe one day you gonna get that tall all on your own," Matt comments. He puts Timmy back down on the floor and then turns to Leo. "But what, did you trick me into coming into this snowy hellhole using two newborn twins as a bait and now you keep 'em hidden? I shall ask for a refund on my tickets."

"Don't get all sober on me. I never lied," Leo answers. "I actually have two grubs to show you."

Honestly, Blaine was fearing this very moment. Whenever these two are together, they progressively lose the use of English in favor of some sort of hellish lingo, coming directly from that weird comic, videogame, book or whatever it is that they both read. Soon they will start talking about trolls and doomed timelines and creepy creatures with clubs as weapons, and he will totally feel left out. "You have two what?" He tries to ask, knowing that he will be ignored.

"What's a grab?" Timmy asks too.

Leo doesn't answer to either of them, equally caught up in Matt and the thought of showing him his two tiny, perfect twins. "Follow me, they were put deeper inside the hive, because me and Timmy were playing Castle Cloud."

The twins have been soundly asleep in their nest-shaped bed for the past two hours. They're never so good, so Leo mentally thanks them for this special favor they're making him as he and Matt quietly enter their room. Matt gets closer to the cradle and looks at the two babies. They're pink and chubby, and they sleep very close together, almost using each other as a teddy bear.

He's excited to know Leo's kids, this is the first time he comes around since they've been born. He's seen pictures, of course, but that's not quite the same when it comes to babies. "You gotta know, we've been following the updates of Facebook", he says, referring to their old cosplay group. Leo posts pictures of his family on the social network whenever he can. The only thing that makes him more bearable than those sappy mothers posting lame poetry about their precious children is that he's stupid. Under the very first photo of the twins he posted, he wrote I made this, and that one was followed by other photos with similar captions. "How Logan doesn't seem to be able to ever stop crying and messin' around? We already call him Baby Sufferer."

Leo chuckles. "He's kind of a Baby Sufferer, indeed. He usually cries when his sister is not around, or when he thinks she's not there because he doesn't see her," he says, as he proudly shows him his two little sleeping beans. "This one is Logan," he points at the baby on the left without hesitation. People can't tell them apart, but they look very different to him already. "And she's Harper."

Timmy followed them upstairs, possibly because he wanted to understand what those grubs were. He must admit that he's a little disappointed to find out that they were just his little siblings. He looks inside the cradle, like Matt and his father are doing, and he doesn't do anything that could disturb the babies. He's a good big brother.

"Ah, you came along!" Matt exclaims, when he looks down and notices him. The twins are cute, and he looks at them with the obvious adoring smile he'd always thought he'd reserve for Leo's offspring, but Timmy's way funnier for him, because he's interactive. "Tell me, how d'you deal with these two nuggets? How do you baby even?"

"They are okay," Timmy says with a shrug. He always acts like he doesn't care much, but the truth is, he's very protective with his siblings. Nobody touches them or gets closer without him noticing. "But they cry a lot, and they never wanna sleep. But I can change them and give them their bottles, and they smell like cake."

"They don't smell like my kind of cake," he says, chuckling, as he sits on his heels in front of Timmy. "And you wanna know what that cake is?"

Timmy nods. Whenever someone talks about cakes you don't know anything about, you must listen to them. That's a rule. You never pass on info about cakes.

"It's a slime pie. A pie I make with the green sopor slime from my cocoon. And, Lil' bro, it tastes like a motherfucking miracle," Matt says with a creepy grin that instantly turns him into Gamzee.
Timmy blinks and actually takes a step back, turning to Leo. "Leo?"
"He's joking," his father says.

Leo's word reassure him, but not quite. So he keeps his distance. "What's a... you know, that thing you said."

Matt laughs, standing up. "You'll know soon enough. Very soon, actually."
He's brought Christmas presents for everyone, and he got Timmy all seven books of Homestuck, his very own collection, the new and improved collector's edition. When he told Leo, he had to make him promise that he was not going to steal his son's present.

All the noise makes Logan jerk and stirr. He mewls a little, drawing Leo attention to him. "We're waking up the little beasts," he murmurs. "Timmy, why don't you go see if daddy can put some tea on? I'll show Matt his room."

Matt's words made him very curious, but Timmy is always ready to answer a call to arms, since he's been taught to be the Responsible Child. He nods and disappears out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
"Your grubs are cool, bro. The big one too," Matt says, looking down at Leo with fondness. "You got a good thing goin' on here. I'm proud of ya. Happy for ya, too."

"The big one's not my doing. Blaine did most of the job," He plays it down as he walks along the corridor towards the guest room. "He was already polite when I met him."

"Yeah? I dunno. By the way the lil' blonde dwarf looks at ya, I'd say you've been at least as important in his upbringing." He follows him, one long step after the other, getting closer to Leo just to share the same warmth as they walk.

Leo smiles, sweetly. "Thanks. It's important for me when people say that... but you know that."

"'Course I know," he smiles too, affectionately, and reaches out for him, placing one of his long, wide hands on Leo's head and ruffling his already pretty messy hair. "You're doing a great job."

"Thanks. Shit! I do say thanks a lot, right?" He sighs and opens a door, showing him inside. "Here."
The room is smaller than Leo's, but it's a double nonetheless, and the bed is big. There's a huge window, a desk and a big wardrobe. "There was smaller room with a private batroom, but it's next to the twins' and you will thank me tonight."

"You shitting me, bro, I'm already thanking you," Matt walks in and drops his bag on a chair. "This room is twice the size of my apartment."
He opens the bag and takes out four presents he brought with him. The twins have the bigger one, a proper twin baby gym he found online, specifically studied with activities that involve both babies, in which they pull each other up, play with shared toys hanging from the structure and so on. "There's something for the lil' grubs in here too. There are labels everywhere, can't miss it," he says, as he passes the wrapped up presents to Leo. "Put 'em under those majestic Christmas tree you got yourself in the sitting room, will ya?"

"Oh, you shouldn't have!" Leo quickly says with a smirk as he goes through the boxes. "But I kinda like that you did. Is this for me?" He's got Matt the new Gamzee hoodies. Hussie got them out, like, ten days before, and Leo both threatened the life of whoever among their common friends had even thought about buying one for Matt, and basically paid a shitload of money to have them both shipped to Lima in about three days.

"That's for ya, yeah." The box contains a vinyl figure, but not a kit because it was custom-made, designed after a Gamkat fanart. He knows Leo will go crazy about it, scream in ecstasy and probably lose his husband after all the drooling he will do seeing it. But, Matt thinks a figure like that is worth ruining a marriage for a day or two. "No sneak peeks. Get 'em under the tree, now.

Leo frowns. "Are you throwing me out?"

Matt laughs. "I'm tryina get those presents under the tree, cos I know once they get there they're sacred and you can't take peeks anymore," he answers. He knows Leo's Christmas rules well enough to use them against him. But then he smirks widely, showing a bit of his teeth. "But if ya think I'm gonna let you out of here without some motherfucking cuddles first, bro, you're delusional."

Leo puts the presents on the desk and looks at him the same old way he has always looked at him, with a different kind of love that goes a long way back. "If you thought you were gonna stay here without cuddling me like a good moirail, you were delusional."

Matt wraps his arms around him, pulling him in for a tight, warm hug. He doesn't let him go for two full minutes, just standing there, hugging him without even moving a limb. Leo clings to him, grabbing his hoodie and hiding his face in his neck. It feels so good to have Matt here, to be able to hug him and talk to him in person. They text each other a lot, but they haven't seen each other often since the twins were born, and even before – when they were in the making, so to speak – there hasn't been much time. Leo misses this a lot. It's almost a physical need, one he realizes he has only when he can actually touch Matt.

Matt feels the change in him, he can read his body through the tensing and relaxing of his muscles, since there was a time when that was the only way Leo would let him know what he felt. "Don't start gettin' all emotional on me, now," He smirks and takes a little bite out of Leo's neck. "Your husband's downstairs."

"...and he knows what it means that you are here," Leo says, stubbornly refusing to let go. It's true, Blaine agreed on having Matt over knowing that he and Leo were going to stay too close to each other not to be uncomfortable for him on some level. "He's not even grumpy."

"That's cos he's a motherfucking saint," he smiles, kissing him on his cheek, on his forehead and only then, very naturally, letting him go. "Thanks again for having me. For good ol' times' sake when it was me havin' ya."

Leo smiles, and then sighs, before this becomes too overwhelming. "Okay. Enough emotions for now! I'll leave you settle. You can use the bathroom down the hall, towels are there. And when you feel like it, you can come downstairs, there's tea ready for you."
Matt smirks. "I'll be there before you can say motherfucking miracle out loud."

He leans in and kisses him on the cheek. "I'm counting on it. I brought you here for your miracles."
But indeed, Matt is already one on his own.