Spencer looked at Aaron with what could be best described as contempt.
"Take it back," he said finally after a few tension-filled seconds, walking over and unclipping the straps, "We didn't agree on that, if you'll recall."
"Yeah, but he went to sleep so fast," Aaron gave him a pouting look as Spencer lifted Jack out of the black nylon nest, "C'mon, Spence. It would make things so much easier for both of us."
"Easy doesn't mean right," Spencer said, sending him a glare and bouncing Jack on his hip, "Slings often aren't safe for the infant nor the wearer, and many studies suggest that it can detach some emotional bonds toward-"
"Oh, hush," the older man smiled at his grumpy husband, "He'll hate us sometimes whether or not we hold him with our arms or with a comfy contraption."
"You can say that with peace of mind," Spencer mumbled under his breath as Jack slowly woke up and promptly began to cry, "You haven't read every single parenting book on this side of town. I thought we agreed that we'd rely on skin contact to soothe him to sleep-"
"Can't go grocery shopping shirtless, nowadays," Aaron remarked with a grin.
Spencer just shook his head, shifting a wailing Jack in his arms to unbutton his shirt with his free hand, "Go put that thing up and meet us in the bed for Tummy Time."
"I thought I told you to throw this thing out," Spencer sighed, leaning up and snatching the glimpse of black fabric from the top shelf of the closet. He turned to Aaron with a disapproving frown, to which Aaron just grinned at him, still on a high from their first intimate moment together in weeks.
"You didn't say to throw it away," Aaron replied, dazed.
"Sometimes, I think if I was a worse person and I wasn't a parent, I would hit you," he shook his head, feeling as though he was raising two children. "But I am a good person, and I love you."
Aaron beamed and slid to the foot of the bed, standing in his naked glory and attempting to wrap the fully clothed brunette in his arms. Spencer had always been adamant about putting on clothes directly after sex because, now as a parent, he had things to do. His primary intention at that very moment was to get rid of the damn baby papoose that kept popping up everywhere he turned.
"I love you too, darling, and I genuinely believe we should keep this," Aaron said, plucking the thing out of Spencer's hands and smiling deviously at him, "I personally think you'd look sexy in it."
"It isn't sexiness power I'm looking for, Aaron," Spencer complained, turning in his arms and frowning, "We overloaded on baby books, and now we have such a child, we're going to overlook all we've learned?"
"I promise you, he's going to be a perfectly normal kid when he gets older," Aaron kissed his cheek, nose, and hair before closing his hands around Spencer's jaw and looking at him, "The thing about parenting... it's meant to be fun."
Spencer pouted, "I don't think so..."
"Then let's make it fun."
At a perfectly timed and completely ironic moment, Jack began to scream from the other room.
Aaron smirked and Spencer shook his head, sporting a repressed grin.
Aaron looked at Spencer with sad eyes, speaking quietly although the baby in his husband's arms was crying so loud it was a surprise he could be heard. "I'm so sorry I have to leave you with him like this, I just-"
"Very important meeting, yes," Spencer sent him a smile that was actually genuine, but tired. Over the past few days, he'd probably had only one or two hours a sleep per night, and it was definitely wearing him down, "I'll see you at eight."
Aaron kissed Spencer on the cheek and Jack on the head, before hesitantly leaving them in the study. As soon as the door clicked shut, Jack seemed to feel the lack of his other dad in the room and began to shriek even louder.
"Okay, Jack," Spencer said under his breath, rocking the screaming baby in his arms, "Let's calm down, please."
Aaron was supposed to come home two hours later. Spencer was willing to wait, holding a screaming baby for an hour or two. He'd interrogated criminals for longer than that, a baby wouldn't be too much trouble. However, when the text came in that Aaron would be late, that plan was chucked to the side.
He went through the checklist; diaper was fine, he definitely wasn't hungry, he was fine burp-wise. He tried to sing, tried walking him around the house. He turned on the dryer and leaned on it because Jack liked the vibrations, he sat in front of the kitchen sink and turned on the faucet for him to watch. But nothing worked.
With tired, annoyed, and completely desperate eyes, he glanced over to the papoose.
When Aaron came home at ten-and-some-change o'clock, he found an eerily silent house. He wondered, just for a moment, if Spencer had either killed Jack, or the two of them had been kidnapped. He didn't necessarily mean to quicken his pace, but he found himself at the top of the stairs in the blink of an eye, throwing the bedroom door open with wide, crazed eyes.
There was Spencer. Standing and swaying shirtless in the middle of the room, wearing the papoose like armor, his arms wrapped around Jack and keeping him safe. The brunette looked over at him with an exhausted expression on his face.
Aaron opened his mouth to say something, but Spencer's eyebrows furrowed and he glared as intensely as he could through half-closed eyelids.
"Please, don't say anything. Please," he begged in a gravelly voice, "I might actually cry if you make fun of me."
"I would never make fun of you," Aaron replied, shedding his coat and tossing it on the floor before joining his family, covering Spencer's arm around Jack with his own, and letting his other arm wrap around his husband's stomach. "I told you you'd look sexy."
"I don't feel sexy," Spencer whined, "I feel like a kangaroo."
"My kangaroo," Aaron kissed his cheek before brushing his fingers over Jack's head, "and little Joey."
"Will you make nest of pillows on the bed?" Spencer spoke through a yawn, "As long as I'm upright, I can sleep and so can Jack."
"Of course," Aaron turned his face and looked him in the eyes, "But you can't tell me it wasn't fun..."
"I might actually punch you."
"Alright, I'm sorry, I love you, I'm sorry," Aaron laughed, walking to the bed and shedding his shoes, silently strategizing how to make the best pillow nest ever.