Context: Tom and Harry had been married for three years before they decided they wanted kids. Now, seven years later, Harry can't help but feel that his life could have been simpler without them…
"Boys! I want both of you down here, now!" Harry bellows up the stairs, praying that they both finally come down, and that Tom will be somewhere getting ready.
Soon enough, he hears footsteps thundering across the landing, and the eldest of their boys appears at the top of the stairs, trying to go down the stairs at a run and not noticing the bag of their packed lunches at the bottom, tripping over it and flying across the room, Harry only just catching him before he hits the floor.
"Where were you, mister?" Harry says, ruffling his son's hair and laughing at the huge grin still spread all over his face, despite his tumble.
"Getting ready! Are we really going to the zoo?" he chatters, bouncing up and down in Harry's arms so much he has to pull back, getting his coat off the rack in the hallway and his son's too.
"Yes, really, Danny. But only if you're brother and Pa come down soon," he says, doing up the zipper of his jacket and setting about trying to force Danny to stay still long enough to get his arms into the sleeves. The kid seems to have endless energy, and Tom and Harry sometimes just give up and let him run around the garden for a few hours, playing football with himself, to get rid of the energy. It doesn't always work though.
Harry eventually gets the sleeves on, which he counts as a sure success, before standing up again and standing up the bag of food Danny knocked over.
"Tom! I only have one of our sons out here, and I seriously hope you are bringing the other one down right now!"
"Are you cross, Daddy?" Danny asks curiously, watching Harry shout upstairs for the second time. He's actually managed to get his shoes on too, thought hasn't done them up. Sometimes he misses the little things that are actually really important like that…
"No. I just want to go so we can avoid the bad traffic this morning," Harry sighs, crouching onto his knees and doing up Danny's shoes for him.
He hears shrieks and giggles coming from the top of the stairs then, and he and Danny both turn to see Tom coming down, holding a shrieking boy upside down by the ankles.
"It's a monster, coming to get yooooouuuu!" Tom half growls, half sings, swinging Dougie from side to side so that he giggles even more, with his blonde hair sticking out everywhere and his toy dinosaur clutched in one hand.
"And where have you been?" Harry demands, as Tom reaches the bottom and sets down their youngest, who rolls onto his side, still giggling.
"Dressing this little monster. Don't worry, we'll still be there in time."
Tom laughs at Harry's expression of disbelief and goes to get his own coat on, passing Dougie's one to Harry before patting his pockets to check they have everything they need.
"Morning, Pugs," Harry says, pulling Dougie to stand up and ignoring the way he scrunches his face at the name. Harry can practically hear the eye roll Tom does; he's always found Harry's nickname for their youngest son annoying. It's just because of the way he scrunches up his face when he's annoyed; a habit he's never quite grown out of.
"Are we gonna be late?" Dougie asks, pouting slightly. He hugs his dinosaur closer, which makes it much harder for Harry to dress him.
"Probably not. But put Zukie down and we'll be able to get going a lot faster, okay?" he says, ruffling Dougie's hair when he drops the toy momentarily.
"Will there be lions at the zoo?" Danny asks excitedly, and when Harry turns he's pulling at Tom's trouser leg so hard he's surprised the garment isn't falling down.
"There will be lions, Dan. And lots of other animals, too. Do you remember all of them from your school lessons?"
Danny nods so hard it looks like his head could fall off, if the smile doesn't make it split in half before that, at least.
"Mr Fletcher said there are penguins. And tigers. And monkeys. He said I was a monkey. Is he related to us, Pa?" Danny says, looking innocently up at Tom. Their surname is Fletcher-Judd, which is a bit of a mouthful, but means that they're all united as a family, even if not genetically. They adopted Danny when he was four, and had Dougie practically from birth, as his mother died in labour and the family didn't want him as a reminder.
"Mr Fletcher isn't related, no. He just has part of the same name as me and Daddy," Tom explains, just as Harry succeeds in zipping in Dougie. Harry's happy that he gets to say he has the same surname as Tom and both their kids. Even if Fletcher-Judd is hard to say when you're not concentrating.
"There you go! All nice and warm! Can Daddy have a hug, now?" Harry says, holding out his arms towards Dougie. His son reacts exactly as he expected, though, giggling and shaking his head, backing away. But Harry scoops him up anyway, holding him tight and squishing his son close into him. Dougie still smells a little bit of baby, something Danny lost a couple of years ago. He kinda wishes Dougie, at least, will never quite grow up.
"No! No! Daddy! Get off!" Dougie squeals, squirming in Harry's grip. It makes the other two laugh when he does release him, the little boy red and ruffled from the experience.
"Why won't you hug me when you hug Pa?" Harry asks, pouting at Dougie, whose eyes go wide and innocent at his words.
"Your chin is scratchy," Danny supplies when Dougie doesn't reply straight away, appearing beside Harry and putting a small hand on his cheek, scratching lightly at the stubble there.
"That's because Daddy has too much hair on his face," Tom says, coming past and scooping up Dougie in his arms, holding him against his hip while he picks up the dragon then kissing his forehead. "Come on, family. We have to go and see the animals before the big bad Daddy gets cross!"
"Hey!" Harry exclaims, as Tom sticks out his tongue as he pushes open the door, still carrying Dougie. Danny skips after them, leaving Harry to pick up the bag of food and lock the door behind them. By the time he's turned around, Danny and Dougie are safely strapped into the back of the car, and Tom's leaning against the driver's side door with his eyebrows raised.
"What took you so long? I thought we were in a rush?"
Harry would growl with frustration, but he can see the dimple in Tom's cheek that tells him he's fighting back a smile, so he just shakes his head at the mocking, throwing the keys to Tom as he approaches. Tom catches them one handed, unable to suppress his smile any longer as he grins at his husband.
"You're insufferable sometimes, you know."
"I know," Tom says, snagging Harry's sleeve as he walks past, pulling him in for a quick kiss, smiling against each other's lips. "You're just so hot when you're mad."
Harry rolls his eyes, pushing Tom back towards the car as the blonde winks at him and going around to the passenger side, getting in and strapping himself in quickly, turning to check that the kids are still in their seat-belts.
"Can we have ice-cream?" Danny asks, reaching forward and pulling repeatedly on the back of Harry's chair, making him groan.
"Will there be lizards?" Dougie asks, and when Harry looks he's still holding tight to Zukie, even though the toy really needs a wash soon, with stains all over its originally green fabric.
"The answer to both of those is 'probably'. Now, Dougie, you should tell Daddy about your dream, with the aliens and chocolate. He'll be very interested, I'm sure," Tom says, putting the car into gear and flashing a grin at Harry. He knows that with thin patience, listening to one of their younger son's crazy stories is going to drive him insane.
Even though it's chaotic and messy, and the two kids singing made-up songs in the back at the top of their lungs are giving him a headache, and even though Tom knows that reaching over and scratching his fingers lightly over Harry's leg like that really isn't going to help anything, but he does it anyway, Harry loves his family. And he wouldn't change any of it for the world.