A/N: In honour of the big man's birthday I hashed this out pretty quickly. Supposed to be set along the same "timeline" as the ficlets in "Consider This", though I need to rethink some dates in the grand scheme of things.
x
His day was supposed to start just like any other, get up, go for a run, come home, shower, wake Ste and the kids, have breakfast, then do whatever needed to be done for the day, but his alarm never went off and when he did wake up, he was alone.
"Steven?" he called out groggily, fingers tracing the empty space beside him, there was still a hint of warmth there, Ste couldn't have been up long, "Steven?" he called out again as he sat up, he gave his face a tired rub and looked at the closed door, it wasn't usually closed unless he and Ste were fucking, and even that didn't seem to deter the risk of invading children. He checked his watch, saw it was almost 9am and was about to get up when the door handle rattled, he stopped, looking at it and hearing Ste laughing outside,
"Leah help your brother, daddy's got his hands full," he smiled as he listened, deciding to prop up his pillows and sit back, wanting to see what exactly was going on, figuring bed was the best vantage point. The handle turned fully and Leah and Lucas bounced into the room, Lucas immediately climbed onto the bed and clambered over to Brendan, but Leah lagged behind to pick something up and carry it in, shoddily wrapped in garish wrapping paper, which meant she'd wrapped whatever it was herself.
"Happy Birthday Daddy Brendan!" Leah beamed when she saw him, climbing up to sit next to her seven year old brother, who repeated her sentiments with a 'Happy birthday da', and Brendan was honestly surprised, he hadn't even realised it was his birthday, it was just another day he was with Ste and not in prison.
"Happy Birthday Bren," Ste smiled as he finally stepped into the room with a tray of breakfast, carrying it over and passing it to Brendan, who set it on his lap and looked at everything on the wooden tray. The larger plate held a fry up whilst there were two smaller plates, one with toast, and the other with a cupcake with a candle in it, there was also two cups of coffee, a card, and a flat rectangular gift.
"Thank you," he let out, not meaning to sound as surprised as he felt; he watched as Ste sat down on the bed, Lucas and Leah tucked between them on the bed, getting a bit big for it but it wouldn't stop them.
"You feelin' old yet?" he asked as he picked up his own cup of coffee from Brendan's tray,
"If I start I'll just fall back on the sayin' won't I?" he quipped, waiting for Ste to give him a confused look before continuing, "you're as young as the man you feel," he offered with a wink,
"Ewwwww" Leah cringed,
"Gross," Lucas piped up, though he just looked confused, following his sister's lead.
"Sorry Princess," Brendan smiled,
"You can make it up to me, open mine an' Lucas's present first!" she held the gift out to him but Ste made her set it on her lap.
"Let Daddy Brendan eat his brekkie first, aright kids?" he requested, and the two children grumpily obeyed, sitting and fidgeting whilst they waited for Brendan to eat, it was probably the first time anyone was thankful that Brendan ate everything like it was his first meal in an age.
He finished quickly but left the cupcake for later, placing the tray on the side table and taking the gift and card from it and setting it on his lap, then holding his hands out to Leah,
"Go on then, yours first," he stretched towards her and offered his cheek, smiling when he got a quick kiss on it and then accepted the gift, "So this is from both of you?" he asked,
"Yeah!" Lucas beamed, proud of himself and whatever he and Leah had gotten for Brendan. He steeled himself, not really sure what to expect, sure he'd gotten Christmas gifts from them in the past, but this was different and didn't seem like an obligatory thing like Christmas had been. Carefully he found a loose bit of tape and began to unwrap it, drawing out the process of unwrapping the large gift.
The first thing he noticed was white fur, a large white plush toy that he pulled out to reveal it was a polar bear, kind of like the one he'd given to Leah before, only instead of a princess tiara, this one had a big black curly moustache. He chuckled to himself at that, tucking the bear under his arm to look like he was cuddling it,
"Thank you Leah, Lucas," he smiled,
"No I got the other one da!" Lucas huffed, using his position right next to Brendan as an advantage by digging through the paper to show there was something else inside,
"Oh, okay calm down kiddo," Brendan laughed, pushing his small hands aside and then pushing the paper back to reveal a box, he looked at it and shook his head in disbelief, "Are you lot tryin' to tell me somethin'?" he asked, rubbing at his beard as he unpacked the mug from the box, it was white with a moustache more like the one he'd had on it; he'd kept his beard groomed after getting out of prison but aside from that he'd not even really thought about shaving it again. He looked over to Ste, "What's this? A straight razor?" he gestured to the small package,
"Nah, but we do miss the tash, don't we kids?" he grinned, Leah and Lucas nodding their agreement, to which Brendan rolled his eyes. "Go on, open it," Ste urged, so Brendan put his mug aside, promising Lucas he'd use it for his next cup of coffee and every one after that, picking up the narrow package, it wasn't even boxed, whatever it was, it was almost like a bright little envelope if it wasn't for the lump in the centre. He opened one of the ends and tipped it up, first there was chain falling out and piling on his hand, then a familiar heavy weight, a cross with a ring around it, it knocked the breath out of him and he lowered the wrapping paper, staring at his open hand.
"You… you kept it…" he gasped,
"Yeah… thought I'd lost it though… an' then when we were movin'…" he gestured to the room they were in, or the house, Brendan wasn't sure, "I found it when I were packin'," Brendan stayed silent, turning the cross over in his hand, hugging the stuffed bear properly now, though he didn't realise he was doing it. "Do you want help puttin' it on?" Ste asked, but Brendan shook his head,
"No, I've… I'll be back in a sec…" he handed the bear to Lucas and climbed out of bed, pulling his jogging bottoms on over his boxers one-handed before padding through to the en suite bathroom and closing the door, locking it behind him.
He emerged a short while later with the cross resting on his bare chest, a hand rubbing his jaw absently where it tingled after his shave; Leah let out a delighted squeal of a sound and Lucas followed suit, the two of them scrambling off of the bed and rushing him for a hug. Ste followed slower, resting a hand on Lucas's shoulder when he got close enough, leaning over the two children and kissing Brendan.