It had been hours since the hues of dusk had blended into an inky midnight and if it weren't for the pitched wail, and chubby hands grabbing at his face, Arthur surely wouldn't have woken up until morning.
Flinching out of sleep at the sudden burst of noise, blue eyes opened in a panicked flutter of lashes, furiously blinking away the pull of unconsciousness to stare at the tear stained chubby cheeks of his youngest, bottom lip quivering, and violet eyes reddened from crying and rubbing. The small hands on Arthur's forehead lifted from his eyebrows and were placed upon his cheeks, patting them gently as young Matthew coo'd to him, pouting, a little upset that the other had not responded to the few '-thur's that were easily recognisable from the childish gurgle. Before Arthur could react the little hands moved again, this time to his neck in a small hug as the child now snuggled into his chest, still mumbling and sniffling, but seeming to have calmed down at least a bit, at least enough for Arthur to think without being a shock of sudden worry.
Turning his face to the right, carefully to not cause any more unnecessary tears, the child-protection gate was spotted, un-locked and pushed against the wall of the family room, which indicated someone other than Matthew had opened it and let him unattended with a sleeping parent in a dark living room with more than a few sharp edges. Ignoring the light shudder that ran down his spine at the thought of Matthew taking a few steps and tumbling onto DVD cases, his cat, or even the concrete step in front of the fireplace, he pondered the question of who opened it.
Even when having to quickly leave, Francis knew a lot better than to allow the gate to remain open, and always checked the house to make sure everyone was asleep and safe, the windows and unused doors were locked, and that everything felt secure and serene enough for him to leave without worry or doubt. He always checked on the children, most of the time having to put Alfred to bed several times because he was just to energetic-'wait' he paused, nearly snapping his fingers at the almost obvious suspect, 'Alfred..!'
Alfred had probably woken up, made a ruckus (nothing new, he thought nobody was aware of the nighttime games, but both parents were) and woken up Matthew who no doubt had been just as loud as his brother, if not twice as such. Instead of attempting to soothe his sleepy, upset sibling, he brought him downstairs to drown out the sound, not caring that his brother could have gotten himself into trouble, or that his Father had run around all day cooking and baking, and was dreadfully tired and drained.
With a hushed mutter, Arthur shrugged it off (Alfred's punishment would have to wait until tomorrow) and wrapped his arms around the child cuddled into his chest, before groaning and moving off the couch to place Matthew in the napping pen on the side of the couch and fixing up the blanketing inside to make a proper bed, finding no use in walking upstairs just so Alfred would bring Matthew back downstairs again.
As he turned away and began to walk toward the small child gate to move it to it's proper place and re-lock it, a slightly angered "-thur!" caused him to turn around and grin tiredly at the small toddler who was pouting again, arms raised to be picked up, the bright violet eyes tear free now, a slight happiness sparkling somewhere deep within them.