The soft sound of pattering feet got louder as Robyn approached the door to Lofty's room, clutching her pink rabbit to her chest. She knocked gently and entered, stopping when she saw Lofty sitting up on his bed, his arms crossed on the windowsill.

"Are you asleep?" she whispered into the silence.

"No" Lofty muttered, turning to face her, and holding out his arms for a hug. Robyn ran forward and jumped onto his bed, grinning as she fell into his arms. "Can't you sleep?"

"I'm too excited!" she buzzed, beaming at him as she pulled away. Lofty looked away again, staring across the water through the window. "The lights are pretty" she whispered, picking up his plushy dinosaur and pressing it into his arms.

"I love them! Look at the ones on the green boat!" Lofty pointed through the window enthusiastically to where the roof of a boat was completely decked out with red lights.

"I bet that's where Santa lands!"

"Yeah and look at Mr Parker's boat! He's put reindeer on it!" Both children pressed their faces closer to the window, and Robyn noticed a little bit of sadness in Lofty's expression.

"Why are you sad?"

"I'm not" Lofty forced a smile, holding his dinosaur closer.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?"

"What's there to be excited about?"

"It's Christmas!" Robyn jumped up onto her knees excitedly, eyes sparkling. "It's the most exciting day of the year!"

"Not really" Lofty sighed.

"But why?"

"Christmas doesn't really work out for me" Lofty shrugged, not meeting Robyn's eye. It hurt him to see Robyn so excited about something that wouldn't happen, but he didn't want to hurt her by telling her the truth.

"How does it not work out for you? Christmas works out for everyone… Santa will deliver the presents and we'll play in the snow and eat Christmas dinner!" Robyn's smile confused Lofty, and he tilted his head.

"I guess Santa's too busy for me" He looked down, trying to hold back his tears. He didn't want to be selfish, when everyone else was so happy.

"What? Santa has time for everyone! Even children who don't live with their parents anymore" Robyn sounded shocked, and it confused Lofty even more.

"Santa's never been for me…" Lofty's voice faded off. "But at least I can see the lights!" His face lit up again, but Robyn sat still, confused.

"He's always been for me" She said, "Maybe if we go to sleep now, he'll come for both of us?" Robyn suggested, but she had a different plan.

"Can you sleep in here tonight?" Lofty whispered, tears in his eyes.

"Of course!"

Robyn waited until Lofty had fallen to sleep before writing a note to Santa and sticking it on Lofty's door. He would have stopped her otherwise; he was too selfless to let her carry out her plan. Then she curled up next to him, rabbit in arms and fell asleep.

That night, David and Dylan waited until the children were quiet, before emerging from their room to lay out the presents. As Dylan approached Lofty's room to check he was definitely asleep, he spotted a small piece of paper stuck to the door. That hadn't been there before…

David crept up behind Dylan. "What d'you think?" his eyes lit up as he moved his chin, wiggling the fake beard he was wearing.

"What on earth are you doing with your life?"

"Ho, ho, ho!"

"Please. You're only embarrassing yourself" Dylan laughed, pulling his phone out his pocket and snapping a photo before David could complain. "Just wait til' they're teenagers" he taunted, waving his phone at his boyfriend, before pocketing it again.

"Oh whatever, you know you want this" he winked, "Now what's that?" he pointed to the piece of paper Dylan held.

"That's what i was going to find out before you… um… distracted me" He opened the folded note and un-stuck it from Lofty's door. It was written in Robyn's pink glitter pen, but hastily.

Deer santa

Lofty sed he dint ever get chrismus wen he lived with his mumee. He sed you havnt got tim for him. This yeer pleese give him my tim becos he has never had chrismus befor an I have

Luv robyn xxxxxxx

Dylan tried to hold back the sob in his throat.

David placed a hand on his shoulder, "Dylan, it's okay - this'll be his first Christmas"

"What poor excuse of a mother has nothing for her child on Christmas day?"

"We both know what sort of person Julia is, but why not see this as another opportunity to make Ben's life better? If you'd ignored the signs, this could just be another shitty Christmas."

"Yeah" Dylan's voice cracked at the thought, and David pulled him into a tight hug, "Let's make Christmas Ben's new favourite day"

"And make christmas eve our favourite night" he muttered, pressing a soft kiss to Dylan's temple.

"Lofty! Lofty!" Robyn was sat with one leg on either side of Lofty's torso, "Lofty, wake up! It's christmas!"

Lofty sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his soft dinosaur. "H-ppy christmus Robyn" He smiled when he saw how excited she was.

"Look! He came!" The excitement rang through Robyn's voice as she held up two stockings.

"Not for me." Lofty mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes and yawning.

"Yeah he did! This stocking has your name on it!"

Lofty's eyes snapped open in surprise, "N-no he can't have done… He's too busy…"

Robyn too Lofty's hand and pulled him out of bed, giving him enough time to grab his dinosaur, while trying to keep him from falling. "Well he did, so let's go and wake David and Dylan"

Lofty glanced at his alarm clock. 7am. "Okay!" he grinned back at her, yet still in shock.

Dylan rolled over as a soft weight rested on his feet. David's 'costume' lay under the duvet at his feet, though they both had had the initiative to put on pyjamas before sleeping.

"Daddy?" a soft whisper jerked Dylan out of his half-sleep trance and he smiled as he saw Lofty crouched down by his head, "Sorry for waking you up" Lofty whispered.

"Nonsense, my boy" Dylan affirmed, scooping his son up and plopping him between David and himself.

"Come on Robyn!" Lofty giggled as Dylan picked her up too and placed her on top of David to wake him up.

"Happy Christmas Daddy" Robyn laughed as David sat up and she slid down the bed a bit further.

"Well, did Father Christmas come?" David asked

"Yeah, and he came for Lofty too!"

"Of course he did, he wouldn't leave Lofty out" Dylan smiled, ruffling Lofty's curls and handing him the stocking with his name on.

David and Dylan walked arm-in-arm through the snow, feet crunching and slipping, as they watched their children running ahead of them and dropping to the floor to make snow angels. Dylan had never seen Lofty smile more, though he'd been shocked at first, but now they'd had lunch, he seemed reassured that he wouldn't be forgotten on Christmas again.

Now though, David slipped his arm free of Dylan's to scoop up a handful of snow and throw it at him, before running after Robyn and picking her up as a shield. She squealed as he passed her another snowball, which she promptly threw at Lofty. Lofty giggled and tried to form a snowball, helped thoroughly by Dylan who had caught up, and threw it at David's waist.

"Let's go home" David smiled, when the four of them were exhausted, lying back in the snow. They'd got as far as the park, before the snowball fight broke out, and passers-by smiled at them, some other children joining in momentarily.

Dylan scooped Lofty up onto his shoulders, rubbing his little hands so they didn't get too cold, and David copied with Robyn as they began to stroll home.

"Bathtime and a movie?" Dylan suggested.

"Oh yes that sounds lovely" David flirted.

"Not you, the kids"

"Of course - I wouldn't even begin to suggest…"

"I know you wouldn't" Dylan took one of David's hands and they walked the rest of the way like that, Lofty and Robyn smiling softly to one another, knowing how much their fathers loved one another.