When they go to pick up Señora d'Herblay from the airport, Porthos is one hundred percent sure that he still has glitter in his hair, beard and moustache from the day before. He wasn't even aware that they had glitter in the house, but here he is, after two showers, getting glitter on his hands after running them over his face.
He hung the snowflake that Leon had designed in front of the window, and then turned around to look and see if anyone else had finished theirs. He had been left with the little ones, while Luke, Celeste and Aramis went out to "go get some stuff"- the kids had shuffled from foot to foot, looking like they'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and so Porthos suspected that they were probably doing a last bit of Christmas shopping.
The flat looked like something out of a children's story book. The Christmas tree stood tall in one corner, covered in tinsel and hundreds of baubles, with a huge golden star hanging precariously at the top. The fireplace, though not functional, had labelled stockings for all of them nailed to it. Aramis had presented Porthos with his that morning, with great pride, and Porthos beamed so hard it felt like his face might split in two.
There were fairy lights framing every window in every room, save for the bathrooms. It had taken a while- there were the three kids bedrooms, then the study, his and Aramis' bedroom, the kitchen, the living room- and the kids had insisted on doing the top of the front door as well. Porthos wouldn't be surprised if the electricity in the rest of the neighbourhood cut out because of them.
Rene was sat arranging the nativity and other various decorations on the bookshelf, and Leon was showing the twins how to make paper snowflakes. Porthos kneeled down next to them- and half way through telling them "wow, you guys are really good at this!" Adalyn popped open the glitter. It exploded. Everywhere.
They managed to clear up most of it by the time the other three came home, apart from Porthos.
"I'd always thought you'd hated Edward Cullen and his glittery vampire ways," teased Aramis. "But really you just wanted to be him!"
Porthos had growled and then pounced, tackling Aramis to the floor and tickling him. Within about five seconds, the rest of the children, apart from Leon, had joined in. They stopped for a second, a mess of tangled limbs, and Aramis had stuck his hand out to the boy, who smiled weakly as he took it. He was then attacked by the rest of the family, and was soon laughing as hard as the rest of them.
He's brought out of his reverie when the children start shouting and running ahead. "Abuela, Abuela! We came to get you!" Leon stays by Porthos, firmly gripping his hand.
Señora d'Herblay is elegance personified- her dark brown hair, the same colour as Aramis', is streaked with grey, and her eyes are lined with kohl under perfectly shaped eyebrows. Her red coat- the same one she's had since Aramis was ten, he tells Porthos- is tailored to fit and looks brand new, and her black kitten heels shine like the light is coming from within them. Her lips are stained a dark red, and she is so effortlessly put together it makes anyone who can see her instantly jealous.
"Mis pequeños!" She replies, unceremoniously dropping her handbag, hand luggage and suitcase to the floor. She crouches and the twins go running into her arms. She hugs them close and kisses their cheeks, leaving lipstick stains which she then tries to rub off with her thumb. She gives the same treatment to Rene, and then Celeste, and then Luke. She is smaller than Celeste, and so she has to pull Luke down for a kiss.
"Not so little anymore," she says to Celeste and Luke, and pinches their cheeks. She looks so immensely proud. Porthos, Aramis and Leon have caught up with her by this point, and she turns on Leon.
"Hello, Corazon," she says to him. He blushes and smiles. "Can I have a hug?" She asks, standing as tall as she can at five foot one, and holding out her arms. Leon nods and lets go of Porthos to squeeze her tight. She takes his face in her hands and kisses his nose, before looking at his hair.
"You've changed your style?" she asks, her French is perfect, but spoken with a strong Spanish accent. Leon nods, looking pleased that she noticed. He asked Porthos to take it out of the cornrows about a week ago, and has left it out naturally since. He turns to look at Porthos.
"Just like Porthos, Abuela," he says as he pats his head.
"Ah, yes, very handsome," she agrees, smiling down at him and then smiling up at Porthos. She tucks Leon under her arm, and then turns to Aramis, who greets her with a kiss on the cheek. She pats his jaw, a little harder than necessary, and tells him to go and get her bags. Is he so useless that he's letting his children do it? She says it in French to make Leon laugh.
"Nice to see you too, Mama," he says and grins cheekily at her, and then does as he's told. Señora d'Herblay begins to walk, letting Leon run back to Aramis as she takes Porthos by the arm. He obliges and they walk back to the minivan that Aramis has hired for the day.
"I haven't seen you in a very long time," she says to Porthos, in Spanish, looking up at him briefly and then back ahead at their rather ugly mode of transportation. She doesn't seem to mind it, and if she does, she doesn't make a comment. She is a sensible woman; she would rather have her grandchildren safe, than be in some stylish sports car.
"Aramis says you got back in April?" she comments, and Porthos suddenly realises he's stopped counting the days since he's been back. He's stopped counting days to big events as well- he's been doing that since he was a kid.
"I did," replies Porthos, using the same language she does. She had taught him Spanish for a reason, she expected him to use his words.
"And you moved in just this month?"
"Si, Señora," he replies, and she hits his arm lightly.
"None of this Señora business," she tells him. "As you did before, you call me Tía. Just because my son is an idiot, it does not mean you stopped being part of the family." Porthos smiles at her. "Actually, you should probably use Suegra now," she adds as an afterthought.
"Señora, I mean Tía, it's not like that- Aramis and I- it's not that kind of relationship-" he stumbles between French and Spanish, and Señora d'Herblay just gives him a look.
"To add to the children's vocabulary," she says, and he stops sputtering.
"Surely that might end badly and confuse them?" He asks, and she waves away his words with her hand.
"Nonsense. Any Spanish they learn is good Spanish."
Aramis catches up with them as Porthos helps the Señora into the van.
"So what were you talking about?"
"Oh nothing of importance," Porthos says, and he only notices when Aramis raises an eyebrow that he's still speaking Spanish.
That evening, the children take it in turns to open the door, while Aramis and his mother finish cooking in the kitchen, and Porthos tries to organise the chaos. The children are dressed in their best- the clothes their Abuela got for them on their last birthday. Leon can't stop fiddling with his flowery tie, and the twins keep on making themselves dizzy by seeing who can spin the fastest and make their dress flair out the most. Celeste is dressed in slacks like the boys, sans the tie, but she does have a silver sparkly bow in her hair. Abuela wouldn't let her wear the hat.
Athos is the first to arrive, and already Porthos has given up with his tie and cufflinks, and his dress shirt is rolled up to his elbows. He smirks, and hands Porthos the wine he brought as a gift.
"I might need this later," Porthos jokes, pulling him into a hug, but it doesn't last long because the children are keen to grab his attention and play host and hostess. He lets them, and introduces himself to Leon, who is clinging to the back of Porthos' shirt.
Soon all the other guests arrive. Anne looks like she's ready for the red carpet, rather than dinner at a friends', and the twins are fascinated by this princess. Rene and Louis and the twins disappear to go and play the minute they see each other.
The children all introduce themselves to Constance and D'Artagnan, and Aramis runs out to great them. He's rather shocked by Constance's pregnant belly. "You didn't say anything! Oh mi Dios, congratulations!" He asks all the usual questions of when she's due and if she knows the sex of the baby- to which Constance replies "no we don't, because it doesn't really matter, does it?" Aramis beams and leads everyone into the kitchen at some point to meet his mother, who somehow manages to reach up and hit him over the head with a rolling pin, because she was left to do all the work.
Porthos panics as it gets later and Flea and Charon still haven't arrived- but in reality they are only half an hour late, and when they do arrive, they apologise profusely for getting lost. When Porthos lets them go from the bear hug he greets them with, the children are lined up behind him, trying to get a look at who these people are. They all agree that Charon looks like some sort of fairy with his multi-coloured dreads, and Flea is an angel, with gold threaded through her plaits and gold glitter shimmering on her dark skin.
"Luke, Celeste, Leon, Rene, Adalyn, Nannette," he points at each kid as he introduces them. He then points at Flea and Charon.
"This is Flea, and this is Charon, we've been friends since we were really young" he tells the children, and they wave at them. Charon laughs.
"You've got enough for half a football team!" says Charon, and Flea laughs.
"It's like the Sound of Music in here!"
"Actually," interrupts Leon, "we're one short for both of those." It's at that moment when Louis appears, and Flea raises her eyebrows in surprise.
"This is Louis, and he's not one of ours," says Aramis as he appears in the hallway to say hello. Only Porthos notices his slight unease and is micro-second long pause before he says ours. He'll have to ask about that later. Charon and Flea give each other a look – the one that Porthos has seen on far too many faces and is very confused by.
Throughout the evening, there's a constant stream of food and drink, and the adults try to subtly slip each other presents, for the kids and themselves. Aramis is tense for a while, but when Athos puts a comforting hand on his shoulder and tells him that his party is a success, he relaxes and manages to enjoy himself.
There's a moment where Porthos and Aramis are standing in the living room doorway, and D'Artagnan suddenly stops what he's saying, looks at them and laughs. Everyone looks at him oddly- maybe he's had a little too much to drink?
"Look who's under the mistletoe!" He manages to say between giggles, and Constance rolls her eyes at her husband.
"Honestly, you'd think you were still a teenager!" she teases.
"Can't break the mistletoe rules," Anne says with a twinkle in her eye, and Aramis' mother agrees.
"Mama, you have never, ever kissed someone under the mistletoe."
"I had my reasons," she says, and Aramis raises an eyebrow. "They were all old and ugly. Porthos is neither." Everyone laughs at that, and she turns to Celeste, warning her to never kiss men under the mistletoe. Celeste promises with a kind of secret smile that makes Porthos wonder if she's got something to tell her family, and Aramis mutters something about favouritism.
"Aramis you have to kiss Porthos now," says Leon- always one to take things literally.
Aramis laughs and Porthos turns to Athos, who just smirks and holds up his drink as a toast. That earns him a withering glare from both of them.
"Oh honestly, Porthos, you're acting like you never kissed anyone before!" sighs Flea in exasperation.
"And we know that's not true!" Charon adds, waggling his eyebrows, and Porthos frowns at him. He swore they would never talk about that horrifying moment during their last school dance, when his date- a friend he'd taken because neither had anyone to go with- decided that she wanted to stick her tongue down his throat. On the middle of the dance floor. In front of everybody.
Porthos was mortified to say the least.
Everyone is still looking expectantly at him and Aramis, who exclaims that "he honestly doesn't know who stuck the damn plant in the door way anyway" and then pulls down Porthos for a peck on the lips. It's probably the sweetest kiss Porthos has ever had, and he thinks it's over too fast. He startles at his own trail of thought. Everyone cheers, Aramis bows, and then leaves to go and get dessert from the kitchen. Celeste and Luke follow him, looking smug, and Porthos is left standing in the doorway, a little shell shocked, while everyone goes back to their conversations. Athos smirks at him, and Porthos rolls his eyes, before he's pulled away by Rene who wants him to play the piano, so he can show Louis and Abuela his dance from the show.
It's three o'clock when everyone leaves, and that's only because Flea and Charon remember that they have an early train to catch, and then everyone else realises the time. Anne has to pry Louis away from Rene and the twins- the four of them had somehow, Porthos suspected with the help of Celeste and Luke, managed to push the three beds together to make one giant one, and fall asleep in a heap. They all whined as Anna lifted Louis away, but quickly he was asleep on their shoulder, and the other three were back to normal.
Luke and Celeste help their Abuela change the three youngest into pyjamas while Porthos and Aramis clean up. Leon tries to help, but just gets told to brush his teeth and go to bed instead. Aramis kisses his mother goodnight before she heads to bed- he's glad there's a bed in the study for when he works late, because otherwise sleeping arrangements would have been impossible.
Porthos and Aramis are standing in front of the mirror in their bathroom, brushing their teeth, and Porthos is looking at Aramis, while Aramis is ignoring his intense stare by looking at himself. Porthos rinses out his mouth and wipes his face with a towel, before turning on Aramis.
"Louis is yours, isn't he?" he asks, very quietly. For once, his expression is unreadable. Aramis nods.
"You and her…" Porthos starts, but lets the sentence trail off. Immediately understanding what he's implying, Aramis shakes his head so fast that he looks like one of those dolls with a bobbing head that you stick on the dash in a car. He rinses his mouth and dries his face, before turning to Porthos.
"She and her husband were having trouble conceiving."
Porthos nods, and leans against the bathroom counter. Aramis runs his hand through his hair, and then leans next to Porthos. He and Anne had known each other in Spain- Aramis' mother was her family's seamstress, and the two of them had become very good friends when they were very young. She and Aramis had moved to Paris together- he joined the army, and she went to study history of art. While they were still in France, Aramis made sure to introduce her to his new friends. When she got married, at the tender age of twenty three, she'd made sure that the wedding was when Aramis, Porthos, and Athos were all on leave- she couldn't get married without her three best friends there.
Constance and D'Artagnan became part of their group a few years later.
"She invited me over for dinner one day, when I was on leave. Its half way through dessert, and they ask me if I'll be a donor."
"And you said yes."
Aramis nods, hanging his head so his chin almost hits his chest. "I couldn't say no to her. But that's why her husband avoids me at all costs now."
Porthos says quiet for what seems like an eternity, and then walks out of the bathroom. Why hadn't Aramis told him before? This had to have happened, what? Two years before he left the army? Louis' a little older than Rene, but they're in the same year at school. And then it clicks.
"I'm the only person who knows outside of you three, aren't I?" he turns, and Aramis is so close behind him that his nose is practically touching Porthos' before he takes a tiny step backwards and nods.
"Couldn't have anyone else knowing. High society drama and scandals and all that," he says with a shrug, and Porthos nods. He will never understand why the other half live the way they do, but he'll be Anne's and Aramis' secret keeper without question.
They get into bed and Aramis whispers "merry Christmas eve" with a smile, and Porthos returns the sentiment before Aramis promptly falls asleep.
But Porthos can't stop thinking about the way Aramis kissed him, and how he called the kids "ours".