Chapter 4

Home for the Holidays 2019
Prompt: Gatherings

6:00 pm - 6:20 pm Snack/Social Time

When Rogue and Gildarts entered the daycare center, several club attendees were already present, standing together and chatting around a table whose entire surface was covered in snacks and drinks. Rogue didn't pay much attention to them. Although he could go for a coffee, the twins were starting to squirm in their stroller seats. The change of surroundings had sparked their interest, which wasn't all that surprising since this room had been designed with young children in mind, and since they had been shackled for so long already, Rogue thought they deserved to be let out to play first.

He parked the stroller in a corner where it wouldn't be in anyone's way, putting the brakes on and grabbing the diaper bag before unbuckling Haku. He wasn't spreading any unpleasant smells yet, still carrying that wonderful scent of fresh clothes and baby lotion, so he was approved to join the other kids in the play area.

Two teenagers, a boy, and a girl were looking after the playing children, and Rogue guessed they were the ones providing the babysitting service that was mentioned. The boy seemed somewhat familiar. At first, Rogue couldn't remember where he'd met him, but as he studied his face a little bit more, it finally clicked. This had to be Macao's son, whose picture he had been shown yesterday. The girl, however, he was sure he had never seen before.

"Good evening!" she greeted him with a sweet smile, "I'm Wendy, and what's this little angel's name?" She crouched down next to Haku as Rogue put him on the floor.

"This is Haku, he's only six months old, so you need to be careful," Rogue recited, handing the diaper bag over and already feeling nervous at the idea of having someone else watch their sons.

"Don't you worry, Sir. Both Romeo and I have earned our babysitter's certificate. We even trained in infant CPR, Haku is going to be just fine!" Wendy, who seemed so very young to Rogue's eyes, smiled at him reassuringly, but all he heard was CPR.

"CPR, why would he need CPR?!"

"Oh dear, that was supposed to make you feel better," Wendy's eyes watered at Rogue's distress.

"No, no. I'm sure he'll be fine," Rogue fought between his desire to grab Haku in his arms and wanting to boost the girl's self-esteem, "Uhm, I'll be right back with his brother."

Rogue tried not to think of Sting's reaction to that little fiasco, he'd never live it down. He grabbed Kuro out of the stroller, thankful there was enough activity to hold the infant's attention. Kuro rewarded him with a gummy smile and a smack on the head from his red dragon.

He could hear an amused chuckle behind him, followed by Kuro becoming increasingly wiggly in his arms. Rogue turned to see Sting walking towards him, his work bag slung diagonally across his chest and a bright smile at the ready.

"Hey, babe!" Sting pulled him into a quick hug, being careful not to squish Kuro between them.

Once they separated, Sting grabbed the ever more frantic Kuro in his arms, "Hey monster! Did you miss me? Where's your partner in crime?"

Kuro began to grunt, eagerly responding to the sound of his father's voice, and although Sting smiled at his efforts, his attention was immediately captured by the sight of food, "Is that food for everyone? I'm starving!"

Before Rogue had a chance to respond, Sting had already made his way over to the table, with Kuro still held in his arms. He began piling food onto a plate and grabbing a couple of juice boxes. To Rogue's utter dismay, Gildarts walked straight over to him.

"Heey, you must be Mr. Half-Pint!" Gildarts exclaimed, slapping his hand enthusiastically on Sting's shoulder as he recognized Kuro.

"Who?" Sting mumbled through the food that had already made it into his mouth.

"Rogue's husband?"

"Oh, yeah!" Sting agreed cheerfully, once he'd swallowed, "Sting Eucliffe, nice to meet you. And you are?"

"Gildarts Clive, at your service. I'm one of the men running this club. That's an Edolas accent, isn't it?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I travel quite a bit in my line of work," Gildarts replied, "I've been to Edolas a few times, beautiful country. Anyway, it was nice chatting with you, I need to introduce myself to a few others, seems we have a lot of new members tonight. Enjoy the snacks."

Gildarts moved on to his next victim, and Rogue took the opportunity to grab Kuro from Sting. He took him over to Wendy, who had already set up a blanket and toys from the diaper bag for Haku to play with. For his part, Haku looked quite content.

"This is the angel's twin, Kuro." Rogue sat him down next to his brother, his mind more at ease now that he'd seen how comfortable the children were around the two teens and the other way around. "Oh, a word of advice: make sure no one takes that dragon away from him. Trust me, he'll take tantrum to a whole new level."

"That's good to know, we'll keep a close eye on it," Wendy reassured him.

Rogue smiled at her, hoping to give off some friendlier vibes than he had earlier. Now that the kids were settled, it was time to get that coffee, but he hadn't made it to the snack table yet when one of the boys had started crying loudly already. He whirled back around, feeling both relieved and foolish when it just turned out to be Haku, who had noticed Sting and was calling for his attention. But Sting didn't respond to him at all, and if that wasn't strange enough already, both his posture and expression were alarmingly ambivalent. He was standing still in the middle of the room, snack plate in one hand and an open juice box just inches away from his face as if something had made him stop dead in his tracks. And when Rogue followed his line of vision he spotted Gildarts, talking to a silver-haired man, and…

Rogue could only be glad that he'd never grabbed that cup of coffee because if he had, he would inevitably have spilled it all over himself. He blinked several times, not trusting what his eyes were showing him. If it weren't for the fact that Sting was acting oddly, he would have gladly accepted that he was suffering from a rather intense visual hallucination caused by seeing Gildarts again after so long.

As fate would have it, that wasn't the only unexpected reunion shaking him up today. After not having spoken to each other since their last disastrous phone conversation six years earlier, Rogue was now standing just a few feet away from his older brother. He was getting ready to stomp over, not caring about causing a scene as his escalating emotions took over, when Macao announced:

"Alright, everyone, find a seat. It's time to start the meeting, and there are a lot of new faces tonight."

It distracted him for a second. The chatter died down, and everyone present in the room began finding their way to one of the chairs that had been set up in a large circle, but Rogue felt a treacherous tremble rising in his entire body. A voice in his head compelled him to ignore all social niceties and march right up to his bastard of a brother and give him a piece of his mind.

He was more than willing to heed it, but just as he was about to raise hell and disrupt the entire meeting, not to mention throw every last bit of professionalism out the window, Gildarts moved out of the way. And Rogue couldn't help but notice a timid looking boy standing in between his brother and the silver-haired man. Reality slammed into him like a truck as it quickly dawned on him that he had almost caused a scene in front of his children. Not to mention those of complete strangers and that little boy he had no trouble identifying as his own nephew, even though he hadn't been aware of his existence until a few seconds ago.

Rogue peered into big midnight blue eyes, so familiar they brought him back to the past, to a very similar pair of eyes belonging to the one person he used to look up to like no other. His flared up anger and frustration simmered down, transforming into melancholia and more of what he'd already faced today.

Guilt and shame weighed him down once again, making him oblivious to the fact that he was the only one who wasn't getting seated until Sting grabbed his arm and steered him to one of the empty chairs. Rogue had no choice but to sit down, feeling Sting's hand grab his own and squeeze it, his concerned eyes burning into Rogue's skin as he sat next to him.

"Are you okay?"

Rogue had no answer to that.

6:20 pm - 6:30 pm Introductions

"Welcome to the Magnolia Dad's Club, my name is Macao Conbolt, and the man standing next to me is Gildarts Clive. We are the current runners of this club, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to come talk to us. Before we get started, I'd just like to let you know this club is for you and your family. Children are always welcome at meetings, but you can also come on your own."

Macao grabbed a piece of paper from a stack and held it up, "Here are some flyers that contain

more information on us and what we do so please feel free to help yourselves to one. Now, why don't we get introductions started, who wants to go first?"

Rogue tried to listen to what was being said, the logical part of his brain reminding him he still needed more information for his article, but his mind refused to let things go.

When had Gray come home? Why hadn't he gotten in touch with him? He snuck a look to where his brother sat next to the silver-haired man and wondered who he was to his brother. Was this a friend, a new boyfriend? What had happened with his husband, and how old was his kid? Gray was staring at Gildarts with an expression Rogue couldn't identify until he realized Gray probably hadn't seen the man's prosthetics before.

One by one, different men stood up and introduced themselves, and Rogue heard not a word, waiting for the moment it would be his brother's turn, his mind still coming up with question after question until he felt Sting get up, pulling him up with him.

"Hi, I'm Sting Eucliffe, I'm a first-year pediatrics resident at the hospital, and this is my husband Rogue," Sting gestured toward him, and he waved weakly. "We are fathers to twin boys, Haku and Kuro, I'm sure you'll hear from them soon enough," Sting paused as several men chuckled at his joke. "I sort of got shanghaied here, but I have to admit I like what I've seen so far, and I look forward to being a part of it."

The twins began to cry at hearing Sting's voice, and he walked over to them, calling, "There they are," behind him to many laughs. He returned with both boys, handing Haku over for Rogue to take.

Rogue focused on making his son comfortable, and once he quieted, he looked up to see Gray watching them with a neutral expression. He looked away when he realized Rogue had noticed, speaking quietly to his companion and pulling the little boy onto his lap.

"Hey, my name is Gray Fer- uhm Fullbuster," his brother began speaking, discomfort oozing from every word.

Finally! The moment Rogue had been waiting for had arrived, it was Gray's turn to speak, and just as he began to introduce himself, Rogue felt movement next to him.

"Everything okay, Half-Pint?" Rogue was startled to find Gildarts kneeling next to him and whispering in his ear, distracting him.

"Yeah, everything's great," Rogue hissed, trying to hear what Gray was saying.

"What else did I miss the last couple of years?" Gildarts frowned, his eyebrows furrowing in

concern as he took in how tense Rogue was, "I can't help but notice there's something off here."

Rogue thought of what he could possibly say that Gildarts would accept and would let him get back to Gray's introduction, but to his dismay, his brother had already sat down.

"I already said everything was fine," Rogue snapped, angry he'd missed his chance to find out any information on his brother.

"Fine, sorry I asked," Gildarts got up and handed Rogue a clipboard with a membership form, "Fill this out when you get a chance."

Gildarts walked away, but for the rest of the introduction portion of the meeting, his gaze never strayed from either him or Gray, and Rogue was frustrated to see that the silver-haired man never introduced himself.

6:30 pm - 6:40 pm Recap of the last meeting

"Okay, we went over quite a bit, but that's alright," Macao glanced at his wristwatch before launching into a recap of the events of the last meeting.

Rogue whispered to Sting, "Did you get to hear anything?"

"Yeah, it looks like he's going by Fullbuster again, and the little boy's name is Aki. He's about a year and a half."

"That's it?" Rogue couldn't believe he'd gotten himself so worked up for so little information, but still, he now knew his nephew's name. Aki.

"Sorry, babe, he didn't say anything else," Sting draped his arm over Rogue's shoulder, squeezing it briefly before pulling away.

"Warren has been gracious enough to volunteer to work on our website which he assures us will be done any day now," Gildarts grinned at Warren who only groaned at the word volunteered, "and he's also writing an app that we'll be able to use for all scheduling and sign-ups."

"Wait! When did I agree to that?" Warren complained.

"Sometime after your fourth beer, I think," Macao reported to Warren's horror.

"You guys were serious about that?!" Warren's face paled as he realized how much work he'd signed up for, "My wife is gonna kill me!"

That sentiment earned a laugh from several of the men in attendance. Rogue heard a man joke to

Sting, "Well, at least that's something you don't have to worry about," to which Sting chuckled nervously.

"Here," Sting shook him gently before grabbing the clipboard from him and handing Kuro over, "The boys seem to be doing better, why don't you take them back with the others, this is a great opportunity for them to get some socialization in."

Rogue would usually get irritated when Sting got into pediatrician mode, but this time he was grateful. Attempting to sit still while he was in such turmoil was only driving him crazy. He cuddled both boys as he walked, drawing comfort from their warmth and sweet expressions.

He set them back on their play blanket, opting to stay with them for a few minutes. Wendy had been busy helping a group of little girls with art supplies, but Romeo came and sat with them.

"What's it like?"

"Hmm?" Rogue peered at him uncomprehendingly.

"Having a baby, what's it like?" Romeo asked again.

"Oh, it changes your entire life. You can kiss getting a good night's sleep goodbye, and you have to kind of get used to the idea that you don't come first anymore, but it's okay because soon you won't remember what your life was like before they were there." Rogue replied with a smile.

Romeo didn't respond, but he knelt down to play with the twins, and with a wrinkle of his nose, he said, "I think this little guy needs a change."

"Oh, I can do that," Rogue went to get the diaper bag only to find Romeo had already beaten him to it.

"Don't worry about it, I can probably use the practice," Romeo waved him away as he grabbed Haku and moved him over to one of the changing areas.

Rogue watched, ready to step in if needed, but Romeo seemed to have it all under control. Wendy returned, waving at him cheerfully as she began to play with Kuro, and Rogue found he had no excuses left to not return to the meeting.

He walked back towards Sting slowly, his mind tackling the problem at hand. Now that the initial shock was somewhat over, did he even want to speak to his brother? Gray had shut him out years ago, even though all he'd been trying to do was be a good brother. He'd abandoned him knowing full well Rogue didn't really have many other people in his life, and now here he was back in Magnolia, still shutting him out. How long had he already been in town?

Rogue was conflicted, the fact that he felt so hurt was a testament to how much he still cared, but he couldn't deny that there was also a lot of anger he'd yet to deal with. He'd almost decided to say fuck it to the whole situation when he noticed Gray's son, his nephew, walking towards the play area, moving slowly as he held on to the backs of the empty chairs he passed.

Rogue stayed where he was, noticing the little boy-Aki, his mind supplied helpfully- had stopped at the last chair and was watching him intently. Aki looked back towards Gray, but the draw of children's laughter and colorful toys seemed to be more powerful. His eyes darted to the space behind Rogue, where the twins were playing with Wendy.

Rogue could see Gray attempting to stand up from his chair, and it irritated him. Seriously, what did his brother think he was going to do, grab Aki and run? To his amusement, the silver-haired man put his hand on Gray's thigh, forcing him to sit back down, whispering words into his brother's ear that Rogue couldn't hear. Gray looked unhappy by the rebuff, but he remained seated, his gaze following Aki's movements while keeping an eye on Rogue.

Rogue moved out of the way of the entrance, keeping his movements slow and deliberate. Aki surprised him by running past without giving him another look, and Rogue couldn't help but to turn and look to see what had drawn his nephew's attention.

"Hey, Aki!" Wendy greeted cheerfully as the little boy had stopped short of the blanket.

He kneeled and peered at one twin then the other with a puzzled expression. "Same?"

Wendy giggled, "They do look the same, don't they?"

Aki nodded at her and smiled uncertainly.

"They're twins," Wendy smiled as she pointed at the boys, "This is Haku, and the one with the red dragon is Kuro. Would you like to play with us?"

"Yesh."

"Come on then, just make sure not to take Kuro's dragon, he doesn't like it." Wendy made room for Aki in the large blanket, grabbing a basket filled with small toys and placing it next to him.

Aki found a plastic phone and grabbed it, pushing the buttons and bouncing excitedly when they made sounds. Haku's eyes widened, and he began to bounce and laugh along.

And it was at that moment that Rogue got his answer. He did want to patch things up with his brother. It didn't matter what their argument had been about, or how much work it would be to fix it. He wanted this for his sons. Sting was an only child, and he only had one brother, their family was small enough as it was. They deserved all of it.

He observed his sons playing with their cousin for a few more minutes before going back to Sting with a smile on his face and a heart full of determination. He would reach out to Gray as soon as he saw an opening.