Porthos pulls on yet another jumper. It's a week into December, it's freezing, and his heater has decided to die on him. Again. It's the third time in a month, and this time the hot water is gone too. He kicks the damn radiator and cries out in pain. It's at that moment that his phone rings.
"Hello?"
"Porthos, the kids and I were wondering if you'd like to come over for lunch?" Aramis' voice is drowned out by one of the twins. "We're having ratatouille!"
"Ratatouille?" he asks, and winces as he takes off the three layers of socks he's wearing to check if he's bruised his toe. He hasn't, but if he doesn't put his socks back on, he might just lose all his toes to frost bite.
"Yeah, they watched the movie and now they want to eat it," he laughs down the phone while Porthos grunts. "Porthos are you okay?"
"I kicked the radiator and my foot hurts something evil," he says. His got his socks on again and he tests his weight on the foot.
"You kicked the radiator," Aramis deadpans, and he hears one of the kids laughing.
"Damn thing broke and now my apartment is freezing."
"Pack your stuff we're coming over."
"What?"
"Celeste! Put on your coat! We're getting Porthos!"
Everyone, including Porthos down the other end of the phone, asks why. He can make it there himself, he has been for the past two months.
"He's sleeping over here until the heating in his apartment gets fixed."
Porthos splutters that he couldn't possibly, but his protestations are ignored as the kids yell "YAY SLEEPOVER". He resigns himself to the fact that he has no choice and gets up to start packing. He puts the phone on speaker and leaves it on his bed. Aramis seems to have forgotten that he's still on the phone.
"Why am I coming?" Celeste asks, and Porthos can imagine her indignantly pulling her hat over her ears. She hates the cold.
"Because Luke is a better cook, so he can watch the pot, and you are stronger than Luke."
Porthos chuckles as both Luke and Celeste shout at Aramis, telling him off for offending them.
"We'll be there is fifteen minutes," Aramis says to Porthos, and then hangs up. Porthos ends the call at his end, and gets packing.
It's almost pitiful that almost everything he has fits into three large rucksacks and a small suitcase. His old army uniforms and his certificates and books are in the suitcase, his clothes and shoes are in two of the bags, apart from the only nice suit he owns, which is in a suit bag. His lap top, sheet music, photos and everything else fits in the other bag. Then again, he is wearing a lot of layers, he tells himself as he sits on the bed, looking around is flat. It's one room, with the bed up against one wall, and the kitchenette is on the opposite wall, and there's a tiny round table in front of the cooker. Next to the fridge is a door that leads to the tiniest bathroom you can imagine. On the fourth wall, there's a piano. It's old, and the wood isn't polished like it once would have been, but it's beautiful. It was the first thing Porthos bought when he came back, and he plays it religiously.
He hobbles over to get the door when he hears the doorbell ring. Aramis and Celeste are panting slightly from running up the stairs, but both are beaming at him.
"We've come to rescue you!" Celeste says as she pushes past him into the flat. "Jesus it's colder in here than it is outside!"
"Celeste!" Aramis chastises as he lets go of Porthos from his hug.
"Sorry," she says, "but I am right." She looks around the apartment, and then at Porthos. "You are a giant how do you fit in this hobbit home?"
"Celeste!"
Porthos laughs and Aramis looks apologetically at him, but Celeste notices none of this as she looks at the piano. She strokes one of the keys, and Aramis and Porthos turn around and stop their discussion as they hear a note ring out. Celeste pulls her hand away like she's been burned. Porthos smiles gently at her, and she looks intrigued by the piano.
"If you want, I can teach you to play," he says, his deep voice breaking the silence.
"I wouldn't be any good," she says, and Porthos grins.
"That's what I thought before I started."
She shrugs and walks over to the bags. Aramis gives her the lightest bag to carry, while he takes another and the suitor, and Porthos takes the final bag and the suitcase. Celeste strokes the piano as she leaves, as does Porthos, and then they head back to House of the Wild Things.
They get odd looks as they walk down the street, but Celeste does impressions of the haughty Parisians that make them all laugh too much to care. When they get back, they drop Porthos' things in the living room, and sit down in the kitchen with everyone else- Aramis at one end with Porthos to his left and Leon to his right, and Luke at the other with the twins on either side and then Celeste and Rene next to them. The warm ratatouille is just what they needed, and everyone compliments Luke, who blushes and tries to brush them off, saying that all he did was serve it- but he still looks a little bit proud when Aramis says well done.
It's Saturday afternoon, so the little ones have to be taken to their various clubs while the older ones stay home to do whatever work they have to. Celeste takes the living room, while Luke spreads his stuff out over the kitchen table- near the food.
Aramis heads off in one direction to take the twins to gym class, and then Leon to art, and Porthos takes Rene to ballet. This has been the arrangement for a few weeks now, and Porthos has gotten used to the ballet mums trying to rope him into buying cookies or cakes or wrapping paper for various school events- he's even gotten used to the ballet teachers- who are possibly the most dramatic couple he's ever met.
He helps Rene into his leotard and tights, and then does his shoes for him. Rene giggles the entire time, as he can hear the teachers yelling on the other side of the door.
"What do you mean she can't make it?" Comes the high pitched shrill of Madame, who then continues to yell at her husband in fast Italian.
"My darling, my sweet, she is eight months pregnant- she can barely sit comfortably, much less play, and we knew that she would stop having to work for us after the baby-" her husband sounds like he's on his knees and begging.
"Yes! After the baby- not before! The Christmas show is in two weeks! We need a pianist!"
"I'll play, my love."
"You are no good."
Porthos tries not to laugh. Rene pulls at his sleeve.
"Porthos, why don't you play? Celeste says you play." Porthos wants to tell him that he's sure they'll sort it out, but Rene has already run to the other side of the door, calling for the Madame. She appears moments later, looking down at Porthos who is putting Rene's clothes in his bag.
"Rene says you play?" She looks at him like she could squash him, despite the fact that she is only five foot and weighs as much as a feather. Porthos is inclined to believe her. He stands to his full height and clears his throat.
"I do."
She nods, and her husband appears and hands him the sheet music. It's the Nutcracker. He smiles; he knows this piece well.
"You play to my standards today, and you have a job," the Madame informs him before calling in the children. Rene turns back and smiles at Porthos, before running in with his friends.
Porthos is reminded of his first summer job as he plays and stops playing to the instructions of the Madame, so she can correct every pointed toe and every misplaced hand. Every now and again, he gets a glimpse of Rene, who looks like he's having the most fun anyone could have. He's been proudly telling everyone that it's his Porthos playing the piano.
By the end of the lesson, Porthos has a job playing for the class, and a couple of the other parents have asked if he'll teach their children- for a fee, of course. He agrees to all of them, exchanges email addresses, and Rene is bouncing up and down with excitement. Wait until they tell Aramis.
When they get home, Rene immediately rattles off his tale of how Porthos is saving the Christmas show, and how he's even going to teach some of his friends the piano. Aramis is thrilled, and Celeste asks if she'll have to pay Porthos for lessons- he ruffles her hair and tells her of course not.
"Where are you going to teach them?" Aramis asks, and Porthos hesitates.
"Surely they have pianos? If not then I guess in my flat?"
Luke chips in at that point. "The tiny flat with no heating and radiators that bruise toes?" Porthos frowns.
"Why doesn't Porthos live here?" Nannette asks. "All of his things are here already. He can sleepover in your room, Papa."
Everyone is quiet as they wait for Aramis' verdict. "Porthos and I will talk about it."
That evening, they do talk about it. Porthos will split the rent with Aramis, they'll put two singles in Aramis' room- Porthos insists that he can sleep on the sofa and Aramis can keep his large bed, but Aramis is having none of it- "if this is a permanent arrangement, you cannot be sleeping on the sofa". They'll keep the piano in the living room, by the window, and Porthos can teach there on whichever evenings he needs, and the kids will just have to stay out of his hair for that one hour.
Porthos hands in his keys to his landlady the next day, and he and Aramis move the piano to its new home.