My Stepbrother the Firefighter and Our Dog [mxm]

April 1st - Ian - Easter Madness. A serious illness?!

It was early when the doorbell started ringing.

Way to early on Ian's last Sunday before his work in the fire department started.

The clock read 7.55 a.m.

"Who is that?" Ian groaned with a luxurious stretch. "And how can we make them stop?"

"I'll go check," Cedric sighed, rolling himself off the mattress.

A minute later, Ian could hear Fuzzy yipping and young voices speaking in a rush all over each other.

"Obviously, the easter bunny was in our garden and we have three minutes until the Schmidt kids are going to search for loot there too," Cedric grinned when he came back to the bedroom

Tow minutes and fourty-three seconds later, Ian and Cedric burst out of their front door, Fuzzy hard on their heels.

"Oh thank God!" Marlene, their neighbor sighed. "I can't hold them back any longer."

With that she thrust two little wicker baskets into Cedric's and Ian's hands and shooed them off to go search for easter eggs and chocolate bunnies.

Kids, dog and men run around and Cedric fell in love all over again when he saw how much Ian loved this adventure. His thumb twirled his golden ring a little around his finger. How lucky a man could be?

When the last little chocolate egg was found under the empty flower pot that was left beside the little tool shed by the last owner, Ian and Cedric were invited to easter breakfast to the Schmidt house. 

It was a wonderful day and Ian couldn't believe how sweet Cedric was, sitting at the piano with Melli, their six years old daughter on his lap, teaching her a little tune.

He would ask Marlene and her husband how he could help with easter next year. Holidays had never played a great roll in his and his fathers life and he had to admit, he loved the childlike wonder he felt when the Schmidt's included them so much without a second thought.

A few minutes later he gave Lukas to Marlene so she could breast feed him and he sat down to a savage game of UNO with Nino, the four year old brother. Ian had no idea after which rules Nino played, but he had fun and Ian had too and well, who cared about anything else?

The day went on and when they finally said their goodbyes, it was dark outside.

"God, I had so much fun!" Ian exclaimed while he and Cedric went down the street, hand in hand, with Fuzzy on the leash for his evening walk.

"I could see that," Cedric said with that quiet smile in his voice. Ian knew it meant he was happy about how happy Ian was. When Cedric bumped his shoulder a little and righted his glasses on his nose, Ian nearly melted on the sidewalk. 

How could all these little things make him still so stupidly, crazy glad he went into that burning house back in Manchester?

These glasses on that small but straight aristocratic nose.

Suddenly Ian envisioned a little boy with wild hair, bright eyes and that same nose, crashing into his knee, hugging his thigh and telling him proudly that he scraped his knee and he swore it bled. Really bled. With blood and all!

"Is that smile hurting? It looks awfully big," Cedric teased lightly and bumped their shoulders again.

"If you ever decide you want kids, just know I'm totally on board with that," Ian said and pecked Ced's cheek.

Cedric's fingers tightened in his.

"Last night I woke up and there was a little girl curled up between us," Cedric said. "My heart hurt because there were you and their she was and Fuzzy was snoring at the foot end of the bed and my heart was so full. It was nearly too much."

Ian's fingers gripped tighter too.

"One day," he said.

"Yes," Cedric smiled. "One day."