The World Has It's Shine (something to hold onto) - 26
Title: The World Has It's Shine (something to hold onto) - 26
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13 (language mostly)
Pairing: Gabilliam
POV: 3rd
Summary: Around 21 months. “Someone really smart once told me that it doesn’t matter whether it’s trees or menorahs, or what story it’s about. He told me that it’s about celebrating the every day miracles in your lives; your friends, your family, and just love, really. And that’s what you’ve given us the chance to do today by being here, so yeah. Thanks.”
Disclaimer: This only happened in my brain (as far as I know). Title belongs to Cobra Starship.
Author Notes: I really don't know if people will want to/be able to read this at this time, but as I said to several people, there was no way I was posting this one after Christmas. I actually really like this part lol. Which I guess is a good thing, since it's the last for a while. Love you all, you know I do. More at the end <3
One.Two. Three.Four.Five.Six.Seven.Eight.Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.Thirteen.Fourteen.
Fifteen.Sixteen.Seventeen.Eighteen.Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty One. Prequel. Twenty Two. Twenty Three. Twenty Four. Twenty Five
The last two weeks of their lives had partly been spent getting over the few days of stress and emotional intensity which Meghan’s appearance had brought into their lives, and then getting ready for their Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations, which were only a few days away. Particularly for the day or two following when they’d managed to get rid of Meg, hopefully for good, William and Gabe had just been drained, really, emotionally and physically. Thankfully Riley didn’t seem to have been by it affected at all, perhaps partly because they were careful to try and not be upset or angry around the toddler when he was old enough to pick up on it but not yet able to understand it properly. It was like nothing had even happened for Riley - though really, nothing had happened, it was just the ‘almost’ and the possibilities of what could have happened which upset Gabe and William, but now they were trying to think the same way as Riley; that nothing had happened, and nothing was going to happen, and now they could just go with their lives just the same.
They’d decided to have their big dinner and party day on the just before Christmas Eve, because then their guests could still make it to their families for the day itself if that’s what they were doing, and William, Gabe and Riley were going to be having dinner at Sheila and John’s place again as part of their extended family. Still, they’d chosen this year to have their own holiday celebration as well, with their extended family. On the guest list for their party-of-sorts were the other Cobras; Ryland, Vicky, Alex and Nate, and someone they hadn’t seen in far too long; Uncle Sisky Bizz. Sisky was also bringing along one of his bandmates too, adding one more to their number. Actually, Gabe really wasn’t sure how they were all going to fit around their kitchen table, and it would definitely be a squeeze, but it was hardly the most important thing in their minds just then.
For one thing, there was the question of cooking everything - though Alex was bringing a good proportion of the food with him, but before any of that there was something else with which Gabe in particular was extremely preoccupied. William had been thinking about it as well, of course, but he wasn’t nervous about it like Gabe was; William knew that the signing of Riley’s adoption papers was going to go off without a hitch. On the contrary, he knew that it was going to be awesome, but Gabe seemed to think that even though they’d already completed much of the process; going through a visit from social services so they could observe Gabe’s interactions with Riley and a couple of meetings with their allocated state legal aid to go through and then finalise the papers, something could still happen to stop the adoption. Really William was pretty sure Gabe was scared that the judge was just going to decide that he wasn’t fit to be Riley’s legal parent, but William wasn’t worried at all because that was pretty much ridiculous. Anyone who saw Gabe interacting with Riley would know that in any way that mattered he already was the child’s Papi, and everything else was just a formality. He still hadn’t been able to make Gabe see that, though.
After a night spent pretty much tossing and turning instead of actually sleeping, Gabe was stood in the middle of the kitchen on the morning they were going to get the adoption papers officially put through, tying his tie as William supervised Riley feeding himself his cooled oatmeal breakfast. Gabe had already tied the tie at least once that William had seen, but apparently it hadn’t been quite right. Either that, or Gabe was looking for something to channel his nervous energy into and tying and retying a tie was the only way he currently had at his disposal. William just sort of let him get on with it, really. He’d already tried about a dozen times to convince Gabe that everything was going to be fine, if not more likely awesome, and after that resigned himself to the fact that Gabe was going to be nervous no matter what, so all he could really do was stay calm enough for the both of them and do his best to reassure Gabe.
Riley having abandoned the last of his oatmeal and switched to just drinking milk out of his sippy cup for now, William pushed his chair back and stood up, leaving Riley sitting next to him in his high chair as he turned around to face Gabe. William reached up and straightened Gabe’s dark grey tie, pulling his boyfriend down into a kiss right afterwards.
“Corporate Gabe,” William said, grinning as he stepped back and looked his boyfriend up and down. “I like it.”
“Maybe I should leave the tie on until tonight, then,” Gabe answered, smirking as he raised an eyebrow at William. “And I get one of my Hanukkah presents early.” William laughed, but his smile only widened before he answered Gabe.
“When we come back here later and you’re officially Riley’s Papi, we can celebrate any way you like,” he promised and Gabe’s smirk quickly turned into a huge grin, his nervousness forgotten for the time being with the thoughts of his and Bill’s possible ‘celebration’ in his mind which, of course, was exactly what William had intended to be the outcome.
“We’re gonna leave in about twenty minutes or so, right?” Gabe asked, his mind suddenly jerking into hyperawareness of the time the way it had been every now and then all morning.
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ve got plenty of time,” William said, keeping his voice reassuring but inwardly sighing at how clearly tense Gabe was. It was just out of character for him really, even when there was any situation involving Riley, because Gabe was usually just too focused on what William needed and taking care of him. This, though, the adoption, didn’t really have anything to do with William, not technically. It was about Gabe, and with no one to really put his focus on except himself and what the situation meant for him, and his relationship with Riley, Gabe was seriously on edge even if he didn’t really have reason to be.
“But with traffic and everything… I mean, it’s so close to Christmas, the roads are gonna be packed - or the buses might be full and we might have to wait for another one or -”
“Gabe.” William placed one hand flat on each side of his boyfriend’s face before leaning forward to press his lips to Gabe’s in another quick kiss. “We’re going to go to Sheila’s and pick her up, we’re all going to get on the bus and get there in plenty of time because we’re going to leave with plenty of time, and everything is going to be great, okay? I promise,” he said firmly, keeping his eyes right on Gabe’s.
“I know,” Gabe replied once William had released him and pulled back a little. “I’ll be fine the second those papers are signed properly, but up until then I’m just…” Gabe shrugged, shaking his head. “I don’t even know.” He sighed, but then an attempt at a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “But I do know that you, William Beckett, haven’t broken a promise to me yet.”
At that moment William allowed himself to smile a little too, because if he wasn’t very much mistaken, that was the beginning of a real Gabe Saporta smile right there, he thought happily as he curled a hand around the back of Gabe’s neck and pulled him into another kiss.
Contrary to what Gabe’s panicking brain had conjured up in his mind, the buses were busy, sure, but they weren’t full and William, Gabe, and Sheila, along with Riley in his stroller, were fairly easily able to find seats. Gabe and William were sat a little way behind the driver, where there was an empty space left for strollers or wheelchairs to sit in front of the seats, and Sheila was sat behind them.
Although she was a great support for both of them, and important to Riley, the main reason Sheila was there with them was because the adoption papers were required to be signed by a witness, and neither of them could think of someone else who they wanted to, or who deserved to witness this event in their lives.
They were only a couple of stops on in their journey when Gabe noticed someone else get on the bus who had a stroller with them too, a woman who looked a little older than himself, with what looked to Gabe like a little girl who was a bit younger than Riley. William went to get up but the woman shook her head.
“I’m fine standing, Bill,” she said. “It’s only a few stops till I get off again.”
Gabe looked at William curiously for a second until it dawned on him just before William introduced them. “Gabe, this is Denise,” William told him. “She goes to my English Lit and Creative Writing class.” Gabe smiled and reached across to shake her hand. “And this,” William added, bending over in his seat, “must be Maisy. Hi, Maisy,” William said, leaning over and greeting the toddler in front of him, the little girl just giggling and pulling her blanket up to hide her face for a second before dropping it down again as soon as William leaned back again in his seat, laughing. “Riley,” William got his son’s attention then, and nodded towards Maisy. “This is Maisy. Wanna say ‘hi’?”
“No.” Riley frowned at him, then Maisy, and then at him again before turning to look pleadingly at Gabe.
“He a little shy?” Denise asked William, who looked at Riley for a second before answering.
“Well, not always. I think it’s really -”
“No!” William’s head snapped back around at the sound of Riley’s first yell, ascertaining that he was okay before he turned his attention to Gabe instead, looking for explanation as Riley launched into a full on crying fit, angry yells of ‘no’ still making their way out through the toddler’s sobs. It was then that William noticed that Maisy’s little hand was closed tight around the leg of one stuffed Giraffe sitting in Riley’s lap.
“Hey, hey relu. Shh,” Gabe tried to calm Riley down, quickly leaning forward and undoing the straps of the stroller so he could get Riley into his arms instead, the Giraffe smushed safely between their bodies as Gabe held him, murmuring Spanish into his ear and stroking his fingers through his curls, with Riley just sobbing - albeit more quietly now - into his papi’s neck.
William leaned across and planted a kiss on top of his son’s head before glancing backwards into the bus full of people, part of him wanting to stand up and apologise or something. Then again, it wasn’t exactly his fault, and people didn’t seem to be glaring at them or anything.
“Sorry,” he said to Denise instead. “He just really loves that giraffe.”
“It’s fine. Maisy’s the same way,” she smiled at him, shaking her head. “Just try getting that blanket off of her.” They both laughed a little before Denise quickly turned her head and bend down a little so she could look out into the street they were on. “This is our stop,” she said, pushing one of the buttons to signal to the driver, “but it was good to see you, Bill.”
“Yeah, you too,” William nodded, smiling and waving at Maisy as they got off the bus before turning around a little so he could focus on Riley. The toddler had all but stopped crying already, Riley just clinging to Gabe without hiding his face now and staring back at Sheila sitting behind them who had leaned forward to talk to Riley. Her quiet words served as much as distraction as reassurance, but the main thing was that Riley seemed to have forgotten that anyone he didn’t know had ever even dared to touch his beloved giraffe. “If he’s pretty much calmed down now, he should really go back in his stroller,” William pointed out, and Gabe nodded. It was safer, should the bus have to stop really abruptly for some reason, that Riley wasn’t in Gabe’s lap no matter how tightly he was able to cling to either of them. Riley only protested slightly as he got strapped back into his stroller, but Gabe just leaned forward and planted a few kisses all over Riley’s face until he let out a giggle, the child suddenly a lot happier.
“Wow, though,” Gabe said as soon as he‘d sat back in his seat again. “I was so right about Riley having no competition for cuteness from the kids of people in your classes.”
“Gabe!” Sheila exclaimed, leaning forward in her seat to cuff Gabe lightly on the back of the head. “All babies are cute in their own way,” she admonished him, shaking her head disappointedly at Gabe when he turned around to give her an incredulous look.
“Uh,” Gabe began, making a disbelieving scoffing noise before going on, “all babies are supposed to be cute,” he corrected her. “And that kid was okay, sure, but she was nowhere near Riley’s league.”
“Not to interrupt this fascinating line of conversation,” William cut in, glancing so Sheila could see him rolling his eyes at Gabe’s attitude, “but Riley wasn’t exactly too friendly just then.” He frowned a little, a kind of worried expression on his face. “I don’t think he really knows how to act around other kids. I mean, I guess he wouldn’t really… he only sees us for the most part at the moment. Maybe we should start trying to get him more socialised with kids his age, start going to one of the parent-toddler groups or arrange some playdates,” William suggested, looking at Gabe for his reaction to the idea.
“I guess,” Gabe nodded. “I mean, what if we were ever have another kid. It would be a bit of a shock for him to suddenly have to get used to being around other kids and everything.”
“Uh… I was more thinking about when he started kindergarden,” William said slowly, his eyes widened a little in surprise at Gabe bringing up a subject like that so out of the blue. “But you… You think about that?” William asked, the expression on his face still once of slight shock, but the look now accompanied with a smile as he looked at Gabe.
“Sometimes.” Gabe shrugged, a little embarrassed at what had been - up until that moment, at least - his secret thoughts being exposed, even if was himself who had done it unthinkingly. “It’s stupid, I know,” he said quickly.
“It’s a little… out of our reach, right now,” William said carefully, and Gabe nodded. “But you never know, right?” he smiled, pleased when Gabe returned the expression.
“I suppose we should deal with today before we go thinking about adding to our little family,” Gabe laughed, reaching over and pulling Riley’s hat down a bit more securely on his head, causing the toddler to look up from his giraffe in his lap and at Gabe instead.
“Papi,” Riley said happily, like he’d only just realised Gabe was sitting there right near him, the child smiling and then giggling as Gabe kissed his own fingertip before leaning over once more to press it on Riley’s little nose. “Almost, baby boy,” Gabe answered him, exchanging a smile with William as he realised that they were only a couple of minutes away from their destination. “Almost.”
Just as William had thought, the big moment was fairly complicated, as momentous occasions went. It wasn’t as though they were sat in some big courtroom with a hundred people staring at them as Gabe had to defend his right to be Riley’s legal parent. All of that, not that the social services people had found anything which remotely questioned Gabe’s competency as a father, had been done already. Now it was just them sitting around a big wooden table in some big office, forms sitting there in the centre. Gabe, William and Sheila were sat on one side, with Riley on William’s lap, and the judge was sat at the head of the table to their right. Their state lawyer was sat opposite with someone taking note of everything which was said or done to her left.
Before anything happened, the forms were gone through once more just to make sure, and then that was it. William watched, his chest feeling like it was swelling with pride and excitement and love, almost too much really, as Gabe took the forms which had just been signed by their lawyer and Sheila, and lowered the pen in his hand to the paper in front of him. Even Riley was completely silent as they watched Gabe sign his name on that line, his hand almost shaking too much for him to even do that, before he slid the papers up to the judge. After checking through everything once more, the man signed his own name and printed some official stamp on the front page, the action happening almost too quickly for Gabe to register it happening before it was over, and that was it.
Months after the process had started, and even longer since William had ever said the word ‘adoption’ to Gabe, that was it, and Gabe was suddenly the official, legal, one hundred percent legitimate Papi of Riley William Beckett.
“Dios Mio…” Gabe whispered to himself, hardly noticing as the judge stood up next to him and held out his hand. When he did though, Gabe quickly pushed his own chair back and turned so he could shake the guys hand.
“Congratulations,” he smiled before turning and leaving the room, their lawyer and the person documenting the proceedings doing the same, leaving them alone in the room.
Gabe paused for a second, letting out a breath of laughter before he turned around to see William who had stood up now too, Shelia having taken a step back to let them have their moment.
William just looked at Gabe for a little while, this huge grin on his face even as his eyes were filled with tears.
“Here you go, Papi,” William said to him, stepping forward and putting Riley in Gabe’s arms instead. “I think you should have some snuggle time with your son,” William emphasised his last words, wiping the heel of his palm across each eye as Gabe suddenly found himself smiling as widely as he could ever, right back at William before he looked at Riley.
“My son,” Gabe repeated, swallowing hard before kissing Riley’s forehead and the tip of his nose, making him giggle. “My baby boy, aren’t you?” Gabe said happily, almost disbelievingly as he wrapped his arms around Riley in a proper hug, holding him close.
William was getting a hug from Sheila when Gabe looked back to find his eyes again, but only a couple of seconds later William as walking back towards him, reaching Gabe in only a couple of steps and immediately putting his arms around Gabe, Riley still there in between them as Gabe switched one arm so it was resting at William’s lower back instead, holding him close and keeping them all together.
“Papi,” Riley murmured happily, his little hand still clutching at the collar of Gabe’s shirt.
“Yeah,” Gabe said, sighing in contentment as he stood there with his two boys. “Yeah, I am.”
The rest of that day had passed pretty quickly in celebration, the time being just a mess of happiness and laughter and amazement at the way the adoption felt like it had changed something, but really everything was the same, just a little stronger was all.
Soon the next day had arrived, and the familiar sounding knock on their apartment door signalled the arrival of someone else, too.
William was already grinning as he opened the door and stepped aside so Sisky and his friend could come in.
“Bilvy!” Sisky boomed, a big grin on his own face. “Merry Christmas! Well, almost,” he corrected himself, laughing. “This is The Butcher,” Sisky said, taking the present they’d brought from Butcher’s arms so they could do the introduction thing, the three of them walking into the kitchen area where Gabe was standing with Riley in his arms, so he and Butcher could introduce themselves too. “This is for Riley, from us,” Sisky said, putting a fairly big wrapped box on the counter next to them.
“Joint present, huh?” William questioned him quietly while Butcher was still talking to Gabe a couple of feet away, raising an eyebrow. Sisky just shrugged, but his grin widened a little. When they were in high school Sisky had… dabbled a little bit, but really William had just thought that Sisky was simply experimenting or that he was worried about them not being as close if their sexuality differed, but then again, even back then Sisky had had a pretty awesome attitude to this sort of thing, and it was pretty likely he had the same one now. The thing was, Sisky always said that he dated people, not genders, and The Butcher definitely seemed like a great person to him, so whatever their relationship was William didn’t have a problem with it.
“Say hi to Uncle Sisky, Ry,” William said as Gabe handed Riley over. At first he wasn’t sure whether Riley would remember Sisky, seeing as it had been more than half a year since his last visit, but it seemed that something was still there in Riley’s mind which meant that instead of whining and reaching back for William or Gabe like he usually might, the toddler instead settling happily in Sisky’s arms and giggling as he reached up to pat his little hand across Sisky’s face.
“Hi.” Riley said, smiling.
“Hey there, Riley boy.” Sisky grinned. “You gotta stop growing dude. You’re huge!” he exclaimed, making Riley laugh again. “Or I’ve got to start visiting more often,” Sisky amended, turning his head to look at William, who nodded.
“Sounds good to me.” He smiled at his friend. They talked on the phone and emailed a lot and stuff, but it wasn’t the same.
“Now, Ry,” Sisky said, getting Riley’s attention again as he stepped a little closer to Butcher, who’d pretty much just stayed quiet and let Sisky have his moment with Riley. “This is my friend Andy, but you can call him The Butcher, ’cause everyone else does whether he wants us to or not,” Sisky laughed as Butcher gave him a nudge with his shoulder, despite the smile which was on his own face too. First glancing at William for a nod of consent, Sisky then gave Riley to Butcher, and everyone kind of just waited for Riley to start crying or try to wriggle his way out of Butcher’s arms, and it was a surprise to everyone when that didn’t happen.
“Hi, Riley,” Butcher said, but Riley didn’t say ‘hi’ back, or even look up at him. The child was too preoccupied with staring at the part of Butcher’s chest which was exposed by the v neck of his t shirt, Riley reaching out to touch the brightly coloured patterns of the tattoo with one finger and trailing it across the design as he just let out a quiet ‘hee’ of amusement. “You like it?” Butcher asked him, securing his arm around Riley a bit more so he could free his other arm to pull the neck of his shirt, exposing more of the tattoo.
“Quack quack,” Riley laughed, finally looking up at Butcher with his big brown eyes, a smile on his face. “Yeah,” Butcher grinned, looking at Sisky for a moment before turning his attention back to Riley. “It’s a birdie.” He nodded. “Hey Sisk, pull up my left sleeve for me,” he asked, turning his body so Sisky could reach and Riley could see the rest of his tattoos on his left arm, and more specifically the one on his shoulder.
“Ooh,” Riley said quietly, reaching across to touch that one as well, tracing his fingers up the branches of the tree as he stared, transfixed by the pictures and patterns covering so much of Butcher’s skin.
“I guess he’s never seen tattoos before,” Gabe said to William where the two of them were just stood a few feet away still, watching Riley interact with this new person surprisingly well. “Wait. What is he doing?” A note of panic crept into Gabe’s tone as he looked at William, who just shrugged. “Pretty sure it’s called playing,” he pointed out as they watched Sisky and Butcher with Riley a bit more. From what William had seen, it had started with Butcher simply jiggling Riley up and down a little in his arms, making him laugh, but when he’d stopped doing it Riley had frowned and pouted and whined until the Butcher had resumed the action, and it had escalated a little. William did notice, however, that although there was the illusion for Riley of actually falling back down until he was settled back against Butcher’s chest, the reality was that the man’s hands never moved from their position on each side under Riley’s arms, holding him firmly the entire time even as all three of them laughed together. “It’s fine. He‘s fine, so relax, okay?” William said affectionately, shaking his head at how overprotective Gabe could be sometimes, even though he knew he himself was guilty of it fairly often too.
"Bilvy, when there's a guy called 'The Butcher' throwing my baby boy up and down in the air, I'm allowed to be a little on edge," Gabe laughed as he answered William, but he was yet to take his eyes off of the sight, and William could see his fingers were itching to go and take Riley into his own arms just to make sure he was safe, despite the fact that the toddler was giggling and squealing with excitement every time he got swooped up into the air.
Some things changed, sure, but others never did, William thought to himself with a smile as he slipped his hand into Gabe's and entwined their fingers.
It wasn’t too long until the others arrived too, Nate and Alex getting there a little earlier than Vicky, and then Ryland a while later, since Alex was bringing some of the food with him. It was lucky it wasn’t a lot of food though, because as soon as Gabe let Nate into the apartment Riley looked up from where he’d been sat on the sofa on his daddy’s lap and straight away squirmed his way down onto the floor so he could start running towards Nate. Well, running wasn’t quite the term perhaps, so much as toddling as fast as he could, but it was still fairly impressive for the almost two year old.
As soon as Nate saw Riley heading for him the drummer crouched down on the floor and just let Riley hit him at full pelt, allowing the not exactly huge amount of force to topple them both backwards until Nate was lying on his back. As he’d ‘fallen’ back Nate had made sure to secure Riley’s body loosely in his hands rather than cushion his own fall, but even as his body hit the only thinly carpeted floor with thump Nate was laughing as he dug his fingers lightly into Riley’s side, making him giggle and squirm.
“Why’ve you always gotta knock me over, Ry?” Nate laughed as Riley crawled his way up Nate’s body so he could reach his face. “You don’t like me, huh?” he joked, still grinning even as Riley kind of collapsed on his chest, his little body still shaking with his giggles as he pressed his lips to Nate’s cheek in a big, exaggerated kiss, complete with ‘mwah’ sound and all.
“Nay,” was all Riley said, happily snuggling into Nate’s chest, spread eagled face down with his head turned to the side, seemingly not looking to move any time soon.
“Guess I’m staying down here for the day then,” Nate said to Gabe as he bent over them up near Nate’s head. “You’ll feed me, right?”
“I suppose I’ll have to,” Gabe shrugged, smirking down at Nate. “Riley would miss you if you died or anything, and I’d have to find a new drummer,” he laughed.
“You’re a drummer?” The Butcher called over from where he was sat on the couch with Sisky.
“Uh… yeah, whoever that is,” Nate answered, trying to sit his head up without the rest of his body so he could see who was speaking.
“That’s The Butcher. He drums in Sisky’s band… but you don’t actually know Sisky, either,” Gabe said, frowning. “This’ll be a lot easier once Riley’s gotten enough snuggle time in,” he decided, reaching down to pat Nate on the head. “So just hang tight and we’ll do introductions later.” Gabe laughed before straightening back up and heading out to the kitchen to see if he could help William and Alex sort out the food at all.
“Oh, I’m good here,” Nate smiled, one arm coming to rest over Riley to keep him secure, despite the fact that there was very little chance of him moving at all for a quite a while. “I’m good.”
Only a few minutes after that Vicky arrived, a small wrapped package in hand, and Ryland got there about a half hour after that, his own wrapped box in his arms which joined the others around their Christmas tree. Everyone had agreed that they weren’t going to do presents for each other, but if they wanted to get presents for Riley then that was another story.
Riley was a pretty lucky kid, Gabe thought to himself as he carried the toddler over to the kitchen table and set him down in his high chair, which was positioned on a corner since the chair had it’s own tray and it was a way to save table space for the rest of them. Riley had a daddy, a papi, four ‘uncles’ and one ‘aunt’, all of whom loved Riley as much as if they were blood relatives. Over the past few months in particular, when Riley was a little older, the band came round to practice at their apartment on days off, and Riley loved listening to them play, clapping and trying to join in singing, or sometimes settling for having a bit of a dance with his papi if that didn’t work out. Of course, they had to adjust timings to fit in Riley’s Nate snuggle time at the start, but that wasn’t really big deal or anything.
Somehow they all managed to squeeze around the kitchen table, all passing various dishes and food back and forth until everyone had what they wanted on their plates. There was turkey for the meat eaters and a vegetable bake Alex had made for Gabe and anyone else who wanted it, as well as plenty of vegetables and some mac and cheese in case that wasn’t enough.
Riley was sat on the corner with Gabe on one side of him, and Vicky on the other. William was sat next to Sisky so they could catch up and he could get to know Butcher a bit better, the drummer currently occupied, however, in discussing drums with Nate while William and Sisky were talking excitedly about something Gabe couldn’t get the gist of without listening properly. Vicky was helping out Riley in between her own mouthfuls of food; the toddler’s plate containing a small amount of shredded turkey, then small portions of mashed potatoes, green beans and some mac and cheese.
As time went on, though, Riley soon got more than a little fussy, pushing away the spoon as Vicky tried to get him to finish up his potatoes.
“I think he’s done,” she said, leaning over and planting a kiss on Riley’s temple, getting a smile out of him despite the way he was rubbing his fist across his eyes, squinting at everyone as he yawned.
“Nap time,” William announced, pushing his chair back and standing up.
“Speech!” Ryland exclaimed immediately, tapping on the neck of his beer bottle with his fork, a wicked grin on his face as William made a face at him.
“We don’t all like to perform quite as much as you, Ryland,” William teased, reminding everyone of Ryland’s amateur dramatic tendencies.
“Well, Bilvy,” Gabe cut in, smiling as he stood up briefly to lift Riley out of his chair and settled him in his lap instead. “It is Christmas after all.” At that William and Alex exchanged a look with each other, but neither of them deemed it necessary to say the words ‘But you’re Jewish’ out loud.
“Fine,” William said, rolling his eyes at Gabe as he picked up his glass, which had nothing more exciting than soda in it, since he was staying sober that day. Gabe had offered to do the same, but it really wasn’t necessary for them both to do it, and it was nice for William to see Gabe being able to relax a little more and have a couple of beers with his friends if he wanted to. He cleared his throat exaggeratedly, a smirk on his face before he suddenly looked a little more serious as he realised he actually did have something to say. “I want to thank you all for coming today. Some of you have come a little further than others, but I really can’t describe how great it is that we’re all here together, in our tiny little apartment, celebrating like this. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas or Hanukkah.” William smiled at Gabe before going on. “Someone really smart once told me that it doesn’t matter whether it’s trees or menorahs, or what story it’s about. He told me that it’s about celebrating the every day miracles in your lives; your friends, your family, and just love, really. And that’s what you’ve given us the chance to do today by being here, so yeah. Thanks,” William finished, looking around at everyone, each of their friends smiling back at him, but no one with a big a smile as Gabe had on his face just then.
Suddenly feeling a little awkward and exposed, William breathed out a laugh as he walked around the table and took his son - their son, officially now, from Gabe. As William bent down to gather the sleepy child into his own arms, Gabe pressed his lips to his boyfriend’s cheek and said a quiet ‘I love you’ in his ear. William just grinned, the expression not leaving his face the entire time he was putting Riley down for his nap.
It only took an hour or two for Riley to recharge enough for present time, giving them enough time to clear most of the dishes and everything and then just hang out together a little more until they finally heard Riley calling out from the nursery and William went and got him up.
He needed a little encouragement from Sisky, who’d decided to sit cross legged on the floor, given the not exactly huge amount of sofa available, but after Sisky had shown him what to do by ripping a little bit of wrapping the rest soon following as Riley began tearing big chunks of the paper off the present in front of him.
Sisky had given him his and Butcher’s present to open first, and Riley patted the cardboard for a few seconds before just looking up at Sisky questioningly, frowning a little until Sisky opened up the box and slid the small electronic keyboard out of it.
“See?” Sisky said to him, putting it in front of them both and pressing down a few keys - though no sound came out since it wasn’t plugged in. “You play music.”
“Bash bash,” Riley babbled, banging his hand down on the plastic keys a couple of times and laughing as he looked up to find Gabe and William.
“That’s awesome, Sisk,” William grinned at him. Of course, he’d given him the idea after Gabe had mentioned it, but he hadn’t been too specific. The keyboard was perfect though. “Thank you. You gonna say thank you to Uncle Sisky, Ry?” William said, smiling as he watched how Riley had already started crawling into Sisky’s lap and hugging his chest.
“You’re welcome, Riley boy,” Sisky said, smiling down at Riley. “It was from Butcher too, you know,” he added, looking up to exchange a grin with The Butcher who was sat over near the tree, wearing a Santa hat in his official capacity as present-deliverer.
Gabe was sat over on the sofa, curled up a little and leaning back against the cushions, a contented smile on his face as he watched Riley opening up his presents. When they got to Vicky’s present though, he suddenly sat up straight, a grin spreading right across his face.
“Did you make that?” he asked incredulously, laughing in disbelief at just how awesome his band were, even though he did already know that, obviously. Sisky held it up for everyone to see; a little purple t shirt which had been printed with a small starship design and the words ‘Cobra Starship!’ on the front in bright yellow, and ’Fangs Up!’ on the back.
“That,” William said, exchanging a grin with Gabe, “is awesome.”
“Why, thank you.” Vicky smiled back, giving them a little joking bow of acknowledgement. “I just designed it. There’s a place near my apartment which does that kind of stuff, and I thought our biggest fan should get his own merch,” she said, walking over and giving Riley a kiss on the top of his head.
A little later the keyboard was already being put to use, with Ryland and The Butcher sitting either side of Riley on the floor, and Alex, Vicky and Nate playing the dutiful audience. Riley had been dressed in his new shirt, and Vicky was joking about him stealing her place in the band if she wasn’t careful. The ‘performance’, however, pretty much just consisted of Riley bashing at random keys and laughing. He clapped his hands whenever Ryland leaned across and played a simply tune that he’d recognise like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Riley squealed with delight when he heard him start to play the Sesame Street theme tune.
Gabe was curled up on the sofa still, almost lying down with his feet across William’s lap where he was sat next to Sisky, the three of them watching the others and Riley play with his new stuff. Well, Gabe was sort of watching. His eyes kept drifting shut though, but he wasn’t exactly drunk from the whole two and a half beers he’d had. It was mostly remaining tiredness from the day before, and then they hadn’t exactly slept too much the previous night, when he and Bill had had their own private celebration in the bedroom. He wasn’t properly asleep though, William could tell, because his face still reacted to the different noises he heard coming from across the room, his smile widening when Riley laughed and clapped particularly excitedly. William didn’t really expect him to speak, though. But he suddenly did.
“I wanna marry you, Bilvy Beckett,” Gabe murmured before opening his eyes to look over at William.
“Oh yeah?” William answered, exchanging a smirk with Sisky.
“Yeah,” Gabe nodded as well as he could where he was almost lying down against the arm of the sofa. “You can be best man, Risky Bizz.” Gabe snorted out a laugh before speaking again. “No, wait. You can be Bill’s best man. I can have my own,” he corrected himself.
“One day,” William said, giving Gabe a smile and entwining their fingers in Gabe’s lap as his boyfriend seemed to drift off into dozing again. Not for the first time that day, William found himself wondering just how he got quite so lucky. Gabe always gave and gave so much of himself in their relationship - not that William didn’t, but Gabe hardly ever seemed to take anything for himself. William wanted him to, and he’d been thinking for a long time now about how he might be able to do something for Gabe. And really there was one thing which stuck in his mind, which had always been so important to Gabe but had kind of been put on the back burner since he’d met William and become a Papi, at least in a way. If William had anything to do with that, though, that was going to change fairly soon. “Hey, Sisk,” William said, leaning over so he could talk quietly to his old friend without Gabe hearing him. “You’re signed, right? You guys are making your album and everything,” he went on.
“Yeah, we’re on a label now.” Sisky nodded in confirmation, a look of curiosity on his features.
“See, the thing is,” William continued, a smile creeping onto his face at the thought, “I really need to get in contact with Pete Wentz.”
***A/N: So, my wonderful, beautiful rileyfic readers, this is it for now. This fic is going on hiatus for an indefinite period, but before anyone gets too upset (believe me, I'm about to lol), this is not the end of rileyfic. Just because I'm not posting it doesn't mean I'm not writing. It might take me a while but eventually you guys will get proper, once a week postings and stuff, and before then there will most likely be standalone chapters/mini plot arcs in between now and that time.
I just want to thank all of you, so fucking much, I can't even say. This fic has been so important to me and helped me grow as a writer (I think lol), and I know I wouldn't have taken it this far without the encouragement of all of you. It's okay if you don't, but I would love it if you dropped a comment just to say hi, or that you do actually want more in future, or give me ideas, or whatever. It'd be awesome.
Apart from that, thank you all and Happy Holidays! <3
***A/N 2: Ridiculously long! sappy!A/N makes it feel even more like the end :/ Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, when I'm feeling porn-y sometime I will be writing the missing scene there, no worries ;)
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13 (language mostly)
Pairing: Gabilliam
POV: 3rd
Summary: Around 21 months. “Someone really smart once told me that it doesn’t matter whether it’s trees or menorahs, or what story it’s about. He told me that it’s about celebrating the every day miracles in your lives; your friends, your family, and just love, really. And that’s what you’ve given us the chance to do today by being here, so yeah. Thanks.”
Disclaimer: This only happened in my brain (as far as I know). Title belongs to Cobra Starship.
Author Notes: I really don't know if people will want to/be able to read this at this time, but as I said to several people, there was no way I was posting this one after Christmas. I actually really like this part lol. Which I guess is a good thing, since it's the last for a while. Love you all, you know I do. More at the end <3
One.Two. Three.Four.Five.Six.Seven.Eight.Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.Thirteen.Fourteen.
Fifteen.Sixteen.Seventeen.Eighteen.Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty One. Prequel. Twenty Two. Twenty Three. Twenty Four. Twenty Five
The last two weeks of their lives had partly been spent getting over the few days of stress and emotional intensity which Meghan’s appearance had brought into their lives, and then getting ready for their Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations, which were only a few days away. Particularly for the day or two following when they’d managed to get rid of Meg, hopefully for good, William and Gabe had just been drained, really, emotionally and physically. Thankfully Riley didn’t seem to have been by it affected at all, perhaps partly because they were careful to try and not be upset or angry around the toddler when he was old enough to pick up on it but not yet able to understand it properly. It was like nothing had even happened for Riley - though really, nothing had happened, it was just the ‘almost’ and the possibilities of what could have happened which upset Gabe and William, but now they were trying to think the same way as Riley; that nothing had happened, and nothing was going to happen, and now they could just go with their lives just the same.
They’d decided to have their big dinner and party day on the just before Christmas Eve, because then their guests could still make it to their families for the day itself if that’s what they were doing, and William, Gabe and Riley were going to be having dinner at Sheila and John’s place again as part of their extended family. Still, they’d chosen this year to have their own holiday celebration as well, with their extended family. On the guest list for their party-of-sorts were the other Cobras; Ryland, Vicky, Alex and Nate, and someone they hadn’t seen in far too long; Uncle Sisky Bizz. Sisky was also bringing along one of his bandmates too, adding one more to their number. Actually, Gabe really wasn’t sure how they were all going to fit around their kitchen table, and it would definitely be a squeeze, but it was hardly the most important thing in their minds just then.
For one thing, there was the question of cooking everything - though Alex was bringing a good proportion of the food with him, but before any of that there was something else with which Gabe in particular was extremely preoccupied. William had been thinking about it as well, of course, but he wasn’t nervous about it like Gabe was; William knew that the signing of Riley’s adoption papers was going to go off without a hitch. On the contrary, he knew that it was going to be awesome, but Gabe seemed to think that even though they’d already completed much of the process; going through a visit from social services so they could observe Gabe’s interactions with Riley and a couple of meetings with their allocated state legal aid to go through and then finalise the papers, something could still happen to stop the adoption. Really William was pretty sure Gabe was scared that the judge was just going to decide that he wasn’t fit to be Riley’s legal parent, but William wasn’t worried at all because that was pretty much ridiculous. Anyone who saw Gabe interacting with Riley would know that in any way that mattered he already was the child’s Papi, and everything else was just a formality. He still hadn’t been able to make Gabe see that, though.
After a night spent pretty much tossing and turning instead of actually sleeping, Gabe was stood in the middle of the kitchen on the morning they were going to get the adoption papers officially put through, tying his tie as William supervised Riley feeding himself his cooled oatmeal breakfast. Gabe had already tied the tie at least once that William had seen, but apparently it hadn’t been quite right. Either that, or Gabe was looking for something to channel his nervous energy into and tying and retying a tie was the only way he currently had at his disposal. William just sort of let him get on with it, really. He’d already tried about a dozen times to convince Gabe that everything was going to be fine, if not more likely awesome, and after that resigned himself to the fact that Gabe was going to be nervous no matter what, so all he could really do was stay calm enough for the both of them and do his best to reassure Gabe.
Riley having abandoned the last of his oatmeal and switched to just drinking milk out of his sippy cup for now, William pushed his chair back and stood up, leaving Riley sitting next to him in his high chair as he turned around to face Gabe. William reached up and straightened Gabe’s dark grey tie, pulling his boyfriend down into a kiss right afterwards.
“Corporate Gabe,” William said, grinning as he stepped back and looked his boyfriend up and down. “I like it.”
“Maybe I should leave the tie on until tonight, then,” Gabe answered, smirking as he raised an eyebrow at William. “And I get one of my Hanukkah presents early.” William laughed, but his smile only widened before he answered Gabe.
“When we come back here later and you’re officially Riley’s Papi, we can celebrate any way you like,” he promised and Gabe’s smirk quickly turned into a huge grin, his nervousness forgotten for the time being with the thoughts of his and Bill’s possible ‘celebration’ in his mind which, of course, was exactly what William had intended to be the outcome.
“We’re gonna leave in about twenty minutes or so, right?” Gabe asked, his mind suddenly jerking into hyperawareness of the time the way it had been every now and then all morning.
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ve got plenty of time,” William said, keeping his voice reassuring but inwardly sighing at how clearly tense Gabe was. It was just out of character for him really, even when there was any situation involving Riley, because Gabe was usually just too focused on what William needed and taking care of him. This, though, the adoption, didn’t really have anything to do with William, not technically. It was about Gabe, and with no one to really put his focus on except himself and what the situation meant for him, and his relationship with Riley, Gabe was seriously on edge even if he didn’t really have reason to be.
“But with traffic and everything… I mean, it’s so close to Christmas, the roads are gonna be packed - or the buses might be full and we might have to wait for another one or -”
“Gabe.” William placed one hand flat on each side of his boyfriend’s face before leaning forward to press his lips to Gabe’s in another quick kiss. “We’re going to go to Sheila’s and pick her up, we’re all going to get on the bus and get there in plenty of time because we’re going to leave with plenty of time, and everything is going to be great, okay? I promise,” he said firmly, keeping his eyes right on Gabe’s.
“I know,” Gabe replied once William had released him and pulled back a little. “I’ll be fine the second those papers are signed properly, but up until then I’m just…” Gabe shrugged, shaking his head. “I don’t even know.” He sighed, but then an attempt at a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “But I do know that you, William Beckett, haven’t broken a promise to me yet.”
At that moment William allowed himself to smile a little too, because if he wasn’t very much mistaken, that was the beginning of a real Gabe Saporta smile right there, he thought happily as he curled a hand around the back of Gabe’s neck and pulled him into another kiss.
Contrary to what Gabe’s panicking brain had conjured up in his mind, the buses were busy, sure, but they weren’t full and William, Gabe, and Sheila, along with Riley in his stroller, were fairly easily able to find seats. Gabe and William were sat a little way behind the driver, where there was an empty space left for strollers or wheelchairs to sit in front of the seats, and Sheila was sat behind them.
Although she was a great support for both of them, and important to Riley, the main reason Sheila was there with them was because the adoption papers were required to be signed by a witness, and neither of them could think of someone else who they wanted to, or who deserved to witness this event in their lives.
They were only a couple of stops on in their journey when Gabe noticed someone else get on the bus who had a stroller with them too, a woman who looked a little older than himself, with what looked to Gabe like a little girl who was a bit younger than Riley. William went to get up but the woman shook her head.
“I’m fine standing, Bill,” she said. “It’s only a few stops till I get off again.”
Gabe looked at William curiously for a second until it dawned on him just before William introduced them. “Gabe, this is Denise,” William told him. “She goes to my English Lit and Creative Writing class.” Gabe smiled and reached across to shake her hand. “And this,” William added, bending over in his seat, “must be Maisy. Hi, Maisy,” William said, leaning over and greeting the toddler in front of him, the little girl just giggling and pulling her blanket up to hide her face for a second before dropping it down again as soon as William leaned back again in his seat, laughing. “Riley,” William got his son’s attention then, and nodded towards Maisy. “This is Maisy. Wanna say ‘hi’?”
“No.” Riley frowned at him, then Maisy, and then at him again before turning to look pleadingly at Gabe.
“He a little shy?” Denise asked William, who looked at Riley for a second before answering.
“Well, not always. I think it’s really -”
“No!” William’s head snapped back around at the sound of Riley’s first yell, ascertaining that he was okay before he turned his attention to Gabe instead, looking for explanation as Riley launched into a full on crying fit, angry yells of ‘no’ still making their way out through the toddler’s sobs. It was then that William noticed that Maisy’s little hand was closed tight around the leg of one stuffed Giraffe sitting in Riley’s lap.
“Hey, hey relu. Shh,” Gabe tried to calm Riley down, quickly leaning forward and undoing the straps of the stroller so he could get Riley into his arms instead, the Giraffe smushed safely between their bodies as Gabe held him, murmuring Spanish into his ear and stroking his fingers through his curls, with Riley just sobbing - albeit more quietly now - into his papi’s neck.
William leaned across and planted a kiss on top of his son’s head before glancing backwards into the bus full of people, part of him wanting to stand up and apologise or something. Then again, it wasn’t exactly his fault, and people didn’t seem to be glaring at them or anything.
“Sorry,” he said to Denise instead. “He just really loves that giraffe.”
“It’s fine. Maisy’s the same way,” she smiled at him, shaking her head. “Just try getting that blanket off of her.” They both laughed a little before Denise quickly turned her head and bend down a little so she could look out into the street they were on. “This is our stop,” she said, pushing one of the buttons to signal to the driver, “but it was good to see you, Bill.”
“Yeah, you too,” William nodded, smiling and waving at Maisy as they got off the bus before turning around a little so he could focus on Riley. The toddler had all but stopped crying already, Riley just clinging to Gabe without hiding his face now and staring back at Sheila sitting behind them who had leaned forward to talk to Riley. Her quiet words served as much as distraction as reassurance, but the main thing was that Riley seemed to have forgotten that anyone he didn’t know had ever even dared to touch his beloved giraffe. “If he’s pretty much calmed down now, he should really go back in his stroller,” William pointed out, and Gabe nodded. It was safer, should the bus have to stop really abruptly for some reason, that Riley wasn’t in Gabe’s lap no matter how tightly he was able to cling to either of them. Riley only protested slightly as he got strapped back into his stroller, but Gabe just leaned forward and planted a few kisses all over Riley’s face until he let out a giggle, the child suddenly a lot happier.
“Wow, though,” Gabe said as soon as he‘d sat back in his seat again. “I was so right about Riley having no competition for cuteness from the kids of people in your classes.”
“Gabe!” Sheila exclaimed, leaning forward in her seat to cuff Gabe lightly on the back of the head. “All babies are cute in their own way,” she admonished him, shaking her head disappointedly at Gabe when he turned around to give her an incredulous look.
“Uh,” Gabe began, making a disbelieving scoffing noise before going on, “all babies are supposed to be cute,” he corrected her. “And that kid was okay, sure, but she was nowhere near Riley’s league.”
“Not to interrupt this fascinating line of conversation,” William cut in, glancing so Sheila could see him rolling his eyes at Gabe’s attitude, “but Riley wasn’t exactly too friendly just then.” He frowned a little, a kind of worried expression on his face. “I don’t think he really knows how to act around other kids. I mean, I guess he wouldn’t really… he only sees us for the most part at the moment. Maybe we should start trying to get him more socialised with kids his age, start going to one of the parent-toddler groups or arrange some playdates,” William suggested, looking at Gabe for his reaction to the idea.
“I guess,” Gabe nodded. “I mean, what if we were ever have another kid. It would be a bit of a shock for him to suddenly have to get used to being around other kids and everything.”
“Uh… I was more thinking about when he started kindergarden,” William said slowly, his eyes widened a little in surprise at Gabe bringing up a subject like that so out of the blue. “But you… You think about that?” William asked, the expression on his face still once of slight shock, but the look now accompanied with a smile as he looked at Gabe.
“Sometimes.” Gabe shrugged, a little embarrassed at what had been - up until that moment, at least - his secret thoughts being exposed, even if was himself who had done it unthinkingly. “It’s stupid, I know,” he said quickly.
“It’s a little… out of our reach, right now,” William said carefully, and Gabe nodded. “But you never know, right?” he smiled, pleased when Gabe returned the expression.
“I suppose we should deal with today before we go thinking about adding to our little family,” Gabe laughed, reaching over and pulling Riley’s hat down a bit more securely on his head, causing the toddler to look up from his giraffe in his lap and at Gabe instead.
“Papi,” Riley said happily, like he’d only just realised Gabe was sitting there right near him, the child smiling and then giggling as Gabe kissed his own fingertip before leaning over once more to press it on Riley’s little nose. “Almost, baby boy,” Gabe answered him, exchanging a smile with William as he realised that they were only a couple of minutes away from their destination. “Almost.”
Just as William had thought, the big moment was fairly complicated, as momentous occasions went. It wasn’t as though they were sat in some big courtroom with a hundred people staring at them as Gabe had to defend his right to be Riley’s legal parent. All of that, not that the social services people had found anything which remotely questioned Gabe’s competency as a father, had been done already. Now it was just them sitting around a big wooden table in some big office, forms sitting there in the centre. Gabe, William and Sheila were sat on one side, with Riley on William’s lap, and the judge was sat at the head of the table to their right. Their state lawyer was sat opposite with someone taking note of everything which was said or done to her left.
Before anything happened, the forms were gone through once more just to make sure, and then that was it. William watched, his chest feeling like it was swelling with pride and excitement and love, almost too much really, as Gabe took the forms which had just been signed by their lawyer and Sheila, and lowered the pen in his hand to the paper in front of him. Even Riley was completely silent as they watched Gabe sign his name on that line, his hand almost shaking too much for him to even do that, before he slid the papers up to the judge. After checking through everything once more, the man signed his own name and printed some official stamp on the front page, the action happening almost too quickly for Gabe to register it happening before it was over, and that was it.
Months after the process had started, and even longer since William had ever said the word ‘adoption’ to Gabe, that was it, and Gabe was suddenly the official, legal, one hundred percent legitimate Papi of Riley William Beckett.
“Dios Mio…” Gabe whispered to himself, hardly noticing as the judge stood up next to him and held out his hand. When he did though, Gabe quickly pushed his own chair back and turned so he could shake the guys hand.
“Congratulations,” he smiled before turning and leaving the room, their lawyer and the person documenting the proceedings doing the same, leaving them alone in the room.
Gabe paused for a second, letting out a breath of laughter before he turned around to see William who had stood up now too, Shelia having taken a step back to let them have their moment.
William just looked at Gabe for a little while, this huge grin on his face even as his eyes were filled with tears.
“Here you go, Papi,” William said to him, stepping forward and putting Riley in Gabe’s arms instead. “I think you should have some snuggle time with your son,” William emphasised his last words, wiping the heel of his palm across each eye as Gabe suddenly found himself smiling as widely as he could ever, right back at William before he looked at Riley.
“My son,” Gabe repeated, swallowing hard before kissing Riley’s forehead and the tip of his nose, making him giggle. “My baby boy, aren’t you?” Gabe said happily, almost disbelievingly as he wrapped his arms around Riley in a proper hug, holding him close.
William was getting a hug from Sheila when Gabe looked back to find his eyes again, but only a couple of seconds later William as walking back towards him, reaching Gabe in only a couple of steps and immediately putting his arms around Gabe, Riley still there in between them as Gabe switched one arm so it was resting at William’s lower back instead, holding him close and keeping them all together.
“Papi,” Riley murmured happily, his little hand still clutching at the collar of Gabe’s shirt.
“Yeah,” Gabe said, sighing in contentment as he stood there with his two boys. “Yeah, I am.”
The rest of that day had passed pretty quickly in celebration, the time being just a mess of happiness and laughter and amazement at the way the adoption felt like it had changed something, but really everything was the same, just a little stronger was all.
Soon the next day had arrived, and the familiar sounding knock on their apartment door signalled the arrival of someone else, too.
William was already grinning as he opened the door and stepped aside so Sisky and his friend could come in.
“Bilvy!” Sisky boomed, a big grin on his own face. “Merry Christmas! Well, almost,” he corrected himself, laughing. “This is The Butcher,” Sisky said, taking the present they’d brought from Butcher’s arms so they could do the introduction thing, the three of them walking into the kitchen area where Gabe was standing with Riley in his arms, so he and Butcher could introduce themselves too. “This is for Riley, from us,” Sisky said, putting a fairly big wrapped box on the counter next to them.
“Joint present, huh?” William questioned him quietly while Butcher was still talking to Gabe a couple of feet away, raising an eyebrow. Sisky just shrugged, but his grin widened a little. When they were in high school Sisky had… dabbled a little bit, but really William had just thought that Sisky was simply experimenting or that he was worried about them not being as close if their sexuality differed, but then again, even back then Sisky had had a pretty awesome attitude to this sort of thing, and it was pretty likely he had the same one now. The thing was, Sisky always said that he dated people, not genders, and The Butcher definitely seemed like a great person to him, so whatever their relationship was William didn’t have a problem with it.
“Say hi to Uncle Sisky, Ry,” William said as Gabe handed Riley over. At first he wasn’t sure whether Riley would remember Sisky, seeing as it had been more than half a year since his last visit, but it seemed that something was still there in Riley’s mind which meant that instead of whining and reaching back for William or Gabe like he usually might, the toddler instead settling happily in Sisky’s arms and giggling as he reached up to pat his little hand across Sisky’s face.
“Hi.” Riley said, smiling.
“Hey there, Riley boy.” Sisky grinned. “You gotta stop growing dude. You’re huge!” he exclaimed, making Riley laugh again. “Or I’ve got to start visiting more often,” Sisky amended, turning his head to look at William, who nodded.
“Sounds good to me.” He smiled at his friend. They talked on the phone and emailed a lot and stuff, but it wasn’t the same.
“Now, Ry,” Sisky said, getting Riley’s attention again as he stepped a little closer to Butcher, who’d pretty much just stayed quiet and let Sisky have his moment with Riley. “This is my friend Andy, but you can call him The Butcher, ’cause everyone else does whether he wants us to or not,” Sisky laughed as Butcher gave him a nudge with his shoulder, despite the smile which was on his own face too. First glancing at William for a nod of consent, Sisky then gave Riley to Butcher, and everyone kind of just waited for Riley to start crying or try to wriggle his way out of Butcher’s arms, and it was a surprise to everyone when that didn’t happen.
“Hi, Riley,” Butcher said, but Riley didn’t say ‘hi’ back, or even look up at him. The child was too preoccupied with staring at the part of Butcher’s chest which was exposed by the v neck of his t shirt, Riley reaching out to touch the brightly coloured patterns of the tattoo with one finger and trailing it across the design as he just let out a quiet ‘hee’ of amusement. “You like it?” Butcher asked him, securing his arm around Riley a bit more so he could free his other arm to pull the neck of his shirt, exposing more of the tattoo.
“Quack quack,” Riley laughed, finally looking up at Butcher with his big brown eyes, a smile on his face. “Yeah,” Butcher grinned, looking at Sisky for a moment before turning his attention back to Riley. “It’s a birdie.” He nodded. “Hey Sisk, pull up my left sleeve for me,” he asked, turning his body so Sisky could reach and Riley could see the rest of his tattoos on his left arm, and more specifically the one on his shoulder.
“Ooh,” Riley said quietly, reaching across to touch that one as well, tracing his fingers up the branches of the tree as he stared, transfixed by the pictures and patterns covering so much of Butcher’s skin.
“I guess he’s never seen tattoos before,” Gabe said to William where the two of them were just stood a few feet away still, watching Riley interact with this new person surprisingly well. “Wait. What is he doing?” A note of panic crept into Gabe’s tone as he looked at William, who just shrugged. “Pretty sure it’s called playing,” he pointed out as they watched Sisky and Butcher with Riley a bit more. From what William had seen, it had started with Butcher simply jiggling Riley up and down a little in his arms, making him laugh, but when he’d stopped doing it Riley had frowned and pouted and whined until the Butcher had resumed the action, and it had escalated a little. William did notice, however, that although there was the illusion for Riley of actually falling back down until he was settled back against Butcher’s chest, the reality was that the man’s hands never moved from their position on each side under Riley’s arms, holding him firmly the entire time even as all three of them laughed together. “It’s fine. He‘s fine, so relax, okay?” William said affectionately, shaking his head at how overprotective Gabe could be sometimes, even though he knew he himself was guilty of it fairly often too.
"Bilvy, when there's a guy called 'The Butcher' throwing my baby boy up and down in the air, I'm allowed to be a little on edge," Gabe laughed as he answered William, but he was yet to take his eyes off of the sight, and William could see his fingers were itching to go and take Riley into his own arms just to make sure he was safe, despite the fact that the toddler was giggling and squealing with excitement every time he got swooped up into the air.
Some things changed, sure, but others never did, William thought to himself with a smile as he slipped his hand into Gabe's and entwined their fingers.
It wasn’t too long until the others arrived too, Nate and Alex getting there a little earlier than Vicky, and then Ryland a while later, since Alex was bringing some of the food with him. It was lucky it wasn’t a lot of food though, because as soon as Gabe let Nate into the apartment Riley looked up from where he’d been sat on the sofa on his daddy’s lap and straight away squirmed his way down onto the floor so he could start running towards Nate. Well, running wasn’t quite the term perhaps, so much as toddling as fast as he could, but it was still fairly impressive for the almost two year old.
As soon as Nate saw Riley heading for him the drummer crouched down on the floor and just let Riley hit him at full pelt, allowing the not exactly huge amount of force to topple them both backwards until Nate was lying on his back. As he’d ‘fallen’ back Nate had made sure to secure Riley’s body loosely in his hands rather than cushion his own fall, but even as his body hit the only thinly carpeted floor with thump Nate was laughing as he dug his fingers lightly into Riley’s side, making him giggle and squirm.
“Why’ve you always gotta knock me over, Ry?” Nate laughed as Riley crawled his way up Nate’s body so he could reach his face. “You don’t like me, huh?” he joked, still grinning even as Riley kind of collapsed on his chest, his little body still shaking with his giggles as he pressed his lips to Nate’s cheek in a big, exaggerated kiss, complete with ‘mwah’ sound and all.
“Nay,” was all Riley said, happily snuggling into Nate’s chest, spread eagled face down with his head turned to the side, seemingly not looking to move any time soon.
“Guess I’m staying down here for the day then,” Nate said to Gabe as he bent over them up near Nate’s head. “You’ll feed me, right?”
“I suppose I’ll have to,” Gabe shrugged, smirking down at Nate. “Riley would miss you if you died or anything, and I’d have to find a new drummer,” he laughed.
“You’re a drummer?” The Butcher called over from where he was sat on the couch with Sisky.
“Uh… yeah, whoever that is,” Nate answered, trying to sit his head up without the rest of his body so he could see who was speaking.
“That’s The Butcher. He drums in Sisky’s band… but you don’t actually know Sisky, either,” Gabe said, frowning. “This’ll be a lot easier once Riley’s gotten enough snuggle time in,” he decided, reaching down to pat Nate on the head. “So just hang tight and we’ll do introductions later.” Gabe laughed before straightening back up and heading out to the kitchen to see if he could help William and Alex sort out the food at all.
“Oh, I’m good here,” Nate smiled, one arm coming to rest over Riley to keep him secure, despite the fact that there was very little chance of him moving at all for a quite a while. “I’m good.”
Only a few minutes after that Vicky arrived, a small wrapped package in hand, and Ryland got there about a half hour after that, his own wrapped box in his arms which joined the others around their Christmas tree. Everyone had agreed that they weren’t going to do presents for each other, but if they wanted to get presents for Riley then that was another story.
Riley was a pretty lucky kid, Gabe thought to himself as he carried the toddler over to the kitchen table and set him down in his high chair, which was positioned on a corner since the chair had it’s own tray and it was a way to save table space for the rest of them. Riley had a daddy, a papi, four ‘uncles’ and one ‘aunt’, all of whom loved Riley as much as if they were blood relatives. Over the past few months in particular, when Riley was a little older, the band came round to practice at their apartment on days off, and Riley loved listening to them play, clapping and trying to join in singing, or sometimes settling for having a bit of a dance with his papi if that didn’t work out. Of course, they had to adjust timings to fit in Riley’s Nate snuggle time at the start, but that wasn’t really big deal or anything.
Somehow they all managed to squeeze around the kitchen table, all passing various dishes and food back and forth until everyone had what they wanted on their plates. There was turkey for the meat eaters and a vegetable bake Alex had made for Gabe and anyone else who wanted it, as well as plenty of vegetables and some mac and cheese in case that wasn’t enough.
Riley was sat on the corner with Gabe on one side of him, and Vicky on the other. William was sat next to Sisky so they could catch up and he could get to know Butcher a bit better, the drummer currently occupied, however, in discussing drums with Nate while William and Sisky were talking excitedly about something Gabe couldn’t get the gist of without listening properly. Vicky was helping out Riley in between her own mouthfuls of food; the toddler’s plate containing a small amount of shredded turkey, then small portions of mashed potatoes, green beans and some mac and cheese.
As time went on, though, Riley soon got more than a little fussy, pushing away the spoon as Vicky tried to get him to finish up his potatoes.
“I think he’s done,” she said, leaning over and planting a kiss on Riley’s temple, getting a smile out of him despite the way he was rubbing his fist across his eyes, squinting at everyone as he yawned.
“Nap time,” William announced, pushing his chair back and standing up.
“Speech!” Ryland exclaimed immediately, tapping on the neck of his beer bottle with his fork, a wicked grin on his face as William made a face at him.
“We don’t all like to perform quite as much as you, Ryland,” William teased, reminding everyone of Ryland’s amateur dramatic tendencies.
“Well, Bilvy,” Gabe cut in, smiling as he stood up briefly to lift Riley out of his chair and settled him in his lap instead. “It is Christmas after all.” At that William and Alex exchanged a look with each other, but neither of them deemed it necessary to say the words ‘But you’re Jewish’ out loud.
“Fine,” William said, rolling his eyes at Gabe as he picked up his glass, which had nothing more exciting than soda in it, since he was staying sober that day. Gabe had offered to do the same, but it really wasn’t necessary for them both to do it, and it was nice for William to see Gabe being able to relax a little more and have a couple of beers with his friends if he wanted to. He cleared his throat exaggeratedly, a smirk on his face before he suddenly looked a little more serious as he realised he actually did have something to say. “I want to thank you all for coming today. Some of you have come a little further than others, but I really can’t describe how great it is that we’re all here together, in our tiny little apartment, celebrating like this. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas or Hanukkah.” William smiled at Gabe before going on. “Someone really smart once told me that it doesn’t matter whether it’s trees or menorahs, or what story it’s about. He told me that it’s about celebrating the every day miracles in your lives; your friends, your family, and just love, really. And that’s what you’ve given us the chance to do today by being here, so yeah. Thanks,” William finished, looking around at everyone, each of their friends smiling back at him, but no one with a big a smile as Gabe had on his face just then.
Suddenly feeling a little awkward and exposed, William breathed out a laugh as he walked around the table and took his son - their son, officially now, from Gabe. As William bent down to gather the sleepy child into his own arms, Gabe pressed his lips to his boyfriend’s cheek and said a quiet ‘I love you’ in his ear. William just grinned, the expression not leaving his face the entire time he was putting Riley down for his nap.
It only took an hour or two for Riley to recharge enough for present time, giving them enough time to clear most of the dishes and everything and then just hang out together a little more until they finally heard Riley calling out from the nursery and William went and got him up.
He needed a little encouragement from Sisky, who’d decided to sit cross legged on the floor, given the not exactly huge amount of sofa available, but after Sisky had shown him what to do by ripping a little bit of wrapping the rest soon following as Riley began tearing big chunks of the paper off the present in front of him.
Sisky had given him his and Butcher’s present to open first, and Riley patted the cardboard for a few seconds before just looking up at Sisky questioningly, frowning a little until Sisky opened up the box and slid the small electronic keyboard out of it.
“See?” Sisky said to him, putting it in front of them both and pressing down a few keys - though no sound came out since it wasn’t plugged in. “You play music.”
“Bash bash,” Riley babbled, banging his hand down on the plastic keys a couple of times and laughing as he looked up to find Gabe and William.
“That’s awesome, Sisk,” William grinned at him. Of course, he’d given him the idea after Gabe had mentioned it, but he hadn’t been too specific. The keyboard was perfect though. “Thank you. You gonna say thank you to Uncle Sisky, Ry?” William said, smiling as he watched how Riley had already started crawling into Sisky’s lap and hugging his chest.
“You’re welcome, Riley boy,” Sisky said, smiling down at Riley. “It was from Butcher too, you know,” he added, looking up to exchange a grin with The Butcher who was sat over near the tree, wearing a Santa hat in his official capacity as present-deliverer.
Gabe was sat over on the sofa, curled up a little and leaning back against the cushions, a contented smile on his face as he watched Riley opening up his presents. When they got to Vicky’s present though, he suddenly sat up straight, a grin spreading right across his face.
“Did you make that?” he asked incredulously, laughing in disbelief at just how awesome his band were, even though he did already know that, obviously. Sisky held it up for everyone to see; a little purple t shirt which had been printed with a small starship design and the words ‘Cobra Starship!’ on the front in bright yellow, and ’Fangs Up!’ on the back.
“That,” William said, exchanging a grin with Gabe, “is awesome.”
“Why, thank you.” Vicky smiled back, giving them a little joking bow of acknowledgement. “I just designed it. There’s a place near my apartment which does that kind of stuff, and I thought our biggest fan should get his own merch,” she said, walking over and giving Riley a kiss on the top of his head.
A little later the keyboard was already being put to use, with Ryland and The Butcher sitting either side of Riley on the floor, and Alex, Vicky and Nate playing the dutiful audience. Riley had been dressed in his new shirt, and Vicky was joking about him stealing her place in the band if she wasn’t careful. The ‘performance’, however, pretty much just consisted of Riley bashing at random keys and laughing. He clapped his hands whenever Ryland leaned across and played a simply tune that he’d recognise like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Riley squealed with delight when he heard him start to play the Sesame Street theme tune.
Gabe was curled up on the sofa still, almost lying down with his feet across William’s lap where he was sat next to Sisky, the three of them watching the others and Riley play with his new stuff. Well, Gabe was sort of watching. His eyes kept drifting shut though, but he wasn’t exactly drunk from the whole two and a half beers he’d had. It was mostly remaining tiredness from the day before, and then they hadn’t exactly slept too much the previous night, when he and Bill had had their own private celebration in the bedroom. He wasn’t properly asleep though, William could tell, because his face still reacted to the different noises he heard coming from across the room, his smile widening when Riley laughed and clapped particularly excitedly. William didn’t really expect him to speak, though. But he suddenly did.
“I wanna marry you, Bilvy Beckett,” Gabe murmured before opening his eyes to look over at William.
“Oh yeah?” William answered, exchanging a smirk with Sisky.
“Yeah,” Gabe nodded as well as he could where he was almost lying down against the arm of the sofa. “You can be best man, Risky Bizz.” Gabe snorted out a laugh before speaking again. “No, wait. You can be Bill’s best man. I can have my own,” he corrected himself.
“One day,” William said, giving Gabe a smile and entwining their fingers in Gabe’s lap as his boyfriend seemed to drift off into dozing again. Not for the first time that day, William found himself wondering just how he got quite so lucky. Gabe always gave and gave so much of himself in their relationship - not that William didn’t, but Gabe hardly ever seemed to take anything for himself. William wanted him to, and he’d been thinking for a long time now about how he might be able to do something for Gabe. And really there was one thing which stuck in his mind, which had always been so important to Gabe but had kind of been put on the back burner since he’d met William and become a Papi, at least in a way. If William had anything to do with that, though, that was going to change fairly soon. “Hey, Sisk,” William said, leaning over so he could talk quietly to his old friend without Gabe hearing him. “You’re signed, right? You guys are making your album and everything,” he went on.
“Yeah, we’re on a label now.” Sisky nodded in confirmation, a look of curiosity on his features.
“See, the thing is,” William continued, a smile creeping onto his face at the thought, “I really need to get in contact with Pete Wentz.”
***A/N: So, my wonderful, beautiful rileyfic readers, this is it for now. This fic is going on hiatus for an indefinite period, but before anyone gets too upset (believe me, I'm about to lol), this is not the end of rileyfic. Just because I'm not posting it doesn't mean I'm not writing. It might take me a while but eventually you guys will get proper, once a week postings and stuff, and before then there will most likely be standalone chapters/mini plot arcs in between now and that time.
I just want to thank all of you, so fucking much, I can't even say. This fic has been so important to me and helped me grow as a writer (I think lol), and I know I wouldn't have taken it this far without the encouragement of all of you. It's okay if you don't, but I would love it if you dropped a comment just to say hi, or that you do actually want more in future, or give me ideas, or whatever. It'd be awesome.
Apart from that, thank you all and Happy Holidays! <3
***A/N 2: Ridiculously long! sappy!A/N makes it feel even more like the end :/ Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, when I'm feeling porn-y sometime I will be writing the missing scene there, no worries ;)