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“Daddy!” Hunter looks up from the pile of leaves he’s accrued, and drops his rake just in time to catch his daughter. Scarlet is dressed in a puffy jacket, a too-long scarf wrapped tightly around her neck. When she laughs, her breath fogs in the air, betraying the chill of the autumn sunset.
“Mama says you need to put on a jacket,” Scarlet informs him, “or you’re gonna freeze your ass off!”
“Melinda May!” Bobbi straightens, putting her hands on her hips and turning to where Melinda is waiting on the front porch. “Please tell me I did not hear a naughty word come out of our daughter’s mouth just now.”
Mel manages to look a little bit guilty, but Hunter can’t hide his laughter. Scarlet squirms in his arms, and Hunter sets her down before she can launch herself towards the ground without his help to make her land on her feet.
“And you thought it was going to be me that taught the demon spawn the bad words,” Hunter said, still chuckling as he turns to Bobbi.
“You’re on thin ice, too, mister. We do not call our daughter demon spawn.” Bobbi glares at him.
“I dunno, her mum’s a little bit demonic at times.” Hunter throws a smile over his shoulder at Melinda, who is obviously eavesdropping on their conversation.
“What did you just say about my baby?” Melinda asks, leaving the porch and stalking across the front lawn to where Bobbi and Hunter are still working on raking.
“That I love my daughter very much?” Melinda’s not really mad, Hunter knows, but it’s too fun to push her buttons. “It was you I was insulting, darling.” He grins even as Melinda aims a light punch at his chest, then pulls her in for a quick, soft kiss that makes Hunter aware of how much warmer Melinda is than him. Maybe she’s onto something about him wearing a jacket.
“Scar, wait -!” Bobbi’s sudden shout distracts Hunter from his banter with his wife, and he turns to see Scarlet chest-deep in a pile of leaves that is rapidly turning into not-a-pile.
Hunter groans. All their hard work raking, gone under the feet of an exuberant five-year-old. He knows it’s his fault for not watching Scarlet more closely after she had exited his arms, but Hunter still groans.
“I’ll bag these ones, you deal with that?” Hunter asks Bobbi, nodding towards where Scarlet is twirling and throwing armfuls of leaves into the sky. The light is rapidly fading, so they were going to have to pack up soon anyways, but now they have more of a reason to.
Bobbi nods, leaving Hunter with a big black garbage bag to fill with the leaves from the pile Scarlet hadn’t attacked. When he looks up from his task, his heart damn near spills out his chest. Rather than corral their daughter, Melinda and Bobbi have chosen to join her, and they’re both covered head-to-toe in leaves. Some of the leaves are caught in their hair, but there’s also a few clinging to Bobbi’s beige sweater and Melinda’s maroon overcoat - and even a few that managed to attach themselves to both women’s jeans.
Scarlet shrieks in happiness when Bobbi throws her in the air, and Melinda’s laughter winds up to join their daughter’s high-pitched noises. Bobbi isn’t making a sound, but even from across the yard Hunter can see the brightness of her smile. How had he gotten so lucky, to get those two amazing women and their equally-amazing daughter? They have a house in the suburbs and a lawn he gets to rake the leaves off of every autumn, jobs they love and a marriage that, while not legal, is stronger than most of the official marriages Hunter knows of. It is a good life, and he takes a moment to savor that before returning to his task.
He finishes bagging the leaves just as the sun slips beneath the horizon for good, and the whole family troops inside.
It’s nearly bedtime for Scarlet, so Melinda takes her up for one final story and a tuck-in. Bobbi and Hunter are left in the kitchen to make tea (for Bobbi and Mel) or hot cocoa (for Hunter).
“You’re an icicle, babe,” Bobbi murmurs when she brushes past him. “Even if I don’t approve of Mel’s language, she was right about you needing a jacket.”
“I’m fine, Bob,” Hunter insists, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “For all you know, this was an elaborate ploy to get you and Mel to warm me up later.”
Bobbi snorts. “Was it?”
“That would be telling, wouldn’t it?” He dodges her swatting at his arm, only leaning in for a kiss when he’s certain she won’t try to smack him again.
They’re settled together on the sofa, hot drinks in hand, when Mel comes down five minutes later.
“Out like a light,” she announces before either of them can ask. Melinda grabs her tea off the coffee table and cozies up to Hunter on the sofa. She flinches when her arm touches him, and Hunter frowns.
“I’m not that cold, am I?”
“You’re pretty cold.” Melinda gives him a look. “As one tends to get when they wear a tank top at the end of October.”
“How else am I supposed to seduce my wives if not with my rippling biceps?” Bobbi spits out her tea, and Hunter makes an affronted noise. “Is it really that ridiculous to think you might enjoy watching me rake!?”
“No, honey,” Bobbi says. She’s still laughing, though, so Hunter doesn’t believe her much.
“Why do you think you have to do something special to seduce us?” Mel asks, cuddling closer to Hunter. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’s made it her new mission to warm him up. “As far as I recall, we had sex last night with no rippling biceps to tempt us.”
Hunter shrugs. “I dunno. Keep love alive or something.”
“If you want love to stay alive, you have to stay alive. No hypothermia, please.”
“I’m almost tempted to say we shouldn’t take you to bed tonight, just to prove a point,” Mel muses. Hunter whines.
“There is actually something I wanted to talk to you two about before we get frisky. If we get frisky,” Bobbi adds, giving Hunter a pointed glance to let him know he’s not out of the doghouse yet.
“Shoot.”
“What do you think of having another baby?”
Hunter blinks. He doesn’t know what he expected, but that wasn’t it.
“I say the demon spawn could use a playmate. Ouch, Mel, you know I’m joking!” Her elbow had dug a surprisingly hard jab into his side.
“I thought I was the hellbeast?” Bobbi pouts.
“I never said your baby wouldn’t be demon spawn too.”
“Hunter!”
“Jesus, woman, your child is an angel and I’m sure this hypothetical second child will be, too!”
“...Not so hypothetical.”
Hunter’s brain screeches to a halt.
“You’re…?” Before he can finish the question Mel launches herself overtop of him so she can tackle Bobbi with a kiss. Hunter manages to drag them both into his lap, mouthing softly at Bobbi’s neck while Mel continues to show their wife her happiness with an increasingly passionate kiss.
They separate after another half minute, leaving the three of them in a tangled pile of limbs. “One angel child, coming right up,” Bobbi jokes. Her eyes are watering, and Hunter wipes away some of the tears before they can spill over, turning Bobbi’s head so he can get in a kiss of his own - soft and chaste and loving.
“I’ll wear a jacket,” he promises, knocking their foreheads together. “For both my kids,” Hunter adds before Mel can make a snarky comment.
Two kids to harass him on their mothers’ behalves, two kids to squeal and squirm when he tried to hold them close, two kids to ruin his piles of leaves -
Two kids to love.
Hunter is so ready for this.