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Time hummed to himself as he stocked up for another week at the grocery store. He had his thickest jacket on to warm him from the harsh winter that had finally decided to set in. In many ways the winter brought him a sense of calm, peace and joy but it was also tangled with loss and grief.
The store was decorated for the upcoming winter solstice, lights and tinsel were spread about the many shelves. It was festive, Time smiled to himself as he picked up the last items on his list, eager to get home to the ranch. They had decorated the house yesterday, it was covered in lights and tinsel and several paper snowflakes that each boy had made. It was chaotic to say the least, but Time loved it. And seeing the smiles it brought to the boy's faces was worth the sparkly mess they were now left with.
Nearing the checkout Time notices a rather large display that catches his eye. On top of boxes stacked to about his shoulders was a lovely little gingerbread house, covered in candy and frosting with a couple gingerbread people out front. His working eye twinkled with fond memories of making his own gingerbread houses in years past, putting it together, decorating and of course eating the delicious treat at the end. Time doubled back on himself, deciding he needed a few more things at the grocery store.
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“Boys!” Time called brightly as he walked through the door, stomping off the excess snow.
“I've got a surprise!”
He carried the grocery bags to the kitchen island, setting them down as some of his boys filtered into the room. Wind was first, he bounced into the room with wide eyes.
“What is it? What is it!?” He asked impatiently as Four followed in after him, taking his spot at the table.
“Woah, woah, hang on, we have to wait for everyone to be in the room, bud.” Time chuckled fondly, putting away a few things, Twilight joined after a moment as did Wild who was nearly as impatient as Wind.
“Come on! Just tell us already!” He whined, putting away the milk carton. Time smiled at his boys, but didn’t reveal his surprise yet.
After Time had put away all of the groceries he looked around. The only one missing now was Sky.
“Who wants to go wake up the sleepyhead?” Time asked. Wind’s hand shot up immediately, he could not sit here idly any longer he needed to do something!! Time nodded. Wind bolted out of the room.
“But be kind to your brother!” Time called after Wind.
Now everyone was gathered. A very sleepy Sky leaned against Warriors who pat his head gently.
“Now!” Time said dramatically, “The moment you have all been waiting for!”
Legend scoffed, rolling his eyes, but Time could tell it was just for show.
“We are going to make gingerbread houses!” He announced.
WInd jumped up on his chair cheering loudly, Twilight and Warriors smiled to one another, Wild already running to get a recipe. Sky gasped
“Oooh I love gingerbread.” He smiled. Four was looking around with a slightly confused expression, Time noticed and addressed the boy,
“What’s up Four?” He asked gently, Four looked at him with his big brown eyes,
“I’m just not sure I know what that is.” He admitted shyly. Across the table Hyrule nodded in agreement.
“WHAT?” Wind cried, still standing on his chair, “How do you not know what that is?!?!”
“Wind, get down please.” Time asked the excitable boy.
“They're cookie houses. We make the cookies, build the houses and then eat them.”
Time explained to Four and Hyrule who listened with wide eyes.
“I like cookies.” Hyrule said after a moment. Four nodded.
The dough was made, and baked and the ranch house was filled with the smell of warm cookies and cinnamon spices. Everyone was eager to start. They could hardly wait. When it came time to finally start decorating the gingerbread houses, they boys split into groups of two and took the cookie pieces quickly setting to work.
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“Rulie, stop eating the pieces!” Legend whined, though he was more amused than upset. Hyrule crunched on his cookie piece happily,
“But it's so good!” He replied back, mouth full of gingerbread. Legend rolled his eyes fondly as he tried to stick the front and side walls together with the thick icing. Hyrule grabbed a candy instead, popping it in his mouth.
“You gonna help at all?” Legend asked amused. Hyrule playfully rolled his eyes before dipping his hand in the icing and smearing it on the gingerbread cookie to stick on the base. Legend let out a startled gasp.
“Use a spatula!!!” Hyrule did not change his method of finger painting the icing.
Four was carefully spreading a thin layer of the gooey frosting on his piece of the roof, making sure it was even and perfect. He and Sky had already gotten all the walls up, their house was sturdy and he couldn't wait to add details. Sky lifted his own half of the roof and the pair ever so gently pressed the pieces together to form their house. Four clapped happily, Sky immediately grabbed some candy canes to use as the top of their roof.
“This is so fun!!” Sky said brightly, adding candy details to the beautiful sculpture.
“I know!!! I love this! We should do this every year.” Four replied, carefully making a frosting path to the door of their house.
Across the table Wind had given up on sitting in his chair, Time had taken it away when he kept jumping up and down on it and redirected him to just stand on the floor instead. Warriors only looked mildly annoyed at the excited boy.
“Come on Wars!! Pirate ship house!” Wind cheered loudly, Warriors let out a long sigh,
“Look Seabird, the cookies are already house shaped, if you want a pirate ship you need to draw one on.” Warriors continued to try and put up the walls while wind next to him jumped around and danced with excitement.
“Can I do the roof?” He asked.
“We need walls first.”
“K. But roof.”
Warriors sighed, he looked exhausted.
Wild was haphazardly painting icing across the cookies with his spatula, Twilight was doing a much neater job.
“Twi, pass the sprinkles.” Wild asked, extending a hand sticky with icing, Twilight obliged. Wild proceeded to open the container and try to lightly dust the wall with some pale blue sprinkles. He however forgot it was an open jar and tipped half of it into the middle of his cookie creating a small mound. Twilight let out a barking laugh.
“Wild, I think that's a bit much.” He chuckled. Wild stood with the jar still suspended in the air and his mouth slightly agape.
“Anyone need blue sprinkles?” Wild asked once the shock of his disaster wore off. Hyrule raised a very messy hand.
“For what cookie?” Legend retorted, wiping Hyrule’s sticky face with a cloth.
“Fo- my mou-th” Hyrule mumbled through cookie.
“Hyrule!!” Wind shouted from across the table, “you're supposed to build the house before you eat it!!”
Hyrule shrugged,
“sprinkles please?” He asked innocently.
“Wait! Can we have some?” Sky called from the end of the table. Everyone looked and their jaws dropped at the masterpiece of a house that stood there.
“why is your guys’ so fucking good?” Wild groaned. To which Warriors snapped something about language as he tried desperately to hold the roof of his and Wind’s house in place.
“I didn't dump a sprinkle jar on it so that helped.” Four teased. Wild stuck his tongue out in reply, but everyone else just laughed.
Time shook his head fondly at his boys,
“Hyrule, I draw the line at eating straight up sugar sprinkles.” He mused.
“Aww why?” Hyrule asked with big eyes. Sky ruffled his hair,
“You're gonna get a tummy ache!” Sky laughed.
Wild carefully walked over with his cookie covered in a mound of sprinkles to share with Four but halfway he dropped the piece on the floor with a yelp. Twilight hollered in laughter. Hyrule tried to eat the sprinkles off the floor but was held back by an annoyed Legend. Four, Sky and Time tried to help Wild clean up the sticky sparkly mess that now coated the floor. Wind ran over in an attempt to help but slipped on some icing falling flat on his back with a thump.
Warriors gave up on holding their house together and was by Wind’s side in a minute, making sure he was okay. The younger boy just laughed though he was slightly winded. Four swept up the sprinkles to Hyrule’s dismay and Wild gathered his now broken cookie.
He sat down next to Twilight with a huff, elbowing the older boy in the side when he wouldn't stop giggling.
“What?” Twilight asked, continuing to chuckle. Wild just rolled his eyes at him, took a glob of frosting and smeared it down his face with a grin.
“You little-” Twilight started, Time cut him off with a sigh
“I think it’s about time we moved on to a new activity.” He said with a smile. Things were starting to get out of hand.
“Everyone, go get cleaned up and we can all watch a movie.”
After eight various agreements all the boys exited the kitchen leaving Time alone. He rolled his working eye fondly at the utter mess they had left behind.
One by one, he carefully moved the four ‘houses’ to the kitchen island. The only one that could be called a house was really Four's and Sky's. It was standing, it had a window and a door with a licorice door frame and a candy cane trim around the roof, the smaller candies had been arranged around the house to look like lights and the whole board was a decorated scene.
Moving Wind and Warriors’ was a challenge. Their house had collapsed as soon as Wars had let go, all of the cookie pieces were still whole but they were in more of a mound than a house. Only one wall stood. Mixed in with the cookie, Time could see the heaps of icing the pair had used to try and keep the structure standing along with a handful of candy thrown into the middle. It was probably Wind’s ‘pirate treasure’ since he had wanted the house to be a ship instead.
Next he moved Legend's and Hyrule’s. There was icing everywhere, Hyrule had been covered in the stuff and so was the house. Half of the roof and a chunk of the wall were missing, but otherwise the building stood. Time set down the sticky board on the counter. Legend and Hyrule (mostly Hyrule) had been responsible for most of the mess. He laughed to himself looking at the icing coating the table.
Last was Wild and Twi, they had all but one of the walls up and had even managed to decorate it pretty nicely. The little candies surrounded all of the joints and the half of the roof that was attached. The other half leaned against where the fourth wall would have been had it not shattered on the floor. The base had a dusting of blue sprinkles, probably from the dumped container… but it gave the scene a wintery look.
Time smiled at the four houses, they were all wonderful in his opinion. His boys had enjoyed making them and had been happy to spend time together. Really that was all Time wanted for his family, was for them to always be safe and happy. And if that meant he had a lot of sticky mess to clean up, he didn't mind in the slightest.
As he washed the table, he heard the voices of his eight boys settling in the living room. They were joking around and content, it made his heart full and he watched from the doorway as they cuddled up together to pick out a movie.