[Spencer]

[just_another]

He's not really sure what possessed him.

Maybe it's that things have been relatively quiet recently, maybe it's that he and Spencer have lived in relative peace for nearly two years now. Maybe it's simply a celebration of their children both growing up, each of them exhibiting new and interesting traits as time goes on. It had been a bit of a surprise to discover Dane was half-siren -- I thought you knew! Erin had exclaimed when asked -- and Joel is just waiting for the day when Rose's powers reveal themselves, but even that hasn't really changed anything.

They have friends who are sirens, after all, friends who will be able to teach both their children how to control their powers. For now, Joel and Spencer just have to make sure they're very firm with Dane when he starts to demand something.

So maybe it's just that he's happy and wants to take up some kind of new hobby, but after the pool table is moved into a room near the back of the house, Joel realizes he doesn't actually know how to play pool. That's not a big deal, really, he knows everyone has to learn at some point, but he imagines most people don't buy themselves a pool table before learning.

It had been second hard, refinished, not as expensive as some of the others he's seen and he's glad of that, but as he looks at it, at the brightly coloured balls sitting in the square triangle -- the rack? -- he realizes he doesn't know a damn thing about this and Spencer is going to realize it, too, the first time he sees Joel play.

This is going to be embarrassing, he thinks, especially if Spencer turns out to be some sort of billiards master.

Comments

[doublethepain]

He watches in silence from the doorway for a minute, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed over his chest. Rose is napping upstairs, Spencer had put her down just a few minutes ago before wandering downstairs with Dane, Huxley trailing behind them. He'd lost their son in the hallway, some toy or another having caught his attention, though Dane is still within Spencer's line of sight from here.

It's just one moment, a brief one that lets Spencer consider how so much of their lives have changed since they'd met. Between two kids, who are both apparently going to grow up to be half-siren, the pets, and the store, their lives are nothing short of chaotic; and yet, there's still a strange sense of peace that's settled over them because they just don't seem to have the time to invite anything else in. They see their friends, they take the kids to work with them, they come home, they live. Maybe the family life doesn't sound like much to those who are more thrill-seeking but to Spencer, it's everything.

So it's amusing when Joel tells him he's bringing home a pool table. Spencer hadn't quite known how to respond, had just narrowed his eyes and tried not to laugh before acknowledging it and moving on. He isn't even sure Joel knows how to play pool, certainly hasn't seem him do it before, but Spencer figures maybe he's picked up on it when going out with Coop. Now that he's watching Joel stand at the table and occasionally reach out to poke at this or that, it's suddenly very clear that his husband has absolutely no idea what he's doing.

"You're going to teach me, right?" he asks, his tone innocent, even if there is a hint of teasing. "I mean, I know I haven't asked much about it, but you must be pretty skilled at pool if you thought buying a whole table for the house would be a good idea."

[just_another]

"I can teach you how to look up instruction billiards videos on youtube," Joel says after a moment, turning to look at Spencer with a faintly sheepish expression. It's possible he could have carried on with the charade and maybe tried to convince Spencer he knows at least a little bit about playing pool, but he knows he can't lie to Spencer. Even if it was something he wanted to do, which it absolutely is not, he knows there's just no hope of him being able to hide his thoughts or his feelings from Spencer. He'd made a life of being as hard to read as possible, hiding everything he thought and felt from pretty much everyone he met, but it's been impossible with Spencer right from the beginning, so he doesn't even bother to try now.

"I don't know what possessed me," he admits with an exasperated sort of laugh. "It just seemed like something I wanted and it never once occurred to me that I don't actually know what to do with it. It seems like the sort of thing I should know, doesn't it? Before buying a pool table, I mean."

He can learn, of course. They can learn together, which might actually be quite a bit of fun. It isn't as if they don't spend time together, they work the store together, they're raising their children together, but when it comes down to it, Joel just likes spending time with Spencer above all else. Spencer and their children, the three most important people in the world to him.

"I'll watch them with you, then maybe I'll know what I'm doing," he says as he picks up one of the cues and experiments with holding it, trying to figure out what feels best. "Charlotte and I went and played a few times at this bar just outside of town whenever she and my parents would come to visit, but we were always just messing around. We wouldn't even make it through a single game."

[doublethepain]

"You just took a more proactive approach," Spencer says, grinning as he pushes off from the door frame so he can close the gap between him and Joel for a kiss. "Besides, I think learning how to play together will be fun. We can turn it into our new ritual. Put the kids down for bed, bring the baby monitors with us in here, pour some whiskey, figure out how this is actually supposed to work. It's all about angles, anyway, we'll learn in no time."

There's a little more to it than just angles, Spencer is sure, but he already likes the idea of making this something they can do together. It's true that they do so much together as it is but this is something out of work and parenting. Making time for each other is something they'd promised they'd do even before having Dane, and they've succeeded pretty well in that, but it's always nice to find something new to do, especially when they're generally limited to the kids' eating and sleeping schedules.

"I'll definitely enjoy the view when you're bent over the table, too," he adds, arching a suggestive brow, teasing only somewhat. There's absolutely truth in that, it's not his fault his husband is as attractive as he is doing just about anything. "We'll have to give it a test run sometime, see if it's as sturdy as the table in your apartment."

"Daddy, ball!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Spencer finds their son wandering in through the doorway and holding, indeed, a ball that's a little bigger than his head. It's terribly cute, to the point that Spencer wishes he hadn't left his phone in the living room because maxing out his camera roll seems like a great idea right now.

[just_another]

Joel is very aware of what they'll do in here together if they put their children to bed and start to drink. He arches an eyebrow at Spencer's assessment that they can learn together, reaching out to curl his fingers over his husband's hip as he leans in for another kiss, keeping his eyes open so he can see Spencer's face and the splay of his lashes against his cheek. Everything in his life has changed since the day he met this man and Joel doesn't know if he'll ever be finished marveling at the differences in his life between then and now.

And then Spencer continues speaking and Joel lets out a loud laugh, because he'd been thinking exactly the same thing. They're certainly in tune and he's never going to not be pleased by that knowledge.

"It can't possibly be as sturdy. I made that table," he reminds Spencer with a grin, then a wistful sort of sigh. "I miss that table." But it had simply been far too heavy and too large to get out of the apartment. Besides that, Charlotte loves the damn thing and so he can't very well take it away from his sister now.

He's leaning in for another kiss when Dane comes into the room with his ball and Joel grins, pressing his mouth to Spencer once swiftly before he nods to where his phone is sitting nearby. He knows that look in his husband's eye and he leaves Spencer to grab his phone for pictures while he sets the pool cue aside and then reaches down to scoop Dane up, ball and all.

"Let's see that," he says, plunking their son on the edge of the pool table. "What colour is it?"

[doublethepain]

"I miss it, too," Spencer admits, resting a hand over Joel's chest, enjoying the warmth of the contact and the feel of the steady heartbeat beneath his palm. "If there was any actual chance we could get it out of there without having to take it apart first, I'd say we should just tell Charlotte we had sex on it so she'd give it up."

He grins up at his husband, knowing Joel will understand he's teasing, because neither of them would ever want to relive the horrors of Charlotte having any more knowledge whatsoever about their sex life. It'd been bad enough she'd walked in on them once before, though Spencer supposes it's a small mercy Joel had only been naked from the waist down behind the counter. He hadn't been able to look at her directly for some time after that, blushing furiously every time he'd accidentally made eye contact. It's funnier now that time has passed, of course, Spencer doesn't feel the same rush of embarrassment he had then; but that doesn't mean he's interested in experiencing anything like that ever again.

Which means they'll have to be extremely careful if they ever get up to anything in this room. If Dane were ever to wander down here looking for them, only to find them naked... God, Spencer doesn't even want to go there. Not now, not ever.

As it is, they're not naked when Dane comes in, and Spencer rushes for Joel's phone, quickly punching in its passcode so he can snap pictures of his husband picking up their son and setting him on the pool table. He switches the camera mode to shoot video then, smiling giddily as he moves closer to stand next to Joel, one reaching out press against the small of his husband's back while he keeps the camera focused on their son.

"Blue," Dane says confidently, swinging his legs. "Blue ball. Blue, blue, blue."

"That's exactly right, Junebug," Spencer tells him, "and what should Daddy do with the ball?"

Dane grins happily, showing his teeth as he holds the ball out toward Joel. "Cash!" He throws it then, and the ball gets just high enough to give Joel room to catch it. "Daddy cash ball!"

[just_another]

Joel darts his hand out with a laugh, getting it under the ball just in time to catch it before he tosses it very gently back to Dane, making sure his son's arms are out so the ball can mostly just land in the circle he's made. It's such a small thing, being able to toss a big blue ball to his son, but he can't believe how much he enjoys it, how fun he finds these simple little tasks. Playtime with a child Dane's age isn't exactly difficult and Joel remembers trying to play with Charlotte when she was little and always getting terribly bored, but this is different. Dane is theirs. As far as Joel is concerned, every single moment spent with him is perfect.

"Good catch," he encourages, wanting Dane to feel he can do anything he sets his mind to. He's read a lot of parenting books and knows there's a fine line between encouragement and insisting to your child they're utterly perfect and Joel wants Dane to know it's alright to fail, too. That just because he can't do something the first time doesn't mean it's not worth trying again.

There is so much more than goes into parenting than he's ever realized before and he's spent the last year and a half reading every possible book and article he can get his hands on. He and Spencer often talk late into the night about different parenting techniques. It's good they can talk so freely and he feels very lucky to have a partner in this who's so open to discussion and who wants to really hear things out before deciding to try or to dismiss them.

"What do you say we catch the ball more in the kitchen while we get lunch ready?" he asks, figuring they can leave the subject of the pool table until both kids are in bed for the night.

"Your sister will wake up soon and we should make sure we're all ready for that," he says with a laugh, casting a glance over at Spencer. Rose is utterly perfect in every way, but she's still a baby and there's still so much work that goes into raising her. Joel thinks everyone in the house needs a good meal before she wakes up again.