Chapter 14
It was nearing Christmas and Albus was handling Thesues’ excitement, it was his first Christmas where he wasn’t still weary of being part of Albus and Gellerts family. He was currently helping him with making a present for Gellert. “Oh I’m sure Apu will love this” Albus wraps it for Theseus and puts it on the dresser. He hums and casts a tempus to check the time “speaking of Apu, how about we go get him, it’s almost dinner time”. Albus gets up and holds the boys hand as they walk to Gellerts office. Albus stops Theseus as the boy tries to open the door “no, what have we told you about randomly opening doors. Knock first.”
Theseus nods and knocks on the door “apu?” He looks up at the door. The door opens after a moment “yes my beautiful boy?” Gellert kneels down and fixes his own hair. “Dinner time” Theseus smiles and hugs his father, giggling as he’s picked up and tossed in the air a bit. They go down to the dining room and sit down for dinner. “Szóval milyen volt a napod szerelmeim?” Gellert picks up his fork as their food appears, and takes a bite. Albus smiles “tell him theseus.” he motions to their son. Theseus looks at Gellert and whines “nem lehet…”. Gellert hums “the only way you will get better at speaking is if you practice, you already know the words.” he continues eating, “now tell me”. Theseus looks down “mi.... mi.... ajándékot adott neked karácsonyra. és ol... olvas…” he looks at his father worried that he got something wrong. Gellert drinks some wine “very good, and I am looking forward to that present” he finishes his food and orders a second plate.
Albus rolls his eyes and takes a bite of his dinner “maybe if someone actually ate lunch then he wouldn’t need seconds”. Gellert returns his statement with a glare and he swallows his food “I’m sorry are you the one dealing with muggle outbursts against our people”. Albus puts his hand on Gellerts “sarcasm, and I told you I will help you just don’t think the nanny’s are to be trusted alone with Theseus.” Gellert brings Albus’ hands to his lips and kisses it, he then goes back to eating and stops Theseus from taking some of his wine. “But-“
“No buts young man you’re too young for wine, wait until you’re 11” Gellert gives his plates to a house elf and sits back. Albus hums “I would prefer for him not to drink until he’s 16” he looks at his lover “I didn’t have my first drink until I was 16”. Gellert laughs a bit into his wine glass “that’s because you were a goody two shoes” he puts his glass down and picks up Theseus “let's get ready for bed, why don’t we?”
Theseus whines “but Apu i'm not tired!”. Gellert walks out of the dining room and down the hall to the stairs “no buts, if you go to sleep now Santa will come faster”. Gellert goes upstairs with Theseus and gets him in his pajamas, “pick out a story, kicsi”. He sits on the bed as Theseus takes a book from his bookcase and climbs back on the bed. He tucks the boy in and takes the book to read it to him.
Once Theseus was asleep and quietly shuts the door and goes back to the sitting room, pouring a glass of wine for him and Albus “he’s asleep”. He sits with his lover and gives him a glass of wine. Albus takes a sip and leans against him “you were in a hurry to get him to bed”. Gellert nods and puts his glass down, kisses Albus’ cheek and gets up again to take a box out of the cabinet. “Remember last month how my trip to the english rally took a little longer than planned”. He goes back over and sets the box on Albus’ lap and watches as the other slowly opens it.
“Obviously, Theseus was very upset.” he opens the box and takes out a feather, looking at his lover, confused, he holds it up “this is a phoenix feather.” Gellert nods and hands him a key to a room in the castle “I might’ve snuck a phoenix into the house.” He falls back as Albus kisses him “where the hell did you find a phoenix in the UK, they’re native to the Middle East and Africa, not to mention incredibly rare!”
Gellert smiles a bit at his loves excitement and sits back up with him, bringing him to the room he was keeping the bird in “I had to stop to get a few things I left at my aunts and this one came from nowhere and wouldn’t stop following me, I remember you told me the legend about your family and phoenix’s and decided the best place for him was here since he obviously isn’t fit to be in the wild”. He watches as Albus slowly goes up to the bird, fascinated. The bird caws and leans it’s head down to let Albus touch him. Albus smiles and pets the majestic bird “I think I’ll call your Fawkes” he lets the bird tic around his hand, resting if he had food.
Gellert goes over and wraps his arms around Albus “I hope you like my gift, it was definitely better than what I was originally going to give you”. He was met with a kiss and his redhead smiling “I love it, and I love you. You always somehow outdo your last gifts”. Gellert smiles and picks him up, bringing him out of the room and going to their, slightly cooler, room downstairs.
Albus lays down with Gellert and pulls the blankets over them, laying his head on the others chest. Albus draws shapes on Gellert and hums “I love you..”. Gellert yawns and looks at him “I love you too, what’s wrong?” He pulls Albus closer and plays with his lovers’ sleep shirt.
“I can’t say I love you?” Albus sits up a bit and looks at him. Studying his features and seeing Gellert do the same, trying to find any tell that something was wrong. He kisses his lover and hums “but I was thinking…Theseus should at least meet his cousin once..” he trails off and gasps as Gellert sits up suddenly, the auburn young man falling to the side of the bed. Gellert turns to him obviously upset but the statement.
“Albus no, every time you see your brother it ends badly, every time I come home and you’re shaking and in tears. We helped him once and only once so that the baby wouldn’t end up in a worse place than he is now.” Gellert holds Albus hands in his crib tightly and kisses them. He knew family meant a lot to Albus but he had to get him to see that his brother wasn’t good for him. “I don’t want to lose you. My sister might not approve of my love life but she has never tried to hurt me for it let alone kill me…Scheisse Albus…I know you love your brother but at some point you have to realize that it’s only hurting you more” he lays back down with his auburn lover and pulls him close as the smaller of the two starts to cry.
Gellert lets Albus cry into his chest, the wetness annoying him but he does his best to comfort his love instead of shoving him off for his own comfort. An hour passes because Albus’ crying calms down into heavy breathing his hiccuping breaths “hey, welcome back” he says softly and conjures a handkerchief to wipe Albus’ face, kissing his head”
Albus closes his eyes and holds onto the blonds wrist “I-I think I n-needed to hear that..” he says, hiccuping on a few words. He moves into Gellert more as the other rubs his back and kisses his head “I don’t stand for the few people I care about getting hurt”
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The next morning Theseus runs in and jumps on their bed “daddy apu, Santa came!” He giggles when Gellert pulls him down to the bed and tickles him “the sun isn’t even up yet kicsi, and daddy is still sleeping” he whispers.
“But Santa” the boy whispers back and plays with Gellerts hands. He giggles again when his apu makes some sparks float around him, Gellert usually entertains him with magic. “You can open your stocking, but daddy needs a little more sleep.” He kisses his head “now go” Gellert watches as their son runs off again and pulls Albus closer, watching him sleep a bit more until two cups of coffee appear on their night table a few minutes later.
“Albus, szerelmem” he says softly and kisses him gently “ideje felkelni”. He pulls the auburn hair of his lover out of his face and hums “I see you squinting my love”. Albus opens his eyes and kisses him “coffee” he mumbles, he wasn’t a morning person and having a lover that he’s convinced wakes up before the sun is horrible. He sits up and takes the cup Gellert offers and drinks from it, closing his eyes and leaning on the aforementioned man. He smiles a bit as Gellert and him drink their coffee in the quiet.
After a bit they go downstairs, Gellert opting for just a pull over shirt instead of his normal button ups, but Albus liked the loose pullovers better especially the ones without the pull string to close the neck. Albus smiles as he sees Theseus looking through his stocking and eating a piece of candy “happy Christmas baby boy”. Theseus smiles and looks up “happy Christmas daddy! Look what Santa got!” He holds up a small wooden unicorn that was in his stocking.
“Oh I’m sure Santa got you lots of cool things.” He sits on the couch with Gellert and takes a cookie from the plate on the side table. They watch as Theseus opens his presents, many of them were new toys that fly or move on their own. “Ready for daddy and apu’s present now Theseus?” Gellert gets up and takes out a long but moderately narrow box from behind the tree, Albus immediately knew what it was. “Gellert Grindelwald you did not get him that, after I said not too”.
The younger man smirks and sets the box down in front of Theseus “open it baby boy”. Theseus rips open the box, even more excited after his father's disapproving tone and smiles “a broom!” He lifts up the small broom and looks at Albus “look daddy! Apu got me a broom!”
“I see that” Albus smiles a bit then glares at Gellert. His lover, and all his great shittyness, just smirks back because he knows exactly what he did and knows exactly why Albus can’t do anything about it. “Love it’s just a broom, I’m not going to let him fly alone or higher than the walls right now”