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Alex had known he was in for a long day the moment the door had shut behind Artemis as he left for Paris. He loved Benjamin more than anything, but the baby was very particular when it came to routines. It was all their fault, of course. They had decided to alternate bedtime rituals: one night, Artemis would sing Ben to sleep, and the next, Alex would read him a story. Sometimes, Alex sang and Artemis read, but the same person never put the baby to bed on consecutive days.
So, despite that Ben had been very sweet that evening, as he always was, Alex knew that the real test would begin only at the baby's bedtime. At first, it was fine, and Ben settled down with a story. Well, hopefully it would last. Alex kissed Ben's forehead gently and turned off the light, shutting the door behind him with a soft click.
He returned to his and Artemis' bedroom, sans his husband of course. He began working on his laptop, topping up an article Oxford had asked him to write, about his work as a cosmologist. He was just about to turn off their own lights, around ten minutes later, when a sudden wail pierced through the air. Alex froze, but as the wails continued, he hurried to the nursery. Scooping Ben up as the baby continued crying, he cooed gently, "Hey, hey sweetheart, it's okay. It's all right, darling, Papa's got you." Ben's cries slowly petered out, but he wasn't going back to sleep just yet. "Dada?" he asked Alex sweetly. Alex's heart melted and he smiled, but had to tell Ben the unfortunate truth. "Dada isn't here right now, my darling, you're going to have to make do with Papa for tonight." he told Ben, kissing the soft black hair on the top of his head. It was quite surprising, really, how Ben managed to look like a perfect combination of Artemis and Alex, with his black hair and brown eyes, even though he was adopted. As Alex walked back to the master bedroom with Ben, the baby repeated himself again. "Dada?" he asked, but this time on the verge of tears threatening to spill over into a full-blown tantrum. "Darling, I..." Alex trailed off as he thought of something. Artemis was in Paris, only an hour behind London. And his meetings and everything would be over by now too. He quickly Skyped Artemis from his laptop, while distracting Ben with his teddy, nicknamed "Blue".
Artemis answered almost immediately, smiling widely as he saw Ben. "Hello, chuisle," he said in that special tone reserved just for his husband. "And hello to you too, my little baby!" he said to Ben, who had stopped fidgeting in Alex's arms and begun squealing the moment he saw his Daddy. "Hi, Arty, sorry to bother you this late, but someone," he looked pointedly at Ben, "refused to settle down, so here we are." "Oh, that's all right, I was just going to call you anyway." he said. "Dada!" Ben cried impatiently, finding the small talk too boring for his liking.
"All right, all right, darling," Artemis laughed. He began singing softly, even as Alex rocked their son in his arms. It was Brahm's Lullaby, something which had never failed to put Ben to sleep. Finally, the little toddler fell asleep, and, after bidding Artemis goodnight, so did Alex.