[Samuel x Roman]

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"I'm not drowning in applesauce currently, but everything else, please come help me," Evan shouted out from the kitchen in a half-joking manner, so they ventured closer to go inspect what Evan was doing. Which seemed to be several things at once, apparently, he was going all out with the food this Christmas.

"Roman come help me with the rest of the food, and kick Samuel out of the kitchen, he's making the food worse by just standing here," Evan said the moment they came into the kitchen area.

"Wow, that's very rude of you, Santa will know," Samuel said, but took Harper from Roman and went to go sit down on the couch, next to Allison, so he wouldn't disturb the other two too much in the kitchen. He looked out over the snacks London had placed on the table. He let out a small gasp upon recognizing one treat, "You made Turrón?"

"Yes, and it was annoying because I had to start preparing it like three days ago," Evan said, without turning from the food, "Actually, I feel like I've been preparing this food for like three days, I think I'm going crazy,"

"Roman, do I have your permission to divorce you and marry the man who spent three days making the Noche Buena sweets?" Samuel asked happily and picked up one of the almond nougat sweets and bit of a corner, when he was little he had asked his mum to make them every year after they had spent one Christmas in Spain
 
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"No, you do not, what the hell," Roman called jokingly as he took over half the kitchen duties from Evan with no complaints at all, because he loved to cook. "You've never mentioned this stuff before, if you want me to make you obscure Spanish sweets you can just tell me, you don't need to divorce me."

"Yeah, and I kind of, like, love my husband and don't want to see him married to anyone else, so you can't have him, sorry, Samuel." London was now setting out the presents Roman and Samuel brought under the tree, and wore a smile on her face. Roman loved the energy of the apartment in that moment -- it was quaint and peaceful, and everyone was happy.

Soon, there was another knock on the door and London let in Brooklyn, Chelsea and Mae. The eldest Hemlock wore a simple green T-shirt and white shorts, but Chelsea had gone all out and was wearing a novelty Christmas shirt with a picture of Santa and his reindeer, as well as a knee-length skirt with snowflakes that were very unseasonable for December in Australia, and had even put a bit of tinsel in her hair as a headband. Gorgeous little Mae, who was toddling along just like Harper, was wearing an adorable gold tutu-and-leotard ensemble, her soft hair done up in two pigtails.

The newcomers said hello to one another and Chelsea, without saying anything, came to help in the kitchen. Brooklyn sat next to Samuel on the couch with Mae in his lap and glanced at the people in the kitchen before asking, "Should we, like, be helping? I kind of feel bad because Chelsea cooks most of the time and I'm pretty shit at it."
 
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"Eh, I've learnt that it's better to just stay away, especially if it's a lot to do, I would just be in the way or ruin something," Samuel said with a shrug, that was true. Samuel would generally help by doing a salad as a side, or set the table, things like that, while Roman cooked at home. But currently, they were three people already in the kitchen, adding someone who wasn't even good at cooking to the mix would just annoy the people who actually knew what they were doing, "I honestly think Roman would get mad at me if I tried," he joked.

"I helped Daddy with some of the sweets yesterday," Allison said proudly, "But I don't really know how to cook the meat and all that,"

"Maybe you'll know next year and you can help out with that then," Samuel suggested.

"Mhm!" Allison agreed, then her gaze ended up on the two little toddlers, her attention tended to move to her cousins when they were all in the same room. It was understandable, because even if she was a lot older than them she was still a kid, and obviously she would be excited about having some other kids to play with, especially since they were getting a little older, "Hey do you think Mae and Harper wanna see some of the stuff I got for my birthday? Cus I got some cool scented markers and we could draw with them until the food is done?"

"Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea," Then he looked down on Harper and Mae, "does that sound like fun, do you want to draw with your cousin?"

Mae adorably looked up at her dad and went, "I wanna dwaw," the little girl who was closing in on three now was obviously a little further along with her speech than Harper, but still had that really cute toddler way of speaking, and she gestured out with her little hands and made a grabbing motion towards Allison to signal that she would like to get down from her Father's lap and go with her.
 
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Brooklyn visibly almost melted when Mae so adorably requested to be put down, and Roman, who was watching while he took the roast pork out of the oven to slice it, smiled, because it was great to see his brother being so sweet and adorable with the little girl. Becoming a father and then a husband had changed Brooklyn for the better, anyone could see that, and Roman was glad, because it allowed the Hemlock brothers to co-exist without clashing as they had almost always done in the past.

Brooklyn set Mae down on the floor, and together the three cousins went to draw with Allison's scented markers, being so adorable Roman couldn't handle it, and he doubted anyone else in the room could, either. Soon, all the food was done, and Roman and Chelsea were helping Evan lay it all out on the table, which London had so nicely adorned with gold wire Christmas trees and red Christmas crackers.

"Mmm, this smells amazing, Evan," she said happily to her husband, putting a hand on his chest and kissing him on the cheek with a small smile.

"Yeah, seriously, dude, you did an amazing job," Roman said earnestly. He had perched Harper atop a couple of cushions between himself and Samuel and was filling his plate with a little bit of everything he knew his son liked, so he could have a nice meal.

"Definitely," said Brooklyn. He was filling up Mae's plate just as Roman was doing for Harper. "Mae, sweetie, do you want to say thank you to your Uncle Evan?"
 
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Mae looked over at Evan, a little shyly but still said, "Thank you uncle Evan," very adorably, and Evan gave her a big smile. She was absolutely precious in Samuel's opinion, he couldn't wait for Harper to get to that age so he would have an easier time communicating with people.

"I hope you'll like it, Mae," he said in response, while the man wasn't planning on having any more children it was quite clear that he still loved kids. Honestly, had he not done construction Samuel could have easily seen him working at a daycare or something like that.

"and I hope you'll all enjoy it," he continued, "Because I've been slaving over this meal for the past couple of days and it better be good," he let out a small chuckle and after that, the meal could be started. Evan had really outdone himself. Samuel always saw him as not being as good at cooking as Roman, but to be fair to Evan he had spent the past nine years cooking for his wife and daughter, so it would be impossible for him to not be pretty good at it by now. Samuel still preferred Roman's cooking, because he was biased, but at this point, there could easily be a debate on who was the best at it.

"Aw, this is really good," Samuel complemented Evan and continued with a small joke, "Maybe we should start spending Christmas at your place every year,"

"No that's fine you guys can have the honour to do it, Roman is a fantastic cook anyways," Evan said, quickly and jokingly pushing the responsibility of all the hours in the kitchen on to the first one he could think of, clearly, "I have like, cooked enough for a year, London is going to have to make all our meals from now on,"
 
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"I mean, if you want burnt dinner every night then I'm more than happy to take over the cooking duties," London laughed.

"Or you could buy them KFC every night," Roman suggested in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No thanks, we'd all get super unhealthy, like you."

"Woooow."

"Kids, stop fighting."

After being promptly scolded by their older brother, the twins quieted down and resumed their meal, which, as expected, was delicious, and Roman made sure to tell Evan this more than once. Harper was also very content with his food and told his uncle that he liked it a lot in his adorable baby voice. After dinner, Roman and Chelsea both help start the clean-up process by putting all the dishes into the sink to soak, and then everyone went into the living room to begin the present unwrapping.

"I propose we dress Evan up as Santa," Roman said as he sat down. He tried to sit Harper on his lap, but the little boy wriggled away and crawled over to sit beside his older cousins, which was so cute that Roman didn't even mind at all.
 
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After dinner it was time for presents. Since Harper wanted to sit with his cousins Samuel took the opportunity to swing his legs over Roman's and cuddle up in his lap, sitting like that had become more of a rarity since Harper so Samuel always made sure to take the opportunities he could to sit in his husband's lap or vice versa.

"Well I guess I can take that job as I do possess some Santa like qualities," Evan joked and stood by the tree so he could start handing everyone their gifts.

"You mean you're fat?" Samuel said with a slight chuckle, everyone knew the opposite was true, "yeah I wasn't going to say anything but it looks like you've put on a couple of kilos,"

"Yeah a couple of kilos of pure muscle," Evan laughed, "anyways it is gift time, and as santa I won't give you any gifts unless you start acting nicer,"

"Oooh," Allison giggled from where she was sitting on the floor with her two little baby cousins. Mae and Harper were sitting adorably close together with their older cousin behind them. The tree children were absolutely precious and Samuel loved them all a lot, "uncle Sammy is in trouble!"

Allison's giggles got Mae to also giggle even if she didn't really know why and Samuel just smiled at the three little angels, "alright I get it, no teasing people on Christmas, let's get started with the gifts shall we?"

Allison let out an excited yes, and so the gift giving commenced. They had sorted the gifts so the kids would get most of theirs first and then the adults would get whatever Allison had decided to give them, before the adults would receive their gifts, and then they'd open it in about the same order. Christmas was about the children after all, and they were no longer the kids in the family, it felt a little unreal to think about, but that was the case this year, as none of the grandparents of the kids were there either.

Evan started off with grabbing a gift for Allison reading what had been written on the box, Allison went forward and thanked her dad for giving her the gift and then at her mum to thank her as well as that was who the gift was from. Then she went to sit down and patiently put her gift down to wait until the others had received their gifts to open it. In a way Allison kind of served as an example for the two younger kids.

"Okay, let's see, the next one seems to be for Harper," Evan said in a cheery voice and looked at the little boy holding out the gift a little to emphasize what was going on, "Merry Christmas Harper, from Daddy and Papa,"
 
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Harper ran up excitedly to his uncle and took the present with a big smile on his face. "Fank-oo," he gurgled, before turning and facing his parents. "Fank-oo, Daddy and Papa."

"Aww," Roman said, watching his little son scamper away and sit with his cousins. When all the gifts had been handed out to everyone, the kids got to open theirs first. Roman sat excitedly as he waited for Harper to reach the gift that he and Samuel had bought for him. He loved seeing his son's face light up with joy when he was happy, and he knew this gift would help them attain that effect.

Harper joyfully tore the paper off his gift and then opened the box. A look of pure delight graced his angelic face as he lifted a cute little pair of sneakers with adorable green dinosaurs on the sides. They weren't soccer shoes or brand name, but they were covered with colours and creatures that Harper adored, so of course, he would love it with all of his heart.

And he did. He got up and scurried over to his dads with a look of pure glee on his face, sat down in front of them and stuck his legs out. "On!" he insisted with delight, practically bouncing where he sat with anticipation.
 
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Samuel gladly helped his son put on the cute little shoes on his cute little feet. Baby footwear was honestly adorable, and Samuel loved going out to buy things like socks and shoes for their little son even though he'd outgrow them within a year.

He got the little shoes on his feet and made sure to tie two tight little bows so he wouldn't stumble over the shoelaces or something. Then he helped him up on his feet, even though he clearly was capable of doing that by himself at that age, "There we go," Samuel said and ruffled his hair, he loved how excited the little boy was about his gift, it really warmed his heart, "look at you, you look super cool,"

"Yeah, wow Harper, they look really nice on you," Allison said sweetly to her youngest cousin, then turned to her other cousin, "look Mae, he has dinosaurs on his shoes isn't that cool?"

"I wanna see the dinosaws, " Mae made a grabbing motion for Harper to come closer so she could look at his new footwear, it was absolutely precious.
 
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Harper hurried back over to his cousins and excitedly showed off his cool dinosaur shoes to the two of them, grinning from ear to ear. The rest of the present unwrapping went by pleasantly, with everyone loving all the presents they were gifted and thanking their family members profusely. It was just a very warm and loving environment and Roman knew he was very fortunate to be able to feel this calm and content around his siblings, in-laws and nieces, because he knew that wasn't the case with all families.

After the presents were unwrapped, the kids went to play in the corner with their gifts and Roman helped Evan get a start on the dishes and other cleanup. Once it was mostly done, Roman went over to Samuel and perched himself in his husband's lap, loving the closeness, and snuggled up against his chest.

"I love Christmas, and you and the kids," he said, using a plural for their children because by this point the twins were practically at their doorstep, "but I dread the expenses of next year when the twins are here." That was a joke, but also had some truth to it.
 
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"We'll just have to learn how to spoil them with reason," Samuel joked, nothing could put a damper on the excitement he felt about the twins, their two little babies, and thanks to Roman's work the money wasn't even an issue, so all they had to worry about was being the best dads they could be to three little kids instead of just one.

"Speaking of the twins though, or well, speaking of them almost being born but not yet," Samuel said as he went to grab an envelope that had been residing in his pocket since that morning, and before that it had been hidden in between some stencils and papers on his desk where Roman wouldn't have a reason to look, "This is for you, or, kind of for the both of us I guess, but yeah,"

He handed Roman the envelope and placed a sweet little kiss on his neck. He half buried his face in Roman's shoulder and waited excitedly for Roman to open. The outside of the envelope was decorated with little snowflake stickers and Roman's name written in Samuel's nicest handwriting. Inside there were two tickets to the production of Hairspray that was currently being put up in Melbourne and a note reading:

Merry Christmas Roman! This is my final gift to you this year. Since the twins will be here any day now I thought it'd be nice with a night just for the two of us, before we're back to crying infants. So here are two tickets to Hairspray and also a night away from home for the both of us (Allison promised to babysit, and Evan and London promised to help out). I hope you like it. I love you so very much.

Yours always, Samuel​
 
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Roman quirked an eyebrow but happily accepted the envelope, which had been decorated in a very Samuel-esque fashion, with the most adorable stickers that were very seasonally inappropriate for Australia, but it was the thought that counted. Roman carefully opened the envelope, making sure not to tear it, and pulled out the contents with curiosity.

His eyes widened when he realised what those tickets were. Hairspray tickets. Roman looked up at Samuel with shock, then quickly opened the note and read the adorable little letter from his husband. It was such a sweet and thoughtful gift that Roman couldn't help but grinning from ear to ear, and he happily pulled his husband in for a tight and loving hug, because he definitely deserved it.

"This is the best Christmas present ever, holy shit, I love you so much, and I fucking love Broadway I'm so excited," Roman gushed. He leaned his head on Samuel's and held him closely to his chest for a few more moments, just because he could, and he loved the man so much. He looked over at Harper, who was still adorably playing with his toys with his cousins in the corner, and couldn't wait until he was watching their little son play with his brother and sister. Stella and Eden were on their way, they were happy with their family, and everything felt absolutely perfect.
 
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Christmas was absolutely perfect. Samuel was happy to see his and Roman's little son so happy about his gift and playing so sweetly with his cousins and he was happy to have gotten his husband a gift that made him so happy. He was also happy to not have had to be the ones who had arranged the holiday celebration in their home because just a week later it was Samuel and Roman's turn to run around the house and but up decorations and make a nice dinner. It was New Year's Eve and they had decided to invite all their closest friends there to celebrate.

Brooklyn and Chelsea and been sweet enough to look after Harper and Allison since they weren't planning on doing anything big for New Years that year. Part of Samuel was a little sad they wouldn't be celebrating New Years with their little baby but he knew New Years parties weren't really a place for one-year-olds. Even if Harper wouldn't be there though Samuel was looking forward to the whole thing. Half of Samuel's excitement was just there because he got to wear his sparkly glitter socks, they were silver and rad and he absolutely loved them and New Years was the perfect time to wear them. He had actually been so excited about it that he had asked Roman if he could paint his nails to match them and they were now equally silvery and sparkly. To all the sparkles though he wore a pair of navy chinos and a black t-shirt which was pretty much something he'd normally wear.

"Do you want any help?" Samuel asked his husband sweetly, he was working on the food in the kitchen and whenever they had people over Roman tended to do more of the preparations because he was the one who could cook and enjoyed decorating. Samuel didn't think he minded but he still wanted to make sure to help with what he could especially since it was the afternoon and the guests would be arriving soon.
 
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"I would make a joke about how you can't cook, but you look so sweet with your cute nails that I can't bring myself to say one word against you," Roman said with a small chuckle as he prepared dinner in the kitchen. "Nah, I'm fine, everything's almost done, so you can just stand over there and look cute."

It was New Years Eve and since they were hosting all their friends, Roman had prepared a variety of pizzas for them to share as well as a nice dessert platter and the regular snacks. He had a plain Margherita pizza, as well as an Aussie, one with prawns and mussels, one with a variety of types of meat, one with pineapple for Samuel and a vegan-friendly option for Gabi. He was just taking out the last pizza and placing it on a plate.

Tonight Roman looked wonderful, in a shirt where if one were to rub his chest one way the sequins would be gold, but if they were to rub the other way they would be black. He also wore black skinny jeans and his eye makeup was gold, while his lips were nude and his highlighter was gold also. All his piercings were black.

Roman set the pizza on the bench and then looked up at Samuel. "I just realised we're dressed as opposite, you're silver and I'm gold. Of course I'm gold because I'm better than you," he added as a clear joke.
 
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"Aren't you the one who keeps saying silver goes with everything but gold doesn't? Wouldn't that mean more people like silver and that it's better?"

Samuel pressed his hand on Roman's chest and rubbed it up and down to make the sequins shift between gold and black, "just so you know, I'm going to do this all night," Samuel laughed and did the same thing again, he'd use any excuse to be extra touchy feely with Roman and his shirt was not only a nice excuse but also made it more fun. Plus Roman looked really good in it, and in his makeup and everything else. Samuel stood on his toes and pulled Roman down a little so their lips could meet in a kiss. He deserved it when he was so incredibly pretty and amazing.

Samuel pulled a way a second later and gave Roman a warm smile, as always when they were doing something and Roman was all dressed up there was part of Samuel that just wanted his husband all to himself and for them to just be with each other all night. But they had been planning this for a while and Roman had made a lot of nice food and it was going to be a whole lot of fun, "the pizza smells really good, are you going to taste the pineapple ones—" before Samuel got to finish his teasing remark the doorbell was heard meaning the first couple of guest had arrived, "I'll go get it,"

And so he did, on the other side of the door he found Evan, dressed plain but in a way that looked nicely dressed for him in a pair of slim jeans and a tight withe t-shirt, with an arm around his wife. Allison wasn't there though, as she was with her aunt and uncle just like Harper. It was almost a little weird to see the couple without her but in a way it was also nice to just get to be adults, and maybe a little irresponsible, around each other for once.

"Oh I smell food," Evan said as soon as they were inside, "when are we eating?"

"London, control your husband, he is being greedy for food again," Samuel chuckled as he gave each of them a small hug as a greeting.
 
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"Samuel, I'm not really sure how you can tell me to control my husband when it comes to food, when you're literally married to a human garbage disposal," London teased as she and her husband made their way down the hall and into Roman and Samuel's kitchen. She looked very nice in a pair of light blue denim shorts and a flowy turquoise tank top, with several pieces of silver jewellery and her long brown hair piled into a messy bun on the top of her head. She sighted her brother and went over to give him a hug and a kiss to the cheek, as she always did.

"Happy New Years', loser, I like your shirt."

"Thanks, asshole. I like your hair."

"Thanks, Evan likes it too, that's why he married me."

"Ew."

Soon, all the guests had arrived. Elliot and Matilda, Bella and Delilah, Matthew and Elissa and Gabi and Blake, and everyone was seated in the living room while they chatted and socialised. After a small measure of time Roman brought the pizzas out, to a small chorus of cheers from Elliot and Bella, and laid them all out on the coffee table for his friends and family to dine on.

"Okay, I spent like eight hours on these so you fuckers better enjoy them." Roman pointed to a particular pizza. "Gabi, I made this one vegan for you, because I'm amazing and if anyone — cough cough, Matthew — disagrees they can leave my house."
 
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Roman's joke earned him some laughs, especially from Gabi who thought people burning Matthew was something that was very funny. She also went in to grab some pizza right way with a small thank you, Samuel knew she apricated Roman making vegan options for her a whole lot, and Samuel loved the fact that Roman was such a thoughtful person when it came to that.

"Wow, I do have some sense of manners," Matthew said, still in a flat tone but the kind of flat where you could tell he was pretending to be offended, "But you know, unlike you, I don't have really weird eating habits, so I won't complain,"

"Man, you're either really brave or really stupid, he'll actually kick you out know," Evan laughed as he got himself some of the food and took a bite, "Aww that's really good," he added with his mouth full.

"I don't think you're giving Roman enough credit, he's the sweetest ever, he'd never kick anyone out," Samuel defended his husband dutifully, "Look he even made pineapple pizza even if he's morally against it, so he's totally the best," Samuel sweetly reached out for his husband to come sit down on his lap now that they all had food.

"Well to be fair he was the one who brought up kicking people out," Matilda giggled.
 
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"Well, okay, I won't kick anyone out just yet, but I will definitely shoot disgusted glares in Matthew's direction for the rest of the evening," Roman said in a clearly joking tone. He happily went to sit in his husband's lap and got a slice of the margherita pizza, which was the only type he ate, because he was a food snob.

"Naw, don't glare at Matthew, he's not that bad," Elissa pleaded jokingly. She looked lovely in a pale pink sundress that brushed her knees, with her pretty blonde hair in a high ponytail.

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Is he really, Liss? Is he really? Last time I checked he didn't even have human emotion, which isn't very promising for him."

"Okay, so apparently Matthew is the one we're roasting tonight," Elliot said from where he was sitting with Matilda in his lap. He was, of course, dressed in an all-black ensemble. He had directed quite a few plays over the last few months, all of which had been great successes, and Roman was very happy for him and how his career was progressing. "Good, I've got a few fire insults that I've been sitting on for a while."

"No! No one is allowed to roast Matthew, he doesn't deserve it." Elissa stubbornly hugged her boyfriend to her chest, as if she was protecting him, and glared at everyone over the top of his head. His glasses were slightly askew and it was very amusing.
 
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"Eh he kind of does deserve it," Gabi said, chuckling along with everyone else at Matthew's askew glasses, it looked pretty funny since he always tried to look so put together, "His only redeemable quality is being you boyfriend and before you two met I was convinced he was an emotionless robot,"

"Wow," Matthew said, tone still pretty emotionless, but a little strained due to his face being mushed against Elissa, "Yeah, I don't understand what I did to deserve this harsh treatment,"

"It's because you're incapable of showing human emotion," Gabi insisted. At this point Matthew didn't really care much about being ripped on, he knew what the dynamic was in the friend group and clearly joined in when it was about others as well, but he was always the best sport about it when it was either Samuel, Gabi or Elissa poking fun at him, since those were the people he was the closest to obviously.

"I am capable of human emotion," Matthew insisted, he did not sound like he at all possessed that capability.

"You should prove it," Gabi laughed, Matthew right away protested with a deadpan "no," which caused some laughs.

"No that's a really good idea," Evan said, "What should he do to show he possesses human emotion?"
 
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"Maybe we should steal his glasses," Elliot suggested.

"Or make fun of his man-cardigans," chimed in Bella.

"We could talk like Draco Malfoy when addressing him for the rest of the night?" Blake inquired.

"Or we could talk about all the continuity errors in his book," said London.

"You guys are all mean, Matthew has human emotion, totally, I've seen it on multiple occasions."

"Elissa, sweetheart, the fact that he's currently looking like he's bored out of his mind even though everyone in this room is giving him a hard time shows that that is factually incorrect."

A smile crept onto Roman's face. "Hey, Matthew," he called over to the poor bloke who everyone was dragging over the fucking coals for no reason. "I don't know if you knew, but, like, the Harry Potter movies are way better than the books."

Just about everyone collectively looked at Roman in shock. Of course, Roman didn't believe that, because like any true Harry Potter fan he knew it was simply incorrect. But he also knew it would get a rise out of Matthew, hence why he said it.
 
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