#can't believe it's been another year of me shit-posting steddie-dad stuff lol

[livwritesstuff]

In the year of 2010, Steve and Eddie's daughters are at an age where they wanted to stay up late on Christmas Eve to “catch” Santa.

This was unfortunate for Steve and Eddie for….obvious reasons, and Eddie had honestly reached a point in the night where he stopped watching the clock (he didn’t want to know). Steve eventually had to lay down the law and make the girls go to bed, but the damage was done, and Eddie had known that even staying up hours (and hours and hours and hours) after their bedtime wouldn't stop the girls from getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning.

It turned out to be before the crack of dawn, technically speaking – four-goddamn-forty-five in the morning, and one of the girls was creaking open Eddie and Steve's bedroom door (Eddie’s not sure which kid it was – he suspects Robbie, but considering he was only half-awake and running on less than five hours of sleep, it’s tough to say).

Eventually, Eddie braved the downstairs long enough to bring the girls their stockings in the hopes that it would buy him and Steve at least another thirty minutes of shut-eye – forty-five if they were lucky – but alas their daughters were neither inefficient nor quiet in the opening of their stockings, and Eddie's not sure exactly how long it took for them to start prodding them awake, but it wasn't long.

“Robbie, if you come in here one more time," Eddie says, an arm slung over his eyes to block the light coming in from the hallway, "I’m calling Santa’s direct line and telling him to come take everything back.”

Robbie scuttles right back out after hearing that, but the peace and quiet only lasts a minute or two before Eddie is hearing hushed(-ish) whispers in the hallway.

The door opens again and this time Eddie looks over and sees in the near-darkness the silhouette of Hazel.

"Oh, Christ," Eddie says, "Not you now too."

Hazel's hands grip tight on the blanket as she climbs onto the bed.

“It's Christmas today,” she says, her knees digging into Eddie’s gut as she clamors over him en route to Steve.

“Yeah?” Steve says, running a hand over Hazel’s sleep-tangled curls, "Well, Merry Christmas, sweet girl."

Touché, Robbie, Eddie thinks to himself, Tou-fucking-ché.

“They’re getting too smart for us, Ed,” Steve mutters.

“Ehhh,” Eddie replied, side-eying Steve and the way he’s snuggling Hazel all tight, “I think they’ve just rightly learned that you’re a total sucker which, I gotta say, baby, anyone could smell on you a mile away.”

Steve grumbles something in return, though he doesn’t argue the point.

Eddie and Steve exchange a few wordless looks that loosely translate to time to throw in the towel? and I’m ready if you are, and then Steve looks down at Hazel again.

“Wanna tell your sissies that it’s time for Christmas?” he asks her

“Uh-huh,” Hazel nods, and Eddie takes another knee or an elbow or something else bony to the stomach as she heads back towards the door.

"Maybe next year–" Steve says as he sits up and switches on a lamp, "–we'll be able to sleep past sunrise."

Eddie rolls his eyes.

“You love this shit, Stevie, don’t even try to pretend.”