The little bit of sun shining through the gaps of the blinds straight into his face is enough to wake him. Normally the sun shining this bright was a bad sign but today he was allowed to sleep in. He turns to escape the disturbing ray and scoots closer towards his wife's side of the bed. Reaching his arm out for her only to find her side already cold and empty. He carefully opens his eyes, not completely awake yet, to see if she's in their on-suite bathroom, but she's not. The sign of her pyjama hanging neatly folded over the chair in the corner of the room lets him know that she already started the day, like she does almost every morning, being the morning person she is.
He's not ready to start his day yet so he grabs her pillow and buries his face in it while closing his eyes again, to hopefully drift back to sleep for a little longer. But if he's honest he should know his family a little better. The second he was comfortable again, ready to drift away, the door of the bedroom opened and two very excited twins stormed the room, jumping onto the bed, followed by their mother who was carrying a tray with breakfast.
"Happy Father's Day, daddy!" His twins squeal in union, cuddling him before they shower him with their self made Father's Day cards and gifts.
"Daddy look, I made this for you." His daughter squeals excited.
Adjusting to sit on his side on the bed he happily accepts his daughter's card to open it, "Thank you, Lex. I love it." He smiles at her.
"Look inside I wrote something." She explains excitedly, helping him to open it.
Opening the card his daughter's neat handwriting spells out: Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world. I love you so much. Alexis
He smiles at his daughter before he kisses her thank you. After that it's his son's turn.
"Now mine." Eli hands him his card with a big smile.
His son's card is just as neatly made as his daughters and says the same on the inside, which only means they had help from their mother. After their card exchange and opening all the presents, Izzie places the tray full of pancakes, fruits, juices and other things, in the middle of the bed and the four of them enjoy their breakfast in bed.
"This is great. Thank you guys." Alex smiles at his family even though he wasn't as happy as he showed he was. Something was missing - or someone, but he can't quite pinpoint what. Actually all of this feels kind of weird. Linke it's not real.
"Does it smell like smoke, daddy?"
"I don't-"
The sound of the fire alarm makes Alex startle. Within seconds he's sitting in bed upright, looking around for a potential fire.
"Crap. Shit shit shit." The sound of a pan hitting their metal sink lets his view turn toward the kitchen.
"Mommy that's a bad word." His daughter's voice echoes through their loft.
"I know. I'm gonna put a dollar in the swear-jar when I'm done figuring out how this crap is supposed to work." His wife answers while getting a new pan to try again.
"Crap is a bad word too, mommy." His son adds with a giggle, getting a frustrated sigh from his mother in return.
His sons comment let's Alex chuckle. The twins sit on the kitchen island covered in flour, eating the chocolate chips that are supposed to go on top of the pancakes Jo tries to make. The kitchen is a complete mess - bowls and pans everywhere. Flour covers the complete island and half of the floor. There's a cracked egg lying in front of the fridge and the bag of sugar slowly loses its contents through the hole on its bottom.
"Hi daddy." Parker screams as soon as he sees his dad sitting in bed looking at them.
"Nooo. You're not supposed to be awake yet. Go back to sleep!" Jo whines, trying to hide the surprise breakfast and probably the mess too, behind her body.
As soon as she turns to him he can see that she's also a mess. Her sleeping shirt is full of flour, her messy bun is even more messy than usual, there's a piece of eggshell sticking just above her right boob and somehow there's chocolate on her left knee.
Their twins don't look any different; their pj's are covered in flour, their hair is unbrushed and their faces are covered in the chocolate they apparently had for breakfast without their mother's notice.
He can't help but laugh at the sign in front of him. His family is a mess but they are his mess and he loves them more than he can even describe. Even though his kids' faces look like a chocolate factory exploded right in front of them, their cute smiles get him every time. And his wife just looks beautiful in whatever she is wearing or covered in. He gets out of bed and walks toward her to wrap his hands around her hip before he kisses her good morning.
"Daddy look we made you a card." Their daughter interrupts them, "Happy Father's Day!" She proudly holds their self made card towards him.
Just like his family, the card is covered in flour and contains little chocolate fingerprints but other than that it's beautiful. He can see that Jo helped them a little bit but their scribbly handwritings and drawings show that his kids made it.
"I love it. Thank you guys." He hugs his twins and kisses their dirty cheeks, getting a little taste of their chocolate breakfast. They just smile at him with their big chocolate covered mouths.
"How about I'm finishing making pancakes and you three go clean up." He offers, giving Jo a loving smile, knowing that she really tried to make this day special for him.
"Ok." His kids agree in union, while Jo just nods.
He helps his daughter down the island while Jo helps Parker jump off and follows her kids into the bathroom.
While they are cleaning themselves up, Alex starts making pancakes and cleaning the kitchen. He just puts the pancakes down on their coffetable when his son joins him.
"All clean."
"That's great. And I'm all done with our breakfast." Alex announces, helping his son putting his shirt on properly.
"You make the best pancakes in the whole wide word, daddy." His son compliments him as he crawls onto the couch, waiting for the others to join them.
"Oh really? What about mommies?" Alex asks as he sits down beside his little mini me, putting an arm around him to get his daily dose of morning cuddles.
"She burns them all the time." Parker whispers as he crawls into his daddy's lap.
"She does. But she makes a mean Mac and cheese." Alex answers also whispering.
"Can we have Mac and cheese for dinner?"
He just can't resist his son's puppy dog eyes, something both of his kids got from their mom, "Sure."
"Done!" The voice of his daughter interrupts their little conversation, as she joins them on the couch.
"Finally. I was almost starving to death." Alex jokes, putting his other arm around his little girl.
Jo joins them, "Of course you were."
She sits down in front of the coffee table on the floor getting everyone a plate ready, before she sits down next to Alex.
The twins exchanged their places on their daddy's lap with the floor, where it was easier for them to eat their pancakes.
"I'm sorry this was such a mess." Jo leans into his side, trying to make this messy Father's Day morning at least a little better.
"I wouldn't want it any other way." Alex smiles leaning closer to his wife to kiss her, creeping his hand under her dirty sleeping shirt to caress her little four months baby bump.
Looking around their loft, filled with laughter and happiness, he wouldn't want it any other way. They may be a little messy sometimes but he loves their tiny chaos. It's what makes them them. It just feels right. And he wouldn't want to change it. He has the best kids and the best wife and he would rather die than ever lose this.
