After Lover for Pay: ONESHOTS

Frustration Pt2

After everyone (besides Marbell) had dinner, London cleaned up the kitchen and carried the twins up to the play area upstairs. There, he turned on a movie for himself and set out some toys that would entertain the girls while he finally laid back on the sofa and relaxed. Ben was currently in Joyce's room with her, Henry was hopefully doing his homework in his room, and Marbell was still in his home office taking phone calls and having video chat style meetings. London had been looking forward to talking to his husband about the tattoo he wanted to get for their daughters, but he guessed the conversation would have to wait. He thought perhaps a set of beautiful flowers would suit Layla and Naomi, or a pair of diamonds, or maybe two princess crowns. He wasn't sure.

When Naomi crawled closer to him on the sofa, London lifted the girl and placed her on his knees. "What do you think I should get, baby girl?" London asked, and his daughter merely crawled up his legs to pull herself into a standing position against her father's chest. "Flowers because they're beautiful like you and your sister? Diamonds because you're both perfect? Or crowns because you both will always be my princesses? Hmm, what do you think, Naomi?"

Making cute noises as she stood before her father, Naomi smiled and London's heart melted. He bundled her up in his arms then and squeezed tenderly, rising from the sofa to follow where Layla was crawling off to down the hall. As she trailed behind a ball she'd pushed passed the barricaded stairwell, he watched as the door to Marbell's office room came open, and the older man stepped out. He had his cellphone pressed up to his ear, and he was on his way to their bedroom. Moving too fast for London to warn him about their daughter crawling into his pathway, Marbell noticed Layla at just the last second, but ended up kicking the ball she was trying to reach out for.

"Shit," the older man stumbled, avoiding the baby girl, and the suddenness of everything ended up startling Layla anyway.

She sat up on her bottom and cried out, and before London could think to go for her, Marbell said, "I'm going to put you on hold, Joe." The moment he did so, the older man dropped his phone into his pocket and scooped little Layla off the floor. "Papa is so sorry, beautiful," he apologized to her, rubbing her back to comfort the girl. "Did Papa scare you?" She continued to cry as he tried to calm her down, and once she did stop crying, Marbell wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Please, forgive Papa, my darling. Papa doesn't like to see his beautiful princess cry." He kissed her cheeks and then her nose once she quieted down. "All better, sweety."

She babbled incoherently, seeming to forget about the whole ordeal once she was set down and a was able to grab her ball. Marbell then stretched tiredly and took off his glasses to rub his eyes. "I'm, like, two seconds from throwing my laptop out the window," he said to London. "Would you mind warming up my dinner and bringing it to me? Oh, and I'll be in bed late tonight, so you don't have to wait up for me."

"Okay," London said, and he bit back everything else he wanted to say. "I guess we'll talk about what I wanted to tomorrow."

Marbell groaned like he'd just remembered something he didn't want to. "About tomorrow..."

"What now?"

"I have to meet with my father in Manchester Saturday morning, so I'm going to come home from school tomorrow and then fly out after I pack. I'll be back Sunday evening."

"Great," London picked up Layla as she continued to cling to her ball. "Thanks for telling me the day before." He then started off to the girls room to put them to bed.

"London....don't be mad at me. It was sudden."

Without saying anything further, the tattooed man went into the twin's room and closed the door behind him. "Bedtime," he said softly, turning on a nightlight that had a mild glow. First, he changed their diapers and dressed them in their jammies, Layla in white and Naomi in yellow, and let down their hair instead of leaving it in a ponytail. For Layla, since she went to sleep faster with a pacifier, London gave it to her and laid her down after turning on a small pink fan sitting on their dresser. Naomi was better at falling asleep on her own, especially when the fan was on, so London merely laid her down with a tiny blanket to cling to. As long as she could see that he was still in the room, she was content enough to knock out.