Wren curled into my chest as we walked back out to everyone, holding bearemy over his face to hide. You could still hear the lighting sucking of his pacifier. I lovingly kissed the top of his head and David smiled at us

We stepped in the sitting room where everyone was hanging about, apart from Sarah, who I hoped was still keeping an eye on the grill. Food should be done pretty soon.

Louis, Kai, Emma and Mark were all chatting on the couch, with finn sitting next to Mark, anxiously holding his hand. Andrew was sat on the floor, firmly talking with jam, who was situated all pouty like on his lap. Alex was running around making aeroplane noises, Donna doing the same, making Emma giggle.

Jam was the first to notice us, pushing off their daddy and cutting off his hushed scolding.

"Am I understood jam? Its gonna be a time out as soon as we get home-"

"Wren!"

Jam scrambled over and tried to get a peek at Wren.

"Wrenny? Y-you oki?"

Wren mumbled at bit and squeezed bearemy tighter. David knelt down.

"Wrens just a bit tired now seeetie, he's ok. Now I suggest running back to your daddy, he's not looking too happy"

Jam got an 'oh shit' sorta look on their face and turned back to Andrew, who frowned, still sitting the same spot. Jam hastily returned to the spot on their Daddy's lap and smiled innocently. Andrew's frown broke and he smiled, scooping Jam up and coddling them. Jam whined for his daddy stop but he would not.

I laughed, the vibrations in my chest making wren gently purr. As everyone began noticing us, they began asking the same sort of questions. Some directed at us, some at Wren, overall all about how he was doing now.

"Wrens ok, just a bit shaken up. But we're all good now"

I bounced wren a little and he softly babbled.

"And your never doing that again are you baby?"

Everyone laughed lightly as wren blushed, shaking his head and burrowing up to my neck. I sat down in the armchair, David resting on its arm and joined in with chat Louis and Andrew.

"-alright I should probably free Sarah from the grill. David take him please, pretty sure he's about to fall asleep"

I awed at my little babe, taking extra long blinks but keeping a strong grip on his Teddy bear.

As I passed wren over, he stirred and grunted. He kicked his little pale legs and David cooed at him, settling him right back down.

He snuggled up to David as he said into my armchair spot and I left for the grill. I walked outside to find Sarah scrolling on her phone, not even paying a smidge of attention to the food.

"Hey! You call this watching the grill?"

"Well its not on fire is it?"

I scowled.

"Get inside, I don't need your slacker energy this close to the meat"

Sarah stuck her tongue out at me as she passed by me, also bumping me with her shoulder in a joking way. Before she fully walked inside, she spun around.

"Is wren ok?"

"Well he's about to conk out in there, crying always makes him tired, and he's gotten himself a nasty looking red mark from the roof edge plus an early bedtime"

"Well good he wasn't too hurt"

I sighed.

"Yeah, good"

She patted my back and went back inside.

I opened backe up the grill and found all meats pretty much done. I muttered to myself about getting out here just in time while flipping things around to double check.

I hollered to Sarah to bring out a plate, knowing full well David was already busy with out tired little bat. I heard her groan and laughed as she came out complaining that she was just off the hook.

Alex bolted out behind her, about to dash off into the garden until Sarah called her back.

"Alex no! Foods all done, you can't go back outside. Come over here now"

Alex pouted as she ran back up to Sarah, huffily smashing her face into sarahs side and whined.

Sarah smirked at me and handed off the plate before carting Alex back inside.

I plated up the barbecue and carried it inside to the kitchen where various buns, condiments and add ons were already set up. I called out to everyone to come get it and they piled in, divvying up burgers, chicken skewers and sausages. Thankfully some would be left for the hosts.

David came into the kitchen following the masses departure, back to the sitting room for a place to sit. Wren dozed on his shoulder. David walked over and kissed me.

"It all looks great darling"

I blushed a little and smiled.

"Mhm, grill dad wins again"

David laughed and he kissed me again, this time on my temple.

"Ok I'm starving, please fix me a burger and a hotdog for this trouble maker, you make them so well"

I smirked.

"That I do, now sit and watch as I work"

I got to quickly fixing 2 burgers, a hotdog (that I had cut up for wren) and the remaining chicken skewers for good measure. David whooped for me making me smile, but someone else wasn't as happy.

Wren grunted and ineffectively hit David in his sleep, squirming as he obviously disliked the disturbance. David hushed and rubbed his back.

"Shshsh I should probably wake him, but he looks so peaceful, I mean just look"

Wren, now brought back to his calm sleep looked like an absolute angle, truly perfect. And as one of his dad's, my word is gospel.

I gently ran my fingers through his hair and he purred. Mine and David's jaw just dropped at the sound.

"Oh he'll wake up when he gets hungry, which shouldn't be long now"

I carried the food in while David carried Wren back to the sitting room. Everyone was happily tucking in apart from Alex who refused to sit still, somehow still hyper. Sarah pleaded with her to sit somewhere and just eat.

It appeared to be inspiring the other children as jam stood and began to join Alex, running around after her. Andrew called them back but it only made jam more giggly as they comtiued to run.

They even got finn into it as Alex yanked him off his Daddy's lap and he joined in too. The 3 aimlessly running around, the game seeming to be annoying their parents, and also getting all the childless adults to laugh, them finding it much funnier than the struggling parents .

David, completely unfazed and focused on not disturbing wren, dodged the runaway children and sat down in the armchair. Wren remained cuddled up.

I put down our food on the side table and walked to the centre.

"Alright, tiny people attention!"

The kids eyes briefly darted to me

"I was thinking, how about we watch a movie while we eat, huh?"

Alex's short attention span immediately latched onto the idea of a movie. She ran over to and bounced in circles around me.

"Ya ya ya! Moooovie"

Jam and Finn had paused the running when Alex got distracted, standing idle and listening to me. Andrew seized the opportunity and snatched jam back into his hold. Finn, left all alone, retreated back to his papi, happily getting lifted back to his side.

Jam yelped as they was held in a tight hug by his daddy. I smiled at the sweet moment when jam whispered in Andrew's ear. Andrew let go of jam, but they remained in his lap and Andrew kissed his temple.

"A movie sound ok to you bambi?"

Jam nodded and murmered about being hungry so Andrew presented a plate of cut up burger. Jam said thank you and began haphazardly feeding himself.

Mark also ruffled up Finns hair and asked the same. Finn happily nodded and leaned against his dad.

"Well the conscious little-uns are in agreement, so what're we watching"

Grabbing the remote and flicking on Disney+, I started scrolling when Alex spotted something in our recently watched.

"Frozen!! I wanna watch frozen!"

Sarah shot me I look I will not soon forget, a pleading, desperate look that begged me not to pick frozen. David reciprocated the look but with more of a 'I'll kill you' than sarah's 'I'll kill myself'. He mouthed "no musicals" to me.

For my own wellbeing I lied to Alex.

"Sorry honey, frozen isn't working right now"

She frowned, while Sarah breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Why it no work?"

Alex asked me

"Um... cause uh.. Elsa! Elsa herself called us earlier and told us it's broken, so it's broken"

I smiled, David sniggered. David has told me before he just knows when people lie, and aparently me and wren suck at it. I wondered if the lie detector trait was a familial thing with David and Louis.

Luckily Alex being a 3 year old, didn't catch me out and accepted that if elsa said we can't, we can't.

We scrolled a bit more before selecting the non musical 101 Dalmatians. I finally sat down next to my two special guys as all awake children, including Donna, were mesmerised by the movie.

We ate in comfortable silence, wren still not waking up but I didn't bother waking him, knowing he'd be up before his food got cold. The silence was then broken by Emma.

"Alright my guys, let's get some conversation going. Its been silent for way too long"

Louis grumbled as he ate.

"Its been silent for 5 minutes"

"Well we're talking aren't we, come on people, the majority of people in this room are parents or have some sorta relation to children. Mingle!"

Kai continued on.

"Ooo yeah, talk about parenting blunders, those are always hilarious. Or just kids being absolute weirdos stories, I love those too"

Emma kicked it right off.

"Ok Sarah first"

She pointed to Sarah.

"Blunder and or weird kid stuff, go!"

"Umm..."

She pushed her food about and mumbled, no-one could hear anything she said. I laughed a bit, sensing a moment to wind her up.

"What was that sister dear?"

"Alexhasnteatenapieceoffruitinthreeweeks"

She mumbled a bit louder, still gibberish though.

"Huh what was that"

Sarah threw down her burger dramatically.

"Alex hasn't eaten a piece of fruit in 3 days, there! Yous all ecstatic?!"

Sarah yelled as we all laughed in disbelief, cracking a smile herself.

"How???!?"

I inquired.

"You aren't there Ricky, you don't see the side of her when I try to get her to do something healthy. It just doesn't compute in her tiny little brain and she screams... so I've elected to give up, and wait till she wants a fruit smoothie and go from there"

Sarah said in a joking way and Kai kept the momentum going.

"Alright! Next story ummmm.. Mark! Hit it!"

We all looked at Mark expectantly and he thought hard before suddenly recounting

"Once finn got the idea help redecorate my office with his markers, still got his faded mural on my walls"

We cheered as he told us, David letting out a groan of empathy. I know if wren did anything like that he certainly wouldn't be getting off with just an early bedtime. Mark went on

"I know! Those markers were supposed to be washable, it's been 2 years and I can still see the scribbled rainbows"

Emma awed before selecting the next victim.

"Ricky! Go, give us something juicey!"

"Ooo last week I hid behind the nursery door and jumped out to scare David. Gave him the absolute fright of his life"

David interjected, sipping his drink

"True I nearly punted you into next week"

I laughed

"Yeah yeah thats what you say now, but wren was absolutely dying laughing, so much so that he wet himself, so much so, that he leaked. Soaking through the onesie I had just changed him into"

I looked down and smiled at the tiny tot in my husband's arms and giggled.

"Poor darling didn't even notice at first, quite adorable.. Well until he did notice and burst right into tears"

There was a mix of pitious aws and light laughter. Andrew cooed.

"Oh-hoho poor sweetie-"

Andrew double checked to make sure jam wasn't listening, which he wasn't, just munching on food and watching the movie.

"-Jam's a really heavy night wetter, any kinda control goes out the window once they're sleeping. Had to deal with absolute uproar when I got a mattress protector, you'd swear they were getting murdered, the screams!"

Andrew drew out and I was about to comment when david nudged me, I tuned out of the conversation and focused in as I noticed wren starting to stir.

He shut his eyes tight and sucked on the pacifier hard, kicking his legs a bit in the foetal position before finally sniffing the air and cracking open an eye. The smell of food obviously intriguing him

He sat up and whined, rubbing his eyes with his fists. His hair was flattened on one side, from where he lay on davjd but the rest stuck out all oddly. I cooed before evening out the fluffage with my fingers.

"Hi tiny boy, you have a good little snooze?"

He spat out his pacifier and tried to take my hand to his mouth, babbling tiredly.

"Aum oms"

David gently pried away my hand making the sleepy boy pout.

"No no bubba, that's not your num noms, that's dadas hand, silly little baby"

Wren then reached up to David's face and mumbled again, a bit more petulantly this time.

"Um oms, Papa wan um oms"

He pushed a bit ar David's chest, propling himself backwards before falling back to the chest and snuggling up close.

"Here baby bear, I've got them right here"

I said while taking wrens plate of food from the table. I took a cut up piece of hot dog and held it up to wren. He looked over and eagerly ate it from my fingers, smiling and quietly asking for more.

"Moah dada pease"

I hand fed wren hotdog bites while I tuned back in on the conversation, still on the highly entertaining parenting stories.

"Seriously- so we've got the giant pile of toys she dragged and Alex just starts hurtling them one by one across the garden to see which one 'threw the best'-"

Wren went threw his fill of barbecue very quickly, before happily sighing and lying back down on David, looking ready to try fall asleep again. Sadly I could not allow it, wrens already got an early bedtime so I don't want to much hell at bedtime. David also noticed and intervened before wren could get to comfy.

"Princess you can't fall asleep now, you're missing the movie"

Wren looked over to the tv and finally took notice of the barking puppies on screen. He pointed and bounced excitedly.

"Oggies!"

"Yeah bubba, you wanna look at the doggies closer"

Wren nodded and squirmed until David sent him on his feet, which he promptly fell from, to his knees and crawled over to jam.

Jam saw coming over and squealed, happy to see their friend once again moving.

Jam pushed off their Daddy's lap but remained close as they hugged wren.

"You ok?"

They questioned and wren nodded. Jam smiled and brought Wren into a hug. They stayed like that watching the movie, wren haphazardly being held onto of jam in a hug. Wren slipped his thumb into his mouth and I would've gone over but Andrew beat me to it, replacing it with his paci, making wren blush.

I smiled and joined back in on the conversation now that wren was comfy and in the safe care of his jammy sandwich.

The mood had only gotten more fast paced since me and David had tuned out.

"Okokokok-"

Emma rallied the adults

"Lets switch it up, lightening round kid confessions. No context just go, Andrew first and just keep following people!"

"Jam is scared of eating apples cause he saw me choke on one"

"The rest of Finn's friends parents are terrible people and I can't stand them!"

"I have to read Alex the same story 5 times to get her to sleep"

"We cant watch inside out cause wren finds bing bong creepy"

"Jam has walked into our glass back door waaaay to many time"

"I warned finn about the boogeyman one time and I will have to check every possible hiding space to see if he's there"

"I had to pretend to revive Alex's monkey cause she found him 'drowning' in the washing machine"

"Wren spends more time in our bed than he does his crib"

"Jams a biter-"

David our back and forth, taken aback by what Andrew said

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, you wouldn't guess it but I'm surprised they haven't bitten anyone here yet, we'll apart from me"

We all laughed and I relished the wonderful atmosphere of friends.

((((()))))((((()))))((((()))))((((()))))((((()))))

"Come 'ere baby bear"

Daddy lifted me from the ground, I babbled at him, smiling and squealing a bit. I was just playing with cool rattely block on the floor, jam and their daddy were gone home, same with finn and his Papi and Alex was asleep in Sarahs lap.

Daddy bounced me on his hip, cooing as I giggled and grabbed at his hair, keeping ahold of my block at the same time. I was absolutely full of energy, energy and yummy barbecue.

Daddy sat down on the couch next to papa and uncle Louis with me comfortably in Daddy's lap.

I shook my block about and giggled to myself. Uncle Louis ruffled up my hair.

"So have you done any shifting with him yet?"

I looked up at the adults and payed attention to to conversation, now that it had turned to me. Papa scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Haha no"

Sarah and Louis looked shocked.

"Nothing?! Oh come on now Ricky, dad was chucking us out the window younger than Wren"

"Yeah that wasn't a good thing"

"David you first shifted really young"

"Yeah, I unsurprisingly don't remember way back then"

Louis ignored Papa's retort and continued

"You were what?... 11 I think. Michelle dropped you down the stairs but you just shifted and happily glided down, turning back on the floor. Scared the living hell out of everyone if I remember right"

"I can imagine, especially Michelle dropping me. Clumsy idiot she was"

"Still is-"

Louis laughed and David smirked.

Kai chimed in.

"Have you seriously done nothing with him? Not even a tiny bit?"

Daddy cupped his hands around mine and assisted in squishing the big soft cube.

"Well we've planning to bring him up to the woods, for some privacy"

Donna, who was layed down on the floor spoke up.

"God you guys are posh"

Daddy defended us from being called posh, whatever that means. Still, daddy says we're definitely not it.

Donna laughed at Daddy's defense.

"I don't know Ricky it just kinda pops out of nowhere, you get extremely posh"

Daddy slumped and crossed his arms.

"I'm not posh dammit"

I frowned at Daddy's pout and started pushing the corners of his mouth up.

"Happy daddy"

I mumbled quietly and Daddy finished my job and actually smiled.

"Thank you baby"

He nuzzled my nose and I giggled.

"Daddy wa's siftin?"

I questioned with a tilted head, Everyone looked to me and i blushed. Daddy chuckled before answering

"Well darling, shape shifting or just shifting is when a vampire turns into a different form, like a rat or smoke-"

Papa interjected.

"Like my Aunt Cheryl could turn into a dog"

Louis scrolled through his phone but stopped to talk.

"Yeah thats cause Aunt Cheryl was a bit of a bi-"

Papa cut him off.

"Hey watch your language, we a certain place for people who say bad words"

I backed up papa with a 'Yeah!'

Papa smiled.

"And where's that baby?"

"The time ou' corner"

I said with a bit pout make everyone laugh and me curl back up to Daddy's chest with a very quiet whimper.

"See baby bear, some vampire's special power is shifting, like your Papa's Aunt. But everyone can turn into a bat!"