Page 20 of Sobek’s Joy

“Doors. You have a lot of them, and they all seem to stick.”

“Oh.” Rudy finally succeeded in getting Rose’s second leg through the purple leggings, though she immediately tried to pull them off again. “Yeah, the house is old. Everything sticks or squeaks or both. Why?”

“I’ll fix them.”

Rudy paused, one hand still restraining Rose’s escape attempt. “You...want to fix my doors?”

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“That’s going to take…”

“Today.” Sobek had already ordered the necessary supplies through the Paulie app last night, along with proper tools. They’d materialized in his trunk an hour ago. “I have time.”

Rudy’s expression went through several shifts - confusion, amusement, something that looked dangerously close to fondness. “You know you don’t have to keep finding projects around my house, right? You can just...visit. If you want to.”

Sobek’s chest tightened. If you want to. As if there was any question. As if Sobek could stay away even if he tried, which he had, for approximately six hours after fleeing last night, before his crocodile side had driven him back this morning with a trunk full of door-fixing supplies and the world’s flimsiest excuse.

“The doors stick,” Sobek repeated, because apparently that was his entire argument now.

Rudy’s smile bloomed into something close to a chuckle. “Okay. Fix the doors. But I’m making you lunch, and you’re not arguing about it.”

“I would not…”

“You argued about dinner last week for ten minutes before I literally put a plate in your hands and told you to shut up and eat.”

Sobek had no defense against that. He’d been caught off guard by the casual domesticity of it all, overwhelmed by the sensation of belonging somewhere he had no right to be. The arguing had been a delay tactic while his brain caught up to the fact that his mate was feeding him, in their home, with their children laughing around them.

“Fine,” Sobek conceded. “Lunch. No arguing.”

“Good. Now come help me catch Rose before she strips naked and climbs the bookshelf again.”

/~/~/~/~/

Two hours later, Sobek understood why Rudy’s patience levels were superhuman.

“Jack. Move.”

“But I wanna see.”

“You are seeing. From there.” Sobek pointed to the spot three feet away where Jack had been standing before creeping closer again.

“But I can’t see what you’re doing with the thingy…”

“Screwdriver.”

“…the screwdriver thingy when Rose is in the way.”

“I’m not in the way.” Rose’s indignant voice came from approximately six inches to Sobek’s left, where she’d wedged herself between him and the doorframe. “You’re in the way.”

“Neither of you is helping.” Sobek removed the hinge pin with more force than strictly necessary. “You are supposed to be observing.”

“What’s ob-serv-ing?” Timothy appeared at Sobek’s right elbow, having somehow manifested from thin air. The child moved like water when he wanted to.

“That’s watching without touching.”