The Village

Zach’s Perspective

It was Saturday morning, a couple of weeks before Christmas and I had snuck away from the family to meet Karen’s old landlord in hopes of finding some mementos for the kids. I had contacted him and found out that he kept a lot of her and the kid’s stuff and was more than happy to let us have it. Seth and I were hoping we could find some things that the kids could have to remind them of their roots… I mean, c’mon we know they had a life before us and a mother who loved them (even though she didn’t always do a great job of proving it). I felt a little bad about leaving Seth alone with the three kids, but in reality, it was two kids and Freddy. Freddy was a HUGE help with Izzy and Ali, he knew how to appease Izzy and he watched out for Ali…  He was a great kid.

Anyway, I drove the pickup through an old stately neighborhood in a small town just outside of Wilmington that reminded me of my hometown until I came to a beautiful old, redbrick colonial that looked a lot like my parents’ home. There was a man working out in the yard, it turned out to be Jason, Karen’s old landlord.

He approached the pickup as I was getting out, “Zach?” he asked.

I put out my hand to greet hm, “Jason? Thank you so much for doing this.”

He was a pleasant man in his late forties, with graying temples and a sincerity about him. “No problem at all, honestly, I was so happy to hear from you. We’ve been worried sick about those kids. After Karen was arrested, they just kind of disappeared and I’ve heard horror stories about kids who were made wards of the state.” He told me that Karen had lived there since before Izzy was born and how they worried about the three of them. He and his wife would send over meals and care packages, he’d even let her slide on the rent when he saw she was struggling. “She was a good kid who was in way over her head… and the idiots she used to hang out with… ugh, nothing but trouble, all of them. Me and my wife worried about those kids.”

I told him about their new life with us and how we were trying to keep them connected with Karen, he understood our unusual situation. He was very interested in how the kids were doing so I showed him pictures and videos, he seemed genuinely relieved. Eventually his wife Abby came out and joined the conversation, her reaction was very much like that of her husband. Eventually we went out to the garage. There were a couple of dozen boxes, I opened a few just to check the contents… toys, pictures, and of course Christmas decorations. Being in the garage aired them out a lot, the smell of mold, cigarette smoke, and pot was very faint in comparison to when the kids first arrived at our place. Jason and Abby helped me load the boxes into the pickup to take to my parents villa. Before I left, Abby asked is they could visit the kids sometime, “Absolutely” I responded, Abby gave me a big hug and promised to call… they were decent people and it felt good to know that they had tried to keep an eye on Izzy and Freddy when things were at their worst.

I called Seth on the way over to my parents villa to tell him about my visit with Jason and Abby, he was happy to hear it went well, and excited to go through the boxes. Eli and Riley met me at the villa to help unload the everything and go through it… there was a lot more stuff than I had expected. We made a pile for Izzy, one for Freddy, one for Karen, one for Christmas decorations, another household stuff, and a final for junk (some stuff just wasn’t salvageable). There were a couple boxes of pictures that I just left to the side for the time being (I knew Seth was dying to see those). We had several piles of laundry that needed to be done, and the floor of the garage was covered with things that needed to be cleaned. The three of us worked diligently for a couple of hours, but I needed to get back to help Seth with the kids. Project frizzy memories was a work in progress. My parents garage and laundry room were a total wreck so I called them on the way home to warn them. They were good with it and excited that we found the kids belongings.

“We’ll be down next week and can help clean, box, and wrap their things. You kids have enough to deal with” Mom said.

“Well, speaking of that…” I responded. We hadn’t told them about Ali yet. Things moved so fast and we were uncertain about his future with us so we held off on telling my parents, we both knew Kelly would jump in headfirst and get emotionally attached. “We’ve got a new foster kid staying with us…” and I told her all about Ali, of course, he was instantly her grandson no matter if he was there for an hour or a lifetime. She asked me question after question and wanted to know everything.

“I can still get his picture on the Christmas email” Kelly said excitedly.

“Mom, STOP!” My mother had a heart of gold but had a tendency to go overboard. “He’s a foster child, you can’t post or send pics of him… remember the rules before we adopted Izzy and Freddy? They apply again.” I said killing her idea. For the privacy and safety of the kids, the DSS had strict rules about social media, etc. Although my mom understood, she hated it… she wanted to share her family with the world (and she considered all our friends, fosters, villagers, etc. her family). I finally got my mother off the phone by promising to facetime her later that day so she and my dad could meet Ali. I turned onto the long, gravel drive and drove up to the house.

I was happy to be home, Seth was in the kitchen with the kids making Christmas cookies. “Daddy Sach is home” Seth yelled as I entered the kitchen.

“What are you doing? I thought we were making cookies tomorrow” I said.

Seth rolled his eyes, “I needed to do something to keep the three of them busy” he said. “Every time I turned my back, Izzy had Ali dressed up as a princess and the poor guy just looked at me begging to be saved.” Well, whatever the reason for the bakeoff, the kids were loving it and the house smelled great. Freddy was decorating each cookie to perfection, while Izzy glopped frosting and poured sprinkles on everything, and Ali diligently ate whatever Seth sat in front of him to decorate. For the first time since he had come to stay with us Ali didn’t look sad. He wasn’t giggling as the other kids talked excitedly over each other, but his eyes had life in them and he seemed to be enjoying himself, he truly was a beautiful child. The kids bombarded with me with questions wanting to know what took me so long (Seth told them I went into the office).

“I maked dis” Izzy said holding up a multi-colored frosted snowman covered in sprinkles with about eleven eyes.

“Look what I made Daddy Sach” Freddy said holding up a meticulously decorated gingerbread man.

Their excitement was contagious. “Wow! You guys have been busy. Those are awesome!” I said to my kids, then went over to our newest family member. “And what did you make?” Ali lifted a cookie from the tray of his highchair, held it in the air, then shoved it in his mouth. While the others worked, he was content just chowing down on cookies… I’d call that an improvement. I sat down at the kitchen island with the rest of my family and decorated Christmas cookies. It was such a fun Saturday afternoon, and a great way to break the ice with Ali. I wish I could describe Ali’s smile; it had taken a couple of days for it to show itself, but it was the most adorable thing, even Izzy noticed it.

“Dat Baby smyo” she said pointing with excitement (Izzy to English translation: “Look family, Ali finally smiled”). “Smyo mo baby” she said, and he did, making her giggle. He was getting comfortable around us. After cookie making, we Facetimed my parents to introduce Ali, my mother’s squeals excitement scared the crap outta the lil guy. After the call we all ate dinner together… well kind of… the kids were full of cookies so didn’t eat much of anything.

The rest of the night we all just hung out, played together, and watched Christmas shows. Ali passed out halfway through It’s Christmas Charlie Brown, Seth took him up and put him to bed in Freddy’s bottom bunk (which he equipped with a waterproof sheet and a rail). Izzy made it through Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, then I took her up and tucked her into her bed… she looked like a little angel when she slept. But Freddy… Freddy was the man. He stayed up through Charlie Brown, Rudolph, and all the way through the end of Elf (which he had discovered a few weeks before and watched like a billion times). I popped popcorn, and Freddy sat on the couch between me and Seth. It was just us “guys” staying up late, that was a big deal for Freddy. By the time he was ready for Bed, Seth and I were wiped out… it had been a long day.

We lie in bed talking about the kids, next steps with Ali, the call with my mom, and of course what I found in kids boxes. “Did you find Harold?” Seth asked.

“Yup, and we cleaned him up too” I answered. “There’s a lot of other Christmas stuff, and a lot of toys too but everything needs cleaning. Me, Eli, And Riley unpacked it all and started to clean it. The clothes stunk, and frankly most of them won’t even fit the kids anymore so I figured we’d wash it all and donate them, we can store Karen’s for her.”

“Well, like I said, Ali killed the gift budget… and I am so frigging serious when I say no gifts for each other, okay” Seth said.

I jumped back, “Promise!” I was starting to worry about finances too. I mean, we were doing okay, but we had taken on a LOT in the last year and a half. We were making payments on our student loans, took on a mortgage and a rehab, a car payment, then there were medical bills from Seth’s accident earlier in the year, then came the two kids, and now Ali. Granted we would get a stipend for Ali that would cover what we had already spent, and we got a settlement for Seth’s accident to cover the medical bills and left us a little more to get rid of the car payment (although the GTI was getting old). There was always something… I mean being an adult was expensive as fuck. “All I want is for those three kids to have an awesome Christmas.”

“Me too” Seth said. “We need to assume Ali will be here for Christmas and…” I interrupted his thought…

“Spoil the fuck outta him too?” I blurted finishing Seth’s sentence. We both laughed because it was true, we had every intention of giving these kids a great Christmas.

“OH! What about baby pictures? Where there baby pictures?” Seth asked. We were both curious to see baby pictures of our kids.

“A couple of boxes, I didn’t go through them yet.” I replied. We talked a little longer and eventually fell asleep on our sides, face to face.

Sunday morning, I woke up to Seth’s soft lips on mine and his hand stroking my hair. “Good morning” Seth whispered when I opened my eyes.

“G’mornin’” I said with a smile then kissed him back, I loved waking up next to Seth, I had since the very first time we slept together on my tiny bed in the dorms at college. That morning, Seth had expected me to wake up with regrets and bolt… all these years later, I was still there with him and had no plans of ever leaving. Seth moved his face closer to mine and kissed me again.

We kissed tenderly, and lovingly for a little bit before Seth reached back and checked the baby monitors on his nightstand, “The troops are still sleeping’ he confirmed.

“Good” I said going back to our kiss, god I loved kissing Seth. He reached into the loose fly of my blue/green plaid pajamas (for some reason we had both started wearing PJ’s to bed recently) and freed my growing manhood, I reached through the fly of his red plaid flannels and did the same. We lie there quietly stroking and kissing each other, nothing hardcore, nothing rushed, just us two young, tired, “daddies” getting some well-deserved quiet playtime. “Is the bedroom door locked?” I asked. Seth jumped up and locked it. “What if they need us? I asked.

“They’ll knock… when have you known Izzy to be ignored?” Seth said with a chuckle as he settled back into our kiss and stroking. I spit in his my and used it to lube my cock, giving him a hand job for the first time in a long time. “Are you prepping me to top you again?” Seth laughed.

“Hail no!” I said in protest, “I hope you enjoyed the fuck out of that because it’ll be a long time before I give my ass up again.” We both knew I was lying. I was mostly a top, but I loved getting fucked once in a while and Seth knew it… but being the good partner he was, he let me believe he thought I hated it and just did it to make him happy. “Get on top of me” I growled, Seth rolled onto me and flipped around in a sixty nine… he knew what I liked. I was lying underneath him with his cock inches from my mouth and his tight, little pink hole at my fingertips. The view was amazing, his fuzzy low hangers were almost touching my nose, I could see past them enough to get the outline of his perfect ass globes, god it was all so hot. I grabbed his hardening shaft and took it down my throat, then I moved my hands so that my fingertips met in his ass trench. The feel of his supple ass flesh in the palms of my hands sent me reeling as I separated his cheeks and teased his pucker… Seth moaned with my cock in his mouth. I LOVED that feeling, the vibrations of his pleasure reverberated through my entire being and motivated me to slap his ass (and HARD). He moaned louder pushing me closer to the edge. Seth lifted his hips then dropped his cock deep into my throat, tears ran down my cheeks as I happily choked on his length and girth. With my hands still firmly grasping his ass mounds, I pulled him deeper into me, enjoying the temporary loss of oxygen as his cock cut off my breathing (at that moment I wasn’t sure what was more important to my survival, oxygen, or Seth’s cock). Our sweet kissing had turned just rough enough to make it hot as fuck. My hips instinctively pushed up as his fucked down into my mouth. Our quiet gurgles, grunts, moans, and occasional smack to the ass filled the locked bedroom. I took a break to suck my middle and index fingers to get them nice and slick then inserted my middle finger into Seth’s ass. He arched his back and moaned in euphoric response as he continued to feast on my fuck stick.

It didn’t take long before we were both on the brink of explosion. I moaned an inaudible warning around his cock before I blasted my load down his gulping throat with a final, perfectly timed smack to my husband’s perfect ass. The smack echoed through the master bedroom as Seth swallowed, gulped, and moaned with my manhood still planted in his throat. His moans became faster and more belabored as he shot down my throat less than a minute later. We stayed there in our sixty nine as we savored every drop and licked each other clean.

Seth rolled off me and resumed his spot next to me, face-to-face. We engaged in our traditional cum filled kiss before he flipped around so I could spoon him and the pillow talk started. “Hey, do you think I could sneak away for a couple of hours to go to your parents to see what you found?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea” I answered.

“I could take Ali so you only have to deal with the other two” Seth offered.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s pretty gross over there right now. Feel free to do a couple loads of laundry or clean some stuff” I said with a snicker knowing Seth wouldn’t be able to resist working while he was there. We talked about what we had to get done before Christmas, etc.

Then Seth asked, “So what about Ali? If they can’t find family, do we adopt number three?”

“I think that’s getting too far ahead of ourselves” I said. “We don’t even know him yet; it’ll be a couple of months at least before it’s even a topic.”

“Yeah. But would you?” Seth asked, “you know, be willing to adopt another one?”

“Hell yeah. I say bring on as many as we can afford” I answered with a kiss to his neck. “As long as your ass doesn’t leave me for some hot piece of ass and leave me alone with a million little rug rats.”

Seth laughed, “Shit, I couldn’t leave you if I wanted to. You’re stuck with me for life.” Although we were just goofing around, I knew we would be together for life and there was comfort in that thought. Seth jumped in the shower just before the alarm went off at 6AM, I snuck in behind him just as he was finishing up. I finished showering and Seth got out, got dressed, and went to check on the kids. I joined him downstairs about fifteen minutes later and her was sitting at the kitchen Island drinking coffee… ALONE.

“Where are the kids?” I asked pouring myself a cup of coffee.

“Everyone’s still asleep” Seth said. “Freddy was asleep in Ali’s bunk, spooning him. He must’ve woken up crying… it was cute as hell.”

“Freddy is such a good big brother. He just took Ali under his wing, no questions asked” I replied. Just then Freddy walked into the kitchen in his Spiderman PJ’s, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Seth greeted him with, “Hey, buddy. Where’s everyone else?”

“Still sleeping” he said as he climbed into the open barstool next to Daddy Zeff. “Ali woke up and asked for his momma, he was sad, so I got in is bed and talked to him… he’s good now.” Seth and I couldn’t help but smile, Freddy was a little man taking care of his family.

“What did you tell him?” I asked while Seth got up to pour the little guy some orange juice.

“That it’s okay” is all he said about it. Then he asked, “If Ali’s still here at Christmas how will Santa find him?” I loved how his mind worked.

“Santa knows everything, besides, I’m sure Bob The Elf will tell him” Seth suggested.

Freddy nodded in understanding. “But if he doesn’t Ali can share my presents” he said as he sipped his juice. His tone and voice were just so matter of fact and adult-like that you couldn’t help but love this kid. It was nice just sitting there talking to Freddy without Izzy in the middle of it, we rarely got that opportunity.

Daddy Zeff and I were enjoying our quiet time with Freddy when a tiny voice from the top of the stairs yelled, “hey, open dis gate!” We had installed a gate at the top of the stairs to keep Izzy on the second floor if she woke up in the middle of the night. She obviously woke up and was ready to go. I went to the top of the steps to help, and there was Izzy standing next to Ali holding his hand waiting to be released from the confines of the second floor.

“Good mornin’, guys” I said with a smile as I unlatched the gate then scooped one of them up in each arm (thank god they were both so little) and carried them down the steps and into the kitchen.

“Oh, lookie there” Daddy Zeff said to Freddy. “Daddy Sach found two goofballs.” Freddy laughed; he had a good sense of humor for a six year old.

Izzy giggled, “I not goofball. You a goofball.” She was giggling when Seth took her from my arms.

I Put Ali in the highchair and then asked, “Who wants breakfast.”

All three kids gave a collective “me!” Even Ali. He had been there a few days and we weren’t really sure of his language skills yet… we weren’t even 100% sure he understood English. We heard him say “momma” a couple times through his tears, and Seth head him say “mine” but that was about it. Now we got a “me” from him. That’s when Ali shocked us all, clear as a bell he bellowed “Mickey Mouse, please.” His voice was sweet and quiet, and his diction perfect.

All four of us looked at him with big smiles, “dat baby tawk” Izzy said excitedly then tried to get him to talk some more, “Say Izzy” she prompted. And he did. “Say Fweddy” she prompted, and he did. Again, his diction was perfect, it was clear that someone had been teaching him to speak. While we all gave Ali out attention, Daddy Zeff jumped into chef mode and started making his now famous Mickey Mouse pancakes (he tried to teach me but mine always came out looking like roadkill instead of Mickey Mouse).

The five of us sat at the island eating breakfast and talking, Ali didn’t talk much more that morning but he was engaged, he was listening, and it was clear he understood what we were talking about. He was blending in and we were getting attached… Shit, that meant heartache for our family when he left. I felt sure he had family out there that would want him.

 

To be continued…