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“Papa?”
Vander looked up from where he was settled in on the sofa reading the paper. In the doorway was Claggor, hair softly mussed, round cheeks a deep rosy pink.
“What are you doing up?” Vander asked, folding the paper closed and setting it on the table in front of him.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Claggor said. He rubbed at his eye, mouth stretching open in a wide yawn.
Vander patted his thigh in invitation, and Claggor waddled over, crawling into his father’s lap. “Did you have a bad dream?” Vander asked, smoothing his palm down Claggor’s back as he settled in against Vander’s chest.
Claggor shook his head.
“Alright,” Vander said, continuing to rub circles into Claggor’s back. He could already feel the boy’s body beginning to relax. As they sat together, Vander began to hum an old lullaby, and in only a few minutes, Claggor was fast asleep, breathing slow and steady in Vander’s lap.
“Vander—oh!” Silco said as he entered the room suddenly.
“Shh,” Vander shushed. He was stilling rubbing at Claggor’s back, gently rocking the boy back and forth.
“Did he have a bad dream?” Silco asked, coming around to sit on Vander’s other side. He reached out to tuck an errant curl back from Claggor’s face, smiling at the way his nose wrinkled, turning to press his face against Vander’s chest.
“Says no, but something woke him. Said he couldn’t sleep.”
Silco and Vander had adopted Claggor three years ago. Unable to have a child of their own by normal means, but eager to expand their little family, they’d submitted an application to the local orphanage to adopt. There were so many children in Zaun who were without families. The problems in the city were many and varied. Dangerous working conditions and rampant drug addiction were two of the most common. It had been the joy of their lives when they’d gotten the letter in the mail saying they were approved, and then the actual process of finding a child to adopt had begun.
Claggor was only two years old when he’d come home to them. His father was unknown and his mother had tragically died in childbirth. With no other family to care for him, Claggor had become a ward of the state like so many other children, living in cramped, overcrowded conditions.
They’d debated thoroughly what they wanted to do in terms of adoption. In a way a younger child was easier. There were less behavioural problems to potentially navigate, but a small child required significantly more hands-on care. On the other hand, older children were adopted far less frequently, and the idea of skipping the period of needing to change diapers all the time had its appeal. Ultimately they decided that despite whatever challenges they might face (and there would be challenges), they wanted to give whatever child Janna blessed them with a good home.
Eventually Vander was forced to return Claggor to his own bed. He hefted the boy into his arms, Claggor’s own small ones finding their way around Vander’s neck in his sleep, and carried him down the hall back to his bedroom. Silco followed behind.
In the bedroom, Silco adjusted the blankets, looking for any sign of what might have woken the child among them, before Vander lowered him carefully onto the pillow. Briefly Claggor’s face pinched as he settled, but within moments his brow had smoothed and he snuggled into the pillow with a sigh.
“Hard to believe we’ve had him for three years already,” Vander commented quietly as he closed the bedroom door closed behind him.
“Mm,” Silco hummed. He slid an arm around Vander’s waist, and Vander pressed a kiss to the top of his husband’s head.
“Maybe it’s time for another one,” he added, and Silco looked up at him.
“Really?”
“Well, we’ve talked about it,” Vander said. They entered their own bedroom, softly lit by the lamp on the bedside table. “A whole brood of them, remember?”
Silco smiled softly as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Of course I remember.”
“So what if we did? Get another one.”
“We can make an appointment with the agency in the morning.”
Silco made an appointment with the adoption agency for a few days later while Claggor was in school. It was sooner than he was expecting, but he appreciated the rare expediency. They’d had to wait months for an appointment when they had first applied to adopt Claggor. This time around, Silco and Vander already knew the way things worked, and they arrived with a folder of necessary documents.
Despite the fact that the agency was meant to help bring families together, it retained the grim blandness of most government buildings, the walls largely unadorned and painted a flat pea green bordering on grey. The only sound was the click-clack of footsteps on the scuffed hardwood floors, the electrical hum of the lights overhead, and the never ceasing ringing of telephones gone unanswered.
They arrived early for their appointment, but their appointment time came and went, and still they were left waiting. Silco was beginning to droop right as the sound of footsteps approached and a harried female Yordle greeted them with a tired smile. It was impossible to tell exactly how old a Yordle was given their long lifespans, but Silco always pictured her as being somewhere around middle-aged.
“Nice to see you again Silco. Vander. Sorry to keep you waiting so long.”
“Good to see you, too, Raedel,” Vander said. Raedel had been the social worker who had assisted them with their first adoption. She gestured down the hall towards her office and they follow beind her.
“How have things been with Claggor?” she asked, her small feet and short stride echoing in a rhythmic pit-pat-pit-pat as they walked. It was a wonder with all the families she dealt with on a daily basis that she remembered who they were, even with the Yordle’s long memory; though Silco presumed she reviewed their file in advance of the meeting.
“They’re good,” Vander replied, voice full of warm affection. “Little Claggor has just started school. He’s gotten so big.”
“That’s wonderful to hear,” Raedel said as she climbed into the seat behind her desk. Silco and Vander settled into the chairs opposite her. “And you’re ready for a second one, are you?”
Silco and Vander looked at each other, reaching for each other’s hands, giving them a brief squeeze. “We’ve been talking about it for a while, actually,” Silco admitted. “It feels like the right time.”
“And you’ve got all your documentation with you?”
“Of course,” Silco said and set the folder on Raedel’s desk, sliding it across to her where she could reach.
She pulled it towards her and flipped through its contents, nodding and making quiet affirmative hums as she did so. “Since it’s been a few years there are some checks that need to be more up to date, but they shouldn’t take long. Did you have any idea of what you were looking for in terms of age?”
Vander spoke before Silco was able to. “I was thinking it would be nice for Claggor to have someone closer to his age. Someone he can play with.”
Silco looked at his husband in surprise. “You never mentioned that to me.”
Vander gave him a slightly abashed smile and shrugged. “It only just occurred to me.”
Secretly, having missed most of that phase with Claggor, Silco longed to have an infant, but he saw the logic in a child closer to Claggor’s age. He kept his comment about a younger child to himself. There would be other opportunities.
Raedel waited with her hands folded in her lap. When it appeared there was no further conversation forthcoming, she politely cleared her throat. “How old is Claggor now?” she asked.
“Five,” Silco answered automatically, still looking at Vander.
“Have the two of you considered fostering at all?” Raedel asked as she sorted through things on her desk. “There’s so little space in some of the orphanages, and we always need good temporarily placements.”
Silco finally looked away from Vander and returned his attention to Raedel. “Temporary,” Silco repeated. “Are you saying that we aren’t likely to be approved for another adoption?”
Raedel looked up in surprise. “What? Oh, no, dear. You’ve already been adoptive parents, so the likelihood that you’ll be approved is quite high! But we always need good temporary placements, too. If you were interested and if you thought you could manage.”
Both Silco and Vander had grown up in foster placements in their youth, having unstable home lives or having lost their parents before they were old enough to be on their own. They knew from personal experience that some foster homes were better than others. And while Vander was the more outwardly emotional of the two of them, Silco knew that it would break his heart to fall in love with a child, only to have to say goodbye.
“We’ll talk about it,” Vander said, placing a heavy hand on Silco’s knee and giving it a squeeze. No doubt Vander knew exactly where Silco’s thoughts had gone, and Silco appreciated his easy diversion of the conversation.
“Please don’t at all feel pressured,” Raedel assured them. “I only mention it because I feel you’d be a good fit.” She seemed to find what she was looking for among the many things on her desk. “Here are the forms you need to fill out for the updated checks. You can file those with reception before you leave and should hear back within a few days. After that it’s just a matter of finding the right candidate for you and starting the process!”
Hopping down from her chair, she led them back down the hall towards reception. “Ran here will be able to assist you with filling out the forms and getting the checks processed for you.” She shook both of their hands before disappearing down another hall, presumably to her next meeting.
Half an hour later they were back out on the busy street. Silco’s hand was enveloped in Vander’s, warm and comforting. His heart was beating fast in his chest, nervous in spite of Raedel’s assurances, but more excited than anything.
Later that evening as they sat around the dinner table, Claggor poked listlessly at his food, moving it around the plate but not eating.
“Is something the matter?” Silco asked. “Are you not hungry?”
Claggor paused his stirring. “Where do babies come from?”
The question was surprising and abrupt, and Silco glanced across the table at Vander. A wordless conversation occurring about who would field this particular topic. They’d decided early on that they wouldn’t lie to Claggor, and to answer any questions he might have in an age appropriate manner. Sex and reproduction were a natural part of life, and they didn’t want to treat it as something that was forbidden. But Silco hadn’t been quite prepared to have to answer this question so soon.
“What makes you ask that?” Vander said, taking the lead on the conversation.
“Violet says that her mommy is having a baby,” he answered, resuming the idle stirring of his spoon around his plate.
Vander glanced up at Silco again. “Felicia’s pregnant?Why didn’t she tell us?”
Silco cleared his throat. They could talk about Felicia later.
“Well,” Silco said this time to Claggor, “it takes two people to make a baby,” he explained. “One person puts a seed into the other and that mixes with an egg, and begins to grow in the other person’s belly. When they baby gets big enough, the carrying person gives birth, and the baby comes out into the world.”
“How do they put the seed inside?”
Silco cleared his throat. “Through an adult activity called having sex. We’ll talk more about that when you’re a bit older.”
“Is that how you had me?” Claggor asked.
“No,” Silco said gently.” We went through a process called adoption with you. Someone else gave birth to you, and then we brought you home with us.”
Claggor chewed this over before turning his attention to Vander. “Does that mean you have a baby in there?” he asked, pointing at his father’s stomach.
Vander laughed in surprise. “No baby here,” he said with a smile.
A look of disappointment settled on Claggor’s face.
“Would you like that?” Silco asked gently. “If there was another child that lived with us?”
“A baby?” Claggor asked, brightening.
“Maybe. Not necessarily.” Silco swallowed, looking over at Vander and thinking about what he’d said earlier at the agency, about his own unspoken desire for an infant. “Maybe someone around your age. Someone that you could play with. A little brother. Or maybe a sister?”
Claggor squirmed in his seat, ducking his head. There was a shy smile on his lips. Then he slowly nodded his head, eyes still cast down at the table.
Relief washed through Silco at the positive response. Claggor was a bubbly child, but he seemed to struggle being alone so much. It was one of the reasons his reaching school age was so significant.
Silco reached out to brush his fingers through his son’s hair. “Papa and I would like that, too. It won’t be happening tomorrow. But hopefully soon.”
They let the conversation hang, waiting for further questions, but none came, and eventually Claggor resumed eating his dinner with slow, thoughtful bites.
A week later, a plain government addressed letter arrived in the mail slot. Silco’s heart jumped into his throat as he picked it up, turning it over in his hands. The desire to open it right away was overwhelming, but Vander was downstairs in the bar, and it felt wrong to open it without him. Even still, he couldn’t wait, and he took the pen knife on his desk and sliced it along the fold.
He almost started crying when he read the words approved as an adoption placement on the page. Setting the letter on his desk, he wiped at his damp eyes with a handkerchief. He was just tucking it back into his pocket when the office door opened and Vander stepped inside.
“Sil? What’s wrong?” Vander asked, immediately noting the redness of Silco’s eyes and no doubt the obvious give-away that was the red tip of his nose.
Guiltily, Silco held the letter out to Vander. His husband crossed the room in a few long strides, lifting the paper from between his fingers. Silco watched as his eyes scanned over the page, eyebrows rising and the corners of his lips curling up in a smile.
Then Vander was around the side of the desk and pulling Silco out of his chair and into a crushing bear hug. “We’re gonna have another baby!” he shouted, pressing a sloppy, whiskery kiss to Silco’s cheek.
He spun Silco around in a circle, and when he set Silco back onto the floor, Vander’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “We’re gonna have another baby,” he said again, tone hushed.
Silco wiped his thumb beneath Vander’s watering eyes, and leaned in to kiss him. They stood there together, wrapped in each other’s arms, smiling and sharing kisses for several minutes before Vander pulled away.
“Shite, I came up here for something,” he said. “And now I’ve plum forgotten what it was.”
“Sorry,” Silco replied.
“Don’t you ever apologise to me for this,” Vander said, giving the letter that was still clutched in his hand a shake. “Ah, it’s fine. I’ll remember as soon as I get back downstairs.” He gave Silco one finally kiss to his forehead, setting the letter back on the desk before returning to the bar below.
Silco and Vander waited a few days before breaking the news to Claggor, needing some time to process their own excitement about this momentous event. It was as Claggor was getting ready for bed that they finally brought it up.
“Claggor?” Vander asked as Claggor settled into his bed.
“Yes, papa?”
Vander smiled warmly down at his son. “Do you remember when daddy and I asked if you’d like to have a brother or a sister?”
Claggor nodded his head, rubbing one chubby fist into his eye as he yawned.
“Well, you are. Going to have one.”
“A brother?” Claggor asked, tiredness seemingly evaporating in the face of this exciting announcement.
Vander glanced back at Silco where he hovered in the doorway before turning back to Claggor. “Maybe. We don’t know for sure yet. How does that make you feel?”
Claggor grinned, pulling the blanket up over his face.
“Would you like to come with us? When we go to meet them?” Silco asked.
Claggor nodded vigorously from beneath the sheet.
“Ok. Do you want papa to read you a bed time story?”
Claggor nodded again. He lowered the blanket from over his face which still wore a broad smile, and rolled over onto his side, tucking the blanket beneath his chin. He held Silco’s eyes as Vander rifled through the small stack of books at the end of the bed, looking for one of Claggor’s favourite.
Silco’s heart swelled as he watched his husband and his child—his little family—and imagined another kiddo laying in bed next to Claggor as Vander read to them. He remained in the doorway, listening to the cadence of Vander’s voice as he read the familiar story, making sure to do all the voices.
It would take three bedtime stories before Claggor’s excitement diminished enough for him to finally settle into sleep.
It would be another few days before Silco received a call from the agency about an appointment. There was a boy, about four years old, who Raedel had identified as a good fit based on what information they’d provided.
As promised, they took Claggor with them. He’d run straight to his room to get ready when they told him, a now familiar wide smile splitting his face. He was verily bouncing with excitement as they walked from The Last Drop to the agency, tugging at his father’s hands, urging them to go faster.
When they arrived at the agency building, they were directed to a small playroom. Claggor was quick to go to the box of toys, pulling out this and that and settling in on the floor. Silco and Vander sat on the provided sofa, watching their son play, when a few minutes later the door opened and Raedel entered with a young boy behind her. He was almost as big as she was, his soft green eyes wide as he looked around the room. He had sharp features and a thick head of dark brown hair that curled into an unruly point.
Somehow even though he wasn’t their biological child he contained characteristics of both of them. Raedel couldn’t have found a more perfect match for them if she’d tried.
“Mylo? This is Silco and Vander,” she introduced, leading the child over to where they sat.
Mylo blinked up at them, curious but obviously nervous about the strangers. His eyes flickered towards where Claggor sat on the floor watching them. He’d paused his playing the moment the door had opened.
“Would you like to go play?” Silco asked. He stood, offering his hand to the boy who looked at Raedel briefly before exchanging one hand for another. “This is our son, Claggor,” Silco said as he led Mylo over to the other boy. “Claggor? This is Mylo,” Silco said softly.
“Hi,” Claggor said shyly. “D’you wanna play with me?” he asked Mylo where he stood half hidden behind his father’s legs, gazing curiously at the toys collected around Claggor’s feet. Claggor held the block in his hand out in invitation, waiting for the boy to take it.
After a moment of hesitation, Mylo released Silco’s hand, accepting the block and settling onto the floor with Claggor. Silco was immediately forgotten as the two boys disappeared into a world of their own.
Back at the sofa, Raedel quietly shared the details of Mylo’s history. He was four and recently orphaned. His parents had worked in the mines and had fallen victim to a recent collapse. “He has no other siblings, but I think he would do well in a home with another child,” she said, smiling softly as she watched Mylo and Claggor as they played.
It was important that Mylo was a good fit for Claggor before they made any decision, and after nearly an hour, Raedel told Mylo that it was time to go.
“Bye, Mylo!” Claggor called, waving enthusiastically at his new friend as he retreated. Mylo returned the wave as he was guided reluctantly forward by Raedel.
Then it was just Silco and Vander alone with Claggor once more.
“What did you think of Mylo?” Vander asked.
“He was nice!” Claggor said, approaching the sofa and climbing between his parents.
“Would you like it, if Mylo came home to live with us?”
Claggor nodded enthusiastically. “Is he going to come home with us today?” he asked.
“Not today, no. But hopefully soon.”
There was a knock at the door, and a second later it opened to reveal Raedel. “Am I interrupting?” she asked.
“No, I think we’re okay. Claggor, can you go and pick up the toys, please? We’re going to go home in a few minutes.”
Claggor slid from the sofa and went to the play area, dutifully piling the toys spread out across the floor back into the toy box.
“Well?” Raedel asked quietly.
“Yes,” Silco said. He reached for Vander’s hand where it rested on his shoulder, giving his fingers a squeeze. “Absolutely yes.”
Raedel smiled. “I’ll get the paperwork ready.”
The actual adoption process took a bit longer than the initial application did, but in a matter of months, everything was finalized and Mylo was officially coming home.
They’d had the opportunity to meet Mylo a few more times since their initial introduction, including a couple of overnights, giving him a chance to get a feel for the home environment and to acclimate Claggor to the idea of another child in the home.
The two boys got on like a house on fire, and the nights that Mylo stayed over were nothing short of pure chaos. Even still, the joy on the two boys faces made the stress of manging the pair of them worth it. During their last visit, the week before they’d gotten the news that the adoption had been completed, Claggor had tearfully asked if Mylo could stay. Vander had assured him that he could, yes, soon, but not yet.
The two boys had exchanged a tight embrace before Mylo had left, and Claggor had pressed his face against the glass of the window, watching as Mylo was piled into the motorcar idling at the curb.
“Good news,” Vander said at dinner the night they received the confirmation. “Your brother will be coming home for good.”
“Brother?” Claggor repeated, looking up at his father with confusion.
“Mylo,” Vander confirmed, and the smile that crossed the young boy’s face was bright enough to light the room.
“Really!?” Claggor shouted.
“Really, really.”
Overcome with emotion, Claggor began to cry, fat tears streaming down his chubby cheeks.
“Oh, dear,” Silco said, dropping to his knees in front of his son. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I—” Claggor hiccuped. “I’m just ex-ex-cited,” he said around another round of sobs.
Silco wrapped his arms around the boy, holding him and letting him cry until he began to calm. When the sobbing had ceased, he eased him back, wiping at his face and kissing his cheeks.
“We’re excited, too.”