Page 4 of Anything You Want

He was already headed for the gigantic plastic bin, but Jason got to it first and carried it out of the room. He wanted Pip where he could see him, just outside the kitchen.

He made Pip help him spread out the dinosaur-print bedsheet first. Pip would inevitably tip the whole box over looking for the exact figurine or turret that he needed, and this way he wouldn’t need to worry about cleaning up.

Pip sunk down to the floor, tearing the lid off the bin as soon as Jason handed it to him. He retrieved the half-built pirate ship that they’d assembled together last time, and immediately added jet thrusters to the back end. He liked to follow the directions once, and after that, it was a free-for-all with Jedi knights serving ice cream and ninjas boarding spaceships. Preferably all at the same time.

Jason took a moment to just lean against the kitchen island and watch his boy. He was already completely absorbed, humming tunelessly while he constructed and then adding in voices and sound effects when the adventure began.

They’d been together for nearly ten years, and he loved him more every day.

It wasn’t just Pip who transformed when they spent time together this way. It was Jason, too. When he was Daddy, the rest of the world slipped away and all he had to do was take care of his boy.

And his boy was so easy to please. A plastic toy in a take-out meal made him smile for hours. A kiss made his boo-boos go away. When Pip asked for what he wanted most, it was always so easy to grant—cuddles on the couch or ice cream with sprinkles. With Pip, Jason felt like he was invincible.

He turned to the kitchen and threw some things in the oven. A frozen pizza, a tray of chicken fingers, and some sweet potato fries that he could at least pretend were somewhat healthy. After a full day at work, he was too exhausted to cook, and he’d rather spend time with his baby. Not to mention that Pip would see it as a treat.

It was too close to dinner time to bring Pip a snack, but he grabbed a juice pouch from the fridge and brought it out to the living room. Pip took it with a sweet “thank you, Daddy” and then went back to playing.

There wasn’t a better reward that he could have asked for.

Now Jason just had to shake some salad out of a bag for himself and steam some broccoli. This would be a good evening to eat in the living room, with Pip’s plate on the coffee table and Jason sitting behind him on the couch. Thank goodness that there were almost a hundred Lego TV shows, movies, and spin-offs. Jason had already seen all of them, but Pip never seemed to get sick of them, so he didn’t either.

Mostly.

He brought out dinner, eliciting shrieks of glee when he set it on the coffee table. “Pizza! And chickens! And a movie!”

Jason chuckled. What a difference half an hour of play time had meant for his baby boy. “As long as you eat your ‘trees.’” Phil usually chose healthy meals, but Pip would get away with anything that he could, so the reminder about the broccoli was necessary.

Jason sat down and settled Pip on the floor right between his legs. Where he belonged.

They ate mostly in silence, Pip watching the movie and Jason watching Pip. As soon as they both finished, he urged him into his lap. He pressed small kisses to Pip’s soft hair.

He got to fall asleep every night and wake up in the morning with Phil in his arms, but holding Pip was a completely different thing. It was pure and innocent, relaxing for both of them. Moving back to a simpler way of relating to each other.

Now that Pip seemed calm and happy, though, Jason started to think more about what might have been bothering him so he could be prepared. He’d been caught up enough in his own fears that he hadn’t given as much thought to what was going on in Phil’s life.

He couldn’t think of anything, though, at least not immediately. As far as he knew, there weren’t any major changes going on at work, except for some busy weeks. Phil’s identity and physical appearance were pretty stable now, an aspect of who he was that faded to the background.

There had been three rough years when Philip transitioned. He’d been moody from the T injections, focused on all of the surgeries and changes he could make to his body, and a bit self-absorbed as he tried to figure out his new identity. It had been a relief when Philip finally started to get called “sir” more than “ma’am” on the street and finally realized that he didn’t need to do “manly” things that didn’t fit his personality or interests to prove something.

Being his partner during those years had been stressful. It had felt sometimes like he was living with a pissed-off teenager instead of his responsible and generous husband. They’d mostly connected together again through little time, the one constant in their lives.

He wouldn’t take any of that time back, and he was honored to go on that journey with his partner—but it had been pretty rough. The past few weeks had felt like they were slipping back to the earlier days of their relationship, with Philip preoccupied and unwilling to talk about it until he figured things out.

Whatever it was, he was going to get Phil to spill all of his worries tomorrow so that he could fix them.

That was Daddy’s job.

Chapter 3

Pip

Philip woke up at 6:29, his body programmed to awaken just a minute before his alarm shut off. He rolled over and reached for his phone, but Daddy pulled him back down to the bed,

“Go back to sleep. It’s Saturday.”

Ooh! Saturday! “Can I go watch cartoons?” As soon as he realized that he didn’t need to worry about work, he let himself slip right back into little mode.

“You need your sleep, sweetheart. You’re exhausted.” It sounded like Daddy was actually the exhausted one. Pip had plenty of energy.