Telling the family.

The Lycan and the Vampire walked side by side down to the cottage at the edge of the woods.

As soon as Aeker was awake and ready they had made their way down here. Even now the evening was still young, the last flickers of light disappearing.

Aeker had woken up earlier than usual but was forced to wait until sundown so they could venture outside.

He clung to Aodh's hand in a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

Tired.

Aodh was tired.

Aeker had to drag him out of bed and dress him this evening. And even now he was being guided by the hand down towards his niece's place.

Perhaps she would let him sleep on the couch while Aeker told them about the good news.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

"At least try to look awake, Aodh."
The Vampire nuzzled in against his neck and kissed it softly, the Lycan looked like a zombie, stumbling around like that only half conscious.

He knew the man would be awake enough soon, Moe would probably squeal loud enough to have those drooping eyes wide open.

He would have let him sleep but not everyone in their family was nocturnal and with the babies Zeke and Moe would be heading to bed fairly early in the evenings so they didn't have much of an option.

When they were at the door Aeker reached up and knocked on the door firmly, practically holding Aodh upright.

"Fuck that."

He could look awake when he felt awake. Later in the evening. The time he usually woke up. This was far too early for him.

Aodh leaned against his fiancé, nuzzling against his chest.

"Let me sleep."

Zeke was busy in the kitchen washing the dishes when he heard someone knocking on the door.

Normally Moe washed up but the Twins had been fussing and wanting to be fed so she had run off to deal with that while he cleaned, though guests were a welcome distraction from doing chores.

He opened the front door and grinned when he saw the silver haired Vampire and a rather sleep deprived looking Aodh.

"Oh hey guys, perfect timing."
The man chuckled softly and motion the two of them in.

"Aeker been keeping you up Aodh? You look like shit."
The younger Wolf teased, his grin widening.

"We went to bed fairly early, you shouldn't be this tired."
He muttered, stroking his hand through the man's hair tenderly, planting a kiss to the top of his head.

He smiled back at the young Lycan when the door was opened led Aodh inside of the cottage.

"Evening Zeke, I hope you and Moe have been well."

He replied, guiding his Fiancé onto the couch, at least he could sit down

"I was up all f yesterday planning. And you woke me up early. Let me sleeeeep," he whined, nuzzling closer.

But, no matter how sleepy he was, he still managed to work up the effort to flip Zeke the bird when he was teased.

When he was guided to the couch, he flopped down and curled up.

If anyone wanted to talk to him, they'd have to wait until he was more awake.

"If you perk up enough for this once we head back to our room I'll make you something sweet to eat, then give you a massage so you can fall asleep for as long as you like."

Perhaps if he bargained with the Lycan enough he could get a hour of coherentness out of him so that they could tell their family the good news together.

"Zeke can you do my a favor a make Aodh a cup of coffee? I think I woke him up a little early."

He asked sheepishly looking over at the younger man as he ran his hand through Aodh's hair, trying to coax him into staying awake.

Zeke couldn't help but bark a laugh as his uncle flipped him off, classy as always.

"Moe, Aodh and Aeker are here."
He called down to his wife, loud enough that she would hear him but not too loud that it would wake the boys if they were sleeping.

He gave a small nod as Aeker asked him for the drink and padded off to make one.

He knew well enough not to wake a sleeping Lycan, Aeker should've just left Aodh asleep if that was what the Lycan wanted to do, it would make life much easier.

After a few moments he returned, hot mug in hand and placed it down on the table for him.

"What brings you two down here so early, keen to steal the pups?"

Moe looked up when Zeke called out to her.

Cinaed had dropped off to sleep immediately but Luka, as usual, was fussing. He was the little troublemaker of the two of them.

She held Luka, sighing softly as he gripped onto her hair and pulled it sharply. She was surprised she didn't have a bald patch yet. He was obsessed with long hair.

"Evening Uncle Aodh, Aeker," she greeted, giving them a bright smile as she moved to take a seat on her armchair, rocking the fussing pup gently.

"You look tired, Uncle Aodh. A little busy last night?" she asked, eyes turning to Aeker for a split second before turning to Zeke, giving him a tired little smile. "He's being a nuisance again."

"That's mean," he whined into the cushion his face was buried into.

Sleep now or sweet, massage and sleep later... Difficult decision. Very difficult decision. Why were these sorts of decisions put in front of him like this? So mean.

He pushed himself into a sitting position and made a grabby hands motion towards the coffee. He'd need it if he was going to try and stay awake for the next hour.

His eyes snapped open and turned to Moe.

Holy shit, that was an innuendo.

Since when did she get less innocent?

Zeke gave a soft sigh as he saw Luka is his mother's arms, pulling her hair and wide awake, he was being a little terror again.

He padded over and untangled his hands from Moe's hair so he stopped tugging on it.

"Cut that out little man."

He grabbed one a toy from the coffee table, a small stuffed teddy bear and gave it to the boy to play with instead.

Aeker picked up the coffee and placed it in Aodh's hands, oh well, it seemed he had won this little battle even if it meant he would be cooking and massaging the Lycan later.

"Evening Moe, looks like Luka is...well being Luka."
He chuckled, the boy was a handful, more so then his brother.

The Vampire's eyes widened a little as Moe looked at him, a slight blush spreading over his cheeks.

If she had said that any other day she would probably be right, usually they couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

"Aodh uh...got plenty of sleep, I just woke him up before he was ready to get out of bed..."
He muttered, somewhat embarrassed.

Aodh leaned back in his chair, curling up and clutching the mug close.

Still tired.

But at least he was trying to stay awake. That was better than five minutes ago.

He sipped his coffee slowly, trying to keep his eyes open.

"Dont wake a sleeping Lycan. Bad thing to do."

"Luka is always being Luka."

She nuzzled her nose against his. "Its troublesome but I think I'd get worried if he started acting as good as Cinaed."

The troublemaker in question looked up with wide 'innocent' eyes, clinging to his teddy bear. "I created that look, dear. It doesn't work on me." The cute look just didn't work on her.

She giggled softly when Aeker blushed.

"I agree with Uncle Aodh. Waking a Lycan up when they dont want to be woken up is a bad thing." She turned an arched brow to Zeke. Something he should learn. She was also a Lycan. Waking her up to go check on Luka while he spelt in the middle of the night was a bad thing to do.

"Well I wanted to catch you two before you went to bed and sadly I can't come to visit during the day when most of you are awake so it makes things difficult.

Aleksandr isn't around anywhere is he?"
The Vampire asked, he would like to tell all of their family as soon as possible, news travels fast in the coven and he wanted them to hear it directly from the two of them.

His hand rested on Aodh's knee, stroking it softly as he drank his coffee, at least the Lycan was conscious now.

Zeke held his hands up defensively when Moe shot him that look.

"Not my fault, the boy were hungry, feeding them is beyond my capabilities."

Though he knew when the boy were on solids and formula Moe would have her revenge, he would be up feeding them every morning and in the middle of the night.

"They won't be suckling forever."

They were already ageing at an incredible pace. She was sure that pretty soon they'd be on solid foods and then Zeke could wake up in the middle of the night to feed them.

"No, he's not. He went up to the mainland again." Alek had been sort of neglecting his larger pack lately. He needed to go and see them again.

"But we're more than happy to pass along any messages you have for him."

"That's a shame, I was hoping he would be here too, it would be nice to have the whole family together for this.

I'd rather you not pass on this particular message, I'd like for Aodh and I to tell him ourselves when he gets back."

The Vampire lift up his hand, the sleeve that had been covering his hands slipping away, exposing the band of platinum that was circled around his finger.

"We're getting married."
He muttered softly, hardly believing his own words, when he had woken up that night he had needed to check his hand multiple times just to make sure that the ring was really there.

"Yeah I know, best make the most of the situation until you're the one pushing me out of bed at night to feed them."

The Lycan chuckled, his silver eyes glinting in amusement as he looked down at her, yep, she was going to make him do all the feeding once they were eat solids.

His eyes widened and mouth gaped slightly as he looked at Aeker, his gaze darting between the two older men for a moment.

Aodh and Aeker were getting married? Had he heard that correctly?

"I could start being really cruel and getting you to bring them to me so I don't have to get out of bed either way."

She'd happily do that.

Her eyes snapped back to Aeker, expression stuck in a mast of shock before she jumped up out of her seat, jostling Luka and causing him to look up curiously.

"Oh, I'm so happy for the two of you!"

She deposited her son in Zeke's arms before darting to the couple sat on the couch.

She sat on Aeker's lap, wrapping her arms around both men and pulling them both into a hug.

"Who proposed? When? What is romantic? Tell me everything!"

Aodh barely had time to set his half-empty mug down before he was pulled into a hug.

He hugged her back but stayed silently as she asked question after question.

Answering questions involved thinking. He wasn't doing that while he was this tired. Aeker could answer all questions directed at them.

"You told them, can I go back to sleep now?"

Aeker chuckled when the woman perched herself in his lap and wrapped her arms around them, at which point he promptly hugged her back.

"Fine, go back to sleep, you made it this far I suppose."
He had earned a rest by being able to be a tiny bit social for a short amount of time.

"Aodh proposed to me last night, that's why he is so tired, he spent all of yesterday organizing it all.
Surprisingly your Uncle made it very romantic, something I didn't know he was capable of to be honest."

"Congratulations you two, this is awesome news."

He replied, catching his son and holding him against his chest as he pat both of the men on the shoulder before sitting on the coffee table opposite them.

"Aodh you old dog, I thought you would never settle down and get married, never picked you for the commitment type."

He added with a small smirk, he had gone this long without having children or taking a wife, so the odds were against him.

"Piss off," he murmured to his nephew as he curled against Aeker's side.

He had chosen to get married, he wasn't going to listen to Zeke tease him about it.

Aodh nuzzled closer to Aeker, falling into sleep almost immediately. He had been up a lot of the previous day and night and he really hadn't gotten enough sleep to function properly last night.

He'd be more awake in a few hours when he had had more sleep.