[for @omgcp-tropechallenge: independence day/canada day, zimbits, ~3.2k, future!fic, kid!fic; pg; cw: homophobia. super late for this one, but life keeps getting in the way of everything lately. I put a content warning on this story for homophobia because there’s an undercurrent of it running through it. it’s one of the things I’d rather be overcautious with than fuck things up for someone.]
On July 4th, Eric wakes up in his old room in his parents' house at 4:30 in the morning, blindly poking at his phone to turn the alarm off.
Flopping over onto his back, he starfishes out for a second, limbs searching for the cooler spots in the sheets.
An ache blooms behind his breastbone, heavy and suffocating, when he realizes that yeah, he's alone in bed. Of course he is.
Jack and the baby are back at their hotel, getting a good night's rest because soon his aunts and cousins will start pouring into the house to help with the food prep and baking, and Eric would like anyone to try and sleep through that ruckus. While their schedule ensures that Johnny is used to travelling, to sleeping in unknown places, he's one cranky baby if he doesn't get enough sleep. And neither of them wants to deal with the disapproval of Eric's extended family, the implied well, it sure shows that the poor darling boy doesn't have a mama.
Closing his eyes again, he breathes in the quiet of the house, the slight musty, unused smell of his room, takes his time to soak in the feeling of belonging now that no one's around to make him feel like he doesn't.