O'Knutzy Week Day 7: A happier (and smuttier) future. Characters belong to @lumosinlove, and thank you x3 to @oknutzy-week-2026 for organizing all of this year's wonderful works. It's such a treat every time!
TW for smut
Shower (C3)
Leo comes with a sharp cry and a moan that lingers somewhere low in his chest. It breaks over him like waves on the beach, the undertow that pulls him deeper and the gasping when he spills out the other side. Finn follows with his nose buried in the crease of Leo’s hip, wet mouth open and panting against his skin. Aftershocks spark hot and fast; he sucks a mark there, and a second. Licks at Leo’s inner thighs and the shivering mess of his lower belly, still jumping with each lave of his tongue. The hair on his thighs is soft under Finn’s hands, nearly invisible in its blondness. It’s coarser on his calves where they wrap around him while Leo tries (and fails) to catch his breath. The bedroom fan hums. Finn digs his fingertips into the thick, sun-flecked flesh joining the angles of Leo’s waist to the pert roundness of his ass. The tan line there that wraps around Leo, so fucking low, teases him—he licks that, too.
Finn loses himself in kissing his way up the rest of Leo’s body until it’s just them, in the memory of the pounding heat outside, tangled up in the kind of decadence he’s still getting used to. The drumming song in his head is only pleasure; it leaves his mouth slack when he nudges into the salt of Leo’s chest and lays all his weight down. His lips are numb. His jaw screams. Leo brings him closer when Finn gets at his throat with a touch of teeth and a puppylike snarl, and laughs, and all thought of soreness flees.
His phone pings with an all-too-familiar text tone. Leo’s fingertips press into his bare back. His knee hitches around Finn to keep him there, even as Finn raises his head to brush their noses together. Leo’s mouth is soft under his fingertips, and his eyes, blown black-blue. Finn makes himself look away to leave a kiss at his collarbone. “Your Lo’s calling.”
He feels Leo inhale, all sweet pleasure with the arch of his body against him. Finn would swear in front of any judge that that blush tastes like raspberries when he kisses each of Leo's cheeks. His brain sparks and fizzes at the thought of getting hard again this soon. It would hurt. He doesn’t care. Leo guides him up by the back of his hair until they’re eye-level again and—Finn never stood a chance—draws his thumb over the corner of Finn’s lips. “You gonna tell me what he wants?”
For one wild moment, Finn considers ignoring the text. They could go another round. Logan’s patient.
Hm. No, he’s not.
“As you wish,” Finn promises. That smile. Fucking Christ Almighty and the rest of them, too. He nestles himself between Leo’s thighs again (his hips this time, instead of his shoulders) and reaches blindly for their nightstand while grazing a few more pecks across the slight arc of his clavicle. He makes sure to mouth at Leo’s sensitive ears and the place one meets his neck, if only to keep him laughing like that. Once he’s sure Leo will survive a few seconds without being kissed, he props himself on his elbows with a groan and squints down at the screen. Leo’s clever hands slip down to hold his waist. The base part of his brain tells him those big paws could reach the whole way around. Sometimes, he thinks they should give it a shot.
"One new message from Logan Tob-oh-gan Trebamalay," he reads aloud, carding through the side of Leo’s sweaty hair where it halos him against blue cotton in the safe bracket of Finn’s forearms. “Forgot my keys. Outside.”
Leo snorts, covering his eyes with one hand. “God, Lo.”
A knock sounds at the front door. They lose themselves in giggling.
--
Logan is getting impatient.
They’re home. He checked their location twenty minutes ago, when he realized his house key was still in the bowl, and fifty-five seconds ago, when peering through the peephole gave him absolutely no clues.
The door swings open. Logan loses every thought skipping through his head like a seventy-car pileup.
“Well, hello,” Finn says, leaning his forearm on the doorway beside them. “No solicitors, please. Didn’t you see the sign?”
His hip is cocked, his bicep flexed, his abs right there for Logan to touch (he wouldn’t even have to reach far), but it’s none of that that draws Logan’s entire focus to a single pinpoint. It’s his mouth. Grinning and sharp-toothed and red. Red, red, and wet as a cherry when the thin skin first pops and leaves Finn to slurp the juice off his hand. It looks like it hurts. He could slip two fingers into the heat of Finn’s mouth and never feel a moment of friction.
Belatedly, Logan realizes Finn’s wearing Leo’s underwear. The hand not drumming along their doorframe with faux exasperation bunches the cotton and elastic over the jut of his hip.
Finn’s still sweaty. Fucking fuck.
Logan only catches a glimpse of the red hair trailing down below Finn’s navel when that hand twists in the front of his shirt and yanks him inside. His back slams the door shut behind them, and then it’s mouth and tongue and lips and mouth, hungry, nibbling at Logan between breaths hotter than the sidewalk outside. Finn licks past his teeth before Logan can beat him to it: salt, himself, and Leo. Logan’s head spins and spins. His dick throbs. He shoves both hands down the front of Finn’s—Leo’s—boxers and groans at the sticky dampness still clinging to him, swallowing down Finn’s hiss when he closes a hand around the mostly-soft length of him.
“Harzy…”
Finn’s shiver ricochets off Logan’s clinging hands. Logan can’t blame him. Leo’s demands are clear and precise even in just one word, and he nudges his nose to Finn’s cheek to kiss the corner of his smile before taking him by the hand to pull him down the hall.
The sight that greets him is—
“Fuck.”
It’s—yeah. Fuck. Logan’s brain supplies nothing else. Leo smiles up at him sweetly. The utter wreck of their bed hugs him close where he lounges, debauched, flushed from head to toe in pretty patterns with one hand propping his chin up from the pillows.
“Hi, Lo,” he says softly.
Logan hears himself make a suffering sort of noise. He looks at Finn, and with a wave of his hand only manages, “without me?”
The boxers slump dangerously low. Finn scratches the side of his nose. He still hasn’t looked away from Leo, and Logan can’t blame him. “Yeah, this was…” Finn blows out a breath. “Entirely my fault.”
“Without me?”
“We can go again,” Leo volunteers, always such a team player even when he’s looking at Finn like a goddamn lynx. Logan kind of wants those teeth to sink into his jugular, next. He has to press the heel of his palm against himself when Leo rolls languidly onto his back and flexes his ankles all the way to the end of the bed. All. The way. “Right, Harz?”
“Yeah,” Finn says immediately. “Yeah, please. Yes.”
Logan can’t think. Leo had come—on himself, he realizes, though most of the mess is gone. Finn had still been sticky, and Leo was still catching his breath, if the fading color on his face and chest said anything at all. Leo had come, and it was recent.
He doesn’t bother asking when. His pants hit the floor in a heap; he kicks his ankle free, already reaching for Leo across the short expanse of ruined sheets. Logan hears Finn curse behind him at the same time Leo cups his face in his palms and pulls him down for a deep, pleased kiss. Logan feels his chest hum and goes lax. His weight makes Leo smile, and an arm comes around his shoulders to flip them over.
“Off,” Leo requests, pushing his hands up under Logan’s shirt.
Logan’s eyes flutter shut when cool bedroom air bathes his chest. Leo’s hands are quick to follow, and his thigh slots between Logan’s so smoothly he’s already kissing the hiss from Logan’s mouth by the time it slips out. Logan grinds up against him, feeling the mattress dip when Finn joins them. He knots one hand in Leo’s mussed curls and flails the other out in Finn’s general direction. The backs of his fingers slap against skin and he hears Finn laugh, even through Leo’s low noise when he gives his hair a tug. There, there, there—
“Pull harder,” Leo mumbles into his mouth.
It quakes through Logan whip-fast. Leo’s not giving him much, but it’s everything and more. Logan can feel his quad flex and release in the smallest motions to help him along, to ease the way, to meet him where he’s at because Leo knows better than anyone how hard it is to rock against someone when you’re pinned down tight by a strong body and a loving mouth.
That thought alone gets Logan over the cusp of the first one. His hips buck; the glide smooths, and so does Leo’s grin.
“Fuck,” he grates out. “Merde, Le.”
“Keep going.” Breath, hot between them. What Finn must have done to him to keep Leo’s lips unswollen…Logan feels himself twitch, thighs clenching around Leo’s own.
He pulls back to catch his breath, though it does little when every bit of motion steals it anew. Finn’s already looking back when Logan finds him, idly splayed over the other half of the mattress like a lord or a prince of their tiny castle. Humor quirks his mouth. “Hot out there, huh?”
Logan whines.
“Pretty hot in here, too.” Finn thumbs over his cheekbone when the fireworks of Leo’s teeth on his neck make Logan groan. “Poor thing. You didn’t even get a warning.”
He’s going to come again. He can feel it, low in his belly, tingling up his legs. “What’d you—” Logan breaks to land a few desperate kisses over Leo’s mouth. “What’d you do? Tell me.”
Finn wets his lips, though he hardly needs to. Logan’s seen him like that before. It used to scour his insides with fervent envy, made worse by the rumors that dogged Finn’s reputation through their last years because he knew they were true. He’d seen half the girls, and knew about the rest. Logan had always been proud that his own name was never mentioned far behind.
Leo’s the lucky one, tonight and forever. As his second orgasm hits like a landslide, Logan’s never been less jealous in his life.
Finn pets his hair off his forehead and helps him through it with his mouth on Logan’s shoulder, his chest, the brush of a nipple, heightening the rush of Leo’s thigh pressed flush against him and his body covering Logan from top to bottom. A sigh whispers across the sweat just beading over Logan’s neck. Leo nuzzles up to the hinge of his jaw in unabashed contentment.
“He put my knees all the way up here.”
Logan shuts his eyes. The butter-thick accent is a cruelty and a blessing.
Leo sighs again, as if the memory is too good to trim down. “Didn’t get ‘em back for ages. Kept me spread open like a damn book.”
“So good…” Finn says into the crown of his head.
And isn’t that a picture.
Leo’s index finger trails across Logan’s collarbones; left, then right. Down his sternum, over his tattoo, tracing his v-line, all while avoiding his cock with tantalizing intention. Logan feels a little like he’s going to pass out if they don’t fucking do something soon—
Leo noses at his cheek and kisses his obvious delight into Logan’s upper lip. “Shower with me. Then it’s your turn.”
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 7 (again)! As always, thank you to @lumosinlovefor writing these stories, creating these boys, and for being the reason O’Knutzy week can even exist! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible! You're amazing!
See Voos Play: Eiffel Tower
Happy last official day of O’Knutzy Week 2026! I had so much fun this week! Thank you to everyone who read my works this week! Seeing everyone creating was also amazing!
If you enjoy my writing, I fully intend to continue, so follow me here on tumblr, or subscribe to my Sweater Weather-Inspired series over on ao3! I have some more stories already in the works, including a longer fic featuring these lovely boys!
Once again, thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
---------------------------------
It took Leo and Logan twenty minutes in the boulangerie to start talking in low voices in French. If it had been a casual conversation in French, Finn would just sit back and eat his madeleines (which he had reported didn’t taste nearly as good as Leo’s homemade madeleines did, to which he got the blushing reply of “you’re just used to American sugar, baby”). The French speaking didn’t bother him. They were in Paris, after all. He couldn’t really complain about it when French was all around them.
And he counted himself lucky that both his boys knew French. It had already saved him from being swept away by a group of laughing college students who simply wanted a picture with him.
But now Logan sat, anger painted on his face, which didn’t look nearly as intimidating when he had chocolate on his chin. Finn leaned in, kissing Logan’s chin and licking the chocolate off in the process. Leo gave him a small grimace, and Finn leaned over to pepper his cheek with a kiss, although he kept his tongue in his mouth for that one. Leo smiled at him and calmly waved Logan off. But Finn was still worried. Because Logan still had on his“must protect my boys” face.
“What’s wrong, Lo? What happened?” When Logan didn’t answer, instead scooting closer to Finn, taking his hand, and glaring at the cashier, Finn looked nervously at Leo.
“Lo’s angry because they’ve insulted my French.”
“Called it an American trying too hard.” Logan nearly snarled.
“And I said it’s fine, Lo. They’ve probably not heard the Louisiana French accent before. You thought it was strange the first time you heard it!”
“Your accent’s adorable, Peanut,” Finn argued. “And sexy.”
“Très mignon,” Logan added. "Et très sexy."
“But different from the norm,” Leo reasoned.
“That’s no excuse…” Logan said, moving to get up. Finn snaked his arm around him, pulling him into his side instead.
“Oh, my poor Canadian and baby Southerner. Too used to the nice people around them. I’ve heard some French people can rival even New Yorkers in their snark! Hey, I’m walkin’ ‘ere!” Finn said in a much harsher accent than he actually had. It had the intended effect, making Leo laugh and the crease between Logan’s brows ease.
“Rouge, in my short time living in New York,” Leo tensed just a bit, but they both noticed, Logan immediately running a hand down his back and landing a kiss on his cheek, “I can confidently say I never heard any New Yorker say that.”
“Well now you have!” Finn smiled at them. Then moved to get up. “Still planning on getting that chocolate croissant to go?” Logan nodded, giving him a questioning look.
“Oui, I was going to get un pain au chocolat. But not after they’ve treated Le like that.”
Leo looked ready to protest the statement once again, but Finn didn’t give him the chance.
“Let me give it a shot, huh?” And Finn was up out of his seat before they could stop him.
“What?”
“Rouge, wait!”
But Finn was already at the counter.
“Uno pan of chocolate, see voos play,” he said, grinning.
The man in front of the register’s mouth dropped open. The younger woman behind the counter muttered something like “Americain.” He grinned over at his boys, who now had their own mouths wide open in shock. Logan even looked a little embarrassed.
“Un pain au chocolat, monsieur?”
“Um, yon, I mean oh-we! That’s what I want, please, miz-your.”
When they handed him the food, he let out a “mercy boo coo!”
Then he felt a hand grab his and pull him straight out the door.
In the warm air of Paris, he grinned over at Logan, who was now glaring at him.
“Rouge, you’re going to start the next revolution.”
He laughed as he placed the pain au chocolat in Logan’s other hand, and took Leo’s hand, too. He brought both hands to his mouth for a kiss.
“Jay tem Lolo! Jay tem butter baby!”
They both winced.
“I can’t believe you did that!” Leo said, grinning at him.
“No one insults my nutter butter sunshine baby!”
They continued walking, protective tension still in Logan’s shoulders.
“Look loves, we’re not here to impress the French with our knowledge of the French language! Although I bet either of you know more than anyone here,” both boys looked about to protest, but Finn continued. “We’re here to kiss under the Eiffel Tower! Alletz go!”
And that’s just what they did.
----------------------------
I know that not everyone in France is rude, I promise!
I absolutely love reading/writing about crazyboy Finn. I love when he's overly energetic and somewhat unhinged for his boys! He loves them so much and protects in his own way, and just brings so much joy!
And finally, my final bingo card for O'Knutzy Week 2026! I really had so much fun this week!
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 7 (we made it!!!!) As always, thank you to @lumosinlove for these lovely, wonderful, fantastic boys! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible!
On Ice: Emergency
For context: This takes place after Finn and Leo have retired. Finn is a professor and Leo is a stay-at-home dad for their kids. Logan still plays hockey with the Lions!
TW: Injuries, Hospital
By necessity of the plot, this story is set in the winter time. But, who doesn’t long for a crisp winter day when it’s 100 degrees outside?
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
------------------
Leo got the call on a regular Tuesday in February, just as he’s trying to convince their two-year-old to eat his breakfast.
“Non, non, non, non, je veux pas, Daddy!” The boy pushed the plate away, arms crossing and his lip pouting out.
For as sweet as Oliver could be, his meltdowns were quite intense. Leo counted himself lucky that the boy hadn’t started sobbing yet.
Putting on his best calm voice, he tried to reason with him.
“I know, bud. But it’s all we have. We didn’t have a chance to go shopping this weekend to get the cherry yogurt.”
But, as he should have already known, he couldn’t convince the two-year-old.
“Just eat what you have so we can go to the park, Oggie!” Margo said, clearly frustrated that breakfast was taking so long.
The blond boy considered this, but then shook his head.
“Don’ like booberries.”
“How many bites, Daddy?” Margo asked, ready to negotiate with the toddler.
“How about two bites of vanilla yogurt and two slices of banana?”
“You can do that, Oggie! I bet I can finish before you can!” Margo encouraged. For a five-year-old, she was turning out to be a great cheer-leader. And she knew how to make everything into a game to entice her little brother. He could already see some competitiveness brewing in both kids. Leo smiled fondly as Oliver started picking at his food, shoving a slice of banana in his mouth.
“There you go, bud.”
Then his phone rang from where he left it on the side of the stove.
“Keep going,” he stepped away to take the call, not checking the caller ID before answering.
“Hello, is this Leo Knut?” A woman’s voice asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m calling from the Gryffindor public hospital. You’re listed as Finn O’Hara’s emergency contact. He was brought in a few minutes ago…” And Leo barely heard anything else before he was running.
------
All flavors of yogurt forgotten, he had run back to the table, trying to keep a calm voice, telling the kids they had to leave, phone ringing on his ear as he hurried to get their boots and coats on.
“Leo? Hello?”
“Yes, hi Pascal. I…” He lowered his voice, stepping slightly away as Margo helped Oliver with his coat, the boy looking nervously around him. “Finn’s been taken to the hospital. Is it alright if I drop the kids off at yours?”
“Of course.” Pascal’s voice had gotten serious, and he called out to someone on his end. Leo helped zip up Oliver and Margo’s coat before grabbing the keys and stepping out the door, Oliver’s hand in his. “Celeste is going to watch them. I’ll come with you. Do you know what happened?”
“No, all I know is that he’s unconscious and they're checking for a concussion because of his history.”
“But what about breakfast, Daddy?” Margo asked, trying her best to buckle herself into her car seat.
“I’m sure Celeste has something for you to eat there.”
There was a humming noise of affirmation on the other side of the phone.
He finished buckling Oliver in one-handed, then moved to check on Margo, who had buckled herself in correctly. He hopped into the front seat and was off, phone now connecting to the bluetooth.
“Alright, it’s going to be okay, we just need to…”
“Hey, Pascal,” Leo interrupted. “Just letting you know I switched to the speaker in the car.”
“Pépé Pascal!” Margo called from the back.
“Bonjour, mon chou, et Olivier, mon autre chou. Okay, I’ll talk once you get here, Leo.”
“Thanks, Dumo.”
About twenty minutes later, they were on the road once more, two kids dropped off, one very happy two-year-old having been presented with cherry yogurt, and Pascal now in the driver’s seat.
“Why don’t you give Logan a call. You might be able to catch him before he gets out on the ice.”
Leo nodded, glad Pascal was walking him through this as his brain felt frantic and all over the place in panic.
Pressing on Logan’s contact, he hoped that the hospital hadn’t reached him first, knowing the news might come slightly better from Leo than straight from the hospital.
Logan picked up before the second ring.
“What’s happening, mon soleil? I got a message from the hospital. I haven’t listened to it yet, but…”
“I know, it’s…” but Logan interrupted him with a completely panicked tone.
“Margo? Vivi? Mon dieu, oh God.”
“No, Lo, they’re okay. They’re fine. It’s not either of them.”
Logan’s voice now hitched with panic. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Lo, look, it’s…”
“Rouge.”
“Yeah. Something happened at work. They said he was stable, but unconscious and getting checked out for a concussion.”
He heard the breath being sucked in from the other side and a murmured curse. Then, “I’m on my way.”
“Don’t drive.”
“Non, I’ll get Alex to take me.”
“Okay.” Leo counted himself lucky that Alex was now on the Lions, along with Logan. He couldn’t imagine having to call Logan from New York with this news.
They were silent for a minute as Leo listened to Logan rushing around on the other side of the phone, panicked voice calling out to Alex. Then he was back, and Leo felt his heart slow a little.
“Are you there? At the hospital?”
“Almost. Pascal’s driving me there right now. Dropped the kids off with Celeste.”
Logan’s voice was muffled once more as he said something to someone on the other side, presumably Alex or Arthur.
“Are you okay, Le?” Logan sounded like he was in the echoes of the locker room, probably pulling off his skates and grabbing his bag.
“I already told you, I’m not the one…”
“Non, Le. I know you’re not hurt, but are you alright?”
Leo paused at that.
One would think that after having seen someone hurt so many times, feeling that heart-wrenching, breath-catching panic, that it would get easier to see. To feel. To experience.
But it wasn’t.
And this was somehow worse.
In hockey, there was always a chance that players would get hurt. It came with the territory of the game. It was a risk they all chose to take each time they stepped out on the ice.
But Finn had retired. He was supposed to stop getting hurt. Was supposed to be safe.
“Um, not really,” Leo heard himself say. Then shook the thoughts away. “Um… I mean… I’ll…I’ll be okay once I see that he’s okay.”
“Oui. Oui, je sais, Le. I understand. Hold in there, I’m coming. Stay on the phone, d’accord? Stay on the phone until I’m there with you. Until you see that he’s okay, ouias? Stay on for me?”
“Yes, okay. I’m staying.”
“Good, Le. That’s good.”
-----
Finn turned out to be completely okay, other than a sprained wrist and no concussion, but a nasty bump on the back of his head that had been bandaged.
“I told them I don’t remember hitting my head. But I must have, huh?” He asked as Logan and Alex rushed in the room.
“Rouge,” Logan gasped, collapsing at his side, and Alex looked on from closer to the doorway.
“I like your shirt. Why are you wearing all that hockey stuff, huh?” He glanced at Alex. “Hey, aren’t you a Ranger?”
When Leo had entered, Finn had been confused as to why he was there, telling him he should be at hockey practice, something that Leo hadn’t participated in in five years. Leo had had to check with the nurse to confirm that the confusion wasn’t from a concussion, but was rather from the pain meds he had been given for his wrist.
Logan glanced at Leo in confusion, but he shook his head, reaching over from his spot on the bed next to Finn to squeeze Logan’s shoulder.
“Pain meds.” Logan nodded in understanding, but didn’t look all too settled.
“Rouge, are you okay? What happened?” Logan said, kissing Finn’s cheek. Leo had been debriefed by the nurse when he got there, hanging up the phone only when he realized the connection wasn’t working on one of their ends. But by that point, Logan had been nearly there.
“Hey, you missed my lips, LoLo!” Finn said, turning his head and jutting out his jaw. Logan frowned, still looking extremely nervous. He settled a soft kiss on Finn’s lips, then asked again. “Tell me what happened.”
“Fell.” Logan looked to Leo and Pascal, who was sitting at the couch in the corner of the room.
“The nurse said that he slipped and fell on campus, knocked his head on some ice, and he was unresponsive. They said the unconsciousness was because of his multiple past concussions.” Leo said, trying to remember all that the nurse had told him. “And he has a sprained wrist.” Logan glanced down at the wrapped up appendage, giving it a soft kiss and then moving back to look at Finn.
“Can’t take you anywhere, huh?”
“I slipped!” Finn said, suddenly. “On ice!” Then he began laughing, starting off softly, and then moving to be huge rolls of laughter, mixed with some words. “ On ice!” “Used to…hockey!” “I slipped!”
“Is he…good?” Leo asked, glancing at Alex, who looked less freaked out than the rest of them.
“He’s done this before. His first concussion. Found it hilarious that he knocked into the goalpost.” Leo winced and saw a matching look on Logan’s face. “Might just be the shock and painkillers mixed together. Or my baby brother’s officially lost it.” He stepped closer, now leaning over Finn. “Hey, Fish. What’s so funny?”
Only then did Finn stop laughing and glanced up, staring at them, beaming.
“I played hockey for years and years and years, and I was a professional athlete and now I’m still slipping all over the ice as a professor! Ice has bested me once again!” He laughed again. “Really miss my pads. And my helmet.” He reached back to feel the bump on his head, but Logan stopped him, gently grabbing his injured wrist.
“Mmm-hmm.” Leo said, not completely convinced that Finn was okay.
“Please be more careful, mon poisson,” Logan said, kissing Finn’s cheek once more.
“Yes, please, Harz,” Leo said, returning a kiss on the other side.
“Anything for you, mine LoLo and mine sole-eel.”
“And on that note of français abominable…I’m going to get you some ice water, Finn. Anyone need anything else?” Pascal asked, stepping toward the door
This set Finn off once more, the red head dissolving into giggles muttering “ha, ice water.”
“It is not that funny, Rouge.”
Leo just snuggled into Finn’s side, glad that his boy was okay.
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 6 (again)! As always, thank you to @lumosinlove for writing these stories and triggering my current hyperfixation! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible!
A Cluster of Kittens: Stray Pets
For context: This takes place after Finn has retired (he’s a teacher).
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
--------------------------
Leo felt Finn take his hand, pull it to his mouth, soft lips brushing over it.
“You look so lovely in the dusk, sunshine.” Leo smiled and Finn turned to his other side, swinging his hands in the process. “And you, Lo. Made for the sunset.”
“Flirty tonight, rouge,” Logan said, bumping Finn, causing him to bump into Leo.
They were walking home for once. It was a nice night, and it was a short walk from the bar back to their apartment.
“When is he not?” Leo asked, earning a kiss to the neck.
The conversation turned to hockey soon after, with Logan and Finn debating how the game could have gone even better. Even though Finn had retired the year before, he came to every home game and some away, when his teaching breaks allowed.
“No, Lo. I don’t think that it was possible to pass then…” And Leo sighed.
“No more, please!” They both looked at him with knowing looks, used to this conversation by now. “I just want a quiet night. No more hockey talk. Please.”
Finn gave him a mischievous look, eyes glinting in the streetlight.
“Oh, you want a quiet night, huh?”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be that…” But a sound cut him off. At first, he didn’t know what he was hearing. Some sort of cry. Coming from the alley.
He stopped abruptly.
Was that a baby crying?
“Peanut?”
“Buerre?”
But Leo shushed them as he crept closer to the alley, and he heard the rustle of his boys following close behind.
“Um, mon cœur, I don’t think it’s the safest…”
“Do you hear that, Lo?” He paused once again. The crying sound was now coming from his left. It sounded too faint and high pitched to be a baby. And now the sound was joined by multiple other cries.
Leo fumbled in his pocket, but Finn was one step ahead, holding out his phone flashlight.
“Oh.”
In front of them sat a thin-looking adult cat. And she wasn’t alone. Six kittens surrounded her, all crawling over each other and mewling up at them.
“Oh, hello.” Leo leaned down, and one of the cats, a light tan one, crawled immediately to the hand he had put out. He immediately picked it up, cradling it to his stomach. It snuggled up to him, Leo assumed he was probably warm, as it started purring.
And now he found himself sniffling. Because they all looked so small. And they had nowhere to go. And the mama cat was all alone. And it was just gonna get colder. And…
“Oh, peanut, it’s alright.” Finn said, leaning next to him. Logan followed.
He felt arms come around him and he leaned into Logan’s grip.
“W…we can’t just leave them here. Th…they need help.”
“Of course we’re not going to just leave them!” Finn said, as if the idea were ridiculous. And it was. None of them would just leave them here. “We’ll take them to a shelter.”
Leo felt himself sniffing again. All the shelters would be closed for the night. And then they’d be separated from their family.
“C’est bon, soleil. We’re gonna take care of them now.”
Logan stood up, and he and Finn glanced around, their eyes settling on a box near the recycling.
“Here,” Finn said, setting the box down. “We’ll put them in this. Get them home and warm, and in the morning, we can take ‘em to the shelter.”
Leo agreed, and not five minutes later, they were walking through the street, now with six cats in a box that Finn had insisted he would carry (“you two already worked hard tonight. My turn.”)
“Not sure Rory’s gonna love to have cats around. It’s probably best if we keep ‘em somewhere contained for the time being,” Leo said, trying to sort out the logistics. He still had one of the cats in his arms. The little tan one that had curled there and not wanted to leave.
“Of course, I can go in first and distract him while you two set them up somewhere,” Finn said.
When they got home, Finn did just that, keeping their over-excited dog out of the front hall as Leo and Logan went straight through to the guest bedroom.
The kittens mewled, unsure of where they were or what was going on. Leo slowly set the fast asleep tan kitten in with the rest, quickly running downstairs for a paper bowl for water and rustling through their closet, finding a can of tuna that would do. Back in the room, Logan was sitting by the box, having set a few old towels around in case they wanted to use them.
Unsure about how she’d like it, Leo tentatively let the mama cat smell him before reaching for her, taking her out of the box. She was luckily obliging, especially after he opened the can of tuna, letting him set her down on an old towel and give her the water and food. The kittens mewled some more, but were too little to climb out of the box.
“You’re okay, babies. Your mama’ll be right back,” Leo said, reaching into the box to pet at their little heads. The tan one came up, sniffing his hand, and nuzzled into it, purring. The two black ones sat next to each other in one corner, clearly frightened, while the black tuxedo, gray tuxedo, and fluffy orange ones all walked around, still mewling. Logan took his phone out, snapping a few pictures of them.
“What are we going to do with you guys?” He asked no one in particular.
-----
Twenty minutes later, after the mama had finished eating and the kittens had settled in next to her, now on an old blanket set inside the box, the boys decided to head to bed.
“We’ll take ‘em to the vet tomorrow to make sure they're all healthy. Then we’ll decide what to do from there.”
They would decide if they were going to take them to a shelter or not. Leo still didn’t like the idea of the cats being separated. But, he knew realistically that no one was going to take in seven cats.
“Hey, Le, baby. No need to look so worried, we’ve got this,” Finn said, kissing the side of his head, his boys now leading him to bed.
An hour later, after his boys had gone to sleep, he was still awake/ Which wasn’t unusual. But he could swear he heard mewling. But maybe it was all in his head. He turned over, closing his eyes to try to drift off.
But ten minutes later, he sighed, not wanting to wake his boys with his tossing and turning. He would just get up, get water, maybe check on the cats, and then try to sleep once more.
But the sight of the cats, all tired and sleeping peacefully, except one, made his heart melt. It was the tan one that had nuzzled his hand. It was wandering around, clearly wanting to explore the small box. Maybe it had insomnia, too. At that thought, Leo quickly plucked it up in his hands, holding it to his chest.
“Can’t sleep, little one?” He asked in a hushed whisper, sitting down, back against the side of the guest bed. “Me neither. It’s okay, we can stay awake together.” The cat just sat on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck, purring. Leo closed his eyes, relaxed by the soft purr coming from the kitten.
-----
“Baby baby, wake on up!” Finn’s voice drifted into his ear and Leo opened his eyes, moving, and groaning as his back creaked.
“Oh yeah, soleil, your back’s gonna hurt,” Logan said, wincing with him as he rubbed circles on it.
“Did I…” Leo yawned. “Oh. I fell asleep.”
“Ouais.”
Logan smiled at them as they pulled him to his feet. Then he panicked.
“The kitten!” What if it fell when he had gotten up. Where had it gone?”
But Finn pointed behind him at the guest bed where the tiny kitten was curled up. It must have climbed his body and gone on the bed. Thank goodness it hadn’t fallen down.
Leo gently took the cat, setting it back in with its siblings, all now mewling at their mama, hungry and wanting milk.
“Sorry we had to get you up so early on a day off, soleil. But, it’s vet time. Reg said if we come in before seven, he can have a look at them.” The advantages of having a friend who was training to be a vet.
“Alright.”
A twenty minute drive later, they were being ushered into a room by Regulus, who looked at the cats, face softening slightly. Leo, who had learned much about him since they had become friends a few years ago, knew that he had a soft spot for animals, especially baby animals.
“Wow, a whole cluster!” Reg said, taking each cat out one at a time, examining them. The kittens wriggled and squirmed, the mama cat perfectly calm. “Well, it seems like you’re lucky. All the little ones are healthy, and mama cat is, too. Makes me think that the previous owners might have dumped them, and quite recently.”
Leo stared in horror at the implication that anyone would just dump tiny kittens that they didn’t want.
“Do you know yet what you’re going to do with them? I know a good shelter.” But Finn shook his head.
“No, we’re going to reach out to the team, see if anyone’ll take ‘em first.” They had discussed on the way here, deciding that was the best course of action. “Until then, we’ll keep them with us. Can they be adopted at this age?”
“Theoretically, yes. I’d put their age at about eight weeks old. They should be transitioning to solid food. But once you’ve weaned them, they can be separated from the mother.”
Then Regulus told them the process of encouraging weaning before sending them on their way, requesting that they text if they need any help.
-------
For the next week, they worked on weaning the kittens, and worked on getting their families and friends to adopt them. Logan had insisted that they not mentioned anything about the cats to Pascal, and had requested the team not to let Pascal catch wind of it, clearly planning something. They received many varied responses.
In the week they had had the cats, Finn and Logan had already begun calling the two black cats Sirius Jr. and Regulus Jr., trying to get Sirius to take in the stray pets. Sirius seemed to be interested, but Remus had reminded them that “It’s not a good time to ask. We can’t take one right now. Not with the baby on the way.” Which was completely understandable. He told them he’d ask the rest of the Lupin family, though. They had an older cat, and he told them there was a high probability that they’d say yes.
The Potter family had a similar explanation of not needing anymore chaos in the house at the moment. With three young kids, they completely understood.
Coach Weasley, who clearly didn’t ascribe to the same sentiment after seven kids of his own, told them that he would be interested in taking one of them. After all, as he had told them, “what’s one more animal in this house?” His two youngest, Ron and Ginny, really wanted a kitten, and he told them he was also hoping to teach his twins some responsibility.
Logan, after a day spent with Celeste and Katie, told them not to offer the orange one to anyone else, as he had plans for it.
Kuny had agreed to take the mama cat, saying she would go nicely with the other calm cat he had at home.
And by then, they had run out of people on the team to ask. With three of the seven cats accounted for, they turned to their families. Finn told them that he couldn’t ask Alex and family, because Alex was allergic, which had started a conversation about the fact that Finn had also begun developing allergy symptoms to the cats. Itchy red eyes, a stuffy nose, lots of sneezing. Logan had insisted that Finn stop touching the kittens, but Finn had refused, stating that it “wasn’t that bad,” and “they’re too cute to resist!”
“Well, we’ve got four of the cats accounted for,” Logan said after another sneezing fit from Finn.
“Four?” Leo asked, petting the tan cat that was once again in his lap, sure that he had counted correctly. He plucked the kitten up, setting her against his neck, where she nuzzled in, purring. “Only three. Kuny, Arthur, secret Dumais cat.”
Leo finally looked up to see his boys both smiling at him.
“What if we kept one?” Finn said.
“What?” Leo was taken aback. Especially coming from Finn, who wiped at his nose. “But you’re allergic!”
Finn waved him away.
“That one’s so attached to you. It’s only fair that she gets to stay,” Logan said. “Finn and I have discussed it. You agreed to get a dog with us. We want to get a cat for you.”
It had been a debate when they first decided to get a pet. They had eventually decided on a dog, Finn having just retired and needed a new outlet. Rory was a rescue dog, and had been a good amount of work for them. But it had been the right time to get a dog with Finn’s more flexible schedule, and Leo had been happy about the decision. But he had also wanted a cat, so his boys had promised him that, eventually, they’d also get a cat, once things settled.
Leo’s eyes filled with tears and he moved to kiss his boys, but the little cat got unsettled by his movement, so he sat back, petting her once more. At the silence coming from his boys, he looked up.
“Being a dad looks really good on you,” Finn said, a mushy look in his eyes. “Love you in dad-mode.”
“They’re cats, Fish,” Leo reminded, rolling his eyes and feeling himself blush.
“Still.”
“Best cat dad, then,” Logan piped up. “Seeing you being so…parental, buerre, it does things to me.”
“Not you, too. I’ve told you before that we’re not ready for kids.”
“Oui, je sais. But we can still enjoy you being a cat dad, non?”
“You’re really okay with keeping her?” He looked into both their eyes, making sure they were sure before he let himself get excited.
“Of course!” Logan said, coming over to give his cheek a kiss.
“She was ours the moment she climbed into your arms and refused to leave, Le,” Finn said, coming up to his other side.
Leo smiled, tears in his eyes once again.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He peppered kisses on their cheeks and his boys chuckled.
“We’ll love her, too. Even if you’re clearly her favorite.” Finn said, then turned to sneeze.
“And I’ve got a name suggestion, but I can’t take credit for it. You’ll have to thank Katie for this one.”
----------
Eventually, discussions moved to what they wanted to do with the three remaining cats. Neither of Leo’s, Logan’s, or Finn’s family felt able to take in a cat at that time.
“I…know I said we don’t want to split them up. I want them to be with family, but…” Leo reasoned with himself. He knew realistically that the cats weren’t going to be together anymore, but having them adopted by people that he thought of as family helped.
“Let’s not give up quite yet. Remus still has to talk to his mom. And I’ve got one more person we can ask,” Finn said. “But maybe you should text him, because after all these years, I think he still likes you the best,” he told Leo.
Two minutes later, he sent a text.
Leo
Hey, we have three more cats to be adopted
are you interested in taking in “Sirius Jr.” and
or “Regulus Jr.”?
He received a reply a few minutes later.
Regulus
I’ll consider it if you convince your boys to
stop calling them that right now.
Leo laughed, relaying the information to said boys.
------
It was a week later, the week they were finally sending the kittens to live with their new families, when Logan finally let them in on the plan with the Dumais cat.
“So Celeste and I are surprising him for his birthday with an orange kitten that looks like one he had from his childhood. He still keeps a picture of him in his wallet.”
At the party, they got to watch Logan and the Dumais kids, who had somehow successfully kept it a secret, present the cat to their dad, whose eyes had widened, filling with rare tears. An instant later, he was up and hugging Logan to him.
“A good surprise, mon fils.”
------
Two days later, the Lupins had come to pick up their kitten, the little black tuxedo.
A day later, Kuny and Arthur got theirs, followed by Regulus, who picked up the cats formerly known as Sirius Jr. and Regulus Jr.
Which just left them with their new kitten, a perfect end to their little kitten adventure.
-------------------------
One month later
Group Chat: Kitten Cluster
Leo
The boys request kitten pictures!
Kuny
Princess Leia, not so happy in costume. But brother Luke will save her.
Arthur
Scabbers causing trouble, as usual. Very happy with himself.
Hope
Socks, who was getting alone with her older brother for once.
Regulus
Nova and Astra, Sirius and Remus's two favorite nieces (maybe besides Socks).
Pascal
Simba, very proud of himself.
Leo
Love all the pictures! Here’s Nala, our sweet girl!
-----------------
Thanks for reading!
I just had to add kitten pictures at the end! These were all just pulled off the internet, if you were wondering where they were from (all credit to...Google I guess). I love cats so much, hence my profile picture! I hope you enjoyed!
The idea of Regulus being a vet is completely based off of rxgulus's work over on ao3! Go check them out!
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 6! As always, thank you to @lumosinlove for the amazing stories that totally ruined my sleep schedule when I first discovered them (and I loved every second of it)! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible!
Going Swimmingly: Freckles, Hometown, Solstice
For context: This takes place after Finn and Leo have retired. Finn is a professor and Leo is a stay-at-home dad for their kids. Logan still plays hockey with the Lions!
Featuring the three O’Knutzy kids: Margo, Oliver, and Emilie!
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
----------------------
“Sunscreen, lifejacket, yes you need to wear a lifejacket even though I know you can swim, and then make sure Papa has the diaper bag and remind Dad to grab the picnic lunch,” Leo said as Margo asked once again if they could “please go now.”
Her face, which had freckled tenfold since the summer began, turned into a look of concentration as she repeated the list, running back inside.
“No, Millie, yucky!” He said, as he glanced to the side, grabbing the one-year-old from where she sat next to her brother, pulling a stray bit of grass out of her mouth. “Ollie, did you grab your swim goggles?”
“I don’t wanna swim, Daddy.”
“You might change your mind once we’re out there.”
“No, Daddy!”
Oliver was a sweet kid, but when it came to something he didn’t want to do, like swimming, he stood firm and got stubborn and grumpy. Leo and Finn swore it was a habit he had picked up from Logan. Logan argued that he had not necessarily been a sweet kid, which had been confirmed by his sisters.
Leo sighed, taking a breath to regain his patience, as he often did since becoming a father. It was taking longer to get three kids ready to go out on a boat than the actual time they’d be on said boat.
“G’mornin’ my Lelo and my Ollie Bug and my Emmy Lou!” Leo sighed with relief as dirty blond hair came into view through the front door.
Thank God.
“What do you need from me?” Eloise Knut asked as she looked up from kissing the kids good morning, noticing the look on his face.
“I…could you hold Millie? I need to check and see what’s taking the boys so long.” She opened her arms, more than happy to take her granddaughter onto her hip as Millie cooed.
“Last I heard, Wyatt and Logan were looking for a missing lifejacket. I didn’t see Finn or Mags.”
“Alright. Ollie, are your goggles in the swim bag?”
Oliver shrugged, avoiding eye contact. His fear of swimming was worrying, especially since he had refused to learn and he was about to turn five years old. Then the boys was instead distracted by a heron flying overhead.
“Grandmama, look!”
Leo sighed once again, stepping into the house. Nearly running face first into Finn, leading Margo out of the house, bags slung on his shoulder.
“Sorry, Daddy,” Margo said, giving him a hug around the middle, then side stepping him to go hug her grandma.
“Yeah, sorry, nutter butter,” Finn said with a grin. Then his brows furrowed. “What’s wrong, you look stressed?”
“I…this parenting thing is hard,” a phrase that they often used to mean I’m at the end of my rope here.
“Oh, Le. How can I help?” Finn put the bags down, circling Leo into his arms. “What do you still need to do before we leave?”
“You want a list?” Leo asked a bit sarcastically, but Finn nodded.
“Actually, yes. I want to help and your brain’s so organized all the time. You always know what everyone needs. We’d be a total mess without you.” Leo blushed, rolling his eyes a bit at the praise. Although it was making him feel a little better.
“Alright. I have to find Oliver’s goggles. I think they’re in the swim bag, but he also might have hidden them as an excuse not to swim. And then I think I forgot Millie’s baby sunscreen, and you know how her skin is.”
“Soft and sensitive, like a baby, and just like our Logan,” Finn supplied.
“Right. And I don’t know if my mama packed drinks in the truck. And then…” Leo looked down. There was one other thing. “Oh yeah, I need my own swim suit.”
“Okay, I’ll look for the goggles and make sure we have drinks. You grab the baby sunscreen and your own swimsuit. And maybe get Lo and your dad down here if possible. Okay?”
“Okay, thanks Fish.” Finn grabbed his face and placed a kiss on his forehead. “And tomorrow, your parents are bringing the kids to that festival, and we can have the day to ourselves to relax because we’re on vacation!” Leo smiled. He loved the kids. So much. But it would be nice to have his parents take them out so they could have a quiet morning in. Or, as Finn and Logan had insisted, maybe a not-so-quiet morning in.
It had become a nearly yearly tradition for them to visit his family near the summer solstice. There were a bunch of festivals in New Orleans to celebrate the solstice, including a fair that his parents would be bringing the kids to tomorrow. But today, as much as he may be regretting it, he had promised them they could go out on the boat.
---
When they were finally, finally out the door, and about to board the boat, Logan gave him a kiss on the side of his head, running one hand along his face, gaining his attention.
“Is your sunburn feeling okay? Your face is very red today.” Then he turned to the boy in his arms. “Did you steal all the sunscreen for yourself, Vivi?”
Oliver laughed.
“No, Papa. You’re silly!”
Luckily he was in a better mood now.
“Are we going to get you out in the water today, huh?”
Oliver shook his head. Logan nodded. They wouldn’t ever force him to swim. But they could at least hope to get him in the water.
Finn came up to them, bag in one arm and Millie in the other, now wearing her strawberry sunhat.
“Aw, Margo’s old hat! Une autre petite fraise!” Logan gave her cheek a kiss.
“Okay, all. Onto the boat!” Wyatt called out. As Margo ran ahead to be the first on, Oliver wiggled to get out of Logan’s arms to run after her. They had somehow wrestled him into his life jacket, and also convinced Margo to wear hers. Small victories. “Careful now, we don’t want anyone slipping. We don’t need you matching your Daddy in that way!” Wyatt called as he steadied the kids with a hand up into the boat.
Although Wyatt hadn’t been around to see the incident that had led to Leo’s gray spot, his mama had mentioned it often enough, reminded each time they got on a boat. He had been about the same age as Oliver was now, but certainly much more excited about the swimming aspect, trying to jump off the side of the boat but slipping and knocking his head on the way down. Luckily, he had been wearing a life jacket and his mom had easily fished him out of the water, spluttering and crying. He had been taken straight to the hospital, reinforcing the importance of boat safety to all of the adults and his two cousins who had been there to see it happen.
“C’est exact, fais attention,” Logan called, hurrying after the kids. Logan smiled, taking the baby from Finn’s arms, kissing her to a shriek of “Daddy!” as they made their way toward the boat.
“We need to get some sunscreen on you, Mils. Just because you might just tan like your Papa, you still need to wear sunscreen.” Which reminded him. “Did Lo put some on?” He asked as Finn helped steady his arm as he climbed onto the boat.
“No idea. I put some on Margo and Ollie in the car.” Finn helped him settle in a seat with Millie on his lap, babbling away. “Hey, Lo!” Finn called him over, asking if he had sunscreen on, and looking a bit guilty, Logan shook his head, taking the bag and fishing through it. He held out the baby sunscreen and then found some of the regular stuff.
Finn knelt in front of him and began putting some on Millie’s face, and she sputtered and began whining.
“Non!” She turned her face into Leo’s shoulder, crying out once again. “Non!”
Leo adjusted her, but she kicked out her feet and flailed her arms, catching a particularly sunburned part of his face, making him hiss out.
“Ici, soleil.” Logan gently plucked her up, then cooing and attacking her cheek with kisses, Finn was able to get some sunscreen around her arms and legs. Then Logan held her out and Finn quickly got her face before giving her a quick kiss on her cheek himself, standing back up straight and landing one on Logan’s jaw line.
“Ah, sunscreen!” Finn said, wiping at his mouth.
“You literally saw me put it on. Don’t know what you expected, rouge.”
They all took a seat as Wyatt started up the boat.
“Wait, did you put on sunscreen, Le?” Logan asked.
That was a good question. He supposed in the rush to leave, he didn’t get a chance to. His face must have said it all, because then he was being attacked with cold sunscreen hands on his face.
“No more Lobster Leo allowed!”
“Papa, Dada, Daddy, when can we swim?” Margo asked, coming up to them and leaned onto his lap, Oliver beside her.
“As soon as we get to a good stopping point. Probably a few more minutes, punkin.”
“Will you swim wif us?” Oliver asked and Leo’s heart soared with hope.
“Of course, bud. Are you going to try it?”
Oliver nodded, tentatively. Leo’s heart soared with relief.
“But you hafta hold on. I don’t wanna go under.”
“Of course we will, Ols. You’ll be safe with us,” Finn said, grabbing the boy and pulling him into his lap.
“Dada! You’re gross and sweaty! An’ it’s too hot!” Oliver’s curls were already sticking to his head in a way that Leo could guess his probably were, as well. Although he hadn’t lived in Louisiana for awhile, he was still used to the heat after spending 18 summers there. But Oliver was much like his Papa with respect to the extreme heat, Logan already looking miserably hot from his spot on a boat seat.
“Okay, okay,” Finn let go. “Maybe this summer, we can sign you up for your big boy swim lessons, huh?”
They had held off for another year last year, the pool offering parent and child lessons up to four-years old. And Oliver had been terrified of the water. It was an activity that Logan often did with the kids during his time off from hockey, and Emilie had been too little to start hers. But this year, they were hoping to get him in beginner independent lessons. This interest in swimming gave them hope.
“An’ you hafta protect me from alligators! I don’t want them to chomp off my toes!”
Leo glared slightly at Finn, this new fear of Oliver’s coming from one small comment from Finn that he needed to wear shoes in the yard so that the “alligators won’t chomp off your toes.”
Finn didn’t meet his eye, looking a little guilty, but said, “I promise we’ll be right there. Your Daddy’s a professional alligator wrangler, not to mention your Grandmama!”
“Really?” Margo asked, perking up, and glancing at Eloise, who was now steering the boat.
Leo laughed.
“You can ask her.” This had the two running off to ask, and Eloise caught them up in a hug, and an excited look, having Wyatt take the wheel as she told them a story about an alligator.
“We don’t want alligators chomping up your toes, hey Millie?” Finn said, now miming chompers with his hands, tickling her feet as she squirmed and squealed.
“Dada! Dada!”
Leo leaned back, watching the sun peak between the clouds.
Ah, what a summer this was turning out to be.
--------------------
Thanks for reading!
Just as a sidenote, I headcanon that Wyatt is actually Leo’s step-dad. Background on this: When I was originally reading SW/Vaincre and fanfics based off of them, I saw a lot about mama’s boy Leo and I thought that Eloise was a single mom. So when I found out Wyatt existed, I decided that (in my headcanon) Wyatt is Leo’s step-dad and has been since Leo was about 12 (Leo’s never met his bio-dad, and he calls Wyatt “Dad”). I also liked the idea of Eloise Knut being a single mom for years, raising a completely self-sufficient, loving, (and also adorable) mama’s boy.
I’m curious to hear any thoughts about this, as well!
O'Knutzy Week Day 6: Finn's torment nexus; or, pretty little green eyes and the sea. Y’all ever been so tired you have a breakdown over something that happened a decade ago? Characters belong to @lumosinlove, fest prompts from @oknutzy-week-2026!
Hometown (B3)
It was 3 o’clock in the morning, and Finn was awake.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen that hour tick over. College, maybe. He almost hadn’t believed it when he checked his phone.
His heart still pounded, low in his stomach, low enough that he could feel it when he ran a hand from his sternum to his navel and back again. God. Fuck. He could feel it in his throat, too, clenching and releasing. He didn’t want to move; Logan was cuddly tonight, curled so tight to the side of Finn’s body that there was no way to get up and walk this clinging thing off without waking him. No way at all.
Finn laid his head back on the pillow and tried to breathe it out. Leo, at least, was asleep. He could hear it in the slow inhales from the other side of the bed. Logan’s arm was a concrete bar over Finn’s stomach, his thigh weighing both of Finn’s legs down. His lips were slightly parted. Soft hair tickled Finn’s nose where Logan had burrowed into him.
“Lo.”
The smallest, slightest hitch of breath.
Finn lowered his voice and trailed his knuckles up the ridges of Logan’s bare back. “Lo.”
Logan mumbled something, lashes fluttering. His nose nudged under Finn’s jaw. A long exhale cooled Finn’s skin, still damp with sweat.
“Logan,” he whispered, and bent to kiss Logan’s forehead. Warm as always. Their little radiator. “Lo, hey. Hey.”
Logan was awake between one breath and the next. Sleepy green eyes blinked up at him; his brow furrowed, cheeks pink at the top. He’d been deep under. Finn would feel bad about it later, but he waited patiently for Logan to look down at their tangled bodies and back over his shoulder at Leo. Could Logan feel his heart skittering away? He hoped not.
He hoped so.
“Too hot?” Logan asked, already starting to unwind his arm from Finn’s torso. He was still disoriented enough to drop the ‘h’. Something inside Finn heaved at the familiarity. A kiss bumped against his cheek, though it was more of a fond nuzzle than anything more. “Sorry, baby.”
“Hey, wait.”
Logan sat up on one elbow.
Finn didn’t know. He just didn’t know. He tugged at the drawstring of Logan’s shorts. “Can we…?”
The sleepy blur was gone. Logan glanced down. “Now?”
“No, no, I…” Finn shook his head. He didn’t know. “Not that. Can we go outside?”
Logan looked toward the window, then back at him. “Outside?”
Finn fought down a small shiver and tucked his feet deeper under the blankets. “Yeah. Just—just for a minute?”
That look. He’d died for that look, once. The closeness, the focus. He’d felt it burn right through him from every angle of every room they entered.
“Okay,” Logan said slowly, quietly. He cast one more glance at Leo’s slumbering shape. “It’s early.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re awake.”
Finn didn’t have to answer. Logan wasn’t looking for one—his face said plenty. He knew. Finn twisted the drawstring around his first two fingers and pulled. Logan’s mouth fell into a gentle frown, but he helped Finn ease the covers back and slipped out of bed behind him.
It was cooler in the living room. Finn poured himself a glass of water, though he didn’t really want it. The coldness on his palms helped. He could feel Logan behind him, lingering in the space between the kitchen and the sofa. He downed the water in two gulps, then refilled the glass, bracing both hands on the sink in the meantime. He just had to get a fucking grip.
A hand found the small of his back and Finn’s throat tightened. He looked away, to the side, to the safety of the key bowl by the front door and their haphazard shoe pile. He’d organize that in the morning. Maybe tonight, if he couldn’t make his mouth work.
“Fish?”
“Yeah,” he managed, rough. Logan’s thumb, rubbing tiny circles over his skin, stopped. Finn nodded. “Yeah, c’mon.”
Logan followed. His shadow, even in the dark.
The city was still up. Cars and people, lights in the distance. Finn abandoned his water on the tiny mosaic table by the balcony doors and let Logan close it behind them. The railing bit into his forearms. It was still mild, for June. Someone had pinned a pride flag to the complex across the street already. A siren wailed down Main, ten blocks down. If they were in New York, he would’ve taken them out onto the fire escape outside his bedroom window. His bedroom. Not Logan’s.
Tentative hands on his hips lost their hesitation when Finn didn’t flinch away, wrapping around him from behind. Comfortable weight against his back; a head resting between his shoulders. “You’re hot.”
“Thanks.”
Logan’s little puff of disapproval made him smile despite himself. He ran a hand over Logan’s forearm, though his palms were probably cold. Maybe Logan would like it. He didn’t know. He hoped so. Logan liked the cold, even when it bit and howled and threatened to pull them both under.
“Is it bad news?”
Finn shook his head. “Just needed some air.”
He didn’t want to be standing anymore. If they went back to bed, he’d just lie there, blisteringly awake, and if he didn’t sleep then Logan wouldn’t sleep, and he really shouldn’t have brought Logan out here at all. He should’ve closed his eyes and let it go.
He was selfish. For lots of things, he figured, but especially for Logan. Years of hunger and then more more more.
“Sorry for waking you up.”
He felt Logan shake his head. “Don’t be.”
“Well, I am.”
“I want to be there.” Logan shifted. His chin rested where his cheek had been. “Here, I mean. For you.”
“Can we sit?”
But that wasn’t enough, either, and Finn realized it the second he folded his legs under himself and cool stone seeped through his pajama pants. It wasn’t enough, until his feet were stretched out toward the far railing and his head was on Logan’s chest, and Logan’s, on his shoulder, laying the opposite direction. Finn was so tired he could cry. The stars above turned hazy through his eyelashes. Logan’s heart thudded along.
“I need to know,” he whispered. His chest hurt like he’d been kicked. He rubbed the heel of his hand over it, back and forth, pushing the tightness away from the soft center. “I gotta know, Logan, I can’t—it was so bad. I know you love me—”
Logan’s breath caught.
“—I really do, I promise and I believe you and it’s so, sogood.” Finn cursed under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. Jesus, it’s so good now, I know you hate talking about it, I’m just having these fucking—dreams, and it’s us, in that fucking water, and it’s killing me, Lo, it’s killing me. I gotta know.”
To anyone else, he wouldn’t be making any sense. He was sweating again. He could feel it prickling his face and underarms. Leo could parse through his rambling, but he always asked questions, even just one to confirm that he understood. Finn loved that, he loved him, he loved how Leo always made sure people felt seen and heard and that he had got it all right. He was so kind. Finn felt—with Leo, he felt so real.
“I loved you.” His eyes burned. He should let Logan speak, but he couldn’t stop his trembling mouth. “God, Logan, I loved you so much it tore me to fucking pieces. And you knew.”
A firefly bloomed out of their potted violet. “I did,” Logan said quietly.
“I wanted—” Finn stopped himself. It would be easier to list the things he didn’t want, in those heartsick, aching days. “I wanted us. Every bit of it. Was it like that for you?”
It was, it was, he’d read it all over Logan and tasted it from his manic mouth in their stolen kisses. It had certainly felt like theft. Every kiss Finn got was one taken from someone else, someone Logan didn’t like half as much as he liked Finn. He didn’t have to ask. He’d seen those pleading green eyes and felt the way Logan’s whole body tilted toward him when he walked into a room.
“It was the end of the world.”
Finn closed his eyes.
Logan breathed out into the night air. “I was…out of control. This—pressure, in my head. I wanted you so bad.”
“I’m sorry,” Finn rasped.
“Non, it was everything to me.” Logan’s chest rose and fell, bringing his head with it. “I didn’t want it to be different.”
Wet warmth slid down to the shell of Finn’s ear.
“That was hard,” Logan added.
Hard. Understatement of the century. Flayed, more like, every nerve exposed. Finn pressed his lips together.
After a moment, he felt Logan’s fingertips come up to toy with the hair above his ear. “I didn’t know if I could tell anyone,” he said haltingly. “My sisters…Noelle guessed. Because of Nice, and the draft. I think they knew before. I think I wanted them to. I didn’t want to carry it by myself and—I don’t know. I think I wanted everyone to know. It was very confusing.”
I’m sorry, Finn’s mouth tried to say. He dug his teeth into the inside of his cheek.
“Not you, though. You never confused me.” Almost an afterthought, but Logan didn’t do those. He thought, fully and completely, even if he rarely said it all. Goosebumps flew down Finn’s arms despite the heat. “I wanted you to,” Logan continued. “To confuse me. You were so loud. Friendly, and so fun, and you made people laugh, you liked to read, you did all these things that I don’t. It made no sense. If you were confusing, I could let it go.”
Silence again. Finn couldn’t help it. “And?”
“And I loved you.” Simple. They’d never had simple in the way he wanted. “I loved you the whole time. I didn’t even ask questions about it.”
“You should have.”
“Yes.”
“You—” He should be angry, he really should. “Fuck, Lo, I asked.”
In his hair, Logan’s hand slowed. “You did.”
“You lied.”
“Non.”
Finn couldn’t do another cycle of this, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t. He pushed the heels of his hands to his forehead as hard as he could, then folded them back on his stomach.
“I…” Another firefly. They’d come up in the park, soon. Logan sighed. “I thought I was going to ruin your life.”
“You couldn’t.” Ignoring the fact that he very nearly did, of course.
“You would never have seen the draft if we were out.” Finn caught a glimpse of his face when he turned, the unhappy set of his mouth. “You deserved the first round. Anything less would be an insult. My fault. You’re so brilliant.” It came out a whisper. Logan dragged a hand down his face with a small sound. “Finn, you’re…extraordinary. They would have been blind and stupid to draft you any lower than they did. But they would have. Because of me.”
“We could’ve been quiet.”
“I would never hide you,” Logan said immediately. “You deserved more.”
Finn sighed through his nose. Back to square one. “You’re saying a lot about what you think I deserve.”
“I know you.”
Finn’s lower lip shook in spite of him. He bit back a curse and pressed his thumb to the heat of his inner eye, where the wetness still hadn’t dried. “Yeah.”
“I know you,” Logan insisted, pulling him open all over again. “I’ve loved you for so long I don’t remember what it felt like to not. And back then—at school—in the water. Telling you didn’t mean anything when I couldn’t show you.”
“It meant something to me,” Finn said thickly.
“I know.” Despair. Finn knew the feeling. “I know, I’m sorry.”
“It meant something. Everything you fucking did meant something to me, Logan.” Finn pressed his hands to his thighs until it hurt. “I felt like—it’s been so long. I’ve had nightmares about drowning for eight fucking years.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He could hear the tears in Logan’s whispers. Finally, they could be in the same boat. Finn looked up to the starless sky and laid his palm flat on the balcony floor; the other, he wrapped around Logan’s wrist behind him. He took an unsteady breath. “I’m not angry.”
“You can be.”
“I was. I was so angry with you. God, Logan, it ate me up.” The softest skin, right above his pulse. That had always made sense to Finn. His hard-shelled, soft-hearted boy. The admission felt too big for this place. “I get it, of course I do, I’m…I can’t love you quiet. Everyone can see it all over me.”
“I did,” Logan said miserably.
“Good.” Finn squeezed his wrist. “I wanted you to.”
Logan let it lie for a moment, then swore softly and pushed a hand through his hair, nearly black in the night. “I need to—I need to say something. I need you to let me say it.”
“Okay.”
But he didn’t speak, just breathed like each one took more effort than the last. “I love you.” A fast kiss found the side of Finn’s head. “Je t’aime, I love you, I always did.”
“I love you, too.” Finn waited, but when nothing else came, he tipped his head back on Logan’s shoulder. “Is that it?”
“Non.” Logan’s palm cupped his face, upside down and backwards, the warmest shelter from a mild night. Something stammered in his chest. His expression crumpled; he made a quiet sound, wordless and agonized, and kissed Finn’s forehead only to let his lips linger. “I’d do it again,” he murmured against Finn’s too-hot skin. “If I had to, for this. Never to hurt you, never that. But I’d do it.”
He would have loved Logan better than anyone. Logan would have loved him back. And none of it mattered, not even a little, because that choice was about as real as the leaves of their table’s mosaic tree. Finn covered his eyes and let Logan’s collarbone take the weight of his pounding head.
“It’s not fair.” He sounded like a child. He tried to choke it down, be an adult, be better than the worst of himself at age eighteen, but it just made the clogging, soggy thing in his throat even thicker. “I just wanted to love you, and it was just a fuckin’ massacre.”
Logan took him as he broke, like the waves had taken him until he gasped awake to a world only slightly kinder. Concrete sat hard and brutal under Finn’s shoulder when he turned on his side; it was quickly replaced by the give of Logan’s chest as he pulled him over in an awkward gathering of Finn’s puddle-body. He wasn’t much help, but he held tight to Logan, and something told him that was plenty.
“I loved you.” Finn’s voice cracked. It wasn’t even funny. “I love him.”
Something sob-like and snotty rattled Logan’s body.
“I love you.”
The sea, the wind—his dreams even gave him the gulls, the only audience to the worst day of Finn’s life. They never spoke in that in-between place. Logan’s eyes. Logan, pulling away, until the water took him under and tore salt through his body. The sun burned him, sometimes. Other nights, it blinded him, too far still for Finn to reach. Sometimes, it was a nightmare. Sometimes it felt like mercy.
Logan was saying it back, in the cool-warm-busy air of this dry night. Finn could hear himself trying to gulp down a breath, and beneath it, a resonance he’d never forget. Iron-clad Logan clutching him to his chest and the raw things beneath, his mouth to Finn’s temple and his body shielding him from the balcony’s unforgiving floor.
I’d do it again. For this.
No draft. No Gryffindor. No team, no Cup, no Cap, no flock of Dumaises. No Kasey Winter, Chekov’s fucking goalie for Finn to stumble upon. They would have watched Sirius and Remus kiss on the ice from a TV screen—or not at all. A lower league, if they were lucky. Different teams, certainly. He would have kept Logan for a few more years, and then, inevitably, they would lose each other. Or one of them would give up the game to stay together, and they’d lose each other in a whole new way too terrible to imagine.
Finn was avoiding the last and greatest loss. Ten, thirty, sixty years without Leo was not a life at all. His unwavering devotion, and a temper that could match Logan’s like wildfire hitting stone. Are you going to kiss me?, sly eyes still sweet and eager, already reaching for Finn. His kisses took Finn out of the hurricane of his own head and set both his feet on the ground. Here, they said. You’re staying here with me. Yes, you, in all you are.
Hurt and hurt and pain and Logan. As much as it was misery, it was Logan, and that had been worth it. Still was.
“You have to tell me,” Finn sobbed. “You have to tell me.”
“I loved you every day.” It tore from him, trembling. Logan took a sticky-sounding breath. “Every minute. Crisse, Finn, it drove me out of my mind. I would think about you when I was doing my fucking laundry, just—wishing you were there with me. Can you believe that?”
He could. He did. He’d lived it and it haunted him and Finn had begged on his knees for some karmic force to take it away from him without ever meaning a single word.
“I would wake up afraid,” Logan continued, shivering under him, quick and shallow. “Sometimes…sometimes I still don’t know how to love you without being afraid. But I do. I’m so sorry. I loved you at Harvard, and here. At home, and New York, in New Orleans, and—the way he loves you, Fish, I wish you could see it like I do.”
Finn couldn’t have left Logan’s hold if he tried. Finally. At last.
“It’s like looking into the sun.” Logan’s hand vanished from his shoulder for only a second. Finn heard him wipe his nose. “Merde. Fuck. Do you remember the solstice?”
Finn huddled into the caving space of his chest. Sweat and sleep and home. “Which one?”
“New Orleans.”
New Orleans, Louisiana, on the longest day of the year. Finn remembered.
It had been him and Leo in the hammock, giggling into each others’ faces and half a hundred kisses from the uncoordinated struggle into their sticky-hot shelter. Leo’s hands were still callused. His smiling mouth, sweet and bitter from tea. Finn had wanted to lick up every drop of it.
“I could hear you laughing from ten feet away.”
I love having you here. Leo’s hand on his jaw, gentle-firm, shaking back and forth with a flash of his teeth. God, Finn, I love it so much.
“I don’t know if I ever made you laugh like that at school,” Logan said in a small voice. His fingers slipped through Finn’s hair to cradle the back of his head. “I would dream about it, though. I’m…I still don’t know which ones were real. I wanted to make you laugh like that. A lover. Not like a friend.”
“You did,” Finn whispered. So many times. His whole body had hurt from it.
“Are we—oh.”
Finn blinked the salt-crust from his eyes and peered out into the dark. It fizzed and blurred into the vague shapes of buildings; a smear of color here, wind buffeting their flowers there. Inside, the kitchen light was on. Finn put his sleeve to his dripping nose, but didn’t try to speak. Logan held out an arm.
Knees, folding into the bent backs of his own. A forearm on the concrete above his head, on the other side of Logan’s body. At his back, warmth, broad and safe. Finn shuddered his way through a breath. Exhaustion. Collapse. An arm slid beneath his own to wrap around him; a palm rubbed over his heart.
“Hi, Fish,” Leo murmured, pressed to Finn from his ankles to the top of his head. A wall against the dark. A ledge above the void, holding firm.
The words tangled, tying his tongue to paralysis. He shook his head. Leo traced a bumpy path between his collarbones.
“Nightmare.” His throat clicked when he swallowed. “Sorry.”
Leo made a sympathetic sound and shuffled closer. “Want to talk about it?”
“We are,” Logan said softly. Finn saw his hand pass by. “Hi, Peanut.”
Finn heard a sound like a kiss. Logan’s hum vibrated. “Want me to go back to bed?” Leo offered.
“No,” they said at the same time. Something in Finn’s chest released. A knot, pulled in just the right place.
Leo’s knees gave a tiny pulse behind his own. “Okay. Are you doing your quiet time thing?”
It took Finn’s tired ears a moment to clock back in. Quiet time. Was he ever quiet? “Huh?”
“Your quiet time,” Leo repeated, like it was obvious. He was holding Logan’s hand, thumb running across his knuckles. “You know. When you get all sad about college and sit really quietly together for a while to think about it. It’s, like, a meditation thing, right?”
Finn stared at him. “Non,” Logan answered.
“Oh.” Leo sat up a little on his elbow with a frown. “Did you know you do that?”
“No,” Finn croaked.
One of Leo’s pale brows twitched upwards before he got ahold of it again. He shrugged, releasing Logan’s hand to dry Finn’s cheek with the side of his hand. “It’s not a bad thing. Giving yourself space to think about it, I mean. Seems like there was a lot to…you know. Get through.”
“You’re awake,” Finn realized belatedly. “Were we loud?”
Leo kissed his burning cheek. “No. I was cold. And thirsty. Is that your water up there?”
“Yeah.”
“Want me to get it?”
“No,” Finn mumbled. Leo snuggled closer, clearly satisfied.
Quiet time. Fucking hell.
Finn lifted his hand and whacked the back of it against Logan’s chest. “I was really fucking mad at you.” He wanted to leave it at that, but Logan was blinking at him like an owl and he had always been so beautiful at night, the moon to Finn’s stars and—
Finn whacked him again. Gentler, but still gratifying in the dull slap of skin on skin. It didn’t even leave a mark. “So fucking mad. You jackass. How could you do that to me? We should’ve just made out on the front porch. It would have ruined everything.” He groaned, burying his face in the softness of Logan’s belly. “You’re right. You’re so smart and right about everything. God fucking dammit, Logan, you and your goddamn eyes. I would have dropped out of college for you, but you wouldn’t even let me. I had to make it to the NH-motherfucking-L playoffs before you’d tell me you loved me. Is that it? You have a kink for pro hockey players? I was standing there like an idiot in the middle of the ocean, crying my eyes out, and you were still so goddamn perfect. I’m going to love you forever. You can’t stop me. Me and you and Knutty are gonna die within ten seconds of each other.”
That was a fact. The universe was crueler than he thought if it planned for anything else. Coarse hair scratched Finn’s cheek, and he raised his head to glare as best he could. Logan’s lower lip had disappeared between his teeth; bracing for impact, if he was smart, or stifling a laugh, if Finn knew him at all. “Fuck off,” Finn grumbled, and delighted in Logan’s visible alarm. “Hold me.”
Logan’s gaze darted to Leo for the briefest second. “And I.”
“What?”
“You and Knutty and I.”
Finn bit the nearest roll of his abs. “I said fucking hold me, Logan.”
Logan made a small noise, smiled a small smile, wrapped them both up in his arms until Leo was laughing into the crook of Finn’s shoulder. “You’re fucking crazy,” Finn felt Logan whisper into the top of his head. “I love it so much.”
“You’re welcome,” Finn groused.
Logan’s sigh pushed Leo’s weight harder into him. Finn counted three beauty marks on the underside of his chin, and one hickey in the perfect shape of Leo’s mouth. “I love when you say my name.”
Finn would say it here, in the comfort of the dark. In bed. In the light of the kitchen and the light of the moon. At home, in New York, in New Orleans; for crowds, for cameras, for just the three of them. He’d press it to the softness of Logan’s body, help Leo scream it, and someday, hopefully not too long now, he’d teach it to someone small and gentle. Logan Logan Logan and Leo Leo Leo. Three times, because he meant it. He always had.
Tremblay & O’Hara: Attorneys at Law is officially open for business. Fresh out of Harvard Law School and back in their hometown, Finn and Logan have one immediate goal: find an office to practice in, and clients to pay the bills. A little nudge from NYPD Inspector Noelle Tremblay puts them on the fast track, but it’s anything but a smooth ride.
One last piece for this year's O'Knutzy Week! This one's a bit of a long shot, but I really wanted to give it a try. The plot is inspired by the pilot episode of Marvel’s Daredevil. Highly recommended watch :)
Thank you @oknutzy-week-2026 for the prompts and for organizing such a great fest! And of course thanks to @lumosinlove for these wonderful characters.
TW: mentions of murder, crime scenes, injuries and blood. Also, as a Daredevil-inspired AU, in the main part of this story Finn is blind.
• • •
– Do you remember I once asked you what it was like living in the darkness? Do you remember what you said?
– It's not dark. It's like a thousand suns.
(Daredevil: Born Again)
"Mr. Tremblay, Mr. O'Hara." A guttural grunt cut short a trail of heavy footsteps. They pounded in Finn's head along with the incessant throbbing in his temples. "She can see you now."
Since he'd hung up the call, Logan had fallen back into his nasty habit of nail-biting. They'd gone twenty minutes without a shred of a word—a silence only broken by the rings of too many phones, a never-ending parade of people at the front door, and the brittle snaps of Logan's fingernails as he nipped away what could only have been an overload of tension.
Regret, maybe. Not for the first time, Finn wondered how they'd ended up in that same situation again.
"Let's go," Logan sighed, leading the way behind the police officer.
A cold breeze from the humming AC hit Finn like a whiplash. Goosebumps dotted his skin as he walked down the quiet hallway, whose chipped tiles seemed to resonate with every sweep of his beat-up cane.
"Lolo," a familiar voice halted Finn in his tracks. It faded into gentle murmurs that Finn fought hard not to grasp. He knew how desperately Logan could swoon in one of his sisters' embraces whenever something felt slightly off.
Noelle's careful touch on Finn's arm hinted that he was in for a hug of his own. "And there I was thinking you'd forget about me, O'Hara."
As if she'd ever give him the chance. Not since Finn was blessed with the rare privilege of being claimed by his best friend's family as one of their own.
"Inspector Tremblay," he quipped. She smelled like that lavender soap Logan used to keep in their dorm bathroom.
"Thanks, Moody," Noelle called over Finn's shoulder. "I can take it from here."
Her colleague grumbled something unintelligible, but he backtracked without much of a fight.
"I called you as soon as I heard," Noelle said. "This is... It looks really bad. I'm not gonna lie."
"The suspect?" Logan asked.
"He's in there." There was a room on their left. Judging by the pacing footsteps behind the door, at least two people were waiting inside. "They brought him in about an hour ago. Hasn't said a word ever since."
An uncomfortable beat of silence ticked by, punctuated by the rustle of clipped pages overlapping the buzzing of the neon lights. "According to the report, he's the one who called the police."
A half-hearted laugh left Logan's mouth. "What?"
"Suspect called 911 at approximately 8:30 this morning," Noelle read. "He claimed that a colleague had been murdered in his apartment overnight. Dispatch noted heavy signs of distress and an altered emotional state."
"He called 911," Finn repeated, quietly to himself. "And you said over the phone that he has no recollection of last night's events?"
Noelle hummed in confirmation. She was cracking her knuckles in an anxious, rhythmic pattern, like she always did when she was overthinking something.
"What else?" Finn prompted.
"Ah, um. Well..."
Logan sucked in a long, stubborn breath. "Why do I have the feeling we're not gonna like it?"
"Because this is where things get complicated." She must have slid a hand over her face, because her next words came out muffled. "They found him covered in the victim's blood."
A tingling chill crawled up Finn's spine. "What do we know about the victim?"
"Jack Archer, twenty-three years old."
"Yeah, not resentful my ass."
"Hush, Soleil. I'm intrigued."
"Originally from New Orleans. Multiple stab wounds to the abdomen. A fatal one to the heart."
"Weapon?" Logan filled in.
"A 10-inch kitchen knife. Forensics are looking for fingerprints."
A fresh stab of pain made Finn twitch. He ground his teeth against the spasm seizing the back of his head.
"He was on the floor when they arrived," Noelle said around a loud swallow. "The weapon was right there, within arm's reach. But he wouldn't leave the corpse..."
Logan was quick to read his sister's doubts. "You think he did it?"
"I don't think anything," she retorted, but the quiver in her voice gave her away. "I'm just saying, it doesn't look good for him. That's all."
"All right," Finn cleared his throat. Too late he realized he'd been too quiet. And now there was no escaping those green-eyed stares.
"How would you know about green—"
"Shhhhhhhh."
"Can we talk to him?"
"Yeah." A long sigh filled with relief came from Noelle. "Of course."
Logan covered the half-step between them. His hand burned white-hot around Finn's wrist. "Okay. Let's do this."
"Sorry, I—" Sliding down Finn's palm was a pulsating beat. One, two, a third squeeze. His lighthouse in the dark the world had wrapped him in. "Uh. What's his name again?"
Noelle pushed down the door handle. It made a screeching noise when she let go to turn around. "His name's Leo Knut."
The interrogation room was even colder, drowned in a static silence. Only the scrape of a chair on the floor echoed when Noelle finally let them in. Logan froze at Finn's side. The faltering of his heart's steady pace—skipping one long, drawn-out beat—caught Finn completely off guard.
Logan's tone was ice-cold when he asked, "Does he have to be handcuffed?"
"He killed a man," a deep, rough voice bit back with hostility. "It's standard procedure."
"That's bullshit if I ever heard it."
The only response was a blunt laugh in Logan's face. Finn's fists suddenly started itching.
"Enough!" Noelle raised her voice. "Give me the keys and get the fuck out of here, Devaux."
"Seriously, Rouge?"
"Mmh. I love it when he gets all snarky."
A handful of keys jingled briefly in the air. A tease, a fueling attempt to provoke a reaction. Finn didn't know the guy; Noelle had never mentioned him before. He almost wanted to warn him not to poke the sleeping dog, especially when it came not to one, but two Tremblays playing on the same line. He decided it wouldn't hurt to let him figure that out by himself.
"Now, Luke."
The set landed on the desk with a metallic jangle, skidding across the polished surface. Devaux walked past Finn, and made the unfortunate mistake of shoving him aside. It lit Logan's fuse lightning fast, but Finn reacted even faster. He caught Logan with a hand around his sharp elbow, digging his fingers into the soft cotton of the rolled-up sleeve that rode high on his smooth skin.
Not here, Lo.
"Who the hell are you?"
It was barely a murmur, yet it crashed through Finn's rumbling thoughts like shattered, fine glass. He let Logan go, only to follow the broken notes of a young voice, thick with rage and unshed tears.
"Mr. Knut," Noelle beat Finn to the punch. "You might want to talk to a defense attorney if—"
"I don't have a lawyer," Knut spat.
"Mr. Knut, my name is Logan Tremblay," Logan caught up. Leaving space for Finn to reach out and shake the man's hand, he added, "And this is my partner, Finn O'Hara."
Long, sweaty fingers gave Finn's palm a weak and reluctant squeeze. There wasn't much Finn could gather from that swift brush alone. Except that, despite the venom filling his voice, Leo Knut was tense with undeniable, raw fear.
"We would like to represent you, Mr. Knut," Finn said. His lips curled into what he hoped would be an encouraging smile. "We're looking for clients for our new firm."
The key turned, the handcuffs clicked open, and the heavy chain scraped across the table.
"You know, he looks like he really doesn't trust us," Logan leaned in to mock-whisper in Finn's ear.
"Yeah. I kinda figured."
The ear-splitting silence alone might have done the work.
What Finn wasn't expecting, though, was the hint of a bitter, incredulous laugh. "How long have you two been doing this, exactly?"
Finn couldn't help the slow smirk that pulled at his lips.
"Hm, let's see. How about two hours and…ten minutes?" Logan counted. "Give or take." Finn knew he'd flipped his wrist to check the time on his watch. An old classic, in true Logan fashion. "We just got the keys to our office."
He wondered if anyone else in the room sensed the imperceptible tremor around the edges of Logan's wit. Noelle? Most likely. It had been loud enough to make Finn's stomach churn with a sudden wave of nausea.
He'd been late. This morning of all meaningless mornings in his life. The real estate agent had already given Logan the tour by the time he showed up, sweat-soaked and out of breath. The building was on Ninth Avenue, in the beating heart of Hell's Kitchen. Logan had insisted it would be the perfect fit for them, and even cracked a rare joke about the nice view.
A real chance. Straight out of the fantasy of two starry-eyed boys with nothing in their pockets but love for the cause, and hard-earned degrees to forge the path ahead.
And Finn almost ruined it. Limping and half-breathing, praying to whatever god that the stitches he'd sewn on his hip would hold for the short flight of stairs. And that Logan wouldn't notice this time either.
Show me around? Finn had asked as soon as they were left alone.
And Logan did what only he was allowed to do. Finn felt his bright smile first. Logan had let him trace those soft lines so many times that Finn had memorized every shade of his lips by heart. He'd even pretended not to step up on tiptoes, but his warm breath on Finn's chin gave him away. Logan's touch was reverent. It always had been. He slipped Finn's dark glasses off his nose, so he could be the eyes to show Finn the beauty of their small world.
It could've been a trapdoor, a stinky, rundown room, or even a dreary broom closet. Money was tight, but the genuine happiness rolling off Logan in unbreakable waves was worth every wild shot.
Worth the pain of pretending Finn didn't feel it. The frantic, desperate rise of Logan's pulse as he'd leaned in, just a breath away from a reality Finn could only see in his dreams. Quickly torn to shreds by the ring of the call that dragged them into this cold room.
"Finn?"
"Hm?" Finn jerked around, following the worried tinge in Noelle's voice. "Yeah, sorry. I'm—"
Helpless? Selfish? Very much unprofessional?
"Listen," Leo croaked, barely above a whisper. "I don't have the money for a lawyer. Don't bother wasting your time on me."
Too bad he was sitting in front of the most stubborn man on Earth. Logan pulled out two chairs, and brought one over to Finn. When he dropped his briefcase on the table, Finn knew he wasn't planning to leave anytime soon. It was hard not to love him when he ignited that burning fire within. "We're not going anywhere until you tell us exactly what happened."
"I can't pay you. Not right now, not—"
"Leo," Finn took his chance to weigh in. A question colored his name, one that made Leo's breathing pattern shift. There was a valid reason, after all, if neither Logan nor he had fled through that whistling door yet. "We just want to help."
Logan would call it a gut instinct, or a fierce sense of trust in each other. He used to make fun of him and his so-called "gift" at reading people. Blamed it on a severe case of unheard-of empathy and a too-big heart.
Most of the time, Finn would just laugh it off with him. But every night, every fight, every scream haunting him in the dark was a ticking reminder of why of all the people in this lonely world, Finn chose to lie in the face of the only truth he'd ever known.
As Finn sat down at the table, the weight of Leo's hesitant gaze settled on him. His full attention for the first time since he'd walked in. Studying him, most likely. Or maybe just looking for a way out of Logan's intense, all-consuming silence.
His heartbeat suddenly picked up.
"Why?"
Three thumps for every quick snap of Finn's folding cane.
Finn cocked his head, chin tilting up, and Logan spoke his next question word by word.
"Answer this first." Calm, steady, and gentler than people gave him credit for. "Did you kill Jack Archer?"
Noelle's pacing in the background became more erratic, intimidating. Logan leaned forward, and the table creaked beneath Finn's palms under the pressure of Logan's arms.
Leo's next breath caught in his chest, just a cry for help away from tearing down that damned wall.
All Finn needed was to hear that quiet, surrendering sniff, and the soft pop of Leo's slowly parting lips.
And then the answer they had all been waiting for bubbled out in three hitching, broken breaths.
"No," Leo choked out, his pulse slowing to match the truth of his word. "I never could've hurt Jack."
They never needed much talk, Logan and he. A one-sided, shadowed look—one that Finn would die to be able to picture—and the mere tilt of a nod would always tell Logan the rest.
"So," Logan smiled, loud and proud to Finn's ears. "Shall we start from the beginning?"
"Non."
Finn's brow knitted into a single red-tight line. "Hm? What do you mean nom?"
If Leo hadn't known him well, he would've thought Logan serious for a moment.
That is, until he rolled over to burrow himself in the crook of Finn's neck.
"J'aime pas," he grumbled to a bunch of freckles.
A brush of Finn's scruff tickled Leo's cheek when he twisted around for help.
Leo looked up from his nook on Finn's shoulder, and had to steal a quick kiss from his chapped, sun-baked lips. "He doesn't like it."
"You don't like my story, baby?"
Dark curls bounced in a nod against Finn's sunburned skin.
"But why?" He smiled.
Logan felt it. A green-flecked glint peeked out at Leo, and just like in a mirror, Logan shared that same secret smile with him.
As for the fight-less smack he landed on Finn, that one left a three-finger, sun-shaped imprint on his bare chest. "You lied to me?"
"To protect you, yeah. Of course."
"No! You lied to me. And you couldn't even see how much I love you? Non, Rouge. C'est fou."
Finn turned back for a second round of backup. "Peanut?"
"I don't know, honey," Leo mused. "I'm a big fan of mysterious, full-of-secrets boyfriends who fight evil in the dark."
A huge eye roll told him Logan wasn't buying it.
"Like a knight in shining armor coming in the night to the rescue."
Finn nodded along. "With a Devil mask and a six-pack in a tight red suit."
"Sounds kinda hot to me."
Logan levered himself on one elbow, pinning them on the mattress with the sole force of a nonetheless soft glare. "You've clearly been out in the sun too long today."
Leo reached over Finn to flick his nose. "Think it's time to go to sleep?"
"What about the rest of the story?" Finn pouted, earning himself a smacking double smooch. "Who's gonna keep my boys safe?"
"Oh, don't worry, sweetheart," Leo whispered in his ear. Finn's brown eyes slipped closed, a tired smile tugged at his lips. Logan switched the nightlight off, and the room dimmed under gentle streams of moonlight. "You carried the sky for us all day. Let it rest on our shoulders for the night."
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 5 (again)! As always, thank you to @lumosinlove for these stories and my newfound desire to watch hockey! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible!
Cool Dads: Office, Constellation, Dads
For context: This takes place after Finn and Leo have retired from hockey. Finn is a professor and Leo is a stay-at-home dad for their kids. Logan still plays hockey with the Lions!
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
-------------------------------
“Dada, your job is so boring!” Margo piped up from where she was sitting on the chair in Finn’s office, pushing her feet on the desk so she could spin around. Not a great start to their afternoon.
“Margo!” Leo’s reprimand was paired with a shake of his head. Margo looked up at him with innocent eyes.
“But Daddy, Papa’s on TV! Papa works with the most famous hockey player ever!”
“And who would that be?” Finn asked.
“Uncle Sirius of course!”
“Don’t ever let your Uncle Loops or Uncle Reg hear you say that.” Leo said with a laugh.
“My job’s not boring! I get to teach about books!” Finn countered, knowing that it might not sound as fun as playing hockey, but it was still an enlightening career.
She looked at him, considering. “I do like books.”
“I know you do. And between you and me, your Papa’s job is a lot cooler. But you know who has the coolest job in the world?”
She shook her head, eyes widening in anticipation. Finn’s eyes met Leo’s and he rolled his eyes, knowing what Finn was going to say just a second before he said it. Which was enough time for him to start blushing apparently.
“Your Daddy! Because he gets to spend all day with the two of you!”
“Daddy is the coolest! And the only one without gray hairs!” Margo adds, laughing as Finn scoffed. Standing and walking over to Leo, bringing his fingers through Leo’s gray spot.
“And what do you call this?”
“That’s not old person gray hair. Not like this, Dada,” Margo stood on the chair, Leo’s arms coming around to steady her, as she pulled a rare gray strand of Finn’s hair in her fingers.
“Yes, okay, okay, I get it,” Finn said, and Margo was giggling. Leo couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “Oh no, not you too!” He quickly pulled Leo in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Dada! Yucky!” Margo exclaimed as they broke apart. “Can we please please please go now?”
The college was having a family night with booths and kids activities set up by the education majors who wanted to be elementary school teachers. Finn had mentioned a table for kids to pick out free books, as he had worked with his department on that.
“Lo here yet?”
“No, I don’t think he’s left the rink yet. We could probably head down to the event and meet him there.”
-----------
“I know all those constellations already,” Margo said proudly. At five years old, she already had the confidence of someone much older. “My Uncle Reg is part of the lion constellation right there. I love lions. And Uncle Sirius is right there. He says he’s a dog star. An’ Uncle Reg calls him a smelly wet dog! An’ also my cousin’s name means Star.” Then she called out, “Daddy! Look! Your name!”
Through the crowds of people at Gryffindor University’s Kids Discovery Day, Leo had finally caught up to Margo who had went running through the crowds when she saw the astronomy booth. He bent down to see what she was looking at, sending the college student who was running the booth a smile.
“What did you say, Punkin’?”
“Your name, Daddy!” She was pointing at a chart of constellations, the word “Leo” was in bright red with an arrow toward the constellation of a lion.
“Oh yeah. My name is also the name of a constellation. Actually, it’s the one that the Regulus star is in!”
“Read please, Daddy?” She asked, shoving a piece of paper with multiple constellations on it. He read the short blurb about the Leo constellation to her. She grinned, jumping up and down.
“Daddy, stickers!” Margo grabbed for the sticker sheets on the table.
“I see them, hon. Can you ask nicely if you can grab some?”
“Can I please, please, please have some star stickers? An’ some for my baby brother?”
“Of course, take as many as you want. They glow in the dark!” The university student said, smiling down at her and handing over the stickers. “And you can take some for your brother, too.”
“Thank you,” Leo said. Then he stood, glancing around for said baby brother. He found them a minute later, eyes catching the bouncing blond curls as Finn glanced around the crowd with Oliver high in his arms, bouncing the boy up and down as tears rolled down his face.
Oh no.
“Margs, lets go find Dada and Ollie. What do you say?”
“Thank you!” She grabbed the stickers and sheet of paper, and took off in the crowd once more.
“Margo!” He called, but she had already swerved between two people and was gone. At least she had gone in the direction of Finn.
When Leo made it through the dense crowds to Finn, he leaned over to kiss Oliver on the cheek.
“What’s wrong, bug?”
Leo caught the boy as he lurched toward him from Finn’s arms. He buried his face in Leo’s shoulder, sniffling. It hurt him to see their sweet two-year-old so sad. He looked at Finn, eyebrow raised.
Finn shrugged.
“He got upset when I didn’t follow you through the crowd. He was saying something in French, but all I picked up was ‘Papa’ because…y’know.” Even after so many years, years spent teaching their kids French by talking almost exclusively in that language some days of the week, Finn was still hopeless with it beyond a few key phrases. “Maybe he’s coming down with something,” Finn said, feeling his forehead. The boy didn’t respond. But there hadn’t been any other indication of sickness all day, the boy had simply been grumpy. Leo had a sneaking suspicion that he was getting his molars, and teething was never a fun time with kids.
“Well, you guys don’t have to stay. When Lo gets here…” But Finn shook his head.
“No, we’re going to your concert.” Leo had been playing in the Gryffindor community band since Margo was two, when Finn and Logan had mentioned that he didn’t seem to be doing any activities that were just for him, emphasizing that he was always working to take care of the family. He had finally admitted to wanting to join a band, having played oboe all through high school. So they had encouraged him, and for years he had been playing. Tonight they had a kid-friendly concert that they had planned to bring Margo and Oliver to.
“Lo and I can take turns walking him if necessary. He didn’t sleep well either, so he might just pass out to the sweet supple sounds of his Daddy playing oboe.”
Leo could feel himself blush, but was saved from responding by a soft, “Où est Papa?”
Leo decided to respond in French. It was also possible the boy was overstimulated and needed the steadiness of the language. “He’s coming from practice and he’ll be here in just a few minutes.” Leo had to go warm up with the band in twenty minutes, and he hoped that Logan could ease his departure a bit for Oliver. The boy had developed a new strain of separation anxiety that made it hard for them to leave unless he was fully distracted. “Your sister got you some stickers.” Oliver shifted so he could look at Margo, who was showing Finn the collection of items she got from the table.
“Oggie, I got you some glow in the dark stickers! B’cause you don’t like the dark!”
“Merci,” he said in a soft voice, reaching for them and staring at the collection.
“Let’s go now. I want to see more tables! Where are the free books, Dada?”
Finn glanced around, then he pointed at a table with a light blue tablecloth across the room.
Margo was about to set out before Leo called down to her, hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, you need to please slow down in these crowds, Margo. We don’t need you bowlin’ people over.” But before the words had even left his mouth, she was running once more.
Leo sighed.
“Ah, good old O’Hara energy,” Finn said, taking Leo’s hand and leading them smoothly through the crowd toward the booth. He was able to keep sight of her through the crowd, as he was taller than most here.
Leo could hear Margo’s excited voice as they walked up to her.
“No, I’m not lost! My dads are right there!”
“That’s your dad?” One of the college students asked, gesturing to Finn.
“Yep. My Dada and my Daddy. And my baby brother, Oggie!”
“Hi, Dr. O’Hara!” Another of the students said as they walked up. “Is this your family?”
Finn nodded, beaming, making introductions. Apparently these were a few education majors who were taking his upper-level English teaching class.
“And this is my husband, Leo, and my kids, Margo and Oliver,” Finn reached over and rustled Oliver’s hair, who, at seeing unfamiliar faces, hid in Leo’s shoulder once again, making a few of the students coo.
“I didn’t know you had kids or a husband, professor,” one of the girls said. Sofie, Leo remembered.
“Well, honestly, I don’t talk about them a whole lot in class because if I did, I’d go on and on and never get to my lesson!” Finn said, smiling at him. Leo blushed, but he could tell that Finn was telling an only slightly exaggerated truth.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Dr. O’Hara’s husband!” Leo was used to people recognizing him in public. Any professional athlete, or former professional athlete, was. But he wasn’t used to people calling him that. He loved it.
“Nice to meet you,” Leo said in return, shifting Oliver around so he could shake hands with the girl.
Finn chatted with his students a bit. After a few minutes, Margo had chosen a book and was darting between them, eying the other booths. In a moment, her eyes lit up and Leo knew she was about to bolt.
Then tan arms came under her shoulders and she was being pulled up into the air with a flurry of giggles.
“Papa!” She squealed.
“I knew you were about to run off, ma fraise. It’s busy in here. You know your dads have gotten slow and we can’t chase after you. Good thing I caught you, huh?” Logan smiled, hiking the girl over his shoulder before turning to give Leo a peck on the cheek and pat Oliver’s head. The boy looked up and cried out, “Papa!” before lunging for him. Logan easily caught the boy in his other arm, talking to him in French as the boy smiled and nuzzled into Logan’s neck. Logan unceremoniously deposited a wriggling Margo into Finn’s arms, turning to give him a peck, too.
By now, Finn’s students looked really confused. Finn laughed at their wide eyes.
“My other husband, Logan Tremblay,” Finn said by way of explanation. The students seemed to take this in stride, shaking hands once more.
“Oh, I do hope he’s teaching you all the right stuff! You should really listen to him, he helped me not fail out of my own English class in college!”
The students laughed. Then one piped up.
“You’re the Logan Tremblay? The hockey player.”
Logan nodded, obviously used to this. Over the past few years his popularity had grown significantly, especially in Gryffindor. Although Logan was quite a private person, he had had to get used to being recognized in public more and more.
“Oui, I am. But did you know that these two also were?”
“You played hockey, Dr. O’Hara?” One of them asked, looking as shocked as the rest of the girls. Finn laughed.
“I swear, no one listens to my start of the year presentation. I did mention I’m a big Lions fan and that I played hockey growing up.”
Leo had to admit that that was a huge understatement.
“Also, if you ever look me up on anything other than RateMyProfessor, you’d know all about my hockey career!” Finn had once bragged about his RateMyProfessor score of 4.7 out of 5, complaining that the student who pulled his score down hadn’t even shown up to class. Leo had asked why he was checking the website in the first place, and he had mentioned that his students were all talking about it in class and he had to keep up with the “opinions of the youth.”
They talked some more before Margo bolted once more with a shriek of “Uncle T!” This time, Leo turned to find that Margo was barreling straight into Thomas’s legs, the man laughing and rustling her hair, little Ellie smiling down at her from her dad’s arms, Charlie weaving around him, looking extremely excited to see her cousin.
“Ah, you made it!” Logan said as he and Leo hurried after her, leaving Finn talking with one of his coworkers, Oliver now clinging to his neck.
“Did you doubt me, Lo Lo Bear?”
“Arrête, Talker!” Lo said, glancing around, as if anyone was listening to them in the overly crowded and loud area. “Only my sisters and my parents get to call me that!”
“I am your sister now, man.” Logan shoved him lightly, leaning over to give Ellie a kiss on the cheek.
“Whatever you say.”
“I’m extra-prepared and ultra-excited to hear you on the oboe, Knutty!” Thomas said, setting Ellie down as she wriggled. “You want your Uncle Leo, don’t you?” And, sure enough, the girl immediately walked to Leo’s legs. He picked her up, kissing her on the cheek.
“Bonjour, Ellie!” Leo turned back to Thomas. “Don’t get too excited, T.”
“Oh, I am!”
“Untle Knut?” Ellie asked. He turned to her once again, smiling at her bright green Tremblay eyes that matched her sister’s, mother’s, and uncle’s.
“Oui, mon chou?”
“I wanna pay music like you do when I grow up,” the three-year-old’s voice was smiling up at him, eyes bright. Then he heard a cry from behind and he recognized immediately, even through the noise of the crowd. That’s my kid.
“Non, Daddy! Non, Ewie!”
Oliver was toddling over to him, Finn following from behind. The two-year-old could be fast when he wanted to be. And also territorial.
“Okay, okay. It’s fine, bug.” The next thing he knew, he was holding a kid in each arm, both refusing to leave, staring each other down. The cousins usually loved each other, both having similar sweet dispositions that they got along so well. But they were territorial of their parents, often angry when their cousin was getting attention from their mom or dads instead of them. It was an issue that they hoped the kids would grow out of, but hadn’t yet.
“Um, where did Margo go? And did you just bring one today?” Finn asked after he clapped hands with Thomas in greeting.
“That girl is going to be the death of me,” Leo muttered, glancing around until he spotted red and brown hair on the other side of the room.
“Well, at least she’s enjoying this event,” Finn reasoned, as they made their way over. “Maybe she won’t think my job’s so boring after all.”
“Aw, you really took that to heart, didn’t you, Finn?” Leo asked, smiling as he relayed the story to Thomas and Logan.
“Your own daughter, huh?” Thomas asked. “I want you to know that my daughters think that my job is cool.”
“Peut-être, but do they think your job’s cooler than my sister?”
Thomas let out a barking laugh and then looked away, shaking his head.
Once they made it to Margo, Logan leaning down to once again remind her that she needed to stay with them, Thomas making sure Charlie stopped running off as well. These two were often very well behaved by themselves, Margo a bit less so when she was excited, but when they got together, their energy fed off each other and they would get a bit crazy.
“She’s going to love your concert so much,” Finn said. “You’re going to be the new cool dad.”
“I was always the cool dad,” Leo said, although he wasn’t sure he believed it. “Speaking of the concert…” Leo glanced at the two kids in his arms still in a glaring match, gripping his shoulder tightly. “I’ve got to go get warmed up.”
“Here,” Finn said, grabbing Ellie, who went with little resistance, happy to see her other uncle who she hadn’t seemed to notice was there.
“Dada, non!” Oliver said, now struggling to get out of Leo’s arms. Thomas offered to take him, and when he handed him over, the two kids started screeching.
“Alright, I think it’s time to go,” Finn said, as he and Thomas quickly traded toddlers. “We got this, Le. You go.”
“Time to go, Margo and Charlie!” Logan said, noticing the squabble and taking each of them by hand. “I think ice cream is in order before the concert.”
And, as expected by this promise of ice cream, the kids calmed down and jumped around with excitement. Enough for Leo to sneak away, waving at Finn, who was purposely holding Oliver’s attention away from Leo’s quick departure.
The concert was a great success! Leo stood proudly as the audience clapped after their final piece. He then noticed Margo and Charlie, each standing on a chair, each being held tightly by Finn and Thomas, clapping, calling for him and waving. It seemed that the other two kids were already asleep on Logan’s shoulders as Logan attempted to clap, but couldn’t quite reach around them, instead giving a soft whooping sound that Leo read from his lips.
On the car ride home, Margo told them, sleepily that “Daddy definitely has the coolest job of you all,” before promptly falling asleep, unknowingly causing a whispered debate among them about who really did have the coolest job.
And while they couldn’t decide, his boys reassured him that Leo’s stay-at-home, keeping their life together job was definitely the most important of them all.
---------------
I hope you enjoyed! I love a girl-dad Thomas!
If you enjoy Margo as much as I do, and want to read another story about her, here's my story featuring a baby Margo, check it out: Papa! (also on ao3)!