³³⁾ fluffy socks YOU KNOW I GOTTA ASK FOR REGGIE/THE WILLIES
"Urgh!"
Willie looked up from the novel he had been invested in-he loved to read, and this book had been particularly investing, but when he heard the disgruntled noise from across the room, he put it down.
"What's wrong Zita?"
She looked up at him, all pouty lipped, and showed him the pile of mangled yarn in her hands. "Tangled."
Willie softened, sitting down next to his daughter. Smoothing down her wild dark waves, and kissing the olive toned skin of her forehead. "Were you trying to knit something liebchen?"
Zita nodded, cuddling to his side, and twisting the ends of his long hair. "Wanted to make socks for Christmas for you and abea. Nonna Beulah taught me how."
Willie grinned at that-Beulah was still kicking, though much slower these days. But she loved Zita like her own, and since Reggie didn't have anything to do with his family, and what passed for Willie's were galaxies away, she had deemed herself honorary grandmother to her.
"She taught me too, though I wasn't as young as you are when I started learning," Willie said, taking the pile of yarn and slowly untangling it. He made a cat's cradle to make Zita smile and giggle, something he dearly loved to see.
He and Reggie had brought her home a few years ago-barely a few months old, and she became their world. Now she was part way through her first year of school, and a bundle of energy. She could be found cartwheeling and singing around the farm. The animals loved her-even the chickens, much to Willie's chagrin.
Willie had a lot of adventures in his lifetime-and he thought that coming to Earth-nay, staying here to be with Reggie was his greatest one. But nothing could prepare him for what fatherhood was like. He loved it, no matter how tiring, hard, or fulfilling it could be. And Reggie was right there with him-making sure that Zita grew up loved, and safe.
Sure, she didn't know one of her fathers was really a space alien that used to resemble a gelatinous pile of orange goo, but they were planning on telling her one day when she was older.
"Well, how about I help you get back to making those socks?" Willie offered.
"But then they won't be a surprise!"
Willie bit back his smile at that. "Well I'll help you make abea's and then you can have nonna help you do mine, and I'll act really surprised when I open them on Christmas morning."
"Okay."
Willie sat on the ground, Zita snuggling into his lap and he helped her wind the yarn around the needles, working them together until she had several rows of red and black yarn.
"Do you think abea will like them?" Zita asked as they worked, the clack of the needles the only noise, as Rosie was out in the fields with Reggie.
"He'll love them," Willie assured him. "You know the first gift your abea ever gave me was a set of fluffy socks?"
"Really?"
"It's what convinced me to stay here."
"Where were you going to go?"
Willie paused-they had always promised they would have the discussion together, and when Zita was a bit more mature. So he could fudge a few details. "Home I guess. But I realized my home was here-with your abea."
"And Rosie and me!"
"Exactly liebchen," he said, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. "Now, I'm going to start suppe, but you call me if you need help."
Willie was chopping vegetables when Reggie came in, wrapping his arms around his waist. Willie relaxed back into the hold, sighing when Reggie kissed his cheek. "Hi cowboy."
"Hi space man. How's the rugrat?"
"She's taking up the family holiday tradition."
Reggie gave him a queer look, then listened, hearing the familiar click clack of knitting needles. He had never taken up the art but he loved everything Willie had knit for him, and to know that Zita was learning it as well warmed his heart.
"Socks?" he whispered.
"Act surprised," Willie hissed back.
"I am, so it won't be much of an act," Reggie murmured. "I'm going to go wash up, then we can eat."
Willie nodded, then called out "Zita, abea is home!"
The two men smirked as they heard her scramble to hide her work before the padding of feet rushed towards them, Reggie catching her as she threw herself at him in a hug.
"Hello motek, what have you been up to?" he asked her, swaying them around as Willie slid the casserole he had been working on into the oven."
"Nothing!" she said-totally not suspicious.
"Sounds fun," Reggie replied, resting their foreheads together. "Now, can you feed Rosie while I get ready for supper?"
Zita nodded, squealing as Reggie pretended to drop her, kissing her before heading up the stairs.
Willie gave her a wink and mimed zipping his lips. She gave him a thumbs up and whistled for Rosie, taking off to fill her bowl.
And on Christmas morning, there were socks galore-a matching set from Beulah in rainbow hues, a set from Willie with little stars stitched into them, and one set from Zita-one in red and black, one in hues of orange and green for Willie, and a purple set for herself.
Willie knew one thing as he sent Beulah a picture of the haul-there never would be a set of cold feet at the Peters farmstead.
















