Richard

“…Ten lords a’ leaping. Nine ladies dancing. Eight maids a milking. Seven swans a swimming. Six geese a laying. FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree!” Tommy and Richard finished the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song with a flourish. Richard executing a beautiful pirouette and Tommy flipping his luxurious black waves over his shoulder and tossing his hands up in the air, much to the delight of the triplets who watched the two men perform for them. It was Christmas time on Tate Ranch, although, seeing all of the Christmas lights and decorations that filled up and covered all of the homes and buildings, one would think that a Christmas store had exploded all over the grounds.

Much to the consternation of all of the mated cowboys, their other halves had taken it upon themselves to make sure that Christmas was celebrated to its fullest capacity. Which of course to a dancer and a performer like Richard and Vet, meant that Christmas carols had to be sung…all day long. They sang at breakfast. They sang at lunch. They sang at dinner. They sang to the horses. They sang to the cowboys. They sang to the triplets. And they sang…to their mates.

Their very annoyed, very growly mates.

Richard looked over at Tommy with a frown on his face, minutes after the triplets had settled down to play with their wooden blocks on the floor. He was so happy that Tommy and Ton lived so close by, it was great to have his best friend only a few hundred yards away from his own home. Though both men had lived in New York for years, Richard spent so much time on the road touring, that their friendship had consisted mostly of emails, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and text messaging. And trying to buy the right outfit in a store in Milan without your best friend was just too difficult. Richard was glad that he didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Though he would miss shopping in Milan.

“You know,” Tommy’s voice cut into Richard’s thoughts, the other man’s voice melodic and soothing, Vet had told Richard once before that if Tommy had been a shifter he would have been an Omega, since his voice and his presence seemed to soothe everyone around him. Richard had merely smiled and nodded. No way was he going to tell his mate that he had no idea what an Omega was. And although he tried doing some research of his own on Google and reading different books and even watching the animated movie “Alpha and Omega”, he was pretty sure that he still didn’t have a firm grasp of what or who an omega actually was.

Unless Vet really was saying that Tommy was a lovable, amusing, playful person…well, he’d be right about that, if he was.

“…the only way to really have a good Christmas, you know?” Tommy said with a smile on his face.

Richard blinked. What the holy hell had he missed? He stared at Tommy for a moment, very aware that if he told Tommy that he’d spaced out that the other man would pout for days and never let him forget it. He was also aware that Tommy did not always have the best ideas. Why Richard would never forget the time he’d agreed to some plan of Tommy’s and had ended up in Santa Barbara, engaged to be married to some lesbian from a foreign country. He still didn’t know how that happened.

He wondered how Vilania was doing. He’d have to send her and her partner, Opal, a Christmas card. Thank the gods that Opal had been walking by when the ceremony started or he’d be married to a lesbian right now.

Richard shuddered and returned his focus back to Tommy, who, it seemed, was still talking. Man, Richard couldn’t understand how Tommy did it, he seemed to be able to hold an entire conversation all by himself. No wonder he was a performer. Richard nodded and then realized that he had no idea what he was nodding in agreement with.

Dammit! When the hell was he going to get out of his own head and pay attention?!

“…I really think that the triplets will love it and I know that our mates will love it and Michael and Alex have already agreed. Calvin was going to do it, but he left suddenly. He said something about Vet sending him off on a rescue trip. Whatever that means,” Tommy said with a frown of confusion.

Richard nodded he knew exactly where Calvin was. They had received word that a young man in their area was being sold as a sex slave to some of the neighboring packs in the area. Vet had decided to get Calvin to pose as a patron and instead have the cowboy rescue the young man. Richard hoped that it went well.

“It’s a pretty serious trip. Hopefully, when Calvin returns, though, he’ll have someone with him. Someone that we can help heal and take care of,” Richard spoke for the first time in long minutes.

Tommy nodded and Richard watched as the other young man’s eyes sparkled as he grinned broadly. “So you’re in right? I mean it’d be kind of weird for everyone to be involved except you and Vet and the triplets you know? Especially since it’s sort of for them,” Tommy pointed out.

Realizing that he’d have to actually answer this time and knowing that he may just end up regretting it later, Richard smiled and nodded, “Yep, count me in. Not quite unlike the day I told you to count me out,” he snickered, referring to the moment that he and Tommy had changed their Facebook profiles to reflect them being out and proud gay men on National Coming Out Day. That had certainly been a fun day. Especially when no one was actually shocked when they did it.

“Great! I’ll get you the costumes and the music later on today! Oh and they’ll be here around four tomorrow, so you should probably make sure that you’re ready by then okay?” Richard watched as Tommy stood to his feet quickly and gracefully, his skirt swirling around his thin, waxed legs. He remembered asking Tommy once why he didn’t want to transition into a woman.

“And lose my cock, balls and prostate? Are you kidding me? Honey, I’m still all man. I’m just a man with decoration,” Tommy had explained before turning with a flounce and practically floating out of the room in his heels.

Much as he was doing now. Richard watched as the other man floated out of the room and shook his head with a grin, the sound of the triplets laughing, causing him to turn his head in their direction. Moments before he realized that he’d agreed to Tommy’s plan.

“Dear god, what did I do?” he groaned, collapsing to the floor, much to the amusement of his children.