Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was the late afternoon of December twenty-third and the Barns was a place of chaos. Ronan wasn't entirely sure where everyone was, or what they were doing, but they were certainly doing something because Adam had a detailed plan and a task schedule and a color-coded time table to ensure that everything was done before their guests arrived the next day.

Since the near-apocalypse in Boston twenty years before, the Lynch family Christmas always took place at the Barns. It wasn't even something the brothers agreed to in so many words. That first year, as Declan healed from his wounds and Matthew reemerged alive and well, it was understandable that none of the three wanted to be out of each others' sights for very long. They had missed the holidays too, after all, with everything that had happened over the past few months. It made a kind of sense to do Christmas in the spring, all things considered.

After that, when Ronan thought about it, the family Christmas shifted back to its usual time of year and they all just continued to celebrate it together, as if there had never been a time when they didn't. He assumed it had come down to Adam and one of his plans. Ronan didn't remember exactly how it happened but just that next year, when Adam was a sophomore and had left Boston behind, the two of them were at the Barns and officially hosting for the first time. Somehow, Declan, Jordan, and Matthew showed up, then Gansey and Blue, and a tree was decorated and food was cooked and wine was passed around. Somehow, they did the same the next year, and the next, and they were still doing it now even as the crowd had grown.

Tomorrow, fifteen Lynches would pile into their usual pews at St. Agnes Church for Christmas Eve Mass. The day after, the family room would be covered in so much ripped wrapping paper that Ronan would be finding scattered bits of it around the house for the next four months.

Somehow, Ronan didn't mind it. Somehow, it was exactly what he'd always wanted.

He kicked off his boots beside the door, relishing the immediate warmth of the farmhouse with a small shiver. A blanket of snow had painted the land white overnight but the house was awash in color. A massive freshly-cut evergreen tree dominated the room to his left covered in beautiful (if disorganized) baubles with the pile of presents tucked underneath it. There was a thick twist of silver tinsel snaking along the banister of the stairs ahead of him and an array of hand-knitted stockings (Adam's work) in all colors of the rainbow hanging from the fireplace's mantle.

Ronan ventured deeper into the house to find the kitchen largely empty, which was a surprise considering the flurry he had left their daughters in just hours ago. Four pies were sitting out to cool and the sink was empty of dirty dishes. He would have to praise Bridget and Molly extra for that latter part.

Adam's head was stuck so far in the fridge that he didn't notice Ronan's approach. Ronan rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall beside it.

"It's still brining," Ronan drawled, "Just like it was a couple hours ago. They don't come back to life, you know?"

Adam huffed but Ronan didn't wait for more of a response before stepping forward and pulling Adam out of the fridge by the hip. He pressed his fingers into the bone there as he slid his other hand to the back of Adam's neck, tugging on his hair lightly to tilt his head back and pull him in. Ronan poured himself into the hot meeting of their mouths, as starved for Adam as he always was, and smirked a little against his lips when he swallowed Adam's small moan. He deepened the kiss further, rocking forward as Adam's back pressed against the fridge and his own hands yanked Ronan's belt loops to bring his hips closer.

When Adam needed to sit down and talk things through, Ronan listened. When Adam needed to get out of his own fucking head, Ronan took action. He was happy to do either really but this here, with Adam's hands pressed against his own fiery skin and his own tangled in his hair, was impossible not to declare his favorite.

Ronan used every bit of willpower he possessed to pull back, just a little, to allow them both to breathe. Otherwise, this couldn't continue in the kitchen and he'd be damned if he ruined the surprise by kidnapping Adam to their bedroom. Ronan pressed a soft kiss against Adam's forehead, memorizing the tantalizing flush on his cheeks and the swollen red of his mouth, the widened orbs of his pupils that blocked out the ring of blue around them when Adam's eyes fluttered open. Adam leaned forward and pressed a small kiss to the corner of Ronan's mouth.

"Better?" Ronan said against his skin.

"Much," Adam admitted, resting his head on Ronan's shoulder with a sigh, "Tomorrow can't come soon enough."

Ronan nodded, running his fingers softly through Adam's hair as he held him. He knew what he meant. They hadn't seen Bryan or Steph in-person for over two months as both had been too swamped with their first semesters at college to come to the Barns in the fall. There were video calls, of course, but it wasn't the same and Adam worried over them immensely. Ronan did too, in his own way, but it didn't seem to eat at him as much. He trusted their boys to reach out if they needed it, knowing how much he had wanted space at their age but was terrified to be left behind and forgotten. He remembered how much he had wanted to stay at the Barns and how much he had wanted to leave it. Bryan and Steph had to sort it out for themselves so Ronan would stay as close or as far as they asked him to.

He rubbed small circles against Adam's lower back. Adam was always so concerned with making Christmas the best for everyone that it could be that he rarely stopped long enough to breathe for himself and this year seemed more obsessive than most. He suspected their sons' absences had something to do with that.

"You know," Ronan said against Adam's hearing ear, "They'll be here before you know it." Which was a full truth. Adam just didn't know how soon that would be. His timing couldn't have been better though as only a couple of minutes passed before the familiar, comforting squeeze against the back of his neck alerted Ronan to someone crossing the security system of the Barns.

Adam, as he was tied to the magic too, felt the same. He picked his head up from Ronan's shoulder and met his eyes with a furrowed brow.

"Was someone coming early?" Adam asked.

"How the fuck would I know? You're the one with the schedule," Ronan said, even as he felt his expression giving him away, "Better go see who isn't sticking to your plan, Parrish."

The tiniest bit of light flickered in Adam's eyes, a little bit of hopeful excitement, as he took Ronan's hand and pulled him outside onto the front porch. On the pillar beside the stairs hung a simple but beautifully hand-carved wooden plaque, reading: Home of the Lynch Ten. It was a gift from Gansey and Blue, given just after Aidan's arrival, with the collective nickname their family had given the Barns clan. The bottom-left corner of the sign was smoother and paler than the rest from when, at each homecoming, the returning Lynch pressed a gentle finger to the spot.

The snow had ceased falling but the rise of early dusk cast a sleepy sparkle over the expanse of soft white mounds. Ronan's dreamt fireflies hovered above the ground but it was the dreamer children's strings of dreamt fairy lights, woven in complex braids, that lit the sides of the driveway and cast soft shadows on the waxy green-leafed bushes dotted with small clumps of red berries. It was a winter wonderland, created by the dreamers and beloved by the dreams (and the Magician). Above them, Chainsaw let out a joyful squawk, a sound every Lynch knew to be an announcement of someone's arrival, and Ronan heard the excited yelps of their children as they rushed toward the front to see for themselves.

Bridget and Molly arrived first, coming around the side of the farmhouse's wrap-around porch with freshly-plucked flowers from the greenhouse in-hand. They wore aprons around their waists and matching long braids down their backs. Caleb and Yumi came into view in the distance, jogging clumsily in their muck boots from the sheep barn. Aidan nearly hit Ronan with the screen door as he came bolting outside after running down the stairs, Beth right behind him and both wearing only socks as shoes were forgotten in the excitement.

Around the bend in the drive came a silken all-black sports car, the well-tuned engine purring at the still too-fast speed for gravel as it rushed forward. The only color on the beauty was a long thick stripe of crimson that ran from bumper to bumper. Even if it was a Camaro, at least it was prettier than the Pig had been back in the day and it ran much smoother thanks to Bryan's and Adam's handiwork.

Bryan pulled into the lot in front of the house with a dramatic flourish and Steph was already beaming out at them from the passenger seat before the doors opened. Adam leaned up and kissed Ronan's cheek.

"Thank you," he said, "It's the best surprise."

Ronan smiled down at him, "Figured it would be."

The boys had called Ronan just days before with their plan. It would only be one extra day, they said, but they wanted to come home early and they wanted it to be a surprise for their Daddy. Steph drove down from Boston the night before and left his sensible Volvo in Bryan's parking spot at UVA so they could use the faster car (and the faster driver being Bryan, for better or worse) to get to the Barns as soon as they could from Charlottesville. All Ronan had to do was make sure Adam was in the house when they arrived and keep his mouth shut. The former was easier than the latter, much to his own surprise on both accounts.

Bryan and Steph barely had time to get out of their seats before their siblings descended on them. Bridget tugged Bryan's black curls teasingly, grown to his shoulders since leaving home, while Molly and Beth clutched around his waist on either side. Caleb hugged Steph tightly before Yumi stepped forward to kiss his cheek and Aidan yanked on his hand, already desperate to tell him something that had happened in the past five minutes.

"Alright," Ronan said, stepping forward one stair to wave them off, "Let them breathe and get in the house. It's fu--freakin' freezing out here."

Adam gave him a bemused smirk. Ronan had tried since Molly and Beth to curb the swearing (There didn't seem to be much point before since Steph and Caleb showed up with filthy mouths all on their own.) but it was still a near thing most days. As long as the kids didn't repeat it at school (They'd had that parent-teacher conference multiple times with various kids already.), Ronan didn't see the harm in it.

"Da's right," Adam said, "Inside, the lot of you."

"We gotta finish up with the sheep first," Yumi said, "but the cattle are in."

"I'll go help. It'll be faster with three," Bridget said, handing the flowers in her hand over to Molly. "Go back and get the hyacinths?" she asked her younger sister.

"Red?" Molly asked, "Or white?"

"A bit of both," Bridget said, handing over her apron as well before nodding to Yumi and Caleb. "We'll be back in soon!"

Ronan steered Beth and Aidan toward the front door, "And you two take off those wet socks and go change. If you get a cold, it's your own fault." They both giggled and ran off, but not before Adam reminded them again to remove the socks in the mudroom.

Ronan finally turned to their two eldest sons, "Get any tickets on your way back?"

"No," Bryan said, his smirk a knowing one as he approached Ronan, "but the night is young." They wrapped an arm around one another for a short, hard hug and Ronan raised an eyebrow at Bryan's unruly curls. "You gonna trim that mop?"

"Nah, the girls like it."

Ronan snorted and pushed him aside to Adam so he could wrap Steph in a full hug. "Declan driven you crazy yet?"

"If he brings up business as a major again, I might have to punch him," Steph grumbled against Ronan's ear, "but at least he can put a decent dinner on the table. I doubt many freshman eat as well as I do."

Ronan patted his cheek, "You look real good, Steph. I'm glad you're taking care of yourself. You have too much of your Daddy in you sometimes, you know that?"

Steph rolled his eyes, "I know."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ronan saw Bryan go to Adam and wrap his arms tightly around him. Even though he was the tallest of them all, a couple inches more than Ronan, Bryan always made himself a bit smaller when he hugged Adam, curling into his father like he had as an eight-year-old. Adam rested a hand against Bryan's back and the other against the back of his head, cradling him, as Bryan rested his head on Adam's shoulder. Adam whispered something into his ear that made Bryan snort before pulling back and kissing Adam loudly on the cheek.

"Go see him," Ronan told Steph, "He's missed you two like a lung."

"We did too," Steph admitted and Ronan knew he wouldn't say it to anyone else, always playing his strongest emotions close to the chest since he was nine years old. Ronan watched Steph go to Adam and wrap his arms gently around him, their identical heights letting them rest their heads against one another as Adam rubbed Steph's back. Steph leaned back to kiss Adam's cheek and Adam ran his hand over Steph's neatly-cropped tight curls.

"I like it," Adam said, "Different but good."

Steph shrugged, "The barber does the whole thing for ten bucks and a six-pack of beer."

Adam raised an eyebrow, "That'd be a good deal, if you were twenty-one."

Steph laughed mischievously, jerking a thumb at his brother, "Get this one here to quit it with the street races and I'll cut up my fake ID."

"Traitor!" Bryan shouted in mock outrage.

"Where'd you get a fake ID? I could've used one of those at nineteen," Ronan asked.

"Ronan," Adam groaned, "Not helping, with either of them."

"Listen to your Daddy," Ronan said, a reflex more than anything. Both boys laughed.

"We will talk about both of those later," Adam said, looking between their sons, "but for now, get inside. There's hot chocolate in the kitchen."

They all filed into the house, the boys loudly discarding their shoes as Adam and Ronan continued on into the kitchen. They had barely walked into the room before Adam was peppering them with questions as Ronan ladled the thick chocolate into mugs, a dash of cinnamon for Steph's and extra marshmallows for Bryan's. Adam wanted to know everything at once, as if they would disappear before he could finish: how long had they planned to arrive early and how long they could stay, how finals had gone, how the drive was and how their friends were doing at school, what their favorite classes were, and on and on.

Ronan leaned back against the counter top, listening and watching and soaking them in. He loved this Adam, this exuberant and love-filled creature, this father and man with a family strong enough to hold him close. His accent thick and his smile bright, Ronan realized for the millionth time just how impossible it would be for him not to love Adam Lynch. His Adam, in all his formations.

Mugs emptied and rinsed, every questions suitably answered, Adam reached out for Bryan and pulled the hand-knitted scarf from around his neck, "It's like you aren't planning on staying," he teased, taking it, "Ugh and it's still damp from snow! You aren't allowed to end up sick over break. I'll go hang it up."

Ronan rolled his eyes as Adam left the kitchen as Bryan turned his focus to him.

"How're they holding up?" Bryan asked, and by 'they' he clearly meant Adam.

"Fine," Ronan said, "Still working his fingers to the bone over that ley line book with your Uncle Gans and, you know, missing you two more than anything."

Both Bryan and Steph rolled their eyes with affection. Maybe he'd taught them a little more than cursing too.

"And you?" Bryan asked.

Ronan shrugged, "Good. Nothing to report on my end. Farm work doesn't change and the littles are always up to something." He gave them a small smile, "The Barns will always be the Barns, you guys know that."

They both nodded because they did. The Barns was for Lynches. It was their home, their kingdom, and it always would be, even when Ronan and Adam weren't there in some distant future.

Steph stood and stretched. "I'm going to change," he said, "Get this smell of cigarettes off of me."

Ronan raised an eyebrow as Bryan groaned.

"C'mon man, you just gonna keep telling them everything?" Bryan complained.

"Get better at keeping secrets and it wouldn't be so easy for me," Steph countered with a sly smirk.

Bryan lunged from the table at him with a filthy curse and Steph laughed loudly, snagging his bag from the floor before sprinting upstairs. Bryan did the same, still shouting his brother's name. Ronan watched them go, contented. The Barns was always home but it felt more when all eight of their children were under the same roof.

After checking on the soup, Ronan went in search of Adam and found him in the mudroom. Adam's back was to him, standing still with his head tilted downward as if he were searching for something on the floor. Ronan followed his line of sight and froze mid-step.

There were eight pairs of shoes lined up beside the door.

They were all different styles and sizes: Bryan's worn tennis sneakers and Steph's sturdy leather brogues, Bridget's knitted booties and Yumi's kitten heels, Caleb's combat boots and Molly's glittery Converses, Beth's flower-printed wellies and Aidan's mud-splattered clogs. Beside them all, at the end, sat Adam's and Ronan's farm work boots.

Ronan stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Adam from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. They stood there together, both looking at the shoes in silence. It was the image Lindenmere had shown Adam two months before they brought Bryan and Bridget home, a glimpse into their future that was now a reality ten years later. They had held onto that promise from their forest for years, slowly gathering the children, their children, wishing for it all to come true. And, it had.

"I forgot exactly what kinds of shoes there were in the vision," Adam said, barely more than a whisper that was at once wondrous and awed and overwhelmed. "I was so focused on there being eight pairs and the knowing of what it meant, the image itself got blurry over time. But this, this is...."

Ronan squeezed him closer, resting his cheek against Adam's as his husband's voice trailed off, "It's everything."

Adam nodded. "Yes," he said, his voice wobbling.

"Da!" came a voice from the kitchen. It was Yumi, bright and loud.

"Daddy!" came a voice from upstairs. It was Aidan, small and sweet.

It was exactly as Lindenmere had promised.

It was everything. It was theirs.

The Lynch Ten.

Adam laughed, a riot of joyful sound that Ronan felt seep into his marrow and set him alight. He turned in Ronan's arms and cupped his face with both of his hands.

"Ronan," Adam said. He meant Ronan. He meant home and family and love. He meant everything. He meant forever. Ronan felt it all within those five simple letters that made him into the man he was.

"Adam," he said in response, meaning all of the same.

They kissed and the world, the universe itself, dropped away. In the end, it was always them two.

Their second selves. Their boundless love. Greywaren and Magician.

They were together and alive, awake and together.

THE END