The house is dark when Jensen finally gets home, his muscles aching from another marathon on the ice. Three brutal hours of drills, jumps, and his father's scowl boring into the back of his head. The clock on the microwave blinked 11:47 PM in green numbers. Jesus. Later than he'd intended, but fuck it.

His father had practically thrown him out of the rink tonight—not out of mercy, but because "recovery is part of training, dumbass."

Sleep. Yeah. What the fuck did he need sleep for? Sleep wasn't going to add points to his technical score. But when the old man spoke, you listened. Even now, twenty goddamn years old, and Jensen still jumped when dad said "jump."

The stairs creak under his weight as he trudges up to the bedroom, fantasizing about the moment his head would hit the pillow. Six hours of sleep, then back to the pool by 6 AM. He needed to work on his axel if he was going to have any shot at qualifying this season.

The sound hit him halfway up the stairs. A high-pitched, furious wailing that sent a jolt of shock through his system before his brain caught up.

Riiight. The baby.

He'd promised he'd be home earlier. Something about "bonding time" with the kid. What a joke. What the hell did he know about bonding with a baby? What he knew was ice and pushing his body until it broke.

The room greeted him with depressingly familiar scene—skate guards, blade polishers now joined by diapers, tiny clothes, and plastic contraptions whose purposes he couldn't even guess at.

The baby—Hannah, he reminded himself that she has a name—was red-faced and furious in her crib, tiny fists punching the air.

Christ, he still couldn't believe it sometimes. One night at his brother's wedding, a string of drunken hookups with the foreign bridesmaid who danced like sin and tasted like heaven, and bam—his carefully constructed training schedule blown to hell and a tiny human that's been living under his roof for some weeks now.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Jensen mutters, dropping his gym bag on the floor. "Where's your mother?"

Jensen looked around the room, half-expecting to see...But no, the bed was empty. The sound of running water answers his question. The shower. Of course. Great timing.

Whatever. Jensen collapses onto the bed, finally checking his phone. His phone buzzes for the fifteenth time tonight. His brothers, probably. Fader's group chat never fucking sleeps. Thirty-seven unread messages, and he hasn't checked since yesterday morning. Training comes first. Always has.

[37 unread messages]

Patric: Beer and wings tomorrow? They're showing the prelims from the last fight.

Scott: Wait, isn’t that the fight Kurt commentated?

Kurt: Yeah, that’s me. No worry, I won’t spoil anything this time. Maybe.

Scott: Your word. What about Jensen?

Patric: Bold of you to assume Jensen remembers we exist. He's too busy trying to make dad pat his head.

Scott: @Jensen, your life is calling.

Kurt: lil bro you still alive or did dad finally make you skate til you froze to death? I wonder when was the last time he saw a light that wasn't a spotlight.

Patric: or his WIFE and CHILD? Still can't believe our manwhore brother is someone's dad.

Scott: Speaking of drowning...I promised Sarah I'd take the kids to the amusement park tomorrow, so I’m out.

Patric: So that’s just two of us then. Beer and wings it is.

God, they never shut up. Three grown men with the collective ride-or-die thinking, and yet they all had their shit together. But nothing from her. Not a single text asking where he is, when he's coming home. Like she's already given up expecting anything from him.

Meanwhile, the baby's cry ratcheted up another notch, somehow both ear-splitting and pathetic at the same time.

"Ah, fuck," Jensen approached the bassinet and stared down at her, this tiny person who shared his DNA but felt like a stranger. "Hey. Knock it off...Hannah. What's the problem?"

The baby didn't seem impressed by his greeting, continuing to scream kick with impressive strength. Must have gotten that from him. Figure skaters needs strong legs.

Jensen glanced at the bathroom door again, calculating. Another ten minutes at least before she would be out. Every ten minutes of lost recovery time. Ten minutes is too much to waste with qualifiers coming up.

He hovered beside the crib, torn between retreating back downstairs or trying to do...Something. But damn it, he never had kids. He didn't even have time for this.

Shouldn't a mother be doing this? Who the hell takes a shower this late?

The same person who's been alone with a screaming infant all day while you were at the rink, dumbass.

With a long sigh, Jensen reached into the crib and awkwardly scooped up the baby, holding her at arm's length like she might explode.

"Okay, what's your deal?" he asked, bringing her closer for inspection. "You hungry or something?"

That's when the smell hit him. A toxic, eye-watering stench that could only mean one thing.

"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ," he gagged, nearly dropping the baby in his haste to hold her away from his body again. "Are you kidding me right now? I'm not thrilled about this either, kid."

No. Absolutely not. He was a professional athlete, not a goddamn nanny. He had zero interest in whatever biohazard was lurking in that diaper. His job was to provide financially, to make sure there was food on the table and a roof over their heads. Diapers were definitely not in his job description.

Jensen marched over to the bathroom door and banged on the wood with his elbow.

"Hey! You almost done in there? There's a situation out here."

No answer, just the continued rush of water. He knocked again, harder.

"Seriously, I've got a training at six."

Nothing. Great. Just fucking great.

The changing table in the corner seems to mock him with its neatly organized supplies. This isn't his job. This isn't what he signed up for. Every minute he spends doing this is a minute he's not recovering, not preparing, not focusing on the upcoming season.

For a split second, he seriously contemplates if it's too late to just walk out the door and drive back to the rink. But the baby keeps crying—clearly miserable, and it wasn't like she could fix the problem herself, so Jensen reluctantly lays her down on the changing pad. Unfasten the diaper, wipe, new diaper, done. Basic stuff.

Except it wasn't. The fasteners on the diaper were like some kind of demented puzzle. The wipes kept sticking together, coming out in clumps that were either too big or too small. And the smell—Christ, the smell. It was like something had crawled inside this kid and died.

"What the hell are they feeding you?" he muttered, trying to breathe through his mouth as he wrestled a fresh diaper under her squirming bottom. "This can't be normal."

He managed to fasten it baby clothes, though he had doubts about its reliability. Whatever. It would hold until she got out of the shower. The main thing is the crying had stopped, replaced by curious gurgling sounds as Hannah stared up at him with wide, dark eyes.

His eyes. There was no denying it when they were looking right at him like that.

"There," he said, voice gruff as he cleaned his hands thoroughly with a wipe. "Crisis averted. Now your mom can handle the next one."

Jensen was going to put Hannah back in the crib, but her tiny hand gripped the fabric of his t-shirt, her face nuzzled against him. She was warm and solid, her tiny body fitting against him like she belonged there.

Not that she did. Not really. This whole situation—the marriage, the baby, the domestic shit—it was a means to an end. A necessary compromise. That was it. He had no interest in playing house, not when he was so close to finally proving himself on the ice.

And yet...

Jensen sank down into the armchair in the corner of the room, Hannah still clutched against him. But the weight of his daughter against his chest was oddly...Not terrible. Before he even realized it, he started swing slightly in the chair, rocking Hannah.

The bathroom door opens with a soft click, releasing a cloud of steam and the scent of shampoo. Jensen's head jerks up, oddly guilty, like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't.

"She's asleep," Jensen pressed finger to his lips in a shushing gesture that surprised even him. "Don't wake her."

Jensen kept on rocking the baby, but his gaze lingered on her, standing there, wrapped in a towel. Even exhausted and irritated, he couldn't help the surge of heat in his veins. She was still a knockout, still had that body that had made him stupid with want at his brother's wedding. Fuck him if he didn't still want her something fierce.

It didn't mean anything, though. Not really. This—this domestic scene, this family thing—was just a detour. A responsibility he hadn't asked for but was stuck with. Tomorrow he'd be back on the ice at dawn. The only place he made sense. His heart, his focus, his whole life? That belonged to the next performance.