Years Will Go By

Look-Alike

Summary:
A snippet into Cove and Riley's married and parenthood life together! Their little baby, Luca, is 6 month old here (Cove is 26, and Riley is 25).

Notes:
Riley uses they/them pronouns and is AFAB (they carried and gave birth to Luca).

Warning(s): References to past pregnancy and well children lol

Word Count: 1124

Riley laughed with the baby situated between their legs. Their baby boy, named Luca, giggled at the game of peek a boo going on. He was utterly amused by his parent's game. He even tried to mimic Riley by putting his chubby hands on his face; more under his eyes than actually covering those ocean blue eyes. Riley smiled brightly at his attempt.

"Oh Luca, guess who's gonna be home soon?" Riley poked their baby's nose, causing him to laugh more. Obviously Luca couldn't respond, beyond baby noises, he was only 6 months old. "Your dad!" Riley eventually answered. He may be 6 months old but Luca knew what "dad" meant and who Dad was. The little excited kicks he did said as much.

Riley sighed a bit, Cove had to get groceries. Usually the two did the shopping together when possible, Luca made such a task impossible. Well, sort of. Luca hated his carrier/car seat— not to be mixed up with being carried, he loved that. And therefore he dislikes his stroller too. If that wasn't enough reason to not take him shopping, Luca touched, grabbed, and ate anything in reach of his small hands. If he couldn't do any of that, he'd kick it to the ground... RIP that one milk carton.

So Cove and Riley agreed to just send one or the other with a list to the store. Lord knows, Riley wouldn't get anything they need without a list and Cove wasn't far behind on that same judgment. Whoever didn't go stayed home with Luca.

Riley had to admit they missed being able to do grocery runs together. On the other hand paying for undrinkable floor milk wasn't high on their list of things/wants to do. Luca, annoyed that Riley wasn't looking at him, kicked his feet harder against them. "Jeez, you're out of my womb and you still kick my bladder." They grabbed his chubby legs to prevent more kicks.

Before they could decide on another game to play, there was a knock on the door... well more of a thump. "Oh no, your dad is definitely carrying all of the bags... in one go." Riley mumbled while picking up Luca. With the baby on their hip, they rushed over to the front door to let in their husband; mindful of the coffee table they had stubbed their toes on one too many times. Of course, once the door was unlocked and opened, Riley saw Cove standing there with many reusable shopping bags in his hands.

He gave a goofy smile as he thanked them and walked the bags to the kitchen. "I could have helped you with those," Riley said with a small frown. Cove took a moment to set the bags down.

"I know, but I figured I could get it all here in one trip and then you'd help me put it all away. Then you wouldn't have to leave Luca either," Cove responded with a small smile. "It was no trouble carrying it all; well except the door." He gestured at the now closed door before silently offering to take a wiggly Luca.

Riley passed over the baby who was so eager to be held by his dad. "Well, thank you." They kissed Cove's cheek before they started the process of putting the groceries away. Their husband mostly passed them things while making small talk. Riley was admittedly better at putting the food away in the most logical places. Cove was more likely to put it somewhere... in probably the right place (example the milk and eggs would be somewhere in the fridge). Luca tried to "help" too, but Cove didn't let him actually hold anything— or kick anything.

After a few minutes, the food and other stuff was all put away and Riley gave Cove a proper kiss on the lips. And then kissed Luca's cheeks for good measure (they never thought they'd agree so much with Kyra's statement on young boys needing to be kissed by their parents). "How did the little guy treat you while I was gone?" Cove asked with a chuckle, Luca was trying to wiggle away from more kisses.

"He decided to revisit the days of kicking my bladder." Riley jokingly pouted, getting another laugh from Cove. "Oh and like always, he is hungry ALL the time."

"Haha yeah, that sounds right," Cove said while holding Luca in the air like the baby could fly.

"Okay but he already looks just like you! Why does he have to be just like you too? Did those 9 and a HALF months in my womb mean nothing to him?" Riley feigned sadness as they watched the two play.

"Besides kicking your bladder?" Cove teasingly asked with a grin on his face. The gasp he got from his spouse being exactly what he was after.

"I'm about to take Liz up on that offer to turn Luca against you," they lied. To which Cove held Luca's face close to his own and gave a small pout. The baby immediately tried to mimic his dad's pout.

"How could you say such a thing?" Cove's question was followed by a loud "Ah-" from Luca. Both parents couldn't hold in their laughter at their son's comment. "Um..." Cove hummed in thought as he held Luca in front of him.

"What is it?" Riley asked seriously after all the teasing from before.

"I don't know, do we really look that much alike? I always thought he looked more like your mom than me." Cove brought back the joking.

"He looks just like you when you were a baby! Besides the freckles!" Riley responded. "Besides his freckles, he is all you Cove. He even has your eyebrows!" How Luca got Cove's wavy eyebrows, they didn't know. Genetics were weird like that. In all honesty, Riley didn't mind how much their son took after Cove. It was endearing to have two people they loved look so similar. However that didn't mean the two did tease the other about it a lot.

"And he is very cute with my eyebrows." Cove decided, half complimenting himself with that one.

"Yes, very cute. My two boys are cute, wavy eyebrows and all." Riley walked around the counter top and hugged Cove and Luca. Life was good like this and the smiles on everyone's faces said as much.

Bonus: The hug though tender and loving was interrupted by a loud meow. The group looked over at the kitchen to see Poppy, Riley's cat, sitting on the counter. A look at the clock would tell them that it was her food time, but for now they all laughed at the interrupted moment. Well Luca tried to reach out for the cat.