Like the absolute fact that Jens can be a grumpy twat. He can also be rude and obnoxious and pretty much evil when he is stressed. Axel remembers this. How he would feel warm when embraced in Jens’ gaze, his skin sun-kissed by love. Yet when you are standing in stressed-out-Jens’ shadow, life is very cold.
And Axel feels cold this morning, while Jens is stomping around shouting at Malena for apparently hiding his pile of essays, that Axel is quite sure are still next to the sink in the bathroom. He would go and fetch them if he could, but somehow Marthe has decided to be all tearful and clingy and is wailing on his lap, while Axel is struggling with a pair of trousers that he is supposed to dress her in. Marthe is not cooperating. And Axel is sitting here rethinking some of his life choices.
Morten is shouting at Jens. Something about money that he should bring to school and some hockey equipment that needs replacing. Jens is shouting back. Axel can’t quite make it out.
Mikki is just silent. Lost in his head at the breakfast table, pushing soggy cornflakes around on the tabletop.
“Please be a good girl for Axel and let Axel put your trousers on Marthe.” Axel whispers. “I still need to get socks on you and I am struggling. Please, baby girl.”
Marthe just wails and Malena sweeps through the kitchen with her hair in a mess and a frown on her face.
And Axel tries. He tries to speak to her with his eyes. Tries to say sorry. Sorry for stressing everyone out. Sorry that I am here. Sorry that your Pappa is so stressed. Because that is probably me too, keeping him away from his work and the things he needs to do.
Malena just shrugs her shoulders at him. Grabs a banana and starts looking around on the work surface for a clean cup.
“There’s a clean one on the draining board.” Axel says, while finally getting the last sock on Marthe’s reluctant feet.
“Thanks.” Malena mutters, still with her back to him.
So, he places Marthe down on the floor and makes a run for it. Grabs Jens' papers from the bathroom and corners him in the hallway, pressing the essays to his chest while walking him backwards into the wall.
“You are stressed, baby. Calm down,” he whispers, while pressing a soft kiss into Jens’ neck. Jens’ chest rising and falling. Breathing far too fast.
“I am so fucked at work Axel. I’m trying. I am. Just loads to catch up on and the house is a mess, and I just seem like I haven’t remembered anything this week.” Jens’ hair is falling over his face, and Axel presses another soft kiss to his lips.
“You know what you need, baby?” Axel tries to look seductive, but he thinks he might just look slightly deranged.
Jens just stares at him. Whining slightly when Axel’s fingers cup his crotch over his work trousers. And Axel is throwing a glance behind him to make sure they are alone.
“You need to come to my place at two this afternoon, and I will suck your cock until you are hard and leaking like a fountain, then I’ll lick your arse, eat you out like a gourmet dinner until you are begging, just begging me to take you. Then, I will fuck you so hard into the mattress, that you will forget about all your worries, and I promise… I promise, baby, you will feel much more relaxed after I have made you come so hard that you won’t remember your own name anymore. How does that sound? A little bit of de-stressing this afternoon?”
Axel bursts out laughing. Because Jens is all flushed and glassy-eyed and is frankly looking terrified.
“Or we can just have a cup of coffee and play videogames and you can read me some of your essays and I can tell you my honest opinion on them…”
“Shut up, Axel.” Jens snarls, while his mouth attacks Axel’s lips and there is more than enough tongue action going on, wet and sloppy and full of little moans and Morten shouts “Eyurgh!” as he pushes past them in the hallway.
“I will be at yours at two, as long as you get out of my sight so that I don’t have to take my children to nursery with a very visible hard-on.”
“Perfect.” Axel hisses against his mouth as he steals another kiss, making Jens whinge against his lips.
“Two o’clock.” Axel whispers.
“Fuck, Axel.” Jens’ hand is squeezing his bum and he is trying hard, very hard, not to grind his hips against Axel’s crotch as Malena comes running with Marthe. A stark-naked Marthe.
“Axel, you were supposed to dress her!” she shouts. Glaring at Axel and stomping into the bathroom.
“I did!” Axel shrieks back. “She had all her clothes on!”
“Well, she took them all off again, didn’t she, including the nappy, and wee-weed on the floor. All over the clothes. Marthe! Stop it!”
Marthe is protesting loudly and Axel catches a fresh batch of clothes that Malena throws at him and Jens mumbles something about needing to potty train her and Axel catches a cleaned-up Marthe as Malena practically throws her at him.
“Clothes on, then strap in highchair. Otherwise she takes them all off again.” Malena sounds tired.
“Nudey-rudey.” Marthe singsongs.
“Got it.” Axel says. Sounding far more confident than he feels as he starts on the tights and dress thing combo. Tights. He is all about the Babygro at work. He can dress the wriggliest of babies in a Babygro with one hand. Easy. Tights though. He has dealt with tights a few times. Tights are the invention of Satan, Axel is pretty sure of that.
And Jens has disappeared, probably pacing around the bedroom trying to get his cock under control. Axel knows that feeling. His own cock is still tingling from his little attempt at dirty talk. It worked though. Yay.
Double yay.
Bring on two o’clock Axel thinks, while smiling far too widely when Marthe gets her leg stuck in the tights. Winking very enthusiastically as Jens straps her in the backpack carrier. Feeling all mushy and loved as Mikki plants a loud wet kiss on his cheek.
“Love you, Axel. Thank you for my toast. You make good toast.”
“You’re welcome Mikki.”
He gets a quick peck on the lips from Jens, and a look so dirty that Axel blushes, his body boiling with something he can’t quite put into words, which is making him smile through the awkward jerks in his groin.
His face is still red as Malena shouts at Morten and pushes him out the door, throwing a glance at Axel as he stands there awkwardly in his t-shirt and pyjama bottoms in the hallway. Bouncing on his heels and wondering what on earth he is supposed to do now.
So he gets dressed. Grabs a shopping bag and starts clearing out all the bottles of cleaning stuff under the kitchen sink. Makes three trips to the recycling bin in the basement. There is really nothing that he thinks he can use, and anyway the cupboard is filthy. It should all go, and it does.
There is crap everywhere, so Axel fills bags. Sorts cardboard from plastic. Opens cupboards and empties packages and crockery out on the kitchen table. There is not much but he makes a few more trips to the bins.
The little shop on the corner has the basics, and Axel grabs what he needs. A few sponges, two bottles of de-greasing stuff and some antibacterial spray. Bathroom cleaner. That chlorine stuff that makes things white. And some washing up liquid, because the stuff upstairs smells like someone’s bad idea of lemon scent, and Axel is doubtful that it actually does what it says on the bottle.
Then Axel unleashes his inner nurse. Well, years of scrubbing hospital germs has made Axel damaged beyond belief, because the state of the kitchen is thrilling, in the way he can see his efforts paying off with every wipe. The work surfaces come up sparkling clean. The sink is gleaming. The dishwasher runs and runs, and before Axel knows it, he is up on a chair wiping down the shelves in the cupboards.