Page 5 of Club Royal: Calendar Collection

Timothy

George sat upright in bed, making Timothy jump from the sudden movement. His husband dropped his phone on the bedside table, flung the covers back and scrambled from the bed.

“Where’s the fire?” Eddie muttered, barely opening his eyes. Timothy couldn’t blame him. It was barely six in the morning.

“No idea.” He focused on George. “George, what’s going on?”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know,” George murmured as he tugged on trousers and a shirt, slipping his feet into shoes without adding socks beforehand. He headed for the door.

“George! What’s going on?” Timothy repeated, climbing from the bed. That particular day would be difficult for them all, with it being the anniversary of George’s mother’s death, but he wasn’t making sense.

“I’ll be back!”

George raced out of the room, leaving Timothy standing in the middle of their room without a clue for his sudden departure.

“Well, I hope he’s staying within Windsor,” Eddie said.

Timothy rubbed his earlobe. “Why?”

“He left without buttoning his shirt.” Eddie grinned. “I’d love to see the media with that story.”

Timothy snorted. “Yeah, they would feast on that for a while.” He climbed back into bed, pulling Eddie into his arms. “He also left without his phone, so there is no way of contacting him to see if he needs help.”

“There are plenty of people around to help him if he needs it.”

“True.”

“Do you think it has anything to do with the day?” Eddie asked.

Timothy sighed. “I don’t know. He seemed okay last night, and he wasn’t upset before he just left, but until he returns, I don’t think we’ll know for certain. We’ve been working with him, so hopefully, that will help him.”

They lay in silence for a while, Eddie falling back to sleep if his deep inhalations were anything to go by.

Timothy had never believed this could be his life, but over the past two years, he’d fallen into a routine.

Most days, they would spend at Timothy’s house—although it was all their house now as far as he was concerned—but sometimes, like the previous evening when they’d spent time with George’s family, they would stay over at Windsor in George’s suite.

He dreaded to think what would’ve happened if George had been at home when he had whatever epiphany it was he’d reached.

The media truly would’ve had a field day with that.

Timothy’s alarm beeped softly, and he reached across Eddie to turn it off, pressing kisses to the man’s cheek and neck, waking him slowly.

“Hmm.” Eddie tilted his head, giving Timothy more room. “Best way to wake up.”

Timothy kissed down his jaw and reached his mouth, brushing their lips together. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you need to get up. You have to go to work.”

Eddie groaned and tightened his hold on Timothy’s neck. “Don’t wanna…”

Timothy chuckled. “You love your job, and you know it.” He pulled back after one last kiss and climbed from the bed again. “I wonder where George has got to.”

Immediately after saying that, he heard the suite door slam and footsteps hurried towards them.

Timothy covered his groin with the bedcovers, his heart racing.

There was always the chance that it wasn’t who they were expecting, so it didn’t hurt to be wary.

Luckily, it was George barrelling through the bedroom door, brandishing arms full of… “Are they batteries?” Timothy asked.

George dropped them onto the bed, and they were indeed batteries. Hundreds of batteries.

Eddie asked the question of the morning. “George, what are they for?”

“It’s Check Your Batteries Day,” George said, as if that made sense to them.

“Okay…” Timothy stared at his husband, trying to see if he wasn’t as okay as he had thought him to be. He distantly noted that George’s shirt was finally buttoned.

George grinned. “We need to give them to everyone.”

Eddie leaned over Timothy’s shoulder. “Why?”

“Because they need to replenish their toy stock, of course!”

Eddie burst out laughing. “Do you want to give batteries to everyone so they can make sure their vibrators and other toys work properly?”

“Yes!” George threw his hands in the air. “What else did you think they were for?”

Eddie cleared his throat, while Timothy was still trying to get on the runaway train that was George’s thought process. “You do realise that Check Your Batteries Day is about replacing the batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, right?”

“Does it really need to literally say that all batteries are checked? Not just the ones that are most important?” George asked, putting his hands on his hips.

Timothy covered his mouth with his hand, hiding the smile he didn’t think he could stop. “As much as I love this, Eddie, you need to get ready for work.”

“Oh, crap!” Eddie scrambled from the bed and ran into the bathroom.

Timothy glanced at George. “Are you okay?”

George’s mouth curved at the corners. “I am okay. I promise. I know what day it is. I know what we have to do today, but I’m okay.

I just love these funny holidays. You get to do stupid shit like ‘Inconvenience Yourself Day’ and ‘Oreo Day’—not Christian’s dog, but the biscuit.

As crazy as some of them are, I love them all. ”

Timothy grabbed George’s arm and dragged him onto the bed, avoiding the packs of batteries sprawled across the bottom. “And I love you. Quirks and all.” He cupped George’s jaw, brushing his thumbs over his lower lip. “Just let us know if you need anything at all today, okay?”

George blinked rapidly. “I will. I promise.”

“Good.” He dropped a kiss on his lips. “Now, tell me how you expect to get these batteries to everyone you want them to go to.”

George grinned. “Everyone!”

Timothy rolled to his back, wincing when he lay on the batteries, and covered his face with his hands. “Why did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because you know me better than I know myself.”

“We both do,” Eddie said as he came out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist and drips of water still sliding down his chest. Timothy rose as he watched his husband drop the towel with a wink and dress into his uniform.

The confidence Eddie had developed since they’d been together was immense, and he was grateful every day for being able to see it.

“I’m going to make and drink coffee for the rest of the day, but make sure you leave some of the fun for when I get home,” Eddie said, bending to kiss Timothy and then George.

“I’m sure we can think of something fun for you later,” George said, dragging Eddie down for another longer kiss before Eddie pulled away, laughing.

“I’ll see you then.” Eddie grabbed his phone and wallet and left the room, the sound of the suite door closing with a distant thud.

“So, my plan is,” George started.

Ten minutes later, Timothy shook his head. How were they all going to react? They all knew George and his jokes, but would this be one joke too far?

“Okay, I’ll get the bags; you divide them up,” Timothy said, rising to dress.

He kissed George goodbye, distracted as the man was with separating the batteries into various piles, and headed for the nearest shop that had gift bags.

By the piles of batteries, they would need large ones rather than small ones.

He hit the jackpot when he found rainbow ones and bought enough to cover George’s plan and a few extras because he knew Eddie would love them. As he waited to pay, his phone rang.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah, could you also get some bows and some tissue paper? And maybe some love hearts?” George asked. “Oh, and some balloons?”

Timothy grinned and glanced around to check there were no other customers. “Sorry, could you hold that for me? I think I need other stuff, too.” The cashier nodded and put his items aside. He refocused on George. “And why do we need all those things?” he asked, heading back towards the gift area.

“Well, I was thinking that if these are gifts, we should wrap them, and then I thought it would be nice to give them a balloon as well. Make it something special.”

Timothy could hear the uncertainty in his voice, and the reasoning behind the extra items became clear. “You want them to have something lighthearted to do today?”

“I really do,” George whispered.

“Good idea. I’ll get what we need. If you think of anything else, let me know.”

“I will.”

Timothy smiled at the shelf of bows. “I really love you, you know.”

“And I love you.”

“See you shortly.” He hung up and turned back to the cashier. “I think I’m going to need a bigger bag, please.”

By the time he’d finished picking up everything George wanted, plus some other items Timothy thought would be a good idea, he had three bags full of stuff.

He thanked the cashier and carried them down the street and through the gates of Windsor Castle.

There was an immense weight hanging over them, and George’s idea, while maybe not quite what the funny holiday was meant for, was one that would hopefully lift their spirits.

He hadn’t known Louisa personally, he’d met George in the aftermath of her death, but from what he’d learnt through his years with the royal family, she would’ve appreciated the joke, too.

He pushed into their suite and dumped the items on the larger table near the window.

“George? I have everything, I think,” he called.

George appeared in the bedroom doorway and grinned. “Perfect. We need to get wrapping.”

Between them—and between George crunching on his favourite sweets—they arranged the bags on the table, filled the bottom of each with a bit of tissue paper, placed the batteries inside and put another piece of tissue paper on top.

It wasn’t wrapping per se, but it worked.

If they’d wrapped every individual battery pack, they’d still be doing it at Christmas—that was how many George had bought.