Archive of Our Own ^beta

Roman and Virgil were in their room. Virgil on his bed, Roman on the ground with a school project laid out in front of him. Technically, Virgil should have been doing it too, but it wasn’t due for a few days. Besides, he had a knack for getting Daddy to do most of the work. Right now he put all his attention on the book in his hands. He hated reading. The words were hard to follow and sometimes they didn’t make any sense. He much preferred when someone else read to him -- like Daddy. The stories were nicer that way. But the teacher wouldn’t like that someone else had been reading to him. He needed to read on his own.

Eventually, the letters started swimming around on the page so he decided to stop. He fell to the side so that his head hung upside down off the bed. Roman didn’t pay any mind to the sudden presence of his brother’s face. Their actions had long since become predictable to each other.

“Didya finish yet?” Virgil asked.

“Um…” Roman ran a glue stick over one area repeatedly then slapped down a piece of paper. “Yes.” He held up his masterpiece to see it in its full glory. “I’m so good at this.”

Virgil rolled his eyes -- a trait he ended up learning from his daddy, much to his dad’s dismay. Roman did it too, but he never did it as much as Virgil. “You say that about everything you do.”

“And it’s always true.” Roman grinned at Virgil’s frown. “Dad says that I can be good at anything I want.”

“Well, Daddy says that you’re a brat.”

“Daddy calls everyone a brat.”

Yeah, that was true. It was more an affectionate nickname for the twins rather than an insult. He even called Dad a brat a few times.

“Fine. But I’ll win next time.” Virgil stuck out his tongue before returning back to the bed. They often made their arguments into games. Anything they disagreed on turned into who could convince the other or get him to drop the subject first. Whoever won the round would get a sense of accomplishment and a point. As of right now, they were evenly matched with Virgil holding onto the lead by half a point.

The room went back to its comfortable silence.

The one thing that could be heard was their daddy’s voice from the living room. He had been talking to Uncle Thomas on the phone for a bit. Background chatter that the twins were quick to ignore. They were talking over grown-up things. Yet the once peaceful conversation sprung into something bigger. Daddy’s voice rose a bit, and with every pause, he seemed to sound angrier.

Roman and Virgil shared a confused look. Daddy never got mad at Uncle Thomas. They were like best friends. Like how Roman and Virgil are. Sometimes Daddy would scold Uncle Thomas for something, but he never got mad.

“I am not a child, Thomas,” Daddy snapped. His tone was harsher than the twins had ever heard it before. He never sounded like that. “You can’t keep acting like I’m sixteen and the world is out to get me -- I know how to handle myself.”

They didn’t know what that could mean. 

“You're the one being unreasonable here. You need to let me handle my life my own way… Shut up, I'm fine. I won't combust just because I'm yelling at you. I'm not as fragile as you continue to think I am.” Despite this, his voice shook. Like he couldn't handle speaking at a louder volume than normal. “You know what? Fine. If you’re not going to listen to me, then I’m done.”

Silence.

The twins gave each other tentative looks. They weren’t sure what to make of that whole interaction. Daddy never got that angry. He had a reserved, almost fragile anger that often went away as soon as it came. Rarely did he ever yell. They could tell that something serious had taken place.

“D’you think we should go look?” Roman asked, voice low as if speaking any volume above a whisper would shatter something.

Virgil shrugged his shoulders. He stared out their door in worry. “Dad won’t be home for a while… so maybe?” He turned his attention to Roman, who had the same worry across his features. “That’s something Dad would do, right?”

“I think so.” He picked himself off the floor. “He’d want us to make sure that Daddy’s okay.”

Virgil nodded in agreement and slipped off the bed.

Together, they walked out the door to brave the unknown. The living room was awfully quiet despite their daddy sitting in it. He leaned forward with his hand covering his eyes. He didn’t even notice that they walked in. He always noticed. It made him impossible to sneak up on.

“Daddy?” Roman called out tentatively.

This caused him to stiffen. He lowered his hand, allowing the twins to see that his glasses weren’t there. They always saw him with glasses. Not only that but… they had never seen him cry before. Seeing it made them want to start crying, too. What could have caused their daddy to cry?

“I’m sorry,” he hastily wiped his tears, “did I end up disturbing you, boys? I should have done better to keep my voice down.”

Virgil shook his head.

“Are you okay?” Roman asked.

“Oh, yes, I’m fine.” He pressed his palms to his eyes. “Just finished having an adult conversation with your uncle. Nothing to worry about.”

Despite this, they both felt very worried. They had never seen him this way before. He was always the calm one. No matter how many movies had sad parts in them, he never cried. Not like how Dad would. So then something sadder than a movie must have happened.

“You're not very good at lying,” Virgil mumbled.

Daddy laughed a bit, but it didn't sound like a normal one. “I suppose I'm not.” He lowered his hands to look at the two boys. The rims of his eyes were already red. It still looked like he would start crying at any second. “But this isn't anything that you two should be worried about, I promise.”

“It still feels like you’re lying,” Roman matched Virgil’s tone.

“Do you think you should be worried about it?”

They both shrugged. “You just seem upset,” Roman spoke for them. “And Dad would want to make sure you’re okay.”

A small smile tugged at his lips. “I think you’re right.”

The two decided to join him on the couch. One on each side. “So what made you sad?” Roman continued. Dad always knew how to do this kind of stuff. He was good at it.

“Your uncle and I just had a bit of… a disagreement.” He frowned. “We think a little differently about the same things, and sometimes that makes us mad at each other.”

“So you’re sad that you got mad?”

“It’s a little bit like that, yes.”

That seemed kinda silly, but Roman realized he could feel like that too. If he ever said something that wasn’t very nice to Virgil, he immediately wanted to take it back. Because he didn’t mean it. Then they’d both be upset over what he said. Feelings were weird. “Maybe he’s sad, too.”

“I don’t think Daddy wants to talk about it anymore,” Virgil mumbled.

Roman peeked over to see Virgil hugging Daddy’s arm. Maybe he should listen. Virgil was smart about these things. “Okay, um,” Roman kicked his feet to help him think, “we should do something else, then. Like, um…” He looked around the room.

“Play a game?”

He beamed. “Yeah!”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Daddy used his available hand to wipe away his remaining tears. “You two are free to play what you want, you don’t need to include me.”

Virgil hugged his arm tighter. “No, we gotta,” Roman insisted. “We can find something that you wanna play too. O-or we can do something else like watch a movie, or -- hey! I got it.” He slipped off the couch. “Wait right here, I gotta find it first.” He dashed off to the room.

Virgil's first instinct was to follow after him, but he managed to stay put. He had to make sure Daddy didn't go anywhere or that he didn't get sadder. Sometimes Virgil got sadder if someone wasn't there for him. And if there was anything Virgil didn't want to do, it was make his daddy sadder than he already was. “Everything turns out fine,” he whispered. Dad always said nice things like that, and sometimes they helped. Maybe it would help Daddy. “It’s always fine in the end. That’s how brothers work.”

What he didn’t see was his daddy’s eyes welling up with more tears.

“Okay, I’m back.” Roman ran in with his arms full. He dumped everything on the coffee table and smiled up at his audience. There were two puzzle boxes and an old I Spy book. “Which one do you wanna do first?”

Daddy smiled a bit. “I think I’ll leave that decision up to you two.”

The twins unanimously decided to do the space puzzle first. They knew how much their daddy liked space and figured that would be the best place to start. They all moved to the floor to put it together.

As they worked on it, Roman and Virgil did their best to not get mad at each other. They had different styles of puzzle-completing-tactics that clashed, but they held off on any arguments. They were trying to help their daddy feel better, not make him worse. If they argued then he would get upset again. And then they’d disappoint their dad for not being able to help. So they worked together. By the time it was completed, they figured out how to combine each of their tactics.

The next one went even better.

After both puzzles were completed, they moved back to the couch for I Spy. Daddy held the book so all three of them could search for the items. He was very quick at finding most of them, but sometimes he needed one to be pointed out to him. They only got through a few pages before a soft knock came from the front door.

Roman and Virgil looked at it in confusion. Daddy frowned. He closed the book and set it on the coffee table, trading it off for his glasses. The twins remained seated as he opened it. Like he knew who was on the other side already.

There were a few beats of silence before the distinct voice of Uncle Thomas said, “Can I come in?”

So Daddy let him in.

He gave a brief smile to the twins before turning back to their daddy. He looked sad, too. Maybe Roman was right. “Logan, about earlier --”

Daddy sighed. “Thomas --”

“You were right.”

That didn’t appear to be the words he was expecting. “What?”

“You were right.” Uncle Thomas shrugged. “I, I need to stop thinking of you as a kid. You’re your own man now, with your own life, and your own family,” his eyes flicked over to the twins, “I can’t keep acting like you need me at your side all the time.”

Daddy just blinked. “That’s, uh…” He cleared his throat. “I suppose I was a bit, uh, harsh in how I worded things.”

“Well, it got me to actually think about how I treat you, so I’d say mission accomplished.” He gave a faint smile which quickly slipped off his face. “It’s just -- it’s hard to see you as anything other than that little boy who always needed my help. You’re my baby brother, Logan. I helped raise you -- I was literally your legal guardian for a while. I just, I care about you. I always have.”

“I know. I never said you had to stop.” He paused to think of his next words. “But perhaps tone it down? A little bit.”

A puff of laughter escaped Uncle Thomas. “Yeah, I can be a tad overprotective, can’t I? I promise I’ll try to control that from now on.”

“Maybe that’s something we can work on together. Set boundaries that we’re both comfortable with so it won’t be as hard or awkward for either of us.”

Uncle Thomas grinned. “And that is why I have the smartest brother in the whole world.”

Daddy rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” But he failed to hide his smile.

“Hugs!” Roman leaped off the couch and ran over to the other two. He pushed them into prime hugging position, but his arms were too short to completely wrap around both of them.

Virgil got there in his own pace. He leaned into the group without making any actual effort to move his arms. “I told you everything turns out fine,” he murmured.

And he was right.