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The smell of garlic and tomatoes wafted through the house. It was Thursday, and that meant it was pasta night. The Muppets was playing in the background as Patton cooked. A dash of oregano here, some extra garlic powder there, and a sprinkle of salt for an added bonus. He left the sauce to simmer and went to start on the garlic bread. He had picked the bread up at the store, but the actual garlic paste still needed to be made. The butter he left out earlier was nice and soft, and so after mixing that with some olive oil and garlic, went to get the chopped parsleyfrom the fridge. "What're you doing, Daddy?" Remus had appeared out of thin air, startling him. "Oh, just finishing up dinner kiddo, it'll be done soon. Why don't you go watch cartoons with your brother?" A chirpy "Okay!" was followed by yelling when the he leaped onto Roman. "Daddy! Help!" A muffled cry came from the wrestling twins. "Okay kids," he said gently, separating them. "Instead of fighting, why don't we see who can make the best card for Dad?" The two kids immediately rushed to their room, each crowing about how their cars would be the best. Patton turned off the TV and smiled. They were a handful, sure, but ever since they adopted them, their lives certainly had been brighter.
A beeping coming from the oven alerted him the bread was done cooking. "Oh!" He rushed back to the kitchen, and quickly got everything situated. The garlic bread was now slathered in cheesy garlic, the pasta was sitting on the plates ready to be eaten, and the sauce was almost done. After a few more minutes of simmering, he poured a ladle's worth of it onto the noodles and cut up the bread to fit each respective family member's diet. Finally, he turned the oven off as Logan walked through the door. "Hey hon!" Patton grinned as his husband gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Do you need help with dinner?" Logan asked, eyeing the food. "It looks good." "Thanks! I'm alright though, you go put your stuff up and unwind. The boys have a surprise for you." Logan smiled, and headed to his office. Patton carefully took the plated food to the dining table, and set everyone up with drinks. "Dinnertime kids!" They came tumbling out, and proudly went to show Patton their drawings. "Aw, you guys did really good! Why don't you set it at his chair so he'll see it when he's ready?" Roman shook his head though, crossing his arms. "No. I want to give it to Dad myself." Patton rustled how kids' heads and ushered them to their seats. A moment later, Logan came out and joined them.
"I heard you had a surprise for me?" He asked, twirling his fork in the pasta. Patton grinned as he watched Roman and Remus lean as forward as they could to show Logan their cards. He examined them both, complimenting their artwork. "Well, Roman, yours sure is colorful. I love the little dragon. Is that me fighting it?" Riman nodded. "Uh huh! It's cause I'm the prince and so you're the king and so you have to defend the the kingdom and that's why you have to go to work everyday so I drew you fighting a dragon!" He sat back, very pleased. Remus jumped up with a mouth full of food. "What about me?" He ravaged his way through the food as he listened to what Logan had to say. "It's uh- it's... you did a good job with your coloring, you uh- stayed inside the lines very well. It's a very nice card." Patton hid a grin, drinking his water. He knew Logan loved the kids' artwork just as much as he did, but sometimes Remus' could get a little interesting. Roman looked around as he munched on his bread bites. After a pause, he asked in a worried tone, "Was mine the best?" Patton exchanged a glance with his husband. They knew Roman had self-esteem issues sometimes, it seemed he was always trying to one-up Remus, but they tried to avoid saying one twin was better than the other. Logan gently looked at Roman. "It's very good Roman. I'll hang both your cards on my wall with the others." That appeased their prince, and he went back to eating.
Once everyone was done and both the dining room and kitchen were clean. Patton collapsed on the couch next to Logan. "Hey Padre." He said, pulling Patton closer. "Do you wanna take the kids to the park, or just hang out here?" Patton gratefully smiled and rested his head on Logan's shoulder. "I think we should just stay here tonight. I've had kind of a tiring day." A kiss on the forehead told him it was alright, and he closed his eyes, taking a breather. "How was your day? Anything exciting happen?" He felt Logan shift slightly as he answered. "Not particularly. Just the same old thing. I'm getting closer though." "That's good. I know you've been working on this one for awhile." Patton stretched back up and blinked a couple times. Logan gently brushed his hair out of his face. "What about you? With the kids out of school I'm sure something interesting happened." Patton laughed, pushing up his glasses. "Yeah, there was a bit of a misshap with Remus and a grocery cart. I'll tell you about it later, it gets kind of long." The pitter patter of footsteps and a screech from Roman caused them to get up quickly and see what was the matter. Before Patton could even get out of the living room, his son skipped in. Oh dear.
Remus was green and brown and purple head to toe. He stood proudly, with four markers in his hand. "Look Daddy! I'm all pretty just like your paintings!" Roman ran in after his brother. "Daddd! Remus broke my blue crayons again! I can't color the sky GREEN!" Logan nodded and took Roman and the crayons to his office, supposedly to see if he could fix them. Patton lifted up Remus and took him to the bathroom. "Remus, kid, we've talked about this before, you can't color on yourself." He tried to just use a wet wash rag to scrub it off, but it appeared that that wasn't going to cut it. He turned on the bath and sent Remus to fetch his pajamas. It was getting to be about bedtime anyway, so this wasn't too much of a hassle. Patton got the water warm and soapy, hoping that would do the trick. After a bit of effort, the marker did come off, slowly but surely. "But why can't I color on myself Daddy? I want to be green." He whined, splashing a little bit. "Because, kiddo. You're perfect the way you are, and marker gets messy. If you want to be green, why don't you draw yourself a green, instead of on yourself? Think we can try doing that?" Remus frowned and gave his most pouty expression. "That's not gonna work Remus." He laughed. "Come on, you're all clean now, let's get you to bed."
They tucked the kids into bed once Roman got his bath too, and then Logan read them their story. As much as Patton loved reading with his kids, he knew the books before bed was a Logan-kiddos moment. He waited in the living room for them to finish, cleaning up the toys strewn around the room. Once he heard the door creak shut and Logan whisper goodnight, and Patton flung himself into his love's arms. "Did they fall asleep okay?" He whispered, smiling up into Logan's face. "Mm-hm, Remus dropped almost immediately and I think Roman is almost there. Now why don't you tell me about this...grocery cart incident?" They went and got themselves ready for bed as Patton told his story expressively, filling it with hand motions and facial expressions. He managed to get a couple chuckles out of Logan as he told it, which filed him with joy. Nothing made him happier than seeing his Logan happy. Once he was done, Patton retired to the bed, he picked up one Logan's parenting books and flipped through it. Personally, Patton didn't think Logan needed them, he was doing a great job at being a dad, but if they made him feel better, Patton wasn't going to complain. And besides, they were full of stuff he didn't know even if it could be a little dense.
Logan rolled into bed beside him, setting his glasses on the nightstand. Patton snuggled up close to him, giving him a hug. "Mmm, honeybee, I can't wait for the weekend tomorrow! We'll just get to spend the whole day with each other." Logan got comfortable before saying anything. "Our family outings are usually fun, I'm so glad I get be with somebody like you Pat." Patton smiled, kissed his honeybee for a moment, and drifted off to sleep. He didn't dream much, but rather just felt a sense a warm calmness. He felt safe in Logan's arms as he slept, unknowing of what was going on around him. "DADD!!" They were woken by a teary-eyed Roman crawling up into bed with them. "Oh, hey what's wrong kiddo?" Patton asked, panicked and tired and worried all at the same time. Roman sobbed into his arms, "THERE'S A BIG SPIDER IN MY BED AND I HAD A NIGHTMARE!" Patton shushed Roman and gently held him, trying to provide some comfort. He looked up at Logan, begging for assistance. He loved Roman, he loved that kid so much, but... he was also deathly afraid of spiders. He didn't know if he could handle this. Logan sat up, turning on the light and putting on his glasses. "I'll take care of it, don't worry sweetie," he said, although more to Patton than to Roman.
He got out of bed and and strode down the hall to the kids' room. Patton, holding Roman, followed closely behind. Remus was still fast asleep, despite most of his covers having fallen off. The glow of their nightlight lit the room up just enough for Patton to spot a dark spot on the corner of Roman's bed. That must've been the spider he was talking about. Logan seemed to have seen it too, and quietly picked up a cup off the ground. "Wait," Patton breathed, trying to resist the urge to go back to the bedroom where it was safe. He took Roman's mini flashlight off their desk and shone it towards the spot. He didn't want Logan to miss trapping it and then have it loose in the house. They might have to move at that point. But once the light hit it, Logan relented, and set the cup back down. He just picked up the dark spot, and showed it to both Roman and Patton. "It's just Mr. Fuzzy. He probably just got moved around during the day." Roman looked up from Patton's chest, and wiped away his tears. "Really?" "Really. Do you still want to sleep with us?" Roman thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. "Mm-mm" Patton breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it was just Mr. Fuzzy. He kissed Roman on the head and tucked him back into bed. "Just call if you need us again, kiddo." They got back into bed once he was sound asleep, but before Logan could get back to whatever dreams he had, Patton kissed him. "Thanks for defending our kingdom, my king."