Work Text:
The Vanrouge Daycare Center is located in the middle of nowhere, and as such, it takes the Draconia family about thirty minutes to drive from their home to daycare. Just like every other day, 5-year-old Malleus Draconia waits in the main room, waiting with all the other kids for his family to come pick him up.
Unlike most daycares, the Vanrouge Daycare Center is run by a single man: Lilia Vanrouge, a single father and war veteran. In fact, Malleus could be considered the first recipient of Lilia’s daycare; after all, Lilia had been helping take care of Malleus two whole years before Lilia adopted his son, Silver.
Now, five years later, Lilia has turned it into a kind of business. It’s a small business, sure—but he’s not doing it for the money, rather because he enjoys taking care of children. He’s amassed 21 students now, and Malleus couldn’t be happier.
Back home, most people thought he was scary because of who his parents were. But here, at Lilia’s daycare, he’s just another kid. The other kids treat him normally - mostly because they don’t know who he is or his family’s importance, but still! - and he likes it that way.
So, here Malleus sits at his table, waiting for his parents to pick him up, just like every other day. Joining him at the table for today is 5-year-old Cater Diamond - who’s pretending to call someone on a plastic toy phone - and 4-year-old Silver, who is fast asleep at the table, his arms cushioning his head as he snoozes away.
“Malle-kun!” Cater whines, tugging at Malleus’ sleeve. “Answer my phone call!”
“Be quiet, Cater!” 6-year-old Leona’s voice can be heard from the other side of the room. As the oldest in the group, he always seems to think he has authority over everyone else.
If the daycare was full of any normal kids, then maybe they’d just submit to Leona’s more bossy nature. Alas, this is the Vanrouge Daycare Center, full of eccentricities.
Instead of anyone listening to Leona, the opposite happens. 4-year-old Kalim Al-Asim launches a cracker right at Leona’s face, hitting him square on the nose, and giggles, “Here, Leona-kun!” Leona glares at the boy, grabbing it from where it fell on the floor and launching it right back.
But instead of Kalim getting hit, 4-year-old Jamil Viper steps in front of Kalim bravely and gets hit in his stead. It hits Jamil right on the forehead, causing tears to sprout in the corners of his eyes, but he’s too stubborn to let them fall. Kalim, on the other hand, bursts right into tears and he starts hugging Jamil while wailing about “Jamil got hurt for me!!!”
Meanwhile all of the 3-year-olds - Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Jack Howl, Epel Felmier, Ortho Shroud, Sebek Zigvolt, and Kuroki Yuuya - are just…well, Malleus isn’t quite sure. They seem to be staring intently at one of those Mickey Mouse plush toys that Yuuya had brought with him to daycare today.
Everyone else has already been picked up by their parents. But now that Malleus thinks about it, he hasn’t seen Lilia around in a while; he’s usually in the room with them, watching over them. But as Malleus looks towards the green armchair in the corner, Lilia is nowhere to be found.
Did he leave us? Malleus can’t help but think to himself worriedly. And so, it is with this thought that he brings himself to stand up from his seat and start walking toward the hallway that connects the room that they’re in to the rest of the building. He peeks his head into the hallway, and his efforts are rewarded; Lilia is there, at the front door! And it seems like he’s talking to…
…Malleus’ parents?
The more he stares, the more it becomes clear; Maleanor and Raverne Draconia are standing right outside the door, still dressed in their work outfits, talking with Lilia.
How long have they been here? Malleus doesn’t know how long ago Lilia left the main room, but from the way Lilia is leaning against the doorway, they must have been talking for a while.
Nonplussed, Malleus walks towards the three, and the closer he gets, the more details he notices—like the light pink flush gracing Lilia’s usually pale cheeks, or the wider-than-usual smile on Raverne’s face, or the sparkle in Maleanor’s eye. All three of them look…well, very happy together.
“Mother, Father,” Malleus calls out. The three adults turn to Malleus, confused for a moment, before Lilia blinks. Malleus raises his arms expectantly.
“Ah- Malleus!” Lilia stumbles over his words slightly, picking Malleus up and passing him to Maleanor, who perches Malleus on her hip.
With this new vantage point, Malleus is then graced with another realization; both of his parents’ ears are a shocking bright red color.
Malleus knows that people only turn red or pink in certain situations. Malleus turns red when he cries and when he’s embarrassed, but he also knows that other people turn red when they have crushes.
Now, Malleus knows that his parents have crushes on each other. Of course they do; they’re married. But why would Lilia be red? Unless…
As his parents exchange farewells with Lilia, Malleus comes to a shocking conclusion—Mother, Father, and Lilia all have crushes on each other. There’s only one solution to this: they all need to get married.
“Ah, are you lost in your own head again, Malleus?” Maleanor chuckles as she settles Malleus into his car seat in the back. “Well, that’s fine. You must be tired.”
“Get some sleep, Malleus,” Raverne adds.
Malleus nods dutifully. He’s a good boy, after all.
He then proceeds to plan his parents’ wedding with Lilia on the drive home. Obviously it needs to be big, and everyone will be invited…but Malleus knows that before he even thinks about the wedding dress that Lilia will wear, he needs to think about his future brother.
He needs to talk to Silver.
Malleus bides his time until lunchtime, where Lilia allows them all to choose where to sit in the dining room. Usually Malleus just walks up to whatever table he wants, but today, he has a goal: one silver-haired boy, who is currently…face-down on the carpet, fast asleep.
Nevertheless, Malleus proceeds to take his Eatable and sit crisscrossed next to the boy. “Silver,” he calls out, nudging the younger on the skull with his knuckle.
Silver murmurs, tilting his head up peeking an eye open. “…Malleus?”
“It’s me,” Malleus confirms with a nod. “You fell asleep.”
Silver rouses from sleep and sits himself up—though, since he’s still a little drowsy, he ends up kind of leaning onto Malleus in the process. “Sorry. Thanks for waking me up.”
“No problem,” Malleus replies. “I need your help.”
Silver blinks, and then his face turns serious, all sleepiness wiped off completely. “What is it?”
“I need your dad to marry my parents,” Malleus says.
He expects Silver to ask questions - he even has 3 whole reasons listed in his head! - but Silver just nods and replies, “Okay. Papa is happy with your parents, so I agree.”
Malleus is a little disappointed that he doesn’t get to explain himself, but nonetheless, step one is complete: Malleus has Silver’s blessing. Next, to get everyone else to agree. Because obviously, if this wedding is going to happen, then the rest of the daycare needs to know.
Obviously.
Malleus isn’t a sociable person, and neither is Silver. However, Silver is a lot friendlier with the kids his age. And more importantly, he’s friendly with Kalim.
And so, right before Silver’s 3rd afternoon nap, he walks over to where Kalim and Jamil are playing together, and he announces proudly, “Papa is going to marry Malleus’ parents.”
Jamil’s eyes widen and Kalim gasps loudly. Silver stumbles into the mini soft armchair and goes straight to sleep.
The other kids know by the end of the hour.
It’s the next day, and the kids have a Game Plan. However, for the Game Plan to start, they need to rely on the most important group included.
Leona - who proclaimed himself as the leader of the group by virtue of being the oldest - nodded, and at once, all of the 3-year-olds made their way to Lilia, determination set in their expressions. Their mission: to create a fake distraction so that the older kids can plot in secret.
“LILIA-SAMA!” Sebek shouts with all of the strength that his little lungs can muster—which is actually a surprising amount of volume. “HELP!!!!”
“You dum-dum!” Ace glares at Sebek. “You’re not hurt! You only yell ‘help’ when you’re hurt!”
“You’re wrong,” Ortho pipes up.
“Oh yeah?!”
“Yeah.”
This sets off an actual argument between the kids. Deuce and Yuu are pulled into it because they’re Ace’s best friends, Epel joins Ortho’s side to spite Ace and he pulls Jack along with him, and Sebek runs to get Lilia once fists start to fly.
…Task successfully completed?
“Let’s go to the Room,” Leona declares. At once, the older kids make their way to the Room.
The Room is a sacred place, where only the bravest children venture. Malleus had long since known what the Room had in store, since he was the very first child Lilia ever took care of. Other than him, it was only Silver and Sebek that had seen the inside of the Room. None of the other kids were brave enough to try and risk going inside it and getting caught by Lilia.
The Room, of course, being Lilia’s bedroom.
Silver opens the door for everyone, hurries everyone in, and softly shuts it behind him, locking it swiftly. Meanwhile, Malleus gathers everyone by Lilia’s closet.
“What’s the plan?” Jade asks, breaking the silence.
“Shh!” Riddle narrows his eyes, his finger coming up to his lips. “You have to whisper! That way he won’t hear us!”
“Ohh, okay!” Kalim whisper-shouts.
“I need to look through Lilia-chan’s closet!” Cater declares. “We need to see what he likes to wear!”
“I agree,” Vil nods. “We will do that. The rest of you, hurry up and make a plan!” The two quickly get to work pulling Lilia's clothes down from where they're hanging.
“Well, lizard?” Leona turns to Malleus. “This was your idea. What should we do?”
Malleus resists the urge to glare at Leona and instead turns to everyone else. “We need Lilia-sama to marry my parents. How should we do this?”
“Flowers!” Floyd pipes up.
Malleus nods. “Yes. Anything else?”
“What kind of wedding?” Kalim asks. “Did the Matchmaker tell you?”
“Kalim, no one uses Matchmakers anymore!” Jamil hisses, his ears turning red in second-hand embarrassment. “Dummy! Lilia-san is supposed to propose!”
"No, this is a wedding," Malleus shakes his head. "And Mother already proposed to Father."
The other kids nod, as it makes complete sense.
“A ring,” Trey points out. “We need a ring.”
“I have this!” Everyone turns to Azul as he proudly brandishes a plastic ring with a dragon attached to it. “But! I’ll only give it to you if you let me have your cape!”
Malleus frowns, his hand coming up to his shoulder where his cape is clasped to his shirt. “…Okay. You can have one of them I guess.”
“It’s a deal!” Azul hands the plastic ring over to Malleus, and Malleus unclips his cape and hands it to Azul, who immediately clips it onto his own shirt.
“Vil-kun and I are going to talk to Lilia-chan,” Cater speaks up, dusting himself off as he and Vil emerge of Lilia’s seemingly endless closet. “Kalim-kun, you’re coming with us too.”
“Okay!” Kalim agrees with a smile.
And with that, the three children leave the room, quietly shutting the door behind them. For the brief moment that the door is open, the rest of the children can hear the 3-year-olds…still arguing.
“Babies,” Leona clicks his tongue.
Malleus glares at Leona. “Sebek isn’t a baby.”
“And neither is Ortho!” Idia agrees, his voice substantially louder than normal.
“Wait, don’t fight!” Riddle jumps in. “We must plan the wedding, remember?”
The three boys pause at that.
“…What else happens in a wedding?” Ruggie crosses his arms.
“They kiss?” Rook winks.
Everyone else makes a face at that; Kissing. Gross.
“We can make everything up tomorrow?” Ruggie suggests with a shrug.
“Nonsense,” Riddle shakes his head. “We need to make it perfect!”
“I agree,” Silver nods along. “Papa deserves the best.”
“We need good food,” Jade speaks up. “I can bring my mushroom stew!”
Floyd and Azul make faces at that; the last time Jade brought his mushroom stew to school, it caused everyone in the room to get sick, even though they didn’t eat it.
“No,” Jamil shakes his head immediately. “My parents will bring the food.”
“Me too!” Trey pipes up. “I can bring sweets!”
Malleus smiles. I can’t wait. This is going to be the best wedding ever!
“Lilia-chan!!!”
Lilia blinks in surprise as Cater and his mother walk up to the house. Cater’s mother seems to be holding…a white dress? A very poofy white dress, by the looks of it.
“I got your measurements from the clothes in your closet!” Cater says as a greeting, completely unprompted.
Lilia blinks. There’s a lot to unpack there, but he’s willing to ignore it in favor of accepting the dress that Mrs. Diamond is handing to him. “Ah, thank you, Cay-kun.”
“Congratulations, Mr. Vanrouge,” Mrs. Diamond says with a wink. “We hope you invite us to the official ceremony.” And just like that, without any other explanation, she walks back to the car with a wave.
Lilia blinks. He's known Cater's mother since they went to school together, but even now, he's never been able to make sense of the odd things she says sometimes.
Cater tugs on his sleeve. “Put it on, Lilia-chan! You need to get ready!”
“I- ready for what?” Lilia inspects the dress. And now that he’s looking at it, there seems to be a separate part of the dress. He holds the fabric out in the air, squinting; it’s see-through. Where in the world is he supposed to put this piece?
“For your wedding! Duh!”
Lilia blinks. …My what?
Malleus nods at his parents. “I approve.”
“Did you hear that, dear?” Maleanor turns to her husband with a smirk. “Our son approves. Thank the stars.”
“Thank the stars, indeed,” Raverne grins back. “I should have convinced you to wear a suit ages ago. You look…fantastic.”
Maleanor does a twirl, showing her suit off. She then turns to Malleus. “Malleus, dear, why have you asked your father and I to wear a suit today?”
Malleus thinks for a moment. “...Because you look handsome?”
“He’s got a point,” Raverne nods.
Maleanor sighs. “Children. Oh well, grab your backpack, it’s time to drop you off at Lilia’s.”
And as his parents start to gather their things, Malleus can only smirk. It’s time.
“Silver, I brought the flowers,” Riddle declares as he walks into the main room with a triumphant smile, holding up a basket proudly.
Silver’s eyes light up at the sight. “Riddle…! Thank you!”
“Go get your outfit on!” Riddle shoos Silver away. “Go—Vil-san is bringing everything else!”
Silver nods dutifully. “Alright.”
“I have the party stuff.”
Cater, Trey, and Jamil all brighten as Vil appears at the door with a cardboard box in his arms.
“Good,” Trey sighs in relief. “Kalim is in the hallway setting everything up, and Silver is keeping Lilia in his room.”
Vil clicks his tongue. “I need to hurry. Trey, Cater, help me. Jamil, set up the table with the food.”
“Aye aye!” Cater chirps.
Jamil makes a face, but nods and grabs Trey’s container of baked goods, heading towards the kitchen.
“Okay, what are we missing?” Riddle asks, looking down at his checklist drawn in crayon. “And is everyone here?”
“Sea Slug isn’t here,” Floyd notes.
“Duh,” Leona rolls his eyes. “He needs to be here last.”
“Duh!” Epel shouts at Floyd with a fierce glare as he crosses his arms. Vil proceeds to poke Epel in the forehead, directing Epel’s ire towards himself instead of Floyd.
As Floyd glares back at Epel, Ace turns to Cater. “Cay-kun, why is Malleus taking forever?”
“It’s on purpose,” Cater reassures the 3-year-old.
“But everything’s ready and I'm bored,” Floyd whines. “He needs to be here now!”
“We need to time it right,” Vil joins in. “…But yes. He’s late.” His face scrunches up unpleasantly.
“This is stupid,” Epel scoffs.
“NO IT ISN’T!” Sebek wails, glaring fiercely at Epel.
Oh well, Trey shrugs to himself. Everything is going good.
When the Draconia family pulls up to school and Raverne opens Malleus’ door, Malleus tugs on his father’s sleeve. “Mother, Father, come with me.”
“Why?” Maleanor asks, cocking her head to the side.
“I want to show you something,” Malleus insists.
And so, as the three walk towards the daycare together, Malleus reminds himself of what his job is. 3…2…1…now. He knocks on the door - twice fast, twice slow - and waits for everyone else to do their job.
Meanwhile, he turns around, pulling two silver roses out of his pocket and handing them to his parents. “Put these on,” he orders.
The two exchange odd looks but take the roses anyways, tucking them into their breast pockets.
Malleus nods, satisfied. Good. They’re ready.
“The car just got here!” Leona announces, swiftly moving from where he'd been looking out the window to his rightful spot at the front door. “Everyone, get in position!”
“Sebek, go get Silver and Vanrouge-san,” Riddle says to the green-haired boy, who nods dutifully and walks down the hall towards where the father-son duo are.
Malleus’ knock is heard at the door, and Leona looks toward Cater and Kalim. They nod and Cater unlocks Lilia’s phone - he had gotten the password from Silver - scrolling towards the music app, as Kalim plugs the speaker that he had brought from his house into the wall. Cater connects the phone to the speaker, turning on the wedding music, and nodding to everyone else.
On cue, a few things happen all at once: Leona opens the front door, Silver walks out of Lilia’s bedroom while tossing rose petals down the white carpet that Kalim had brought(which is?? lined with gold???), everyone moves to the sides of the room to clear out the white carpet, and Azul walks to the front door with one of the couch pillows, the dragon ring laying on top of it.
Silver pauses for a second to turn around towards the hallway and call out, “Come out, Papa.”
“Malleus, dear, what’s going on?” Maleanor asks, bewildered as she and her husband look down at their son.
Malleus pats both of them on their knees, and pushes them into the daycare. “Congratulations.”
And then, Lilia walks out of the room.
Lilia isn’t quite sure why Cater came to daycare with a wedding dress specifically tailored for Lilia, or why Silver spent a whole thirty minutes desperately keeping Lilia in his bedroom as he simultaneously got dressed into his own adorable little suit, or why Riddle opened the door briefly to give Silver a basket of roses, or why Lilia could hear the other kids all setting something up throughout the house. And sure, it probably would have been more responsible of him to shut this whole thing down the moment Silver started keeping him inside the room.
However, consider this: it would be funny if Lilia just let the kids do what they wanted.
So now, here he is, walking out into the hallway with an honest-to-god wedding dress on. Silver had also given him a bouquet of silver roses to walk out with, and very belatedly, Lilia wonders to himself why this is even happening.
Then, he looks down the hallway that leads straight to the entrance and main room, and he’s blown away by just how beautiful Maleanor and Raverne both look in their charming black suits.
There’s a speaker playing a dubstep version of ‘Here Comes the Bride’ throughout the whole house cranked up to an unreasonable degree, and Silver is in front of him throwing red rose petals on the white carpet that’s been laid out all the way to Lilia’s room.
As Lilia walks by all of the kids that are also wearing nice clothes - and somehow, all of them know not to wear white??? since when are kids so knowledgeable about wedding etiquette? - he notices little Azul holding up a pillow with…Oh, these kids are simply adorable. Is that a plastic ring?
“Lilia Vanrouge!” Azul announces as Lilia stops right in front of him, Raverne, and Maleanor—the latter two looking just as confused and amused as Lilia feels. “You are married to Maleanor and Raverne Draconia! You may kiss the bride!”
“That’s not how it works, stupid,” Floyd groans from where he’s standing.
Lilia laughs, looking down at Azul to avoid staring at his childhood friends who really have no business looking so attractive in their matching black suits. “No worries. Though, I must ask…why have you children planned this fake wedding?”
“Not fake,” Malleus shakes his head insistently. “Real. You’re married to Mother and Father now.”
Lilia laughs again, his cheeks flushing slightly. Honestly, me? Marrying Maleanor and Raverne? How preposterous. It would never happen, no matter how badly I…
“I suppose we must kiss our bride, Raverne,” Maleanor says thoughtfully as she looks at her husband, snapping Lilia out of his thoughts. “It is our duty as grooms, is it not?”
“I believe so, Maleanor,” Raverne nods.
And then, a lot faster than Lilia’s mind can keep up with, the two pull back Lilia’s veil together, and Raverne is the first one to cup Lilia’s cheeks with his hands and pull him in, planting a soft kiss right on his lips.
As they separate, Lilia can’t help but gasp for air even though it was a chaste peck. He feels…he feels–
He doesn’t get to really parse through his feelings, because then Maleanor is grabbing his face with her hands and landing a firm kiss right on his lips. She then pulls away, and Lilia is cursed - and blessed - to see the two loves of his life with matching cocky smirks on their faces as they wear their stupidly attractive dress suits.
“We now p- pr-” Azul struggles for a moment, and now that Lilia is this close, he can see a printed out sheet of paper taped to the side of the pillow. “...You’re married now.”
Cheers break out through the main room as all the kids start clapping and screaming loudly and happily. Silver approaches Lilia and hugs him tightly. “Congratulations, Papa. Thank you for making me and Malleus brothers.” Malleus nods from where he’s standing next to the boy.
Lilia laughs. “Ah…you silly boys. This was all your doing, wasn’t it?”
“You’re happy with mother and father,” Malleus says, as if it’s so simple.
“And you’re happy with Papa,” Silver says to the Draconias.
Lilia turns to his childhood friends with an abashed smile. “Ah…it appears I have been exposed. By my own ward, no less.”
“Son,” Raverne corrects. “We’re married now, right? That makes our Malleus your son.”
“You’ve cared for him since he was a babe, you’re practically already his third parent,” Maleanor agrees.
Now that Lilia’s calmed down a bit, he can look at his childhood friends closely; both of their ears are a bright red color.
They’re…flushed, he realizes, a giddy feeling rising in his chest. He recognizes the looks on their face—it’s the same look that they had when they had gotten married all those years ago.
Lilia chuckles again and pats Malleus and Silver on their heads. “Thank you, boys. I…I’ll talk with Maleanor and Raverne about this, okay?”
After all, none of this is as easy as them just getting married and having a happy ending.
…But Lilia is willing to try. And so, as he turns to his friends, a hopeful feeling builds in his chest. Maybe…this can work out.