#kid!roman

“Roman, five more minutes of tv before bedtime.” Logan sets a timer next to the tv before heading back to the kitchen to finish up the dishes.

“Buttttt, Papa, Daddy always lets me stay up. This isn’t fair.” Roman pouts and whines and clings to the couch.

“Hey! That isn’t true. Nice try though.” Virgil comes up from the basement holding a basket of clean laundry. He plants a kiss on Logan’s lips before going to Roman, “It’s nearly bedtime, little prince.”

“But I’m not tired.” Roman hides between one of the couch pillows, occasionally peeking out to see if his dads are still there.

“A good sleep schedule is very important for a growing little boy, especially on a school night.” The tv clicks off. Logan moves the pillow to reveal Roman’s hiding spot, “Is there anything we can do that you come upstairs without a fight?”

“I want a bedtime story!” Roman cheers and jumps off the couch. He reaches up for Logan and does the little grabby hands to signal he wants to be picked up, “With dragons and princes and ummm magic!”

Logan scopes Roman into his arms and heads to Roman’s room. Right before following them up, Virgil snaps a picture to always remember how adorable his husband and son are.

After plopping Roman onto his bed, Logan picks out a bedtime story for him, “How about the story about how the prince rescues his lover from the dragon?”

“I love that story!” Roman giggles and pulls his plushie closer to him.

“Once upon a time the was this mean old dragon who lived in solitude in his abandoned castle.” Virgil starts to vividly narrate the story, “But life in solitude gets boring. He flew to the nearest village when his eyes landed on the prince of the kingdom, Ronan, and his lovely boyfriend, Jack. He swoops down capturing Jack in his talons before flying back to the falling apart castle.”

“Noooo!” Roman whines, “Give Jack back you stupid dragon.”

Virgil passes the book to Logan, “As the dragon made it back to his castle, Ronan started making his plan to save Jack. He gathered his sword, shield, and magic potions then started on his hike for the dragon’s castle. For five long days and five long nights, Ronan marched until he found the castle guarded by the large fire-breathing dragon.”

“He storms to the door and screams, ‘LET GO OF MY BOYFRIEND’. The dragon being a dragon said no, go away little prince.” Virgil continues dramatically telling the story. “Since the dragon would not agree to diplomacy, Ronan grabbed his sword and laced it in a stunning potion. As hard as he possibly could, Ronan threw his sword right for the dragon’s neck. The second the sword hit him, the dragon froze in place.”

“Ronan rushed into the castle to search for his love. In the distance, he heard soft whimpering. ‘Jack, I’m coming to save you!’ He followed the sound to the end of the hall where Jack was trapped in a cage and crying.” Logan flips the page, “The second Jack saw Ronan his face lit up. ‘You came to save me!’ Jack cheered. As soon as Ronan broke the lock to the cage he scooped Jack into a tight embrace, ‘I’ll always come to save you.’ The prince and his boyfriend head back on their long journey back to the kingdom. Ronan cast a spell over his kingdom to stop any other dragons from entering.”

In unison Virgil and Logan finish the story, “And they lived happily ever after. The end.”

Roman yawns and holds his plushie tighter. Logan tucks him in and Virgil kisses Roman on the forehead, “Goodnight Roman. We love you.” Roman falls asleep before Virgil could even finish his sentence.

“Now for the hard part of the night,” Logan whispers to Virgil, “Trying to get Remus to bed.”

“That can wait 10 minutes.” Virgil takes Logan’s hand and leads him back downstairs to the couch, “How about we watch tv, relax, and cuddle for a few minutes until we find and catch Remus.”

“Sounds good, Virge.” Virgil leans his head on Logan as Logan wraps his arm around him. 15 minutes pass and they both hear little footsteps running between them.

“Did you two forget about me?” A teary voice asks, “Usually you come to struggle to put me to bed by now.”

“We could never forget about you, Rere. We just wanted to give you a few more minutes to play before we came to get you.” Logan hands Remus a tissue.

“I thought that you abandoned me or maybe I was the last person alive.” Remus attaches himself to Virgil’s leg and starts to hysterically cry.

“Hey, little duke. We are right here and will never abandon you.” Virgil takes Remus off his leg and holds him securely near his chest, “Let’s get you to bed. All that crying must have tired you out.” Remus weakly nods, hiding his face in Virgil’s oversized hoodie.

Logan and Virgil take Remus up to his room, the one right across from Roman’s. While Virgil tucks him in, Logan checks on Roman to make sure he’s asleep.

“But what if I have another nightmare tonight?” A sad and tired voice asks his parents.

“You can always come to our room and wake us up.” Virgil hands Remus his octopus plushie and turns on the nightlight, “Slept tight. Goodnight we love you.”

Logan tucks him in tightly, “Now the monsters won’t be able to get you.”

They leave the room, keeping the door slightly ajar. “Does this ever get easier?” Virgil collapses into bed next to Logan.

“Probably not but adopting these two is the best decision we ever made.” Logan pulls up a picture of the baby twins from the day they were adopted.

“Yeah, it is.” Virgil smiles at the memory, “I love them both with all my heart.”

“Who would you choose?”

“Choose for what?”

“If you had to pick who dies between us.”

Janus paused in confusion before understanding of the question settled on him, “That’s a bit of a morbid question isn't it?”

Remus gave a shrug, “Who would you pick? Virgil said me.”

Janus gave his oldest a slight glare, but his son gave an innocent shrug. “I was doing my homework and they wouldn’t leave me alone. Do you want me to fail math?”

“I wouldn't pick either of you,” Janus told them, holding in a sigh. “Now can you finish setting the table? Dinner is almost done.”

“That’s boring,” Roman complained. “You gotta pick Dad.”

“I disagree. But why are you asking in the first place?”

The twins locked eyes for a moment having one of those private conversations before Roman spoke for the both of them. “What if it was me and Virgil?”

“I’d live,” Virgil answered without hesitation.

“I prefer a scenario where all of my sons are alive,” Janus cut in with a pointed look. “And also where you tell me why you’re asking.”

"We need an answer," Remus complained.

“Can we just agree that both of you suck?” Virgil asked, taking the plates from his younger brothers and setting the table himself.

“Virgil,” Janus warned.

“They do,” he mumbled. “I mean I don't have my own room. What could suck more?”

There were multiple things Janus wanted to say to his sons but as the doorbell rang he pushed them to the wayside. He tried to compose himself best he could and after giving his three children stern looks to behave he went to answer it. Logan stood behind the door, looking as wonderful in a suit as always, but Janus would have to admit some of the beauty did come from the yawning child in his arms. “Janus,” he greeted with a smile. “I’d like you to meet Patton.”

The young boy rubbed at his eye with one hand but gave a wave the other, “Hi Mr. Janus.”

“Nice to finally meet you Patton. Did you just wake up from a nap?”

“Cars are his weakness,” Logan stated, setting his son down and moving to pull Janus into a hug. Janus hugged back and let the quick meeting of their lips drown out any of the worries he had for the evening.

Janus gave a smile silently thinking back to when Virgil had been the same way, "Ready to meet mine?"

"Lead the way."

And then by some miracle dinner had gone well. His boys had actually been on their best behavior, neither Roman nor Remus had done or talked about anything inherently gross and Virgil had done an amazing job of keeping any snide or sarcastic comments in his head. So for a while Janus had truly thought this would go well until the end of the night. But apparently that line of thought had been way too naïve.

“Dad you never chose,” Remus put in randomly during a lull in conversation. “If you had to pick me or Roman to die who would it be?”

Janus tried to hold in any panic as he glanced at his boyfriend’s confused expression before he looked back to his son. “I told you I am not answering dark questions like that.”

“That’s cheating,” Roman complained. “And what about me and Virgil?”

“I’d choose myself,” Janus told them in a tone which signified this was the end of the conversation, but apparently neither of his twins were good at picking up on that tone.

Remus crossed his arms, “That’s still cheating.”

“I’d have to be playing the game to be cheating at it.”

“But-”

“I don't think you father wishes to rank you at all,” Logan put in. “That’s what you really want to know, right? If he has a favorite?”

“Can I be a favorite?” Patton asked.

Logan ruffled his son’s hair causing the boy to laugh. “You’re already my favorite, Patton.”

“Is that what this is about?” Janus asked the twins in surprise. “I don't have a favorite." But when he saw their looks of disbelief he continued. "Because you’re all my favorite at different things. Roman you're my favorite singer. And Remus you're my favorite story teller. And Virgil-”

“Your favorite at babysitting?” Virgil guessed.

“While you are good at that I was going to say you are my favorite artist. I know you don’t share them with me often, but what you make is always amazing . And these are just small examples but I just love each of you for being you, okay?” As he finished there was a pause as he took in their faces before Virgil gave a slight cough.

“That’s cheesy,” Virgil mumbled into a bite of cake, but the slight blush on his face was clear and that seemed to be good enough for the twins to drop the subject as they took to teasing him instead.

Janus couldn't help but let out a slight breath of relief as he turned his attention toward Logan, “Thank you, I had no clue what was happening.”

Logan laced their fingers together before he leaned in to whisper, “Now I won't tell, but who’s your actual favorite?”

Watching The Crash

The tumbling of the car was a memory none of them would forget. For a moment he thought everything would be okay, but as another car came Roman felt helpless. He could only stand back and watch in horror as the mangled mess which he had once called a car became visible. The red of the paint he had painstakingly finished redoing only hours ago seemed to look like blood amongst the pieces. His car... his car was gone. His legs shook as he tried to force himself to move but he couldn't muster the strength. Remus and Logan were running towards it, but it was far too late to help. But then judging by the elated smiles on their faces this wasn't that they would help with even if they knew how.

Roman couldn't help the sacrifice, but maybe he could prevent more.

“Hey! Give them back!”

Roman ignored his brother’s complaints as he grabbed the box of racecars and dashed off towards the backyard, but they followed him. “Come on Roman! We need them!”

“Not happening!” Roman declared climbing onto the table and holding the box over his head. “Use your own!”

“I did already,” Remus said easily. “I don't have enough.”

“It's for science Roman!” Logan added holding up the paper he had written something on. “My mom says that when doing experiments you have to do the same one over and over again. We need to try two more cars and then-”

“And we will know which is the strongest!” Remus cheered. “We’ve already tossed them out of the tree house, vacuumed them, and run them over with bikes. So we gotta finish putting them in the street.”

“No! Use Logan’s cars!”

Logan looked up at him like he was stupid, “I don't play with racecars.”

“I’m gonna tell Mom you’re not sharing,” Remus decided.

“Go head! She’ll take my side.”

Remus gave a toothy grin, “Even when you're standing on her table, with mud on your shoes ?”

An audible gasp escaped Roman’s lips as he looked between the two monsters ready to attack and the back door which could open at any moment. He paused his darting across the backyard as he looked for a means to escape- when the door opened. The world was once again moving in slow motion just as it had when Top Racer #3 had been smashed to bits only moments ago. But this time the fear Roman felt was more than justified as his mother’s gaze hardened.

“Roman Miguel!”

He should have run sooner.

~~~~

-----

Roman picked up the stack of papers like they were made of glass. He couldn't read very well yet, but he knew enough to recognize the words as similar to the one the librarian wouldn't give him. He plopped right onto the floor by his bed and carefully went through each page taking in the hand drawn pictures, and reading what he could.

Then he read it again.

And again.

Footsteps that sounded too big to be Logan's were the only thing that stopped his read and Roman quickly stuffed the pages into his pillow case. If the librarian said he couldn't have the book then maybe his foster family would say no too. He had to keep it safe.

Shanon stuck her head in the door just as Roman was sitting down with an okay to have book. "It's time to pick Logan up from study group. You ready?"

"Yeah!" Roman jumped up eagerly.

----

Roman ran ahead Shanon to meet Logan and threw his pudgy arms around him. "Thank you for the surprise," he said quietly. "I hid it so no one can take it away."

Logan smiled and patted Roman's back. "You're welcome," he answered quietly to keep with Roman's conspiratory tone.

"Someone's excited today," Shanon commented when she finally caught up to the boys. "How was tutoring today?"

"It was fine," Logan answered. "Fractions are still weird, but they're starting to make more sense."

"That's good to hear. Do you want to invite any of your friends over for dinner?"

"No thank you," he replied simply.

"Don't you like hanging out with the other kids?"

Logan just shrugged. "Sometimes. But sometimes they're boring."

Shanon frowned a little at that. "That isn't very nice to say."

The youth shrugged again. "They don't say nice things about me either. Devin said I'm dumb because I have to wear glasses. And Sophie said it's weird that I play with Roman."

"Well, did you tell the teacher?"

"Only the first time." Logan pushed his glasses back. "Ms. Tina said to ignore them."

"Oh." Shanon answered, not sure how else to respond.

"Are we going home now? I still have a packet to read for science."

"Y-yeah. Yeah, we're going home now."

----

No sooner had the hall light gone out than Roman was pulling out his special book and hopping out of bed. He padded over to Logan's side of the room and pounced on the older boy.

"Shhhh!" Roman hushed loudly at Logan's protests at being jumped on. "Can you read this to me now?" He held out the paper book and Logan sighed.

"Alright. Go sit by the nightlight so we can see."

Roman let out a quiet squeal of delight and bounced out of the bed and snatched his pillow and stuffed red dragon before scrambling to wall.

Logan tugged the blanket from his bed and covered Roman with it before settling down next to the smaller boy.

"It's not exactly like the one from the library," he explained. "This one is about a prince. Like you. In fact, he even has the same name as you."

"Really?" Roman gasped.

"Really," Logan answered seriously.

Once upon a time there was a prince named Roman. But he wasn't like other princes. He didn't have a castle or a horse, or even a cape. All he had was a sword because he had just run away from an evil Dragon-Witch.

Roman gapsed loudly. "Like my Dragon-Witch!"

"Is it okay that I borrowed your idea?" Logan asked.

The tott nodded eagerly. "Keep going."

Prince Roman knew the Dragon-Witch witch liked to steal princes so when he escaped he went to find the castle he was stolen from.

He walked for a very long time.

But when he would find a castle nobody believed he was a prince!

"You don't have a horse or a cape!" They would say and send him away.

So the prince kept walking.

One day he found another castle. But he was tired or people making him leave so he started to leave before anyone could tell him to go away.

But another prince told him to stop. This prince was Philip.

Roman let out another gasp. "Like from Sleeping Beauty?"

Logan nodded. "I think so."

"Cool! Keep going," Roman ordered and huddled closer to Logan's side.

Prince Philip asked why a stranger was coming to his castle and Prince Roman told him all about how he escaped the Dragon-Witch and then walked and walked for a long time to find the castle he was been taken from.

This made Prince Philip very excited because he remembered that one time the Dragon-Witch had come to his castle and stole the other prince. But he didn't tell Prince Roman this yet. First he took him to the king and queen.

"That can't be the prince!" They said. "He doesn't even have a cape!"

Prince Roman was sad. He thought they would make him leave, but Prince Philip had an idea.

There was a very old story about a princess that nobody would believe was a princess because she didn't have a crown.

The queen made the princess sleep on the top of lots of mattresses and underneath all of them was one pea.

It was a test. If the girl without a crown could feel the pea then she must be a real princess. The old story said that the girl couldn't sleep at all because of the pea and so everyone knew she was a real princess.

Prince Philip said they should try to do the same test with Prince Roman.

The king and queen agreed.

They made the servants make a big pile of mattresses on top of one pea.

The next day Prince Roman was very tired and when the queen asked why he was so tired he said, "I don't want to be rude, Queen, but I think the bed was broken. It was like sleeping on a bed of rocks in the Dragon-Witch's lair!"

Then the kind and queen knew that Roman without a cape must have really been the prince that the Dragon-Witch stole.

The whole kingdom had a big party to celebrate and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Roman yawned and arched his back. "I like that one better." He frowned a little in sudden thought. "Can princes be knights and princes?"

"I think so. Knights have be specially trained to sword fight, so if a princes uses a sword then he can be a knight too."

Roman nodded tiredly. "I like that idea. I want to be a prince and a knight."

"Both princes and knights need lots of sleep." Logan tugged Roman to his feet and guided him to bed. "So we need to go to bed now. Goodnight, Sir Prince Roman."

Roman giggled and snuggled under the blankets. "I like that name. Goodnight, Sir Prince Logan," he mumbled around a yawn and drifted off.