Sanders Sides Parenting/Kids One-Shots

(24) Competition Part 2 - Prinxiety

"So is there no winner Re?" Roman asked, packing a few spare dumplings in a bag for his brother while Remus re-assessed his hugging verdict. Remus playfully hesitated, squeezing River's cheek and ruffling Valentina's hair.

"I'm afraid not Ro. Now I should let you all have your family time." Remus sighed, getting up from the chair and chucking his finished lollipop in the trash before summoning four more seemingly out of nowhere: a strawberry one, a grape one, a raspberry one, and a cotton candy one. He gave each member of the family their favourite flavours and getting one last hug before saying goodbye and disappearing into the darkness. 

Virgil was smirking and typing on his phone, glaring at his kids in a playful challenge. Both were still bickering about who gets the necklace if they both win. "Ready for round two."

*****

Valentina walked down the stairs in her dressing gown at midday, yawning and preparing to get some hot chocolate before going back to her room and watching more YouTube until someone needed her. What she did not expect was to hear the swipe of turning pages in a book, making her flinch and realise someone was sat on the sofa with some tea in front of him - Logan, her fathers' friend and her old math tutor. "Oh... Hey Logan..." Valentina said sheepishly, watching Logan look up from his book and smile back. "Did you just let yourself in or..."

"I invited him in Raindrop don't worry." Virgil's voice was heard behind his daughter, coming from the kitchen with a second cup of tea and a wide smile. River was following with their favourite smoothie shake. "He's going to help with the final challenge."

"You really didn't give enough detail about my mission Virgil. 'Brains' doesn't purely describe intelligence, there's logical intelligence, spatial, emotional..." Virgil scoffed and sat next to his friend, sipping his tea and rolling his eyes. Logan was one of Virgil's oldest friends - they were childhood neighbours - yet he was the most boring, even his voice was boring and monotone. But eventually Logan got the hint and cleared his throat, getting stacks of paper out from his messenger bag.

"I don't wanna do an exam!" River groaned and sipped their smoothie, lying on their father's shoulder. Virgil laughed and ruffled his child's hair, but Logan continued speaking. 

"It's not an exam." Logan smiled, sorting through the pieces of paper. It was very rare for Logan to visit as he had moved away a few years ago to work as a university lecturer he needed to be close to campus. The only times he visited was for favours like this or when his husband Patton managed to persuade him to take a break from work to visit their friends' 'little babies'. Still, Logan always had a soft spot for Valentina and River. "How good are you both at origami?"

River immediately grabbed a piece of paper with a wide smile. "What do you want me to make Logan?"

"Try a dragonfly." Logan smiled and finished his tea as the kids began folding. The two men then walked together to the kitchen, chatting amongst each other and joking. After a few minutes Virgil spoke a little louder so his kids could hear, and both could see the adults from where they were sitting. "Work's pretty... good at the moment..." Logan mumbled, his face dropping as the corners of his mouth were drawn down. Virgil was looking away, cleaning some dishes and not realising the slight change in tone.

"What about Patton? He's just opened a daycare right - still not had enough child fever with 7 kids?" Valentina was the first to tilt her head watching Logan's eyebrows knit together as he sat on the dining room table and ruffling his hair. River then looked up too, raising an eyebrow and glancing at their sister. Both had the same thought.

"Why's he sad?" River whispered, watching the two adults talk and Logan hiding that he was getting more and more upset. Valentina shrugged. "Should we say something?"

After a few more minutes of watching Valentina decided to speak up, abandoning the origami to sit with the upset adult. "Is something up Logan?" Valentina said. River also went beside their father and kept their eyes on the university lecturer. But surprisingly instead of Virgil showing any concern he smiled mischievously, and Logan smiled back.

"Nothing..." Logan put on a sad voice, but his smile was giving away that it was fake. "I just think you both passed the brains test."

"But we didn't even try to make a dragonfly?"

Logan shook his head, retrieving the pieces of paper and placing them back in the bag. "You showed emotional intelligence, which in my opinion is the best intelligence to have. Some people need to be trained to be emotionally intelligent of course, but since you two have the ability it just shows how good fathers you have that it only took a few minutes for you to both comfort a family friend." Logan finished his lecture with another soft smile, and Roman appeared behind him grasping his hand to his chest.

"Look at the nerd being a softie!" Roman ruffled his friend's hair, making Logan sigh. "It seems like an eternity ago you refused to show any sort of anger at other people insulting us when Verge and I began dating."

"Blame Patton, best platonic partner out there." Logan smiled more mentioning his husband. He considered himself so lucky to have someone that supported his asexuality. "Anyway, why was I asked to do that?"

For the rest of the evening the family spent time with Logan, and soon Patton appeared to join in the hang out and bring along a few of the pair's foster kids who were similar ages to River and Valentina. When they left Roman and Virgil turned to their children, and Virgil revealed the necklace out of his back pocket. "Now, this piece of jewellery is very special to me and your Dad, promise to keep it safe and keep it to yourself..."

"Can I have the cool sword?" River ran up to their Dad, further admiring the necklace. Roman took his red sword necklace and placed in around his child's neck gently, smiling at them feeling so proud. Virgil walked over to Valentina and gave her the other necklace and a hug, also feeling proud when seeing how much his kids have grown.

"Don't grow up too fast Val, I love you too much." He said, placing the necklace around his daughter's neck. Valentina rolled her eyes and nodded before giving both her fathers another hug, joined by River.