Summary: Logan is a zoologist and has two hectic kids with his husband: one loves snakes and the other adores frogs. To entertain the two children Logan often takes them to work, and Roman supervises.
Words: 1382
Roman walked beside his husband and watched his two kids chase each other around the forest the family were walking in. He wanted to hold his lover's hand but said man was holding his notebook with a camera around his neck looking up every single tree and taking a picture of all birds in sight before writing notes about it. This was normal behaviour of course when Logan had his mandatory hours of work.
So instead of focusing on his husband Roman watched his two five year olds run about and play happily. He was blessed with twins - being a twin himself Roman knew that blessing well. It was chaos when they were first born but the husbands pushed past it and now they actually got to see their sons' personalities come out. And they were both animal lovers like their father.
"Janus please don't hit your brother with a stick - even playfully." Roman's voice echoed as he realised Janus was chasing his brother Patton and throwing around sticks that fell on their path. Janus pouted but dropped the sticks as Patton came running over with a wide smile - doing grabby hands. "You want to be on my shoulders?" The small boy nodded and almost immediately Roman placed his son up high so he could touch the leaves at the top of the trees.
"I want to be up too!" Janus moaned as he also tried to reach up to Roman, standing in front of him and refusing to move out the way. Without realising his family's predicament Logan continued walking to a nearby bush to examine insects but soon stopped and placed his equipment on the dirty floor.
"Jan, kiddo, come here." The father called, smiling as soon as the little boy ran up to him and also letting the boy sit on his shoulders. "Can you make sure Daddy doesn't drop any of his stuff?"
Janus looked overjoyed and helped hold all the notebooks Logan stored while Logan held his legs. "I'm Dad's favourite helper Pat!" He cheered, sticking his tongue out at his brother who stuck his tongue out back. Then the family continued their walk, Logan holding his husband's hand until he found another species he needed to note. But soon the pair got to where they were going to spend the afternoon - a muddy dirty swamp.
As soon as Patton's feet reached the ground he jumped about in the mud like his favourite animal: frogs. Roman placed an arm around Logan once he was also free of Janus, whispering quieter than usual at this time of day. The straight laced father was obviously worried about the mud getting everywhere. "I'll do the laundry this time sweet-jam, let your kids have some fun."
Logan only rolled his eyes, watching Janus gather the mud in his hands and throwing it at his brother. "Now I know why Remus was uncontrollable... Janus don't destroy the snake's habitat bud."
"SNAKES?" The child screamed so loud that nearby birds left their trees. This child wasn't scared of snakes unlike most (his twin brother was absolutely petrified of spiders), instead he adored all and any types of snakes and stole his father's reptiles encyclopaedia as a toddler. It was a love Logan loved to keep and inspire so his son could be just like his Dad as he grew up. "I wanna see a snake Dad! Pleeeease!"
Logan scooped his son up and took him gently to the other side of the swamp, trying not to get muddy and plague his husband with uncontrollable dirty laundry after each day. He knelt down and pointed to the corner of the water covered by shrubs. "Wait a second kiddo..." A black snake emerged from the weeds. "That is a black swamp snake - you see the red belly? They live here."
"Can they kill?" The kindergartener said very plainly. God, he was so much like his uncle.
"No they can't. But they aren't totally friendly, they're probably scared of big creatures like us." Logan always spoke in a gentle voice around animals and kids - maybe because he was always ridiculously tall for his age and intimidating looking so he knew to always be gentle and kind to everyone.
Following his Dad's instructions and actions Janus got as low as possible in the mud, crawling around and calling the snake like a cat. Across the pond Logan could see his husband wrestling an excited Patton covered head to toe in mud. That only meant he found a frog.
"Dad! Dad! What's that one?" Patton pointed to a nearby tree where a bright green frog sat. Logan went closer quietly and examined it, making sure it wasn't scared by his frog loving son running over. "It's so pretty! Can we keep it?"
The bright green with brown leopard-like spots, bumpy skin, enlarged and sticky toe pads... "A Barking Treefrog. And no we can't keep it - it has a family here that it loves." Patton had such wide eyes watching the small animal hopping up the tree then stopping. It seemed to be watching for its next move...
Patton giggled as the frog landed on his forehead, looking so proud of himself for being quiet and still like his father had told him to do. Slowly Logan collected the frog in his palms and spoke gently to it. "It likes me Dad!" Patton shouted once the frog was back on the tree. "Bye-bye Mr Frog!" The wave Patton gave all the animals in the forest was adorable - it had become his own tradition since he was a baby. It was definitely a lot less chaotic when the twins were babies. They could only walk short distances and were scared of getting too muddy - Logan used to be able to manage taking the kids for adventures alone while Roman was at work.
Janus was army-crawling around the swamp following the black snake his father showed him. There was more than one snake, all the snakes were surrounding him, and he was in heaven.
One of the snakes was slithering towards him but Janus tried to stay quiet to make his Dad proud. The snake faced the young child and stuck its tongue out - Janus tilted his head and did the same. "Are you friendly?" Janus chirped quietly, the snake stuck out its tongue again and booped the boy's nose. The child giggled at that and booped the reptile back.
Behind the snake Logan stood proudly and watched his son make friends with nature. When he was a kid he loved to play with other small animals like mice and saved many creatures in trouble. It was good to find that love was genetic. Before tears reached Logan's eyes out of proudness he felt Roman's hands around his waist and a whisper. "This is perfect." The husband whispered, kissing Logan's cheek and smiling. "Do you think Virgil will enjoy this?"
Roman and Logan had not told their twin sons about the little baby they were going to adopt. They wanted to extend their family since they got the twins and now they knew they were going to have another little boy called Virgil. They had bought lots of outfits with different animal themes so their son would hopefully also become an animal lover. Logan nodded silently, calling the sons over when he realised it was time to head back home. The boys at first wanted to play more but eventually were happy to run back to the clean house and get mud everywhere.
When Virgil came home Patton and Janus absolutely adored him (especially Patton - he promised to be the 'bestest big brother ever', although Janus was constantly watching Virgil to make sure he never got hurt). And his favourite onesie was the spider onesie and as he got older he was attracted to spider behaviour (which scared his brother) just like Patton and Janus had a fascination with frogs and snakes.
The parents continued taking their boys to the swamp as it got more chaotic with more of them - but the parents would never replace moments like that for the world. They loved teaching their sons all about the beautiful world around them and how to respect it.