Warnings: no

Oh my god guys. Oh my god. Lets go. Im so excited for what i so far have planned for this au

set by the time patton is three years old

--

Virgil took a sip of his coffee, immediately drawing the conclusion that it was too soon to do so as he burnt his tongue. Logan turned a page in the newspaper he was reading, making a delighted noise that Virgil knew meant he had stumbled upon the daily crossword.

Without a word he reached for the shelf nearby and offered Logan a pen and an eraser, which he took with a grateful smile. Virgil then returned to his breakfast, slicing banana over his nutella toast before taking a bite out of it.

He could hear giggling from the bathroom and took that as his cue to pop another slice of toast into the toaster and pour coffee into the empty red cup by one of the two empty seats by the table. He had the time to eat half his toast before he heard footsteps and soon enough Roman appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, carrying Patton in his arms and nodding along to his babbling.

He seated Patton in his highchair and pressed a kiss to his damp curls before walking around the table and sitting down, immediately wrapping his hands around his cup.

"Had a nice bath, Pat?" Virgil wondered and his son nodded enthusiastically.

"Papa told fai'ytale!" He said, as always struggling with his R's, beaming at Roman. Virgil smiled at that. Roman seemed to have an infinite imagination, it had been a bit over three years and he was still coming up with stories for Patton.

"That's lovely. What do you want for breakfast?" Virgil asked, then made Patton the toast with cheese that he asked for and didn't say anything when Patton insisted on putting sliced banana on his sandwich too. It didn't feel right to discourage him from eating something, even if it was a weird combination.

Kids were weird.

They continued their breakfast calmly, having no reason to stress as it was Saturday and none of them were going anywhere. Well, at least not yet, they weren't, it was only ten in the morning. After they had all eaten and Patton was becoming restless in his chair Virgil lifted him up in his arms.

"I'll clean up, you guys go get ready." Roman offered, standing up too, leaving a kiss on Virgil's cheek and another on the top of Logan's head. Logan hummed, still immersed in his crossword puzzle.

"That would be great, thanks Ro." Virgil said, bringing Patton with him upstairs to his room where he coaxed Patton to change out of his beloved frog pajamas and presented him with two clothing choices.

He helped Patton to put on the shorts and the t-shirt with a print of a dog that he chose, plus a pair of blue socks, then walked with him downstairs. Logan had relocated to the couch in the living room, still solving his crossword.

Virgil turned the tv on and found some cartoons for Patton to watch, which immediately took his entire focus and he stood by the couch watching them as if he had forgotten that he could sit down.

"Hey, L?" Virgil said, standing in front of him. Logan looked up from the paper.

"Was thinking of taking a shower, can you keep an eye on Pat?" He wondered, having no thought that he wouldn't, but giving a heads up was good.

"Of course." He said, gladly accepting the kiss that Virgil leaned down to press to his lips. Then he went to take a shower, lingering in the scalding hot water for almost an hour before someone knocked on the door and woke him from his daydreaming.

Right, he should leave some hot water for the others too.

He dried himself with his purple towel, hanging it up next to the other three before pulling his pajama shorts on again and taking the rest of his pajamas in his hands as he exited the bathroom and went to the bedroom, getting dressed in a pair of black cargo shorts and a t-shirt that might or might not actually be Roman's. Then of course he wore his favorite hoodie on top of it, because he absolutely refused to leave the house without it, even on disgustingly hot summer days.

Luckily it was only late spring so far and stepping outside didn't yet mean sweating to death.

He returned to the living room where Patton was now sitting in Logan's lap and Virgil slid onto the couch right next to them, putting an arm around Logan's shoulder.

The crossword lays finished on the couch cushion next to where Logan was sitting, pen resting atop it. Logan was watching whatever cartoon was playing, although he seemed a lot more bored than Patton who had one thumb in his mouth and his other hand tightly holding onto Logan's tie as he stared at the screen with undivided attention.

"So, are we leaving in fifteen minutes or half an hour, maybe? Roman made sandwiches to bring while you were showering. He just wanted to freshen up a little before leaving, otherwise we are ready if you are." Logan said, leaning against Virgil.

"Sounds good. Have we packed the snacks to keep Patton, and the rest of us, from getting cranky?" He wondered, receiving a nod from Logan.

"They're in the backpack, which is by the front door."

"Snacks?" Patton wondered, looking at him with big eyes.

"Oh, so that gets your attention, huh?" Virgil said, ruffling his son's hair. "You will get snacks later, promise."

That seemed to be a good enough answer for Patton who turned around towards the cartoon which must be very interesting to not have him asking for snacks now.

It did not take Roman that long to get ready, for a change, and soon enough they piled into Roman's car, Virgil seating himself in the back next to Patton's car seat, making sure he was properly buckled up.

Day in honor Virgil had dressed Patton in his green frog hat that he loved so much, and the pacifier in his mouth had a little cartoon frog pictured on it, and he was hugging his favorite frog plush tightly, though that was because Patton rarely left the house without it ever since Logan had given it to him.

Patton absolutely loved all animals and insects and pretty much every living thing, except for spiders which he was terrified of. He wanted to pet everything, and once he had almost brought a worm inside before either of them caught the fact that Patton had a worm in his hands. Luckily it was unharmed.

Currently his obsession was frogs, after having seen a movie about them a few months back. Ever since then he had been begging for anything with frogs on them, which is why he had a frog pajamas and a frog hat and a frog pacifier and frog rain boots and a frog blanket and a few frog toys and...

Yeah, maybe they should tone it down a bit, but Patton was the light of Virgil's life and he and his fiancés should be allowed to spoil him now and then. Maybe they were biased since Patton was their son, but he could look at them in a way that made it near impossible to tell him no. He had mastered puppy-dog eyes without even trying to or knowing it.

"We the' yet?" Patton kicked his feet, drumming his shoes against the back of Logan's seat.

"Don't do that, please." Virgil said, putting a hand on Patton's feet.

"In about twenty minutes." Logan said, which didn't mean much to Patton as a three year old generally didn't understand the passage of time or know how long twenty minutes lasted, but he seemed to accept the answer.

To the three of them that were not toddlers twenty minutes passed quickly and soon enough Roman had parked outside of the aquarium and Virgil was unbuckling them both from their seats. As soon as he put Patton down in the parking lot he saw the huge frog poster and his pacifier almost fell out of his mouth in his excitement.

It was Logan who had found out that their, somewhat local, aquarium now had a frog exhibit since five months back, and they really had had no choice but to plan a trip there, not with a frog obsessed three year old.

"Fogs!" He yelled after Virgil had taken the pacifier from his mouth, not wanting it to fall onto the ground as who knew what gross things might have been there before Patton's pacifier?

"Yeah, Pat, we're gonna look at some frogs." Roman said with a grin, taking Patton's hand to make sure he didn't run right out into the parking lot. Patton settled on bouncing in place and pulling at Roman's hand instead, showing his impatience clearly as he waited for Virgil to take their backpack and Logan to lock the car before handing the keys back to Roman.

When they had everything and had double checked that the car was in fact locked they brought their very excited son into the building of the aquarium and Logan brought his wallet out to pay for their tickets inside.

There was no longer any danger of Patton running in front of a car, but Roman kept a steady grip on his hand anyway, because if he didn't they were all sure he would disappear surprisingly quickly once they looked away for a second. Virgil often joked that Patton was a bit of an escape artist with how quick he could disappear from their sight and appear in the kitchen reaching for the cookie jar.

"Fogs, fogs, fogs, fogs." Patton half-sang as they walked past huge tanks with fishes that didn't grab Patton's attention for long when he knew there were 'fogs' to be found. Logan however took a bit longer, as he was always very fascinated by anything sea life or space related. This trip was as much for Logan's benefit as Patton's, although none of them had said so out loud.

"Here, I'll go with Patton to look at the frogs and you can stay with Lo and look at some fishes, hm?" He said, catching up with Roman who was trying to keep Patton from rushing into the next room. "I know Logan wants to see those camouflaging octopus really bad."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll call if we don't find you." Roman said and passed Patton over to him before joining Logan's side where he was standing with his face practically pressed to the glass of an aquarium with koi fish.

"Alright, Pat, let's go find the frogs." He told him, Patton immediately pulling at his hand in his eagerness. Virgil chuckled and let himself be dragged forward, looking for signs pointing them towards the frog room.

It felt a bit like a maze, but they found their way eventually, Patton running right up and pressing his face to the glass dividing them from the frog exhibit. A frog jumped towards him and Patton giggled excitedly, drumming his hands against the glass.

"Careful, Pat, we don't wanna scare the frogs, m'kay?" He said, hovering just behind his son and looking over the different kinds of frogs. There were several different terrariums with different kinds of frogs, a sign by each of them giving information about them.

"These frogs are called Archey's Frogs." Virgil read from the sign, eyes skipping through the text to find any facts he could share with Patton. It seemed unnecessary to mention that it was considered critically endangered, because he wasn't sure if today was the day to introduce his son to the fact that humanity was making tons of species go extinct.

"Apparently they have tail-wagging muscles, but no tails." He said, although he doubted Patton really understood what that meant.

"Dogs got tails!" Patton said confidently, still with his nose pressed to the glass.

"They do." Virgil agreed, tugging at Patton's hand. "Look, this frog is yellow."

They slowly moved between the different terrariums, looking at Baw Baw frogs, and Panamanian Golden frogs, and the tiny Corroboree frogs, and Lemur Leaf frogs (which Patton claimed was his favorite), and Golden Mantella.

And then, lastly, there was an exhibit of Poison Dart frogs, which Patton struggled to see because he was so small.

"Up-up-up!" He demanded, reaching his hands upward to show where he wanted to go, and Virgil lifted him up in his arms.

"Don't we say please?" He told him and Patton nodded absentmindedly, eyes wide as he stared at the colorful frogs behind the thick glass.

"Wainbow fogs." He said, reaching out towards the glass, but Virgil moved slightly backwards. He didn't think the frogs were actually poisonous through inches thick glass, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Yeah, they're pretty, aren't they?" He said, unsure if giving Patton a lecture about how poisonous those frogs really were would do anything good. He was too young to understand the concept of death, and Virgil didn't know how to explain the danger those frogs posed without first explaining death.

He walked around the room with Patton several times, towards whichever kind of frog that Patton pointed towards, until Roman and Logan appeared, walking hand in hand towards them.

Then of course they went looking at all the frogs again, though Logan took over carrying Patton and he rambled on a lot more about the frogs than Virgil had, explaining things that neither of them would think Patton really followed, but Patton always seemed so content just listening to Logan talk. Even as a baby Logan could many times just sit and talk to Patton and it would keep him from crying.

He went over to Logan, Roman, and Patton who were looking at the Poison Dart frogs again, leaning his chin on Logan's shoulder. Logan was explaining how their poison worked, and if it was for Patton or Roman he wasn't sure, although Patton looked like he was about to fall asleep in Logan's arms.

"Oh, we should find somewhere to eat." Virgil said after having checked his watch and seeing that they were going to be having an unusually late lunch. They had however also had a late breakfast.

They found somewhere to sit and eat, a bench wide enough for the four of them back in the room with the fish, and Virgil gave them all a sandwich, trying to coax Patton to eat even if he was tired, because otherwise they would be having a very cranky three year old on their hands in a while.

They stayed for another hour, looking at the fish and the octopi and squids, and of course the frogs. Then they got stuck in the giftshop, and to no one's surprise Patton left with several new frog themed things.

--

Written: 15th & 16th May 2022

Published: 16th May 2022

Words: 2420

first of all SUPER excited about the potential of this new au aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa im gonna write about them being a cute family lets goooo

Also idk how to write toddlers talking help. Id use youtube but the wifi at work isnt good enough for youtube and im onboard for another week lol rip

Parts to this au will not be written or posted in the right order. Will be writing about the past. Want it to make more sense read on ao3 lol