Warnings: no

Set by the time patton is three years and three months ish so its like april

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Virgil walked tiredly along the sidewalk. Today had felt like a whole eternity, he hated meetings and all day he had just been missing his family while pretending to follow what his boss had been rambling about during their multiple meetings.

Now he was soon home, though, and he couldn't wait to step inside and find his fiances and his son, and he very much looked forward to later tonight when the four of them would sit down together and watch an episode or two of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

They had watched it last year, but why not rewatch it? It was a great show, and Patton really liked all the characters modeled after animals, especially Catra. He really liked their little habit of watching a show together, because it meant that practically every day he had a reason to cuddle with the three of them.

He could smell someone cooking and his stomach growled as he walked up the driveway to their house, very happy to realize that the smell was coming from the open window of their kitchen.

He opened the door and stepped inside, shouting that he was home to let the others know who had entered. Instantly he heard an excited shriek from the kitchen and his son came running towards him, hugging Virgil's legs as he took his backpack off and making it very difficult for him to take his shoes off.

"Dad!" The toddler squealed and Virgil bent down to pick Patton up, kissing his cheek as he put his arms securely around him, attempting to kick his shoes off.

"Hi there, I've missed you lots." Virgil said, squeezing him tightly to his chest, though carefully. Patton's small hands tugged at his hoodie.

"Dad," he said, "um-"

"Yeah, kiddo?" He asked, carrying Patton back through the living room and towards the kitchen that he had come from once he was shoe-free, following the very promising noises of Roman's and Logan's mumbling voices and a pan being moved on the stove.

"I got cookies, shh." He whispered loudly and Virgil chuckled. No doubt Roman and Logan had caved to Patton's cute please-give-me-cookies-pout and then told him not to let Virgil know about it, which was actually a pretty foolproof way of making sure he would find out. Virgil had learnt that by doing the same thing.

"Wow, that's nice of them. I hope you still have room for some dinner, though, whatever they're making it smells great. Do you know what they're making for dinner?" He asked and Patton kicked his feet.

"Pancakes! I love pancakes!" He yelled loudly, about four inches away from Virgil's ear and he winced slightly as they crossed the threshold between the living room and the kitchen.

Roman and Logan did not even look up as they entered, both standing close together and with their eyes fixed on Roman's phone which seemed to be playing some kind of video.

"Rewind a bit, clearly I don't quite follow this step." Logan said, frowning, and Roman did as he was told. Virgil glanced at the pan on the stove that had a weirdly shaped green pancake in it. Virgil stepped in close to them, peering over their shoulders.

"What's so interesting?" He wondered, looking at the screen that was displaying a video of someone who, a few moments later, turned a pancake only to reveal that it was some kind of frog-pancake-art. The youtuber seemed very talented and Virgil sincerely doubted he could get the same result even if practicing for a year.

"Hi, gorgeous." Roman said, as always greeting him by leaning in close to press a little kiss to his lips and giving him an adoring smile.

"Welcome home, love." Logan said, setting Roman's phone down on the counter and turning towards the green pancake in the pan with a spatula ready. On the counter there was an empty bowl, some kind of bottle filled with green batter, and a recipe book.

"Patton wanted pancakes, and Roman had been inspired by pancake art he had seen on instagram before. It's hard to refuse him when he has already bought the supplies needed." He told him, then carefully slid the spatula beneath the pancake and flipped it with the practiced skill of a parent with a toddler who's favorite food was pancakes.

"Oh." He said with a tone of disappointment and Virgil took one look at the pancake before bursting out laughing, steadying one hand against the counter before taking a closer look at the pancake which bore only the slightest resemblance to a very misshapen frog.

"Oh, come on, it is not that bad." Logan said, but Virgil clutched to Patton and walked out of the kitchen, almost doubled over, hardly able to breathe with how hard he was laughing.

He had to sit down on the couch and take a minute or two to calm down, and as soon as he was able to somewhat suppress his giggles he set Patton onto the couch and got up again, hurrying into the kitchen with his phone in his hand.

Before Logan could lift the finished pancake onto the plate with his and Roman's earlier attempts he snapped a picture, immediately snorting with laughter at the sight of it again and having to leave the room again as Logan huffed indignantly and shook his head.

This was definitely a picture that was going into the photo album that Virgil was putting together with the help of Roman and Logan, and he felt like it was the kind of picture that he would be giggling at every time the photo album was brought out in the future, like the photo of Roman holding a six month old Patton up over his head and Logan managing to take a picture just as Patton threw up baby formula over his shirt.

The picture had perfectly captured baby vomit in mid air and the fear in Roman's eyes, and while he didn't think it was very fun then even Roman had been laughing at that picture soon enough.

Once he returned to the living room and looked up, Patton had slid down from the couch and was sitting on the floor by a bunch of colorful building blocks that were spread out across the floor in the space between the tv and the coffee table, building a tall tower which was wobbling worryingly.

Virgil, still quietly chuckling to himself and wiping his eyes, sat on the floor with him. Patton stood up to place his next two blocks, but the green one that he tried to place atop the pink top block knocked into the edge of it and the tower toppled over, the building blocks loudly scattering over the floor.

At least two slid under the tv furniture, where they would be left until any one of them got the bravery to fish out everything that was hiding beneath the low furniture. Patton turned towards Virgil, his bottom lip trembling, and Virgil quickly scooped him up in his arms.

"Hey, it's alright, we'll build a new one." He told him to help him get over the tower that he seemed to have been so attached to, and he stacked three colorful blocks on top of each other, encouraging Patton to join in.

Sometimes building and then making his small towers fall over was one of the funniest things Patton could imagine, and other times it had him very upset, like that time when Virgil had tried to tiptoe out of Patton's bedroom after reading him to sleep only to walk right into a tower he had been building with Logan.

Patton had not been happy as the noise of their hard work collapsing had woken him.

The two of them built a castle-like tower together, Patton now and then taking blocks from Virgil's hands or the blocks he had just placed and putting them somewhere else, until Roman called from the kitchen that dinner was ready.

Then Virgil lifted Patton up in his arms, succeeding in making him laugh as he carried him upside down for a few seconds. Then he turned him the right way and put him in his high chair as they entered the kitchen

"So, I think we will be needing some more practice." Roman said as he set the plate of green "frog" pancakes onto the middle of the table. Virgil pressed a hand to his mouth, ignoring how Logan rolled his eyes at his barely hidden amusement.

He wasn't sure if the pancakes really warranted this reaction from him but, for whatever reason, this was one of the funniest things he had ever seen. These frogs just looked like they had been through some kind of accident, and some of the pancakes had managed to be shaped in pretty funny ways.

"You should appreciate our hard work." Logan said accusingly, but without the expression that would have meant that Virgil's laughter would have actually offended him.

"I love and appreciate you both, but this is the frog pancake equivalent of a hedgehog cake." He said between quiet giggles, which made Logan's mouth tug as he tried not to smile. They had all laughed their asses off when seeing a thread of people's attempts at hedgehog cakes. Virgil didn't know why people kept adding teeth to them, but he hoped they would never stop.

"Well, whatever keeps you smiling." Logan said with a shake of his head, moving a mauled-looking frog pancake onto Patton's plate, letting Patton choose between two kinds of jam.

Virgil put food on his own plate, covering his pancake in blueberry jam and occasionally giggling as he ate. Logan kept looking over at him and shaking his head, sharing amused looks with Roman throughout the entire meal.

Patton had rolled his pancake up and was eating it like a burrito, strawberry jam dripping down his chin and onto his light blue shirt. Virgil was already adding stain remover to his mental shopping list, because he was pretty sure he remembered that the bottle had been very light the last time he had grabbed it.

"Oh, you've got some jam there, buddy." Roman said, grabbing a paper towel and wiping Patton's face as the toddler tried to lean away and keep eating his food, which only resulted in him getting jam on his hands.

Once they had all finished eating Logan carried Patton to the bathroom to clean his hands and face and Virgil helped Roman clear the table, putting their dirty dishes into the dishwasher and wiping the table and the counter.

Then he helped Roman cut up a bunch of grapes which were the snack he and Logan had agreed on for tonight, because Logan liked to balance their meals a bit and add something healthy if their dinner hadn't been.

"Alright, She-Ra time, before Patton gotta sleep. Then boyfriend time!" Roman said once the kitchen was clean, taking Virgil's hand and walking with him out to the living room, swinging their hands between them.

Roman sat down, pulling Virgil with him and he leaned into Roman, angling his head up to kiss his jaw. Boyfriend time sounded very promising, it usually meant more cuddling, or maybe something a bit more inappropriate, or some sort of date-like evening. Either way it was good.

Logan walked into the room with Patton a moment later, Patton climbing onto the couch only for Virgil to pull him into his lap and wrap his arms around him.

Sometimes it felt like he didn't have much time with his family, just seeing them in the morning before work and then in the evening before bed. He would love to have more time, he sometimes really missed the whole paternity leave thing.

He kissed the top of Patton's head, feeling as if his heart was swelling as his son cuddled up to him. He reached out to take Logan's hand as he had sat down on Virgil's other side, lacing their fingers together and smiling at him.

"I love you, love all of you so much." He said and Logan lifted their hands up to brush his lips to the back of Virgil's hand and he felt Roman kiss the side of his head.

"I love you too." Logan said, showing them his prettiest smile, the one that was incredibly hard to resist kissing.

"I love you three more than life itself." Roman murmured, attempting to reach an arm across all three of them in an attempt to hug them.

"I love you!" Patton said happily, reaching his hands up towards Virgil's face and almost poking his eye. Logan reached for the remote to find the episode they were on and Virgil ran his fingers through Patton's hair as he excitedly pointed at the screen when Catra showed up.

Virgil sighed happily and relaxed against the couch cushions, entirely content to find himself where he had wished to be ever since leaving for work this morning.

Sometimes life was pretty damn good.

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Written: 21st, 22nd & 23rd June 2022
Published: 25th June 2022
Words: 2175

Ok but do urself a favor and google hedgehog cakes, i'll be laughing about those for my whole life. Why do ppl think that what theyre missing is teeth??