"Daddy, do you even know what you're supposed to be getting?" The young girl asked with a bored tone, walking in circles around the narrow isle.

"Nope," Marshall Lee responded, picking up some metal piece before immediately putting it back. "Not a clue."

"What's wrong with the car again?" Valerie stopped and stumbled, dizzy from the spinning.

The twenty-three year old put his hands on his hips, searching up and down the shelf intensely. "One of the break lights are out." Before his young daughter asked what he meant, he continued to explain in simple terms. "Meaning whenever we have to break, people won't know. Like that time we stopped for those duckies crossing the street, remember that?"

"Uh-huh," the girl nodded up at her father.

"Well whenever we have to stop the car like that, lights come on in the back that tell the other cars behind us, 'hey, we're stopping for duckies in the street, you stop too' so that they don't hit us. But when one of the lights are broken, they won't know we're stopped in the street and they'll accidentally hit our car. So we have to get a fixed one to make sure they know. Make sense?" Marshall explained simply, watching his bundled up girl stare up at him.

"Mhm," the six year old responded, spinning in circles again. Marshall went back to searching the isle.

"Stop that, you're gonna get hurt," he scolded blandly but didn't do anything to stop her.

Valerie automatically began spinning faster. "Nuh-uh!" No less than ten seconds later the black-haired girl tripped over herself and face planted on the cold tile floor. Lee glanced over, concerned, but that washed away once he heard girly giggling.

"See! What did I tell you, goofball!" The man laughed at her and walked into the next isle of the auto parts store, still in search for the stupid light. Valerie stood with a smile on her face and fixed her winter hat, glancing around confused when her father wasn't there anymore. She popped her head out of the isle and sneakily looked around. The young girl peeked into the neighboring row and saw her dad crouched down, looking intently at something. She smiled evilly.

Valerie, as quietly as she could, which wasn't very quiet, snuck up to her dad in an attempt to scare him. Marshall obviously saw her, and contemplated either scaring her back or just going with it. He decided to just go with it. After a few hushed giggles, the little girl jumped on him yelling, "Boo!" Lee fake-screamed and toppled over, clutching his chest. Valerie burst out laughing.

"Oh gosh!" He breathed, his eyes wide with pretend fear. "You scared the heck outta me!"

"Ha! Gotcha!" The girl sassed, giggling and poking her father's face.

"Jeez-Louise! You sure did!" He sat up, lifting his girl off of him. "I almost had a heart attack!" She stood up and grabbed her dad's cheeks, smushing them together.

"I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't mean to scare you that bad," she smiled.

Lee laughed a little, adored by his daughter's cuteness. "It's okay, baby. It was funny wasn't it?" He said through squished cheeks.

"Yeah!" She beamed. "You should've seen your face!" That line made Marshall Lee laugh. It was definitely one of those things she heard on TV or something and repeated.

"I love you, Valerie." He absolutely adored this girl. Hands down she was the best thing that had ever happened to him, even if he was only a kid himself when he had her.

The girl giggled again. "I love you too, daddy." The young girl wobbled his head from side to side, laughing at him. "Kiss?" She said through dramatically puckered lips. Lee simply smiled and puckered his too, letting his daughter give him a peck on his mouth. She laughed and ran off a slip second later. Most people he knew thought it was weird that he kissed his daughter like that, and he thought that was dumb. It was just a simple kiss, a way to show affection to someone he loved. It wasn't sexual or romantically perverted or anything like that, and it was wrong of those people to think it was. That was his child for glob's sake and a parent should be able to kiss their kid without being shamed for it.

The young father shook his head and stood, determined to finally find that dumb light bulb. "Hey, Val!" He called out to his daughter who was dancing around wildly. "Wanna play a game?"

"Yeah! Yeah! What kinda game?" She hopped over to Lee and pulled at his jacket.

"A game called 'Find the Bulb.' There's a special, teeny-tiny light bulb hidden somewhere on a shelf and the first one to find it wins! Sound like fun?"

Valerie hummed, fiddling with her puffy coat. "What do I win?"

The father sighed, cursing his daughter for being that smart. "Uh, I don't know... Candy?"

"Yeah!" Valerie began singing a made up song about Skittles.

"Alright, on the count of three. Ready?" They both got in a racing position in the isle. Luckily they were the only ones in the store. "One... two... three!" The six year old broke off into a sprint down the row.

Lee smiled to himself and rushed down the other way, speed searching all the isles for what he needed. Certainly if they didn't find it Barnaby would have a fit and that was the last thing he wanted.

After about five minutes, a familiar high-pitched voice called out, "I found it! Daddy, I found it!" Marshall quickly found his daughter who was proudly holding up the wrong lightbulb, but it was close enough. At least she found where the bulbs were, which pretty much was the goal of the "game."

"Wow! Great job, Valerie!" He smiled proudly. Grabbing it from her little hands and inspecting it. While the girl was dancing around singing "I won" and something about skittles, Marshall Lee switched out his daughter's pick for the actual tail light bulbs.

"Okay, come on! We're done." The tall man snapped and started walking towards the front of the store, leaving Val to catch up to him for the hundredth time that day. He tossed the counter along with a pack of skittles and waited for someone to ring them up.

"No! I want to put them up there!" Valerie cried out, standing on her tip toes to snatch the red bag from the counter top. Marshall sighed and looked at a rotating rack of bumper stickers instead. Most of them were really dumb or political but there was one that he glanced at that he wanted to show his girl, just to see what she'd say.

"Val, check this out, eh? It says "Don't even think about dating my daughter!" I should get it right? To tell those boys who's boss and to stay away from my precious girl."

The black-haired girl huffed, throwing a new bag of skittles on the counter. "No! I want boyfriends!"

"Oh no you don't!" Marshall couldn't help but laugh. He pointed a stern finger at her. "No boyfriends or girlfriends! You're not allowed to date till you're married."

"No fair!"

Suddenly a burly man walked in through the back door, apologizing for keeping them waiting. He quickly rung up the two items before pointing to the black and white sticker still in Lee's hand. "Are you gettin' that?" He asked in a scratchy voice.

"Huh? Oh uh-" he glanced at the writing once more, this time noticing some fine print. He read it closely before bursting out laughing. "Pfftahaha! Yes yes yes I'm getting this!"

"Nooo!" Young Valerie whined. The man behind the counter scratched his beard, scanning the last item without looking at it.

Soon enough the two were in the warm car, driving on their way back home. Together they sang the songs on the radio and danced in their seats, having fun even though they were stuck in traffic.

"Is Papa gonna fix the car?" Valerie asked our of no where.

"Yes, baby," Lee responded simply.

"So people don't hit us when we stop for duckies?"

"Yes."

"Oh... Papa is really smart." She commented.

Her father nodded. "He's very smart."

"Do you love Papa?"

"Yes, I love him very much," he smiled.

"Do you love him more than me?"

"No, baby. I love you more than anything in the whole, wide world."

"Oh... Can I have skittles now?"

"When we get home, hun."

Valerie stayed quiet after that. Kids ask really weird questions sometimes.

It didn't take long for them to reach the huge house. Once they were parked in the spacious garage, Valerie ripped herself out of her car seat and jumped out of the backseat before Marshall could even take the keys out of the ignition. He was about to yell at her until he saw his husband standing at the door, happily greeting their daughter. She hadn't seen him all day since she was still sleeping when he had left for work and was excited.

"Hi, sweetheart! How was your day?" Bubba picked up the bundled girl and smooched her on the cheek.

"It was great! Me and daddy went to the car store and I won skittles!" She beamed.

"Wow!" He smiled. "Sounds like you had fun, huh?"

"Mhm!" She squirmed in his arms and ripped off her hat, signaling she wanted down.

"Hey!" Barnaby said, making his adopted daughter stop squirming. "Kiss." Valerie pecked him on the lips before wiggling to be set down. "Love you!" He called out as she ran inside, ripping off her coat. When the door shut, Bubba turned to his husband and found him walking from behind the car. He made a curious face. "What were you doing back there?"

Lee approached him on the step and hugged him. "I got those break lights," he said completely blowing off the question. Barnaby hugged him back tightly, instantly being comforted by the young man's presence. "You look tired," Marshall commented once he let the other man go, caressing his cheek with his thumb.

"I just took a nap." He adjusted his fluffy robe and leaned in to kiss his husband. The kiss lasted a good bit and was filled with love. "I missed you all day." Bubba gave him a few more sweet kisses. "Was Valerie good?"

"Mhm she was fine. And I missed you too, love." Lee smiled and placed a kiss on his young husband's cheek, patting his butt before walking around him to go inside. "By the way, don't look at the new bumper sticker," he mumbled quickly.

"Wait what?" Bubba asked, not understanding him.

"Nothing, come inside."

"Oh. Okay." Barnaby did as was told and entered the warm house. Inside, Marshall was setting the little pack of lightbulbs on the counter while their daughter begged for her candy, slapping his butt repeatedly in complaint. "Hey now," Bubba cooed, picking up the girl. "We ask nicely and wait patiently for things we want, remember? What do you say?"

"Ugh," the young girl whined, "Can I have my skittles, pweeease."

Marshall Lee smiled, handing the opened bag of candy to her. The black-haired girl grinned, happily taking the pack with two hands. "Now what do you say, Vally girl?" That was one of the many nicknames they called her.

"Thank you!" She beamed, holding the bag carefully as Bubba put her down, instantly running off into the spacious living room.

"Please don't choke!" The pink-haired father called out. "And don't spill them everywhere!" The excited girl didn't answer.

Arms wrapped around him as Barnaby was brought into another hug. "I love you," Lee told him, burying his face into the other's warm neck.

Bubba embraced him. "I love you too, Marshall Lee, and I'm so proud of you. You're an amazing dad, Val is lucky to have you." Marshall's face flushed, happy about being praised by someone he loved, so he hid it further into his husband's neck. They hadn't been married long, not even a year and their honeymoon phase was still very present. Neither of them were sure if it was going to go away, and genuinely hoped it wouldn't.

"Thank you. I'm lucky to have you as my daddy, too." Lee smirked, smooching his neck before leaning away. The other twenty-three year old gasped, though not really shocked that statement came from his husband.

"You're nasty!" They both laughed, their faces pink from blushing. "I'm done with you. I'm going to fix this light." The slightly taller man ripped off his pink, fluffy robe and tossed it to the other man, who failed to catch it.

"Have fun," Lee smirked. Once the built man replaced it with a coat and traded his slippers for a pair of Marshall's boots, he entered the cold garage with the little lights. Barnaby got his toolbox and went behind the black car to work on it, opening the trunk beforehand. Most people had mechanics replace their tail lights since they weren't as easy as fixing headlights, but Bubba surprisingly knew a lot about cars and how to fix most of their problems. He and his father used to fix up old cars together before he passed, and that's when he fell in love with it.

Just as he was about to take out the light out of it's package, something white caught his eye. He glanced down to his left, noticing words there that weren't before. Confused, he crouched down and read them.

Don't Even Think About Dating My Daughter!

Bubba remembered what Marshall Lee had said before he walked inside and it suddenly made sense. It was a stupid bumper sticker, sure, and sort of degrading to their little girl but why didn't Lee want him to see it? He was confused until he read the fine print.

Think About Dating Me... Her Closeted Gay Dad!

Barnaby instantly frowned, standing up. "MARSHALL LEE ABADEER, COME HERE NOW!" No less than a minute later, the dark-haired man opened the garage door with a shit-eating grin on his face. "What the hell is this?" The angry husband gestured to the bumper. "I agree to fix your car and this is how you repay me?"

Lee snickered, walking closer to his man. "You like it?" Barnaby's frown deepened.

"Are you serious? Get it off right now," he demanded.

"What's wrong with it? It's just a warning to anyone wanting to date our kid." He tried to keep a straight face but failed. Bubba found it unamusing. He put his hands on his hips, standing like a very disappointed parent.

"Don't act like you didn't read the bottom part, Lee. It's not a warning, it's an invitation!" He scolded. "I want that off immediately." Marshall started laughing, which only made his husband angrier. "I'm not joking around, take that off!"

"Why are you so mad?" Lee said in between cackles.

"Because it's ugly! I don't want you driving around with that. Not only are you not in the closet, but you're married!" Bubba shook his head at the man. "You're absurd. How much did you pay for that?"

Marshall was hunched over by now, holding his stomach in laughter. "Like, five bucks," he giggled, wiping a tear away.

Barnaby fumed. "I'm going to kill you. Five whole dollars for this piece of shit!? You're an idiot. Take it off!"

"Okay! Okay!" The lanky man grinned, a few laughs escaping him as he tried to peel off the sticker. He picked at the corner a few times before bursting with laughter again. "It won't come off!"

The pink-haired man stood with his hands crossed over his chest. "I swear to glob, Marshall Lee..."

"I'm trying!" he chuckled, "I swear!" After a few more attempts to pick at it, the corner finally rose and he was able to peel off the sticker in one go. "See? Good as new." Marshall glanced up at his husband, only too see him standing with a very intimidating, serious face. The sight made him laugh again.

"You're dead to me, Marshall Lee."

Lee crumpled up the bumper sticker and shot it in the large trash before running back to the door before Bubba would actually kill him.  "You fender bendered my heart!" He put a hand to his chest, dramatically leaning against the door. When he looked towards his man, he saw him about to throw a wrench at his head. Marshall didn't think he would actually throw something like that at him, until he watched the metal wrench leave his hand and come straight for him.

A high-pitched shriek escaped Lee as he ducked and hid in the house. The wrench hit the door with a bang, right above where Marshall's head would've been. "Dead!" He yelled for emphasis.

Barnaby shook his head and laughed. He married an idiot. But he wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world.

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Another family au, forgive me. This is dedicated to my love creepypasta_fan01