Kaiko fussed over her two children who looked ready to fall asleep on their feet. "Warmup suits?" 

    "Check." Ant and Fontaine dutifully showed a glimpse of their suits underneath their warmups.

    Their mother continued down the list while rifling through her giant bag. "You ate breakfast. Water bottles. Competition suits. Goggles. Swim cap. Towels. Change of clothes. Athletic tape. Snacks. Wallet. Keys. Coffee. Caffeine pills. Phone. Will..."

    She looked around, her husband nowhere in sight. She checked her watch and impatiently called, "Will! It's time to go!"

    "Coming!"

    The sleepy expressions immediately fell away from Ant's and Fontaine's faces as their father emerged from the hallway. In mortification, they yelled simultaneously, "Dad!"

    "No time! Traffic is bad. If you want to make it in time to warmup, we have to go now," hurried Kaiko, ushering them all into the car and not even sparing a glance at her husband.

    Once they were properly underway, a rustling in the passenger side caught her attention. She looked over at Will and had to do a double take. Now she knew why her kids had shouted like that. It was way to early in the morning to deal with this.

    "Will!" She struggled to find more words as she turned her attention back to the road. "Will!"

    "What?" he asked casually, as if wearing a shirt and shorts with the faces of his children plastered all over them was the most common thing in the world. In his arms, he also carried two giant cutout signs of Fontaine's and Ant's faces. "Did you want a shirt too?"

    Kaiko's jaw hung open. This was what he'd been up to while she had been rushing to get everything ready for the swim meet.

    She peered in the rear view mirror, meeting her kids' haunted expressions. They were all aware of the growing rivalry between Will and another dad on who could cheer the loudest for their children, but they didn't think it had escalated to this degree. 

    Will was completely unapologetic. His kids were the best of the best and deserved an entire cheering squad for all they were doing. It didn't hurt matters that he knew his and Kaiko's combined genetics had a role in their proficiency in swimming.

    "Is– is that a megaphone?" questioned Kaiko incredulously, glancing down at the floor of the passenger side. "They're not going to let you bring that in there."

    "I don't see why they wouldn't. Hammerhead's voice is practically as loud as a megaphone," grumbled Will.

    His wife seriously questioned on whether she actually had two kids or three.

    "You can't go in dressed like that!"

    In the backseat, Ant and Fontaine let out sighs of relief, glad that their mother was advocating on their behalf.

    "Why not?" asked Will in genuine confusion. "I'm proud of my kids."

    "Yes, that's wonderful, honey, but Fontaine and Ant already know how proud you are of them. This is overkill," explained Kaiko in exasperation. She added, "And if you go in dressed like that, the other mothers will think I've completely given up on you!"

    Will shrugged helplessly. "I didn't bring a change of clothes so..."

    Kaiko, Ant, and Fontaine shared a significant look and cringed. It was going to be a long, long day.

    The officials, in fact, did not let Will bring the megaphone into the building, but that didn't stop him from screaming his head off at the poolside during warmups.

    "Dad! It's just warmups!" shouted Ant as he climbed out of the water, trying to get his dad to quiet down. Sure, this was regionals so it was a pretty important meet, but that didn't mean he had to cheer during warmups. It was chaotic enough as it was with what seemed like 50,000 other people swimming around trying to loosen up their muscles.

    Fontaine opted to completely tune out her dad and pretend she had no idea who that crazy man was on the sidelines. For the umpteenth time, she went to fill up her water bottle, bumping into a familiar face.

    "I see your dad brought out all the stops today," chuckled Finn.

    "Ugh, don't remind me," groaned Fontaine, purposefully avoiding looking over in the direction of her dad who was proudly lifting up both his cutout signs.

    Their mother had disappeared in the stands, also not wanting to associate herself with her overzealous husband.

    "You're not alone," assured Finn in sympathy, cringing as he pointed over to his dad.

    Fontaine did a spit take when she saw Hammerhead decked out nearly identical to Will, right down to the shorts with Madeline's and Finn's faces on them.

    "Oh no. They've seen each other," noted Fontaine in deep concern.

    The two fathers locked eyes from across the vast pool. After a brief pause, both started shouting again, louder than before despite none of their kids actually being in the pool at the moment. 

    Madeline slunk up to her brother and Fontaine with a towel draped over her head, trying to avoid being detected by the cheering dads. Although, with how preoccupied Will and Hammerhead were with each other, there was little danger of that. She grumbled, "At this rate, their voices are gonna give out before we even start the races." 

    "That would be a blessing," commented Fontaine.

    Ant joined the embarrassed gaggle of kids, worriedly warning, "I wouldn't bet on it." He looked between the fathers. "They could go at this for hours."

    "I don't think they even get we're all in different categories," sighed Finn.

    He shrunk back at the bemused looks other competitors were throwing their direction. Like his sister, he pulled his towel over his head. 

    "Watch us all come in first and they're still going to be trying to outdo each other," laughed Ant. His laughter quickly died off as he realized this could actually happen.

    "At least we know they really love us," pointed out Finn, trying to find a silver lining.

    "Yeah, but you think they could tone that love down just a little?" asked Madeline, grimacing as her dad continuously held up the cutout posters. It wasn't even a good picture of her face he had chosen!

    The children were relieved to participate in their races because while their dads might go ballistic while they swam, at least the kids were focused on competing rather than the overwhelmingly embarrassing support of their dads. 

    The worst of the conflict between the dads came at the very end of the day just as the meet was ending. Turns out, Finn, Madeline, Ant, and Fontaine had all come in first in their respective races. Hammerhead and Will were ecstatic. They were so ecstatic that they began trying to outshout the other dad in support of their kids.

    Much to Finn and Madeline's abject horror, their dad pulled off his shirt, swinging it around in the air and revealing their swim team's name written across his broad stomach a sloppy scribble in bold red and black.

    "That had better be paint," gritted out Finn to his sister. They were both well aware of their father's affinity for tattoo ink.

    Safe to say, Hammerhead was quickly escorted out of the building.

    Will was forced out soon after Hammerhead as he had somehow managed to go back to the car and smuggle in his megaphone, which he did not hesitate to use to let the entire crowd know just how his brilliant son and daughter were.

    Kaiko escorted all four kids out to the curb where the dads were waiting. She was not amused at all by Will's and Hammerhead's antics, but neither man appeared remorseful for their actions.

    Hammerhead scooped Finn and Madeline up in a tight embrace. "Me kids! I knew ye had it in ya. None o' them stood a chance."

    Likewise, Will was showering his kids with praise. 

    Once the fathers had calmed down and Finn and Madeline had convinced Hammerhead to put his shirt back on (despite how embarrassing the shirt was), Ant begged, "Dad, please don't do this at state! One nice poster is plenty!"

    Unfortunately, this only served to spark a dangerous flame in Will's and Hammerhead's eyes. Of course! Their children had qualified and were now moving onto the next level. They had so much more to prepare.

    Realizing the wild look in their eyes, the rest of their families felt their stomachs fill with dread. Oh boy, here they go again.

Lol. I wrote this all in one day. I needed some fluff because life is a bit rough right now. I hope you enjoyed this little one shot.