You picked the pink card. With this card, you are to order your partner to bond with any of the kids of your choosing. Deadline is midnight.

"I am in need of cigarette." Vlad groaned and Andres turned on the bed to see him seating up and reading a book.

     The Colombian watched as his partner's face slowly got grim from what he was reading. He noticed his eyes became glassy and before Andres could point it out, it was gone. Andres wanted to interrupt him and talk about the pink card but he loved watching Vlad's expression change as he flipped the pages of his novel.

Andres only watched him and waited for him to be done. The second the Russian closed the book, Andres asked, "What's the name of the book?"

"Hope to Die." He replied bluntly.

"Author?"

"James Patterson. It is Alex Cross series."

Andres knew nothing of what he was saying. Novels weren't something he was very friendly with. Shrugging, he continued on with his twenty question, "Is it interesting?"

Vlad rose a brow at him and Andres smiled at him, saying, "So it is. What's it about?"

Andres laughed when both of Vlad's brows rose before he spoke, "Crime. Some psycho kidnapped Alex's family and is killing them one by one."

That for obvious reason interested Andres. He sat and drew closer to Vlad. With a curious look, he asked, "Why?"

     Vladimir brightened more than Andres had ever seen and then he dove into explaining why the psycho was doing what he was doing. Even though Andres was listening intently, sometimes his mind would drift to how beautiful the man he shared his bed with was. The way his eyes widened, body moved to mimic actions as if he had watched the movie and his beautiful face brightened. He would have to admit what he felt was more than just lust.

     He wasn't just sexual attracted to the Russian, he felt more than that. More than he had intended.

"I do not know if it is because I am used to all of zis, but if someone takes you and kids away from me, I am going to lose my shit."

Andres reached for his hands and held it. He smiled then replied, "Especially Fyo."

"Especially Fyo."

     Andres felt a pang of jealousy in his heart but he said nothing and kissed the man's hand. He knew getting to be the first in the man's heart was going to take more than just sex. But he was ready to do it. He was ready to do just about anything for the man.

     "We got a task today. Much easier than yesterday's." Andres wove the pink card in front of him and Vlad caught it and read it.

He smiled widely then looked up at the Colombian. "It was not exactly hard. All I had to do was take off clothes in front of you and I had you seduced."

"Oh you know it was way harder than that." He said, chuckling as he pulled Vlad to sit on his lap. He wrapped his arms around his waist. "I'm a stressed man so it was when you let me hold you I was seduced. But I have to give it to you, you are a huge tease."

"Learnt from best." Vlad whispered to him then started to lean in when they heard a thud coming from up the stairs.

Vlad pulled away and Andres watched as the noise got louder as if whatever was making that noise was running. It was when they heard Fyodor's voice they knew it was the kids and Vlad immediately jumped off Andres just when the kid came storming in.

He dove on the bed and crawled quickly into the blanket and covered himself. Andres quirked a brow at the kid then drew his gaze back to Vlad. Vlad only shrugged and asked, "Fyo, what are you doing?"

"Gala!" He pushed the blanket down from his face and stared up at them with wide eyes. "She's going to kill me. I poured my tea on her book."

"Fyodor!" Gala shouted.

"Save me." The little kid rolled closer to Andres which surprised him and he had to look up at Vlad.

Surprisingly, Vlad didn't look annoyed and only smiled. He ruffled Fyo's hair then said to him, "I will talk to her."

He nodded then cuddled closer to Andres.

Andres felt his heart warm at the sight on the kid clinging to waist. He leaned down to kiss his forehead then winked at Vlad when he saw him redden slightly.

"You might as well do the task today with Gala."

Really? The Russian mouthed but Andres stopped paying him any attention and whispered to Fyo so Vladimir wouldn't hear. 

"Do you want to go out with me to get Gala and Vlad's Christmas' presents?"

"What about mine, papa?"

"Vlad's already got yours. He's about to wrap it."

A big smile appeared on his face. "Yay!" Then he agreed to go with Andres to buy the presents.

By the time they were done talking, Vlad was no longer in the room. 

...

Daddy of the Month.

17th December: Beauty Contest.

Father-son/Daughter dance.

Every family has to pick one of their kids to participate. The boys will compete with boys and the girls with girls but only pick one of your kids. The father-son/daughter dance is by 9pm just after the winner is announced which is by 7pm. Runway starts by 6pm. You all have until 6pm to prepare. 

     Vladimir glanced at Gala who was distracted by something on the TV. He gave her a once over and realized he had a lot of work to do. Gala wasn't your basic feminine girl that loved to wear girly things. She was more of that girl that didn't give a fuck if her hair was a mess and would just take a beanie and leave for school.

     Folding the Daddy of the Month task paper back, he dropped it on the couch then came around it to turn off the TV. She instantly frowned and started to complain but Vlad spoke before she dared, "We are having beauty contest. So unless we go out shopping, I am not dancing with you in sweatpants."

She wanted to say something but thought better of it when Vlad rose a brow at her. Instead, she smiled and pretended to be enthusiastic about it. "Well then, why don't we start heading there now."

     On reaching there, Vlad stopped her from entering any of her familiar stores. Mostly because they had nothing he liked. He wanted a nice gown to go with her curvy body. All the sweatpants she wore always hid them. They entered a nice gown store and Vladimir immediately saw the displeasure on her face from his side view. She quickly made it blank when he looked at her but he pretended not to notice as he pulled her to a slim gold gown.

He smiled. "What do you zink?" Vlad thought it would go well with her tanned skin tone.

She glanced at it then looked away at the entrance of the store as if she was waiting for someone to take her away. "Is Andres coming?"

Vlad grew annoyed by that. It was supposed to be their time together and she was hoping for Andres to come? What was Andres good at that he wasn't?

"No," He said curtly. "It is just both of us." He turned away from her to the grown and added, "I zink zis would be really good. It is long so it would cover zose man legs of yours, but you have to wear heels because of slit. If we take zis, next place we are going is hair s..." He trailed off when he realized the girl he was talking to wasn't beside him but was heading out the door.

He didn't even wait to think if she had heard all what he had said and ran after her. He caught her arm and spun her around. "Why are you leaving?"

Gala looked shocked for a minute but then she relaxed and cocked her head at group of boys standing together by a resting bench, laughing. She smiled widely and said, "I'm going to get one of their numbers." Then she pulled her arm away from him and started in their direction.

     Vladimir immediately started to panic. The cluster of boys like that didn't really look approachable. They had those jock and jerks hair styles and worse, every one of them looked pretty handsome. Vlad knew a thing about pretty men, he knew that if a pretty man knows he's a pretty man, he either become a player because they know they could get anyone or he becomes arrogant because he thinks he can get away with anything.

Just approaching with no strategy to get at least one of their numbers was absolutely stupid.

     Vladimir remembered when he wanted to get a girl's number when he was still in his high school. She had her own clique or however they called it.

     Girls in cliques were dangerous and it's all because of their friends. If they don't approve of you on first glance, forget it. With boys, they play you. Notice the difference?

     So he wanted to get Viki's number meaning, he had to wait for her to be alone. After being absolutely confident he was getting it, he made his move on her, capturing her in the library.

The conversation had gone like this;

"You're Viki Evgeni, right?" He had asked in Russian.

"Yes, what can I do for you?"

"Oh I just wanted to say I really loved your art work. Great use of colors. I can never mix my colors just that good."

She smiled. "Thanks but I'm sorry, you're not in my art class."

"No, but I helped the teacher set up the display. Yours were are her favourites. She kept on going Viki this Viki that. She made the name stick so I just had to meet you. It's Vlad, by the way."

She laughed lightly. "Nice to meet you."

"So I'm taking art next semester and I was wondering, can I have your number? I could try practicing alone but where's the fun in that?"

"Why ask me? Igor is the best in class."

"I believe Women know more about art than men seeing as they are such a wonderful art form. But except Igor is gay then okay. Gay men are the next best thing." Vlad had started to leave but then she gave him her number.

     It was smooth there on out. It was a no strings attached relationship so it was blessed. But this is in reverse. If she did ask someone for their number, definitely wouldn't say no, but definitely wouldn't take her seriously.

     Vladimir had to think fast. How could his daughter get one of their number without looking like a desperate teen in need of attention?

     An idea crossed his mind and he grinned into the mirror beside him. He adjusted his hair to an old style he had done when he was younger then untucked his shirt from his jeans. With his idea on his mind, he approached her rather angrily just when she was a couple feet from the boys. He caught her arm and started her to pull her not so kindly.

"I can't believe you were about to do zat."

Gala glared up at him angrily and was about to pulled her arm away from him when she seemed to notice the change in not just his dressing but his accent. It was a lot clearer than his thick Russian accent.

She narrowed her eyes at him then pulled her arm away from him roughly. "What do you think you're doing?"

If Gala hadn't raised her voice at him, he wouldn't have known she was playing along. She instantly went from tough girl to defenseless teenager. "It hurts."

"Well, I do not care. We are going now." Vlad reached for her again when he noticed the group of boys had stopped doing what they were doing and one of them looked rather disturbed by the scene.

     Vlad took Gala's hand and started to pull at her again but when she refused to move, the boy that had looked disturbed by the scene came to confront them with three other boys. He had a very full blond ponytail and really blue eyes Vlad had almost thought they were contacts until the kid came closer.

     Distracted by those blue eyes, the kids were able to pry Vlad's hands away from Gala. Gala, playing the helpless girl, quickly fell into blue eyes arms and Vlad cursed and walked away. He quickly pulled into another store and adjusted his outfit then watched as the boys surrounded his kid. Of course blue eyes gave her his number but what surprised Vlad was when they invited her to join them on their table.

     Gala shook her head and started heading Vlad's way. The Russian watched Gala enter the store then walk up to him. For a second, Gala just stared at him with this huge smile then out of nowhere, she squealed and jumped on him.

"Oh my god!!! Thanks so much Dad. I bloody love you for this."

Vlad felt his breath leave him as Gala's arms squeezed him tighter. He started to wonder where she got the energy.

     Close to death, Gala finally released and smiled. Vlad said, "If all zat works out well, I don't want to see him in our home after 9pm and no sex until you're 20."

"Dad!" She chuckled.

Vlad didn't know why she was laughing. He was being absolutely serious.

     Gala took Vlad's hand in hers, surprising him then said, "Now, how about that gown?"

Vlad smiled genuinely because finally, he felt had a stronger relationship with her.