[Samuel x Roman]

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Roman took the baby back and sat on the coffee table, working on calming her down as Samuel explained the situation to Allison. His heart had broken when his older niece had asked that sad little question. He could understand how, in her child mind, crying could mean the baby did not like her, but that simply was not the case. Fortunately, Samuel was doing a good job in explaining what had just happened to the little girl.

"Yeah, Allison, sweetie, it just means that she wanted someone who reminded her of her daddy," Roman said in a soft and gentle voice. "Because she's so little, she's not used to being away from her mummy and daddy yet, and because I look like Uncle Brooklyn, I remind her of him. You were exactly the same when you were a baby. Because Mummy and I are twins we look very similar, so when you were as little as Mae is, being with me was the next best thing to being with your mum."

Obviously this phenomenon had been a lot stronger with Allison than it was with Mae. Since Roman was London's twin, they looked strikingly similar so to a baby, they would almost be the same person, only distinguishable by smell to a young infant. But there were obvious differences between Roman and Brooklyn, such as the hair and eye colour and piercings and makeup. So, Mae could easily tell that Roman was not her father, but as Roman had said, he seemed to be close enough.

"But of course Mae still loves you," he said, even though such a little baby was probably incapable of understanding who Allison was. It was a little white lie and it wasn't hurting anyone. "And when she gets older I'm sure she'll be more than happy to play with you."
 
After all the reassuring from both of her uncles Allison looked seriously happy again, "And when she's older we can eat ice cream together too, and draw and when she's even older older I'll help her with her homework and I'll read my favourite books to her,"

It was sweet, Allison had clearly thought a lot about this, since Samuel also was an only child he could relate to some of the loneliness she must feel, how, ver his cousin closest in age was not all that much younger than him, so by the time he was six he had been able to play with Holly. Samuel would never stop being happy that Allison finally would get someone in their family to play with, even if it would be a while until little Mae would be able to do so.

Allison continued to talk a little about she wanted to do with Mae then she trailed off and talked a little about something silly her friends did at school that day. Then she was interrupted because the food arrived so they all moved on to the kitchen. Samuel set up some plates and started loading up food for Allison, since Roman had yet to let go of Mae.

"I love babies a lot," Allison said happily, looking more at the food than the baby now though, Samuel hoped she never lost her appetite, simply because he knew people who did sports like dance and gymnastics and things like that often ended up with a negative attitude towards food and he just wanted the best for their little niece, "When I'm big like you guys I wanna have a baby so she will be comfy with me and not cry, I also want a bunny, like Lola, I love Lola,"
 
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"Allison, you do not need to be thinking about having babies right now," Roman said from the coffee table with a chuckle. He was joking, of course, though if she was older, he might have been worried.

Roman had managed to lull Mae to sleep by rocking her and singing to her in a soft voice. She was dozing gently when Roman set her down in the rocker he had asked Evan and London for, which they had kept in Allison's room for her baby dolls. He set the rocker just beside his seat at the table, sternly told Lady, Malfoy and Lola to leave Mae alone, and then filled up his plate with lemon chicken and plain rice. He kept his prawn toast on a separate place, because he was a baby.

"I love Lola too, but I don't want her, or the other pets, to hurt Mae," Roman explained to Allison so she didn't get upset that he had been curt with their pets. He doubted that any of them would attack the baby, but there was still a chance that they could accidentally harm her just by being curious animals and Roman really didn't want to take that chance. "But, how about you have all three of them in bed with you tonight? And you can give them lots of cuddles, I'm sure they'll like that a lot."
 
"Yesss!" Allison exclaimed, but she exclaimed it in a normal speaking tone so she wouldn't wake up Mae. Then she proceeded to shovel some food into her mouth, eating with the same appetite as her father and uncle, "I love staying here because I get to cuddle with all the pets," Allison said, her mouth was full of food.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth please," Samuel instructed her softly.

Allison right away realized what she had done so she chewed her food and made sure to swallow before saying, "Whoops, sorry,"

"Thank you," Samuels smiled at her because he believed positive reinforcement was the key to a happy kid. It wasn't his and Roman's job to raise Allison, obviously. But it didn't mean they couldn't help in small moments like these when they knew it was what their parents would have wanted. He wouldn't even instruct Allison in something he knew London and Evan didn't agree with him on, because he respected them as parents and knew they were doing a good job with her. Samuel would have to wait until he and Roman had kids of their own to make all rules to his own liking.

"Anyways, can we watch Moana when we have ice cream later, I know Mae won't understand but I think she will like the songs a lot"
 
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"I like the songs a lot," Roman said, as if his husband didn't know that.

After dinner, Roman helped pack all the dishes into the dishwasher and then when Mae woke up, he put a bottle of Chelsea's breastmilk into the microwave to heat it up for her. He poured a little onto his hand to check the temperature since if he hadn't felt comfortable tasting London's to determine the warmth, he sure as hell didn't feel comfortable tasting Chelsea's. Also, he felt that, weirdly, Brooklyn would be mad at him if he tasted it. That was probably a little of the paranoia left over from the Brooklyn-Indie phase, but Roman pushed it to the back of his mind.

He sat on the couch, with Allison between him and Samuel, and bottle-fed Mae while they watched Moana on the TV before them. He had had a lot of practice with Allison when she was a baby so he knew what he was doing, and Mae seemed satisfied with his technique so it all seemed to be going well. Once she was finished, Roman set the bottle on the coffee table, gently patted the baby's back to burp her, and then got up to change her nappy.

Really, if anyone watched from the outside they would have no doubts that Roman was this child's father. He was treating this infant with the same amount of care and attentiveness as any parent, and that just showed how ready he was to be a father. But that was a whole other discussion Roman had to have with his husband.

His husband, whom he quietly approached from the side, tapped on the shoulder and very carefully handed the baby to. "Hold her for a bit? I can't put her down right now, or she'll cry, but my arms feel like they're going to fall off."
 
"Oh? Okay, hang on," Samuel sat a little straighter and let his husband hand him the baby. Roman had been engaged in taking care of her all evening, but they were both babysitting her so now that Roman was tired Samuel would gladly help. The only reason he hadn't helped with Mae more until now was that he knew how much Roman adored taking care of babies. So, Samuel had just naturally focused a little more on Allison that evening, he tended to do better with older kids anyway.

Which was also why carrying Mae was a little scary. There was always the chance that she would start crying in this stranger's arms. But unlike Allison Samuel had held babies before, granted not as much as Roman, but he had. He had held Miguel when he was little, and of course, Allison, even though Roman generally had stolen her before he could get to her and he had also held Jake and Lizzy's kid a couple of times when Lizzy brought the girl the practice and games. So, he could hold Mae in a way that was comfortable for her, and thus it wouldn't be too different from Roman. Hopefully. There was the matter of smelling completely different, looking completely different and probably not being as warm as Roman since he had held her to his chest all evening, though, so maybe it wasn't that simple.

Samuel held his breath and watched the baby carefully... But nothing, she just laid there peacefully, looking a little tired maybe, but like she was about to fall asleep at any minute, not like she was grumpy or about to cry. It was a precious sight, and an amazing feeling, to be holding this little baby, this little girl who would grow up and one day be as big as Allison, and even further into the future a full-grown adult, against his chest.

It was all a little overwhelming and Samuel decided he must be getting a little tired because he almost felt a little teary eyed. Still, he relaxed and leaned back against the back of the couch, turned to his husband and smiled, "Since your arms are free you should get some ice cream as well, it's only fair, bottom drawer in the freezer, as usual, I think there's some raspberry sorbet left, unless Allison ate it all,"

"I didn't," Allison said without moving her eyes from the screen, it was fantastic how she had seen this movie a million times yet still could watch it as if it was the first. Roman was the same with Moana, and most Disney movies and Samuel loved him and would gladly watch the same movies over and over just to see him happy, and honestly, he couldn't wait for the day when they would watch them over and over with their own kids, whenever that would be.
 
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Roman absolutely adored the sight of his husband holding the little baby. The way he got teary-eyed as he gazed at her, the way he so carefully cradled her to his chest ... it was beautiful, and Roman had no doubts in his mind that Samuel would be an amazing father when the time came. They both would be. Hopefully, that time would be soon.

Roman smiled back at his husband, and then very gently cradled his face with one hand and pressed a gentle and loving kiss to his lips. It was nothing too outrageous, since Allison was right there, but it was a kiss to remind Samuel that Roman loves him, that he would always love him, and that he couldn't wait until they were caring for their own child like this.

Roman went and got some sorbet and ate it on the couch beside Allison as Moana and Maui paraded the screen in front of them. Once he was finished he added his bowl to the dishwasher, turned it on and then went and relieved Samuel from his baby-holding duties. Mae was asleep now, so he very gently put her in her rocker, which he kept by his feet so he could watch her for any signs of stirring.

"Allison," Roman said to their older niece once the movie was finished and the end credits were rolling down the screen. "Would you like to see some pictures of when we went to America now?"
 
"yes please," Allison said, her voice was excited, but calm and accompanied by a little yawn. It wasn't bedtime just yet but it was good that she was getting tired so she wouldn't have any issues sleeping through the night without her parents in the next room.

"Okay, hang on and I'll go get them," Samuel stood and hurried over to the bedroom where he fetched a photo album from his desk. Since they had gotten the camera they had also started to successively move the pictures they previously had saved on their laptops and phones into photo albums. Since they hadn't realized they would be making photo albums in the future they obviously hadn't taken too many pictures back then, but they had managed to scrape together some pictures they had taken of each other on their phones and Facebook and so on, documenting the first year of their relationship, same with year two, but with combining pictures they had, with those their friends and parents of all old housemates they had some pictures from the day they moved out. Year two they were also able to steal a lot from friends since they lived with them. Samuel tried making the album contain equal parts picture of himself, Roman and friends and family, but they often got a little heavy with Roman, simply because Samuel tended to avoid being in pictures and because Roman loved the camera and the camera loved him.

For their trip to America, though, there were plenty of pictures to look through, depicting everything from them being at the hotel to being at Disneyland. They had just gotten a little past that in the album making, which was why it was currently on Samuel's desk together with a pair of scissors, printed out picture and scrap paper from cutting out pictures.

Samuel brought the album back to his husband and two nieces, one of who was sleeping softly now, he sat down on his spot next to Allison, Lady followed him and sat next to him, plopping her head down in Samuel's lap, which he didn't mind.

"Here, this is us at the airport," Samuel said after placing the album in Allison's lap and flipping through to the right page, the picture was of the four then young adults, posed together, presumably taken by Ingrid or Stellan, Samuel couldn't remember. In the picture Roma was holding Allison, Samuel was next to him, bashfully looking down on his feet, London was next to Roman looking as pretty as always and Evan was standing next to her with his arm around her shoulder and a grin on his face, "see that? That's Roman holding you, he would always steal you from your mummy and daddy, he would miss you since you and your parents still lived in Maryborough with your grandparents and we couldn't see you very often,"

"Whoa, I'm almost as tiny as Mae," Allison said, wonder very much present in her voice, "How old was I?"
 
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"You were almost one. It was actually almost your birthday, almost a week before it, I think." Roman loved the photo albums Samuel was making. It was something for them to look back on in future years, and for them to show to their future kids, and maybe their grandkids after that. It was also charming because most people just kept their pictures on their phones, but this had a sort of homely feel to it, one that Roman loved.

Roman turned the page and pointed to another photograph. "This is me and you in front of the Disneyland castle," he told his older niece. "That was one of the best days of my whole life, because I'd been waiting for nineteen whole years to go to Disneyland and I could finally go with my family." Excluding Brooklyn, but Roman didn't mention that. "And you and me met all the princes and princesses that day."

Roman smiled as he pointed to all the different pictures of him, with baby Allison strapped to his chest, posing with each of the men and women who were playing the Disney characters on that day. "Your dad was being a potato and complaining because I wanted to take you to meet all the people, but I knew that one day you'd sit and look at all the pictures and you'd love that you'd met them, and now here you are, doing just that, isn't that crazy?"
 
"That's so cool," Allison said in reference t the picture of them outside the castle, Samuel smiled, this was why he had wanted to make these albums, and why he had wanted to take more pictures. For them to be able to look back at nice moments and to be able to tell the younger generations about them.

Allison nodded and looked at all the pictures of them with the princes and princesses with so much excitement and joy Samuel barely knew what to do with himself with all the happiness it brought him. "Yeah that's so crazy, I'm glad you didn't listen to daddy and took all the pictures, I love this," They turned the page and Allison let out a gasp, "That's Moana,"

"Yep, and you, and Roman," Samuel smiled, this was clearly the highlight for her.

"I met Moana?" She repeated as if she couldn't even believe it, she had met the princess from her favourite movie of all time and she was just now finding out about it, she turned to Roman so she could inquire, "Was she super nice and pretty and cool like she is in the movie?"
 
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"Yes she absolutely was," Roman guaranteed the small child. He put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a sweet little squeeze. He loved seeing her this happy and was grateful that he had had his family take all these pictures, if only to show Allison now.

"Her hair was really long and curly and pretty and her skirt was made from real canvas like the real Moana and she had her pretty necklace with the heart of Te Fiti in it," Roman gushed. Honestly, sometimes he thought he was a five-year-old girl trapped in a twenty-five-year-old man's body. But he saw no problem with that and would continue to love Disney until he was a hundred and two.

"And you know what the best part was?" he asked Allison excitedly. Of course she didn't know, so he told her. "She said, and I quote, that you were a cute baby."
 
"Moana thought I was cute!?" She said a little too loudly, her eyes darted over to her sleeping cousin for a second but Mae was still sleeping peacefully, "That's the best thing I have ever heard ever,"

Samuel smiled and after that they continued to look at the pictures from Disneyland, they also showed her some random pictures from when she was little but saved the stuff from the day she got born so she could look at it with her parents at a later date, it just felt like something she was supposed to do with them. Samuel and Roman had to wait until they had their own kids for that kind of thing.

Eventually, Allison couldn't stop yawning so Samuel closed the album and said, "Someone looks tired, do you think it's time to go cuddle up with all the pets?"

"Yeah, probably," Allison yawned again and stretched her arms far above her head before standing up to go brush her teeth. She was a big girl at this point, she knew how to go to bed herself, she was still a kid and sometimes she got distracted of course, so Samuel and Roman had to make sure she was really doing the teeth brushing and all that, but really she was starting to get to an age where she was becoming more independent. It was amazing but it also made Samuel a little emotional to see her grow up so fast.
 
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Around the time that Allison started to get ready for bed was when Mae appeared to wake up. She made her presence known by letting out a little whiny noise and of course Roman scooped her up and cradled her to his chest. He carried her and rubbed her back as he went to watch over Allison with Samuel, even if she didn't really need their help. Roman wanted to spend as much time with her, when she was so young and sweet and innocent, as he possibly could.

"Lady! Malfoy!" Roman called, standing in the spare room with Mae laying against his chest in a vertical position, her head on his shoulder. The dog and cat came scurrying in, with Lola hot on their heels, since the three animals were almost inseparable. Roman signalled for them to get on the bed, which Lady and Malfoy did without difficulty, but he had to help Lola up. They all settled into place on one side of the bed, knowing the drill by now, leaving space for Allison.

Roman sat on Allison's side of the bed once the little girl was tucked in and carefully leaned forward so he was holding Mae close to the other girl. The baby blinked her brown eyes a few times and then fixed them on her cousin, not making any noise, sucking on her thumb. "Give Mae a little kiss goodnight," Roman murmured to Allison, a soft smile on his face.
 
"Okay," Allison placed what looked to be a butterfly soft kiss on Mae's forehead, it was probably one of the most adorable things Samuel had ever seen in his life.

"Good night Mae," Allison said softly, "I love you, I hope you have nice and sweet dreams," Then she lied back comfortable against her pillows and the pets cuddled a little closer to her.

"You think you'll be able to sleep alright?" Samuel asked her gently, she came visiting and sleeping over somewhat frequently, but you never knew with kids, some days they just missed their parents more. But Allison just nodded, "yeah, I'm super-duper tired,"

"Well that's good, goodnight then, sweetie,"

"Godnight, Uncle Sammy, and goodnight uncle Roman, thanks for having me today I had a lot of fun with you and Mae," She said with another yawn. Samuel told her they had had loads of fun too and then they gave her some proper kisses good night, turned off the lights and carefully closed the door behind them as they left so the girl would be able to sleep in peace.

"God I can't believe how fast she's growing up," Samuel said quietly to not disturb the girl he was talking about, "It feels like she was as small as Mae just a year ago,"
 
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"Don't start talking like that, I'll get nostalgic and then I'll start crying," Roman whispered with a small chuckle. He often liked to remember the days of Allison's infancy, but at the same time, it really did make him feel a little emotional. She was truly growing up too fast. However, at the same time, Roman also loved to watch her thrive as a little girl, and couldn't wait to see how she progressed in her later years.

"I think this one will go to sleep after a nappy change and another bottle," Roman told his husband, nodding to the infant in his arms. So, he quickly changed the baby girl's nappy, put her in a warmer onesie since it was a bit chilly that night, and then heated up a bottle and brought it into their bedroom so they could sit in bed and chat for a while before going to sleep.

"Hey, can you feed her while I get changed?" Roman asked his husband. He knew that Samuel wasn't anywhere near as comfortable with taking care of infants as he was, but bottle-feeding a child wasn't really that difficult, and besides, there was no harm in getting the practice in now before they had kids of their own.
 
"Yeah of course," Samuel said without hesitation as he received the little baby. Then he did hesitate a little because he realized he hadn't really fed a baby with a bottle like this before, only baby food with a spoon once Allison was old enough for that.

But he didn't have much time to think about it all because Mae was started to whine a little and he really didn't want her to start crying and wake up Allison. So, he sat down on the bed, took the bottle and gently started to feed her.

The little girl right away caught on and stopped whining because she was getting the food she had wanted. And it was really an amazing experience to feed a baby like that. Roman had done it a lot now, with Allison mainly, but Samuel hadn't really done it before, so he just sat there and watched the girl drink with the most wonderous look in his eyes. He was completely quiet and in that moment, he couldn't even tear his gaze to give Roman a couple of loving and longing glances like he normally would when they got ready to get comfy in bed.

After a little while Mae seemed to be done and Samuel put the bottle aside and just looked at her for a moment until he remembered something and looked up at Roman with a slightly panicked look on his face, "How do you do the burp thing?" he asked, the moment the words left his mouth he realized he sounded kind of silly, but he didn't mind saying things that were silly in front of his husband.
 
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While Roman got changed, he couldn't help but gaze adoringly at his husband, who was totally transfixed by the little baby in his arms. God, he loved seeing Samuel with kids. It just made Roman's heart swell with happiness and his stomach erupt in butterflies because he knew that, one day, Samuel would be gazing at their child like that, a child they wouldn't have to return to their parents in the morning, because they would be waking up with their parents.

Roman chuckled at Samuel's panicked comment, it was honestly quite adorable. "Hang on." He wasn't actually changed yet because he had been spending far too much time staring at Samuel, so he stepped into a pair of pyjama shorts and one of Samuel's old soccer jerseys. He took the moment to inhale his husband's scent from the fabric before he went over to the bed to rescue the other man.

"Hold her vertically, as if she's standing up," he instructed, crawling across the bed and kneeling behind his husband. "Okay, now lay her against your chest with her head on your shoulder. Good. Now just pat her back gently until she burps."

Mae tilted her head to the side, her cheek squishing against Samuel's shoulder, and suckled on her thumb, her eyes trained on the wall behind them. Roman gave her a sweet little kiss, before he wrapped his arms around Samuel from behind and pressed a kiss to the small area of bare skin between the edge of his shirt and his neck. "You look amazing with kids," Roman murmured in his ear. "Just letting you know."
 
Samuel followed Romans instructions carefully and tried not to be distracted by him creeping up behind him. Mae did the 'burp thing' as Samuel so nicely had put it, and it wasn't as hard as he had made it out to be. And then Roman made it all the way to them, and they both received little kisses and Samuel felt his husband's arms wrap around him, which relaxed him a lot and made holding the baby a little easier.

"You say that, but I feel like an unbiased person would say I look awkward and a little scared," Samuel murmured back, letting out a soft and quiet chuckle. He readjusted her grip of Mae, and held her like he had before, when feeding her, so she would be more comfortable falling asleep, "I appreciate the compliment though, your opinion matters the most,"

Samuel leaned back a little in his husband's arm, allowing Roman to peek over his shoulder at Mae if he wanted, but for now, Samuel didn't really want to let go. Usually, he got a little panicked by holding small babies, but right in that moment everything was so peaceful and nice he felt like nothing could go wrong, even if it was he who was holding Mae and not Roman. It was nice to feel that way for once, so he decided not to offer her back to Roman just yet.

"You always look amazing with kids, like you could steal some kid at the park and people would just assume you're their dad because of how naturally it comes to you,"
 
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"Maybe I should go and kidnap some children, then," Roman joked, his lips brushing against Samuel's neck as he spoke. He wasn't trying to be enticing, but he wanted to hold his husband close and so he did that because Samuel didn't seem to be complaining. "Though, I feel like London would actually beat my ass if I did that. I once saw her death glare a woman who asked Allison if she was lost because she thought she was going to try and steal her kid."

Roman let out a little yawn. It wasn't that late, only nine o'clock, but he had worked for the past three days and was very tired. Also, he knew that he'd be getting up a couple of times in the night to tend to Mae, so he knew he should be trying to get as much sleep as humanely possible. He loved to sleep in, but being virtually unable to do so was one of the only things he was dreading about becoming a parent.

He yawned again, before he stood up and pulled the blankets back so they could both slip under the covers. "Are you okay with having her sleep between us?" Roman asked, crawling onto his side but remaining upright. "I mean, I could get her rocker or something but I don't really want her on the floor."
 
Samuel relished the feeling of Roman's lips forming words on his neck, it made him feel warm and loved. It was a different kind of feeling than the one that left him wanting more, it was just them being as close as possible to each other, Roman's lips had just never really leaving his neck after that kiss. Samuel loved things like that, the fact that they could just share intimate moments like that which were nothing but innocent.

After a little while Roman yawned and Samuel was released from his grip, he turned to look where he was going only to see him creep up to his side of the bed, "I won't mind, well get to her faster when she wants attention too, so maybe she won't get a chance to wake Allison,"

Samuel stood and headed over to his side where he gently laid Mae down in the middle of the bed. She was so small, and their bed was so large, but it was okay, they would be on each side of her, keeping her warm and cosy in the sea of covers and sheets. She had already fallen asleep in Samuel's arms and she stirred a little as she wasn't in the warmth of someone's arms anymore, but she wasn't waking up.

Samuel stepped aside so he also could get changed, or well, take off his pants and find a comfortable T-shirt, he chose one of Roman's sleep shirts. Roman had taken one of his and since they wouldn't be able to sleep as closely, Samuel tended to cling to Roman in his sleep, with the baby between them, Samuel also wanted to wear something that smelled like and reminded him of his husband. It was a little silly because they'd still be next to each other, but Samuel didn't care.

He headed back to the bed, put his glasses on the bedside table and crawled into his side, opting to lay down but propping his head up with the help of his elbow.

"She looks like you, you know," Samuel murmured softly, he kept his gaze on the baby, "Not as much as Allison obviously, there is a lot of Chelsea and Brooklyn in her, but you can tell she's related to you and London,"
 
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