[Samuel x Roman]

s a m u e l

"Oh... Okay,"
Samuel said, it was sad but the stories about Oksana flirting with Roman no longer were all that unexpected. She just kept doing it despite knowing Roman was happily married with children. Samuel let his gaze fall on Harper and Letha. It was one thing to not care about his feelings, but to do something that could potentially fuck up a marriage when there were four children involved Samuel just couldn't wrap his head around. And he also had a hard time just talking to Oksana at work, in general, at this point. His jealousy kicked in, he compared himself to her and felt angry at her. So he just kind of avoided her because he didn't want to mess things up more.

Samuel let out a small sigh and removed his cap to run his fingers through his dark curls.He was wearing a pair of navy chinos and a white T-shirt, a very simple outfit because today was meant to just be a nice little outing with the family to the park, not a heavy discussion about Oksana. Though Samuel preferred Roman telling him about it than not telling him.

"I just don't get it? You're not actually showing flirtatious interest in her, you're just being nice," Samuel sounded a little annoyed, but it was clearly not at Roman though, "What does she think will happen? That you're going to leave me and the kids? That has to be it right, otherwise, she wouldn't actually be flirting even if she's interested in you?"
 
r o m a n
"I don't know but it's actually starting to annoy me," Roman said with an irritated sigh. "I've done everything short of actually tell her to stop, and the only reason I haven't done that is because I get the feeling she's kind of alone, and I don't want to be mean to her. But I've tried to turn her down gently and remind her that I'm taken with a family, but nothing seems to be working."

If it persisted he would give it to her bluntly. He would sit her down and tell her that she was a nice girl but nothing was going to happen between them and she needed to understand that. She needed to understand that he was married with four children, and that he wasn't going to give up for a random woman he had no interest in.

But still, for some reason, he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"I'll sort it out,"
Roman murmured, leaning his forehead against the top of Samuel's head. "I promise. I won't let this continue for very long."
 
s a m u e l

"Mmm she's been doing this for like half a year now, if she doesn't catch the hint soon we should probably talk to he--"
A loud yell from a kid was heard, Samuel recognized the voice immediately as Eden, it was followed the sound of a child crying loudly, "Shit that was Edie,"

Samuel suddenly did not care about Oksana at all. He stood immediately and pulled Roman along with him. He quickly located the twins behind some playground equipment. On the ground in front of them a little boy their age was crying loudly. Eden was was still yelling it was a mixture of "no!" "Stop it!" and just random frustrated sounds as he tried to wriggle out of his sister's grip, but she was holding on tight to keep him from the other boy, whose presumed mother now was hurrying up to the scene.

Samuel crouched down, grabbed a hold of Eden and lifted him up so Stella didn't have to hold him back anymore. Eden continued to struggle against it as Samuel carried him up though. Stella just hurried over to her Daddy with tears in her eyes and hugged Roman's leg tight.

"Edie- Edie calm down, ow, Eden you can't throw punches," Samuel said as he tried to get Eden to stop flailing his arm and punching his little fist into his back to let him down. Samuel shot Roman a worried look as he walked a couple of steps to the side and place Harper back on the ground but kept a firm grip on his shoulders she he couldn't run off. This was all too much like that time he he had shoved Harper and Samuel didn't like it at all, "Eden you need to stop and tell me what happened,"

"But he-- And I don't-- And-- And--" Eden said quickly, not able to finish his sentences because he was breathing weirdly and after that he just started to sob which blended in with the other boy's crying. At that Samuel just pulled him close and held him, because even if he had done something wrong, he didn't like seeing him cry.
 
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Roman watched in absolute horror as Samuel forcibly pulled Eden away from the other little boy. An innocent kid who Eden was trying to attack. Roman was suddenly reminded of the time his younger son had shoved his elder one, and it was horrifying to see. What the hell was causing this kind of behaviour in his son?

Roman picked up Stella and held her close. He looked over to check that Harper and Letha were okay and found that Harper had lead his little sister over to see what was going on. "Harper, please take Letha away," Roman requested carefully. He didn't want his youngest daughter to see her brother like this and become as terrified as Stella was right now.

With a heavy sigh Roman turned to the mother of the little boy, who had picked up her son and was now trying to console him. "I'm so sorry," he whispered in horror. He had no idea what Eden had done, but he knew this woman was probably experiencing the heartbreak he had felt when Harper had been hurt at school and he knew she would be blaming him somehow.

"What the hell happened?"
the woman snapped.

"I don't know, I didn't see,"
Roman said. He cast a look at Eden. "He ... he has bad anger issues but he's only little, he can't control himself, we don't know what to do, I don't know what to do."

Roman started crying as well, because that had been the first time he had ever acknowledged Eden's behavioural problems as a real issue. And, because he truly felt helpless. How could he care for his little boy if he didn't know what to do? How could he help him adjust his behaviour if they had no idea of how to handle it?

"That isn't good enough,"
said the woman viciously. She got up and stormed away, carrying her crying child with her. Roman's bottom lip quivered but he kept himself under control because he needed to stay calm in that moment.

"Samuel, bring him to the car,"
Roman said hoarsely, before collecting Harper and Letha and taking them all over to the vehicle as well.
 
s a m u e l

Samuel picked Eden up and carried him to the car. This time he didn't even react and just kind of limply hung over his shoulder while crying. They got the other kids into the car, they'd definitely be going home now. But Samuel placed Eden on the edge of the middle seats, legs dangling out and crouched down in front of him. Eden leaned his head against the back of the seat and continued to sniffle with a grumpy frown on his face. He was still angry it seemed and Samuel couldn't help but just feel the words Roman had used echo through his head. Anger issues. It was what it was they just hadn't really acknowledged it in the hopes that it was just that Eden didn't know right from wrong yet. But he had always been emotional, even as a baby, and now he was growing up and it was manifesting itself in anger.

"Edie, please tell me why you would hurt that other boy, it's not very nice at all," Samuel said, his voice a little shaky though he was trying to stay composed for the children's sake.

"I play with Stella," Eden said and then let out another sniffle, "not he,"

"He just wanted to play wif us, Papa!" Stella said "But Edie didn't wanna!" This just made everything worse because that meant the other little boy truly hadn't done anything wrong at all.

"Eden, if you don't want to play with someone you tell them with your words or walk away, you can't hurt people," Samuel said, in a firm tone he didn't want to use when the little boy seemed so sad but that he had to to make him understand that what he had done was very, very wrong. Eden just avoided Samuel's gaze, while trying to lean away from him, as if he didn't want to listen. Samuel turned to Roman, tears in his eyes, and mouthed 'what do we do?'
 
r o m a n
'I don't know', Roman mouthed back at his husband. He was staring at his son with tears in his eyes. He just felt so lost. He had no idea how to handle this situation, nor did he have any advice to give his husband. He just felt completely useless.

"Come on, everyone in their seats," R
oman insisted, sitting in the driver's seat and starting the engine. He waited until Samuel had gotten Eden buckled in, as he had secured all the other kids before his arrival, then once his husband was in as well, Roman started the car and drove them all home.

Harper took his sisters to the living room to play a game and was about to ask Eden to play as well when Roman shook his head. "No, Edie's in trouble and he's not allowed to play," he said in a quiet, emotionless tone. Harper looked confused, but nodded nonetheless, and Roman picked up Eden and carried him upstairs into his bedroom.

He set Eden down in his crib and looked at him seriously. "I know you're upset but you did the wrong thing, Eden," he said in a firm but not angry tone. He wanted nothing more than to just hug Edie until he felt better but they had to punish him for what he had done. As he spoke he took all the plush toys out of Eden's crib and put them on the floor. "You hurt that boy, Eden, he was very upset and his mummy was very angry. You wouldn't like it if you got hurt, would you? No. So you can stay in here with no toys until Papa or I come back and get you."
 
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"Noo!"
Eden whined as Roman removed his toys, he desperately reached out for his kitty and doggy and Samuel's heart absolutely broke. Eden was angry yes, and had acted wrong but he was very clearly also upset and sad so it really hurt to punish him like this. But they needed to do it. They couldn't reward him with love and affection when he had hurt someone then he'd never learn.

"I'm sorry Eden but this is what happens when you aren't nice to people," Samuel said, he tried to sound firm but couldn't really muster it completely. Eden just looked at his dads with wide teary eyes as if he couldn't believe this was happening, "We'll come back in a bit, and until then you need to think about what you've done, and you need to try to imagine what it felt like for the other boy to be hurt like that, and then we'll come back and we can talk, okay?"

They got no response. Not a verbal one at least. Eden just laid back on the bed, turned towards the wall and curled up into a little ball. Samuel hated everything about this situation and now especially he just wanted to give Eden a hug, but he couldn't. If they had said one thing they had to follow through. So they left the room for now and went up to their bedroom so they could talk without Eden or the other kids overhearing. Though, they left the door open of course so they could here if one of the kids started to cry.

Samuel sat down on the bed, keeping a hand over his mouth as he tried to hold his tears back, though it was basically impossible at this point and the moment he spoke they welled over, "It feels so wrong to punish him when he can't control it? But we're doing the right thing.... right?"
 
r o m a n
Roman almost died when Eden gave that distressed whine and that teary look. He wanted to collapse and apologise and give his son all his toys back and do everything he could to help his baby boy feel better. But he couldn't, because Eden had done the wrong thing and he needed to be punished for it. He needed to learn that there were consequences when you hurt someone else, or else he wouldn't come to realise that hurting people was completely unacceptable.

Roman followed his husband up the stairs to their bedroom. He had been planning to remain calm and just talk about the issue with Samuel like a parent, but when he heard the emotion in his husband's voice, he couldn't handle it anymore. He let out a sob and fell in his knees in front of Samuel, laying his head on the other man's lap and using that contact to stifle the sound of his wretched crying.

God, he felt useless. He felt completely and totally useless. He himself had been through what Eden was going through -- he himself had had anger issues for a big chunk of his life. So why didn't he know how to help his own son? What kind of parent was he? What if Eden remained this way forever and wasn't able to get better?

"What are we going to do?"
Roman choked, turning his head and looking at the wall. There was a framed photo of all four of the kids, smiling and looking sweet and angelic. Eden especially. How had the beautiful little kid in the picture harmed an innocent child? "I don't know what to do."
 
s a m u e l

Samuel's heart dropped when Roman just broke down. Samuel couldn't relate to Eden at all, not in terms of the anger at least. He had been an emotional kid who cried a lot and was scared and nervous a lot of the times, just like Eden were, but he never had those kind of angry outbursts, he never hurt anyone ever. He was the one who'd run of in fear. So he didn't know what to do and in a way he had hoped that Roman did know, because he knew his husband could relate but he seemed completely lost as well.

Samuel clenched his yaw as he tried to collect himself for a moment, he couldn't really, this situation was so terrible and knowing that Eden was down stairs being upset just made everything worse. They couldn't just cry though, they were Eden's parents and he needed them to guide him through life so they had to figure out something, "I don't know either," Samuel said with a sniffle as he ran his fingers through Roman's hair, "But we have to figure something out okay, for Eden's sake,"

Samuel swallowed hard. This wasn't the first time this happened and it probably wouldn't be the last, so the next time they had to know how to act. They needed to know how and how not to punish him they needed to know how to comfort him without encouraging him and they needed to know how to teach him not to do things like this, "Do you remember how your parent dealt with you when you were angry? Maybe we can call them and ask for help?"
 
r o m a n
“Okay,” Roman mumbled. He figured that was a good place to start. So he picked up his phone and dialled his parents’ house number, all the while keeping his head in his husband’s lap and sniffling because he couldn’t stop the sadness he was feeling.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mum, it’s Roman.”

“Oh, hello, sweetie. Are you okay? You sound upset.”

“Yeah, something’s happened, Mum.” And so Roman filled in his mother with all the details of what had happened that day, as well as descriptions of past similar incidents and informed her of just the general helplessness of what he and his husband were feeling. “I just don’t know what to do, Mum. But because I was similar when I was a kid we were hoping that you’d have some idea of how to handle it?”

“Well, you were quite similar to the descriptions of Eden you’re giving, that’s very true. When you were little and you acted like that the most we could do was put you in your room and try to calm you down. But if you ever hurt anyone you were left alone with no toys or anything like that as a punishment. Keep in mind we had to handle you carefully because of your haemophilia and you could often be prone to hurting yourself so even if you had hurt someone else, if you were in a real rage we would have to keep an eye on you. But Eden is obviously a little more placid.”
 
s a m u e l

Samuel kept gently petting Roman's hair as he explained the situation to Ingrid and then he listened carefully to every word his husband's mother was saying. He was happy to hear they had at least acted in the way she described today.

"Mm, When we left him in his room now and when it has happened before he just kind of lays there until he feels better so he's not really a danger to himself in that way," Samuel pointed out, he sounded about as upset as his husband, but his mother-in-law was one of the kindest people on earth so he didn't mind. Her words scared him a little though. Eden obviously wasn't a haemophiliac so lashing out didn't come with the same kind of risks it had done for Roman, but not being able to control yourself at all when you became angry still sounded kind of dangerous, especially for a young kid like Eden.

"We kind of did what you said, so he'll probably be fine," Samuel said, not sounding completely sure, it was hard to feel sure until he saw Eden okay again with his own eyes, "But it just feel so cruel to punish him for something he can't even control? Do you think it would be okay to maybe just let him have his kitty or doggy teddy next time," Ingrid would know which toys it were since Eden had dragged them with him everywhere since he was a little baby, "They are more for comfort than play so maybe that would be alright?" Samuel really wasn't sure and Ingrid had years of experience so he wasn't going to pass up on asking now that they were already talking about the subject.
 
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“Well, maybe if you have them near him where he can see but not where he can reach, that would be okay,” Ingrid suggested. “Because even if he doesn’t particularly play with them they’re still a positive thing that he likes and he needs to understand he’s doing the wrong thing.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking as well,” Roman said. Then, he said in a whimpering tone, “He was so angry, Mum, it was scary. I felt like such a bad father.”

“Roman, do you think I’m a bad mother? Do you think your dad is a bad father?”

“Wh — of course not, you’re —”

“Well, you’re not handling the situation any differently than Stellan and I did, so there’s no way you’re a bad father.”

Despite being a fully grown adult, Roman found that reassurance from his mother really did help. It made him feel like he was doing the right thing. “Thanks, Mum, that means a lot.”

“You’re welcome, darling. Now, I’m meant to meet your dad at the golf club soon so I’d better get going, is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, you’ve helped so much already. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetie.”

Roman hung up the phone and set it on the bed. Then he sat back and let out a deep sigh. “Do you think it’s been long enough?”
 
s a m u e l

"Yeah probably?"
Much time hadn't even really passed but he had a feeling that Eden would have felt like it was very long anyways, and it wasn't like they could just neglect him either so they needed to at least check on him, "I don't want to leave him alone for much longer at least, he's so still little,"

Samuel stood and helped his husband up on his feet and together they ventured back into Eden's room. The little boy was in the same position they had left him, curled up in the corner of the crib. It was such a heartbreaking sight and no matter what Ingrid had said he couldn't help but feel like a really terrible parent. But they had done the right thing, hopefully, Eden would be able to learn at least a little from this.

"Hey Edie, it's just Daddy and Papa," Samuel said very softly. At first, it seemed like Eden wasn't going to care, but then he slowly rolled around, sat and reached out his little hands, requesting to be held. Samuel picked him up, because the want for physical affection was definitely a sign that he had calmed down.

"I'm sowwy," Eden said weakly as he held his papa close, his apology was clearly very sincere, which was good.

"That's good Edie, we accept your apology," Samuel responded in the way they were teaching their children to respond, "But it wasn't us you hurt, it was that boy in the park and we don't know him so you should have told him that in the park,"

Eden was quiet for a moment, then he let out a small sniffle and Samuel felt terrible for having caused the reaction, "But I'm sowwy,"
 
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“We know, sweetie,” Roman murmured. He was standing next to Samuel and rubbing Eden on the back. He had stopped crying but his voice was hoarse and he felt like complete shit. But, he knew they had done the right thing in appropriately disciplining their child and therefore he stopped himself from feeling too guilty.

“But I’m sure the boy will feel better soon and what matters the most for you is making sure you don’t do anything like that ever again.” Of course it was impossible to tell if Eden would act like this again in the future but God, Roman hoped he didn’t.

“So because you did the wrong thing you won’t be able to play with your sisters and Harper for the rest of the night, and you’ll be going to bed early, but you can have your doggy and kitty back. Okay?”
 
s a m u e l

"Okay,"
Eden said in his normal sweet tone, the only difference with how it normally was was possibly that it sounded a little more tired than usual. Samuel kissed the top of the little boy's head, placed him back in the crib and located his Kitty and Doggy, and gave them to him. Immediately Eden hugged them close, clearly having them taken away from him completely was a very scary thing for him.

"Do you want to tell us what happened now that you feel a little calmer?" Samuel asked softly, he felt it was important that they got to hear his side of the story as well, if they could understand the reason why this happened, aside from Eden clearly having a hard time controlling his anger, they could maybe prevent a similar situation in the future. The little boy shrugged and nodded but said nothing more, so Samuel figured questions would be the way to go, "Why did you get angry?"

"cos I play wif Stella not he," Eden said almost stubbornly, but looking up at his dads in a way that was almost pleading to be understood.

"But Eden, you could all play together," Samuel said, it wasn't good for Eden to be possessive of his twin so he needed to learn he couldn't get mad every time Stella played with someone else, "Did you think Stella would forget about you?" Eden shrugged, thought about it then shook his little head, "Then why couldn't you play with the other boy,"

Eden looked down on his Kitty and Doggy and then mumbled, "scawy," and obviously the little boy hadn't been scary, and had the boy attempted to scare Eden Stella wouldn't have had it, so the only think Eden could mean by that was, "Edie did you feel nervous because you didn't know him?" Eden nodded. It all kind of made sense now, the little boy must have started to play with them, Eden got nervous and started to get overwhelmed, Stella would have tried to include him which would have made it worse, until he just exploded. It made sense but it was still very, very concerning.
 
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It was relieving to find a cause of the problem, because that meant they could possibly control for other incidents like this one in the future. But the problem that was revealed was actually quite concerning. Roman had never noticed Eden having a fear of meeting new people before, but then again they couldn’t be with their son every moment of the day and it could easily have manifested when he was at day care or in the care of someone else.

“But Edie, you have to meet new people all the time,” Roman said softly. “I know it’s scary but it’s something that is a part of life. But we understand why it can be overwhelming for you.”

Roman wasn’t shy but he knew Samuel was so it made him comforted a little to know that Eden had at least one parent who was able to understand how he was feeling. That meant that he would always have someone to talk to.

“Next time that happens you come and talk to us about how you’re feeling, alright?”
 
s a m u e l

"Okay,"
Eden said again, he looked relieved now, happy that he had been able to tell his dads what was wrong.

"We always want to know what is bothering you okay?" Samuel said gently and reached out to gently stroke Eden's soft curls, "So if you feel that overwhelmed and angry again, just come to us and we can talk about it,"

Eden nodded and Samuel smiled at him and sweetly added, "Thank you for listening sweetie, and thank you for telling us what was wrong," Even if Eden had done one very horrible thing he had also done many things right today and it was important that he knew that. They couldn't just ignore that because they had to punish him, then they would achieve the opposite thing from what they wanted, "We love you so much Eden,"

"Love you too," Eden replied sweetly, because that was what he was like most of the time. The sweetest little child ever, gentle and caring. And Samuel hoped that that would stay with him even if he would continued to have issues controlling his anger. He was such a lovely child and deserved better than to feel the way he did, but things would be okay. Samuel could understand his shyness, Roman could understand his anger, and they loved him unconditionally and were prepare to help him learn no matter what.
 
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“Hey, Roman!”

“Oh, God.”

Roman looked up in dread as Oksana hurried up to him. He was at school in Samuel’s staff room, sitting on his desk with his phone in his hand. He was only here to wait for his husband to get back from class so he could take him out for lunch since he finished early that day. He hadn’t wanted anything like this to occur.

Oksana looked lovely, of course. She wore a ruby red, high-necked dress that flared out at the waist and accentuated her curves nicely, along with black flats, and she had her hair hanging in tousled waves to her waist. Her makeup was mostly simple but she had added a red lip to compliment her dress. She was a stunning woman, but that didn’t change the look of exasperation Roman gave her when she came to sit on the desk beside him.

She didn’t seem to notice the look either. She handed him a large book — a study on Hans Selye’s work on stress. The topic they had discussed that day on the oval. It was actually quite a nice sentiment, which made Roman even more conflicted. Because despite everything he still wanted to preserve her feelings.

“Oh, um, thanks Oksana, but I’m reading other things at the moment so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to give it back.”

“Oh no you don’t have to give it back, it’s a gift.” Oksana opened the book to see where she had written a little inscription, saying how excited she was to hear his thoughts on it. “See? I hope you like it, I really do, and ... and I hope we can talk about it?” She looked up at him with that purely adoring expression and Roman’s stomach churned, because he was about to break her heart.
 
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Samuel was very excited to get off work that day as he was going out with Roman for a nice lunch date before they picked up the kids. He knew Roman would be waiting in the office and hurried from his final class to get there. He entered the room but stopped when he saw Oksana next to Roman. At first he was absolutely terrified because he thought he was witnessing something akin to what had happened with Bronte. But just moments later he realised that wasn't the case. Roman's expression wasn't a happy one and he had been completely transparent about this entire situation. Samuel had nothing to worry about.

But of course, he always did and he was starting to get really tired off it. Oksana clearly wasn't stopping. This had been happening for way too long for her to stop anytime soon. She clearly didn't care that Roman was married and had children, and she clearly didn't care at all about Samuel so at this point he didn't see a reason to spare her feelings. He had had it and was determined that this would end today. If it ended their work relationship as well that was fine, because he wasn't able to have one with her if she kept flirting with Roman every time she saw him anyways.

Samuel stalked up to them, glanced down on the book in Roman's hand, clearly seeing Oksana's handwriting in it. He wasn't sure what was going on entirely, but he still didn't like it at all.

"Oksana," he said, voice firm but not really angry. Samuel still hated confrontation, even when it was with someone so opposite of his father, so he couldn't sound entirely angry. But he was. He was angry and he wanted Oksana to just fucking stop already, "What are you doing?" he said, giving her a chance to maybe have the decency to explain herself and apologize by herself.
 
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Oksana jumped when she heard Samuel’s voice and looked up at him like a deer caught in headlights as she was confronted by the husband of the man she was flirting with. Roman wanted to know what was going on in her head. He wanted to know how she could possibly excuse what she was doing. She may not have been a bad person but that didn’t change the fact that she was knowingly flirting with a married man.

“Oh — I was just giving Roman a book,” she said, pointing to the book in Roman’s hand. “On Hans Selye’s work on stress. I thought he could read it and we could talk about it, it’s a —”

“Oksana,” Roman interrupted with an exasperated sigh. Oksana gave him a nervous look. “I’m sorry, but do you think we don’t know what you’re trying to do?”

He gave her a tired look and she visibly deflated. She bit her lip and looked at him with that same nervous look as he spoke. “I’m married, Oksana, I have four children. Nothing is going to happen between us. You’re a smart girl, you know that. You know that, right?”

“I ... I know.” Oksana’s voice was a mumble. Her head was hung in shame. “I ... I’m sorry, I just ... I thought you would like it and ...”