[Samuel x Roman]

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Samuel couldn't stop himself from letting out a soft chuckle as Letha seemed to know the exact reason why Harper so badly wanted to see something with Helena Bonham Carter, but he kept himself from outright laughing because he didn't want to make Harper self-conscious. Samuel had never really heard or seen Harper interested in anyone this way before, and if this was something akin to a first crush, even though it was on a celebrity who now was in her seventies, he shouldn't have to feel ashamed because of it. And it was very sweet.

"Isn't she like oooooold now," Stella asked, poking more fun at her brother. Unless they took it too far they usually just let the kids tease and play, if everyone was having fun it didn't have to be an issue. But this time Samuel wanted to make sure Harper didn't have to be too embarrassed, even though him denying it was a little amusing.

"We'll yeah but she's still a lovely lady and a good actress," Samuel said with a little nod, "And she looks very lovely in this movie, isn't that right Harper," he was teasing just a little bit, but also trying to encourage his son to express himself, if he liked an actress or an actor or whatever, he should be allowed to express that without only being made fun of.
 
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Harper's cheeks were burning and he wanted to just sink into his beanbag and disappear. Ugh. Why were they all making fun of him? He was allowed to think that Helena was pretty, even if she was a lot older now. He wanted to leave the room, actually, it was really quite embarrassing.

"Stooop," Harper whined half-heartedly. He sank back into his beanbag with his arms crossed and tried to watch the movie.

"Oooooh, Harper's got a cruuuuush, he's got a --"

Harper let out a frustrated scream and stood up. He then proceeded to stomp out of the living room, up the stairs and then into his bedroom, where he slammed the door shut and climbed onto his bed. He buried his face in his pillow, but he could still feel his cheeks burning.
 
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A stunned silence followed Harper's frustrated departure from the room. It was clear that no one had thought the teasing would cause Harper to feel bad or that embarrassed but apparently it had. Samuel paused the movie and no one said anything for a moment. Samuel exchanged a quick look with Roman as if to ask what to do but before any of them could say anything Eden spoke.

"great," he said, sounding a little annoyed, and glared at the others in the room, mainly Stella Letha and Samuel. At that, Samuel let out a small sigh. They had pushed things too far it seemed and he felt a little guilty. He really had been trying to encourage Harper on top of it, but he had failed. He liked to think that he was a good parent, but even good parents with good intentions failed sometimes. But even if he had accidentally embarrassed Harper in a very non-fun way he was planning on righting that wrong.

"I'll go talk with him," he said and stood up, "you guys could maybe go grab a snack? I'm sure Harper will want to finish the movie,"

And so, Samuel headed up to the second floor. He knocked on Harper's door and at the same time went, "knock, knock," gently and entered without being told it was okay, exactly like how his mother had done when he was growing up. He closed the door behind him and headed over to the bed, opting not to sit down yet, "Harper, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to embarrass you, can we talk about it?"
 
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Harper crossed his arms over his chest indignantly but turned to face his papa as he came into the room. He glared at his parent while he spoke. He was well aware he was acting a bit like a bratty child, but he was embarrassed and angry at his family for making fun of him so he didn't really care.

"Well, you did," Harper said grumpily. All he had wanted to do was watch a nice movie with his family that had an actress he really liked in it. He knew they hadn't meant badly, but that didn't change how it had actually made him feel.

"I know you didn't mean to embarrass me but like Stella and Letha had already started and you just made them feel like it was an okay thing to do," Harper said.
 
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"yeah, I guess I did," Samuel sighed, he wasn't going to deny what Harper was accusing him for because it was true. It made him feel really guilty that he had made his son feel like that but it was what it was, "I really didn't intend for it that way. Like, I was maybe teasing you a little bit, but I was trying to motivate the reason you might like her so you would know it was okay as well... But I don't think it came across that way so I'm sorry,"

At this point he went to sit down on the edge of Harper's bed. He hadn't been directly invited to but since Harper was willing to talk he figured it would be okay.

"For me as a parent it's just fun too see you really like an actress like that," he was very purposefully not using the word crush so Harper didn't have to feel embarrassed again, "It reminds me of when I was your age and felt the same way about the actors I liked. But I wouldn't have wanted to be teased about that either. And I can't really imagine how it is with siblings.You're the oldest so you're going to be experience all new things first, and that's not always fair, but that's how it is. And you're siblings are younger, you know, they'll tease now but you'll see that in a couple of years they'll all mimic you, and if anything you can playfully tease them then." He shot Harper a small smile, he didn't want to encourage the kids to make each other feel bad, but Harper was a smart boy, he knew he meant that the teasing had to stop when the person wasn't on board anymore, and he'd probably be around fourteen at that point so then he might not even care.
 
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Harper sighed. He knew his papa was right, in a way, that as the oldest he was always going to be the one to experience things like this first out of all of his siblings. He didn't really like it -- he thought it was kind of unfair, actually -- but there was no use in complaining about it because it wasn't something that could be changed. It was just how it was.

"I know they didn't mean to upset me either but they don't know when to stop sometimes," Harper mumbled. "I'm often the one who just gets teased and has to take it, like, I don't really argue back or anything because I know they're younger and they're not doing it to be mean. And I'm the oldest so I have to be mature about it. But I don't like it. I wish I wasn't the oldest."

Of course, that wasn't something anyone had any control over but he couldn't help but think. He just really didn't like being the eldest child sometimes. "I love all my siblings but I think sometimes things aren't fair, which isn't anyone's fault, I'm just trying to let you know how I feel."
 
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"Yeah I know, thank you for telling me, Harper," Samuel said, it made him a little sad to know Harper felt this way but it was like he said, they couldn't do anything about it. Except possibly help Harper be as comfortable as possible with the situation.

It was tricky though, kids teased, that was a part of growing up with siblings and Samuel didn't want the other siblings to feel bad about that either. Or feel like they couldn't act however they did with the others with Harper which could make Harper feel left out in the end.

"You know you can tell them to stop, right?" Samuel said finally, "I know it might not be that easy all the time, but just because you're the oldest doesn't mean you have to take a bunch of shit you don't want to. I'm glad you are mature about a lot of things, it makes things easier for me and Daddy. But you're still a kid, you're allowed to be a kid, and even adults shouldn't always have to stick things out. So if they take things to far sometime and you don't feel like saying it, maybe you could give me and daddy a sign and we'll make sure everyone lays off, okay?"
 
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That actually sounded like a sensible solution to the problem. Harper never wanted to make any problems for his parents so he quite often just put up with it when his siblings were annoying him. He had never stopped to really think about it and realise that that was not something he had to do all of the time.

"That's a really good idea, actually." Harper wouldn't have a problem with going up to Daddy or Papa if he was getting sick of things. He felt close enough to the both of them to do that and so hopefully if he ever found himself in that tight situation again he would be able to stop it before it escalated. "I'll be sure to do that in the future, Papa, I promise."

Harper didn't like fighting with his siblings. It made him feel uncomfortable. "How should I say sorry to the others, do you think?"
 
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"If you feel like you want to, just tell them you're sorry for storming off or making them worry, but I don't think you really did anything wrong," Samuel assured Harper. Really Harper had just left because the other kids had made him uncomfortable, that was nothing to apologize for and he didn't want Harper to feel like he always had to apologize. It was good that he felt like he could do it, but it wasn't good if he started to ask for forgiveness when he hadn't done things wrong. But Harper was smart and Samuel felt like he knew that, so he wasn't going to stop him from doing it completely either.

Samuel gently reached out and gave Harper's hair a gently and affectionate little ruffle, to tell him things were okay and added, "I know they didn't intend to embarrass you too much, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't say sorry too, at least Stella and Letha, Edie actually seemed mad at us for teasing you," he felt like that was good for Harper to know, it meant that even at the moment he hadn't been the only one who didn't like what was going on.

"I guess if you want to, you could tell them how you feel too, maybe not all details if you don't want to, but you can tell them that this was something you didn't like being teased over,"
 
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"I just wanna tell them how I feel," Harper said. So, he got up and went downstairs with Papa, to where their family were waiting for them in the living room. Harper felt a little embarrassed for acting so immaturely, but he knew he wasn't in the wrong, so he stood behind the couch and addressed everyone in the room.

"Um, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for leaving and being really angry, but I was upset because I felt really embarrassed," he told them. "And I don't like it when you guys all pick on me, it makes me feel bad and I know you're joking a lot but still, I --"

Harper was cut off as Letha, who had obviously been crying, got up and ran to him with her arms outstretched. Harper, of course, wrapped her in an embrace immediately. "I'm so so sorry, Harper, I didn't mean to make you feel bad, I really didn't, I thought we were just playing."

"Letha ... I know, I'm sorry --"

"You don't need to say sorry. We're in the wrong."
 
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While Samuel was glad to see that Letha could recognize that she had been in the wrong it was always hard to see that one of the kids had been upset enough to cry. She had had her Daddy and her siblings though so he figured she was okay now, though he'd probably talk to Roman about what had been happening downstairs later, just like he would update Roman on what Harper had said to him. Keeping things from each other would just be incredibly unproductive and Samuel knew it was important that they both were informed about what was going on in their children's lives. Unless one of the kids told him to wait with telling Roman something, and it wasn't something that needed to be told he would always tell Roman.

Stella clearly hadn't been crying, but she was curled up on the couch with a sad and worried expression on her face, most likely waiting for an opportunity to apologize to her brother as well. She was clearly one of the people in the family who was less open about her emotions. It worried Samuel a little as he didn't want her to end up being the kind of person that he was when he was younger who bottled up everything until he was miserable. But at least Samuel and Roman did their best to make sure she knew she could tell them, and her siblings, things if she needed.

After a little while of Letha and Harper hugging, she got up. She didn't go in for a hug but instead kind of awkwardly shifted the weight on her feet where she stood and said, "I''m sorry too, Harper, we just always do things like this but I didn't realise it made you feel bad, but we'll stop, I really didn't mean to make you feel bad,"
 
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"Stella, really, it's alright, I know you didn't mean to upset me," Harper told his older sister. He meant it, too. He knew his siblings hadn't meant to harm him, they had just thought that they were playing. Harper appreciated their concern. But at the same time, he had to stand his ground, or else he would end up being quite resentful.

"Harper?" said Daddy. Harper looked over at him. "I just want to say that I'm very proud of you for standing up for yourself like this, for telling us all how you feel. It's really impressive for a boy of your age. You're doing well, so keep it up."

Harper smiled. "Thank you, Daddy," he said. He wished the day hadn't taken this turn, but he couldn't deny that he felt happy knowing that everyone in the room wanted him to feel good. It felt nice to have their support. Even when they had disagreements, they always came together to support one another, and that was just one of the many things Harper loved about his family.
 
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Matilda was unfathomably happy that Elliot had found a job he liked after baseball had been so cruelly ripped away from him by faith. Clearly, theatre was his passion, it would probably never truly replace baseball but she could tell he was happy and that was good. One thing that she did miss about the baseball was that he hadn't been as busy. Sure, he had had his practices that sometimes went overtime and he would have to travel for games occasionally but it wasn't the same as when he was setting up a new stage show. She understood completely why he was busy, but with two kids and her own job to think about it made life a little harder.

Today was one of those days when Elliot was late, and it seemed like it was becoming a bit of a pattern because it had been happening more frequently. Not by much. Being home twenty minutes or so after he had said he'd be home wasn't that big of a deal. But today it was way past twenty minutes. They had had to eat dinner without him, because she didn't want to mess up the kids' sleep schedule, it was an average Tuesday and they had school in the morning. Tilly had work in the morning too and she didn't even want to think about that because she was exhausted.

But she had things to do, like cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner while the kids played for a last half an hour or so before they headed off to bed, Elliot didn't always help with things like that, because he was just genuinely bad at house chores, but the days when she was tired he would help and if anything it would at least keep her company and put a smile on her face. But right now, he just wasn't there.
 
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That night, Elliot was a whole hour and a half late.

It had not been intentional, of course. He was in the process of preparing for a new stage play, a massive production of Les Miserables that was really a huge deal. Over the past few years he had worked up his reputation enough that he was the first choice to direct Les Mis in Melbourne for the first time in decades. Elliot was unbelievably proud of himself.

But that meant he had to take a lot of his personal time to work on the production. Today, he had been running through a massive scene with a good chunk of the cast, working with the musical director and the choreographer to perfect one of the major numbers. It had taken a while and so inevitably Elliot had had to stay back.

But an hour and a half was a bit ridiculous. He came into the house looking physically exhausted, with huge dark circles under his eyes and messy hair due to running his hand through it a million times. He walked into the house, set his bag on an armchair, gave both of his children a kiss to the top of the head, and then walked in to find his wife in the kitchen.

Without saying anything, he wrapped her in a hug. "I am so, so sorry."
 
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The moment Yilly heard the front door opening and closing she felt a sense of relief. It wasn't like she had thought he wouldn't ever come home but it was nice to know he was there. And before she knew it she was wrapped into one of his amazing hugs. She leaned into it and closed her eyes for a moment, "It's okay, I know you're busy right now, don't worry," she said softly.

After a moment or two of just enjoying her husband being home, she leaned back and gave his face a proper look. He looked more tired than she felt and she almost felt a little guilty for complaining so much in her head about him not being home. He was tired too and he was working on such a huge project, she knew that was probably more exhausting than taking care of the kids by herself.

"I put some food aside for you, I wasn't sure when you'd be home so I put it in the fridge so you'll have to heat it up," She reached her hands up and motioned for him to bend down, wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a little peck on the lips, "You can keep me company while I clean up the kitchen,"
 
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"No, I'll help you clean up a bit and then I'll eat," Elliot told his wife earnestly. Elliot was pretty bad at chores in general, he just always seemed to mess them up somehow, but he tried to do as much as he could because he didn't want to enforce gender stereotypes onto his wife. He was a raging feminist, he always had been, and he wholeheartedly believed that men being useless at household chores was ridiculous. So, he was always trying to improve himself so he could relieve his wife of the chores whenever he could.

He was still pretty bad, though.

But one thing he actually could do pretty well was wipe down the benches and make them crystal clean, so he got the cloth and spray out of the cabinet under the sink and began to clean their surfaces diligently. "How was your day?" he asked Matilda as he did so. He felt bad he hadn't seen her since that morning and therefore hadn't been able to talk to her or make her feel special. But he was determined to make that up to her now.
 
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Tilly smiled at Elliot's near-instant want to help instead of sitting down and relax. He was a really selfless person, which was proof that him coming home late definitely was something he had intended. She almost wanted to tell him to just sit down and eat, that she didn't need the help. But honestly, getting some help with it would be nice so she let him.

She went right back to scrubbing the pots she had used for their meal. She was a little sad Elliot wouldn't get to eat with the kids, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She'd maybe even have to put them to bed when Elliot was eating to get them in bed in time. They were old enough to get ready for bed by themselves but also young enough to get distracted and need reminders.

"It's been okay, a little stressful," She said with a small sigh, "we had this big batch of cupcakes to make for an event today, a lot of intricate sugar flowers you know, it took a while and got pretty stressful. I don't get why people would want something like that for anything else but a wedding really, but I suppose they were kind of fun to make without having to fuss about them matching the cake. How was yours? Is the production coming along well?"
 
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Elliot actually made sure to listen attentively to Matilda's story about her day. He always did that -- he wasn't the kind of person to just pretend to listen to his wife and then not absorb anything she said. He quietly reflected on how amazing it was that both he and Matilda got to actually pursue careers they thoroughly enjoyed while still having good social and home lives, before he sighed a little as he was asked about his own day.

"It was incredibly stressful," he said. As he thought about his day he just began to feel more tired than before. "First the choreographer was running late, and then a piece of the set randomly broke, and then Jean Valjean's coat was torn, so we had to fix all that shit, and then the actress who plays Fantine got a call saying her daughter had broken her arm, so she had to leave, and, ugh ..."

Elliot trailed off and rubbed his forehead a little. He had a headache, and he was tired, but still ... "It's really stressful, but I'm so unbelievably lucky to have been given this opportunity so I feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by complaining about it? What do you think?"
 
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"I don't think you're doing anything wrong by complaining," Matilda said. Elliot had clearly had a stressful day, just because he loved his job and had gotten such a great opportunity didn't mean he couldn't complain about the stress, "I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't like hearing it, not from any of us since we aren't stuck in an office or flipping burgers at maccas, but our jobs are still jobs too, and most people complain about their jobs, even if they're your dreams,"

She put the final pot away, washed her hands and leaned in to rest her forehead against Elliot's chest, to give him some comfort and because she was tired.

"Work is still work, you know, it doesn't matter how amazing it is it will still get stressful," she continued softly,"I think we just have to focus on the fact that at least we both do something we love. Which means that all the stress will ensure an accomplishing end result. Which can be an actual amazing production of Les Miserables, or a really snazzy looking cupcake," Matilda let out a small giggle, finally feeling a little more relaxed, still tired, just not as stressed now that Elliot was home.
 
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Elliot immediately folded his adorable wife into a warm embrace and held her close. He listened to her attentively and smiled at her logical reasoning and adorable giggle. God, he loved Matilda so much. Obviously he had to, since they were married and all, but he knew his love for her was sincere because absolutely everything she did brought warmth and happiness to his life, his mind and his heart.

"You're the sweetest ever, you know, right?" he asked her. That was incredibly true. Elliot didn't think he had ever met someone as kind-hearted and as pure as Matilda. Everything about her screamed wholesome and delightful. Elliot felt so lucky to be married to her.

He didn't know what he would do without Matilda, honestly. Not only did she bring him light and happiness, but she had also blessed him with two amazing and beautiful children, not to mention the fact that she had helped him create a warm and inviting home for those children where they could thrive. It was a cliche, but Elliot Darter truly believed that he was the happiest man alive.

And he owed most of that, if not all, to his gorgeous and perfect wife, Matilda.
 
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