[Samuel x Roman]

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"You are not going to be eaten by mosquitos, I brought mosquito repellant," Samuel said and patted his whiny husband's arm a little and then detangled himself from his grip to continue putting up the tent.

Camping was really nothing but fun in Samuel's opinion, fresh air, pretty nature and time with the family was just a lovely combination of things to do. Roman, unsurprisingly, didn't seem to share the opinion completely. Samuel wished he would chill it a little with the child-like whining so the actual children wouldn't start to emulate him. Though save for being a little tired most of them seemed positive overall to the idea.

"Harper, can you help me hold this up?" Samuel requested of his eldest son, and then focused on getting things done with the tent for a moment. It took a while and everyone's, including Roman's because his height came in handy, help but soon enough the tent was pitched. It was a big one, fit for a family of six, with a vestibule area where they could store the things they didn't want in the car. They weren't done yet though and Samuel went to the car to go get an air mattress and an electric pump. As much as he loved camping he wasn't going to ignore modern commodities if needed, and the air mattress they had was one of those really thick fancy ones and you couldn't even blow it up without any kind of pump because of the way it was made. They had gotten this one specifically because Roman really shouldn't be sleeping on the hard ground as he would risk bruising, so a thin cheap mattress that leaked all air during the night wouldn't do.

"See, this one will make sleeping just as nice at home, you literally have nothing to complain about," Samuel chuckled and nudged his husband a little as he watched the mattress fill up with air. they had allowed the kids to bring pillows and they all had sleeping bags so Samuel was sure it would be really cosy once they were done.
 
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As much as Roman liked complaining and being a drama queen, he knew that camping was going to be fun, especially since he was with his family. And besides, his husband had gone to all these extra lengths to ensure he was as comfortable as he possibly could be, and Roman wasn't about to negate that fact. So, he decided to stop whining about it.

Though, if he got bitten by anything, he was jumping right back into the car.

"Thank you, sweetie," Roman said with a soft smile, giving his husband a kiss to the cheek as he inflated the mattress. He then decided to make himself useful and take the kids to search for adequate wood they could use to build a fire. After a while of searching, Roman and the four kids came back with a large pile of timber, and Roman began to arrange some of the sticks and logs into a suitable position for a nice blaze.

"You know what's next, guys? We have to go hunt for our food and scavenge under logs for beetles like Simba in The Lion King."

"Ewwww, really?"

"Absolutely." Letha squealed in disgust and Roman winked up at Samuel mischievously, glad to have gotten the reaction he had wanted out of one of his children.
 
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"What are we actually gonna eat?" Stella asked, there was still a grin on her face after her Daddy's joking around.

"Did you not hear your dad? We're having bugs, Hakuna Matata," Samuel laughed but headed over to the car to get the food they were actually going to eat. The things that needed to be kept cold was in a freezer bag and the things that weren't for this meal Samuel went to place in the tent since it definitely wouldn't be cooler in the car.

He collected the ingredients they needed for this meal, and decided to be nice and tell the kids what they were having, "we're grilling hot dogs, aaaaand--" Samuel held up a bag of marshmallows, "marshmallows for dessert!" it wasn't the fanciest of meals, but it was the most fun to grill so he had figured the kid would enjoy it.

"are the marshmallows vegetarian?" Eden asked, eyes wide and excited about the idea of grilling them, but still a little hesitant in case he wouldn't want to eat them. He had found out a lot of candy contained gelatine and that gelatine was made from animals a while back so now they were on a constant hunt for vegetarian and vegan candy so all kids would get the same thing.

"Of course," Samuel said with a smile, then turned to Roman at the fireplace with an amused smile, "How's that fire going? Are you going to show off your cool outdoors skills and light it? "
 
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"Heck yeah I am," Roman said. He threw some old papers onto the fire that they had brought for this specific reason -- seriously, Roman had brought a whole bag of old spare papers that had just been laying around. He then pulled a cigarette lighter out of his pocket, again, one he had purchased just for this camping trip, and a separate piece of paper in his hand. And then, he used that flame to ignite other pieces of paper, the flames of which in turn began to lick up the branches and other pieces of timber.

"And we have ignition!" Roman said dramatically, throwing the piece of paper onto the fire. Harper and Letha cheered. Roman then went to the tent to pull out the roasting sticks he had purchased. He knew that part of the fun was just finding a good ol' stick in nature and using it to roast your food, but Roman thought that was gross and thus he had bought three two-pronged sticks they could use to grill their hot dogs. He would let the kids use sticks for their marshmallows, but he would silently judge them when they did.

"Alrighty," Roman said as he loaded two of the tools with regular beef hot dogs and one with veggie dogs. "Who wants to help me grill up dinner? And do we all agree to roast Papa over the fire if he snores too much?"
 
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"I do," Eden said and calmly headed over to help is Daddy grill the hot dogs.

"I mostly just want to roast Papa on the fire when he snores," Stella chuckled but joined the others by the fire. Samuel did the same, despite all the accusations of him snoring.

"I have no idea where all of this silly talk about me snoring is coming from, I don't snore, I've never snored in my life," Samuel insisted and set up his own hot dog on one of the sticks Roman had bought, opting for a veggie one even though he had to admit that veggie dogs did taste a little like cardboard sometimes.

"That's what you think, you haven't heard yourself sleep,"

"Wow, missy, how do you know it isn't Daddy snoring? He sleeps like rock, he's much more likely to be doing the snoring," Samuel continued to defend himself but also reached out to give Roman a little nudge as he turned it all over on him.
 
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"Gasp! How dare you! I am too pretty to snore." Roman stuck the pronged utensil into the fire, and began to grill the hot dogs he had slid upon it.

"Are you saying Papa isn't as pretty as you?" Letha asked. She had elected to just sit and watch while the others grilled, which was probably for the best since she was very little and Roman didn't want her to accidentally burn herself.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"Wow, Papa, are you going to take that?" Harper asked his other parent. They were all very clearly joking but still, it was fun to just playfully goad one another like this. Roman was grateful he had this kind of gentle and fun-loving relationship with his family members. God, he adored them all so much.
 
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Samuel couldn't help but chuckle a little at Roman and the kid's back and forth, which wasn't the reaction you should have when being informed you weren't as pretty as your husband and egged on by your children. But It was all silly fun and he loved them.

"Nah, listen kids, you don't ever need the validation of some random girl or boy, the most important part is that you feel the prettiest," Samuel said, jokingly spewing out a very true moral he actually did want his children to know.

"So Daddy is just some random guy?" Stella asked, laugh in her voice.

"Exactly!" Samuel grinned, "At least until I need help figuring out if these sausages are done," he added, looking at the hot dogs almost suspiciously, one side was looking a little black, but that was probably just the smoke and the fire, they weren't actually burnt or anything. probably. Was he holding them too close to the fire?
 
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"Wow, maybe I shouldn't help you, you're being very mean," Roman noted with a small but playful frown. Nevertheless, he leaned over to check the sausages Samuel was holding, before gently guiding his elbow so the food was further in the fire. "I mean, you've improved at cooking, but, like, don't quit your day job."

Soon, everyone had their hot dogs in buns with their desired toppings, and they were sitting around the fire to eat them. It was dark by this point, and therefore cold, so they were all huddled in blankets and extra jackets and the four kids were all sitting quite close for warmth. Roman was also leaning against a tree stump with his husband held close, but not so much for warmth as just for comfort and affection.

"You know, maybe camping isn't so bad. Maybe we should all quit our jobs or drop out of school and come out here to live in the forest like mountain men. And women, of course. And we can hunt and scavenge for our food and develop a deep emotional and spiritual connection to the land that will result in us being reincarnated as fluffy forest animals in our next lives, and --"

"Dad, you're being dumb."

"Right, you're moving in with Uncle Brooklyn."
 
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"We were talking a little about that in one of our classes, it was pretty cool," Eden said, obviously not in reference to Harper staying at Brooklyn's but it did sound the way so Samuel couldn't help but make a good-natured joke about it.

"About sending Harper to Brooklyn? I might have said during a lesson or two, but not recently," Samuel said playing up his confusion a little. Stella snorted at it and gave Harper a little shove, mumbling something at him about having to spend the rest of his life with uncle Brooklyn.

"No but like the reincarnation stuff," Eden said and took a tentative bite of his veggie dog, "Like, it's fun to think that people might have been animals before , ya know?" he added while chewing and accompanied his statement with a little shrug. He seemed a little uncertain about saying something spiritual like that and Samuel wasn't sure if he just thought it was a fun idea or if it was something he was considering believing in. He supposed the kids were getting to that age where they were thinking more independently and not just accepting everything their parents had taught them as fact. He definitely wasn't about to discourage it though.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun, what animal do you think you would have been?" He asked happily.

"Mmm I dunno, but you would have totally been a dog or something," Eden decided and Samuel laughed a little.

"Yeah I could see that, You know what Daddy would have been? A lazy house cat. Like Garfield." Samuel smiled and gave Roman a little nudge.
 
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Harper was clearly a little bashful about being teased, but Roman wasn't really paying attention, because the topic of conversation had shifted to spirituality. He didn't show it on his face, but he didn't like this at all. Religion, as Samuel very well knew, was just something that Roman couldn't like, no matter how hard he tried.

Roman was the type of person to exhaustively fight for other people's rights. Therefore, he believed in everyone's rights to worship the religion they wanted, because it was a fundamental aspect of equality. However, he simply didn't think he was capable of having a long-term friendship with someone who was devoutly religious, due to the prejudices many religious people had. If he met someone who consistently worshipped but had no qualms with human equality, it would be a different story.

But Roman had never met anyone like that before.

And now, his own son was expressing religious beliefs and sounding appreciative of them. Roman wasn't stupid -- he knew there was a difference between actually being faithful to something and just appreciating aspects. But this was something Roman had known could be coming for a while, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it.

He wasn't about to tell Eden off or discourage him, because Roman wasn't like that. But he didn't want to continue the conversation either.

"I think I'll go make the beds," Roman said, finishing his hot dog and then standing up. He climbed into the tent and started to do exactly what he had just said he would be doing, but while he did so, he wished things didn't work out in the way he was suspecting they were doing.
 
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There was a small moment of silence when Roman stood and left. Edie stopped eating his food and glanced down at the ground a little. They were all old enough to kin of realize why their dad had left, he was uncomfortable. But the knowledge as to why Roman had left was also cause for the slightly rejected expression on Eden's face.

"He just doesn't want to admit he was Garfield in another life," Samuel tried, it caused Stella to let out a chuckle and Eden to at least smile a little. Samuel then finished of his of food, dusted of his hands from any crumbs and stood, "I'm going to go help daddy with the beds," the kids would know that was code for 'I'm going to talk to daddy'

"Harper's in charge, and he'll help you grill the marshmallows, yeah?" he finished and after getting confirmation he headed over to the tent and climbed inside to indeed find Roman making the beds. Someone who didn't know him might think the rest of the family was just reading into it too much and he really was just making the beds, but with knowing Roman's view of religion and just the way he reacted to things in general, that wasn't the case.

"Roman," Samuel said, voice hushed to avoid the kids overhearing. It was also almost stern. He didn't sound angry, because he wasn't, he was more frustrated than anything. And sad knowing that one of his children was sad, "what was that?"
 
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The second he left his family and started thinking about what he had actually said, Roman regretted it. He had left because he genuinely had wanted to avoid an argument and upsetting Eden, but now that he thought about it, he had been very immature and he had probably hurt Eden anyway.

This was affirmed by Samuel's slightly stern tone when he entered the tent. Roman sighed and stopped the making of Stella's bed, leaning back on his heels and pushing a hand through his hair.

"I don't know," Roman said honestly. He had a feeling that nothing he said was going to go down well, considering he had upset his son. But he wasn't going to lie either. He needed to be honest with his husband, as that was quintessential to the trust they needed to have between them.

"I just ... I knew for ages there would be a time where they would start to want to look into religion. But I still wasn't ready for it." Roman crawled over to sit next to Samuel. "And I know he was just talking about one aspect of it, not any religion as a whole, and that's why I know I'm being a dumbass. And that it definitely isn't Christianity or whatever. But ... I don't know. It's just something I wasn't ready for. But I know I'm being stupid. Is he okay?"
 
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"you know Eden, he didn't say anything but he seemed sad," Samuel said with a sigh but still but his arm around his husband. He was frustrated with him, but Roman realized that what he had done was wrong, so now they just needed to talk abut how to handle this situation.

"look Roman. I get that religion and spirituality is a tricky subject for you. But you can't act like this with the kids. Unless they are starting to spew a bunch of harmful things as a consequence or start to be a part of organized religion that aren't healthy for them, there is no point discouraging it. If it's a way for any of them to make sense of the world it might even be more healthy than discouraging it. And discouraging it would be just as bad as a religious parent oppressing a kid's differing views," Samuel loved Roman, and he saw where he was coming from with religion, and he was glad none of their friends were religious in the same way Roman was. But despite claiming being accepting, Roman's stubbornness sometimes caused him to be the opposite when it came to religion. You could claim to be accepting of other people's believes all day, but if you had to walk away when one of your children expressed something spiritual you probably weren't as accepting as you thought.

"I don't know i Eden actually believes and was testing the waters or if he just finds it interesting, but because you walked away we don't know and we might not get to know because Eden might not want to tell us. "
 
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Roman wanted nothing more than to be a good parent. It was all he had ever wanted and all he had tried to do since Harper had been born. He had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his own parents and raise his children to be kind, happy, loving and accepting people.

Needless to say, it upset him to know that his righteous and insistent beliefs towards religion were directly opposing everything he had ever hoped to do.

He hadn't meant to give that impression to his kids, or to behave in the same way as the people he despised. But that was what he had done, and therefore, he needed to remedy it immediately. He couldn't continue with his children thinking they couldn't express themselves around him.

"Edie?" Roman called. When Edie came in, Roman immediately pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry for acting the way I did, buddy. I didn't mean to upset you or make you think that what you were talking about was wrong. If you want to talk about reincarnation you can. I was just being an idiot. I love you so much."
 
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Upon hearing Roman's words Eden looked genuinely relieved. Samuel wasn't sure what he really had been thinking, but Eden was a sensitive guy so maybe he had thought Roman was angry with him. Now he just reciprocated the hug with an "I love you too," before getting comfortable sitting between both his dad's for a moment.

"It's not even a big deal, we just talked about some of it in school and I thought the stuff about reincarnation and karma and all that and I thought it sounded interesting, it's not like I'm converting to Hinduism or Buddhism or something," he said, he was also speaking with a slightly hushed voice, presumably not wanting his siblings to hear.

"but we want you to know that if you do want that, then you're more than allowed to explore your options," Samuel assured him "The only thing we don't want is for you to accidentally get involved with something that might be harmful to your or the way you view our family, so it's better if you feel like you can talk to us about it, we don't have to agree on every subject, okay?"

"...Okay," Eden said, almost a little tentatively, not as if he wasn't sure if he could talk to them, but maybe about agreeing, or maybe he was holding some stuff back. Samuel wasn't sure. If there was one of the kids he frequently wondered what they were thinking about it was probably Eden, because it often seemed like he was thinking more than he spoke, "...Can we go roast the marshmallows now?"
 
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If there was ever a time where any of his children genuinely thought that they had to keep something from him, that would be the day he realised he had failed as a parent. All Roman had ever wanted was for his children to be safe and happy, and the latter could not be achieved if they didn't trust their family members. Therefore, Roman knew that he needed to be more mindful when reacting to what his kids told him, even if it didn't make him happy.

"Of course, buddy," Roman said, kissing Eden on the top of the head, before he crawled out of the tent and led his husband and son out to rejoin the rest of their family. They roasted the marshmallows, and that night they all fell asleep in the tent, warm from the fire and the knowledge that they were content.

The next day, everyone was gathered on the shore of the large lake, dressed in their swimsuits and ready for a fun time. Currently, Roman was applying sunscreen to his own pale ass skin, before he pulled the nearest child close to do the same to them.

"Dad! I don't need sunscreen!"

"Harper Alexis, have you looked in the mirror lately? You're pale as heck, and you have freckles. Samuel, tell your son he need sunscreen."
 
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"Harper you need sunscreen or you might actually get really burnt," Samuel said in a somewhat serious tone, as much as joking around about it was fun it was also a serious thing and none of the children were going to spend the day outside without sunscreen

"Haha Harper, you're ginger," Stella teased.

"Stella you need sunscreen too," Samuel was quick to point out, Stella frowned just as fast.

"No I've got good pigmentation," she whined, arms crossed. It wasn't entirely untrue, out of the kids the twins were probably the least likely to be completely fried in the sun, but their goal was to not get burnt at all.

"No pigmentation is good enough to withstand the blazing hot Australian sun, sweetie," Samuel laughed and found a second bottle of sunscreen and pulled his daughter in to apply some on her shoulders where she couldn't reach, she was pretty quick to snatch the bottle, claiming she could do it herself though, Samuel shrugged and went to help one of the kids who wanted to receive it. Soon all of the children were protected from the sun and Samuel turned to Roman, sun screen bottle in and and said, "Roman, love, Will you be a sweetie and help me with my back since i am not silly enough to pretend the sun can't hurt me?"
 
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When all of the kids were nice and protected from the harsh Australian sun, Roman put on his sunglasses and happily turned to assist his husband. "It would be my pleasure, my dear," Roman said with a nice smile, before pulling Samuel down to sit in front of him and proceeding to rub the sunscreen into his tanned skin.

Roman loved Samuel's body. Over the years he had obviously lost a bit of muscle tone, but still, he was absolutely gorgeous and Roman could still feel the firm strength of that powerful body beneath his fingers as he massaged in the sunscreen. Roman would never get tired of sweet and affectionate touches like this. When he finished up, he pressed a kiss to Samuel's shoulder to reiterate the well-known fact that he loved him.

"Ew."

"Shut up, Harper, or I'll throw you in the lake." Roman stood up, helped Samuel to his feet, then nudged Harper to the body of water. "Go make yourself useful and find a mermaid."

"Mermaids aren't real."

Roman blinked, completely silent for a moment, before he began to push Harper towards the water. "Samuel, I'm going to drown Harper, I hope that's okay."
 
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Samuel would be lying if he said he didn't thoroughly enjoy Roman applying the sunscreen. It was always nice to feel his touch like that and the sweet little kiss on the shoulder made him smile a little. The kids seemed to appreciate their affection a little less though, Stella accompanied Harper's ew with one of her own and Eden joined his siblings in making fun of their dads by scrunching his nose a little.

Samuel just chuckled as Roman helped him stand and followed wit han amused smile as Roman and Harper went back and forth. He loved that the family had such a light-hearted and joking relationship with each other sometimes. When a kid needed to be taken seriously, they'd always prioritize that, but when it came to having fun they could all join in on it.

"Well that sounds a little illegal..." Samuel said, thoughtfully approaching the other two, "But denouncing the existence of mermaids is pretty bad too, I think I gotta stick with daddy on this one, sorry Harper," And with that he took a couple of quick steps forward and swooped Harper up over his shoulder and quickened his steps towards the lake. His body wasn't exactly what it used to be in his twenties, and Harper was a teenager so he obviously wasn't someone he could just haul around all the time, but he was far from weak and had no issues throwing Harper into the water once they got there, at that point he stood back and made sure he was okay though, while they both waited for the rest of the family who wanted to join in, to join in.
 
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"Oh my God -- Papa, what are you --!" Harper cut off as he was abruptly thrown in the lake, causing Roman and Letha to laugh. He kicked himself to the surface pretty quickly, spitting out a mouthful of water and glaring up at his papa. "I hate you."

"No you don't." Roman took Letha's hand and proceeded to lead her into the water. She was a big girl now, so he she didn't need her daddy to cart her around everywhere, but Roman still liked to baby her a little. "Hate is a very strong word, one we should only reserve for things like cheese. Cheese is icky."

"You're just weird."

Roman splashed some water into Harper's face, then sat down so most of his body was hidden in the shallow water, and held his arms out to Samuel. "Come and join me and defend me from Harper's wrath, please. Or I'll make you sleep on a water bed in the middle of the lake like in The Parent Trap."
 
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