#clearly to some degree rowan is supposed to be 'cool'

[apollo-cackling]

why do books with magical school settings always insist on making their staff fucking incompetent even when the setting is trying to be cool to live in. teachers never doing anything about bullies/punishing bullies and their victims equally/etc is the most common thing which like. yeah it's accurate but if you're trying to be aspirational like. why

[bedbellyandbeyond]

Sick Day

Long Post, Art At End

“We're home.” The keys jingled gently as Dante opened the door, summoning two little fluff balls yipping to the door. Yori came in after him and happily scooped up the children into his arms. Rowan and Marco quickly turned back to human form and gave him hugs. Dante chuckled. “There's our big boys. Where's Dad and Skylar?” The boys both perked up and looked back down the hall, babbling a bit. Yori put them down and let them turn back to puppies. They bounded off towards the living room.

Dante followed but Yori decided he was going to head to the bedroom. In the living room, Ruben was lying on the couch, dead asleep. The boys jumped up on top of his stomach and curled up. Dante frowned. “Rube,” he said sharply. Ruben groaned awake. “Hmm, what?” “You're supposed to be watching the kids,” Dante said. “I was… I am.” Ruben rubbed his eyes and scooped the boys up to his chest. “We were napping…” “The boys were all over the place,” Dante sighed. “Where's Skylar?” Ruben yawned. “She went down in the bedroom so she's not with the boys.” Dante rubbed his forehead. “She's not feeling any better?” Ruben shook his head. “'Fraid not…” “You'd think Yori's children couldn’t get sick… Well, they are half human… And Skylar's half ‘you' so it's not like she's getting the best,” Dante said. “Hey, immunodeficiency runs in the family…” Ruben huffed. “She's going to be fine though. It's just a cold.” Dante rubbed his nose. “Just thinking about it makes my nose itch…” “We gotta be careful not to catch it ourselves,” Ruben said. “At least there's three of us…” Dante nodded and sat himself down on Ruben's legs. “So… Yori's pregnant again.” Ruben sighed. “Oh god, my nap almost let me forget… So you took him to Vi's doctor… What was that like?” “Frustrating… But that's just because my brother was there…” Dante stated. “It was quick. Not something I'd ever have expected to see in my lifetime, but it was quick.” “So that's it? Yori's pregnant that quick?” “Technically, we're supposed to wait a week to check that it took, but Yori said it worked already so I figure he knows…” “Yori knows his own body better than anyone,” Ruben said. “He could probably read out his own genetic code…” “If he has one,” Dante said picking up Rowan and Marco before lying himself down against Ruben's chest. “We are going to need to buy a lot more cake…” Ruben wrapped his arms around him and started playing with his ear. “Did you and Vi pick out a house yet?” Dante shook his head. “Narrowed it down to a couple places… It's not easy when you need so many rooms.” “And a pool.” “Right.” “Well, we don’t really need six rooms, do we? The triplets will share a room for a while.” “I hate to say it, but they'll be teenagers at some point. They'll probably want their own space.” Ruben winced. “Ugh, why you gotta bring up teenagers? My kids will be little forever… Teenagers suck. And I know because I sucked. And you know because your brother sucked and still does.” “I sucked too…” Dante said. “Insecure, pimply, shut-in…” “At least you weren’t out in the streets, breaking into cars and smoking three packs a day,” Ruben said. “I probably shaved two decades off my life expectancy. There's no way I'll let my kids be teenagers like me.” Dante smiled and rubbed Ruben's cheek. “Don’t worry. A wise man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man learns from other’s mistakes.” Ruben rolled his eyes. “Proverbs are excuses in disguise.” Dante shrugged. “Whatever. What are you making for dinner?” Ruben lifted Dante off of him, shaking his head. “No way. It's your turn for dinner.” Dante pouted. “But I like watching you cook… It's so funny.” “I'm still healing from my burns,” Ruben stated. “I checked the calendar. It's your turn.” Dante groaned. “…Ugh, I don’t feel like cooking… Can we settle on pizza?” “Then you're paying.” “Only if you tip.” “Deal.” Dante kissed his cheek and pulled his phone out. “Medium Bruschetta and barbecue chicken?” “You know it.” “Funnel cake sticks or Brownie Bites for Yori and the kids?” “Just get both. Yori'll like the brownies, the kids can suck on the funnel sticks…” Dante placed the order, coughing a bit as he swiped away on his phone. Rowan crawled into his lap and reached for his phone, making the adult lean back and hold his phone over his head to complete the purchase without interruption. “And done. Forty minutes or it's free.” Ruben had started tickling Marco in his lap. “Awesome. You got root beer with it too, right?” “Yeah. You and your root beer… You're addicted.” “Hey. It’s better than drugs and alcohol.” “I know. And I'm proud of you,” Dante said, going in for another kiss but Ruben's hand came up to block him. “Oh no, don’t think I didn’t see you coughing,” Ruben said. “I am not getting sick.” “Neither am I,” Dante huffed. “It was barely a cough. I just got dust back there. This place is due for a really good cleaning.” Ruben turned his head. “I'm not taking chances. Make yourself some tea or something.” “Fine. Take Rowan,” Dante said passing over the little redhead so he could get up and go to the kitchen. While he was doing that, Yori walked out with Skylar in arms. Their daughter was sniffling lightly as she snuggled against him. “We're hungry,” Yori stated. “Dante just ordered food. It'll be here soon,” Ruben said. “How's Skylar?” “Her head is hot,” Yori stated. “She sneezed on me.” “Join the club,” Ruben said. “You should let her sleep.” “I will. She needs to eat,” Yori said going over to their armchair and sitting down. “She won’t nurse.” “The food I ordered isn't going to help,” Dante said. “She needs fluids and lots of it. I'll make her a bottle. She might take to more watered-down milk.” Yori nodded and went over to get a bottle out of the fridge so he could make it. Dante shook his head and attempted to take it. “Yori, I'll make it. Don’t worry. Just chill.” “No, you're sick,” Yori said, pulling the bottle away and doing the preparations himself. “Why does everyone think I'm sick?” Dante asked. “Hey, if Yori can sense it, you should probably listen to him,” Ruben said. “Just cool it, and let Yori deal with Skylar. He can’t get sick.” Dante huffed and took his tea back to the couch. “I'm not sick. My throat's just dry. This winter has been so dry…” He cleared his throat, clearly trying to hold back a cough. Ruben put Rowan and Marco on the ground before leaning over and placing the back of his hand on Dante's head. “You're burning up. Wait here.” He got up and went to the bathroom. Dante moped while he waited, not at all liking being treated this way. “You guys are ganging up on me.” Ruben came back with an ear thermometer and turned it on. “Hold still.” He placed a hand on Dante's head to steady him while he placed the probe end of the thermometer in his ear. It beeped after a couple seconds and he took it out. “Hmph. 38.5 degrees Celsius. 101.4 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a fever.” “I don’t feel anything, Ruben,” Dante whined. “You probably did it wrong.” “Just admit it. You're sick.” “I haven’t had a fever in years,” Dante said, placing his tea on the coffee table. “Well then… Your body got cocky and let down its defences. It didn’t expect germ covered triplets.” Ruben patted his cheek. “If you don’t do anything about it now, you'll just get worse. Go lie down.” Dante looked defeated so he pulled out his wallet and put his cash on the table. “For the pizza… Get me change because you're tipping.” Ruben nodded. “Go.” Dante stood up. “I'll be better by tomorrow.” “You're not going to work tomorrow.” “Rube. I gotta work.” “I will call your boss.” “You will n—” Dante was cut off by a small fit of coughing. Ruben got up. “Gross. Go to bed or I'll put you there myself.” Dante recovered from his coughing and glared at Ruben. “You don’t need to threaten me, I was going.” He stuck out his tongue and marched off. Ruben sighed, realising he forgot his tea. He quickly picked it up with the tips of his fingers and took it to the bedroom. Since the birth of the triplets, they'd all been sharing Ruben's room most nights but Dante's room was left as it was so he sometimes went in there to be away from everyone else. Now that he was sick, it only made sense to find him there. Ruben walked in with the tea to find Dante sitting on his bed with his laptop out. “Hey, I said lie down.” “I'm not incapacitated. I can still use my computer,” Dante said. “You need to get over yourself and take a fucking nap,” Ruben said, snatching the laptop and replacing it with the mug of tea. “I need you to get better. I can't do this parent stuff without you.” “You have Yori,” Dante said. “Yori's good for basic nurturing things but not the big picture,” Ruben said. “He's not good at planning things and keeping us organised and neither am I. All I know is how not to get our kids killed. And even then, this job challenges me. So you need to drink your tea then lie down and nap.” Dante looked away, clearly upset. “What about the pizza?” “I'll wake you when it gets here, I promise,” Ruben said. “Just rest, okay? Seriously.” Dante nodded, sipping at his tea then placing it on his nightstand. He curled up with the blankets. Ruben sighed. “Thanks.” He turned off the light and left.

The pizza arrived in twenty minutes which frustrated Ruben just a little because it meant he had to wake up Dante. He suspected he'd still be up and on his phone or something, but Dante was actually fast asleep, snoring with a stuffy nose. Ruben really didn’t want to wake him while he was getting quality recuperation in, but he knew Dante would hate him if he made him sleep through dinner. Gently he rubbed his shoulder, causing a sickly groan. “Dante… Sorry, but the pizza's here,” Ruben said, pushing hair off his boyfriend's forehead. Dante nodded. “Pizza…kay, I'm up…” “Are you sure you want to come out? You’re really stuffed up…” “I gotta eat…” “I'll bring your food,” Ruben said. “But I want to be out there with you guys,” Dante snuffled. Ruben shook his head. “If you don’t want to be alone, I can come eat here with you…” “I don’t want to get you sick too…” “Kay, then I'll send Yori in. You know he loves a good snuggle.” “What about the kids?” “I can watch the kids. It's fine.” “You sure? You had them all day,” Dante said. “Come on, what's another couple hours?” Ruben said. “They go to bed soon…” “They'll have to be changed and bathed and read to…” “I know the routine, Dan,” Ruben said. Dante frowned. “Don’t call me that.” “Alright, Don.” “Rube!” “Dental.” “Don't.” “Don't-eh.” “Fuck you. You're terrible.” “I love you too.” Ruben got up and went to the door. “Just BBQ Chicken, or do you want some of my Bruschetta pizza?” “Are you going to steal some of mine?” “Probably.” “Then bring me a slice of both.” “Kay.” Ruben disappeared for a moment. Dante sighed and sat himself up. He attempted drinking his tea, but he had trouble with his nose so congested. He couldn’t believe how quickly it had all settled in. He felt like the apartment was in part to blame for just being poorly ventilated and dusty. He was so glad they'd be moving soon. The door was pushed ajar and a little black shiba pup pushed his nose in and ran over to Dante's bed, begging to be picked up. “Marco, you sneaky little… Come here,” Ruben said, carrying a plate with him as he came back in. He set it down on Dante's nightstand before scooping up the puppy. “Sorry.” Dante shook his head. “It's okay. Marco just wants to be with Papa.” “Well, I'm not having three sick people on my hands,” Ruben said, petting Marco's head before putting him down outside the door. “I talked to Yori. He'll come in once he's done eating.” “Did Skylar take her bottle?” Dante asked. “She fussed but she did,” Ruben said. “Good…” “Do you need more tea?” “That'd be awesome right now, Rube,” Dante said, taking his plate and sliding it onto his lap. Ruben nodded and took Dante's mug so he could make more tea. Dante took a couple bites of pizza and turned on his TV. He found a half decent sitcom and started watching that. When Ruben came back with the tea, he'd barely had more than a few bites of pizza. “You need to eat, Dante,” Ruben said. As he said that, the doorbell rang and the pups started barking. “Ugh, it's probably my brother…” Dante groaned. “Why?” “It's always my brother.” “I know, I mean, why is he here?” “I don’t know. Get the door.” Ruben set the tea down before going back to the hall. “Eat your food.” As expected, when he opened the door, there were the pair, Lino and Vi, loitering outside. Vi was carrying a Tupperware container. “What's up?” Ruben asked. “Is Dante alright? He appeared ill at our appointment today,” Vi said. “Oh. Uh, yeah... He's caught a cold,” Ruben said. “Probably got it from Skylar.” Vi's eyes widened. “The little one as well? Are they going to be okay?” Ruben nodded. “Yeah, they'll be fine. They're resting.” “Well, Lino informed me that humans make soup to help with illness, so I made this,” Vi said handing over the container. Ruben looked to Lino. “You're worried about us?” “I'm not worried. It's just Vi,” Lino said. “He asked me what to do so I told him. And anyway, we don’t need my brother getting his germs on our kid.” “Well, Yori can’t get sick so your baby should be fine.” Lino crossed his arms. “Are you going to invite us in, or what?” Ruben sighed and moved to let them pass. “Dante's in bed. Yori's out there with the kids.” “I put Skylar to bed,” Yori said walking over with Marco and Rowan in his arms. “Hello.” “Nice to see you again,” Vi said. “We're still very grateful to you for agreeing to carry our child.” Yori nodded. “It's no big deal.” “It is though,” Vi insisted. “Without your help, Lino and I wouldn’t be able to start this next part of our life as parents.” Yori smiled. “I'm glad to help.” “You're helping us get a new home, anyway,” Ruben said. “This place is small and a dump. We can’t wait to get out of here.” Dante managed to hobble out of his room to wave to the visitors. “Hey guys…” “Dante! You're worse than I thought,” Vi said. “I brought you soup. Please get well.” Dante nodded. “Thanks. I'm trying.” “Not hard enough,” Ruben huffed. “Get back to bed.” Dante groaned and retreated into his room. “That seemed a little harsh,” Vi observed. “I'm sure being up and about a little won’t hurt him.” “I don’t like doing this to him, but I know Dante,” Ruben said. “Given the chance, he'll work himself to death.” Lino scoffed. “You're kidding, right? My brother is lazy as hell.” “Not after the triplets,” Ruben said. “I swear, he adopted this drive with them that I've never seen before. He works so hard for these kids. He just doesn't turn off. But we need him. So he needs to get better.” Vi nodded. “Ah. This is an example of ‘tough love'. Lino was explaining that to me.” “Yeah I guess,” Ruben said. “But yeah, without him, we’re outnumbered so I'm trying to make sure he rests properly.” “Well, we'd be glad to lend our services should you need extra help with the children,” Vi offered. “Thanks… Might take you up on that,” Ruben said. They could hear a faint ‘no' come out from Dante's bedroom. Ruben chuckled. “Ah… I think he's just worried about the last time you guys babysat.” “I promise you, should we take on that responsibility again, I will make sure we do not lose any of the children.” “Thanks, but I think we have things handled for now,” Ruben assured. “Alright, well… We just wanted to check in,” Vi said. “We'll be off.” “So soon?” Lino nodded. “Vi has his show in a minute. Even though we are very capable of restarting it…” Vi pouted. “I want to see it live because Fay always sends me spoilers…” Ruben chuckled. “Alright, I'll see you later.” “Bye now.” As those two headed back to their own apartment, Ruben closed the door and went back to check on Yori and the kids. He found them in the bathroom, getting ready for the boys' bath. Marco and Rowan were fussing a lot which was nearly unheard of when Yori was dealing with them. Usually the triplets were really calm for him and he was clearly getting frustrated as he attempted to get them undressed. “I don’t understand,” Yori huffed. Ruben knelt down with him and took Rowan to undress him. “They're probably just upset that they're not with Skylar.” “Oh…” Yori sighed. “They miss being with her?” Ruben nodded. “I got them, alright? You can go snuggle up with Dante.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah. Dante's getting lonely. Go on.” “Okay.” Yori kissed Ruben's cheek before getting up and leaving the bathroom. Ruben closed the door so Marco wouldn’t run off while he was undressing Rowan. Once he got them both out of their onesies and into the tub, he let them play a bit before starting to wash them up. Things were going well until he heard Skylar start crying. Ruben sighed and took the boys out of the tub onto a towel so they didn’t drown themselves while he went to check on her. Yori met him in the hall as he too was going to get Skylar. “Hey, I got this,” Ruben said. “Relax.” “It's okay,” Yori said. “I don’t want you to get sick too.” Ruben shook his head. “What about Dante?” “He's asleep.” Ruben sighed. “Good…” “I'll get Skylar,” Yori said. “Don’t leave the boys alone.” “Right, okay.” Ruben leaned down and kissed Yori's head. “Thanks.” “No problem.” The boys had turned into pups when Ruben came back in but they had waited until he was in there with them before they shook themselves dry. “Aw, come on, guys!” Ruben groaned, picking up a towel and wiping down his pants. “That’s not fair.” He toweled them down and wrapped them up, carrying them out to the living room. Yori walked past again, carrying Skylar and a bundle of blankets this time. “Where’s she going?” Ruben asked. “She’ll sleep with me and Dante,” Yori said. “So she doesn’t get the boys sick.” “Oh, okay.” Skylar whined reaching for Ruben and the boys. “I’m so sorry, baby girl,” Ruben said, giving the sleepy girl a quick kiss on the head. “You can snuggle up with your brothers as soon as you feel better.” “Say goodnight, Sky,” Yori said, using Skylar’s hand to wave. The boys whined too, waving to their sister. Ruben hefted each one up against his shoulders. “Goodnight, Yori and Skylar.” “Goodnight.” “I really hope things get better tomorrow.” “Me too.”

Ruben: *sighs* Why do they have to be so cute when they sleep?

Yori: *Shrugs* Evolution to make you want to protect them instead of killing and eating them?

Ruben: ...It was a rhetorical question, science side of Tumblr.

Yori: What’s a Tumblr?

Ruben: It’s a... No, you’re not ready.