The Paws-some Anthology (Book 1 1/2)

5. Good Little Student

"Now, how would you go about this question?" Logan smiled softly seeing Nyxie blink at the paper in thought. "It's 3x4. So what would you do first?"

"Make three circles?" Nyxie beamed as Logan just nodded, watching as she jumped to work. She made her circles before putting little circles inside them.

"How many circles are you putting inside?"

"4." She giggled as she started to count them. "It's 3 groups of 4... so... 1, 2, 3, 4..." Her face scrunched up she counted silently before lighting up and bouncing in excitement. "It's 12!"

"That's right." Nyxie purred happily as Logan's smile grew. "You did that really well. Now... Do you think you can handle this one? 6x2..." Her face scrunched up again making Logan suppress a chuckle over a very familiar look of determination and concentration. The only difference she had in her expression from Roman when he was younger was... Roman would stick his tongue out. He still does if he's deep in concentration. Logan had to admit, he hadn't seen Roman really concentrate on anything since he started to need his own reading glasses. In fact, Logan's never even seen the glasses.

"12... It's 12 again!" Logan blinked as he looked down to see the 6 circles drawn out on the paper as Nyxie just danced in her chair. "Am I right?"

"Oh. Uh... Yes, indeed. 6x2 is 12." Nyxie bounced and clapped happily as she went straight to the next question not even waiting for Logan to read it to her. "You're a very smart child, Nyxie." Nyxie nodded happily, purring at the praise, as she glanced up to see Logan's smile.

"Of course, I'm Papa's little girl." Logan's eyes widened as she kicked her feet absent-mindedly. "Papa's super smart. He helps me with ALL my questions. Though... Not when Daddy's around. Daddy's smart too. He teaches me all these new tricks to remember things."

"Roman isn't..." Logan cut himself off as he quickly shook his head realizing what he was about to say. "My apologies. Sometimes I forget myself." Logan sighed as Nyxie pouted at him and he knew she knew exactly what he was going to say.

"Papa is super smart."

"I'm sure he is." Nyxie just growled under her breath as Logan smiled sadly. "I never should have said anything against him. It's just become a habit at this point as the two of us are always butting heads."

"Papa's smarter than you!" Logan couldn't hold back the laugh as Nyxie glared him down. "HE IS! He's super super smart. He answers all my questions without even trying." Logan's eyes narrowed a bit as Nyxie slowly deflated. "But not when Daddy's around... he let's Daddy answer the question's instead but sometimes Daddy doesn't know the answer and I can see Papa in the corner holding his tongue because he does."

"What was the question?"

"I asked why we couldn't go to the sun and Papa said it was too hot and too far away, which made daddy laugh. So I asked how far away the sun was and Papa just went quiet as he was cooking but daddy didn't know. He just said it was very very far away. So I asked how hot it was and Daddy said just said too hot making Papa glance back with this look. He was biting his tongue. I could see." Nyxie shrugged as she turned back to her schoolwork. "So I asked Papa about it again when it was just us and he said the sun is usually around 150 million kilometers away... asked how far that was and he just laughed and said a very very long ways away."

"I didn't know that Roman knew that." Nyxie giggled as she nodded again.

"Yep. I asked him if it's so far away why can we still see it and he said it was because it's sooooo big. So I asked far away the moon is and he said 384,400 kilometers before tucking me in reading me a space book." Logan just sat there in some sort of a stunned silence as he blinked in thought.

"And he didn't look it up?"

"Papa doesn't need to." Nyxie smiled as Logan just let out a surprised breath. "See? Papa is really smart. Ask him a question and he'll know. I promise."

"I... Uh..." Logan frowned as he shook his head and just sighed. "I don't think Roman will answer any of my questions but I must say I am proud of him being able to help spark that... love of learning in you." Nyxie just giggled as Logan watched her work through all her questions. He was definitely going to have to test that all out with Roman. See if maybe he could catch the man off guard enough to not realize who it was asking him the question. Although that does confuse him. If Roman was indeed that smart and it's not just the ramblings of a very proud daughter, then why wouldn't Roman show it?

"Mr. Logic?" Logan blinked out of his thoughts as Nyxie pointed to another question. "Can you help me with this one?"

"Which one... oh! 12x4. Well, you already know what you have to do. But instead of 12 groups of 4 why don't you switch the numbers. Make 4 groups of 12. The answer will still come out the same."

"Really?" Logan nodded as she started doing me circles counting them out as she went, only to whine as she rubbed her eyes. "Too many circles... They're hard to count."

"Are you having trouble with the large numbers?" Nyxie just shook her head as she squinted her eyes and Logan nodded in understanding. "Are they blurring together?" She nodded as Logan pulled some graphing paper out of his bag. "Here. Put a small circle in the blocks and then put those in a circle. That will help to separate them enough for you to see better. I'll talk to your parents about getting your eyes checked."

"My eyes? Is something wrong?"

"Of course not. You just might need glasses like me or Patton. You could be like Roman and just need them reading." Nyxie frowned as she glanced down at the paper.

"Papa doesn't wear glasses. He always says he has perfect vision." Logan laughed as he just handed her the paper to work. 

"Let's get your work done ok?" Nyxie smiled as she nodded and returned to her work, managing it far better with the different paper than she had been. "I'm sure your parents are going to be happy to hear how well you're doing."

"You know, Lo..." Logan jumped up to see Patton standing there by the door with a smile on his face. "You'll make a good father someday." Logan blushed as Nyxie just burst out laughing. "I mean, your just so good with her."

"Uh... well... I mean... I was made to be a teacher." Patton chuckled as Nyxie just glanced between them. Nyxie's eyes shined as she just jumped up and giggled.

"I wanna baby cousin!"