Sanders Sides Parenting/Kids One-Shots

(46) Another One? - Roceit

Summary: Janus and Roman always agreed they wanted three kids as they were both one of three kids themselves. After years of their perfect family Janus meets a new kid at work, and has the increased need to increase their family size.

TW - Parents abandoning their kid, transphobia, foster care.

Words: 1427

Janus loved being a father of three. He had three sons and adored them to the moon and back, he had each of them since infancy/toddlerhood and they had all grown up together. The eldest child, named Hugo, was the average almost-teenage middle schooler; the middle child, Xavier, was preparing to be the 'big kid' in elementary school; and the baby of the family, Connor, was only a few months off starting kindergarten. 

On top of having three perfect kids Janus had a perfect husband. College buddy turned soulmate Roman worked from home as a children books' writer and illustrator - the test subjects for his new stories being their kids as they grew up. Roman was a perfect father, he was extremely playful and more energetic than even the kids could handle, as well as calm and understanding when the eldest had one of his blow-outs. Janus was a lot more mellow compared to Roman - but Connor said he was a better storyteller because of it which made that personality trait worth it.

Roman was very annoyed that the writer and illustrator of his son's favourite books was bad at reading them according to the five year old.

Whenever Janus got to work he was always confronted with new meetings and papers though. He worked as a lawyer in the city, specialising in family law as that area was always important to him. Once he got to his desk he sorted through emails - he wasn't meant to be in court that day. Roman always asked why he didn't work from home when he didn't need to be in the courtroom - but Janus knew himself and knew he'd be way too distracted by his kids if they were in the house and would never exit father mode. Even when he was sat at his desk near the courtroom he was cruising through 'preparing your kid for kindergarten' blogs without realising.

"Mr Plato?" A fellow lawyer approached Janus' desk which made him look up and realise he was on Mums.net. "I think I need your help with a statement, we have the kid of a custody disagreement that we need to talk to but he's not responding."

As Janus was now a father of a pre-teen (and almost a father of two since Xavier was beginning to get a little snappy) he was often asked to sort out any argumentative teenagers that the lawyers or police needed to interview. So he nodded and followed the lawyer forward into a small office where two policemen were facing a teenage boy maybe about 15 or 16.

Janus walked forward and introduced himself. "Hey kid, I'm Janus. I've been told I need to talk to you about your parents?"

"I hate them." The teen snapped back as he hugged his legs and glared forwards. Janus sat beside him with a smile, trying to meet eyes with the kid but all attempts failed. He must really hate being interviewed too - maybe this was just a sensitive topic for him.

"Who do you hate more?" Janus quizzed, knowing teens absolutely loved mellowing in self-pity for a little bit in a controlled way. The teen wore a dark green hoodie with a black shirt, jeans and beanie. He looked a lot like Janus' youngest brother, Virgil, who even in his late twenties could never be seen without a hoodie. He always says the hoodie provided an extra security nothing else in the world could.

The teen didn't respond to the first question, so Janus asked a new question. "That hoodie looks soft, I wish I could wear hoodies to work you know - don't you?" Janus tried to get the police officers involved with the conversation, they only nodded and spoke lowly. "Do you wear hoodies to school then?"

The kid nodded - and Janus felt a little bit of serotonin enter his body at the slight recognition he was in the conversation. "I'm quite surprised, hoodies were against dress code in my old school." One of the police officers eventually said. The teen looked up and met eyes with who spoke, then down again.

"They don't like me wearing a dress though. No-one likes me wearing a dress."

The police officers seemed to avoid meeting eyes with the teenager after he said that - looking towards the definitely-not-a-one-way-window mirror or the short amount of notes they had managed to make before. The teen seemed to expect that reaction and looked around the room before glaring at Janus as if expecting him to react in disgust too.

"Meh, dresses are unisex and comfy as fu...flip." The kid seemed shocked at that one sentence, he immediately leant forward as if begging for more. "I wear dresses sometimes during summer, especially around the pool. So does my husband."

"Aren't you male Sir?"

Janus shrugged. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't wear a particular design of cloth or love a particular person. How do you identify? Of course you don't need to tell me and I'll respect that..."

The teen paused for a moment, hesitating and looking at the floor, holding his leg again. "Can... Can you use she/her pronouns please? My name's Charlie still but-"

One of the police officers, the older one, sighed loudly at this teen they were witnessing finally talking to them freely. "Mr Plato, thanks for your help but I don't think this is the time or place for that kind of political debate. It isn't June."

"But you are interviewing a vulnerable individual, and I ask that you respect her." Janus immediately snapped back, watching Charlie go into a ball out the corner of his eye again. He wanted to hug her until all the pain would stop, even if that would be eternity. "If you want to leave you can leave and request another police officer to interview." 

The younger police officer only smiled at Charlie, which reassured her a bit as the older officer stormed out like an angry toddler. The officer turned to Janus, and whispered a question loud enough so Charlie could hear and loud enough to make her smile. "How do I make this situation more comfortable for Charlie? What kind of things should I say to her?"

So Janus helped the police officer interview Charlie alone, and soon he saw her smile and laugh at the jokes the two adults could make - and unload the struggles she had with her parents. They were transphobic - to put it simply - but Charlie was insistent on her identity and that resulted in her parents begging the state to take her. The law of course had to get in the way first.

Late that evening Janus lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking through the day. It looked like Charlie would be going into foster care, and Janus knew how difficult that could be on a teenager. Roman and Janus were foster carers for a bit so knew a little about what the experience was like. She was an only child and was so nice and sweet - just placed with bad parents. "What are you thinking about sweetie?" Roman asked as he walked into the room after reading Connor to sleep. He tucked himself into bed and cuddled up.

Janus stroked Roman's red hair and smiled softly. "We should foster again, I know a kid who needs it." Roman's head tilted up when he heard that - they hadn't considered fostering since they started their permanent family. They just had their perfect three kids and weren't thinking of adding to that dream ever since they started dating. "Maybe we could even adopt again? Again, this girl really deserves parents like us."

"Another one?" Roman chirped, quietly as if he was still in whisper-mode from the bedtime routine. "And a daughter?"

"An amazing teen daughter. And she's in the local high school already. She's perfect Ro, trust me."

Roman paused for a second, putting his head down again and instead nuzzling his husband's chest. Janus was almost cold-blooded in terms of temperature and Roman was constantly warm, yet cuddles were addicting and perfect. 

"Let's foster her." Roman mumbled, kissing Janus' neck which made him smile wide. The husbands smiled at each other for a while and Janus gave more information about Charlie until they gently carried each other off to sleep.

And just like that Janus' dream family of five, became his dream family of six.