Steph decided most things in their relationship.
Or at least it seemed that way.
It was more like she decided all the minor things, they discussed the big things together, and, ultimately, he usually caved to her because he wanted her to be happy.
It's kind of how he got roped into owning a dog in the first place.
The whole thing played out something along the lines of,
"Please? We'd be such good dog parents."
"How? We'd be horrible. We-"
"If you're saying that you can't parent a dog, Paul, then you're saying you can't parent a child. And if you can't parent a child, then I'm questioning just why we're spending all this time talking about the family that we're going to raise."
"Stephanie-"
"I want a dog. I love dogs. Don't you love me?"
Which he replied yes to, because he did love her, but somehow that meant he was agreeing to something else because, you know, women's logic.
Apparently saying he loved her in response to her loving dogs meant that he'd love to get a dog.
And yeah, sure, after a week or two, he and Bluto grew to have a pretty great relationship (back then when men ruled the house, before Steph started popping out those girls every two years to even and then decimate the playing field), but in no way did Paul really get a say in whether or not their marriage was ready for a pooch.
He was glad, however, in the end, that Steph ignored him, because he'd never had a better pet than his Mastiff.
And he didn't cry often, but his eyes definitely teared up a bit, when they had to put the dog down. Steph and the girls were really torn up by it.
Paul saw it as a learning experience. About life and death. While he was sorry for Bluto (and all dogs and their short lifespans) and mourned him in his own way (perhaps a tad too strong a word, but he knew no other), he mostly hoped it was a positive experience for his daughters and that it would help them later on down the line. Death was a lot to process, especially young, but the sooner you start on that, the better, he figured.
Steph, however, decided that this wasn't required.
"If they need anything right now," she told him a plastered on smile, not soon after Bluto's passing, "it's a new dog."
When she first said this to him, they were actually up at the office. Her office, to be specific. He'd just popped in to say hey and, somehow, that tumbled out of her mouth. All casual and shit. He was just standing there, all dapper in his suit , while she sat behind her desk, some big salad that her assistant had gotten her in front of her.
She was crunching on a damn crouton as she said it. That relaxed. As if she hadn't spent the past few days crying over her dog every night.
"Come again?" he requested, shuffling around the papers in his hands. "Steph?"
"Mmmm." She was having to swallow then, as she'd taken another bite of her salad, before saying, "Another dog. The girls need another dog."
"Stephanie-"
"We can't, like, talk about this right now," she said, waving him off with a shake of her head. "I have, like, a meeting in twenty minutes and I know that you need to-"
"There's nothing to talk about." He leveled his gaze over her. "We can't get them a dog. Not...right now. So soon. Maybe in a few months-"
"No, now."
"Steph-"
"It'll help them process."
"How? How would that ever-"
"Later." Again, she waved him off. The man, with a grumble, only came forward though, so to give her a kiss on the cheek. Grinning a bit more truly then, she said, "We can talk about it at home."
Oh, and they did. A lot. That night. Which was utterly useless, of course, as it didn't matter what Paul said; they were getting a new dog.
"You already have a litter picked out?"
And man, Steph had planned.
"For awhile, yeah," she said with a slight nod of her head. "I've actually been thinking about this for a few months."
"Before he was even dead?"
Those weren't the right words. They were downstairs, after putting the girls to bed, cleaning up the kitchen. Err, well, Steph was doing the dishes and Paul was mostly pretending to scrub at the stain from her spaghetti Vaughn had left on the table, but he was mostly just making faces over at his wife.
After what he said, she made some of her own.
"He was sick and you know it," Stephanie told him with a heavy frown. "And I thought… I considered, before… That we could get a puppy before he… So that the girls would already… But I didn't want it to stress him out or something and make things worse. But now… The timing is just good, is all. It's the same breeder that we got him from. Nine weeks ago they just had a new litter of English Mastiffs and…" Steph looked teary again (the damn woman cried over everything; he knew this had more propensity to set her off than anything else ever would). "I just think that this is what Bluto would have wanted, Paul." Again, she paused before saying, "And I think it''s what the girls would want."
It was. Or, at the very least, it was what one of his girls wanted. That one, right in front of him, who he was totally gonna make clean up the messy table in retribution for springing the new dog thing on him (and apparently thinking about it for months), was the one that wanted it. Needed it. Something to shift all that pent up love she had for her dog was exactly what she needed.
So he'd give it to her. Like everything else.
Caving was the thing Paul was best at. Right in front of taking care of his woman.
As excited as Steph was, the girls had mixed reviews. Aurora, who took more care of Bluto than her sisters (she was oldest, after all), seemed rather indifferent at first while Vaughn, who was still rather young, was still kind of weak on the concept of death and more or less just knew that Bluto was gone and wasn't coming back, (which was sad and he missed him a bunch, but the idea of a new puppy was exciting and great) thought it was the best thing to ever happen!
Murphy, however, their middle daughter, did not like the idea.
At all.
And she got this message across very simply.
"I don't," she told him over the phone on one of the nights when he was out of town, the one where Steph told the kids over dinner that they were getting a new dog, "want a puppy."
"Oh, Murphy-"
"I don't. And I won't pick up his poop or go for walks with him or nothing."
And that was final.
Still, Stephanie was already in contact with the breeder and Vaughn was all pumped (while Aurora was slowly coming around), so it was happening.
He hadn't seen Stephanie so happy either, since Bluto passed away, as she was when they went to get their new puppy. They didn't bring the girls, as that would be too hectic, but just the two of them doing something together, something not work related and rather having to do with their personal life, their family, them in general, was nice.
Paul liked hanging out with his wife. It was something that they didn't get to do often, never had, really, and though he felt it was a damn shame, it might have also been what kept their relationship so strong. Because when he did get a chance to be alone with Steph, he cherished it. It was special. Even more so since their daughters' births.
And with Steph already so excited about her new baby, Paul had a pretty great time going to pick him up.
"Awe, look, Daddy, he looked, like, directly at the camera. Isn't that precious?"
Steph had made him take a selfie with the puppy, after leaving the breeder's place. They were headed to the vet next and she wanted a cute picture of the dog first.
"You don't have to call me that when we're not around the girls," he grumbled, as he always did, when she did so. "Steph."
"I do when we're in front of our new baby."
Oh, jeez. Why was he not expecting this?
Vet visits sucked and doubly so when the last time they were there, it was with a different dog and for an entirely different reason. Paul could tell too that Steph realized this as well, but at the same time, he figured it was a bit calming to her. Or at least it was to him. Because it was kind of like the beginning and the end meeting up. A phoenix. They'd been in the veterinarian's office when Bluto was taken from them and now they were starting their new dog's life there as well.
Life was all about a cycle. Full circle.
It was a lot to take in though, for the puppy. He was with new people (one of whom kept trying to snuggle him; and no, it definitely wasn't Paul) on top of even newer people that wore rubber gloves and prodded him with things and just ugh.
Paul felt his pain.
"The girls are just gonna eat you up," Steph giggled to him as she held the dog in her lap on the drive back home. "With your cute little black face. Look at you."
"Steph, don't baby talk to the dog."
"Why? He is our baby."
Heh.
"You're really playing that up, you know," he griped though it was with a smile.
"Of course I am." The puppy was standing in her lap then, looking around nervously. He wasn't shaking anymore, but it was obvious that he was a bit fearful. "He's our first boy."
Which was odd, in many ways. Not just the obvious projection on the fact that they'd never had a son and all that went along with it (as well as the fact that she was gonna hit forty in a few weeks and they were more or less done with that portion of their life), but also because…
What about Bluto?
But Paul didn't mention that. Just grinned at Steph and nodded a bit because she ate it up, when he played along with her.
The girls were with their nanny when they got home, awaiting the arrival of their new...brother, as Steph put it. Paul was still in the foyer, speaking with the nanny and giving her the rundown on their schedule for the next week, while his wife introduced the dog to the girls.
"He's so tiny!" Vaughn was in love immediately. The nanny and Paul both shared a smile as they heard her yell that, all the way in the other room. "Look at him! Mommy, I wanna hold him! Rora, let me see! Rora-"
"He's my dog," Aurora said as she no doubt turned away from the grabby hands of her younger sister. "Basically."
Which is what she liked to tell the younger girls about Bluto constantly. That she was the one with the most dog related responsibilities (a lot of which were self brought on; she was the one that always wanted to feed him and brush him and begged to be the one to hold the leash on walks) and would no doubt carry them on with the new dog.
"He's the family dog," Stephanie corrected. "And Vaughn, you need to calm down. You're scaring him."
Which was Paul's cue to go settle the girls down a bit. He'd noticed an absent of Murphy's typically banshee-esque scream that she had when she was excited and knew that the arrival of the animal hadn't exactly killed her annoyance over a new dog invading her old one's space so soon.
He couldn't blame the kid. People were different. Some people had to throw themselves into a new relationship when another was vanquished while others kept to themselves and needed time to heal. To cope.
Steph wasn't a big coper. She was pretty into starting something new the second something ended. Constant motion.
Clearly though, at least one of her daughters did not inherit that trait.
After saying farewell to the nanny, Paul headed into the living room to see just what was going on. Steph had gotten Aurora to sit on the ground, at least, as she held the new puppy and Vaughn sat anxiously at her side, wiggling in her attempt to contain her excitement as she awaited her turn to hold the animal.
Murphy, however, still sat up on the couch, glaring at the television.
Figuring he should stick with the easiest route at the start, Paul only came to stand with Steph, where she was over the girls, and grin down at them.
"Do you like him?" Stephanie was asking as Paul laughed a bit, at the dog attempting to escape Aurora's grasp. He was wound up too, of course, less anxious it seemed by being around still new humans, but tinier versions. "Girls?"
"Yes, Mommy!" Vaughn was yelling which made Aurora frown at her, but still, she wouldn't give up her hold. "I love him!"
"Do we get to name him?" Aurora was most concerned with that. "Can I?"
"He already has a name," Steph said, bending over then to gently pluck the animal from her oldest's arms and plant him in her youngest's finally.
And oh did he.
Back when they first got Bluto, Paul wasn't really sold on having a dog yet, so naming rights went to his wife.
Even if he had been into having a dog, it would have gone much the same.
"Bluto?" he'd asked with a frown when she named the pup on the drive home, snuggling him much as she would their new dog a decade later. "What does that even mean?"
"I don't know what it means, but it was, you know, that bad guy in that old cartoon."
"What old cartoon?"
"That...sailor thing."
"So you know that name of the villain, but not Popeye?"
"See, you do know it!"
"So should you."
"I know the important name. Huh, Bluto?" Stephanie nuzzled her head against his again. "He's gonna be big and strong, just like Bluto. Just like his daddy."
"Bluto is his daddy?"
Then, without thinking about it, Paul glanced at Steph at the same time she shifted in her seat to grin at him.
"Who's your daddy now?" they both said in overly aggressive tones, mocking what Steph said was one of the most shocking things he ever did, before they got together, that time at Armageddon when he paused beating the shit out of poor Vince to ask her that.
Mmmm. Memories.
"And you're his daddy, Paul," Steph informed him after their shared moment. "And I'm his mother. This is our first baby, remember? The trial run."
"Right, so if something happens to the mutt-"
"He's not a mutt."
"Oh, I know. Our bank account knows."
"Paul-"
"If something happens to...Bluto, does that mean that you won't ever have a baby with me?"
"If something happens to Bluto, Paul, and it's your fault," she warned, tone low, "the last thing you'll be worried about is your legacy."
Actually, given what she was implying (bodily harm, it seemed like) then that might have been the only thing that he would have left to hope for.
But something did happen to Bluto; he got the best life any ol' mutt (he could be as pure as he wanted; Paul still called him a mutt when he was upset with him) could hope for.
"His name is Andre."
And so would their new baby.
The name Andre hadn't exactly been random. Anyone that knew his wife for an undisclosed course of time would, at the very least, hear the name come up once, even before the dog. Long before the dog. Long before him, either, Paul knew.
"That's what I want to name the baby," she told him on more than one occasion, when they found out they were pregnant that first time and still didn't know the sex. "Andre. Maybe. If it's a boy. Is that weird?"
All the crap Paul had put up with in, at that point, five years of being together and two of being married, that wasn't nearly close to being considered weird. Not for the McMahon family.
"No, baby." He grinned at her too, probably, he couldn't recall, but was pretty sure they were in bed, relaxing, maybe getting ready for bed, and he was typically pretty smiley when he was tired. "I know that...Andre was important to you and-"
"Not just for that," she said, though he knew she was lying. "It's a nice name in general, right?"
"Right," he agreed because he was a smart husband and knew that that was the only option.
Always.
"And we can call him Andy too, you know."
"Mmmhmm."
"And...I mean, just if we have a boy, we can think about it. That's all I meant."
"I know."
Of course, that wasn't meant to be, as a few months later they were naming their daughter Aurora after noticing the name at a deceased relatives funeral, shelving the possibility of that name for a son for another two years.
And then they had Murphy and gave it another two.
Then Vaughn and, finally, the dream was dead.
Not immediately, as they randomly would speak, typically in hushed whispers on the few nights they were able to steal away with only one another for company, on the topic of trying for more. Just one more.
Or two. Steph would toss that out with giggles sometimes because she'd always dreamed of five children, but Paul had kind of been pushed past his comfort level with three.
It was all just talk though, anyways, as it never came about. The timing was never right. And Steph was finally feeling truly good about her body again.
That was a big thing.
It always took about a year or so, after having one of the kids, for her to get back to where she wanted to be and, that last time, she just felt...good. Really good. She told him that a lot. They were working out together, frequently, and she was constantly pushing herself to new limits and…
Having another child would just derail that.
Which effectively ended either's bid for a son and put the name honoring to bed.
Until that night when she mentioned that she was going to be naming their new dog that.
"Look at him." She'd been sent a photo by the breeder of the dog they would be given and showed him off to Paul on her phone as they shared coffee one morning, before the girls got up. "Doesn't he look like an Andre?"
"Steph, I dunno. Is it really...honoring someone? To name a dog after them? It's kind of...insulting, right?"
Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, do you think… I would never… Do you think that's how people would take it?"
"Well, I don't know."
"Is that how you take it?"
"Of course not," he said with a frown. "I know that you were close with Andre and that you just… But I''m just saying other people-"
"What other people would even know that's why I'm doing it?"
He gave her a hard look from across the table. "Steph."
"What?"
"Honestly."
"What, Paul?"
"Literally everyone you have ever spoken with knows," he said, trying to fight a smirk as she stared at him as if completely misunderstanding him, "how close you were to Andre the Giant. Everyone. Steph. Everyone."
"I don't talk about him that much."
"Stephanie."
"Stop...doing that."
Taking a long sip from his mug, Paul thought for a moment before saying, "You can name the dog Andre, Steph, if you want. No one will find it disrespectful or whatever. It's...honoring. Especially considering how much you love your dogs. I mean, it's not exactly a dog name, but neither was Bluto."
It wasn't like she really needed his permission, but knowing she had it was pretty reassuring.
"Andre?" Vaughn repeated the name once before nodding. Aurora was hovering over her then, reaching out to at least pet the dog as well. Leaning down, their youngest daughter pressed a kiss to the dog's head, being rewarded by some frantic licks at her nose in response. "Andre!"
"Don't yell at him," Aurora critiqued because the moment could be let pass without doing so. "Vaughn. He's a baby."
"I know." Constantly being dumped on by her older siblings could, at times, be a bit much. "I'm not dumb."
"He's not gonna be a baby for long though," Steph told them with a grin, ignoring their bickering. "He's gonna be a big boy. Aren't you, Andre?"
"Don't overwhelm him," Paul reminded as, with all three of their faces shoved in his, the dog seemed a bit less sure about himself. "He's probably scared, girls."
"Mmmm, look at you already, Paul." Steph made a face up at him. "You protecting your son?"
"From being pulled apart by the three of you? I think I have to."
"Here. Let's give him a moment, huh, girls?" Steph took the dog once more, much to the dismay of her daughters. Then, to the equal dismay of her husband, she handed him over to the man. "He's gotta bond with Daddy the most."
Paul was about done with the son jokes. "Knock it off."
"What? You're the one that's going to take him to training classes, right?" Steph raised an eyebrow. "Master?"
Oh. That. Yeah, he had been the one to be, for lack of a better term, Bluto's 'master'.
Not that it helped any. Steph babied him so much that Mother, quickly out ranked Master.
"Well, yeah, I guess so." Paul looked down at Andre, knowing it wouldn't be long before he'd have to actually put some effort into carrying around the animal. "I am gonna be-"
"Plus, he's your only son," Steph teased again, making that weird scrunched up face that usually made him fight a grin (when she was annoying him though, the fight wasn't hardly needed). "You have to protect him from us. So we don't girl him up."
"Then why didn't we get a girl?" Vaughn was bouncing right up to go stand beneath her father, arms tugging at his shirt, trying to pull him down so that she could get back at her new best friend. "Not that I don't want Andre, 'cause I do. Put him down, Daddy!"
Paul made a face at her. "Steph picked him out, not me. So take it up with her."
"Daddy can't stay in a house full of girls, can he?" Stephanie went to go gently pull Vaughn away from her father. "That wouldn't be fair."
"Why not?"
"Because then he'd be the only boy."
"He don't mind." Vaughn was busy hanging off her mother then, anything to take out some of her energy, but did grin back over at Paul. "Right, Daddy?"
"Considering I don't have much of a choice-"
"He wants down." Aurora really didn't care about their conversation. "And can I put his collar on him? Did you get the tags? And then can we take him for a walk? And he needs to go look outback, right? And see his toys and his cage and his dog bed and-"
"Calm down, Rora." Paul moved to pass the pooch off to her with a grin, just from watching her. "Go get his collar and put it on him, huh? And then take him to the kitchen and show him where his water bowl is."
"I'm coming too!" Vaughn shoved right off Steph, but the woman didn't seem to mind as she only came over to her husband once more with a grin.
"See?" She patted at his chest as his grin for the girls turned into a glare at his woman. "Aurora hasn't been that excited about something this entire week. If not more. And Vaughn...well, she's just excited about most things, but-"
"One though," he said, nodding passed her and over to the back of the couch on the other side of the spacious living room where Murphy was still very intently watching cartoons, "isn't."
And Steph let out this low groan because she'd talked to her a thousand time in the past few days since Bltuto died and, well, it just didn't seem to be doing any good.
Still, she began to offer, "I'll go-"
"Nope." Paul patted his wife on the shoulder. "You had your chance. This entire time you've had your chance. Now it's mine."
"You've talked to her about it before too," Stephanie pointed out, but she let him walk off, over to Murphy, as she heard what sounded like Vaughn and Aurora arguing over the dog again, meaning she had to go deal with that.
Plus, Paul liked to pretend, he was just better at dealing with Murphy.
And Vaughn.
Definitely Aurora.
Honestly, he was just better than Steph period.
She was for sure second place though. In everything. To him. Better than everyone else. Anyone else. Other than him.
She knew her role.
"What are you doin', kid?" He came to stand behind the couch, leaning over it so that he could stare down at her. "Huh?"
Murphy only turned her up to stare into his eyes. "I don't like the new dog. Take him back."
"You haven't even met him yet."
"I don't want to meet him." She went back to glaring at the television. "I don't like him."
"You can't know that. Not if you haven't met him yet. You always have to meet people first, before you judge them." Then Paul frowned. "Animals too."
"I want Bluto."
"Bluto's gone, silly." He ruffled her hair before saying, "But that's okay. Remember? When we talked all about-"
"I don't," she repeated, "like the new dog."
"Andre."
"I don't like Andre."
"That's not fair for poor Andre, is it?"
But she only crossed her arms and, with a sigh, Paul went to head around the couch and take a seat. Far too close to her, she might add, but even if she was mad at the new dog (and by proxy her other family members for bringing him into the fold), she was old enough to know not to waste the few times her daddy actually had time to spend with her.
When she leaned up against him, Paul grinned, but not down at her. Instead he stared just as hard at the television before saying, "We've seen this episode." Getting only a shrug in response, Paul made a face before saying, "You like watching stuff you've already see?" Shrug. Moving to wrap an arm around Murphy's shoulders (and even though it wasn't true), he only said, "Yeah, me too."
For a good five minutes, they just sat there. Paul actually had some stuff he needed to get done, but didn't want to leave her feeling all down. Mainly because he loved her and wanted to get her out of her funk, but also because, well, if he didn't, then that would mean that he was on the same parenting level as Steph and that was just pure bull.
"Daddy! Look at him! He looks so cute!"
And then the other two were back. Steph wasn't with them any longer, so he he had no idea where she'd gotten off too, but Aurora came rushing into the living room to drop the newly collared Andre in his lap, his little home tag and vet tags jingling against one another as he stared up at his new master.
"Ew!" Murphy sat right up, arms crossed, face set in a scowl. "Get him away from me!"
"Why don't you like the puppy?" Vaughn had clambered up onto Paul's other side, snuggling right under his arm as she leaned over to pet Andre. This did nothing to relax him, but Paul figured it'd be a good few days before anyone in the house got any of that. "I love him!"
"No yell-" Paul started, but was cut off by Aurora, who, without a spot of her own (this dang new brother was complicating things by taking the man's lap and therefore Vaughn's usual spot, which put the girl in hers) and only moved to sit on her knees in front of the couch, leaning over as well to scratch behind Andre's ears.
"Murphy's just being a big baby," she said as Paul frowned. Not because he knew the girls were about to start fighting (though he knew they were about to), but because he was surrounded. Great. "Like always."
"I am not!"
"No y-"
Again, he was cut off.
"Andre's the baby now, Murphy," Vaughn informed her. "So you can't be one."
"He's not a baby." She made a face. "He's a dog."
"Right." Aurora wasn't giving up that day. "Because you're the baby."
"I am not!"
"Alright, enough." That time Paul gave his elder two daughters a heavy gaze. "Murphy's not being a baby. And if she doesn't want to play with Andre, you can't make her." But when the girl tried to get up to leave the couch, Paul only tugged her tighter to his side, saying, "That don't mean you get to ditch me, Murph."
Andre tried to get out of Paul's lap then, but Aurora held him down and forced him to stay while Vaughn only giggled.
"I'm not gonna like him," Murphy informed her father, ignoring her sisters then. Staring up at the man, she said, "Never ever."
"That's okay." Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to her head. "I think Andre'll get over it."
"He better." Murphy wasn't playing around. At all. She had her serious face on. Determined. Like when she was trying to be forced to eat disgusting carrots (she hated carrots...and Andre). "I'll never like him."
"That's not a nice thing to say."
And Steph was back, from where ever she'd disappeared off to. Paul tilted his head back, watching as she walked over.
"Especially about your baby brother." Stephanie stood behind the couch, hands rested on her husband's shoulders, as she stared down at her family. "Adjusting's hard, Murphy, but-"
"He's not my brother." She snuggled deeper into Paul's side. "He's a dog."
"He is your brother. Don't be jealous." Steph dug into one of his shoulders with her thumb. "He's gonna love you so much."
"I don't want a brother."
"Well," Steph sighed as Paul rolled his shoulders, trying to get Steph started on the other one as well, "take it up with Daddy. He's the one that wanted a son."
"Then you should have asked for a real one," Vaughn said with a definite nod. "You can't have our doggie as one, Daddy."
"I did ask," he told her simply, wrapping his arm tighter around her as well. "But I got you three instead. Each time."
Steph stopped toying with his shoulders to flick him in the head. "That's not nice."
"It's true." He grinned down at Vaughn who only frowned. "What? You don't think it was nice either?"
"Who would you want to be a boy?" she asked as she stopped petting Andre to give him her full focus. Aurora was the only one messing with the dog then and, seizing that opportunity, she snatched up Andre and rushed over to the loveseat, where she could have him all to herself.
"Mmmm..." He glanced around. "Obviously not Mommy."
Another flick to the head before Steph said, "Obviously."
"And...not you, Vaughn. You're too cute as a girl to be a boy."
Giggling, her frown disappeared as she tumbled further into his lap. "I think so too."
"And Rora can't be a boy," he said, getting his daughter to, finally, look over at him and away from her new pet. "Because they're not as responsible as girls. And she has to be the one to take care of us when Mommy's gone."
That made sense to Vaughn too and she nodded to show this.
Murphy, however, was coming to a very sickening realization that there was only one option left on his short list and, well, she wasn't too pleased with it.
"I guess that leaves," Paul began slowly, glancing down at his other side where his middle daughter was staring up at him in shock, "you, Murph."
"What?"
"Paul," Stephanie warned.
He scrunched up his face at the child though. "Sorry, squirt. Process of elimination."
"That's not fair!" Pouting then, she gave him some of that strong eye glares that his mother was so great at, before saying, "I don't wanna be a boy!"
"You wouldn't be." Aurora was back paying attention to her dog, but not too busy getting her cheek licked to say, "You just wouldn't be here. We'd just have a brother and you'd have never exist-"
"Okay, enough." For some reason, Steph shoved Paul's head for Aurora's remarks. "It's not funny to tease someone."
At all. Murphy was clambering away again and Paul needed both arms to keep her snuggled at his side. Not that it bothered Vaughn much, losing his hold on her, as she only shoved up to go spend some more time with Andre. Aurora was getting far too much of it.
"I'm kidding, silly," he said, shifting on the couch so that he could fall back on it, taking his daughter with him as he held her to his chest. Murphy was wiggling around, trying to fight him, but it was impossible, of course, for her to break his hold. Snuggling her to his chest, he said, "You know you're my favorite."
"Hey!" Vaughn didn't like him teasing Murphy any longer. "Daddy!"
"You're all my favorite," he clarified as he grinned mostly up at Steph who was making face s at him because he was being, she no doubt thought, 'bad'.
Bleh.
Smiling wider up at his wife, he started to say something when, suddenly, Vaughn came to clamber up onto his chest too, her knees digging into his thighs as he finally released Murph so that she could wiggle away, onto the floor, giving her sister the freedom to claim his chest.
"Really?" she was asking as she didn't realize her knees were pressing too hard into his gut. Staring down at him with big eyes, she asked, "We can all be your favorite?"
"Well… You can have up to three favorites and, when you were born, Mommy kind of got knocked off the list." He sat up so that she would tumble into his lap. "So that's how it works."
"That's how it works?" Steph repeated as Vaughn only giggled up at him.
"That's how it works," he agreed as he watched his wife walk off. Aurora was engrossed in the dog and Vaughn in him, but Murphy pushed up to go follow her mother and get away from the rest of them.
Or just Andre.
Probably actually a mixture of Andre and Aurora.
Definitely.
The day fell a bit back into normality then. Paul had to get up to the office, leaving Steph to work on some stuff at home and deal with the girls (and the boy, she would have added), promising to bring home something for dinner that night.
"Not soup," Murphy instructed him as he kissed her goodbye. "Okay?"
"Soup? When have I ever brought you home soup?"
She wasn't sure, but just wanted it out there that she did not want any.
His other two were so wrapped up in showing the dog around the house that they hardly even had time to hug him, but that was okay. He knew the newness of the pet would wear off.
Eventually.
He was still at the office when he got a text that more than told him it had.
He pooped in Aurora's room. He's no longer allowed in there. Your son has been turned on.
Paul made a face too, at his phone, as he stared at it before texting her back.
All heroes fall eventually
She was quick on the reply; that meant she was wishing he was home. To deal, of course, with the problem more than anything else.
Not this soon. You gonna be home soon?
Then he got some of those emojis that he found annoying and made he ignore her for a good ten minutes, to punish her, before replying with yes, he'd be around to save her soon.
Then she sent some other crap and more emojis so he put his phone on silent and ignored her for the rest of the time.
He was the hero, too, then, when he came in with dinner, calling out to the girls as he walked in from the garage.
"Daddy!"
He knew eventually, one day, when they all got older, they wouldn't be so excited to see him and wouldn't call him that and it would just suck, to come home to only Steph being happy about him being around (or at least he hoped she was always happy to see him and he her), so he definitely soaked it up then as he went to set the bags of food down on the table.
"What'd you bring?" Murphy asked as she got to him first, tossing her arms around his waist. "Pizza?"
"Soup."
"Daddy-"
"I'm kidding." He patted her on the head before gently pushing her away so that Vaughn could get her hug in. Then, bringing up the back, was Aurora, who was walking into the room with her arms outstretched. Not for a hug though. Oh, no. In her hands she was holding a wiggly Andre.
"He's the dumbest dog ever." Aurora came to set him at her father's feet, but the dog only ran off, regardless of the fact that Vaughn, quite loudly, told him to stay. "We shouldda got a cat."
"You girls need to be nicer to your baby brother." Steph was coming into the kitchen too, though she was texting on her phone. "He's adjusting."
"He pooped in Rora's room!" Vaughn stared up at her father with wide eyes. "Bluto never did that."
"Bluto was potty trained, baby," Paul told her gently as Murphy glared over at where Andre was inspecting the fridge. "He had to be taught too, before even Rora was born. That's all. Andre will learn."
"He doesn't even know his name," Vaughn whispered after motioning to her father to bend down, so she could say that into his ear, as if fearful of embarrassing the dog. "I don't think he's very smart.
"You didn't know yours either, you know."
"What?"
He mimicked her shocked face, to get her to giggle, before giving her a kiss and standing once more.
"Okay," he said, leading her over to the kitchen table, where the others were already gathering. "Steph, I got you some takeout from that Chinese place-"
"You know I can't eat that. I've been trying to-"
"I mean, if you don't want it-"
"I didn't say that." Steph sat right down. "I'll just have to change cheat days."
"Thought so." Lifting Vaughn into her chair, just to hear her giggle, he said, "And girls, I got you- Hey!"
Turning his gaze down, Paul glared at Andre who, at the moment, had come over to nip at the man's pants leg.
"Stop that." Paul shook his leg at him, getting the girls to all giggle. Steph, already digging into the bags he'd sat down on the table, frowned before getting up.
"Come here, baby," she cooed, having to literally bend down and snatch Andre up to get him to let go of Paul's pants. "You don't bite Daddy. Silly. Let's go outside, huh? While everyone eats? You can go be a big boy outside and-"
"Stephanie, knock it off with the baby talk." Paul was annoyed then, that the dog had been biting at him. He too was over Andre for the time being. "He's a dog."
"He's a baby dog, Daddy," Vaughn explained, in case he was missing the point of why his mother was doing so. "A puppy."
"Yeah." He set out getting their food divvied up between his girls. "I got that, princess. Thanks."
Dinner, with Andre out in the yard, exploring, went pretty well. Steph kept worrying about him, because he was so small, and what if he crawled under something? Or got lost out there? In their yard? Got through some sort of tiny hole in the gate and got lost in the woods surrounding their property?
She seemed so relieved when she went to go get him for bed.
"He's had a very busy day today, you know," Steph said as he cleaned up the kitchen with Aurora and sent the other two off to go get ready for bed. She was holding Andre in her arms, the dog not wiggling so much then and seemingly all worn out from his outside adventures. "I think I'm gonna go get him all settled down in his bed."
"Cage," Paul corrected. "Put him in his cage."
"What? No. He can't-"
"Steph, he has to get used to it. And did you guys even feed him dinner?"
That got him an annoyed look. "Of course we did, Paul. What do you think we are? Stupid?"
"No," he grumbled as he washed the forks that Aurora brought to him from the table. How he got stuck washing dishes, he wasn't sure. The whole point of having children, he'd always been told, was to get them to do all the things you didn't want to. He needed to enact that plan soon. "I was just being sure."
"Looking out for your son, huh?" She was walking off then, not wanting to get roped into the clean up duties.
Stephanie was, at heart, a McMahon; they oversaw, not carried out. And there was no one McMahons were better at having carry out their orders, it was Levesques. That was probably why she even had kids with him to begin with…
As school was out for the summer, the girls bedtimes were upped by an hour, which was actually pretty great. It gave him some extra time to spend with them, uninterrupted. So after all the girls had taken their baths and were in their pajamas, he went into their playroom with them to spend some time together.
"How come Andre can't play?" Vaughn asked after it was decided they'd play a board game together. It was one of those annoying children's versions of a normal game, which wouldn't be any fun, but at least it saved him from having to play house.
Again.
They really loved playing house.
Nearly constantly.
Sigh.
"Because," Paul said after setting up the card table in there and getting them four chairs, "he's already in bed."
"He sleeps a lot. He took a nap earlier too."
Nodding at his youngest, Paul said, "That's because he's a puppy."
"A baby," she clarified, reminding Paul why it sucked when his wife was alone with the girls the entire day.
They'd start to talk just like her.
"Can we not talk about the dumb dog?"
Except for Murph, apparently, that day.
"I don't like him," she insisted as she laid with her head down on the table, glaring at her younger sister from across the table. "And now that Rora doesn't either, can't we get rid of him?"
"I still like him." Aurora was very busy organizing all of the different parts of the game as the others waited (she was very serious about always being the one to do this, so that things were set up correctly and, honestly, Paul hated that task, so more power to her), but managed to shoot her sister a look. "I just think he's stupid."
"Boys are naturally stupid," Paul informed them as, he mostly hoped, if he hammered this in young, they'd have no interest in them later on. "You have to forgive him for that."
"'cause he's our brother," Vaughn agreed with a nod and, ugh, he was gonna kill Steph.
"Let's just play, huh?" Paul took his game piece when Aurora handed it to him (that was another thing; she assigned them pieces, they were not allowed to choose because, you know, she was her mother and bossy as hell). "And focus on that for a bit."
They didn't get anywhere near close to finishing the board game (Vaughn constantly had questions about the rules which she didn't seem to understand at all while Murphy was in a sour mood over the dog or something and, of course, Aurora spent most the time complaining about having to play with them because they didn't play right and how weren't they understanding how to play when she kept detailing it so perfectly), but that was okay. Paul just liked being around them mostly.
Besides, honestly, they never finished board games anyways.
Maybe one day.
For the sake of Aurora's sanity.
She got to stay up later than the other two (only by, like, half an hour, but that was a big deal when you were in grade school and were being given a chance to exert your power over your younger siblings) , so when Steph came to collect them for their nightly story, she stayed behind to help Paul clean up a bit.
"So are you really mad at the dog, Rora?" he asked as he mostly watched her put the pieces back into the box (because if he did it, she claimed, he'd do it all unorganized and make a mess and he was just horrible at putting things away). "Because you know that he just needs to be trained. That's all. You just gotta make sure that you take him to the bathroom frequently and, when he does go to the bathroom in the house, you scold him for it."
"Pop says you gotta hit 'em."
"When did you talk to Vince?" he asked with a frown.
"He explained to me how to raise a puppy the other day. When I told him that we were gonna get one."
"Well, I dunno about all that," he said slowly, "but just kinda make him feel like, well, crap for crapping in the house. He'll get the idea eventually."
"Are you gonna train him, Daddy?" she asked as she went to put the game back on the shelf in the closet of the playroom, having to use the stool in there to be able to reach. "Like you did Bluto?"
"Mmmhmm." He even nodded. "If he's gonna be lookin' out for you girls while I'm gone, he's gotta be trained."
She frowned at him as she came back over to the table. "But he's so small. Was Bluto that small?"
"Yeah, he was," he said with a nod of his head. Not feeling like putting away the card table or chairs just yet, the man shoved up before saying, "C'mon, let's go watch TV, huh?"
Aurora was quick to follow.
They heard Steph reading to the younger ones, in Vaughn's room, but Aurora felt that getting more time with Paul was far more special than getting some stupid book read to you like a baby. No, she was getting to stay up, with her father, and do adult things.
"You want a Popsicle?"
Like eat Popsicles.
Those were usually a special treat, for when your throat hurt or when you were extra good, so Aurora wasn't too sure why he was giving her one, when he didn't give one to her sisters, but there was no way she was going to question him on it.
Paul slumped down on the couch with his, mostly bored with the show that Aurora chose to spend her few minutes before bed watching, but definitely enjoying how close she sat to him. She was too big then, she'd decided about a year ago, to sit in his lap, because that was for children, such as Murphy and Vaughn, and she was pretty much practically grown, but this didn't stop her from cuddling up under his arm, head resting against his side.
"Okay, so they're both in bed and so is the dog," they heard Stephanie say as she came in the room, a few minutes later. She took note of the icy treats they were sucking on, but said nothing about it. "Which means that I am gonna go take a bath, okay, Paul? You don't need me to tuck you in, do you, Aurora?"
"I'm not a baby."
"Yeah, Steph," Paul agreed with a shake of his head. "She's not a baby. She doesn't need her mommy to tuck her in." He pulled her tighter to him. "She needs her daddy."
Duh.
It was while he was doing that though, a bit later, that Paul noticed that, true enough, Aurora had seemingly banned poor Andre from her bedroom. This was shown by the fact that his crate, which she'd fought to have put in her room before he arrived, was missing.
"Huh," Paul muttered as he led Aurora to her bed. "I wonder where Mommy put the cage."
Ooh, he'd find out soon enough.
"I don't understand," he grumbled to his wife that night when they both finally went to bed, "why the dog has to be in our bedroom."
"You always keep a baby in your-"
"We had three daughters, Steph. Three. Not a single one of those slept in our room when they got home from the hospital. You didn't like bassinets. They slept in their cribs, in their own bedrooms," he hissed softly. Andre, for the time being, seemed to be sleeping and they both wished to keep him this way. "Why the dog has to sleep in here-"
"Because he's your son and you-"
"I wish," he grumbled as he rolled onto his stomach, "you would stop saying that."
"I'm joking."
"I know. But it's run its course." Turning his head to the side to stare at her, he whispered, "Besides, I think you're starting to hurt the girls feelings."
"How? If anything you and your dumb way of messing with Murphy screwed them up."
"I was joking."
"Sure."
"If I thought any of them was going to be a boy, it was Vaughn."
"Me too."
Watching his wife's eyes as she laid on her side, facing him, he said, "You sure you don't wanna squeeze another baby into ya?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely. The forty year old mother. That's a good look."
"You look like your fucking thirty."
"Paul-"
"Fine." He shut his eyes. "Thirty-two."
"Flattery will not work on me."
"Mmmm." Shifting a bit, he said, "My girls know I'd never trade them for a stinkn' boy."
"I don't think anyone ever said anything about trading them except for you."
"I was kidding. And they thought I meant turning them into a boy before Aurora tried to make Murph cry."
"She has developed a bit of a mean streak recently."
Paul snorted. "She just has superb mic skills, Steph. She's from a different era. That's all. You young thirty-two year olds don't understand our generation."
"You kill me."
"What I'm best at."
Andre didn't sleep the entire night. He woke up a little past midnight, whining. Steph dealt with him though. Paul figured she took him to the bathroom or something and then gave him some water because, when she came back, she shut him right back up in his cage again, ignoring the puppy's whines.
"I hate animals," Paul groaned as she settled back into her side of the bed. "Steph."
"You're his master; go train him." She shoved her head under a pillow. "Master."
"And you're his mommy, so whatever I do will be nullified anyways."
Heh.
Eventually he fell back asleep though, Andre did, and for a good while, the house was still. The girls probably got up, to go to the bathroom or get water at times, and Paul got a text around two in the morning from a drunk friend that made his phone buzz and woke Steph, but other than that, things were calm.
Normal.
In keeping with that normalcy, promptly at five thirty in the morning, Murphy came to wake her mother up.
"No," Stephanie complained softly. "Not before six. We've gone over this."
She only snuggled right up to her mother. "If you get up now, we get even more time to play."
"How do you wake up like this? So early?" Steph grumbled as Paul only pulled their daughter over to him, hoping some snuggles would get her to drift off once more. "You need to go live with Vince."
"Did he ask me to?"
"Murph, sleep." Paul kissed her head. "Gramps ain't all that cracked up to live with anyways. I mean look what he did to Mommy."
"Paul-"
"Sleep," he told both his girls as, with a yawn, he drifted off again. "Sleep."
So they did. Or his wife did. And he did. But Murphy couldn't. And, when Andre started up with his whines from the cage, softer then, there was no way she was going to be able to.
Wiggling out of her father's hold, she climbed right back out of the bed, being careful not to awaken either parent. Once on the floor, she headed straight over to the cage in the corner of the room, frowning heavily at the puppy inside of it.
Andre perked up, just a bit, at the sight of her. At the sight of anyone, honestly. He just wanted out of his dang cage.
Murphy hadn't wanted a new dog. At all. She loved Bluto. And she didn't understand, no matter how many times her mother and father and anyone else that was around explained it to her, why they had taken an alive (though miserably so and in quite a lot of pain) Bluto to the vet only not to return with him.
What was that? Vets were supposed to fix your pets. Not kill them.
And now she was just supposed to care about a new dog? As if Bluto was never there? Like she didn't miss snuggling and kissing on him or the way that he would lay in her room with her and provide a very great mountain when she was playing with her toys?
Andre couldn't provide that. No one could provide that. Not like Bluto.
Still, if she let him just whine like that, he'd wake back up her parents and they'd be mad about being up (they were so lazy) which she couldn't have that. So, having done so many times for Buto, she moved to undo the latches on Andre's crate.
The puppy was super excited to be out. He ran, immediately, out of the room and Murphy was actually pretty fine with that. No intentions to figure out where he went. None at all.
Except, for some reason, the puppy was very interested in her. Just as quickly as he ran out of the room, he was rushing back in to find out how come she wasn't following him. Stopping at her feet, he let out a soft yap as she only glared.
"Leave," she hissed at him softly as she walked off, "me alone."
Never.
Mainly because he wasn't so good at reading tones yet and had no idea she was upset with him.
Trotting right along after her, he narrowly missed being shut out of her room. And, in a huff, when Murphy tried to grab him and force him out of it, the puppy only took to running around, not making it easy on her.
Back in her parents bedroom, the alarm for Steph was going off, as it was finally six, and as she flicked it off, she only rolled onto her back with a groan.
"Where," she heard her husband ask against his pillow, "did Murph go?"
"I dunno." Stephanie yawned, stretching as she sat up. "But I gotta go shower. Can you-"
"On it."
Paul usually snoozed until after she finished up in the bathroom, but he was pretty much wake then anyways and only gave his wife a kiss when they passed in front of the bed, muttering in her ear what he wanted for breakfast.
"You better hurry then," she told him simply, "if you're gonna get pancakes made before you have to go."
"Ha ha."
Another kiss. Then she was going into the bathroom and he was slipping on some shorts over his boxers to go find where his middle child had run off to.
He heard her too, in her room. It sounded like she was...giggling over something, but he could hear the dog too, in there, barking softly and, well, he knew that couldn't be right.
At all.
Rushing to go find out what was wrong, he tossed open his door to find her there, of course, sitting in the middle of her floor, with the dog that, even with as small as he was, pretty much took up her entire lap.
"What are you doin'?" he asked, flicking on a light as the not so dark sky outside wasn't near enough. "Murph?"
"Andre was cryin', so I let him out of his cage, but then he followed me and won't leave my room." She was trying to sound upset, trying very hard, but it was hard, when the puppy was still giving her kisses and she was giggling. "I tried to make him leave, Daddy, but he won't stop licking me!"
"It's because he loves you." Paul was tired, he was always tired, but with a grin he came closer to stare down at his daughter. "That's what baby brothers do."
"How do you know?"
"Murph, I was the most annoying baby brother ever." Reaching down, he gently plucked Andre from her grasp, the dog wiggling immediately to be put down. Instead of granting this request, he only told his daughter, "Since you're up, this guy's gotta be taken to the bathroom and given some breakfast. Did you wanna help?"
"Rora does all that."
"Aurora did all of that for Bluto." Paul grinned as his daughter got to her feet. "Now though, with the new puppy, you're old enough to help out to. But only if you wanna. I know that you hate him-"
"I don't hate him, Daddy." She made a face. "You're not allowed to hate people. That's not nice."
"I know."
"I just… He'll never be Bluto."
"Of course not, Murph. He wouldn't wanna be." They headed out of the room then. "He wants to be Andre. That's all. You can always miss Bluto. Being friends with Andre won't change that. It won't change it at all."
It was with a long breath that she said, "Maybe I don't completely not like him."
"Dislike him. You don't completely dislike him."
Nodding, she said, "But I don't like him yet either."
"Yet," Paul repeated. "You don't like him yet."
"Maybe if he didn't lick so much."
"You sure seemed like you liked it a minute ago."
"I didn't."
"Okay."
"I didn't, Daddy!"
"Shhh." They were walking down the stairs then. "Don't wake up your sisters."
They released him into the backyard, they did Andre, Murphy going back there with him under the direction from Paul not to go running off very far. And not to get her pajamas all dirty (he knew the last one was a long shot, but telling her wouldn't hurt anything).
And since there was no way Paul was pretending to make pancakes, he started the coffee for Steph before going to sit out on the back porch too, to watch them.
"This didn't take long," he muttered as he relaxed into one of the patio chairs back there, watching as Murphy happily ran through the dew soaked grass with Andre chasing her (more like chasing the end of her nightgown, which he wanted to chew on).
"I still don't like him," Murphy informed him when the pair came over to him eventually. "Daddy."
"I know." He let her clamber into his lap, regardless of the fact she was, despite his instructions not to get so, dirty. "Trust me, I understand."
"You don't like all the people you have to play with at work?"
"I don't...play with them. I work with them, but of course not. It's impossible to." He made a face down at Andre who, annoyed that his playmate had given up, took to pawing at his father's feet with his little claws. "You just have to put up with them."
"That's what I was doing too." She kissed her father's cheek. "I was just puttin' up with him. That's all."
"Of course, baby." Lifting her up, he sat her on the ground with a slight groan before saying, "Go run around some more, huh? Before the others all get up. Because then we'll have to go back inside and make breakfast and all that junk."
He was relaxing out there, glad that he'd grabbed his phone on the way out of the bedroom, as he read over some news online and responded to some late night messages. He was engrossed in that more than still watching Murphy when Steph came out onto the back porch, two coffee mugs in her hands.
"Here you are."
"Here I am."
Steph bent down for a kiss, when she sat down the mugs on the patio table, and Paul turned his head up to give her one, expecting it. Just a peck, really, as just as quickly she was saying, "My little miracle worker out here. How'd you get that done?"
Paul didn't have to look at where she nodded to know she was talking about Murphy trying to get Andre to pick up the stick that she'd thrown (he was not grasping the concept at all).
For a moment, he considered explaining that, honestly, he hadn't done any of that. Their daughter's natural mood, which was set to accepting and friendly, had done all the work for them. Not him. But…
"A magician never reveals his secrets."
"Oh, come on. Just tell me."
Smiling over at his wife as she sunk into the chair beside his, he said, "Just, you know, my normal miracle junk. Nothing that would interest you."
"Mr. Secretive, huh?" Stephanie wasn't dressed for work, really, but she'd gotten in a shower, at least, before slipping back on a t-shirt and some jeans. "Well, the water'll be warm by now, if you wanna go hop in the shower."
"Babe, as much as I paid for this place, water better always be freaking warm." He drug his mug towards him. "And I'll catch a shower after I finish my coffee, huh?" Slipping his phone back in his pocket with one hand and dragging his drink up to his lips with the other, he said before taking a sip, "That's the good thing about our living alarm clock. She wakes up the first time so that when the clock goes off at six, we don't need a single snooze."
"Silver lining, sure."
Burning his tongue a bit, Paul paused before saying, "I think she and Andre are gonna be fine."
"I know." Stephanie was holding her own coffee cup near her, but had yet to take a sip from it. "I always knew."
"But," he was quick to add, "Rora might start to get jealous, if she sees Murph so close to the dog, which will lead to-"
"Her overly caring for the dog and absolving you of having to do anything."
"Excuse you." He made a face. "I shouldn't have to care for the dog to begin with. They want pets; I don't. I'm not pet friendly."
"Oh?"
Shaking his head, he said, "I'm hardly even kid friendly. Steph, have you heard some of the things that come out of my mouth?"
"Unfortunately."
With a grin, he sat his mug down before saying, "Murph'll take care of running him to death, Rora will mother him to death, and I'll just have to train him. For you to slowly unravel all the training. Perfect."
"You're forgetting something there, babe."
"Oh?"
"Yeah," Stephanie said with a nod. "Vaughn."
"Oh, my baby?" Paul snorted. "She's just so easy going, she doesn't have to fit into equations."
"Is that right?"
"That's right. She's fine. No need for consideration at all." Staring out into the yard where Murphy had gotten onto all fours to try and show Andre how to pick a stick up off the ground, he said, "Vaughn's just a good little girl that gets along in every situation. And Murphy, knock that off! You don't put sticks in your mouth. You're too old for me to have to tell that to."
Sheesh.
"You know though, there's gonna be a fight over whose room this crate is going to be going into after it leaves ours."
"Which it is definitely doing, by the way." He took another sip of his coffee. "Leaving ours."
"But he's your first and only son."
Done with the joke by then, Paul only said, "I think you're the one forgetting someone now, Steph."
"Oh?"
Nodding, he said, "Bluto ring a bell?"
And she frowned because he knew, ultimately, that they could say Andre was for the girls all they wanted, but it wasn't even close to being true. He was there to give Steph something to focus all the energy she would spend feeling badly about Bluto being gone on. It kinda made Paul nervous about what would happen if he suddenly dropped dead and how soon she'd be finding his girls a new daddy.
Then again, if he was dead, he figured he'd probably have more important things to worry about.
Plus, he definitely meant more to her than some dumb dog.
Right?
Right?
"That's not funny," she told her husband, shifting in her chair so that she couldn't see him anymore. "At all."
"I wasn't being funny, Steph." He frowned down at her. "I was serious. If Andre is my son then-"
"Paul-"
"You always wanted five kids." He grinned that time, hoping to get her to do the same. It didn't work. "Bluto, Rora, Murph, Vaughn, and Andre. Right?"
"Shut up."
"Steph-"
"I just don't," she told him softly, "want to talk about Bluto. For now. Anymore. Or whatever. It… I don't want the girls to keep, you know, having to think about him. That's all."
"If they wanna talk about it though, Steph-"
"Well, they don't, so just drop it, okay?"
Blinking, Paul scratched at his head before saying, "You're not good with death, are you, babe?"
"Paul-"
"It's okay." He went back to watching Murphy who'd finally gotten Andre to pick up the stick, but he only took off with it, running annoyingly away from her as she chased him, yelling his name at him. "I know you loved your- our dog a lot." After taking a sip of his coffee, he added, "So did I. Having pets is just weird that way, I guess."
Paul had to go take a shower, before the other two even got up, but when he finished up and came back down the stairs, it was to find them all up, Aurora helping Steph with breakfast, Vaughn, having been given hers first, trying to slyly feed some of her pancakes to Andre as he hid beneath the table (he was learning quick, surprisingly), while Murphy was sitting at the table too, with their nanny who must have just arrived, explaining to the woman about how she personally didn't like the new puppy, but wasn't going to make Daddy give him away.
"Because I could if I wanted to," she insisted as Paul came to gently flick Vaughn in the head and get her to eat her own dang food. "But I'm not gonna."
Aurora gave her a dirty look, from over at the counter where she was mixing up some more pancake batter for her mother, but said nothing. Going over there, Paul tapped her on the head before going to stand behind Steph.
"You always make the breakfast someone asks for that you're mad at?"
"I'm not mad at you." She wouldn't respond though when he wrapped an arm around her waist, staring over her shoulder into the skillet at the bubbly batter. "Should I be?"
"I dunno. You seemed like it before. Plus you said I was going to have to make my own pancakes-"
"Who said I'm making you some anyways? Maybe I'm making breakfast for everyone other than you."
"That'd be a shame. You know how much I like when you make me pan-"
"You always," she griped, finally shoving him off, "say that I burn them."
"Well, maybe stop burning them then, princess, and we wouldn't have that problem."
"Go away." With a roll of her eyes and over the giggles of their oldest, she said, "I'll call you when yours are ready."
"Perfect."
But by the time he was walking out, Vaughn was all finished eating and rushing after him, Andre finding favor then by standing under Steph's feet and whining directly for his own pancake. Dog food just wasn't cutting it, apparently.
"Where you goin', Daddy?" Vaughn asked, following the man.
"I gotta finish getting ready." At the moment, he had on his pants, but not yet put on anything more than an undershirt and had no socks. "What? You need me to help you?"
"No, I'mma wear this all day," she said, gesturing to her pajamas. "I think."
"Think again."
Giggling, she rushed to go grab onto one of his hands, letting him drag her along. "You gotta go to work?"
"Always." He made a face down at her. "I gotta go comb my hair."
That got a really loud giggle. "You don't have any!"
"What?" Reaching up with his free hand, he made a face. "I can't believe it. Where did it go?"
"You're silly."
"You're sillier."
To the stairs then, she let go of his hand so that she could run up them, because that was fun to a kid, before saying, "You think Andre can sleep in my bed?"
"And you sleep in the crate?"
"No! I sleep in my bed too! With him. Together."
"Oh." Paul feigned surprise. "Well, that's certainly a suggestion."
"Really?"
Nodding, he said, "But not an option."
"What?"
"Andre told me that he has a pretty big appetite for, well, maybe I shouldn't tell ya."
"Yes! What?"
"He said," Paul told her as, at the top of the stairs, they both stopped to stare at one another, "that he had a big appetite for...stuffed animals."
"What?"
Nodding, he said, "And I'm just afraid for Flopper and Dingo and Mr. Tiger and-"
"He can't eat them! They're family too!"
"Then he can't sleep in your bed, can he, baby, with them in it? I mean, even from his crate, he might-"
"Daddy, did he really tell you that?" She was skeptical. "Dogs can't talk."
"Excuse you, but that's my son. I know more about him than you think."
Considering this, Vaughn started walking again as she said, "Maybe he should just stay in Rora's room. Or with Murphy."
"Or just far away from you?"
"Yeah."
With a grin as he heard his oldest daughter, quite loudly, scolding Andre downstairs for something or other, as well as Murphy loudly tell her to leave him alone, he was just being playful, but not that she cared or anything, Paul patted his daughter on the head before saying, "Honestly, Vaughn, I don't think that'll be a problem. At all."
Request for stuff on Paul and Steph's new dog, so here it is. Got a bit long, but you guys'll live.