This is a one-shot based off my other story Worth it. Basically Ivan and Alfred are foster parents to a five year old Francis and a two year old Arthur in this, as it takes place a year before the events of Worth It.
"You see this thing here buddy? This is called a potty! It's what we pee and crap in." Alfred explained cheerfully as he set down a plastic light blue children's toilet down on the floor of the bathroom, next to the bigger toilet. Arthur, their newest child who was two, stared at the object thoughtfully.
"Potty..." The toddler repeated, jamming a thumb in his mouth. His fine blonde baby hair was damp from his recent bath, and he stood only clad in a diaper.
"That's right Arthur, you go pee-pee and poopy in there." Ivan, who was there as well, said approvingly. He rolled his eyes at Alfred, who was snickering at Ivan using such childish words.
"No pee-pee," Arthur replied, looking a little horrified at the thought of doing such a thing in that little plastic contraption. "No poopy."
"But why not? Don't you want to be a big boy?" Alfred asked, or more like persuaded from the sound of his voice.
"No-no," Arthur answered firmly, before sticking his thumb back in his mouth and toddling out of the room.
They'd had Arthur for a total of two weeks now. They were all absolutely in love with him! Even Francis, who had at first been pretty jealous of having a new brother, had grown close to him. Arthur had been neglected by his old family, which is why he was taken away.
Arthur hadn't gotten much help with his old family, which left Ivan and Alfred to ensure that he developed as a normal two year old should. Arthur was a little behind, particularly with coordination. He had also never been toilet trained, which left his new parents to do so.
"Uh...that went well!" Alfred said, staring down at the plastic toilet awkwardly.
"Yes, he was ecstatic," Ivan replied dryly. "Well, I suppose it takes time."
Ivan and Alfred really had no experience with potty training. Francis had already been potty trained when they had first gotten him at age four, so they were completely new to this.
Over the course of the next few days, Alfred and Ivan tried their best to get Arthur going on the potty. Whenever Alfred suggested it, Arthur would tell him no, and just go back to his playing. When Ivan tried to command him to use it, that only resulted in Arthur running and hiding under his bed.
"Ivan, have you seen Artie's potty?" Alfred wondered a week later one morning as he came into the kitchen.
"It's not in the bathroom?" Ivan, who was hand drying his dishes, asked.
"No dude, it's gone! Francis, have you seen Artie's potty?" Alfred asked their older child.
"Non, I haven't seen it," Francis replied through a mouthful of his croissant. The kid seemed pretty honest, which only left one more suspect. Alfred turned towards Arthur, who was sitting in his table booster seat, messily eating oatmeal.
"Artie, do you know where your potty is?"
"Yes," Arthur answered without any hesitation.
"Where is it?" Ivan asked.
"Potty went bye-bye," Arthur told them, waving as if to prove a point.
"What do you mean it went bye-bye?!" Alfred almost ended up shouting. "What did you do with it buddy?"
"It's all gone. Bye-bye potty!" Was all Arthur answered.
Alfred face palmed.
"He will be potty trained whether he likes it or not! I will not fail with this! If I can't even teach the little guy to use a toilet, then I'm pretty sure I'll fail at a lot of other parenting stuff." Alfred said later that day.
"He'll come around. The age for toilet training is different for everyone. Maybe he needs a few more months. You could always call Dr. Elizaveta, I'm sure she could give you some advice." Ivan suggested.
"Great idea babe! Why didn't I think of that?" Alfred agreed. Dr. Elizaveta was probably the best pediatrician in the world. She was great with kids, and also was a great supporter of gay rights. She was their assigned doctor for all of the kids, and always had an answer for everything, which is why Alfred called her immediately.
"Alfred, there's really no need to worry. I've seen children potty trained as early as one and as late as four and a half. Everyone is different," Elizaveta told him ten minutes later after he explained the situation to her.
"Dammit, that's what Ivan said too..." Alfred said, disappointed that there was no definite age answer.
"Then listen to Ivan. Honestly Alfred, you always get yourself worked up over nothing. Maybe try to make it fun for him."
"I'll try...going to the bathroom isn't exactly like your first trip to the zoo.." Alfred muttered.
"You'll get this," The Hungarian told him. "Now I have to get back to work. I'll see you in a few weeks, at Francis's checkup I believe."
"Okay. Thanks Liz," Alfred said, and they hung up.
"I take it I was right?" Ivan said, having heard Alfred's side of the conversation.
"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in," He replied. "I'm gonna go give Artie a bath before dinner. You can cook tonight. I'm craving hot dogs."
"Alright then, hot dogs it shall be," Ivan said with a chuckle, leaving the room to go towards the kitchen. "But tomorrow night I want Okroshka."
"Sure, whatever that is," Alfred said, before quickly leaving the room in search for their toddler.
"Now buddy, using the potty really isn't that big of a deal," Alfred chattered to Arthur as he poured a large glob of kids tear free shampoo atop his head in the bath. Arthur seemed more intent with patting the bubbles that were in the tub. (Honestly, what was a bath without at least a million bubbles?)
"Why don't you at least explain to me why you don't like it. What's so bad about the potty?" Alfred asked, hoping that maybe he could find the source of Arthur's hesitance about the potty and fix it.
"Yuck," Arthur told him.
"Yuck? Dude, it's not yuck. Going in your diaper is yuck," Alfred tried explaining to him.
"Cho'late?" Arthur asked.
"Not until after dinner. Now listen buddy, tomorrow I'm going to buy a new potty for you, and then we'll get to the bottom of this potty business. Got it?"
"No," Arthur answered. "Yuck."
"I just don't get it. Isn't it better then going in your diaper?" Alfred asked.
"Uh-uh," Arthur told him.
"You're a strange little guy. Alright, close your eyes while I rinse," Alfred said, getting to work. The rest of the bath went by rather quickly, and pretty soon Arthur was smelling like strawberry peach blast. Alfred was really in debt to Ivan for buying that amazing kids shampoo. Though he would never admit it, a few times he had even used that shampoo on himself...
"Alright kiddo, out we go," Alfred said, lifting Arthur out of the tub and wrapping a towel around him. He was about to start drying him off, but Arthur slapped his hands away.
"No, no!" Arthur told him angrily.
"What, what's wrong?" Alfred asked frantically.
Arthur didn't answer however, and instead ripped the towel off of himself. Alfred suppressed a groan; he really didn't want to play chase the nakey Arthur tonight. (Yes, it turned out that sometimes Arthur greatly enjoyed running around butt naked to avoid getting his jammies on, mostly during nights when he was full of energy).
Much to Alfred's great surprise though, Arthur didn't take off running. Instead he toddled over to the big toilet and climbed right on.
"Pee-pee," Arthur told him softly, and then there was a tinkling sound. Alfred's mouth dropped open in shock for a moment, before realizing what was happening. Arthur was using the toilet!
"Oh my god."
"Ivan, oh my god Ivan! Get up here now!"
This is what the Russian heard as soon as he'd turned on the stove to make hot dogs. Francis had been sitting on the counter next to him, helping with dinner. Ivan's reaction was instant though; He turned off the stove, grabbed Francis, and took off towards the sound of his husband's voice.
"Where are you?" Ivan called, seeing that their bedroom light was turned off.
"The bathroom! Hurry!" Alfred answered.
"I wonder what he wants. This had better be good," Ivan muttered to nobody in particular, but quickly rushed to the bathroom, holding Francis on his hip. As soon as he ran into the bathroom, he was greatly surprised.
Alfred, who was standing just inside the doorway, was beaming. Ivan followed his line of sight and gasped. There, sitting the regular toilet butt naked was none other than Arthur!
"I pottied!" He told them happily.
"You sure did. My little Artie went potty!" Alfred sang, before scooping Arthur off of the toilet and holding the now squealing toddler high up in the air.
"This is wonderful! Arthur, what a good boy you are!" Ivan praised as well.
"Now he's actually human!" Francis commented. "He wont sit in his own poo anymore!"
It turned out that Arthur just didn't appreciate the smaller potty for some reason. He had just been instantly ready for a bigger toilet. Even though he would still have accidents and need to wear pull ups at night, it was certainly a big start.
Nobody ever found out what Arthur had done with the other potty, and he never told them.
The end
a/n: Tell me how you liked it! By the way, I'm working on other requests too! I just thought of this one today and I had to get it out.
Sorry I haven't updated recently. Christmas kept me busy, and I've been sick for the past few days. I'm working on the rest of Flu Season, that'll probably be updated tomorrow. Also I'm working on Alternate :)