From the moment the alarm went off next to his bed, rousing him from a brief nap after having just gotten home from the airport at around 3 A.M., Logan was nervous. He rolled out of bed with a sleepy groan and headed into the bathroom to shave off his stubble and take care of his business before he stumbled back into the bedroom to change into a polo and some jeans. When he was dressed, and a tiny bit awake he crept down the hall and slowly opened the door to one of the other bedrooms, eyes dropped to the sleeping clone of him in the bed. Logan heaved a sigh, hoping this was really what was best for him, as everyone kept insisting, and he bent to his knees by the bed.
Cautiously, he lifted a hand to run his fingers through the mess of thick, brown hair. Smiled when the little boy stirred. "Ace Man," he said gently to his son, brushed his fingers down his cheek. The skin was rosy, damp with perspiration. "Hey buddy, it's your big day, you wanna get up and get some breakfast with Pops?" But Ace nuzzled his face into his pillow and showed no signs of wanting to get up to get ready for his first day of kindergarten. That could prove problematic, considering that unlike in his college days, the teachers were going to know that the person sitting in the seat was not Ace Echolls. With a little sigh, Logan lifted himself from his knees to drop into the little twin-sized bed, wrapped his arms around the boy, and started to blow raspberries on his neck.
The sound of his laughter rang through the empty house almost instantly, and Logan grinned as his boy surrendered and sat up to stretch. They hurried downstairs, and the cook had prepared a breakfast of champions. A pancake with a piece of bacon for a mouth and two dots of powdered sugar for eyes. Ace used his fork to spread the sugar before letting Cook pour syrup on it and munching it down. Logan's own breakfast consisted of a plain toasted bagel with butter and a tall cup of coffee to wake him up more fully, and as soon as Ace complained that he was full, Logan swallowed the last bite of bagel and scooped him up to take him upstairs to get dressed.
Fifteen minutes later they were in the car, Ace strapped into the front seat with his book bag full of brand new school supplies tucked in his arms, a brand new pooka-shell necklace around his neck, a gift from his father for his first day surviving the school grind. Logan glanced at him at a red light, before pressing the gas when it turned green. "So you know. .if you don't like it there or you get scared or the kids are mean. . .you just start crying really hard and they'll call me to come pick you up, okay?"
Ace had grabbed his father's sunglasses from the console between them and popped them onto his face while his father had been speaking to him, they were huge over his eyes and were sliding off his nose. He turned his head as he addressed Logan, a cheesy little grin on his face as he gave Logan the thumbs up. "I be cool, Pop!"
That was the Ace Man, perpetually cool, and about ten times cooler than his parents already. There wasn't a thing in the world that scared him and frankly, that scared Logan. He sighed. "Well, maybe you'll have to come pick me up, then, Ace Man. I'm losing it, here."
They pulled up into the parking lot. The kindergartner parents could come in and take pictures with their kids, make sure they got off to an okay start before they had to leave. Logan was going to milk it for all it was worth. He carried Ace's bag inside and just before they reached the classroom, Logan stopped his son and bent to be eye-level with him. "Okay last talk this morning, promise, Ace Man. You know. .mommy would be here too, if she could. But she couldn't get out of work until tonight. So we're gonna go have a really nice dinner and you can tell her what a pussy Pop was today."
Ace made a face at him. "Mommy doesn't like that word, Pop, go wash your mouth!"
Fuck, fuckity fuck! After he had properly grimaced Logan patted his son's head. "Before I leave, promise."
They pressed on to the classroom where the teacher, a woman who had to be at least five years younger than Logan, was waiting outside the classroom door. He managed a smile and she flashed a much more flirty one back before bending to Ace. "Hey there, what's your name?" Logan caught sight of the name tags in her hands, and sighed, waiting for Ace's reply.
"Ace Man!" He told her proudly, and she laughed at his answer, and his enthusiasm. Logan glared slightly, and when she caught sight of that she immediately straightened and dug out the name-tag marked 'Ace Echolls' to loop around his neck. "You guys can go on in, find your uh, desk."
After searching unsuccessfully for five minute or so they discovered the marked desk intended for him was marked as 'Race', and not Ace. Logan was tempted to just grab Ace and walk when he remembered what kind of trouble that would get him in and dug out the camera from Ace's bag. Made him pose for the obligatory cheesy photos at the desk, and then asked a single mother nearby to shoot one of them at the desk together both with the camera and his cell phone. When she finished he took the cell and directed that the photo be sent to his most recent recipient before taking more pictures of his son.
The parents were shooed out shortly after, and he grumbled as he left the building, dug his phone out of his pocket as it started to ring. He paused to look at the caller ID first before he answered with a helpless smile. "It was so hard. He was so into it and all I wanted to do was take him home and play Tomb Raider all day. And they spelled his name wrong, how the hell do you misspell ACE?"
On the other line Veronica had just barely gotten a grip of herself after seeing the photo of her husband and son on his first day of kindergarten, wiped at her eyes with a tissue and sniffled lightly. "Not everyone can be as smart as us, babe. I guess we were wrong when we thought we gave him an easy name. Are you sure he was okay? Did he ask for me? Did he cry?" The guilt in her voice made Logan's belly rumble and he shook his head, shifted his balance as he answered her calmly.
"No, he was our Little Man. He told the teacher his name was Ace Man, and told me I needed to go wash my mouth out with soap."
"What did you say to him!"
Logan winced. "I may have mentioned my being a kitty-cat."
"Oh, Logan." But she laughed. Sighed into the phone, looking around herself before saying. "Well my flight leaves in about ten minutes, they're about to board second class and then they're gonna make us all shut off our phones, but I'll see you. . you and the boy in a few hours okay?"
"Okay," He nodded with a smile, licked his lip before adding. "He was tough, and he's looking forward to dinner tonight. I love you."
Veronica's face hurt with all the smiling she was doing, but she nodded. "I love you too. Thank you for taking him. And being so great about this, I didn't expect. . ."
"Veronica, I'm not upset. I miss you, Ace misses you. Just get home. And in one piece, please. I can only handle so many personal tragedies a day. I just lost my little buddy to the very system that corrupted us for all those years."
She had to bite back laughter as they started to ask people to turn off phones. "That's my man. Love you, see you, bye!"