"Pearl! Come on! Don't keep us waiting any longer!" Darton shouted up to his eldest daughter.
"Alright, Dad! I'm coming, I'm coming!" Pearl shouted back down.
"Your Dad and I are going to be old men by the time you finish!" Nick was the next to shout up to the girl.
"You already are old men, Papa!" Pearl shouted back down again.
"Oh no you didn't!" Nick pretended to scream in indignation. Pearl didn't bother to reply, choosing instead to descend the stairs with a smirk.
"Told you I just needed a few more minutes," she said.
"Yes, and you look gorgeous," Darton and Nick both agreed.
"No, she doesn't!" Priscilla, her younger sister by 10 years, interrupted. "She always looks ugly! The only difference now is that she's in a dress and she actually tried to do her hair today!"
"You little monster!" Pearl snarled, taking a step towards the child. Priscilla only stuck her tongue out, standing her ground. "I worked really hard on this and you know I've always wanted to work in fashion!" Pearl continued.
"Well, you aren't very good," Priscilla crossed her little arms. Young and small as she was, she was unafraid of pretty much everything.
"Alright now, that's enough," Nick interrupted his quarreling daughters.
"But Dad!" Three voices complained, the first two being Pearl and Priscilla, of course, but the third being Darton.
"Darton!" Nick frowned at his husband.
"I just wanted to see who would win the sibling rivalry," the larger man raised his arms in defense.
"Oh, no, don't say that!" Nick despaired, but it was too late.
"I would've won!" Priscilla declared proudly.
"No you wouldn't!" Pearly snapped back. "I'm bigger, older, smarter and stronger! You would've lost!"
"Yeah, but if you hit me, I'm gonna tell Dad and Papa and they would ground you for your whole life!" Priscilla puffed out her chest proudly.
"And what do you think I'd be doing if I were confined to this house for the rest of my life, eh?" Pearl growled, crossing her arms as she scowled. Nick only gave his husband another despairing and angry look, but he said nothing else as they headed out to the car.
"Ooops," Darton muttered, entirely unrepentant. He was grinning from ear to ear as he followed Nick outside.
There, in the car, the third and final child was already waiting. Her name was Poppy, and she was right in the middle of her sisters, five years older than Priscilla and five years younger than Pearl. As of today, she was 13 and she was, by far, the quietest of the trio. While Pearl was large and in charge, and Priscilla was loud and proud, Poppy was the quiet, invisible, middle child. But she actually preferred it that way. She wasn't as bossy as Pearl, and she was much more polite than Priscilla.
Darton and Nick looked at her pityingly. They loved all three of their children, but they sometimes felt bad about how quiet Poppy was. That wasn't to say she was friendless, or never went out, but it was clear that she was the most forgettable of the three just because of her generally passive and introverted nature. She was so quiet! Darton and Nick suddenly felt bad about having to subject her to her sisters' sibling rivalry.
"Dad, Papa, do I have to listen to them on the whole drive over?" Poppy complained about five minutes into the drive. Priscilla and Pearl still going at it. Nick, who was driving, shot a look at his husband. Darton finally had the decency to look ashamed as he turned around.
"Sorry, kiddo," he told his middle child. "We can listen to the radio if-"
"I get dibs!" Priscilla shouted before Darton had even finished talking.
"What? No way! You picked last time!" Pearl snapped. "Papa, Dad! Why don't you be nice and let Poppy pick?"
Everyone in the car was surprised by this line, but the surprise faded relatively fast. It wasn't an act of kindness that made Pearl insist that Poppy pick the station, it was a tactic. The way she saw it, her fathers wouldn't be very happy at the idea of letting her pick the station, since she'd been just as bad as Priscilla. But Pearl was gaining the advantage by changing her goal from making sure that she got to pick the station to making sure that anyone but Priscilla got to pick the station.
This opened up more paths to victory, and Pearl could already sense that Poppy would be chosen just because she was the most well-behaved of the three, so Pearl wanted to jump on that before either of her dads could. If Pearl could pretended to support Poppy before anyone else, it would further decrease the odds of Priscilla being the one to get permission to pick the station. In short, by forfeiting her chance to win, Pearl was ensuring that Priscilla lost. It was petty, but hey, that was sibling rivalry! And even though the rest of the family caught on fast, the trick still worked, so Pearl got her way in the end anyway.
"I hate you," Priscilla mouthed to Pearl.
"Ooops," Pearl shrugged sweetly. Poppy only smirked to herself. She had gotten into her own fair share of sibling rivalry before, but for today, it seemed that she was safe, a gleeful spectator rather than an active participant. That was fine by her. No doubt, it would be her turn to quarrel with her sisters soon enough. For now, though, she was going to bask in being the well-behaved middle child!
"Urgh! I hate this song!" Priscilla crossed her arms again and began pouting.
"Hey! This is one of my favorite artists!" Poppy defended.
"But this song is so overplayed!" Priscilla whined.
"It's better than the stupid dubstep remixes, TouYube raps and nightcores you listen to!" Poppy accused.
"Hey! That's all indie stuff that comes from your average joe!" Priscilla reminded her older sister. "This radio crap was sung by a girl worth millions and she still isn't even that good! Her stuff is all so repetitive!"
"Oh, and dubstep isn't?" Pearl butted in with a snort. "It's nothing but one single monotonous beat and a few bass drops. It's nothing creative!"
"Oh, because the emo music you listen to just oozes with deep, meaningful prose!" Priscilla rolled her eyes.
"It's not emo music! It's alternative rock, punk rock and metal!" Pearl huffed, sitting up straighter as she took personal offense to Priscilla's barb.
"Would you rather listen to some classical?" Nick interrupted, suddenly switching the radio to the station holding all of the old dead composers from centuries gone by.
"Ugh! No!" All three of the siblings were able to put aside their rivalry for that one. Nick and Darton both laughed before switching the radio back.
"Or we could always listen to some riveting weather news!" Darton grabbed the controls next.
"-forecast is cloudy, with a 70% chance of some scattered showers across the-"
"NO!" even Nick protested this one.
"No need to be so aggressive!" Darton laughed, switching the radio back again.
"That man has the world's most boring, monotonous voice in history!" Nick groaned. "I listen to old broadcasts to help me fall asleep!"
"You do not!" Darton cried, raising his eyebrows to show he didn't believe Nick, then his look grew sensual. "I mean, I should know…" he said.
"Gross, Dad!" Pearl interrupted as Poppy and Priscilla covered their ears.
"Oh, sorry, love!" Darton turned around to wink at his daughter.
"Ugh," Pearl rubbed her temples. Darton turned back around with another laugh.
"Don't worry, you'll find a nice girl eventually," he promised. "Then you won't have to be jealous of Papa and I!"
"The day the weatherman's voice stops being so boring she will," Priscilla muttered.
"I heard that," Pearl kicked her youngest sister.
"Alright, no kicking!" Nick and Darton both quickly put an end to the fight. Arguing and bantering they could deal with, but there would be no physical violence. They didn't want any hospital visits, and they were willing to bet that their children would be more than capable of sending someone, including each other, to the hospital. Priscilla was a spitfire, Pearl could be very aggressive when her authority was challenged, and heck, even Poppy was unnaturally strong for a young girl of 13.
"Yes Fathers," three voices pretended to whine unhappily.
"Oooh! I love this song!" Nick cried as the song changed over. It was, of course, another pop song, as Poppy had chosen the Pop station, but it was one that was far more liked than the previous song. Nick began to bellow out the words with Darton keeping in perfect harmony.
"I think I'm gonna die," Pearl deadpanned.
"I think I'm gonna throw up," Priscilla agreed, even pretending to gag.
"Just cover your ears and wait for the torture to end," Poppy suggested, already blocking her ears with her fingers. If there was one thing that put their sibling rivalry to rest, at least for a little, it was when their dads sang or made stupid jokes. Darton and Nick saw their daughters, ears all plugged, and laughed, only encouraged to sing even louder and even more off-key, just to spite the children. The three children winced. They knew both Nick and Darton had better voices than this, but hey, anything to make the kids suffer. Wasn't having two dads just the best thing ever?
"Ah, that was fun!" Nick sighed once the song was over.
"I have it on my phone," Darton said. "I even have the karaoke version! Should we listen to it again?"
"NO!"
AN: It's about time we see families with more than one queer member, so here we go. Every single one in this family is some sort of queer. And it's all bundled up in a cute little "family bickering" fic. This is also pre-transition for Princeton.