Still

School

Rory's POV-

On September 10th, I woke up a little before 5:30, alone in bed. Logan went to the gym, and it was early and still dark out, so I just went back to sleep. A little while later I was woken up by Josie tapping my shoulder. "What do you need, Josie?" I asked.

"Where's daddy?"

"He went to the gym" I told her. "What do you need?"

"I wanna sleep here" she said. 

"Ok" I said. Josie climbed into Logan's spot and I went back to sleep.

An hour later I was woken up by Logan kissing my forehead. "Good morning"

"Hey"

"What's going on? Why's she in here?"

"Oh, she came in here, she wanted you, I told her you weren't here, and she climbed into your spot"

"Ok" Logan said. "I'm gonna go shower" 

Logan's POV-

After I got ready for the day, I started to get the girls up. First I went into Belle's room and sat next to her on her bed. "Good morning, princess" I rubbed her back.

"Daddy, it's kindergarten today" she said. She was really excited to start kindergarten which made me less nervous.

"I know" I said. "Why don't you go brush your teeth and get dressed, and then after I get Josie dressed I'll come do your hair"

"No, I want Rory to do it" she said

I was a little conflicted because I knew that Rory's would do Belle's hair if she asked, but I didn't want her to feel like she had to. "Why don't you let me do it?"

"Because Rory knows how to make the braids like mommy" she said. Belle liked having 2 French braids in her hair and as much as I tried to learn how to do that, I wasn't good at it.

"Alright, you can ask her, but get dressed and brush your teeth first"

"Ok"

I left Belle to get dressed and went into mine and Rory's room to get Josie up. "Time to wake up, princess"

"No" Josie grumbled and put her head in my lap.

"Come on" I picked her up and hugged her for a minute. "We have to get ready for preschool". It wasn't really preschool, she was still too young for that, but when Belle was in preschool and Josie was in daycare, it was easier to just call everything school.

"I wanna bring my elephant" Josie said.

"I know" I said. She still brought that thing everywhere she went. 

"And the um...the pink jacket"

"You don't have a pink jacket" I told her. Aside from the fact that it was 70 degrees outside and she would probably be fine with a sweatshirt, she didn't actually have a pink jacket.

"Yes"

"Do you mean your sweatshirt? Do you wanna wear your pink sweatshirt?"

"Yeah"

"Ok, you can wear your pink sweatshirt"

"And pink shoes"

"Ok"

——

Rory's POV-

When Logan got home from dropping the girls off at school, I was sitting at the table, trying to get some work done. I did have to go into the office that day, but only for a couple of hours. The rest of my work I could do from home.

"Hey, how'd it go?" I asked

"I was the only dad there" Logan said

"Um...ok?"

"Do men not drop their kids off at school? Is that a thing?"

"I don't know" I said. I didn't really grow up with my dad, so I didn't really know what was normal. "Does it matter?"

"Not to me, but Belle noticed and she asked me about it" he said. "I just don't want her to feel bad because her family is a little different than her friends"

"It won't matter" I said. "Those girls know how much you love them, and at the end of the day that's what's really gonna matter"

——

Logan's POV-

When I went to go pick up Belle from school, I was greeted by a very happy child. "How was school?"

"My teacher didn't believe me that I could read, but then I showed her and then she gave me a sticker. See?" Belle said and pointed to the sticker on her shirt.

It was important to me that my kids read. I read to them every night that I had them from the time they were born. I started teaching Belle how to read early, because it was important to me, and I planned to do the same with Josie. "Why didn't she believe you?"

"I don't know" she said "and we got cookies before we left, and I asked my teacher for an extra one so I can give it to Josie, but she said that there wasn't enough so I wanna share mine with her"

"That's nice of you"

"Because Josie maybe didn't get a cookie at school so now I can share with her"

"You're a good big sister" I said. From there we went to go get Josie and then we went home. 

I was making dinner and talking to Rory when Belle walked into the kitchen. "I have a question"

"Go ahead" I told her

"How does the sound from one phone go into another phone?"

How does she come up with these questions? "I have no idea"

"How old are you?"

"33" I said

"How old is Rory?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

"Rory, how old are you?"

"I'm almost 32" Rory said

"When is your birthday?" Belle asked

"October 8th"

"Why is your hair brown but my hair is blonde?"

"Because we're different people" Rory said. "And different people look different"

"Then why does Josie also have blonde hair?"

"Because you guys have the same parents" Rory said. "And your daddy has blond hair"

"Do you have brown hair because your daddy has brown hair?"

"Yeah"

——

Logan's POV-

One night, a few weeks later, I was asleep with Rory's head on my shoulder, when I was woken up by our bedroom door opening. I lifted my head slightly to see Josie standing next to me with her elephant blanket. I glanced at the clock and it was 1am. "What's wrong, Jo?"

"I need to sleep with you"

I glanced over at Rory who was asleep and carefully moved my arm out from under her so I could lift Josie up and put her next to me in the bed. "Go back to sleep" 

When I woke up Josie was in between me and Rory. I wasn't sure when she moved, but it didn't wake me.  Later that morning, after dropping the girls off at school, I was sitting in the kitchen, having coffee with Rory.

"Hey, it didn't bother you that I let Josie sleep in our bed, did it?" I asked. I would've asked before but it was the middle of the night.

"Why would it?" Rory added

"I'm just checking"

"Look, you were their dad before you were my boyfriend"

"So it doesn't bother you?"

"If your kid needs you, she needs you" 

"Ok"

"