Double the Love

The morning after Chief Bogo and his husband Benjamin had celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary, the Chief was putting down plates on the table, while Benjamin still slept. He hummed softly to himself as he served breakfast for the two of them. Benjamin meandered down the stairs, still a bit groggy.

"Morning, sunshine," Bogo said cheerfully. "How'd you like our anniversary?"

"It was a fantastic treat, as always," Benjamin said happily, "How on earth did I get a husband as wonderful as you?"

"Being in the right place at the right time?" the Chief asked.

"Oh, stop," Benjamin said, giggling and flicking his wrist. "You know, honey… since we have been married for four years, I've been meaning to ask something."

"Yes?" he responded, "What is it?"

"I think maybe… it's time… we… umm… had a kid?" Benjamin asked. "You'd be a great father."

"As would you…" the Chief said. "You could be the one who embarrasses the kid in public and I could be the one who scares the crap out of him when he gets a bad report card."

"Sweetie, we're trying to be talking about being good dads, not the kind of dads mammals start punk bands about," Benjamin said.

"You're right," he responded, "I was being facetious. But actually, I think that's a splendid idea. Provided you don't make me change all the diapers."

"I wouldn't," Benjamin said. "As long as you don't make me get up every single time the baby starts crying in the middle of the night."

"Deal," his husband said, smiling. "Are we really gonna do this?"

"That's up to you," Benjamin said, "I'm 100% for it so all I need is your permission."

"Granted," the Chief said, which caused his husband to sprint around the room and then leap happily into his arms. "But you're going to have to make some room for the baby."

"Right, yes, of course," he said, leaping down, "I just got super excited."

"You are pretty adorable when you get excited," the Chief said. "But be careful. You won't be the most adorable face under this roof for long."

"I count on it," Benjamin responded.

The Bogos found the Fox n Flocks Foster Home a few blocks away from their house. They were greeted by a polite aardvark with a thick accent. She asked, "Would you like to look at the babies?"

"Well, yes," the Chief explained, "How did you know?"

"All the couples who come in here are looking for the babies," she said. "They're in that room over there."

The Bogos entered a room of beautiful babies of various species. They didn't pay much mind to the tiny ones or the giant ones. Benjamin squealed delightedly.

"What? What is it, Ben?" his husband asked, turning his head.

Benjamin was holding a small caracal kitten in his arms. She mewed and purred softly. "Isn't she the most adorable little baby you've ever seen in your life!?" Benjamin asked.

"Well, she is really…" the Chief said, "I can't imagine the circumstances that led to her ending up here…"

"So are we agreed that we take her home?" Benjamin asked.

"Yes," the Chief said, "Let's go and…"

Benjamin squealed delightedly again when he saw a water buffalo calf toddling around from the other side of a glass wall. He bumped his head on the wall, rubbed it, and then continued toddling on.

"Oh…" the Chief said. "Do you want to get him instead?"

"No!" Benjamin said, "I want to get both!"

"Two babies?" he asked. "I thought we agreed on one."

"But… but look at her!" Benjamin said, showing the kitten to him once again. "Look at him!" he said, pointing to the calf. He gave his husband his best pouty kitten face and said, "Look at them!"

The Chief sighed as he said, "Okay, okay, Ben. We'll get both."

"Yay!" Benjamin cheered, and then he hopped up and down, tightly holding the kitten to his chest.

"Have you chosen one?" the aardvark asked.

"Yeah!" Benjamin shouted, "Well, actually two. Both this kitten," he said, holding her up, "And that calf," he said, pointing to him.

"Alright, let's just get the papers finalized," the aardvark said, beckoning the Bogos, both parents and soon-to-be children, to her desk. They signed the paperwork and paid the fee, and soon they were legally parents to two beautiful young mammals—the 6 month old caracal they had named Susan and the 18 month old water buffalo they had named Jason.

"We're parents!" Ben said, "I can't wait to see our little babies grow up."

"Yeah…" his husband said, looking at the children fondly. "Thank goodness we're walking distance from home because I definitely did not pick up two car seats. You willing to watch the babies for a few hours while I go shopping?"

"Of course," Ben responded. "Wait… wait, before you go, sweetie pumpkin… we have to decide something super important."

"What?" he asked in concern.

"Well, Jason will probably be talking pretty soon… and Susan to follow… what should we do to let them not call us the exact same thing causing confusion for everyone?"

"Oh, that's really important alright," his husband remarked. "Well, this might just be my own flawed experience, but I think that the kind of father who would sing you silly campfire tunes in the woods while roasting up s'mores for everyone would usually go by 'Daddy' and the kind who would trek across the globe to knock out a megalomaniacal elephant to protect you would more likely be 'Papa'. So how about you go by Daddy and I go by Papa?"

"That… that actually makes perfect sense, although I'm not sure if I believe there's a trend," Benjamin said. "Okay, so while you're at the store, I'll make sure to only try to convince Jason to say 'Daddy' so he doesn't get confused."

"Don't you dare try to get him to say his first word while I'm not there," his husband said playfully.

"It's okay, I'll film everything until you get back," Benjamin said, holding up his phone.

"Alright," he responded, "Let's see… mashed vegetables, milk, diapers, two car seats… two strollers or a double?"

"Better deal," Benjamin said. "See you later… Papa."

"You too… Daddy," the newly dubbed Papa responded.

The first thing that Daddy did when Papa was out of the door was call his friend, Judy.

"Hello?" she responded.

"Judy! How's it going?" he asked.

"You sound excited," Judy responded, "Well more excited than usual."

"I'm a father!" he squealed delightedly.

"Really?" Judy asked, "You and the Chief have a kid?"

"No," he responded, "We have two! And they are both so goshdarn adorable I could just about die. Papa's at the store right now."

"Papa?" Judy asked.

"Yeah, we decided that he's Papa and I'm Daddy," he said.

"That's sweet," Judy said, "Any chance of them coming to visit their Aunt Judy?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll get to know them very well. Well, gotta go. I don't want to miss anything amazing," he responded. He hung up the phone.

Papa came home with the supplies in tow. He asked, "Did I miss anything?"

"No," responded Daddy.

The next several months, neither Daddy nor Papa got almost any sleep, but they would be lying if they said fatherhood wasn't still the best feeling in the world. One day, Daddy brought his children to work. Susan crawled across the desk, while Daddy had to tell Jason not to play with the radio alarm—although it did look like fun. Judy cooed when she saw the children, "They are so precious," she said. "What are their names?"

"I'm Jason!" volunteered the boisterous calf. Daddy was astonished and pressed the button on the intercom.

"Uh, Chief Hubby?" he asked, "Really, really, really important message."

"What is it, Ben?" he asked back.

"Jason introduced himself to Officer Hopps," he responded.

"But… wait, wait, wait! He introduced himself? As in, he talked?" Papa asked, barely containing himself.

"Papa!" squealed Jason in the direction of the intercom, attempting to touch the speaker.

"Jason, I'm so proud of you. I'll come see you in a second," Papa responded, trying to contain his glee to a socially acceptable level.

"Oh so… uh… he hasn't talked before," Judy said.

"Oh, right, right, I haven't introduced you to my daughter yet. Her name's Susan," Daddy said, smiling lovingly at the kitten. She grabbed the end of Judy's right ear and pulled.

"Oh, ow," she said.

"No, no, no," Daddy said, taking Susan and wagging a finger at her, "It's not nice to pull a bunny's ears."

"It's okay, really," Judy said, laughing awkwardly. "She's gonna be a strong one, I can tell."

Pretty soon, Papa had made his way down the stairs. He grabbed Jason and spun him around. "Son, say something again!" he exclaimed, as he held him.

Jason enjoyed the attention and pointed around labeling the animals in his vicinity, "I'm Jason… Papa, Daddy, Susan, Ocifer Pops."

Judy giggled. "It's Officer Hopps, but you can call me Aunt Judy," she said.

"Anchovy!" he squealed obliviously, causing all three officers to smile widely.

"What are the chances we're going to make jokes about 'Officer Anchovy' for years to come?" Papa asked.

"Around a hundred percent," Daddy responded.

"Just don't tell Nick," Judy said.

"We wouldn't," Papa said.

"But if you want to, I think being called something silly by a child learning to talk is one of the most seriously adorbs things that could happen," Daddy added.

Later that day, Susan got up and started toddling over the desk and it looked as though she might slip. "No, no, no, Susan!" Daddy screamed, causing her to start crying. He rocked her in his arms and kissed her cheek to comfort her. "I'm sorry, I want you to learn to walk, but I want to make sure that you won't fall off of something." He placed her on the ground and watched her toddle over to Nick. She pulled his tail.

"Yeowch!" he screamed. He turned around. "Oh, aren't you a cutie? Where's your mommy?" She tilted her head curiously. "You know, your mommy. The one who gives you kisses and cuddles and won't let you out of her sight." She pointed at Daddy, with a very confused expression. He could have intervened and cleared things up but he thought her bemused reactions to Nick's false assumptions were amusing.

"Oh," Nick said, "I guess I should have asked where your daddy was."

She pointed at Daddy again, this time smiling knowingly.

Nick scooped her up and walked over to Daddy, and said, "I confused your kid by asking her where her mommy was."

"It's an understandable mistake," Daddy said, taking Susan back. "But isn't she precious? Aside from the ear pulling and tail pulling, I mean."

"Yeah, that one's a firecracker in the making," Nick said.

Daddy smiled at his daughter and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, causing her face to crinkle. He squealed delightedly, knowing that this was only the beginning.