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“Hi! I’m Anna,” a little girl around their age introduced herself from outside the sandbox. Rusty watched as Hank shuffled around, blocking his brother from the girl’s view. The boy’s grin was wide as ever, full of excitement to talk to another kid other than his twin for once.
“I’m Hank,” He told her, puffing out his chest a little. The blond pointed behind himself, revealing Dean as he leaned over a bit, who was looking very shy but smiling all the same, “And this is my brother Dean! We’re twins!”
“Can I play with you in the sand?” the little girl asked.
“Sure!” Hank’s grin somehow grew a little wider, and he shuffled over so Anna could join them properly. Rusty tuned out after that, trusting Brock to watch the boys while he worked out some notes on his latest experiment in a notebook he’d brought along. Several minutes later the children’s conversation pricked at his attention again.
“That’s my mom and dad, over there,” Anna was telling the boys. Rusty looked up from his notebook, eyes wide and a sinking feeling in his gut. The girl was pointing at a couple across the park, sitting at one of the picnic tables. The boys nodded, and Dean pointed over at Rusty.
“That’s our dad,” He told her with a little frown, “What’s a mom?”
Anna scowled in confusion and sat forward in the sand, knocking over one of the towers they’d been working on, “A mom is… uhm, you know. The one that kisses all your boo-boos, and gives you baths, and feeds you, and dresses you, and stuff. You know.”
“Dad does some of that stuff, sometimes,” Hank told her a-matter-of-factly as he started trying to fix the fallen tower, “But Brock does it more, I guess.”
“Brock?” The girl asked, “What’s that?”
“Not what. Who,” Dean giggled. He pointed behind Rusty to where Brock was leaning against a tree a little further away and smoking with the same uneasy frown Rusty was currently sporting, “That’s Brock. He lives with us and helps dad take care of us.”
“His hair is long and pretty like a mommy,” The girl told them thoughtfully, and Rusty felt his mouth fall open against his will. The man whipped back around to stare at Anna in disbelief, “He looks scary, though.”
“He protects us! That’s why he looks all tough!” Hank told her proudly, puffing his chest out again. The girl nodded sagely, going back to helping Hank fix their towers.
“That’s what dads do,” She told them.
“Our dad doesn’t do that,” Dean frowned. Something about that statement bothered Rusty, but he couldn’t put a finger on it just yet. Filing it away for later, the scientist continued to listen as Dean went on, “He’s really smart though. He’s a super-scientist!”
Anna hummed in thought for a second, before she snapped her head up, grinning like a loon, ”So you have two dads instead of a dad and a mom? Are they married and everything?“
Rusty felt his heart stop, he was sure of it. He chanced a look back at Brock who was staring in horror at the little girl, and crushing his cigarette in a white-knuckled grip.
“Boys!” He called out in a strangled voice, “Time to go!”
“But, Pop!” Hank and Dean whined in unison.
“No buts! Come on!”