Work Text:
Patrick, when he was in his little headspace, could be very energetic. Sometimes, a hyper Patrick, when let loose in the apartment without Pete's supervision (which was honestly rare) could mean trouble. Patrick really didn't mean to when he would occasionally break something, he'd make it up to Pete in a heartbeat with a crayon drawing and a nice cuddle with him in the big chair.
So when Pete found out from word of mouth that there was a considerably large soft-play area in the next state, he quickly called them up.
Pete talked to the people who worked there to see if he could clear out the space for an afternoon. He didn't explicitly tell them why, but he made it sound like he wanted it for Bronx (which he would absolutely throw Bronx a party there the next time he got), and they let him have it. The only people who would be there wouldn't even be on the same floor as them, and Pete was completely ok with that.
When he told Patrick about it over a simple dinner of mac 'n cheese, the boy nearly tipped over his bowl and sippy cup in excitement as he rushed to Pete's to hug him.
"Thank you thank you Daddy!" Patrick squealed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Pete smiled at Patrick; he was glad that Patrick was okay with this so far. That was really good, because sometimes his baby could be shy about leaving the apartment when he was little. "Anything for you, squirt."
For the rest of that evening, Patrick asked Pete questions about it, like How big is it?, Are there hidey-holes, Daddy?, Please tell me there's a ball pit, Daddy! There has to be a ball pit! Pete would answered as honestly as he could, only knowing so much from when he looked at the website and looked at customer reviews before calling the place.
When it was time for Patrick to go to bed, he almost didn't want to go to sleep 'Cause we're going tomorrow, Daddy! Tomorrow!! Pete had to warn him a few times to stay in bed after reading him his bedtime story and tucking him in with Ally-gator, his pacifier, and nighttime sippy of grape juice. Patrick whined and wiggled around in bed, but didn't get out from under the covers because he knew not to push Daddy so close to doing something fun. It took a bit longer than usual for Patrick to fall asleep, but Pete was certainly happy to see his baby being so excited about this.
The next morning, Patrick was awake before Pete, and Pete found him in the living room talking animatedly with some of his stuffed animals on the sofa, cartoons buzzing on the TV in the background.
"You're really excited, aren't you, Trick?" Pete asks as he leans over the back of the sofa to kiss Patrick on the forehead good morning.
Patrick nods because he's going to go somewhere with Daddy, there would be places to play hide-n-seek for once, and there would be a ball-pit! He really really was looking forward to getting in the ball-pit and hiding from Daddy.
"I'm glad! But all good little boys need their breakfast before going out, so what do you want for breakfast?" Pete chuckles, making his way to the kitchen and grinning as he hears Patrick scramble off of the sofa and to his side.
"Ally-gator wants chocolate cereal, Daddy! I want pancakes!" Patrick answers, clutching the bright blue stuffed alligator to his chest with one hand and grabbing Pete's hand with the other.
"How about chocolate cereal on top of your pancakes?"
Patrick cheers his agreement, dragging Pete over to the stove, then going over to where he knew the pancake pan would be and pulling it out. Pete says thanks with a smile as he takes the pan away from Patrick and starts to hunt down the ingredients he needed. Patrick also helps with that by finding the box of pancake mix and the super-sized box of chocolate cereal which was his and Ally-gator's favorite.
Once everything is gathered together, Pete allows Patrick to help with the first few steps of making the pancakes, which the younger gleefully does, he doesn't argue with Pete when he's told to wash his hands of the batter and get settled down at the table. He finds a coloring book in one of the cabinets and sits down at the table to color until Pete says that the pancakes are done, which wasn't too terribly long later.
Patrick goes over to Pete and helps him cover the pancakes with syrup and flakes of chocolate cereal. "This looks really yummy, Daddy!" Patrick says, grinning as he sprinkles the last bit of chocolate cereal on the top of his pancakes.
"You and Ally-gator are going to be absolutely messy when you're done, though. But it does look pretty delicious." Pete nods, placing the plate at Patrick's seat on the table, and giving Patrick a watchful eye as he starts to devour it.
Ally-gator of course gets a little bit of syrup and pancake bits on his mouth, but Patrick's face was probably more covered in syrup than dry skin, and Pete has to laugh as he brings a wet wipe to clean it off, which Patrick tries to wriggle away from.
"Not that messy, Daddy!" he giggles as he playfully bats Pete's hand away.
"Course you're not, sweetheart. I just don't want my sweet boy to have a sticky sweet face." Pete says as he gets the last of the syrup and leans down to kiss Patrick on the nose.
After Patrick's messy breakfast, he and Pete made quick work of getting ready to go; Pete called in a final time to be sure that the soft-play place was clear like they had promised, with Patrick pressing into his side to listen in on the conversation.
When they had everything together, they made their way to the downstairs garage, Patrick running and holding Pete's hand tight in his as they went down the stairs. Even though Pete had to chastise Patrick for running down the stairs so fast, he was absolutely overjoyed at his excitement.
At the car, Patrick was nearly bouncing off the walls as he gripped the back seat door handle. Pete chuckled as he unlocked the door for him and watched him hurriedly get in and attempt to buckle his seatbelt, which wasn't going entirely well due to the fact he was bouncing so much.
"Daddy! Can you help me please?" Patrick whined from the back seat, letting out a frustrated groan as he kicked against the back of the driver's seat.
Pete of course helped him fasten his seatbelt as well as fastening Ally-gator into the seat next to Patrick. He then went back to the driver's seat and got himself fastened as the car roared to life, a story-telling CD still in the player from when Bronx had last ridden in the car a few days before.
"Can we have Disney music please, Daddy? This is Bronx's CD." Patrick says, a bossy tone in his voice as he watches Pete drive with critical eye.
"You know I was going to, bossy-pants." Pete changes the CD to Patrick's custom-burned Disney song CD as he reaches the first light, and he almost wasn't prepared for Patrick to start belting out the first lines to 'Chim Chim Cherree'.
As Pete drives there, he joins Patrick in the songs as they agreed the first time they had listened to it in the car, and answers the last few questions the boy had concerning the soft-play area. When they actually get in the parking lot, one of Patrick's favorite musical numbers starts to play, so they have to wait until it's over before properly getting out of the car.
"Lookit, lookit, Daddy! This place is huge!" Patrick squeaks in astonishment as he gets out of the car, Ally-gator in hand.
Pete himself is a bit amazed by the size of the outside, and really hopes that the inside will be just as large. "I see, baby. It's bigger than the whole apartment complex back home, hmm?"
"Uh-huh! C’mon, Daddy, we gotta go in!" Patrick once again grabs Pete's hand in his, walking with him across the parking lot and into the building, which was a rather nice temperature for indoors, or so Pete thought.
At the front desk, there was a middle-aged woman who didn't particularly look like she wanted to be there as she noticed Pete and Patrick come in. "You must be the guy who bought out the place, aren't you?" she asked, pulling out a large binder from under her desk and placing it where Pete could get to it.
"Yeah, that's me." Pete says, grabbing for a pen and signing himself in, keeping an eye on Patrick who was browsing through a home and gardening magazine behind him. "Is there anything I need to know?"
"Not really. Just remember to call the downstairs floor if someone gets injured or if a piece of equipment is broken, someone will come up. Basically, just make sure whoever else comes here follows the rules posted on the walls. I hope you have a good time." She replies, taking back the binder once Pete's put his signature in it, sitting up from her desk.
"Thank you, ma’am!" Pete says as he feels himself being jerked away from the front desk by Patrick, who is giving him an impatient look.
Pete doesn't see the lady leave the desk, because he has to make sure Patrick doesn't trip over himself to get into the room, which he thankfully doesn't. However, he nearly crashes into Patrick when they suddenly stop, Patrick gasping.
"It's so huge! Daddy, thank you!" Patrick let's go of Pete's hand in favor of hugging him really tight, and Pete was admittedly unprepared, so it took him a moment to reciprocate.
Pete can literally feel the sheer joy and happiness radiating off of Patrick, and he never knew that coming to one of these places would make him so damn excited. He's certainly glad he was eavesdropping that one afternoon when he'd picked Bronx up from daycare.
"You're welcome, squirt. How about you go ahead and explore? Or do you want me with you?" Pete presents options as he ruffles Patrick's hair, making him scrunch up his face slightly.
It takes Patrick a moment to mull over what Pete's said, and he cracks a smile when he reaches his decision. "Come with me, Daddy! We should play hide-n-seek!" He's bouncing on the heels of his tennis shoes and Pete can't really resist coming with him even though hide-n-seek wasn't his best game.
"Am I counting, Trick?" Pete asks, and he doesn't get an answer because Patrick's already crawled away through one of the tunnels. He shakes his head fondly and begins to count to a hundred, knowing that Patrick will bother him about it later if he counted less.
In the tunnels, there are little clear windows made of plastic which allows Patrick to look through them to get an idea of what the set looks like, and he instantly catches eye with the massive ball pit. He takes a moment to hold Ally-gator up to the window, knowing that Pete was really slow when he counted. "Ally-gator, you see the ball pit?? We're gonna go hide in there!" he whispers to the stuffed alligator, as if it were top secret.
He makes Ally-gator nod a few times before continuing through the tunnels which were surprisingly wide enough for him to go through. There are other things of interest that he sees, like an enclosed replica car one could get into and what appeared to be a climbing net, but nothing made him more excited than the ball pit. Patrick really hoped it was deep enough he could pretend to 'swim' in it, as well as hide in so he could surprise Pete when he found him.
Patrick has probably been crawling through the tunnels for close to five minutes before he realizes he's probably lost. He honestly didn't expect the place to be a big as it was, and being excited sometimes had its downfall. The ball pit is still in sight, but it doesn't appear to be much closer or further away than it had been before. This is pretty concerning if he wanted to hide there. Pete was at the very least after him now, and Patrick did not want to be found in the tunnels.
That's when he realizes that Ally-gator had just made a very smart suggestion. Look for slides, Patrick.
He's nods firmly to himself, tries not to seem scared for Ally-gator's sake, and crawls on forward in the multi-colored tunnels.
A few minutes later, he finds a slide, a really deep one at that. He also begins to hear another person above him, in the tunnels. Pete's going to find him before he can get to the ball pit! Patrick scurries to the slide, and speeds down it, not at all prepared when he lands in the ball pit.
He grabs for Ally-gator, who he almost let go of when they made impact with the plastic spheres and started to sink. He has to applaud Ally-gator, because it was his idea to find the slides, but that can wait for later, when hide-n-seek is over.
"We gotta hide from Daddy! Under here!" Patrick hurriedly whispers, then diving under the balls in wait.
It doesn't take long for Patrick to hear shuffling nearby, and he knows that Pete will probably be in the pit in a matter of moments. He doesn't expect, however, for Pete to come tumbling down the slide upside-down. Pete makes a sharp squeaking noise as he lands in the ball pit headfirst, Patrick almost giggles and gives himself away, and he instead covers his mouth with his free hand and giggles into it.
In the time it takes for Pete to adjust himself to his surroundings in the pit, Patrick decides to take matters into his own hands and surprise him. He wiggles slowly through the pit, making sure he doesn't declare his presence to Pete until he's behind him.
Patrick doesn't even think that maybe Pete knew that he was coming for him, and that he was ready with a strategy of his own. Before Patrick can do anything, Pete whips around and goes to tickle Patrick's sides.
He's laughing hysterically and playfully batting Pete's hands away from him, his squeals of joy can probably be heard around the building if anyone tried hard enough to listen. Pete's laughing along to, and they both haven't felt this free in a long time.
Soon enough, they're out of the ball pit (even against Patrick's whines) because Pete says that they should settle down and have lunch. Outside of the play center, there are tables spread out where Pete supposes that the parents sit at and gossip while watching their kids. They find a table and sit down in the chairs, and Pete fishes out the bag he's brought along with him that has their lunch in it.
Patrick tries to grab for what he knows is his Astro-Boy lunch tin, but Pete intercepts it before he can get to it. "What do we say when we want something, Trick?" he says, waiting for Patrick to respond.
"Please please please can I have my lunch, Daddy?" Patrick drags out, wagging his fingers in the direction of the lunch tin in Pete's hand.
"Of course, kiddo." Pete slides the tin over to Patrick, who takes it gladly with a grin on his face.
"Thank you, Daddy!" he says cheerfully, opening it up and gasping when he pulls out a Lunchables box.
"Thought you might like to have a Lunchables today."
Patrick nods eagerly, ripping it open and pulling out the plastic container and Capri-Sun pouch. "It even has candy, Daddy! The two colored kind!"
"I knew you'd like that," Pete chuckles, taking a bite out of his leftover pizza from the other night. "But eat your actual food first, Trick."
"Aw, okay, Daddy." Patrick pouts as he prepares his first Lunchable pizza with only sauce (because the sauce was the best part!) and taking a large bite out of it.
After they ate lunch, Patrick played in the tunnels and on the nets, and Pete even joined him for a while.
A few hours went by, Patrick happily playing in the soft-play area, before he started to get sleepy. Pete was sitting at the table they had eaten lunch at, half-keeping an eye on Patrick and half texting Andy about stuff concerning their up-coming album. He could tell that Patrick was about to pass out in the ball pit from how he nearly dropped Ally-gator into the mess of the pit, so he decided to take action.
"Trick baby, I think it's time to head home for your nap." Pete says, coming over to the netting that surrounded the ball pit and peering in to where Patrick was nearly flopped out.
"I don't wanna gooooo, Daddy." Patrick drug out, giving Pete his best 'puppy dog eyes' and sticking his lower lip out.
"Trick, I don't wanna go back in there and get you out. We can cuddle in the chair when we get home, and I can fix you some lasagna if you're feeling like it later on."
Patrick can't resist the prospect of cuddles with Daddy, so he grabs Ally-gator and starts to make his way out. Pete meets him at the exit with a pacifier in hand and a soft smile on his face. Patrick allows Pete to slip the orange pacifier between his lips, hugging him tightly once he's done so.
"You have a fun day, baby boy?" Pete asks gently as they start to walk out, half-way supporting Patrick because he knows the younger will be out like a light once he's in the car.
"'est day, 'addy." Patrick mumbles around his pacifier, and Pete thinks that if Patrick could, he'd completely sink into his side as he snuggles in and drowsily walks beside him.
Pete can only smile wide as he gets to the car and prepares to get Patrick into the backseat. He knows this done has gone successfully, and that's what he wanted and more. He's glad to be the person who can make Patrick this happy, this free. He's glad to be Patrick's caregiver.
end.