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“I’m sorry, Daddy Gee! I didn’t mean to let the kitty in!” Frank says as he and Patrick run in from the backyard.
The kitty in mention was a neighborhood stray who had prowled around for years. Everyone in the neighborhood had agreed that said tabbycat shouldn’t be taken in.
“It was an accident!” Patrick agrees, hugging Ally-gator to himself as he stands behind Frank in the kitchen.
Gerard looked a bit upset at the boys, and sighed quietly as he ran a hand through his hair. “Frank, you and Patrick should try and look for the cat. Don’t think you’re not in trouble. I’ll be in the living room on the phone if you need me, okay?” he says, standing up from the kitchen table.
“Are you calling Daddy?” Patrick fretted, thinking about how upset Pete would be when he found out that he’d helped Frank let a stray in. “Please don’t call Daddy!”
“I don’t want to call Daddy Pete, kiddo, but I have to,” Gerard hums, coming closer to Patrick and rubbing his back reassuringly. “I’m not your Daddy and I can’t call the shots when you’re in trouble, so I have to call him and see what he thinks. You get that?”
Patrick nods with a sniffle as he leans into Gerard’s touch. He doesn’t want to be in trouble, but he gets that he needed to be punished for what he’d done.
“Trick, we gotta go find the kitty!” Frank calls out from the doorway, interrupting the moment as Patrick comes back to reality.
“’kay, Frankie! I’m coming!” Patrick replies, wiping at his eyes as he makes his way over to Frank so they can find the cat.
-*-
“Hey Gerard. How’re the boys?” Pete answers his cell with a chuckle, and Gerard can hear a faint bass sound in the background.
“They’re alright, just in a spot of trouble. That’s why I called you.” Gerard replies, leaning back on the sofa as he sees Patrick and Frank crouched down in the hall in front of the grandfather clock.
“Aw, what happened?”
“They let a stray cat in without my permission and it got loose in the house.”
“Well…” the line goes quiet save the background noise for a few seconds, Gerard knows that Pete’s collecting his thoughts. “How do you plan on punishing Frankie?”
“Once they can locate the cat, I plan on giving him some corner time and taking his iPad for the day.”
“Alright, just do the same for Trick then, minus the iPad part cause it’s still at the house. Can you get him on the phone? He’ll respond much better to punishment once I talk to him, it’s a given.”
Gerard hums his agreement before he gets up from the sofa, going into the hallway right as Frank pulls out a struggling cat from under the clock.
“Daddy I got him!” Frank cheers, holding the cat in his arms.
“Good job, Frankie,” Gerard says once he’s sure it’s the cat he saw race into the house earlier. “Go put him out in the back, I need to talk to you when you’re done.”
As Frank gets up to leave the hall, Patrick stays on the floor, as if knowing why Gerard is there.
“Daddy Pete wants to talk to you, Trick.” Gerard says as he holds the phone out, which Patrick takes quickly.
“Daddy!” Patrick squeaks into the phone, holding it awkwardly as he sits fully on the floor with Ally-gator in his lap.
“Hey, baby boy.” Pete responds, voice as calm as he could get it. “You know why we’re on the phone?”
Patrick squirms on the floor, dislodging Ally-gator from his lap in his nervousness. “Cause I’m in trouble…I don’t wanna be in trouble, Daddy!”
“I know, I know, Trick. But you did a thing you weren’t supposed to do, and sometimes you gotta get punished for it.”
“Is Gee gonna spank me?” Patrick whispers, low enough that Gerard almost didn’t catch it. It throws him completely off guard.
“No, Patrick. Daddy Gee isn’t going to spank you. You know that Gee only spanks Frankie when he’s bad, and I only spank you when you’re bad. Otherwise, you didn’t do anything bad enough to need that, sweetheart.”
By this point, Patrick has his thumb in his mouth, sucking on it enough that Gerard knows he’ll need his pacifier once he gets off the phone. It’s around the time that Frank returns as well, looking nervous himself as he goes over to Gerard and leans into him in wait.
“Daddy Gee will tell you what your punishment is, and I expect you to not be fussy about it, alright?”
“Okay, Daddy. Are you going bye-bye now?” he asks sadly, taking out his thumb as he spoke.
“Yeah, baby boy. Daddy’ll be back to take you home in a few hours though.” Pete says, sounding pretty sad himself. Gerard knew how that was.
“Bye-bye, Daddy!”
“Bye, Tricky.”
Patrick lets out a small sigh as he lowers the phone from his ear, sticking his lower lip out in a half pout as he holds the phone out to Gerard. Gerard almost has to suppress a laugh at the boy’s expression as he takes his phone back, putting it in his pocket.
“Okay, boys.” Gerard sighs, starting to settle into the mindset he needs to be in so he can do this. “We’re gonna go sit on the sofa and talk about what happened today, and then you both are going to get fifteen minutes of corner time.”
“But fifteen is forever, Daddy Gee!” Frank whines, rocking on his feet as Gerard starts to go to the living room.
“Either this or you can’t watch Ponies tonight, your iPad’s already been taken for the rest of the day.”
Frank groans but doesn’t further his whining as he follows Patrick and Gerard into the living room and to the sofa, where they all settle down.
Gerard reaches into Patrick’s daybag which sat on the coffee table, and pulls out the pacifier that’s been packed in, and Patrick quickly leans over enough from his spot in the middle to get his mouth around the comfort object. “’hank you, Gee.” He murmurs quietly around the orange and blue plastic as he leans back.
“Welcome. Now, from what I know, you let in a cat that you’ve been told isn’t supposed to come in?” Gerard starts out, watching the boys with raised brows.
“We didn’t mean for him to run in, Daddy. He came in the backyard while we were playin’ Cowboys and Aliens, and we were gonna get him some food to eat. He followed me in Daddy, and then he ran out of the hall after we fed him of Trick’s chicken nuggets.” Frank explains, biting his lower lip afterwards.
“Do you have anything to say, Patrick?”
Patrick hurriedly shakes his head, giving a tight squeeze to Ally-gator, who he had tucked under his chin. Gerard then gets up off the sofa, and the boys follow soonafter.
“Frank, go sit in your corner in the kitchen, no talking or fidgeting.” Gerard says softly, pressing a kiss on his temple before the younger walks off to the other room. “Trick, go sit in the corner over by the stereo. Do you need a blanket to sit on?”
Patrick nods, and hands Gerard Ally-gator before going over to the corner to wait for the blanket. Gerard has almost forgotten that Patrick wasn’t supposed to have his stuffies during corner time, glad the boy had remembered.
-*-
Hours later, Frank and Patrick had long served their punishments, and were now happily playing with some of Frank’s Avengers figurines in the living room. Gerard was sitting in front of the coffee table, some papers and art supplies spread out in front of him as he drew out some sketches for something he was working on. He had already gotten a text from Pete saying that he’d be by soon enough to pick Patrick up, and he was merely waiting until he came.
He didn’t have to wait too long, for he gets a text saying that Pete’s right outside. He smiles as he sits up and makes his way to the front door, where Pete is standing in wait as promised.
“Hey, Pete. How was the party?” Gerard asks as he shows Pete into the house, keeping his voice down so as not to really alert the boys of Pete’s arrival.
“Went good, I think I’ve got another artist for DecayDance.” Pete grins, following Gerard as he goes back to the living room. “How was Patrick? He didn’t do any more major damage with Frank?”
“No, he’s been an angel since he got out of the corner. Though I do think he’s getting a little tired so you might want to let him have a nap if your schedule allows.”
That’s around the time Patrick looks up from where he had been playing with Black Widow and Hawkeye to see Pete. “Daddy! You’re here!” he cheers, scrambling up from the floor and running to him, wrapping his Daddy in the tightest hug he could give.
“Hey kiddo!” Pete chuckles, hugging back just as tight. “Sounds like you missed me, hm?”
Patrick nods, then burying his head into Pete’s chest with a contented hum. “Missed you lots, Daddy. I had fun with Gee and Frankie, though.”
“I’m glad you had fun here, that’s the goal. You ready to go home now?”
When Patrick agrees again, Pete gives him a light pat on the back before stepping away from him so he can get his daybag and Ally-gator.
“Are you gonna come back soon, Trick?” Frank asks from his spot on the floor, where he’s still holding Captain America and Thor in hand.
“Uh-huh, I wanna play more Avengers next time, okay?”
“Okay! You can be Captain America then cause you didn’t get to this time.”
Patrick smiles wide at Frank and then turns to Pete, who’s got his stuff in hand. “Me an’ Frankie played Avengers today, and we defeated The Red Skull and Loki!”
“That’s awesome, baby. It’s pretty hard beating two bad guys in one day.” Pete responds as he kisses Patrick on the nose. “We gotta go now, though. Say bye to Gerard and Frankie.”
Patrick frowns for a moment before he speaks. “Bye, Frankie! Bye, Daddy Gee!” he says with a small wave as he trails behind Pete as they leave.
“Bye, Patrick. It was fun having you over today.” Gerard hums with a smile as he opens the front door once more.
“Bye, Tricky! Come back really soon!” Frank calls out with a frantic wave as Patrick disappears from sight.
“I will, Frankie!”
Patrick totally does come back over again.
end.