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Mike Schmidt was not one to ever want kids. He had never planned on it, and honestly never even really considered having a family. His own was too fucked up and messy. He didn’t want any kid to ever have to experience that like he did. Sure, he worked with kids, but that was part of the territory when you worked at a pizzeria. Did he help them with bandaids if they fell? Yeah. Did he help them find their parents before it got dark? Yeah, but he never wanted to be one of those parents. Mike never thought he could have a family, let alone someone who loved him enough to want to help raise said family.
That was, until Mike met Jeremy Fitzgerald.
Jeremy was a huge ball of sunshine constantly, but put him around kids? Suddenly, the sun became a sickly sweet, tooth rotting, sugar sun. Jeremy loved kids, and adored playing with them on duty. It made him feel needed, and it made the kids happy.
One jam-packed Saturday, a young girl, no older than four or five, approached Jeremy with tears in her eyes and a huge scrape on her knee.
“Excuse me?” Immediately, the boy turned around and was on his knees in front of her.
“Hi! Do you nee-need somethings sw-sweetie?”
“I-I fell and scraped my knee, and I can’t find my sister,”
“Oh, okay! Here I can-can easily clean up th-this for you. Have you-you had a fu-fun time?” Attempting to make the girl smile succeeded and she gave a huge dopey grin before responding.
“Yes! My favorite part was Foxy’s show! He’s so cool! I wanna be just like him when I grow up!”
During the distraction, Jeremy had already neosporin-ed, bandaged, and kissed her knee better.
“That’s so-so cool! I love Foxy too, but Bo-Bonnie is definitely my fav-favorite,” He reached out and gestured for her to let him pick her up. Once she was held, he swung her around onto his back and ran in a small circle while babbling off one of Foxy’s speeches about exploring the seven seas.
“Aye, You rea-ready Cap’n? We must se-search far n’ wide to find ye-ye sister in this huge ocean-ocean!”
That’s when Mike’s heart skipped a beat.
The young girl’s red pigtails bounced while she giggled through the whole ride. Jeremy moved her from his back to rest on his hip, before turning to face Mike.
“You coming?” He said, the young girl on his hip who looked just enough like Jeremy but with vibrant blue eyes, hand outstretched for Mike to take it, and a huge dopey grin plastered on his face.
Suddenly, Mike Schmidt wasn’t so against having a family of his own.