Chapter Text
As he looked into his wallet, Quackity grimaced. His budget for the month was almost entirely exhausted, and he still hadn’t found a job to change that. He gazed at the bag of sour cream chips in his hand longingly before placing it back onto the shelf. He could only afford to buy the things he actually really needed. Which meant he was going to eat toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next week. Being a law student was awfully expensive and didn’t leave enough time to work long shifts, which most employers expected.
Sighing, he made his way into the next aisle and took two bags of toast, when a sudden noise got his attention and stopped his motion.
Sniffling.
Small hiccups.
The duck hybrid turned around. The sight was heartbreaking: a small child in green dungarees sat on the ground, hugging their knees, grabbing a bag of sweets like their life depended on it. Brown shaggy hair covered their face, but it was obvious the toddler was crying. And no one seemed to be around. Where were the parents?
His chest tightened at the picture before him.
Hesitantly, Quackity got closer and kneeled beside the kid. Not sure if he should touch their shoulder, the young man decided to just try speaking in a quiet and gentle voice.
“Hey there, little one, what’s wrong?”
The child’s head snapped up, and Quackity was met with blue eyes swimming in tears. The kid looked at him for a few seconds, probably considering if he should talk to a stranger, but decided to answer after another sniff.
“I lost my Daddy”, he whined with a pout.
“Oh no, how did that happen?”
“He said I can have candy. And I get candy”, he hiccuped and lifted the hand still gripping a bag of gummy bears tightly. “But now Daddy gone.”
His bottom lip started wobbling again, so the law student tried to distract him quickly, hoping to avoid another wave of tears.
“Hey, what’s your name, buddy?”
“Tubbo…”
“Hi, Tubbo, I am Quackity! How about I help you find your dad, huh?”, the man asked, holding out his hand for the little boy to take. He tried to put on his most reassuring smile to make the kid as comfortable as possible.
Again, Tubbo considered his words, his little goat ears twitching throughout his hard thinking process.
Finally, after half a minute, he placed his little hand in the bigger one offered to him and nodded. The duck helped him up and together they started walking down the aisle in the direction of the checkout counters. On the way there he explained to the toddler that if he lost his daddy ever again, he could always go to a cashier and ask for help. The child nodded, but the student was not sure if he really understood what he was saying, taking the amount of tears still running down his face into account.
When they reached a counter Quackity explained to the employee that the boy had lost his father, and the woman looked at him sympathetically.
“Well, don’t worry, we are going to call for him now!”, she explained with a smile and took a phone out from under the register. One second later, her voice boomed through the grocery store, grabbing the attention of all customers. Two times she asked for the father of a little boy named Tubbo to please make his way to checkout number 7 before putting the phone away again.
It didn’t even take thirty seconds for feet hastily hitting the tiled floor to be heard. A moment later a man with brown hair and two large horns, dressed in a suit came into sight and stumbled up to the counter. He looked young, and Quackity assumed he couldn’t be that much older than he himself.
“Tubbo!!”, he screamed breathlessly and scooped the little child up into his arms.
“Daddy!”
“Oh hell, I was so damn worried! Where have you been?!”
“I have candy!”, the toddler exclaimed with a smile and proudly held up the bag of gummy bears, so that his father could see it. Said father looked at it dumbfounded, before releasing a heavy sigh of relief. “Yeah, yeah, Big Man, you got candy. But next time, please wait for Daddy to get the candy with you , okay?”
After nodding his head Tubbo snuggled up to his dad, who now turned to the cashier.
“Thank you so much, I turned around for three seconds and suddenly he was gone!”
The woman smiled. “I know, you can’t leave them out of sight for even one moment!”, she laughed and then gestured to Quackity. “But it was actually this fine young man who found your son and brought him here.”
The tall ram turned to the duck hybrid and looked at him with grateful eyes.
“Thank you. Really, thank you so much.”
Quackity only smiled at him and waved him off.
“It’s no big deal, man. Anyone would’ve helped.”
“Still, thank you for helping my son. Let me pay for your toast”, the man said and slapped down a five dollar bill onto the counter. The law student watched the action perplexed, slowly catching up with what was happening.
“Hey, no, you really don’t need to! Like I said, it’s no big deal. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror anymore if I just ignored a crying child.” He tried to take the dollar note to give it back, not quite comfortable with the thought of a father in need paying for him, but the ram stopped his hand.
“Well, and it’s not a big deal for me to show my gratitude by buying you toast. Thanks again, and keep the change”, he said with a grin, before turning around with Tubbo in his arms and walking back into the store to presumably finish his shopping.
Quackity watched them disappear behind a shelf before returning his focus to the woman behind the counter, who had already scanned his two bags of toast and taken the money. She gave him the change and wished him a great day, as he walked out of the store.
Once the hybrid had arrived at home and kicked the door shut behind him, he realized that, now that his toast had been paid for by Suit Dad, he could indeed afford a bag of sour cream chips. With a grin he made the plan to buy one the next day after classes finished.