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Macau sighed, leaning over his textbooks and he pressed his lips together. He was trying to focus on his studies and was currently trying to do his homework, but it somehow wasn’t really working out in his favour and he just sighed, shaking his head as he dropped his pen and he leaned back against the chair, rolling his eyes.
“I’m never going to get this,” whined Macau and he combed his fingers through his hair. He wanted to go over to Pete and ask him for help, but he didn’t want to be a bother. He knew that the other one was already busy enough with taking care of Venice. Vegas was there as well, of course, but Macau didn’t really go to him when he needed help. It was somehow more normal to ask Pete.
Macau bit down into his lower lip and leaned over his textbook again in the hopes that he was going to get what he was supposed to do, but in the end he only groaned and whined, laying on top of the desk and then he shook his head because he wanted to give up.
Not wanted, he was going to give up!
As Macau was questioning his life decisions, the door of his room slowly opened and Macau narrowed his eyes, slowly turning over his shoulder to see who was standing there. A little smile spread across his face when he saw Venice standing there. Venice managed to open the door and was now peeking inside of the room, curious to see what his older brother was doing.
Macau loved his little brother a lot and he just sighed happily when he saw the other one peeking inside of the room. Venice always liked following him around and now he was there again.
Pete tried telling Venice that Macau was busy with his studies, but little Venice got bored and he decided to go and see if Macau was already done with his school work. Venice liked hanging out with his older brother, he was a lot of fun!
“Venice?” asked Macau and Venice peeked inside of the room again and he smiled happily. “What are you doing here?” he asked and then he smiled when he saw that Venice had brought his pencil case with himself. And his colouring book.
Venice was there to help his brother with his homework! He was going to draw and write as well. All that Macau could do was to let Venice into the room because he didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was still not done with his homework. Besides, it was better to be hanging out with Venice than working on his school work either way.
Venice slowly made his way into his brother’s room and he happily looked around and pointed to the chair over to the side. Macau slowly pushed the other chair next to his own one and he watched how Venice slowly climbed onto the chair and he smiled softly, handing Venice his colouring book and his pencil case when he saw that he dropped those. He narrowed his eyes and then he cocked his head to the side.
“What do you wanna do?” asked Macau and Venice gave him a serious look, tapping the colouring book.
“Do… school,” said Venice.
Macau knitted his eyebrows together and then he crossed his arms on top of his chest. He was slowly starting to get the idea why Venice brought the colouring book with himself. It was to be like him, wasn’t it? That was another thing that he would notice. Venice would do everything that he did and he found it adorable.
It was also how he was when he was younger - always following Vegas around, trying to be like his older brother and-
“Ah, you will do your homework as well?’’ asked Macau in amusement and Venice happily nodded.
“Papa say… do school,” said Venice and Macau smiled. Lately Venice had been talking more and more and he could only smile when he listened to the other one, who was now happily opening up his pencil case.
“Ah, I see,” said Macau and then he laughed. “I’m afraid mine is a little more difficult than your colouring book,” said Macau and chuckled when he saw that Venice was frowning now because he didn’t quite understand what was happening.
“Do school,” said Venice as sharp as ever and Macau started laughing, slowly nodding.
Ah, yes, Venice was like a little mixture of both Pete and Vegas, truly. He was caring and he liked following the rules, but he also made others follow the rules and he could be quite scary. At least for a toddler, he could be quite scary. Tankhun, especially, somehow still wasn’t over how scary the little one could be.
“Yes, yes, I will do it now,” said Macau, whining and he picked up his pencil again and he clicked with his tongue. Venice was happily observing him and when he saw Macau writing into his textbook, he pulled out a bright colouring pen and started colouring his book as well, his little feet happily dangling off the side of the chair.
Venice was happy - he was as cool as his older brother!
But as five minutes passed, Macau groaned and glanced at Venice.
“Why don’t you do my homework, huh?” asked Macau and Venice blinked, looking at the textbook. His eyes widened when he saw many letters and numbers. He didn’t know what any of them meant, but they looked interesting. But the book was so boring, it needed more colour! No wonder that Macau was having such a hard time!
“Help?” asked Venice and Macau nodded.
“Yes, please, help me,” joked Macau, but Venice was serious.
That was why Venice started scribbling onto Macau’s textbook and at first Macau tried stopping him, but once Venice started, Macau just stopped and watched him, the grin on his face as he was laughing along when he saw Venice trying to mimic the numbers that were written in there and he shook his head.
Oh, his teacher wasn’t going to be happy. But Macau didn’t care.
Once Venice was satisfied with how many colours he applied into the book, he happily looked up at his older brother, who happily ruffled his hair and then he nodded.
“Mn, good job,” said Macau and Venice grinned all the way up to his ears and he giggled.
“Macau do school!” ordered Venice and Macau laughed.
Still wasn’t done?! All that Macau could do was nod and he slowly leaned closer and started writing onto, now, colourful pages. Venice was curious, so he watched him carefully and now he could tell that Macau was having an easier time with doing his homework, happily going back to his own ‘homework’ and he was looking at Macau every now and then.
Venice was curiously watching all the numbers that Macau was currently writing and that was why he decided to try them out for himself as well. He wasn't even two yet so Macau's eyes widened when he saw his little brother scribbling numbers into his colouring book and he chuckled.
"Look at you - you're all grown up," joked Macau. Even though Venice didn't really know what was happening as he was only having fun hanging out with his brother, he nodded. "Maybe you can go to class instead of me."
“What’s this?” asked Venice because he was interested in Macau’s school work. The older brother smiled and then he leaned closer to see what Venice was pointing at and he smiled softly. The number that the other one had scribbled down looked a little bit like a five… or maybe a two?
“It’s a number,” said Macau and Venice was in awe. “Five,” he said and Venice seemed impressed with that. Happily, he glanced over to the textbook again and scribbled down another number that seemed interesting to him. Five looked like a snake and the next one that caught his attention was the number two.
“Look, look, look!”
“Mn, that’s number two,” said Macau and Venice shook his head.
“No, no, no,” said Venice and Macau arched his brow. “Bird!”
Macau wasn’t going to question the logistics of the way that Venice’s imagination worked and he just nodded, grinning along because it was kind of funny to see the other one trying to reason the way that he saw numbers. And it was kind of interesting.
“And this one?” asked Macau curiously, pointing over to the number seven. Doing his Maths homework had never been so interesting. At least for once!
“Dada!” said Venice happily and clapped.
“Wait, how is this Vegas?” asked Macau and Venice looked up at him.
“Yes, dada, dada!” said Venice, now rambling again in gibberish, trying to explain to Macau that the number seven looked like the thing that dada always wore. The thing that he had in mind was a gun, but he didn’t know what it was called yet. Venice grinned when Macau ruffled his hair and then Macau decided that it was finally time to get serious about homework.
Venice saw the serious look on his brother's face, so he put a serious expression on his face as well, mimicking the other one well, and then he went back to colouring the pictures in his colouring book.
Eventually Macau managed to finish up his homework and the two of them made it into the kitchen where Macau decided to make them snacks after that hard work. Venice was curiously following him around and Pete smiled when he came into the kitchen and saw those two walking around the kitchen. Macau was like the big chick and Venice the little one, following his every step.
"Venice, do you want chocolate?"
"Yes!"
Macau smiled and he nodded. Pete pressed his lips together and he laughed when he saw that Vegas was there as well. Vegas was frowning when he was watching those two and he sighed and crossed his arms on top of his chest.
"No snacks before dinner," said Vegas suddenly and Macau turned around. He rolled his eyes and pressed his lips together.
"Whatever. You're not the boss."
"Did you do your homework?" carried on Vegas and the teen rolled his eyes, groaning because Vegas was pissing him off. All that he wanted was some food after the torture that his school work had just put him through but his brother wasn't even allowing him to do that. Vegas was really a sadist… through and through.
“Ugh, yes, I did,” whined Macau as he looked over to Vegas and then his eyes travelled over to Pete for some help and support. Pete was usually on his side. Pete crossed his arms on top of his chest and Macau rolled his eyes. He lost Pete? “I really did my homework, you can ask Venice, he was there,” said Macau and Venice looked up when he heard his name being called.
“Is that true?” asked Vegas and picked the boy up. The boy was looking down at his father and then he looked over to Macau - where was the promised chocolate that he was waiting for? “Did Macau do his homework?” asked Vegas and Venice blinked a few times.
“Macau, tell him,” said Macau. “We did school, right?”
Venice’s eyes lit up and he nodded.
“Macau and Venice do school, yes,” said Venice and pointed to himself. “Venice help,” he said and Pete smiled softly when he heard that.
It was true, the boy was looking for his older brother and no matter how hard Pete tried to make Venice stay out of Macau’s room, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep the boy away. That was why he tried to keep him busy before. He gave him the colouring book and his colouring pencils, but as soon as the boy got those, he went over to Macau’s room, so that they could do their school work together. And Pete let him.
“Pete, did you hear that?” asked Vegas and Pete looked at him.
“Hmm?”
“He’s already using our son to help him do his homework,” said Vegas and narrowed his eyes. That made Pete laugh out loud and Macau only groaned, feeling attacked.
“I wasn’t using him!” argued Macau and all that Pete could do was roll his eyes when he listened to the three of them bickering. Yes, the three of them because once Macau and Vegas started, Venice wanted to be included as well and he started babbling loudly as well. The chaos in the kitchen was perfect.
“God, just let me be for once!” hissed Macau.
“Who’s the older one?”
“You, but that’s not the point here, is it?”
“It sort of is. You know, you should learn how to respect your elders,” said Vegas and Macau sighed and then he looked over to Venice, who was still in Vegas’ arms and he groaned.
“You’re annoying,” said Macau and then he glanced at Venice again. “Vegas is scary and annoying, isn’t he?”
Venice’s eyes widened and he quickly hugged Vegas, shaking his head.
“No! No!” said the boy in protest.
Just like that, the argument ended because Venice had just melted Vegas’ heart and he didn’t have it in him to keep on fighting. Instead, he allowed Macau and Venice to have those snacks after all and he shook his head, stepping over to Pete, who placed his hands on top of his sides and he shook his head.
“What?” asked Vegas and Pete shook his head.
“Nothing,” he said with a little smirk and Vegas rolled his eyes.
“Whatever-”
“Come, lend me a hand in the living room while these two terrorise the kitchen,” said Pete and took Vegas’ hand into his own. Vegas laughed softly, but then he nodded, linking their fingers together and Pete slowly guided him into the living room where toys were laying scattered all around and he shook his head.
“Venice needs to learn how to tidy up after himself,” commented Vegas and Pete chuckled, but nodded.
That was another task, for another day.
For now, Pete listened to Macau and Venice laughing from the next room and he smiled softly as he and Vegas slowly tidied up the living room together.