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“Papa, papa!” said the boy excitedly as he ran over to his father and was jumping up and down. Pete and Venice were over at the playground, where Venice would often play. Venice was excited and he ran up to Pete, who was sitting on the bench and was carefully watching his every move. The two of them were there almost every day and he smiled softly.
“Yes?” asked Pete when the boy stopped jumping and he smiled when he saw that Venice was pointing to the big slide over there, the one that he didn’t dare to go on by himself. It was still too big and he would only go if Pete was with him. He would sit in Pete’s lap as the other one would slowly slide down. It was fun riding the slide with his papa!
“Venice wanna go,” said the boy and pointed to the big slide again. Pete smiled and then he nodded. “Papa, let’s go, let’s go,” said the boy and all that Pete could do was stand up when Venice started dragging him up on his legs and he was laughing because Venice’s excitement was making him excited as well. Pete placed the bag that he was holding in his lap down and then he slowly ran after Venice, who was already running towards the slide, clapping when he stopped by it.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” said Pete and he sighed.
The boy was always full of energy and he shook his head, but he didn’t mind it. Days like this were his favourite and he slowly climbed onto the slide, Venice following him as Pete helped him up the stairs. The stairs were high, the boy could barely climb up, but he was holding onto his father’s hand and when the two of them were on the top of the slide, the boy happily screamed and Pete laughed.
“Venice, no need to shout,” said Pete because he knew that everyone on the playground was watching the two of them. Venice didn’t really care and then he slowly came closer to the edge of the slide and he shuddered when he looked down.
“Scary, scary!”
“Then why do you keep on insisting on riding this slide, Venice?” asked Pete and shook his head, laughing.
“Go with papa is fun,” said Venice and then he held onto Pete’s hand.
Now that Venice put it like that, Pete couldn't really fight that kind of logic and he shook his head as there was a fond smile on his lips. Ignoring the others watching them, Pete slowly picked Venice up and the two of them were soon ready to slide down. Pete was keeping his arms around Venice as the other one extended his little hands high up in the air and started giggling when Pete slowly slid down the slide, his loud screams of excitement filling the playground.
Once the two of them were on the ground again, Pete knew that they would have to go again… and again. And he was right, because as soon as Pete was about to go sit down, Venice wrapped himself around Pete’s leg and he whined.
“Papa, papa, again, again!”
“Again?” asked Pete and slowly crossed his arms on top of his chest, looking down at the boy, who was beaming brightly up at him, nodding.
“Yes, go, again! Fun!”
Pete laughed softly and he nodded, slowly climbing up the slide again and the two of them slid down the slide a few times, until Pete was out of energy and he decided that he needed to sit down, but Venice wasn’t done yet. That was when Venice took his hand and started guiding him towards the swing set and he happily grinned.
“Papa, let’s go?” he asked and Pete smiled softly, nodding.
There was no way that Pete could say no to that bright smile and Venice was happily giggling as he was running towards the swing set. Since the boy was still so young, much younger than the other kids at the playground, Pete knew that he had to be there with him more and he didn’t mind it. As long as Venice was happy then that was all that mattered and he helped Venice sit on the swing.
“Venice, make sure to hold tight, okay?”
“Yes!”
“Hold onto it very strong,” said Vegas and showed Venice, who nodded and mimicked his father, gripping onto the swing tightly.
Pete nodded and then he slowly stepped back a bit and started pushing the swing, making sure not to go too strong and Venice was having a blast up there as he was holding onto the swing, giggling, encouraging his dad to go higher , but Pete knew the limits and after a little while Venice decided that he had enough of the swing.
The next stop that Venice had in mind was the sandbox. Venice decided to play in the sandbox alone and Pete slowly made it back to the bench, smiling and he sighed when he sat down, humming along. His eyes were on Venice and he smiled when he saw the other one building a sandcastle? Perhaps. Whatever it was, it had to be fun and he was about to pull out his phone and take a few pictures to send them to Vegas, but he was approached by a young woman, who was sitting on the next bench and he smiled politely.
“Mind if I sit here?” she asked and Pete slowly shook his head.
“Go ahead,” said Pete, not really knowing what she wanted, but he didn’t mind company and he waved to Venice when he saw that the boy was looking at him. The boy only grinned and went back to playing his game.
“Is that your son?” asked the woman and Pete slowly glanced at her and he slowly nodded.
“Mn,” said Pete and then he glanced around the playground. “And yours?” he asked, making small talk as he didn’t really know what to do at that point. The woman smiled and then she pointed over to the two girls at the side.
“Those two who are terrorising that tree over there,” she said and Pete laughed.
“Twins?”
“Yeah,” said the young mother and huffed.
“They must keep your hands always busy, huh?” asked Pete because he knew how much work it was already with Venice. Not that he minded it, but it was a lot of work and the other one laughed, nodding.
“Oh – it’s never boring with them around, I’ll say that,” she said and Pete chuckled. “How old is your son, if you don’t mind me asking?” she asked and Pete shook his head.
“He just turned two,” said Pete.
“Ah, wish I could turn back time,” she said. “My two demons will be soon turning four,” she said and Pete laughed softly. The silence fell between the two of them and the woman leaned closer to Pete, clearing her throat. “Sorry if I’m disturbing you. It’s just – I see you and your son coming here everyday and I thought that you might want to make new friends,” she explained and Pete blinked a few times, but then he smiled and he nodded.
“Sure, why not?” asked Pete and extended his hand out to the woman, who took and shook it. “I’m Pete,” said Pete and the other one nodded happily.
“Cindy,” she replied and Pete’s smile got a bit wider.
There was a little scowl on Vegas’ face when he arrived at the playground. He was there to pick Venice and Pete up. While he was out with Kinn and the others, he knew that Pete and Venice went out. It was a playground that Pete would always take Venice to, but now that Vegas had arrived there, he wasn’t too impressed with what he was seeing.
Venice was running around and playing with the other kids, which was alright. However, he wasn’t too impressed when he saw that Pete wasn’t alone. Around him, there were four women, happily chatting with him and Vegas narrowed his eyes because didn’t Pete look a little bit too happy to be talking with them like that?
Pete’s smile was wide and Vegas didn’t like it. It was a smile that Pete should have reserved only for him, but he was flaunting it to the women. He didn’t like it one bit. And, yes, he was jealous, but he didn’t even mind admitting it. Vegas was a very jealous person and both of them knew it. Vegas huffed under his breath and he tipped his head back, gritting his teeth. Still, he put on a little smile and decided to get closer to see what was happening over there.
Pete didn’t seem to notice him yet.
Pete huffed, trying his best to keep up the conversation with the others. He didn’t mind the company at first, but now there were more mothers around him and he wasn’t… he wasn’t in the mood. He put on a smile, sure, but he was kind of exhausted and he only smiled and nodded when the others would be asking him things and telling him things about their children.
Pete guessed that was normal, though - parents at the playground, hanging out and sharing parenting tricks? Perhaps. But, Pete just wanted to sit there in peace.
“Your son is so cute,” said one of the women that Pete had already forgotten the name of and he smiled when he glanced at Venice, who was now leading the team of kids. He was the youngest, but still the leader of them all. As expected from Venice.
“Mn,” said Pete and nodded.
“Are you married?” asked one of the women and Pete looked at her, shaking his head.
“No but-”
“It must be hard, huh?” asked another one and Pete looked at her, arching her eyebrow.
“What?” asked Pete.
“To raise a child all on your own,” she said and Pete blinked a few times.
“Oh, I’m not-”
“I’m a single mother as well and I know how hard it can get sometimes,” she carried on and Pete rolled his eyes because they just assumed that he was-
“Like I’m trying to tell you, I’m-”
“It’s alright. We can see that you're an amazing father to your son,” said the woman and Pete pressed his lips together and he huffed. Yeah, he completely gave up and he chewed on his lower lip.
“You’re so brave,” said the single mother and Pete furrowed his eyebrows - was she now trying to hit on him?
The women were trying to pry more information from Pete, but they didn’t really get too far as Pete didn’t let them. They started asking about what happened and how come that he was raising the boy alone now. Pete ignored all of the questions and he turned over to the side when he heard Venice calling out to… Vegas?
“Dada! Dada! Dada!” started Venice calling out when he saw Vegas slowly walking over to him. The rest of the kids started running away when they saw Vegas, dressed in his flashy clothes, wearing himself all mighty, his head raised up proudly. However, as soon as he saw Venice running towards him, Vegas smiled all the way up to his ears and he leaned down.
“Hey,’’ said Vegas and leaned down to pick the boy up. The boy was giggling when he was lifted off the ground, scooped up into his father’s arms and he threw himself around Vegas’ neck.
Pete smiled and then he snickered when he saw the faces of the women sitting next to him. They were shocked when they saw that not only the boy wasn’t afraid of the scary man, but he was calling him a father and was now giggling as he was picked up and Pete grinned all the way up to his ears when he saw Vegas over there.
Pete didn’t know Vegas was coming, but it was a nice surprise.
“Do you know that strange man? He’s… your son is-”
“Yes, that’s his father,” said Pete happily and the woman’s jaw dropped when he said that.
Pete grinned and quickly he was on his legs as well, going over to Vegas, who was now frowning a little bit. Pete didn’t know what was with that frown, but he planted a kiss between Vegas’ eyebrows and thus the frown was gone, smiling happily at him, looking at Venice, who was now happily hugging Vegas and Pete cocked his head.
“What are you doing here?” asked Pete, of course happy to see the other one.
“Was I disturbing something?” asked Vegas, annoyed.
Pete narrowed his eyes.
“Um… no?”
“Really? Because I see that you’ve gotten yourself quite the fanclub here,” said Vegas and eyed the women watching the two of them and Pete started laughing when he realised that Vegas was jealous. Happily, he leaned closer and stole a quick kiss from Vegas’ lips, grinning again.
“No need to be jealous,” said Pete and Vegas growled.
“I wasn’t jealous,” insisted Vegas.
“Sure,” said Pete and grinned.
“Pete!”
“Hm?” asked Pete and cutely blinked up at him. Vegas opened his mouth and wanted to tell Pete to shut up, but then the other one cutely blinked up at him and Vegas frowned again and pressed his lips together.
“Don’t think that acting cute will make me forget about this!”
“About what?”
“You smiling at them like that,” said Vegas
“Like what?” asked Pete, now genuinely confused.
“That smile belongs only to me,” said Vegas, ignoring how ridiculous he sounded and Pete burst out laughing because Vegas was strangely cute when he was jealous like this. The other, possessive side was quite something else, but this one was just so-
“So I can only smile at you?”
“No, but that smile belongs to me.”
“Ah,” said Pete and laughed.
“Anyway, you’re mine so all of your smiles belong to me,” rambled Vegas and then he scowled at the women watching the two of them. Vegas kissed Pete, just to show off that Pete was his and he rolled his eyes when he saw the women now whispering something to each other.
Pete wrapped an arm around his waist and decided to drag Vegas away. Venice was giggling because he found Vegas funny, but he was also busy playing with the necklace around his father’s neck. While the three of them were walking away, Vegas looked over his shoulder again and pointed to Pete and then to himself.
“Mine,” he mouthed to the women sitting there.
Pete saw that and all he could do was laugh and shake his head while Vegas was happy that he got the point across!