Work Text:
Brett
Missed call at 17:56
Missed call at 17:58
Missed call at 17:59
Ffs
Pick up
nothing better than to wake up to that
what do you need
Ur uncle jst called to see if we can take care of Josue
He said you didnt pick u ur phone
what did you tell him
That he could drop im at home
They should be arriving right about now
my hate for you goes up everyday
Im getting boba when I get back
nvm i still love you
wait you arent coming back for two days
Touch
Tuche*
Touhe*
Touche*
The bell rang later. It had given Eddy enough time to not look as if he had woken up from a decade-long nap, which was nice. He still felt like cotton was stuffed into his brain, but his cousin wouldn’t know that.
“I’m coming.” He tried to coach himself into being warm and welcoming.
He opened the door, to find his cousins waiting and looking like little angels on Earth. If they were to behave like that, everything would be easy. Eva, 12, held Josue, 5, asleep on her hip. In her other arm, she carried a pretty big backpack.
“I wasn’t told you were coming too, Eva,” Eddy said while handling the heavy bag.
“Oh, I’m not. I’m going to a friend’s house while Dad does his thing.”
“Not to be rude, but why can’t you take care of him?”
Eva shrugged. “I’m not asking questions if it means I get a free 12 hours.”
“Smart girl,” Eddy took the boy. “Is your Dad waiting for you at the parking lot?”
“I’d hope so.”
“He’s heavy.”
Eddy thought for a second. The apartment wasn’t technically children-proof, but Josue looked innocent enough to be left asleep on the bed for a second. “Ok, give me a second to go put him somewhere and I’ll see you off.”
“There’s no need-”
“No, I’m coming.”
Eddy walked to his bedroom and placed him on the bed, careful with his head. He then built a pillow fort around him, careful to not wake him up as rudely as he had been an hour ago.
[...]
Eddy swears that he didn’t leave Josue alone for too long. He knows it was less than ten minutes, and his apartment wasn’t that big either. How could he lose a sleeping kid so easily?
“You need to keep him alive for 12 hours, but you can’t even manage fifteen minutes? Holy shit, Eddy, new record.” Brett’s hearty laugh travels through the phone line, which doesn’t do anything for Eddy’s panic.
“You’re not helping.”
“It’s not like I could, either way, from another state.”
“True, I don’t know why I called you.”
Brett sighs and mutes his mic for a second. Eddy makes his best to pull the hair out of his head. He puts the call on speaker and looks around the room for the seventh time.
Across the country, a car door is shut, and shushing noises are uttered. “Have you checked in the closet?”
Eddy verifies Josue isn’t there. “Kinda gay of you to think of that first.”
“Eddy, focus. You’ve lost a kid in our apartment. It’s not the time for banter. Have you checked the balcony?”
He walks to their balcony, following orders. “I swear to God if that little shit-”
The little shit, as Eddy had named him just mere minutes ago, is indeed in the balcony, admiring the view.
Thing is, their balcony isn’t particularly safe. For adults, maybe yes, but for kids that challenge Bugs Bunny’s ability to sneak, not so much. He knows that Josue could easily slip past the safety barrier and into a free fall.
He steps silently; prepares himself for the worse. Just take the kid and get it back inside.
“Eddy?” Brett’s voice startles him.
Luckily, his hands are safely around Josue’s middle and he can pull him back to face him.
“Hi, uncle Eddy.” Everything is so much worse, because Josue looks oblivious to the last eighteen heart attacks he has caused Eddy. He is still the image of the most innocent kid on Earth, missing teeth and all.
“Hi, Josue,” Eddy breathes. “What were you looking at?” He places Josue over his shoulders.
“At the sunset! It looks pretty from up here.”
“Right?” Josue nods. “But this place is dangerous for little boys. You can’t be here by yourself.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“Nah, but I need you to promise me to not be here alone. Can you do that?”
Josue seemed to ponder it for a few seconds. “Mhm, I can do that!”
[...]
When Brett will get back home, notably two days early for his scheduled arrival, he will find his home locked and the lights down. Eddy and Josue will be asleep watching some cartoon about talking monster trucks.
They will look cozy, on the sofa, the red and yellow lights casting them in a homely glow.
Brett will kiss Eddy’s forehead, and caress Josue’s hair.
“Hm?”
“I’m home.”
Maybe having kids wouldn’t be that bad of an idea.
Eddy, far from the waken world, will mumble something along the lines of leaving him alone and that it was late and to let him sleep, please, Josue.
Josue, for his part, will open his eyes and stare at Brett. Brett will put a finger over his lips and smile. He will put the bubble tea on the fridge, cook himself some dinner, with a pair of tiny feet trailing behind him.
“Do you want some warm milk?” Brett will whisper. Josue will nod.
Brett will deliver: warm milk in a glass.
“Be careful to not drop it; we don’t want to wake up uncle Eddy, right?”
“Right.”
Next thing Brett will know, glass shards are on the floor, milk is spilled, Josue is crying, and Eddy is awake into emergency mode.
“Josue?” he will ask, already in the kitchen.
“Fuck.”
“Brett?!”
Maybe not in the near future, then. In a few years' time, at least, for them to accommodate the idea of kids.