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Stiles was doing his best not to laugh too much while he recorded Teodor dancing with Maddox Lahey-McCall.
If not exactly "with," then dancing at the same time Maddox was dancing, and within at least three feet of him.
Stiles had put on some Disney-esque kids music after bringing the boys to the living room, where there was a little chest for Teo’s toys. When the music started Maddox had immediately begun bopping up and down into half squats, kind of in time with it. Teo began doing the same, adding some booty shakes and waving his arms.
Dancing.
Stiles could not resist opening his phone to preserve the sight for posterity.
"Our boys got moves," Scott declared.
Derek came downstairs from his office at the sound of laughing and music.
"Daddy!" Teo announced. "Madutt’s here!"
"I see that, Tay.—Hello, Maddox."
Maddox had stilled, just staring, because Derek hadn’t been there before, but then he was.
"He can’t talk," Teo explained, shaking his head.
"He can talk," Derek told him. "He’s just shy."
"Wat’s ssshy?" Teo cried.
Shy was a new word, and Teo did not like the sound of it applied to his friend, at all.
Scott entered the scene and repeated the strange word. "He’s shy—"
"Around big scary guys," Stiles interjected from the background, meriting a smirk from said big scary guy.
Teo knew what "scary" meant and he really did not like anything about whatever was happening. But Scott had lifted Maddox in one arm. "He can talk, can’t you, Madd-Man." He kissed Maddox then tapped himself on the chest. "Who am I?" he asked his son.
At first Maddox just looked at the tapping finger, then raised his big blue eyes to Scott’s face.
"Poppy," he said softly.
Stiles lowered the music.
"That’s right!" Scott cheered. "I’m Papi.—And that’s your Uncle Derek. And that’s Uncle Stiles." He’d gestured to each but Maddox hadn’t repeated anything. When Scott pointed down to Teo, however, coaxing, "You can say who that is, can’t you?" after a pause Maddox answered, almost inaudibly, "Dayo."
Teodor had certainly heard his own name, though, and responded with bouncing in place and clapping.
"Me!" he confirmed, his prior unease forgotten. Then introductions and speech lesson were finished, far as he was concerned, and with "We pyay now," he summarily ended them, charging to the toy chest and lifting its lid.
Maddox had had enough too, knowing what the toy chest held. He became a squirmy armful and Scott returned him to the floor.
The chest was small enough Maddox could look into it, even reach for things though Teo was already single-handedly pulling out everything in sight: a little teddy bear he’d had since he was a baby and which was boring now, a dump truck with a smile for a grill and wobbling eyes for headlights, Spiderman and Batman figures (they still meant nothing special to Teo, much to Stiles’s chagrin), balls of various sizes, a rocket ship with wheels on one side. The rocket got Teo’s attention but Maddox’s straining to reach a red plushie dragon took precedence. Teo retrieved it and handed it to his pal.
The dragon had scarlet fur, large happy eyes, soft fins down its back to its tail tip, and soft, short purple wings. Sometimes Teo slept with it but somehow it had found its way from his bed to the toy box.
"Tha’s Drake," Teo told Maddox, who’d tucked the pretty thing under an arm then reached for one of the cubes that belonged to a set which nested together. He remembered those from other times he’d played with Teo, and stacking them was one of his favorite things to do.
Teo dug up three more cubes in the set. Then rocket, dragon and cubes seemed enough to have fun with.
Stiles had observed the whole time, wondering if Teo planned to empty the toy chest completely. Normally Stiles would stop that from happening but this was an official play date between best friends so he wasn’t going to interfere.
Teo loved rolling the plump rocket across the floor but Maddox’s stacking efforts were just too distracting. He had to join in. Then he dazzled Maddox by showing him you could do more than stack the smaller cubes on top of the larger ones. You could stack the larger on top of the smaller sometimes, which his daddy had shown him how to do. Then Teo fit some of the balls into the open side of the cubes and stacked them that way.
Maddox hugged Drake the dragon in his excitement because this was all so amazing and such great stuff to see.
Teo couldn’t count yet but he knew there were more cubes. Returning to the toy chest he found one more, the smallest of all, and with Maddox they built a tower with all the cubes. Then Teo had to roll the rocket around the mighty tower and he showed Maddox how to make Drake fly around it too, because that just had to be done, plus running in circles around it. But Maddox knew the most fun thing to do after you stacked something was knock the stack down, which they did three or four times, and it was hilarious every time.
Stiles, Derek and Scott had watched the intensifying play and escalating energy in the two boys. Soon Drake might not be the only thing flying, they figured.
The boys’ eyes turning golden yellow as they demolished their cube construction the fifth time made up Stiles’s mind.
"How ‘bout the park next?" he suggested.
When Scott agreed Derek said he’d go too. His wolf trusted his mate to keep their son safe, and Scott could without doubt protect his own, but two pups out in the open—it just seemed to require more pack to keep a watchful eye, especially since Teo, in wide open spaces, always liked to run as if distance compelled him into it.
"I thought you had wor—" Stiles began.
"I’m coming to the park with you," Derek said, decidedly. "It’s a nice day. It’ll be fun."
Stiles didn’t buy it for a minute, but said nothing.
"Tay," he informed, "if you and Maddox put your toys away we’ll go to the park. Would you like that?"
"Yes!" Teo shouted, hopping again. "Yay!"
Maddox echoed the yes and even the yay.
The dragon was the last thing Maddox let go back into the toy chest, though not without a kiss goodbye. Then his poppy’s tying his sneakers, telling him they’d all go to lunch after the park and then go meet Daddy helped him forget about Drake.
"Someone will probably need a nap by then," Scott said to Stiles, who was securing Teo’s sneakers with double knots.
"Not me!" Teo declared. Sleeping, no way!
At the park, out of the car, while Derek loomed over them Stiles crouched before his son, to provide some advisories.
"I know you like to run when we’re here," Stiles told him, "but you need to remember that Maddox is with us and Maddox will want to do what you do, but he can’t run like you do—"
"Cus he’s too yiddle."
"Well, yeah, too little. He might fall. You don’t want Maddox to fall and get hurt, do you?"
"No!"
"So that means—?" Teo heard his daddy ask.
"Can’t run roun’."
"We’ll still have lots of fun," Derek assured him. Teo’s running around wasn’t Derek’s concern so much as his running away. But if Maddox anchored him close, for that day’s park visit at least, that would work.
"Syide! Syide! Syide!" Teo yelled when asked what he’d like to do first. Ever since he’d figured out how to escape his crib, when he was two, to climb anything was the little werewolf’s joy. The park’s slide had it all: steps to climb and then the slide down to the ground again. It was the best thing!
All the park’s features were built of high impact plastics. All metal parts were covered, with blunt corners and rounded edges. The steps to the top of the slide were wide, easy to mount for any kid who’d mastered the skill.
Nonetheless Teo’s climbing them still made Stiles hold his breath a little, despite how obviously the boy enjoyed the climb and free fall, and doing it independently.
Derek stayed no more than a leap away from Teo’s rescue if necessary.
Maddox tracked Teo’s ascent and his slide down. Scott took that for interest enough but simply plopped his child at the slide’s top then braced his descent with a hand against his chest.
Teo watched from the top, waiting with remarkable patience for a three-year old. Then "Madutts, yook!" he shouted as he rode the slick surface to earth. He raced back to the steps but had to wait at the top again.
When Scott put Maddox back on the slide, the little boy pushed his poppy’s hand away. But then when he slid it was faster than he’d expected and he ended up slipping downward on his back, though Scott caught him before he shot off the end onto the ground.
Maddox was not happy.
"Madutts, yike this!" Teo shouted again, demonstrating proper slide technique for maximum fun.
Still Maddox frowned.
Scott’s solution was to ask Teo if Maddox could slide down with him, slotting the younger boy between Teo’s knees. Teo put his arms round Maddox’s waist and hugged him close. Down they went, Teo’s nose in Maddox’s blond hair.
Teo hadn’t thought the slide could get any better, but it just had.
By their third slide down together, Maddox’s smile was big as Teo’s.
What Maddox liked most at the park were the swings. He was content in those made for people his size, but the "baby swings" were an affront to Teo’s sense of self—even though his feet couldn’t quite reach the ground from the "big kid" swings.
Swings were problematic for Teo.
While Scott pushed Maddox in a baby swing Teo entertained himself scratching the ground with a stick he’d found. He never noticed Scott, Stiles and Derek convened in conversation. Then he heard his name and he looked on as Scott sat on a big swing, holding Maddox firmly in his lap with one arm. They started swinging.
Teo was still processing the sight when, "C’mere, my man!" Stiles called, taking a seat on the next swing and securing Teo in his lap. "Hang on to the chains, OK? And I’ll hold you." It sounded to Teo like a great idea.
Derek gave them a good push, flashing back to memories of first dates with Stiles, when they too played like youngsters on the park swings—before making out like teenagers in the Camaro.
Stiles being Stiles had one goal when swinging: height, even with Teo in his lap—not that Teo would ever complain, possessing his papa’s appetite for excitement.
"You OK, kiddo?" he asked, close to Teo’s ear. "Want to go high?"
"Yeah!" Teo emphatically affirmed.
"That’s my boy!"
"Stiles," Derek warned when their arcs got more dramatic.
It had been a while since Stiles called Derek "Sourwolf," but he was definitely thinking it as the air rushing through it ruffled his and Teo’s hair.
Scott attempted to match Stiles’s swings till a whiff of anxiety from his little one brought him literally back to earth.
"Good thing Isaac didn’t see this," he said, though only Derek heard.
After a few minutes of heady swooping swings Stiles gave up trying to experience zero-gravity, so he slowed down and stopped. Zero-g would have to wait, and he gave a fleeting thought to when Teo got tall enough for rides at amusement parks. Wait till we ride the Pirate Ship! he addressed his son, in his mind.
With everyone’s feet back on the ground Teo, adrenaline sparkling in him, grabbed both of Maddox’s hands, swaying their arms and hopping in inexpressibly glee. Maddox hopped too and when they stopped, Teo hugged him.
Suddenly he was in the air. Derek had come up behind Teo, lifting him under his arms and raising him high over his head. Teo squealed, kicking the air, but knew what was happening. He spread his legs as Derek lowered him onto his shoulders.
"Want to run with Daddy now?" Derek asked, needlessly.
"Yeah, Daddy! Yeah! Yeah!—Madutts too!"
"Daddy can’t carry both you and Maddox on his shoulders, Tay."
"What’s happening now?" Scott asked.
"We’re gonna run down to—" Derek gestured to the park’s far end. Between there and where they stood were only some benches along a winding path, with clumps of shrubbery and ornamental trees for shade.
"Want to run with Papi, Madd-Man?"
Maddox looked up at Teo where he beamed straddling his daddy’s neck. Then he looked at his poppy and nodded.
"Papa too! Papa too!" Teo demanded from his lofty seat.
"Umm, Papa’s sitting this one out," Stiles said. "I’ll just stay here and enjoy the view."
Derek smile-smirked at him. "Back in a few then," his parting words as he loped away.
Stiles had to laugh, listening to Teo’s cheers, his arms in the air, a true Stilinski.
Scott trotted alongside them, not moving with much speed till he felt Maddox was settled safely, clutching Scott’s hair for reins.
With swift, long-legged strides the two men reached the far point, where they put their sons back on the ground. They all stood before what had once been a pond, a pond that had proved too high-maintenance in such a drought-prone area and so had been left to dry up.
Teo remembered a visit from earlier in his life, which had left an impression.
"There was dusks here," he remarked to Maddox, whose hand he held.
"Ducks," Derek corrected.
"Dutts," Teo repeated.
Scott whispered, "Why does he say it that way, like he says ‘Madutts’?"
"Ask that in front of Stiles and prepare for a thorough lecture about language acquisition in children," Derek warned.
"No," Scott assured. "I think it’s cute."
Ducks had been rare visitors to the pond at one time, then no more after long neglect left it a muddy slough. Many a town meeting called for its filling in but ultimately the water evaporated completely and reedy weeds grew in its place.
"Papa says i’s gross." Teo continued his commentary on the forlorn pond site. He’d pronounced "gross" perfectly, conveying all the disdain he’d first heard in Stiles’s voice when complaining about it.
"It was gross, Tay," Derek told him. "But now it’s all dried up.—Want to tell Papa about it?"
"OK."
"Want to run back yourself?" Derek asked, though cautiously.
"Wi’ Madutts?" Teo raised Maddox’s hand in his.
"I don’t think you can run wi—"
"I carry him!"
Teo wrapped both arms around the unfazed Maddox and attempted to lift him. Scott started giggling. Derek intervened.
"No way!" his daddy said, goofily, tickling Teo’s sides so he released Maddox. Then Derek scooped up Teo like a package under his arm and began galloping back to where Stiles, basking in the sun, was perched on a bench.
"No, Daddy, no!" Teo shrieked along the way, thrashing his legs, but he was laughing.
When the quartet reached Stiles, "Time for lunch?" he asked.
At the diner, after a trip to the men’s room where everybody had a pee and a wash-up, Teo announced he wanted a cheeseburger and a "mi’kshake."
"What, no curly fries too?" Scott asked, recognizing Stiles’s favorites.
"My child has yet to appreciate the culinary perfection that is curly fries," Stiles answered.
"I’m just glad cheese is the only ‘extra’ he asks for," Derek added.
"Hey, my ‘chilidor’ cheeseburger is destined to become a standard menu item all over this country," Stiles assured.
Yeah, chili sauce and barbecue Doritos on a cheeseburger—Scott knew all about that.
For Maddox it was an absolutely plain burger on the bottom half of a bun, no condiments whatsoever. Scott cut the burger into little pieces and though Maddox could feed himself, at that point in his play date day he was getting droopy, so Scott was hand-feeding him.
Teo, who’d insisted on sitting next to his friend, side by side in their booster seats, and who had loved feeding his dads after achieving the pincer grasp, reached for a burger bit on Maddox’s plate and offered it to him.
"Teodor!" Stiles snapped. "Rude!"
Teo cringed at being scolded but "Pease?" he implored. When Maddox, placid as ever, merely opened his mouth like a little bird, Teo fed him some burger, then appeared to shiver in delight.
"It’s his wolf, Stiles," Derek said in a hushed tone, placatingly. "He wants to feed his pack."
"Chill, dude," Scott also whispered. "They’re buds, like you ‘n’ me."
"Well," Stiles conceded, "just make sure you eat too, mister!"
"I wiw," Teo replied, taking as big a bite of his cheeseburger as he could manage.
"Oh god," Stiles groaned. He’d known he’d regret sitting on the other side of the table from his kid. "Please chew that up good before you swallow."
Teo tried to answer but his mouth was too full.
Maddox had been looking around at the agitated grown-ups, wondering why the fuss. When his mouth was empty he turned to Teo and opened it wide again. That set Scott, Derek and even Stiles to giggling, and Teo too, but for a completely different reason as he fed another piece of burger to his best bud.
Stiles sat back, sighed. Scott shook his shoulder in brotherly fashion. "See, dude, they know what they’re doin’."
For every bite Teo fed to Maddox after that, he took a bite of his own cheeseburger, his eyes on Stiles.
"Teo, son, you don’t have to eat all of that if you don’t want to," Derek said, knowing what his little one was doing. It was a good thing too, because Teo really couldn’t finish it.
Well before he’d eaten all his burger Maddox was nodding asleep.
"Isaac’s gonna yell at me for this late lunch and letting Maddox miss his nap time," Scott said to Stiles and Derek, with a shrug. "Wake up, little dude. We gotta go meet daddy!"
Teo couldn’t believe grown-ups got yelled at too.
Between their two cars in the diner’s parking lot the dads said their farewells. Maddox passed from Stiles to Derek for goodbye kisses. Scott squatted to hug Teo goodbye and when he set Maddox on the ground in front of him, Maddox kissed Teo.
"Bye, Dayo," Maddox said in his ever-solemn voice.
Teo hugged him and scent-marked him too. "Bye, Madutts."
Before he sat him in his car seat Stiles held Teo in his arms. "Papa’s not mad at you, baby boy. But you shouldn’t touch other people’s food. If you want to feed Maddox you have to ask first, OK?"
Teo nodded sleepily. Stiles lay a big kiss on his cheek, with an "I love you."
Two minutes later, in his car seat, he’d conked out completely.
Derek carried Teo from the car into their home, but at the foot of the stairs Teo perked up alertly, tilting his head back.
"Daddy, wait," he requested, pressing his hand on Derek’s sternum. He wriggled to signal he wanted down.
"Alright, pup."
"What? Where’s he—?’’ Stiles wondered as Teo headed through the living room.
Derek looked at Stiles, a finger against his lips, then he tapped his nose.
Stiles didn’t understand but when Teo returned with Drake the dragon in hand, Stiles just assumed the boy had wanted his sleep-buddy again, after rediscovering it in his toy chest that morning.
Clutching Drake to himself Teo looked up at his daddy, though his eyes were closed as if he were falling asleep on his feet. Derek bore him up the steps, Stiles following.
Sneakers and pants off, in his bed Teo felt his daddy’s and papa’s soft kisses on his forehead. He heard them leave his room in whispers. He rolled his head until his face was mushed against his dragon bedfellow. Nuzzling around slowly in its fur till he’d found exactly the spot he wanted, Teo breathed in a deep sniff then sank into sleep to the sweet scent of Maddox Lahey-McCall.