Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chip had never felt like a proper father. He’d never really wanted to be one in the first place.

The universe, however, had other plans and as per usual those plans never seemed to end well for Chip.

But in retrospect, how the hell was Chip supposed to know that leaving his apartment to do some “late night shopping” at the local C-mart would end in him adopting a kid?

Two years ago in the dead of winter Chip made the fateful decision to make the dangerous journey of walking down the street in search of the finest meal imaginable. A bag of chips and a C-mart hot dog. Who’s to judge if he had a soft spot for the cheap processed meal.

Chip quickly crossed the border, between bitter winter air and the warm chemical scent of the convenience store. His objective was in a clear line of sight. He was right. There. Nothing could get in the way of Chip and his god damn hot d-

“Hi mister.”

Chip looked down to see a small skinny boy, with unkempt, nearly matted dark brown hair. The child spoke with a small squeaky voice as he tugged on Chip’s pant leg.

Now Chip was what his sister would call, a bit of a bastard. But he wasn’t evil.

Begrudgingly chip responded to the boy, “Hi bud, uh, whatcha doin out here? Did you lose your mom?”

The child looked around the store quickly scanning the isles before staring deep into Chip’s soul with his large round brown eyes. He seemed to ponder Chip’s question for a moment before shrugging.

“It was really cold out,” the boy paused, “and this was the only place open.”

Ok this kid was fucking with him. He had to be fucking with him. Chip the king of the fucking fools was being duped by this random kid at about 1:30 in the morning at a C-mart.

Despite every bone in his body telling him to turn around, mind his business, he crouched down to meet the small boy in the eyes.

“Kid, why are you really out here? Where’s your mom?”

That seemed to resonate with the kid because he puffed out his cheeks and turned away from Chip.

“I told you! It’s cold out and there’s nowhere else open!” The kid spoke with such conviction you’d think Chip just kicked his dog as he animatedly waved his hands around explaining what Chip was apparently too dense to understand.

Chip sighed, pinching the space between his brow before meeting the boy’s eyes once more.

“I understand that, but where. Are. Your. Parents?”

The boy’s mouth formed a small “o” shape as he brought his small hand to his chin. His fingertips were still red, alongside his small nose as he sniffled just a bit thinking about Chip’s question ultimately coming to the concrete conclusion of a small shrug and a generally confused noise.

Chip inhaled deeply. He weighed his options.

Option one: leave this weird ass kid alone in a convenience store at what is now nearly 2 am, in the dead of winter.

Option two: stay with this kid, never get his fucking hot dog, but make sure a random child doesn’t freeze to death.

Chip really hated being a decent person sometimes.

Pushing up from his knees, Chip returned to standing and put his hand out for the boy.

“Let’s find your parents' bud.”

He hesitantly took Chip’s hand, allowing himself to be led to the front counter by the strange man.

Chip would later realize this was one of the many instances where alarm bells should’ve been blaring in his head. But in his defense. He was so very tired.

“Hello sir, are you ready to check out?” The clerk was uninspired to say the least. She looked slightly younger than Chip, but just as, if not more, exhausted.

Chip held up the hand currently in the death grasp by the little boy. “Not quite, um, have you seen this kid’s mom, or like a parent of some sort?”

The clerk craned her neck over the small divider between her and Chip.

“Oh shit, you again?” A look of clear pity and hesitance painted her features.

“What do you mean ‘you again?’” Chip threw up air quotes as concern shone through his voice with a squeak.

“This kid’s just been in and out of here for about a week or two I’d say. I haven’t been here for every shift but I’ve heard about him from my co-workers.” She glanced down at the boy before looking back to Chip. “If I’m being honest with you I don’t really think he has parents.”

Ah.

‘I don’t really think he has parents’

Where has Chip heard that one before.

Chip looked at the small hand clutching his in the middle of the convenience store. He’d known what he’d have to do before it truly connected in his head.

Once again crouching down to the boy’s level Chip took both his hands in his own.

“What’s your name kid?”

He was silent for just a moment, enamored by Chip’s hand holding his own.

“Oliver,” he replied meekly.

Chip kept his voice as steady as he could, “Alright Ollie. When was the last time you saw your parents?”

Ollie only shrugged in response.

Chip should’ve expected that.

“Alright, I’m gonna leave it up to you. If you have nowhere to go, you can stay with me until we can find your parents.”

Chip had an ugly knot in his stomach and knew the ending before it even began.

Ollie’s already wide eyes seemed to grow to take up most of his face as he watched Chip’s face. Waiting for the punchline.

When no punchline came, Ollie’s hands were shaking in Chips.

Chip didn’t need an answer at that. He didn’t do well with people crying, especially kids, and if he stayed silent any longer he feared Ollie would cry.

With a huff he picked Ollie up by his under arms and felt the boy's cold, tiny limbs wrap around Chip’s torso in a vice grip.

On a cold winter night. Chip James, a 22 year old man, and Ollie a young boy faced the harsh weather, and headed home.

Chip gingerly unlocked the door to his small apartment, praying the small boy in his arms wouldn’t stir, and laid him on the old worn out couch. Placing a large wool blanket over Ollie’s shivering body, Chip just began to realize just what he’d got himself into.

Maybe it was destiny that Chip found Ollie that day.

Nah. Chip never believed in destiny. It was easier that way, but maybe just maybe for once destiny wouldn’t screw him over.

Nah. That wasn’t possible. At least not to Chip.

Chapter Text

Chip was having the time of his life.

A renowned pirate captain, in a deep red velvet coat flowing majestically in the wind as he steers a large rosewood ship. Carved into the side in swirling calligraphy is The Millenium Chipper, a handsome name for a handsome ship. Below deck he watched as his crew worked closely joking, working, following his orders.

Until waves crashed harshly into the ship.

His baby. The Millenium Chipper is damaged as water flows into the lower deck.

Chip tried yelling, reaching out as his crew one by one fell into the sea, sucked into the swirling water below. Chip heard a young voice yelling out for him. He tried his best rushing down the ship trying and just missing the hands of his crew as they’re dragged below.

“Chip! Chip!”

The ship thrashed harder and harder, his body slamming into the sides of the ship. A cold wave hitting the front of his body.

“Chip, we're gonna be late!”

Ollie’s voice poked through the haze as Chip attempted to regain his footing. Another bout of thrashing came, but this time it only hit Chip’s body.

“Chiiiiiiiiip.” Ollie drew out his name in a shrill voice as he mercilessly shook him.

Chip shot up drenched almost as if he had been hit with a tidal wave, his chest heaving as he looked at the frustrated boy to his side. Wisps of brown hair stuck to his forehead as he ran his fingers through it, feeling the moisture on his skin.

Ollie attempted to tug Chip out of bed by the arm, ranting and raving about being late and how embarrassing it’ll be.

“Hey Ollie, what? What time is it?” Chip questioned groggily, bringing his arms up in a stretch above his head, slowly blinking the sleep from his eyes.

“It’s already 7:30 and we have to be at school at 8! I can’t be late Chip, that's so embarrassing everyone just looks at you and you have to interrupt and and it’s the worst!”

Chip’s eyes grew wide as he quickly grabbed his phone from the rickety wooden night stand beside his bed. Surely enough the phone now said 7:30.

Shit.

Ollie opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by covers being thrown over him and Chip flung open his closet throwing on a simple t-shirt and jeans. His teeth have never been brushed quicker, and his hair was still poking out in every direction no matter how much he brushed, nothing could tame the nest he called hair.

7:35

He was making good time. If he sped and prayed to whatever god there may be they might make it in time. Scrambling into the kitchen Chip grabbed an apple and ran back into his bedroom where Ollie had freed himself from his comfy confines, and tossed the red fruit to him.

“Alright, ready to go?”

Chip picked Ollie up before he could speak, shifting him to his back, and grabbed the small boy’s backpack from the narrow hallway. Ollie giggled as he was jostled by Chip’s running down the many flights of stairs and to Chip’s beat up old car.

After buckling Ollie in, Chip ran to the drivers side (not without patting the roof of the car in silent prayer) and set a course for the school.

For once luck seemed to be on Chip’s side as he made it to the large brick building with 5 minutes to spare, but with parking it felt more like 2 minutes. Chip led Ollie through the crowded parking lot holding his small hand as the two ran to the front. Right before they reached the door Chip crouched down holding Ollie’s shoulders dropping into a serious tone.

“Alright bud, you know the drill fuck shit up, don’t get caught, aaaaaaaaand do your best.”

Ollie smiled as Chip patted his back and sent him off.

Chip held back a smile as he watched the young boy run into the building, and walked back to his car.

Ollie was thrilled he’d made it to school in time. It was the beginning of the school year and first grade was a big deal. He tried to walk into the large classroom with as much confidence as possible which, in all honesty, accumulated in a shy smile and an attempt to keep his head held high.

Looking around, he saw who he assumed to be the teacher standing at the front greeting children.

The woman seemed to be shorter than Chip, though not by much, and spoke animatedly to the children that ran up to her. Loose strands of dark hair framed her face with a long braid running down her back.

Ollie mustered up all the confidence he could to walk up and greet his teacher, but alas the bell beat him to it and he followed his classmates to the seats labeled with their names. He didn’t recognize any of the names that surrounded him so Ollie sat quietly waiting for the teacher to start.

Once she redirected the last of the children to their seats, Ollie watched as the teacher briskly approached the front whiteboard, writing out what looked to be her name.

Clearing her throat the woman spoke in a soft yet sing-songy voice, “Hello class My name is Aslana, but you can call me Miss Lana if you’d like. I look forward to our school year together and I can’t wait to get to know each and every one of you.”

The room was silent save for a small group of kids that already seemed to know each other. Now that Ollie really looked around the room, all the kids seemed to know each other already. Even if they weren’t talking they passed notes, or shared knowing looks. All but one little girl who sat next to the window looked bored as can be. She balanced a pencil between her top lip and nose, staring out the large window beside her.

Aslana finished setting up the board with introductory assignments for the day and passed out a small sheet of paper filled with blanks to write fun facts. Ollie was thrilled, it was time to show off his skill. Living with Chip Ollie had learned a lot of new things, how to write, addition and subtraction, new words like fuck and shit, and even how to read chapter books! Ollie unzipped his bag getting to work quickly with a little green glitter pen. Name? Boom Olliver/Ollie. Favorite color? Green! Favorite movie or show? Ollie had to stop to think about that one. There were just too many options! But after what felt like hours of deliberation Ollie decided on The Adventures Of Chibo and His Jolly Pirates. A show about love, justice, heroes, and more importantly pirates. Ollie loved watching the show with Chip, he wouldn’t admit it, but he loved spending time with Chip especially when they both got to watch The Adventures of Chibo together. After drawing a masterpiece of a self portrait, Miss Lana collected the papers, and showed a small powerpoint explaining more about herself.

Miss Lana seemed really nice from what Ollie could gauge, she had two sisters, and a pet fish. She even explained how she makes her own jewelry!

“Now that’s enough about me, you’ve all made these wonderful pieces that I’m excited to read through them, but until then I have a fun game for us all to learn more about each other. We’re going to go around the room one time, and everyone will say their name once and a food with the same starting letter as their name. Then on the second time around you have to say your name and the names of all the people before you as well as the food they said.”

Ollie felt up to the challenge, he sat near the front so it wouldn’t be too hard for him at least. Two kids went before him, Felipe (french toast) and Duke (Donut). Puffing out his chest, Ollie spoke with all the confidence he could muster, “Oliver, and ummmm,” while getting lost in the excitement Ollie forgot to think of a food! “Oh umm oranges!” He scanned the room nervously hoping no one would notice him stumble, but no one batted an eye. No one really even looked at him, they just moved on with the activity.

Ollie sat and listened, his class wasn’t huge by any means but there were many more people than Ollie was used to. The game went smoothly until the very end when he heard the girl from beside the window loudly and proudly say her name was Pretzel.

Pretzel?

Like the food? Did she get the order wrong?

“Oh right, the food! Hmmmmmm, Oh Pumpkin Pie!”

A couple of kids started laughing, some hiding it better than others. Pretzel held her ground though, simply silencing them with a glare.

“Alright everyone,” Aslana clasped her hands together in an attempt to take the heat off the little girl. “Now let's go back around from the start and say your name again and that of the person in front of you.”

The exercise went smoothly, Ollie repeated the names and foods, Felipe french toast and Duke Donut easy enough. As the names went down further and further kids giggled and struggled in good fun whispering to their friends for help. Eventually the time came for the very end it was all up to Pretzel.

She stood up, loudly pushing her chair back with a screech as she quickly repeated every name and food perfectly.

Ollie was in shock, as was Aslana, and the rest of the class. The class wasn’t huge by any means, but it wasn’t small either. Every other child had found difficulty in remembering the combination of names and foods, but Pretzel just breezed past.

Pretzel simply smiled smugly as she sat back down, proud of her work.

Aslana quickly broke out of her shock, as she looked at the clock and declared it everyone’s favorite time of the day. A short and exciting recess.

The children were led out to a fenced area with a large field, and a wonderful twisting metal jungle with monkey bars, swings, slides, anything a kid could ask for. Ollie for one was thrilled, this was his time to find the people he’d call his friends for the entire year because, as everyone knows, your first friends on your first day of first grade are the most important ones.

Wandering around the playground Ollie found a couple fun looking groups, some sat chatting near the slides, some pushing each other on the swings, and others kicking a ball around the field, but they all seemed busy. Now Ollie wasn’t scared, no sir, but he ultimately decided not to jump in. They all looked preoccupied anyways.

Preceding on his quest for a playmate Ollie came across a familiar girl in a dark pink shirt, and matching scalloped edged shorts drawing in the dirt with a stick. Ollie attempted to catch a look at the picture over her shoulder, but was met with large blue eyes instead.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She asked defensively covering the indented soil.

Ollie fidgeted with his hands as he rocked back and forth on his heels turning from her burning gaze. “Well you were sitting alone, and I’m walking around alone, and you looked like you were having fun and and I wanted to see.” He sputtered out.

Pretzel squinted at him, her nose scrunching up and pout traveling to the center of her face as she weighed her options.

After taking a moment to study Ollie’s intentions she turned her attention back to her drawing, “Well I’m drawing a frogtopus you can stay if you want.” she added another line to the dirt “Or not I don’t really care.”

Crouching down next to Pretzel, Ollie tilted his head attempting to comprehend exactly what a frogtopus was. To Ollie it just looked like a ball with some lines coming out of the bottom, but who was he to question an artist at work. He sat and watched her work for what felt like all of recess until she seemed fulfilled with her work, dusting her hands off on her shorts.

Without a word Ollie leaned over the drawing making his own frogtopus, or what he thought a frogtopus was, next to hers. Glancing over Pretzel didn’t look all that impressed with his skill, she looked more confused than anything. She pointed over to what was meant to be a leg, “What’s this supposed to be?”

“A frogtopus friend for your frogtopus.”

“That’s not what a frogtopus looks like, they have wavy tentacles, you gave yours like,” her face contorted as she tilted her head “like people legs. How are they supposed to swim with people legs?” She spoke like it was the most obvious fact, and maybe Ollie should just go back to kindergarten if he didn’t know something that simple.

Ollie frowned, muttering, “It’s not like you told me what it was in the first place.”

Pretzel’s mouth was left agape at the comment. Shocked. Bamboozled. This poor fool didn’t know what a frogtopus was, the very best animal in the whole ocean, even better than the elusive crawfish. Yeah, she’d take that one to her grave.

“You’ve never heard of a frogtopus! They’re only like the best animal ever!”

“I’ve never heard of it, what do they look like?”

Pretzel confidently pointed to her masterful illustration.

Ollie could only squint at the crude drawing.

“I see.”

“Yep!” Pretzel puffed her chest out proud of her work.

“Are they your favorite?” Ollie questioned, turning to face Pretzel as opposed to spending any more brain cells trying to make sense of her drawing.

Pretzel’s eyes lit up as she jumped up waving her arms around, “Yeah duh they’re literally the coolest ever I don’t know how they’re not your favorite too. What could be cooler?!”

Ollie pondered for a second. She drove a hard bargain, but Ollie knew other animals that were cool too. He thought back to the time Chip had taken him to a zoo, he’d yelled at him the whole ride home for trying to climb in with the bears. He’d remembered walking around the aquatic exhibits, not seeing a single frogtopus, but instead finding the sea otters sleeping peacefully holding hands, similar to how Chip held his tight walking around the zoo. Yeah, he liked the otters.

“I think otters are really cool, they swim fast,” Pretzel didn’t look convinced, so he tried his best to remember what Chip had told him about the animal that would really wow his new friend. “And they like to collect things like shiny rocks just like how Chip helps me find rocks for my rock collection!”

Pretzel seemed to be a little more excited, but not as much as when she spoke about her frogtopi.

“That’s cool too I guess.”

“I think they’re super cool.”

“Who’s Chip?”

Ollie didn’t quite know how to answer her query. Chip was just Chip, nothing else.

“He’s Chip.” Ollie shrugged.

“Is that like, his name?”

Ollie nodded, “Yeah, it’s kinda like yours. Pretzel and Chip, I wonder if you’d be friends?” he pondered.

Pretzel giggled, “Maybe, it’s kind of a silly name though.”

Ollie frowned, puffing out his cheeks, “It’s not! Chip is the coolest person ever in the history of like forever!”

Pretzel kept giggling, “That doesn’t mean it’s not a silly name.”

“I have a silly name too anyways,” she added quietly looking back down at her frogtopus, adding some more details with her fingernails.

“I like the name Pretzel, I don’t think it’s silly, I I think it’s actually really cool. Just like Chip. If Chip’s the coolest then Pretzel can be like,” Ollie shrugged looking back down at his own abomination of a frogtopus “like the second coolest name, Because Chip is already the coolest.”

Pretzel’s smile took up more of her face than Ollie thought humanly possible, “I guess Ollie is a cool name too, after Pretzel that is.”

The two sat laughing together, and drew more frogtopi friends until it was time to come back in.

The rest of class was mundane. As much as Ollie liked the class and Miss Lana, he was starting to get bored and began watching the clock praying for the bell to ring to signal he could leave.

Soon enough his prayers were answered with a loud ringing leading to the kids being led outside to await their rides. Ollie stood near Miss Lana watching kids run up to older adults, some with siblings, sets of two, or just one. He felt a gust of wind as he watched Pretzel run past him and into the arms of a taller muscular man.

“Papa!” She ran into his arms jumping up as he leaned down to meet her halfway, taking her into a spin before throwing her into the air and caught her without falter. She clung to his neck excitedly babbling.

Ollie watched with wonder as his new playmate left, and he and only two other kids were left with Miss Lana.

Shortly the other two kids were picked up, and Ollie was left with Miss Lana who crouched down to sit next to him in the grass. He sat quietly picking at the grass near his shoes.

“Oliver, do you know if your parents will be long?”

Ollie shook his head, he’d quickly learned that his parents weren’t all that concerned with where he was, so he wasn’t all that concerned where they were, but where was Chip?

As if summoned Chip came running up to the two sitting in the grass.

“Chip!” Ollie sprung up running to Chip as he came closer. He ruffled Ollie’s hair as he collided with his leg.

“Hey bud sorry I was late, I had to cover for some ass who skipped out on their shift.”

“Ahem.” Miss Lana was now standing and coughed gently into her fist. “I suppose you’re Ollie’s umm…”

Chip quickly picked up where she seemed to be leading, “Oh yeah, um I’m Ollie’s guardian.” He stuck out his free hand, as Ollie had quickly claimed the one closest to himself. “I’m Chip James, I really am sorry for being so late, thank you for staying with him I got held up at work.”

Miss Lana sighed, but lightly took Chip’s hand shaking it before returning her hands to her pockets. “I don’t mind at all, I was just a bit worried is all.”

Chip chuckled, “Yeah ummm no worries, we’re gonna head home now. It was nice meeting you. Uh, thanks again uhh…”

“Aslana”

“Aslana,” Chip snapped his finger, “Right yes, well it was wonderful to meet you and I look forward to next time.” He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ollie looked up to Chip, tugging at his arm in an attempt to get back to the car.

Chip seemed to get the memo and allowed himself to be dragged back to the car by a very determined Ollie, falling into the familiar motions of buckling the small boy into the carseat before walking back around the car and buckling himself in. Chip twisted the key in the ignition checking to back out of the parking spot, spotting Ollie watching the window as he pulled out.

“So uh how was class?”

Ollie’s attention snapped back to Chip at the mention, “Oh it was good! Miss Lana is really nice.”

Chip smiled but kept his eyes on the road “That’s good. Make any new friends?”

“Yeah, her name’s Pretzel, kinda like yours.”

Chip huffed a laugh, “Yeah kid just like mine,” finding a close enough parking spot Chip maneuvered into the tight space between two other cars shifting into park he turned back to Ollie who was already unbuckling himself. “I’m glad you found a buddy. You should tell me all about her when we get inside.”

Ollie’s face lit up as he nodded along and waited for Chip to help him out.

Once free Ollie ran up the flights of stairs of he and Chip’s building bouncing as Chip unlocked the door allowing Ollie to push his way inside quickly finding his way to the couch landing with an oomph as he bounced onto the worn out couch.

Chip quickly followed plopping next to Ollie with enough force the boy beside him was jostled about, and prepared for Ollie to offload his exciting day to him.

After spilling all of the drama that accumulates from the first day of school Ollie calmed down for the most part. “Oh and I didn’t really get to talk to him, but Pretzel’s dad looked super cool! He was super muscley,” Ollie lifted his arms mimicking a flex “and he threw her up suuuuper high in the air!”

“What no way!” Chip gasped over exaggeratedly

Ollie jumped up, his feet on the couch “Yes way! I bet he could even lift you up.”

Chip smirked, “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!” Ollie challenged mimicking Chips own expression.

“Well if he’s sooooo cool I bet he couldn’t,” Without warning Chip attacked scooping Ollie up spinning him around. Ollie squirmed in Chip’s grasp laughing as his legs kicked out feeling the air around him before being plunged back into the couch and attacked once more.

“Sneak attack!” Chip laughed tickling Ollie watching his kick and giggle attempting revenge, but ultimately lacking in reach. Foiled again.

“Cmon Ollie you gotta surrender.”

“Never!”

“Never? Like never ever? I don’t think that’s possible.”

Between giggles and snorts Ollie responded, “Nope never ever, a captain never surrenders!”

“What’s this about being captain? I’m captain of this ship and I say you walk the plank!” Chip ceased his tickle war only to scoop Ollie up once again and lightly toss him into a small pile of pillows and blankets on the other end of the couch. Ollie’s laugh never ceased even when muffled by old wool blankets and feather filled pillows.

“Do you finally surrender?” Chip asked from his throne of a couch.

“Never!” Ollie exclaimed, excitedly jumping out of the blankets to ambush Chip who mock yelled at the sudden attack.

Holding his hands up Chip begged “I surrender I surrender whatever it is I’ll do it but please,” Chip held a hand to his forehead the other clutching his chest “Just spare me I beg.”

Ollie giggled mischievously and brought a hand to his chin thinking long and hard, “Cake for dinner today! Those are my terms of surrender.”

Chip looked down at the boy holding him steady on his lap, “You drive a hard bargain,but how about this for an actual dinner and I’ll give you a surprise.”

Ollie hummed suspiciously “What kinda surprise?”

Chip grinned, “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. Now. Would. It.” he punctuated each sentence with a little shove to the boy’s chest. “Now get off a me so I can make dinner, I’m fucking starving.”

The boy could only giggle and oblige jumping off from Chip's lap and walked excitedly into the kitchen, watching Chip get to work on the gourmet meal of frozen chicken nuggets, fries, and canned green beans.

The two took their usual place eating on the couch watching the newest episode of Chibo and his Jolly Pirates. While washing dishes Ollie bounced around excitedly tired of waiting for Chip to finish he rummaged around any and every open bag laying around the room.

“Whatcha lookin for bud?”

“You said you had a surprise!” Ollie said, body halfway into an open cloth bag.

Chip tapped his foot hand coming to rest on his chin, “I dunno, I don’t remember a surprise, are you sure?”

Ollie’s head snapped up to meet Chip, his eyes wide, “Chip you said so! You said earlier after dinner you had something!” he whined, looking like he was just about to burst into tears at the sudden betrayal.

Chip chuckled, opening up the fridge, “Oh yeah I did say that, didn’t I? Good thing you have such a good memory,” and with that Chip took out a small pink box from the fridge, and handed it off to Ollie whose mood immediately improved. Chip smiled a crooked sort of smile and ruffled Ollie’s already messy brown hair.

“You’re a good kid, I’m proud of you for makin it through your first day.”

Ollie’s mouth was agape as his eyes landed on a large red velvet cupcake with thick swirling white frosting and sprinkles all over the top. Looking up he came face to face with a fork and a smiling Chip. Quickly he took the fork and started devouring the sugary treat. Chip continued laughing in an attempt to quiet the voice in the back of his mind, nagging at him that Ollie would be a nightmare to get to bed after all this sugar, but that didn’t matter at the moment. The little voice could fuck off for all Chip cared, Ollie looked estatic and that’s all that mattered at the moment.

Chapter Text

Chip had started believing he had a handle on this whole “parental guardian” thing, he wasn’t super late at picking up Ollie anymore, though he was almost always last he’d tried his best to strike up conversation with other parents, thought yet to interact with the famous “Pretzel’s papa” as Ollie had continued to rave and rant about. He set six alarms to make sure he got Ollie to school on time, and picked up an extra couple shifts now that Ollie was busy in class.

Life was going great. Nothing could get in his way. No sir.

A ding.

Chip looked down at the glowing cracked screen of his shitty old phone.

Hey Chip, can’t make it for my shift tonight.

Family emergency

Kno I can count on u

Thanks man.

Chip wanted to kill a man. He’d hid his situation from his coworkers at every last one of his jobs, the only ones who knew about Ollie were his employers. How was he supposed to explain to the average Home Depot employee that yeah he’s single, 24 still working at a home depot, has a kid, and then proceed to have to explain to the sorry excuse for a coworker he’s had the misfortune of working with that the kid is not only not biologically his, but that he picked the kid up from a convenience store and had to fight to keep the poor kid out of foster care. He knew how that shit went, and Chip wouldn’t wish that on Ollie.

Chip begrudgingly typed and sent back,

No problem. Hope your family’s ok.

Chip knew the guy was lying.

This guy had used that excuse plenty of other times, they were just too understaffed to do anything about it. Your grandpa on your mother’s father’s uncle’s brother’s side can only die so many times that you can’t wander a Home Depot for a couple hours.

Another ding.

Haha yeah man

I’m lowkey doing u a solid here

Kno u need the shifts, Mellisa told me how you like begged her for some more shifts

Np broski 😎

That’s it.

Chip was going to wipe his already shit track record with this asshole’s face, he could take being inconvenienced by annoying co-workers, he could deal with the exhaustion that came with working multiple jobs, but what he couldn’t take was being patronized.

He lived that life, and he wasn’t about to live it again.

Chip began drafting:

I’m not your fucking bro, Mellisa doesn’t need to be telling you what we talk about especially as she is a manager, and honestly you need to be fired or quit because obviously you don’t need a fucking job. Just go ask daddy for a bigger allowance you rich ass. Another piece of advice that you’ll be needing is learn to be a better liar if you’re going to lie, because the same-

Chip stopped his angry typing.

He looked around the small kitchen and poor excuse for a living room. The appliances were out of date and most likely not up to code, the tile was cracked with the threat of mold showing near the cabinets.

The carpet of the living room was stained and matted, and housed a chipped coffee table and a small couch with patches haphazardly sewn into them, but on the mix match couch sat a small stuffed otter. A well loved friend with flat patches where stuffing was pushed out from play and sleep. Its beaded eyes were held on by a thread, but its crooked smile displayed a comforting resilience in the toy.

In the sink water dripped freely onto dirty plastic plates and mixes of smaller and larger silverware sets. On the fridge were scribbles on both pieces of paper and the machine itself memorializing the many figments of Ollie’s active imagination. Chip couldn’t always decipher them, but the small boy was more than happy to explain them to him.

Chip couldn’t stop the soft smile that began to tug at his lips as he inspected the small rooms.

No matter how shitty it was, it was worth it.

He knew deep down it was worth dealing with the pricks that reared their ugly heads at every job.

With a shaky breath Chip pressed his thumb to the backspace listening to the quick line of clicks as words disappeared from his messages.

It was settled, he’d take the shift, he’d take any shift they’d give him.

Chip had lived through hell and back, and there was no way he would let a goddamn Home Depot beat him. He was Chip James for fucks sake.

Burning with a new determination he worked through the last of the chores he had around the house. Dishes? Cleaned. Carpet? Vacuumed? Weird stain? Still there, and still unknown. Despite the mystery stain Chip felt a little better with a cleaner environment. Now he just had to clean himself up, pick Ollie up, and head to work.

Clean himself up, pick Ollie up, and head to work.

Clean himself up, pick Ollie up, and head.

Ah. A minor setback in Chip's previously flawless plan.

Chip had no babysitter.

Chip, who was pretty damn used to living with a child, realized someone needed to sit with said child while at work.

Chip for lack of a better term knew of two things he didn’t have.

One, money for a babysitter and two, friends who weren’t also working tonight.

And by friends Chip really meant sister.

Chips fingers flew across his screen as he opened Lizzie’s contact, typing in his most polite, agreeable, and not at all suspicious tone:

Hey Liz.

U busy tonight?

Maybe there really was a god as not even a minute later three alternating dots appeared at the bottom of his screen.

Work till 6 on break now. y.

You know what, yes there is a god. However, that god just can’t seem to stand him.

Ollie was getting used to school, sure people didn’t flock to him like Chip said they would but he was sure they’d come around. Even if they didn’t, it’s not like he didn’t have friends he had Pretzel and Pretzel had him. Though sometimes Ollie wondered what went through her head.

“What do you mean Mr.Fish is cooler than Chibo! You’re crazy he’s literally the captain that’s like pirate law that no ones cooler than the captain.”

Pretzel stomped her foot and flipped her short curly hair out of her eyes, “nuh uh Chibo just runs and hides from stuff,” she squatted down mimicking the cowardice of the captain in question before quickly popping back up making Ollie stumble back. “Mr.Fish runs in and fights the bad guys, he’s the real hero!”

Ollie steadied himself looking Pretzel in the eye and threw his hands up into the air “That is not true Chibo makes the plans and leads everyone to victory without him Mr.Fish wouldn’t even be on the crew!”

“Nuh uh! Chibo doesn’t even have a plan half the time, he just makes stuff up.”

“That makes him just as smart he’s a quick thinker and and-”

“Ollie, Pretzel recess is over, you two need to come back inside.”

In the heat of their very important argument neither Ollie nor Pretzel realized Miss Lana was standing right behind them.

Pretzel’s head whipped back to the teacher, “Not until Ollie realizes that he’s wrong! I can’t let him go around spreading misinformation that is very dishonorable.” she shook her head and crossed her arms turning her nose at her friend.

“I am not!” Ollie whined, pouting at Aslana.

With a sigh she crouched down to the children's level fixing herself with a patient smile, “How about you two play after school and you can work it out then. Right now we need to get back to class, and we can’t keep everyone waiting.”

Ollie looked blankly between his teacher and friend, truthfully he didn’t think they could hang out outside of school, but it sounded like a good idea. Miss Lana always had good ideas, so how could he not at least take it into account.

Pretzel however required a little more pushing, “Yes but how will I know he isn’t spreading lies in between then and now! He can’t have people thinking Chibo is better than Mr.Fish, it's just not possible.” She said Chibo like the name physically hurt to get out as she ranted to the teacher.

Aslana reached out a hand laying it gently on Pretzel’s small shoulder, “Well I don’t think Ollie would do something like that. He’s a very good student and knows he shouldn’t be talking in class. Right Pretzel.”

Pretzel only kicked a pebble and nodded along, accepting she had been beaten fair and square. Eventually following the woman back to the classroom to continue their day.

The day itself went smoothly as the class went over new spelling words, and learned about the proper way to write upper and lowercase letters, things like nouns and verbs.

Ollie had felt incredibly proud of himself as Chip had already taught him about proper nouns and how to write wonderful sentences making class go by quickly and without much issue. By the end of the day he had even devised a plan to show Pretzel all around his and Chip’s apartment. There were so many fun things for them to do they could draw pictures, play pirates, even ask Chip to see one of his big kid movies!

He had gotten used to being the last one to be picked up, though he’d gotten better Chip was still late more times than not but because of that Ollie began to cultivate a friendship with Miss Lana. He learned all about her life on the coast, and how she’d met her birth mother and traveled around the world. Sometimes he even got to see the pictures of all the amazing places she’d been. Seeing sparkling beaches and bustling cities always made Ollie think of Chip. He thought of Chip's stories of far off places and how one day he and Ollie would have a real adventure. One day he’d be the one showing Miss Lana the coolest places, and it’d be her turn to ooh and ahh at the sights.

Though today was different where Pretzel was usually one of the first to be picked up, she sat picking at grass next to Ollie as Aslana spoke of different types of seashells she’d learned to recognize. Normally Pretzel loved hearing about the sea, but today she just sat attacking the lawn.

Aslana leaned forward, setting a hand over Pretzels as she was about to rip another blade of grass from its home. “He’ll be here soon, don’t worry.”

Pretzel’s frown only deepened, “I know that.”

Miss Lana chuckled slightly bringing her hand up to her lips as to cover her smile, “Think of it this way. Maybe it’s destiny that you two finally get to hang out outside of school.”

“Yeah! I wanna show you my room. I have some super cool swords we can play with! Oh or we could watch movies! And and we could get pizza because pizza’s the best.”

As Ollie ranted Aslana could see the smile Pretzel attempted to suppress averting her eyes back to the grass beneath her.

Soon a muscular man came barreling towards them, who Ollie had learned was Pretzel’s papa. He picked her up in his usual spin holding her close as she laughed. Not far behind was Chip jogging over to the group quickly spewing apologies at Aslana. As usual she assured him it was alright, and that she understood.
Ollie seized the opportunity as conversation dipped and tugged at Chip’s pant leg, “Chip. Chip. Chiiiiippppppppppp.”

Chip looked down at the small boy tugging at his pants, “Yeah what is it bud?”

“Can Pretzel come over please please please we have a very important discussion to finish.”

A crooked smile graced Chip’s lips “Where’d you go around learning such big words, huh?”

Ollie pointed over to Miss Lana puffing out his chest, beaming with pride “Miss Lana did. She’s super duper smart she knows like everything.”

“No I don’t quite think I know everything, almost there though.”

“Yeah so can Pretzel please please please come over it’s super important!”

Chip’s face dropped for a moment before trying his best to display a quick recovery. “Ollie I’m sorry I have to get to work, and I-”

“Hello! You must be Chip Pretzel has told me a lot about you.”

Chip was cut off quickly by a slightly shorter muscular man with who he assumed to be the famous Pretzel in his arms. His voice boomed with a confidence Chip could only dream of obtaining, and wore the biggest smile he’d ever seen. Doing his best to mimic the man Chip’s lips curled back into a crooked smile as he held out his hand to shake. The man looked at the hand with a confused glint in his eye, but after a moment connected the dots and shook Chip’s hand. Hard.

God why was he so strong?

Chip attempted to discreetly shake out his hand after it had been crushed, “Uh yeah I’m Chip. You must be Pretzel’s dad right?”

Another laugh boomed from the man, “Yes I am Gillion Tidestrider, father to Pretzel!”

Gillion huh. A bit odd but Chip’s met weirder and who was he to judge after everything he’d done.

“Alright Gillion Tidestrider it’s nice to meet you. Ollie talks a lot about you too actually.”

That same wide smile graced Gillion’s lips as he heard of Ollie’s praises, “That’s wonderful Chip I’m glad to have made a good impression on young Oliver! Pretzel speaks highly of him as well.”

At the mention of her name, Pretzel turned away, puffing out her cheeks, “I do not.” she muttered lowly enough even Chip had trouble catching the girl's stubborn words.

Gillion only laughed that big genuine laugh Chip was quickly beginning to expect from the man.

Soon enough Chip felt the familiar tug of Ollie at his pant leg return.

Chip knelt down to the boy's level dreading having to break the news to him, “Listen bud I got called in and I have to take a shift tonight so Pretzel can’t hang tonight.”

He hated seeing Ollie deflate like he did hearing the news of his time with his playmate being cut short. Seeing Ollie disappointed always left a horrible pit in Chip’s stomach like there was extra weight tugging his heart down.

“If you’d like, Ollie can come to our home to play. If that’s alright with you that is?”

Chip turned to see Gillion looking almost sheepish, a stark contrast to the loud and eccentric man he’d just met. The uncertainty on his face looked odd and made Chip’s stomach twist more than it already was. Despite just meeting he felt he could trust Gillion. He seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve and hell who was he to judge the other for his parenting Chip was hardly a parent himself. Besides if not with Gillion who would Ollie sit with until Lizzie could pick him up, Chip hated leaving Ollie alone in the apartment. He could still remember the first time he’d had to leave the young boy alone, it was only for about an hour but Chip would rather die than hear the panic in Lizzie’s voice when she’d gotten to the apartment and found Ollie curled up and hidden in his room. Chip had made a silent vow to himself that when he decided to keep Ollie around he’d decided to never let him think Chip would fail him like others had when he was a kid. He wanted to be better, he wanted to be someone Ollie could come to no matter what. If that meant taking a chance on this Gillion Tidestrider who was he to question it.

Chip pushed himself up from his previous squatting position and took out his phone, opening a spot for a new contact passing the device to Gillion.

As Gillion slowly typed in his contact information Chip turned back to Ollie who was now happily jumping around Pretzel who was doing her best, and failing, to suppress a smile.

“Ollie Aunt Lizzie will be able to pick you up at 6:30, if anything anything happens don’t hesitate to call me or her. Got it?”

Ollie’s head looked like it may roll right off his neck with how quickly he nodded, “Yep! Aunt Lizzie will pick me up if anything happens I’ll call!”

Chip huffed and ruffled the boy’s hair as a flurry of giggles escaped him, “Alright I’ll see you tonight then alright bud?”

Ollie simply nodded, running off to play with Pretzel.

Once the kids were out of earshot Chip turned back to Gillion letting his voice drop low “Listen man I don’t know why, but I’m trusting you and if anything happens to him you better pray to whatever god you believe in that they’re more merciful than I am.”

Gillion reached out, taking Chip’s hands in his own, “I swear to you I would die before I let anything happen to Pretzel or Oliver. You have my word.”

Chip felt his face heat up at the sudden contact pulling his hand back from Gillions soft grasp. “Uh well that’s good because yeah I’d I’d kick the shit out of you if anything got it.”

“Eye Eye captain!” Gillion chuckled, following the small trail of giggles and destruction.

Chip watched the man leave, absolutely dumbfounded of how he ended up here. Before booking it back to his beat up car to struggle to make it to his unwanted shift on time.

Chapter Text

Gillion’s car is nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. However, driving is still one of his least favorite activities. Especially since moving to the city. The traffic drives him crazy and people are at their worst when on the road. Things just tended to get overwhelming. Luckily his apartment sat at the perfect in between for both his and Pretzel’s schools, and Pretzel and Ollie’s excited chatter kept his mind preoccupied enough that the drive was uneventful.

Pretzel wove elaborate stories from the backseat, and Gillion could hear the wonder in Ollie’s voice though he only piped up occasionally. She was vividly retelling a story from Gillion’s own childhood, one of great importance to his family line of a chosen warrior and the fight for love and valor. He’d always been a sucker for a good story, one with a happy ending which Pretzel seems to have inherited.

The car rolled to a quiet stop as Gillion did his best not to park too crookedly and helped Pretzel and Ollie out, leading them up the two flights of stairs and into the apartment. Similar to his car it was nothing fancy.

Pretzel made a beeline towards her room to show Ollie her steadily growing plush collection and assortment of toys while Gillion walked to the kitchenette and began to gingerly remove the peels of oranges and apples, expertly cube mangos, and swiftly pluck grapes from their vine to place into two small bowls one pink and one green. Gillion made the short journey from the shared living area to Pretzel’s small room with the bowls in hand pausing in the doorway to examine the children.

Ollie jumped around excitedly as Pretzel attempted to hold a bright pink plushie, nearly the size of her own body above her head. Gillion couldn’t help but smile at the two. If he wanted anything for Pretzel it’d be all he could never have. He knocked softly against the old chipped door frame.

“Are you two perhaps hungry?”

Pretzel’s eyes snapped over to her papa, her grin somehow growing ever wider, “Didja make fruit salad?”

Ollie shifted from side to side cupping his hand to the side of his face as he turned to Pretzel in an attempt to conceal his speech, “What’s fruit salad?”

A loud gasp erupted from his playmate and she brought the large plushie to her chest, twisting back and forth as she held the toy close to herself. “You’ve never had fruit salad?!”

Ollie only shook his head embarrassed.

Gillion felt a pang of guilt for embarrassing the young boy, but Ollie didn’t seem to mind being taught the wonders of fruit salad as Pretzel babbled.

“It’s like normal salad but actually super good and it's all a bunch of fruit all together in one big bowl and it’s like the best thing ever since like anything.”

Ollie nodded along, letting Pretzel’s excitement bounce onto him.

Gillion set the bowls down in front of the kids and watched as Ollie’s eyes seemingly grew three times their original size at the sight of the freshly cut fruits and pointed at the small orange-ish cubes in the mix.

“What’s that one?”

Pretzel glanced over, mouth already stuffed full of an assortment of fruits, “Oh that’s mango.”

“Mango?”

“Mhm!”

“Hmm,” Ollie poked at the cube before popping it into his mouth, chewing slowly at first before quickly scarfing down more fruit.

Gillion chuckled at the sight “I am glad you enjoy the fruit salad young Oliver.”

Ollie’s face quickly swiveled to meet Gillion with cheeks puffed out and nodded swiftly before turning back to his bowl of fruit no longer caring to examine its contents before working to devour it.

“Papa, is it Auntie Jay’s turn to cook?”

Gillion turned his attention back to Pretzel who pressed her empty bowl into his open palms, as she questioned.
“Yes I believe it is. Did you have something in mind?”

The small girl looked bashful for but a moment before a smirk curled onto her face and a familiar mischievous glint entered her eyes. She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak, but was cut off by the loud opening of a door and heavy footsteps which drew ever closer before a head of fiery orange hair bound in a tight ponytail poked through the doorway leaning into the frame.

“Okay so I know you’re always going on about how we need to have a healthy diet and we can’t live off takeout or whatever, but I have a calc exam to cram for and I really don’t feel like making dinner so I did order the usual pizza from Marshal John’s. Before you say anything, yes I got a smaller one with anchovies for you and no I do not want to try any, in fact I think I’d rather die than have fish on my pizza.”

When the woman’s rambles ceased Pretzel jumped up trotting over to her, “Auntie Jay, Auntie Jay did you get the super cheesy one with all the strings?”

Jay picked the small girl up lightly, tossing her into the air, similar to how Ollie had seen Gillion do just with less energy, and placed her safely back to the ground. “Of course I did you think I’m crazy? That’s the best kind.”

Pretzel giggled grabbing Jay’s hand to drag over to where she and Ollie had been playing, “This is my friend Ollie, he’s pretty cool most of the time but he doesn’t know what a frogtopus is-”

“Hey, I know what it is now!”

“and his favorite character is Chibo. Can you believe that Auntie Jay?!”

Jay smiled crouching down to Ollie’s level sticking out her hand “Hey there Ollie I’m Jay, Gillion’s friend.”

Ollie grabbed her hand lightly shaking it, which Jay returned slightly more enthusiastically. Letting Ollie’s hand fall from her own Jay motioned for the boy to come closer to her, cupping her hand around her mouth shielding it from view. Ollie scooted closer leaning his ear to Jay’s hand.

“If you ask me, Bluebird is the best character. She keeps the other two bozos in check.”

Ollie pulled away his smile growing as he jumped up, “Bluebird is super cool she can fly around and do all sortsa cool stuff with her gun!” he said mimicking a gun with his own hand.

Jay chuckled pushing up from her hands and back into a standing position, “anyways I just wanted to let you guys know what I was doing for dinner.” she said, preparing to exit the room, but not before placing a hand on Gillion’s shoulder as he leaned against the doorframe and leaned into his ear. “And also to make sure no one barges in when I’m cramming. Right. Gill?” she growled through a gritted forced smile.

Gillion’s eyes flew anywhere but Jay’s as she spoke, and merely nodded to her question.

“Good, Pizza’ll be here in twenty.” A hand aggressively patted Gillion’s shoulder as Jay left the room.

“Bye Auntie Jay!” Pretzel yelled after her.

“Bye Miss Jay!” Ollie mimicked.

A quiet “Bye kids!” could be heard from down the hall, and the closing of a door.

With the absence of Jay, Ollie looked back to his playmate, “What should we do now?”

Pretzel turned her attention to Gillion who still stood frozen at the doorway, with Pretzel’s empty bowl loose in his hand. “Papa, can we watch a movie? On the big T.V.”

Gillion broke from the daze Jay’s threat left him in and shrugged, “I don’t see why not. What would you like to watch?”

Pretzel turned expectantly to Ollie, “What’s your favorite movie?”

Ollie thought long and hard at that. Pretzel was asking the real questions now. What kind of movies does he like? What kind of movie would they both like? All these choices were gonna make his head explode if he didn’t stop. Wait. Explosions! That’s it, he and Chip had just recently seen the superhero movie that just came out on Netflix.

After a few moments of deep concentration Ollie spoke up “How about Prime Defenders. It’s a superhero movie Chip showed me.”

Pretzel seemed to enjoy that idea as she jumped circles around both Ollie and Gillion, “Yes yes yes yes yes I’ve wanted to watch that one!”

Gillion carefully watched pretzels jumping, and like a bear grabbing a salmon, scooped her out of the air where she giggled and squirmed. Carefully he walked to the living room area and set her down on the couch.

Ollie followed closely behind and climbed up beside his friend, but felt her begin to move away from his side. He turned to face her and was met with not only her off the couch but the cushion as well which was now laying strewn across the floor. She tugged lightly at the one he was sitting on, and quickly hopped off helping her to remove the other cushion.

Pretzel ran back into her room picking up as many plushies, pillows, and blankets as her small hands could hold.

While she was away Ollie got to work stacking the loose pillows he could find around the room into pillars on each side of the couch cushions. After taking a moment to appreciate his work he turned back to the furniture, but instead of seeing the dark brown couch he was met with tanned legs, and looked up to see Gillion looking down at him.

“Where did Pretzel go?”

“I think she went to go get more supplies for the fort.”

As if summoned, Pretzel ran back into the living room, losing some materials in the process, and dumped them into Ollie’s open hands which he gladly began to get to work with adding extra pillows inside for support and extra comfiness.

“Papa, can you help me bring a chair in to make the roof?” she asked, attempting to drag the chair against the linoleum of the kitchenette.

Gillion easily lifted the chair and brought it behind the couch cushion and pillow supports, just as Pretzel expertly instructed. Pretzel began to drape a soft blanket over the chair. There was a knock at the door, which Gillion trotted over to investigate.
Before him stood a young man looking around 17 or 18 holding out two pizza boxes. One larger and another smaller stacked atop it, however both shared the same logo of a muscular man in a uniform flashing a bright smile to anyone who dared look at the box, with flowing bubble letters that read “Marshal John’s”. Gillion could almost cry, though he berated Jay for her poor food choices at times, he couldn’t help but admit the greasy soft spot the pizza chain had formed on his heart. Something about the cheap food still felt like it was made with love, like seeing an old friend you’d never thought you’d see again.

He must’ve been staring at the boxes because they were promptly shoved into his chest as the man left Gillion alone at the doorway.

A loud gasp sounded from behind him as Pretzel had finally noticed the food had arrived.

Both children happily attempted to peek their heads over the counter, which was much too tall for them, and watched as Gillion placed slices of gooey cheese pizza onto three separate plates. He handed one to Ollie and the other to Pretzel, both of which quickly retreated back to their comfortable hideout, and left another larger slice in the microwave and shot Jay a quick text telling her the food was here. Below the text were the words “message sent quietly” so maybe it’s for the better that he left it in the microwave, and proceeded to open up the smaller box and place a piece of fish lined pizza onto his own plate.

“Papa, aren't you gonna come? You’re gonna miss the movie!”

Gillion walked over to the fort noticing a large spot in the middle, which he gladly took. He saw as the screen flashed to life taking place in a traditional American highschool. A young teenager with bright red hair ran down the halls, speaking with two other boys both dressed in darker colors than he was.

The movie went quickly as the children inhaled their meal and excitedly narrated the film until the very last fight where the two, and even Gillion, were left in silent awe at the movie.

After the fight was wrapped up and the day saved by the three heroes, Gillion felt two bodies cozied up on either side of him. Their own blankets wrapped tightly around themselves.

“I thought D,” a yawn overtook Ollie as he tried to speak, “I thought DC was super cool”

Pretzel sleepily nodded her agreement on the other side of Gillion, nuzzling her face further into his side.

“Yeah, but I think Whisperer was neat.” she muttered, mimicking Ollie’s previous yawn.

“I’d have to agree with young Oliver that Dakota Cole was a wonderful hero.” Gillion mused quietly.

Despite the sleepiness in her eyes, Pretzel still had enough in her to look up at her Papa with offense, “You can’t just say his name, you’re gonna give away his super secret identity.”

Gillion brought a hand over pretzel’s head smoothing down some runaway curls, and rubbed slow circles over her hairline. “You’re right sweetheart, that was very inconsiderate of me.” he mused.

Pretzel seemed content with his response and turned her head back to the screen. As the credits began to roll both children leaned deeper into Gillion clinging to either side of him allowing sleep to claim them, and soon enough all three were comfortably asleep in their comfortable floor fort.

Chapter Text

Through her headphones Jay could hear knocking at the door. She felt like she was just getting in the zone, but another much more aggressive knock sounded from the front of the apartment derailing her focus once again.

Jay pushed her headphones down around her neck as the knocking grew more and more urgent, “Gill! Get the door I know you’re over there!”

Still the knocking persisted.

Then silence.

Then more knocks. Or, punching? Was someone trying to kick down her front door?
Jay shot out of her seat, and grabbed an old metal baseball bat she kept from her time in softball as a kid. She may not have been a star player, but she could hit hard enough if she really needed to, and ran out to the front door. White knuckled holding the bat she creaked open the door and was met with familiar deep grey eyes and a scowl.

“Liz?”

The woman at the door’s face softened slightly before a smirk overtook her lips. “How the hell do you know my name?” she purred.

Jay’s face immediately dropped into a deadpan, as she pulled her hair out of the bun she’d put it in earlier.

“Oh shit Jay you live here?”

Jay let out an overexaggerated sigh and let Lizzie in, placing the bat behind the door as she shut it.

“What was with all the knocking? You know you coulda just texted me or something? How’d you even get my address?” Jay questioned once Lizzie was fully settled in the house leaning against the entrance wall.

Lizzie crossed her hands over her chest holding herself tightly meeting Jay’s eyes dead on, “Well my idiot brother doesn’t know how to say no to a shift, so I was told that instead of relaxing after a hard days work I had to stop by some Gillion Tidestrider’s apartment to pick up his kid and make sure said kid was still alive as he left him with a man he just met.”

Jay looked dumbstruck at the woman in front of her, which seemed to amuse Lizzie as she chuckled lightly to herself. Following Lizzie’s new line of sight she looked into the small living room where she saw the couch was disassembled, and a large fort standing in front of it.

Huh. That’s new

“Though by the looks of it, my brother might have better intuition than I thought.”

Lizzie quietly walked to the front of the fort and was met with two small bodies curled into a tanned man with dark waves of hair that curled into his face. Lizzie could immediately identify Ollie despite his messy brown hair being the only thing visible above the blankets and pillows he shrouded himself in. The small girl with thick curly hair and a vice grip on the man in the middle must’ve been the man’s daughter, Pretzel, who Chip had described to her.

As Lizzie analyzed the sleeping bodies in front of her, Ollie shifted, popping his head out of the blankets, messing his hair even further, and cuddled closer to the man Lizze could gather was Gillion.

Lizzie ripped her phone out of her pocket, snapping a picture of the two, and promptly sent it to Chip.

Jay peeked over her shoulder, and turned to Lizzie confused.

She brought the phone closer to Jay, zooming into Ollie happily sleeping on Gillion’s side. “You probably saw when he first came in, but he’s a shy kid. It took him a while to even let me hug him. So to see him that cuddly that quickly means that either Chip’s a way better judge of character than I ever thought or he got really lucky with this guy's offer.”

Leaning her head fully onto Lizzie’s shoulder, Jay's arms encircled her waist, as she hummed her approval.

“Gill can be kinda weird at times, but he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met and I think kids have really good intuition for that kinda stuff.”

“You calling me disingenuous?”

A grin spread across Jay’s features as she turned to face Lizzie, “I’m just saying I saw you fake cry like it was second nature when that cop pulled us over for speeding.” She pulled away slightly, whispering mockingly, “Please officer my grandfather’s in critical condition, I'll never be able to see him again.”

“I got him off our ass didn’t I?”

Jay chuckled, “That you did.”

As Jay moved away, Lizzie moved closer to the fort leaning into the structure to pull Ollie out of it. She felt a tight grip around her wrist as she was met with dark blue eyes and pupils which for a moment almost looked like slits.

“Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?” Gillion’s voice came out raspy and sharp as he inched himself in front of Ollie’s sleeping form.

“What the fuc-”

“Gil, remember when I told you I’d been talking to a girl for the past couple months.”

Both Gillion and Lizzie’s heads whipped towards Jay.

“Well this is the girl and her name is Lizzie and she also just so happens to be Chip’s sister.”

Gillion quickly retracted his hand from Lizzie’s wrist turning to face her fully with widened eyes and quickly darkening cheeks, “My greatest apologies, Chip had warned me of your arrival I am so incredibly sorry this is incredibly unprofessional of me and,”

“Aunt Lizzie?”

Ollie peaked around Gillion still holding onto his arm as he rubbed the sleep from his eye. After the initial shock of being woken up by the sound of hushed arguing and apologies, Ollie took the room in and focused on Lizzie in front of him.

“Aunt Lizzie!”

After Lightly hitting his head on the couch cushion roof of the fort, Ollie rushed over to Lizzie and hugged her legs.

Lizzie returned the sentiment ruffling the young boy’s hair. “Hey squirt have a good time?”

Ollie unclamped himself from Lizzie’s legs and nodded vigorously,

“It was super fun Pretzel showed me around her room and we got to eat fruit salad and I got to show Pretzel and Mr. Gillion the new Prime Defenders movie Chip and I watched, and and it was super duper cool but then there was a really scary part I forgot about but that’s okay because Mr.Gillion told me all about how because the superheroes were heroes it’d be okay! And guess what?”

“Wha-”
“He was right! And there was a super cool fight at the end and we had pizza and it was so super cool.”

A small smile spread across Lizzie’s face as she listened intently to Ollie’s recounting of the night's events. “Well I’m glad you had a good time but you know what would be an even better time?”

Ollie stopped his excited hopping about and tilted his head looking up at Lizzie.

“What would?”

Lizzie’s lips split into a wide grin, “Getting you home to tell Chip all about it.”

Ollie brough his hand beneath his bottom lip, holding his chin pondering his very limited options looking between his aunt and Gillion. He walked over to Gillion fidgeting with his hands and looking down at his shifting feet.

“Could Pretzel maybe come over to my house another time?”

Gillion exhaled lightly and leaned closer trying to meet Ollie’s averted gaze.

“Well that would depend on-”

“You could come too! I’m sure you and Chip would be great friends, you can both play with us!”

Gillion chuckled softly as Ollie met his eyes with a new spark.

“I would love that,”

Ollie inhaled in excitement, his chest puffing out in victory,

“But”

Then promptly deflated.

“You’d have to ask Chip first.”

Ollie turned to Lizzie with a small pout forming.

Lizzie’s face contorted slightly as she met Ollie’s eyes. “Listen kid, sometimes it’s hard for Chip to find a day off,”

Ollie looked like he was holding back tears, like his heart was ripped out and stomped on in front of him.

Lizzie grimaced slightly, “But, I’m sure you’d be able to convince him and he’d be happy to have Pretzel over.”

“And Mr.Gillion too?” Ollie sniffed.

“Yes Mr.Gillion too.” She chortled.

Ollie beamed at both Gillion and Lizzie as he excitedly walked back over to Lizzie tugging at her hand.

“Then what are we waiting for? We gotta go tell Chip!”

Lizzie resisted the young boys tugging for a moment, glancing between Jay and Gillion.

“Thanks a bunch for watching him, it means a lot more to Chip than he’d ever say.”

Ollie pushed his heels into the carpet in an attempt to drag Lizzie out of the room. There was absolutely no time to spare; they needed to convince Chip immediately.

Gillion expertly wiggled out of Pretzel’s grasp, replacing himself with a large fluffy pillow as he crawled out of the fort and into a standing position to properly meet Lizzie. She still stood taller than him by at least a couple inches, but at least now she didn't have to duck slightly to speak to him.

“Trust me it was no trouble at all, both Pretzel and I really enjoyed having him around. If Chip ever needs someone to help watch him I’d be more than willing to help.”

“I’ll let him know,” Lizzie said, finally succumbing to being dragged towards the door by a very persistent Ollie.

Gillion and Jay both followed the two to the door.

“I am truly sorry about grabbing your wrist by the way!” Gillion shouted out from the doorway.

“It’s no problem, really I can handle it!” Lizzie’s voice echoed from the hall.

Once Lizzie and Ollie were out of sight and earshot Gillion quietly clicked the door closed and locked up for the night. Turning his attention back to the fort and Pretzel who still laid happily asleep encased in pillows and blankets. Careful not to wake the sleeping girl, Gillion picked up both Pretzel and the pillow she clung to. She held the pillow tighter as her face contorted for a moment before returning back to the peaceful resting expression Gillion knew well.

He held her with an arm beneath her and leaned her forward so she was able to use both the pillow and his chest as a resting spot. Luckily she was still young enough for him to hold with a single arm, leaving the other free to tidy up the living room as best he could, haphazardly throwing the pillows back onto the couch and blankets into a messy pile beside it. He could feel Jay’s eye’s on his back tracing his movements waiting for the perfect time to strike.

After tidying up as best he could, Gillion turned towards Pretzel’s room, but was promptly stopped by Jay’s hand on his shoulder.

A line formed between her brows as she spoke looking straight through Gillion as if he were transparent.

“Gil I know you wanna help this guy, but you can’t be everyone’s lifeline. You’re already a full time student, father, and working. Have you even started on like half your assignments?”

Gillion knew Jay’s words came from a place of concern, but he knows what he can handle, he’s handled far worse before. He’s always been able to persevere, now is no different.

He tried his best to smile through Jay’s pointed looks, but her frown only deepened.

“Jay it’s alright, I know my limits.” he reasoned.

Jay huffed bringing her arms around her midsection, “Yeah and you’ll ignore them and push yourself to exhaustion. Gillion that’s not healthy.”

Gillion frowned, beginning to walk past his roommate, “I know myself and I know my limits. That's all there is to it, it’ll be good for me anyways I’ve been here long enough maybe it’s time I start branching out more.”

Jay stood back allowing him to walk forward a few spaces before speaking once more.

“I’m just worried. You know that, right?”

Gillion turned back to her his smile finally beginning to reach his eyes once more.

“I know, but I just need you to trust me on this. I don’t offer my help out of obligation, I really do want to get to know more people. No matter how long I spend here I feel like I’ll never truly get used to all of it unless I branch out more. It’ll just be nice to help someone in the process anyways.”

“Alright, I’ll trust you on this one.” she responded with a sigh turning back towards the kitchenette where Gillion heard the tell tale sound of the microwave plate rotating.

Making the short walk to the end of the hall Gillion maneuvered through the darkness of Pretzel’s room and placed her down into her bed. She let out a small huff in her sleep as he pulled her comforter over her small body and pressed his forehead to hers before planting a kiss on the crown of her head. Exiting the room he gave a final look back at her before escaping back to his own room to get some work done and get himself to bed, but not without leaving the door slightly ajar to let a little bit of hallway light filter in to chase away darkness and bad dreams.

Chapter Text

The store was empty for the most part, only a few stragglers left wandering the isles or making their ways to checkout. Home Depot wasn’t the worst place Chip’s ever worked, far from it in fact.

During closing he was able to quickly dance around the store humming with a broom and dust pan, and his knotted earbuds crackling music into his ear. Most of his co-workers left him alone and the manager didn’t care as long as he was getting work done. It wasn’t glamorous, but it helped him to make ends meet. A quiet ding interrupted his thoughts and his music, as he looked down to see a message from Lizzie.

Quickly, he swiped open his cracked lock screen unveiling a picture of Ollie with some of the messiest bed head he’d ever seen holding onto a muscular arm in a death grip. Following the line of Ollie’s iron grip, Chip's eye’s traced the sleeping form of a man with sweeping waves of dark hair wrapped in the same blanket as Ollie. Even in the dim light Gillion’s features came out sharp and clear, with a well defined nose, and a strong jaw, and oh god Ollie looked so comfortable wrapped around his arm. They looked warm, they looked at peace. They looked so,

“Watcha lookin at?”

Chip jumped with a yelp as a nasally voice spoke a little too close to his ear.

Before him now stood a man, shorter than himself, with a messy brown bowl cut and glasses which took up most of his face. Chip vaguely knew of the man, they’d worked a lot of night shifts together, and he’d trained him when he first joined. Though he never spoke much to him Chip felt like he was a more bearable coworker than some others.

“Peter you gotta stop doing that man, it’s frankly a little disturbing.”

Peter removed his glasses attempting to clean the lenses, which only resulted in smudging them further, as he spoke. “Yeah I tend to get that,” He placed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, and cleared his throat. “I was just wondering what was so interesting cause you stopped moving for a good while.”

Chip forcefully shoved his phone back into his pocket sputtering,

“What no, nothing was all that interesting,” a strained chuckle choked out of his throat. “Seriously I wasn’t even standing there all that long. Right place right time you know? I mean how would you know how long I was even standing there for I mean what’re you doing watching me anyways. That’s kinda weird man. Aren’t you married anyways like I'm flattered really but that’s just not how I roll you know?”

Peter’s face lit up at the mention of his partner, “Why yes I am married, I’m so glad you remembered. Elena’s been trying out this making their own bread thing and they’re wonderful at it.” He rummaged through the deep pockets of his oversized cargo shorts pulling out a ziplock bag with half a piece of bread and pushed it into Chip’s empty hand.

Chip’s face scrunched slightly as the bag crinkled in his grasp, “gee thanks.”

Peter’s smile persisted and his hands closed around Chip’s pressing the bag further into his palm. “Of course I hope you enjoy it. Elena's cooking is magic. I swear it could cure the sick. They always give themself a hard time, but I don’t think they could cook something poorly if they tried.”

Home cooking. That’s something Chip hadn’t thought about in awhile. Cooking made by someone else made with love. Moving his pointer finger and thumb over the bag, small crumbs started to break off from the already small chunk, a dusting of flour still visible on the hard crust.

Chip looked down at the polished grey tiling of the floor and caught the small smile he didn’t realize fell on his own lips.

“Please let me know how you like it next time we work together! I’m sure it’d make Elena’s night to have another’s thoughts on their cooking.”

Chip broke out of his trance and his eyes flew up to meet Peter’s.

“Yeah sure thing, uhh thanks for the bread.”

“Anything for my favorite coworker!”

Letting out a short chuckle Chip returned to the last of his work for the night, leaving Peter to restock at the other end of the store.

Energetic instrumentals flowed through Chip’s earbuds, as he got back to work sweeping loose sawdust and general knick knacks from the floor and into a large dust pan. After tidying up the front he began pushing carts together in a uniform line and into the cart corral past the sliding doors at the front. Making his way to the back he grabbed a rag and a spray bottle filled with a bright orange liquid, which he then used to spray down the carts, whipping the handles after each spritz. Heaving out a heavy sigh he threw the rag over his shoulder he did one final walk through of his area before turning back to the chemical rack to put the cleaning supplies back. Once everything looked up to par, Chip grabbed his keys and bag from the break room, and headed up to the front to clock out and finally get back home.

Pushing open his front door, the first thing he noticed was the lack of noise. Especially on a Friday night. For as much as he trusted his sister with Ollie, the young boy could be a little shit and even Lizzie had trouble containing him at times. Nonetheless the apartment was silent, not even a mouse could be heard between the paper thin walls.

Chip ventured further into the front hall, pushing his shoes off and kicking them to the side he checked his phone for any missed messages. Maybe Lizzie had taken him back to her apartment to stay the night? Maybe they’re still at Gillions? Maybe they’re still on the road? What if they got into a crash? What if the last thing he ever said to his sister was an abbreviated ‘thank you’ over text? What if-

“Are you constipated?”

Chip looked up from his silent freak out to be met with Lizzie’s face scrunched up in disgusted concern.

“Holy shit Liz I thought you fucking died, how is it so quiet in here?”

Lizzie crossed her hands over her chest and exhaled through her nose with a laugh, “Turns out letting him tire himself out at Gillion’s does wonders for your sleep schedule. He fought for like 10 minutes then boom out like a light.”

He stared at her with his mouth hung open. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah. Holy Shit.”

Chip slid around her immediately locating the couch and plopped down, but not without a high pitch squeak of retaliation from the couch itself. He turned back towards Lizzie dramatically patting the spot beside him as he placed his socked feet beneath himself sitting criss-cross applesauce, and fished the ziplock baggie of bread out of his pockets and onto a crooked side table. The cushions bounced him up slightly as Lizzie mimicked his previous movements plopping down onto the spot next to him. Though instead of placing her feet beneath herself she put them up on the rickety coffee table in front of the furniture.

“So everything went well picking Ollie up?” Chip began, turning slightly to face her.

Lizzie shrugged, “Yeah pretty much, though it was kinda rough getting into the place itself as, per the picture I sent you, he and the kids were wiped out. Jay had to let me in.”

Chip’s brows furrowed and he placed his chin on his hands while his elbows rested on his knees.
“Jay?”

“Yeah Jay.”

She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, that he was supposed to just know who Jay was.

Chip’s face scrunched further as he craned his neck out motioning for her to continue with his now freed hand.

“The girl I’ve been talking to for like months now?”

His face was blank for just a moment as the realization hit him like a full speed bullet train.

“You mean Jay like girl Jay? Like Jay, you're too chicken to call your girlfriend? Like Jay with the soft hair and the rough hands and the ooooh she’s so smart and she’s so stem major and she-”

Chip suddenly couldn’t breathe as a plush pillow met his face and Lizzie applied continuous unrelenting pressure. Lizzie was sitting over him pushing him further and further into the couch as it creaked dangerously between the both of them.

Rapidly tapping her forearm she hesitantly moved the pillow from his face bringing it back up by her own face in warning.

Meanwhile Chip gasped for air dramatically before slipping further into the couch clasping his hands together beneath his cheek and batting his eyelashes continuing pitching his voice up until it was cracking, “Look at me I’m Lizzie and I’m obsessed with this girl but only talk about her with pet names and poetry and won’t introduce her in person because she’s too big and important to meet my shitty little brother.”

Lizzie swung down with the pillow again, and Chip knew from years of growing up together. She never missed.

A yelp escaped him as the pillow made contact, his voice cracking again, though this time unintentionally.

“Are you done?”

Lizzie’s face scrunched up at the bridge of her nose as she looked down at Chip, “I don’t know, are you done being a huge baby?”

“What?!”

The creases in Lizzie’s face deepened as she gave one of the biggest stink eyes he’d seen to date. And that’s saying a lot for Chip who is the notorious owner of many an Elizabeth James stink eye.

“Could you be quiet? Do you want to deal with a sleep deprived Ollie tomorrow?” she questioned through gritted teeth.

“Well sorry I just find it a little comical you’re calling me a baby when you don’t even trust me to meet your girlfriend!” Chip whisper yelled.

“Would you calm down? Not everything I do is about you-”

“I’m not saying that!” Chip cut in.

Lizzie’s gaze sharpened as she looked her brother up and down, “Really? You’re not? Because what it sounds like to me is that you think that I haven’t introduced her to you yet because I’m embarrassed, which-”

“Exactly you just said it you’re embarrassed of me!”

“Would you let me finish?!”

Chip visibly recoiled pushing himself back up against the couch, no longer slouching, and holding himself at his elbows.

“Thank you. Which as I was saying, would make it about you. But it’s not I’m not embarrassed of you, yeah you’re a dip shit but you’re part of the package. I haven’t introduced her yet because if I do that it means it’s real. Bringing her to my family means it’s serious,” she paused, biting the inside of her cheek, averting her eye’s to the coffee table in front of the pair, heaving out a sigh. “As much as I like her, I haven’t been in anything serious for awhile. And being able to picture something real, something serious with her is terrifying because when I’m thinking about it in the moment,”

A hand reached over gently holding the clasped shaking hands in her lap.
“I’m happy. I’m so goddamn happy with her Chip, and.” Her face scrunched up as if she’d been fed something sour, she felt a slight squeeze around her hands. “That’s fucking terrifying.”

The two sat in silence for a moment.

Lizzie pressed herself into the back of the couch, the squeaking echoing throughout the room.

“You probably think I’m the huge baby now, huh?”

Chip chuckled quietly, shaking his head, “Nah just an idiot though.”

Lizzie’s face snapped towards her brother and saw a familiar wide grin spread across his face.

“You’re an idiot for not realizing she’s just as obsessed with you.”

“How the hell do you-”

Chip put a finger up to Lizzie’s lips.

“Chip’s turn. For you to constantly be talking about her, to her, or with her. If she didn’t feel the same way you’d know. Lizzie, you didn’t trust Ollie when I first brought him home for fucks sake. For you to get this worked up over her I know for a fact she feels the same way.”

Her features softened as she looked at him before punching him weakly in the shoulder.

“When’d you get so good at this?”

Chip huffed out a laugh, “Hell if I know. Half the time I’m worried I’m irreversibly screwing up Ollie with my general existence. I don’t know how that kid does it.”

“Well I’ll be the first to tell you, you aren’t. And you know I’d tell you if you were.”

“Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“You know I am, little chipper.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.”

Scanning the room Chip saw every flaw, every piece of chipped paint on the walls, every uneven floorboard. In the dark it looked almost sad with the TV set radiating a ghostly blue-ish light over both of them.

“You know how you said you’d tell me if I was fucking up?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think sometimes Ollie would’ve been better off if I’d let him stay in the system? I mean it’s how we met, it wasn’t always as bad as I made it out to be. Maybe it’s changed.”

“No, Ollie adores you and despite everything you love him too. You love that kid more than anything. Yeah it sucks you can’t get him the newest things and it sucks you can’t be there for him all the time. But you give him your all, and I think it’s something both of you needed. Yeah the system gave us each other, gave us Arlin, but it also fucked us over in so many ways. You did the right thing.”

A shaky breath left Chip as he tried to steady himself.

Lizzie placed a hand on his shoulder turning his attention fully to her face. It was set sternly with her brows knit in focus, but under it all her gaze was soft, and her touch was warm.

“Chip you are a good person, Ollie sees that, I see that, even this Gillion guy’s got to see it for the solid he did for you tonight. You just need to.”

Chip smiled, a shaky smile, though it didn't fully reach his eyes it wasn't one built up with his usual false bravado either.

“I think Arlin would’ve spoiled him rotten anyways.”

A wet laugh escaped Chip surprising himself as he pulled back from Lizzie’s hand letting a fit of giggles rack his body.

“What? I’m right!”

Through giggles Chip tried to speak, but no matter how much he tried to start he interrupted himself falling deeper and deeper. They sat laughing in each other's company for what felt like hours drowning out the quiet hum of the old TV. For now they were happily reminiscing on simpler days, where their biggest worry was their dad embarrassing them at drop off in the morning. Eventually though, they calmed down into a familiar and comfortable silence.

“Hey Lizzie?”

“Yeah?”

Chip lightly pulled her arm off of the spot between them on the couch and pulled it around himself. The springs of the sofa squeaked under his shifting weight as he fit himself into her side, laying his head on her shoulder not daring to look up at his sister's face.

“Thanks,” he paused. “For everything.” he muttered, barely above a choked whisper with a far off look in his eyes.

Her body jumped beneath his grasp as he felt her sharp laugh. She emanated a familiar warmth and liveliness that made him curl in closer, nestling himself deeper into her shoulder pushing loose strands of hair and braids out of the way.

For a moment they were kids again tangled on their dad’s couch, but there was no one to swaddle them in warm wool blankets, and carry them to bed in the dead of night. That torch had been long passed on. But for a moment, maybe they could pretend. Just for a moment.

Chapter Text

Sleep was a wonderful, glorious time, especially for Chip as he had a tendency to barely get any. Luckily, this made it so he could sleep just about anywhere. In his 24 years of life he’d amassed hundreds of sleeping spots. From concrete to 5 star hotels, he’d seen it all. Too bad sleep could never seem to last long enough.

Wind rushed out of Chip’s formerly sleeping body as he felt a heavy weight on his chest and his shoulders promptly shaken. His entire body trashing back and forth against the couch cushions causing them to emit a shrill squawking.

“Chip! Chip! Chip! ChipChipChipChipChipChipCh-”

Feeling around for the source of the noise he placed a hand over Ollie’s mouth. A warm sensation spread over his palm. Chip’s hand sat unmoving as he pushed himself up to lean against the armrest of the couch.

“Ollie. Buddy you’re at a ten, I’m gonna need you at like a four.” he wheezed out.

The small boy’s eyes narrowed and Chip felt smooth ridges rapidly brush against his palm and muffled protests.

“What did I tell you about biting?” Chip drawled, holding his grip over Ollie’s mouth, muffling the small boy's protests.

Slowly Chip removed his hand pulling it back towards his side, but not without wiping the leftover saliva on the couch. He nudged his head forward towards Ollie with raised eyebrows.

Ollie returned the look with a pout and scrunched expression.

“As you were saying?” Chip prompted not daring to look away from the boy’s line of sight.

“Aunt Lizzie told me to wake you up.”

“Did she now?”

Chip pushed himself further onto the couch sitting up more. Stretching his arms over his head as he yawned. A small pop emitted from his back as it arched against the old armrest. His bones felt like little iron anchors dragging him down to the depths of the ocean as he attempted to stand up. Ollie hopped off Chip’s body making it marginally easier to escape the cushiony prison, but he persisted pushing himself onto his feet and into the kitchenette where he saw Lizzie lazily holding onto a mug of coffee.

She brought the mug to her lips gesturing to another more colorful mug decorated with bright scribbles and shapes on the counter, which Chip gladly picked up mimicking his sister’s movements. Meanwhile, Ollie ran around their feet as if he’d already had a gallon of coffee himself.

“I think I’m starting to remember why I don’t sleep on the couch when I don’t have to.”

“Wow, get the man a medal. Chip finally said something that makes sense. Sound the alarms.”

Chip ignored her jab and instead crouched down gingerly, opening a squeaky cabinet and retrieved a non-stick cooking pan placing it on the counter. Walking to the fridge, he dodged Ollie still frantically jumping around the space. He couldn’t make out what he excitedly spewed as he ping ponged from one side of the room to the other.

Tuning out the rest of the apartment he focused in on the cool smooth shell of the speckled egg in his hand as he cracked it over the side of the pan, watching the yolk and whites dance together on the sizzling surface. It was nice to have a slow morning for once. No running to get Ollie to school, no alarm blaring early in the morning for a shift, no plans. Just an open slow day. Chip had missed having those kinds of days. Where he could just sit by a window and let the sun filter in warming him inside and out.

Taking a fork from the drawer next to the stove, he broke apart the coating on the yolk and watched as saturated yellow spilled from its entrapment and combined in little rivers with the whites. The fork whirled around the pan leaving a softened yellow mixture. At the top of the stove sat two novelty salt and pepper shakers shaped like birds, a blue bird with salt and a brown sparrow with pepper. Chip regarded them with a smile as black and brown grains spilled from the sparrow's head and into the pan leaving little specks in the eggs.

Scrambled eggs were transferred from the pan dividing them among three plates. Lizzie took one for herself while Chip followed her to the table with the other two in his hand.

“Ollie! Food’s on the table!”

Ollie wandered in from the hall and over to the table jumping up onto his seat. Chip pushed his seat closer to the table with a screech, and placed a peeled orange beside the small plate. Chip set his own plate down next to Lizzie who’d already made herself comfortable in the seat across Ollie. It was rare for the three of them to sit for breakfast, as Lizzie had her own place and business to run, and Chip was never without something on the agenda. Ollie ate loudly, his lips smacking together, which Lizzie was more than happy to correct just as loudly. But Chip didn’t care much. The noise was peaceful in its own way.

“Chip, can we get mangoes?”

“When’d you get such exotic tastes?” he chuckled, pushing his fork into his mouth and talking through his meal. Despite the fact that Lizzie had just finished scolding the young boy for the same behavior.

“Mr.Gillion made some and it was super good!”

Ah. Mr.Gillion gave him an appetite for it. Molars gnashed against the soft egg as Chip’s mind wandered. What was so great about this elusive Gillion anyways? Yeah he was kind enough to help him in a pinch. And yeah he seemed like a nice enough guy. So what? So what if he was always on time for his kid? So what if he could get fancy fruit and make pillow forts? So what if he could wrangle Ollie within a day of meeting him? So what if that little girl ran to him with a smile wide on her face as she jumped into his arms?

The fork pushed deeper into the meal pressing into the plate metal scratching on ceramic.

“Wow Mr.Gillion’s just great isn’t he.” He gritted out.

Ollie’s face immediately lit up, “Yeah! You’d like him a lot.”

The small boy looked down at the orange in his hands, tearing the small slices apart as his face scrunched up and his tongue stuck out from the corner of his lips. Finally the little orange slice was freed from its brethren and Ollie held it up before happily tossing it into his mouth.

“Can Pretzel and Mr.Gillion come over to play today?! I wanna show Pretzel my stuffies n stuff and, and like the whole apartment!” Another orange slice was tossed into his mouth, “You and Mr.Gillion can play too! It’s perfect!” he said between bites.

“Didn’t you just see them yesterday?”

“Yeah, but they didn’t get to see here!”

Chip looked over to Lizzie for even a hint of support, but she seemed engrossed in something on her phone. She held it close to her face, her nose damn near pressed up against the glowing screen, with knit brows.

“Shit!”

The chair screeched harshly against the scratched linoleum floor. Lizzie pushed herself up from the seat and ran into the living room area slinging her bag over her shoulder, her fingers flying across her keyboard.

“Cas is saying there’s shit going down at the shop. I’ll talk to you later.”

She ran back around the table, ruffling Ollie’s hair. Next thing they knew she was out the door in a flash, leaving the two alone at the little table.

After a moment's silence, Chip spoke up before Ollie could get the chance to even think about bringing up Pretzel and Gillion again. This was going to be their day if it was the last thing he’d do. They hadn’t had a day just the two of them in a long time anyways, they might as well savor it.

“How about we go to the park today? The forecast says it’s supposed to be nice out.”

Ollie perked up jumping down from his seat, “Can we see the paleta man too!?”

Chip smirked looking down at a watch that didn’t exist on his wrist, leaning back in the wobbly wooden chair.

“Mmmmm we’ll see. Only if we can get a move on while it’s still nice out.”

With that, Ollie was gone running into his room to change out of his pajamas, yelling for Chip to follow his lead and get changed quickly to catch the elusive paleta man.

A few minutes had passed and Chip slipped out of his room wearing a light weight red zip up over a white shirt with light wash baggy jeans which pooled around his ankles, and following on his heel was Ollie in khaki cargo shorts and a graphic t-shirt with flaked and faded images of superheroes, one of Chip’s old ones no doubt.

The apartment complex was small with only a few rooms on each floor, luckily Chips tended to be fairly quiet compared to some of his past living arrangements. Tennents kept to themselves, and Chip's only interaction with the others on his floor was the day he ran into the old man next door who cussed him out for “sneaking up on him.” Which, Chip is by no means a dictionary, but coincidentally walking up the same stairwell and then passing someone didn’t constitute sneaking up on them. Yet the old man grumbled and strung together profanities all the way to his door, even managing to land a blow to Chip’s head with a plump orange. Post orange collision the man disappeared into his door beside Chip’s own. Leaving him confused and a little hurt, but fruitful.

Luckily on the trip down the steps the old man seemed to be dormant.

The pavement beneath their feet was cracked and split with roots, and cigarette butts decorating the fissures. Cars breezed past as the two walked further and further into town. Though the park was by no means the closest, it was still within a 20 minute walk if you knew the way to go, and Chip knew these streets like the back of his hand.

Coming up on a familiar small strip of shops mostly oddity and thrifts frequented by eccentric old couples and college students. Chip’s stomach flipped oddly as the gaggles of students passed him by. Pushing each other around in tight knit groups tugging at each other's arms pulling them along the street laughing at something only they could understand. Meanwhile Chip’s arm was pulled along keeping him from lingering on the group for very long.

“C’mon C’mon we’re gonna miss the paleta man and he’s gonna disappear forever!”

“You know that’s not true, you see him all the time.” Chip said, allowing himself to be dramatically tugged along by the small boy.

“Yeah but it’s only gonna be hot out a little longer and then he’ll go into hibernation!”

“And how do you know what that means?”

“It’s like with bears. It was in a book during silent reading time.”

“Did the book also tell you about the paleta man’s hibernation?”

Ollie stopped dead in his tracks turning back to Chip with narrowed eyes, hand still in hand.

“It didn’t need to because it’s so obvious! Have you ever seen the paleta man other than when it’s warm?”

“No I guess not.” he chuckled, squeezing Ollie’s hand.

Soon enough the park was within view, and Chip felt Ollie’s hand drop from his own with little resistance. The boy sprinted towards the mulch lined structure where he clung to the metal bars and ropes, swinging wildly from side to side. Chip followed close behind running after him, swinging on the monkeybars after the other. A feat made far less impressive as his shoes stayed firmly on the ground as he moved.

“That’s cheating!” Ollie yelped, nearly doubling over in giggles.

“What! No! It’s using my resources. work smarter not- What do you think you’re doing!”

Suddenly he was hanging. His body felt like lead and his shoulder muscles screamed at the sudden rush of weight put on them.

While Chip was busy explaining his brilliant plan Ollie jumped off from the small platform at the edge of the bars and began to push at the back of his knee’s forcing them in, and making it so he had to rely on his own meager arm strength. Ollie fell to the ground laughing, indenting himself into the mulch like a snow angel as he watched Chip cling to the bar unmoving for a moment, unable to swing to the next bar.

Chip’s feet were promptly returned to the ground, but his pride was something that could never be returned. Not after that.

Looking to his side Ollie was still on the ground, wiping tears from his eyes. Perfect. An ideal unsuspecting target. Without hesitation Chip struck hoisting Ollie up over his shoulder. Mulch clinging to his oversized shirt. Ollie’s giggles only grew as Chip secured him further, holding tight to the boy’s midsection stretched over his shoulder.

“I think I’m gonna have to turn you in after that one. Complete breach of proper monkey bar procedure.” Chip tutted, turning back and forth playfully swinging Ollie around.

“Never!” Ollie thrashed around in Chip’s grasp with no real heat behind the movements.

Chip laughed heartily as he spun the two of them around until Ollie was safely deposited onto one of the raised platforms of the park.

“Here is where you shall stay awaiting trial for your crimes!”

“I’ll be the judge of that!”

A high pitched voice sounded from behind the two, and a blur of thick, red curls appeared in front of Chip with arms outstretched. Her head was flung over her shoulder as she turned to see Ollie.

“I’m here to break you out.”

A devious grin overtook the girl’s face as she met Chip’s weary gaze. With a better view, Chip recognized her as Pretzel, and dread began to settle in his stomach. If Pretzel was here that could only mean that.

“Pretzel what did I tell you about running ah. Oh why hello Chip!”

He turned to see the one and only Gillion Tidestrider running straight towards him. He wore a tight sleeveless top made of some sort of athletic looking material stretching over his chest, and loose fitting joggers. Chip would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to allowing his eyes to meander the man running towards him. Good thing Chip had fashioned himself an expert liar. So he instead focused on the man who Ollie wouldn’t stop jabbering about all morning crashing their day.

“Hey Gillion.”

Gillion’s chest heaved as he panted out, stopping beside Chip.

In turn, Chip turned away, focusing less on the man next to him in favor of supervising the two children running rampant around the park equipment, and their loud giggles as they ran about the surrounding area.

“It’s a treat to see you and young Oliver here!”

“Yeah, it's really funny how we keep running into each other.” Chip grumbled.

“I’d say it’s destiny!”

Chip bit back a scoff, but dared to look at the other with his peripheral only to be met with happy blue crescents looking back at him, and he could feel himself cracking the longer he focused on the man beside him. He could see how Gillion followed his movements with a bright smile tracking every twitch.

“I guess you could say that.”

The kids came running back towards them, as they seemed to have grown bored of chasing each other. Growing closer, and closer, and closer, and oh! Oh they weren’t stopping were they? The mulch was rough and sharp, clinging to the back of his jacket. Chip’s chest felt simultaneously hollow and heavy as he came into contact with both Ollie and the ground. Muffled giggles were cut short as Ollie’s face quickly shifted from laughter to near hysterics as Chip heaved under him.

“Mr. Gillion! Mr.Gillion! I think I killed Chip!”

Ollie’s worried sobs were overshadowed by his shrieking about Gillion. Great! Even when he thinks Chip might be dead all he can focus on is clinging to a man he met just a day ago.

A strong hand pushed at his back nudging him into an upright position, and air began to fill Chip’s lungs once more, as Ollie tumbled off of his chest and everything began to hit him. Getting a better look Ollie’s face was red and tear stricken, his nails digging into his forearm sending sharp pains jolting up his body. Chip felt himself lean back on the body pulling him up to his feet for just a second before tugging himself out of Gillion’s grasp.

“Not dead Ollie, might be if you keep holdin on that tight though.”

Ollie’s grip immediately retracted like Chip was a hot stovetop, and he couldn’t help but frown to himself as Ollie could no longer meet his eyes focusing on twiddling his thumbs. He reached out to the boy’s head, pushing back his bangs just slightly to get a better look at him. His eyes were still rheumy, but his crying had ceased. All that was left was Ollie biting his lip so hard he feared the skin might break.

Crouching down to meet his face, Chip held Ollie’s face in his palms, rubbing away the stray tears left to dry on his round face. Even while holding him, Ollie refused to look Chip in the eye, and he could feel a tight pit grow in his stomach making the previously fresh breakfast they had curdle in his guts.

“Hey buddy, can you look at me?”

A shaking movement rattled in Chip’s hands, and Ollie’s eyes were glued to the ground.

“Can you tell me why you’re upset?”

“You got hurt.” he sniffled.

Chip let out a small breath through his nose. So that’s what he’d been worried about. Classic Chip letting a little joke go so far as to make Ollie think he’d hurt him beyond repair. He wanted to put the pieces back together, but no matter how he thought to go about it they just slipped right through the cracks in his fingers. Nothing could be permanently mended at the moment, he knew that. So he placed a colorful bandage over it. One with bright colors and shapes to distract from the underlying pain.

“Hurt! Me?” Chip sputtered and scoffed overdramatically, flailing his hands about in front of Ollie, moving his face to force himself into Ollie’s line of sight. “You just got a sneak attack on me. That’s all there is to it, so it’s no big deal.”

Ollie’s eye’s moved ever so slightly up through his lashes to peek up at Chip’s silly expression. His eyes lightened, but his frown persisted.

“But, but I saw it. You didn’t get back up!”

Chip forced his smile not to falter, but he still stumbled through his words until a voice piped up behind him.

“Young Oliver, Chip is strong!” Chip’s head whipped around to be met with Gillion’s chest nearly pressed to his back as he crouched near him.

“Though you may have the makings of a great warrior, you still have much to learn. Think of it as a teaching moment!”

Gillion pushed further into Chip shifting more to his side than his back and into his shoulder. He made clear eye contact with Ollie. The younger boy showed no hesitancy towards Gillion, and Chip felt his heart grow heavier as he watched the two interact. Feeling miles away despite their proximity.

“How’d it feel when you thought you’d hurt Chip?”
“Bad! Really really bad.”

“That’s right!”

Chip’s brows pushed against his eyes and his mouth fell slightly agape, and as he turned to Gillion he just sat there with that stupidly large grin on his face. Ignoring Chip.

Ollie seemed to be getting the same read as his eyes widened and his lip began to tremble again, but Gillion’s recovery was swift.

“So now you know that jumping at Chip when he isn’t expecting you could hurt him, and you know that seeing Chip hurt feels bad. You’ll know to get his attention before jumping at him because I’m sure he’ll catch you.”

Ollie’s trembling lip turned up into a wide grin, nearly mimicking Gillions, and nodded along to the other man’s words. He turned to Chip with a wide smile and new sparks highlighting his deep brown eyes.

“Chip?”

“Yeah Ollie?”

And with that Ollie lunged at Chip with an oomph causing him to teeter slightly since he stood crouched on the balls of his feet leaving him unbalanced, but didn’t fall as he’d done previously. Ollie was back to giggling as he gripped onto Chip’s torso and shoulders. He dropped to his knees and steadied the small body clinging to him as it was wracked with giggles once more, holding him close.

Chip pushed his forehead into the crook of Ollie’s neck, and wrapped his arms tightly around him as he squeezed the small boy. Letting the younger’s energy bounce off onto him as a deep belly laugh wracked his body.

“See, you could never take me down.”

Ollie pulled back from the hug, his giggles eerily calming down. Chip dared to look the boy in the eyes only to be met with a serious expression and wide eyes.

“I don’t wanna take you down though.”

Chip’s expression cracked, a soft smile gracing his features before scrunching his face turning his sweeter expression to a devilish smirk as he attacked Ollie’s hair ruffling it in every direction. Ollie swatted at Chip’s hands, his giggles returning tenfold. Chip would’ve missed it if they hadn’t passed right behind them. The telltale jingle of the bells of the paleta man’s cart. His head shot up in recognition while his body followed jumping up from the ground forcing mulch to fly off his jacket as he held Ollie tighter. He was a man on a very important mission and would not be stopped.

Coming up to the Paleta man, he was the usual one which patrolled the park in the blistering heat offering a sweet cold treat to park goers. The man’s eyes lit up with recognition as the pair ventured closer to the jingling cart.

“The usual, if you catch my drift.”

The man chuckled, a mischievous glint in his eye as he reached into the freezer cart pulling out two reddish popsicles secured in a slightly clouded clear wrapping. Chip felt Ollie ever so slightly pull out of his grasp leaning towards the man, and pointing into the cart.

“Can I try the mango one?”

Chip’s eyes drifted to the frozen walls of the cart where a mocking yellowy-orange popsicle sat stacked upon others just like it. He couldn’t hold back the frown that fell upon him. They always got raspberries, it was their thing. Chip could remember first trying to earn Ollie’s full trust offering up the top secret information of his favorite flavor of just about anything. Cookies, popsicles, candles even. Raspberry tasted like summertime in Arlin’s backyard, and family trips to the beach. He thought he could share that with Ollie.

The man quickly swapped out the familiar pale red for bright obnoxious orange and passed it to Ollie.

Swapping Ollie from the front of his body to his hip Chip dug into his back pocket for his flaking leather wallet. Fishing out four singles, he passed them to the man who nodded to him. Chip couldn’t exactly tell if the look he gave him as he paid was sympathy or pity.

“Would you like anything sir?”

Gillion perked up and pointed to himself, which the man nodded to. Personally Chip thought it was a little stupid. Of course he’d be talking to Gillion, he's the only other person nearby so why wouldn’t he be talking to him. Everyone seemed to want to talk to him already so what’s one more person.

After getting his confirmation Gillion drew closer to the cart and peered over the side as if the popsicles were going to jump out and attack him. He turned back to Chip giving the same wide smile he’d been wearing all day. Upon first meeting Chip found the man’s constant grin interesting, familiar almost. But now it just unsettled him, weighing his heart down and his throat dry. He looked to Chip as if he were asking permission.

“Which should we get?”

“Why are you asking me? I don’t know what you like.”

“You seemed like you’d gotten these before, and I never have.”

Chip shrugged, choosing to focus his energy on unwrapping he and Ollie’s popsicles. “Well my personal favorite is raspberry, but I bet you’d like mango as you were the one who put Ollie onto them.”

“I’m happy to hear young Oliver enjoys mangoes! They’re a wonderful source of fiber and contain many helpful vitamins.”

“Papa lift me up I wanna see.” Pretzel’s voice piped up as she tugged at Gillion’s loose pant leg. Gillion picked the small girl up with ease placing her on his cocked hip without so much as breaking a sweat. She pointed down at the photo of the menu on the top of the cart.

Chip led Ollie away towards a nearby bench beneath a large maple tree overlooking the park. He sat happily kicking his feet taking his time licking at the popsicle while Chip took large bites out of the frozen treat.

“How’s the mango bud?”

“Really really good! Didja wanna try some?” Ollie asked, holding the popsicle out in front of Chip’s face, wiggling it around. Chip pushes the popsicle away softly with the back of his hand.

“Nah that’s yours, you enjoy it.”

He watched Ollie’s happy munching with a strained smile. Ollie was happy and that’s all that mattered. That’s all that should matter to him.

Halfway through his popsicle Chip felt the presence of Gillion behind him which was unfortunately becoming all too familiar. He leaned forward into the bench resting his forearms beside where Chip’s back met the bench. The smell of mango wafting over to Chip causing him to turn away with his head rested on his palm, away from Gillion.

“Chip I must thank you, this is truly one of the most delicious things I’ve ever had.”

“Mhm, yeah no problem.”

Ollie pushed his way into Chip’s line of vision with Pretzel standing right next to him, pink popsicle in hand.

“Can Pretzel and I play on the park?”

Chip let out a little breath through his nose, “I suppose you may.” he said with a joking tilt in his tone.

Ollie smiled and turned away following Pretzel to the park equipment, both with slightly melted popsicles in hand.

“May I take a seat?”

“It’s a public park soooo.” Chip held out his hand with a flourish of his wrist where Ollie once sat.

With permission Gillion sat himself down leaning into his forearms which sat comfortably over his thighs.

“I wanted to apologize to you for earlier.”

Oh this should be good.

“For what?”

“It seems Pretzel had instigated the sneak attack on you. She’d told me she and Oliver had been arguing about who was stronger, you or I.” Gillion chuckled as his words trailed off. “I don’t know where she got this wild idea in her head, but I’ve told her off.”

Chip had to keep from physically rolling his eyes. What did some random kid care about the strength of some guy? She didn’t need to be sticking her nose where it didn’t need to be.

“Guess I proved I’m not very strong huh? Real embarrassing shit.”

Gillion grabbed at Chip's hand, clasping it between his own making Chip jolt and nearly fell over with his headrest compromised.

“If you’d like to work on strength I work as a strength trainer down the road! Though I don’t think of you as weak, I’m sure it’d be wonderful.”

Chip tugged his hand away, rubbing at its back and held it close to his chest.

“Yeah that’d be just great, but I don’t think I’m gonna have time for all that.”

Gillion’s face shifted from a smile into a small frown.

“Well if some time ever frees up my offer still stands.”

“Yeah I’ll really have to think about it.”

Chip turned away from Gillion, focusing on the park and Ollie running about with a large grin, something that’s been more consistent since he’d started school. Chip didn’t want to equate it with the Tidestrider family, but it was a glaring pattern. He put his hands to his forehead and let out a soft groan as he thought more and more about it. He couldn’t help but think about how happy Ollie looked around these people that weren't him.

Chapter Text

It was odd to see Pretzel so far from him. Of course, she never left Gillion’s sight while they were out, but he was used to her being a little more clingy. Usually found tangled around his ankle like a starfish to a rock. Nonetheless he felt pride course through him as he watched the young girl fearlessly spread her wings, and take leadership hopping around the play set.

Beside him sat a man hunched leaning on his elbows pressed against the tops of his thighs. Trying his best to read the other’s expression, Gillion couldn’t crack it. At first he assumed Chip was spaced out just staring ahead, but the more he searched his features the more he realized Chip’s expression was the furthest thing from blank. Almost haunted, but with a mix of something he couldn’t pin.

“It’s nice out today, don’t you think?”

“Hm? Oh uh yeah.”

Chip didn’t seem like one for small talk, which was good as Gillion wasn’t either. It never quite made sense to him, especially after moving from The Trench to Zero. He had no use for small talk under The Academy’s watch, which was fine at the time, but since he got here he was starting to think that he may have missed a few lessons on communication. So instead of beating around the bush and trying and failing at something he already knew he wasn’t good at, Gillion shifted tactics.

“You have my phone number, correct?”

Clearly his new strategy was far superior as it got an immediate reaction out of the once entranced Chip, who whipped his head around to meet Gillion’s line of sight. Perfect! Gillion could get a real conversation now that he had his attention.

“Yeah, I uhh I guess I do.”

Gillion clapped him on the back with a boisterous laugh as he spoke. He’d seen groups roughhousing and sharing merriment after a lecture, it seemed like a gesture between friends, so surely Chip would understand what he was trying to convey.

“Excellent! We should be able to reconnect again soon as Pretzel and Oliver seem fond of one another. I look forward to our next meeting.”

“Yeah, sure.” Chip replied between coughs.

Gillion debated clapping him on the back a couple more times, though less as a friendly gesture, and more as a safety precaution. Luckily that didn’t seem to be necessary as his coughing stopped as quickly as it had started up. He knew Chip was stronger than he gave himself credit for.

“Wonderful!” Gillion beamed, after making sure Chip wasn’t hurt he began walking towards the park equipment to collect Pretzel, who he found desperately attempting to swing from one monkey bar to the next. Every time she seemed just close enough to transition from one to the other she’d swing right back the other way. Meanwhile Ollie stood at the other end of the bars cheering her on.

Her face contorted as she eventually made it to the next bar, Ollie jumped up whooping while she inched ever closer to his platform.

“C’mon Pretzel you can do it! Just swing yourself forward!” Ollie instructed shifting his weight from his heels to the balls of his feet mimicking a swinging motion.

“I know that!” Pretzel cried, puffing her cheeks out swinging forward while refusing to let go of the metal bar.

Gillion watched with bated breath far away enough the kids had yet to notice him peering out from behind one of the constructs dotted around the park. He watched her small body swing back and forth, but never leaving her spot clinging to the bar. Little knuckles straining white against the shiny blue playset.

“You gotta let g-”

“I know that!”

A high pitch squeal sounded as one of Pretzel’s hands began to slip from the bar, and she dangled from the structure.

Gillion ran forward grabbing her waist, and pulling her towards the ground landing her feet safely on the mulch. She turned back towards Gillion with a pout, “Papa I had it! I was almost there!” she whined.

A tired smile tugged at Gillion’s lips as he tilted his head to the side to better see her, bringing a hand up to tenderly tuck a stray curl behind her ear, “Yes, but you would’ve fallen and that could’ve really hurt.”

“Nuh uh! I would’ve been able to get to the other side! I was just waiting for the right time to go to the next one.”

“You can try again next time, but I don’t want you getting hurt right before we go see grandpepaw.”

Pretzel’s mouth zipped shut at the mention of her great grandfather, but her energy was barely contained as she wriggled and burst out of Gillion’s grasp and sprinted towards the bench where Chip still sat, and heaved a little blue bag over her shoulder. Now tugging at Gillion’s hand her feet dug into the mulch.

“C’mon papa have ta make sure the fish are still there!”

“Don’t you have something to say to young Oliver?”

Sensing this was a losing battle she peeked out from behind him flashing a toothy grin to her playmate. “Bye Ollie! See you at school!” Seemingly pleased with herself she looked back up to Gillion continuing her tugging at his hand.

“Goodbye young Oliver!”

“Bye Pretzel! Bye Mr.Gillion!”

With his farewell given, Ollie turned back to the playset and began his climbing once more, while Chip offered a nod of acknowledgement as the two passed by. Heading back to the car, Pretzel was securely buckled into a pink and purple booster seat, and Gillion’s hand found the radio dial and they set off towards Canella State University. He still wasn’t a fan of the city, but the small urban campus felt different. Like it was its own little town on its own time, in its own little pocket of peace with small ponds and grassy areas breaking up the monotonous concrete.

Zero itself was made more digestible for Gillion with plenty of people coming for a new lease on life with Canella State being the center of the town. The residents and businesses weren’t shy about it either with student discounts, priority work, and housing made specifically with students in mind. This life he’d cultivated for himself was quaint, but peaceful. The change was jarring at first, but with Pretzel humming to herself lightly kicking at the seat in front of her in time with the music. He was reminded that life away from home could be bearable under the right conditions.

Soon enough, Gillion was able to navigate to his designated spot in student parking. After taking a moment to analyze his less than stellar parking job, he got to work unbuckling the wriggling ball of energy in the booster seat. Holding his hand out to steady the young girl as she jumped from the ledge of the car the two set off towards the biology wing of the campus. The walk itself was uneventful, besides the few dogs that the duo were required to stop by to pet. It would be dishonorable to ignore such a graceful creature as the weiner dog that crossed their path.

The building itself was starile with modern shapes and colors, a glossy white decorating nearly every surface making the walls and floors feel more like mirrors than anything else. Gillion tried not to focus on that, but rather the kind woman at the desk who always seemed to know why the two were so far from central campus.

“He’s in his lab, your student ID should be able to get you into the lab. If it doesn’t someone should be nearby just let them know you’re here to see Professor Tidestrider and they’ll be happy to let you in.”

“Is he helping the fish?”

Pretzel questioned, craning her head in an attempt to see the woman over the mountainous desk. She smiled the same patient smile she always gave the young girl when Gillion brought her by. “Yes dear, he’s making sure they’re strong enough to be re-released into the wild.”

Gillion’s heart soared at the way Pretzel’s face broke into a wide grin as she began her tugging once with a new determination to make sure the fish met her standards.

Rushing down the halls his sneakers squeaked against the shiny linoleum passing identical doors until he came across familiar large double doors with a plaque beside the frame displaying ‘lab’ with a black rectangular scanner below it. Digging his ID from his pocket, he passed it to Pretzel. Reaching up on her tiptoes the card made contact with the scanner and a green light buzzed to life at the top of the rectangle. Once the two pushed their way through the door an immediate warmth hit them.

The room was larger than it seemed from the outside with little closed wall space, opting for floor to ceiling windows and vegetation littering nearly every inch of the room. Space that wasn’t taken up by plant life were occupied by large basins of running water where splashing could be heard from beyond the surface.

Near the center of the room stood a taller man, though not without a slight hunch, with pulled back wavy black hair peppered with white and grey hairs and darker coppery skin similar to Gillion’s own, only with a deeper tan due to extended time outside. A white coat shrouded the man and he held a large red fish steady at an angle pressing some sort of thin metal contraption into the side of the animal.

Gillion could feel Pretzel trying to break off from his grasp, but he held tight so as not to break the man’s concentration with Pretzel’s enthusiasm. As soon as the fish broke the surface of the water being returned to its home, another beast broke free running straight for a pair of long legs.

“Grandpepaw!”

Pretzel’s arms wrapped around legs, face collided with thigh. Once finishing what he was documenting on a clipboard Finn’s hand came to rest lightly on Pretzel’s back.

“What an unexpected visit today. Your Papa didn’t tell me you’d be stopping by.”

Gillion would’ve been scared he’d interrupted something important if not for the warm chuckle the older man gave, his mustache twisting up in a familiar grin. He drew closer, now standing beside the basin. With a better view he could tell the container was deeper than he could’ve imagined with nearly a dozen large red fish swimming around.

“Are these snappers?”

“Yes, red snappers from just along the coast. Though they shouldn’t even be here.”

Finn mumbled the last part looking into the tub alongside Gillion while chewing on the back side of his pen. Meanwhile, Pretzel scrambled up a nearby crate in Gillion’s periphery leaning over the edge of the tub. He really didn’t want her joining the fish, and so he did his best to sneakily move closer to the small girl.

“I’m not gonna fall in Papa.”

Gillion jumped at being addressed. She hadn’t moved her head to see him move closer. How did she even know that’s what he was doing? Every time she leaned closer and closer to the water Gillion could feel a pit grow in his stomach. He could imagine all too well her tipping too far and getting a face full of water. He could see himself having to dig her out of the deep tub. Seeing her usually bright face overtaken by sputtering and coughing trying to get excess water from her lungs. Could she get an infection from that? Were snappers dangerous? Snap is in the name and it has to be for a reason and if they snapped at just the right spot-

“Gillion.”

Breaking away from his thoughts Gillion was met with a confused and worried look from his grandfather. Chuckling to cover his own embarrassment he attempted to recover from his journey through his own head by very cooly leaning on the edge of the tub. Only instead of meeting the cool metal finish of the outside of the container, he hit water and nearly fell in himself if it weren’t for the surprisingly fast reflexes and strong grip of Finn.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Oh yes of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

A small frown tugged at the corner of Finn’s mouth, his facial hair dropping along with it like the follicles themselves were tired of him. Gillion merely responded with his trademark smile. The last thing he wanted was to make Finn worry after everything he’d done for him. He was tired of taking him from his work to help with Pretzel, or coming crawling to him to ask things he should already know. Gillion wanted nothing more than to prove he was strong enough to carry his weight.

“You weren’t answering my questions and I had feared something more pressing had caught your eye.”

“No, nothing caught my eye. Though I was wondering about the snappers. Are they dangerous in any way? Is that why they shouldn’t be here?”

“They have teeth and they can bite, but if you leave them be they’re harmless.”

After hearing that Gillion wasn’t too sure he liked the idea of having his daughter dangling herself over the edge of the tub.

“She’ll be fine, she's a tough girl. Smart too.” Finn chuckled.

“I’m very confident in her capabilities.”

“I’m sure you are. Though to answer your previous question they are here because a group of fishermen thought it would be a fine idea to release them here.” Disdain wormed its way into his words at the mention of the fishermen that so often caused trouble for the old scientist. “They aren’t invasive, but they will be a pain if they start making things more competitive for native species. So we’ve been giving students and faculty the opportunity to do some research on some non native species while also getting their population under control.”

“So they’ll be able to see how they react to the new environment in a less damaging way then?”

Finn hummed in approval.

There was a beat of silence, minus the environmental noise of filters and water, but to Gillion the room felt like the air had been sucked out. He could feel Finn’s eyes following him as he tried to ignore the shame of why he’d really come here. But silence could only last so long with a hyperactive first grader.

“Papa, if the fish are ok why are we here?”

She looked bored, now sitting on the crate with her forearms resting on the basin’s edge. Pretzel was already better at reading a room than Gillion felt he would ever be able to, which came with wins and losses. In his books this was a battle he’d been destined to lose. Taking a deep breath he turned his attention back to her.

“We’re here so you can spend some time with Grandpepaw. I’m sure there’s some other fish he’d like to show you. Maybe even some crawfish?”

He turned desperately to Finn for any form of back up, hoping, praying even that bringing up the idea of Finn’s life long research project would be enough for him to bite. Unfortunately for Gillion he hadn’t put the right bait on the hook, only reeling in seagrass.

“Research on the elusive crawfish has ceased for now. For now it stays elusive as ever.”

“Grandpepaw do you have any otters?”

“No dear, we haven’t really looked into them as they’re not native to the area.”

“Oh. Ollie said they were his favorite and I wanna know why he thinks they’re sooo cool cause there’s no way he thinks they’re cooler than frogtopi.”

A wide smile broke across Finn’s face as he began walking forward, scooping up Pretzel from her seat. “I don’t think there’s any way this Ollie fellow’s otters could be more fascinating than your frogtopi.”

“That’s what I said! But he keeps saying they’re the best!”

“Why don’t we do some digging to see what your friend is so enamored with, hm? That should give your Papa more than enough time to do some work of his own.”

“Why can’t Papa just come with us?” Pretzel pouted, placing hands on either one of Finn’s shoulders making it so she felt level with him. Looking at him dead on.

His eyes crinkled at the corners with a familiar whimsy, “Because my dear Pretzel your Papa has to set a good example of a good student. Since you’re both learning new things in school he has to show you what it means to do your work,”

Uh oh.

“Show up to lectures,”

These were most definitely targeted.

“Ask questions when he doesn’t understand things, Try to really delve in-”

“You know I really should get going! Pretzel, Grandpepaw is right I must go forth in my quest for knowledge so that I may open new gateways for you.” Gillion said, puffing his chest in a way that never failed to get Pretzel to laugh along. She’d alway been more accepting of a change in plan when he framed it as some grand adventure or quest, so that’s just what he did. If doing some horrifying assignments needed to be a dragon slain, so be it. It was more manageable for him anyways reframing everyday tasks as challenges, so it was a win win for both of them.

But for once there was no laughing along to his knightly persona. Instead she narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks looking between Finn and Gillion, and he could feel himself being sized up.

Anxiety clawed at his gut at the idea of losing her trust. He’d worked to show her the most moral parts of himself. Proving he hadn’t forgotten where he’d come from. That no matter where he was, he was still destined to lead others to light.

He didn’t have the luxury of failure.

Drawing closer and lowering his voice, Gillion sighed softly letting his shoulders drop ever so slightly.

“I am just going to get some work done, and since I’ll be in a library you’ll be bored with nothing to do. So you’ll be able to spend some time with Grandpepaw. It won’t be long, just a few hours or so.”

Pretzel, still in Finn’s arms, sat with the same scrutinizing look only to start nodding slowly. “Fine, only if Auntie Jay can do movie night tonight.”

Gillion smiled, bringing a hand to Pretzel’s hairline pushing back her hair to kiss her forehead to bid her goodbye. Once he was outside the lab doors, he found his way through the dull hallways, and back to the center desk. The woman from before seemingly swapped out for another younger woman looking bored as she scrolled through her phone, paying no mind to Gillion exiting the building.

The walk to central campus was peaceful with plenty of cover from the late summer heat in the form of trees and small canopies scattered about. Gillion loved the scenery of the campus; it gave a cozy sense of home that few other places offered. When he needed to clear his mind a walk around the pond near the auditorium always offered a semblance of peace. Passing that very pond he allowed himself to take a deep breath and savor the crisp air before having to venture into the stuffy brick of the business buildings.

They stood tall with gritty red brick, feeling less like an inviting hearth, and more like a final warning advising to turn back while he still had the chance. Alas, he was on a mission. To knock out a few of the missing assignments he’d amassed in his organizational behavior class. The course was a nightmare that didn’t make any sense. He understood why learning why people gravitate towards certain groups would be helpful in marketing, but the way the professor taught it always left an off taste in his mouth. Of course he couldn’t talk to any of his peers about it with how they all seemed to be obsessed with the young instructor.

He found his way to a small study room near the back, passing by acquaintances and strangers alike. The room was like all the others with a short charcoal grey carpet and a simple wooden table in the center with a chair at each side of the table made of the same wood. His bag hit the table with a soft thud as he pushed a chair from the table, allowing him to slide in.

Opening his laptop he attempted to get to work logging into one of the three separate accounts his professors insisted he needed, with every log in having to look through his notes for their passwords. Just opening the accounts gave him a premature headache. All the text was small, the graphs and images in the online texts were grainy and difficult to understand, no matter how long he stared at the screen nothing clicked, nothing was interesting.

Groaning, Gillion’s face met the palms of his hands praying blocking out some of the light would kill the throbbing at the base of his head. The added pressure to his eyes offered little refuge from the fluorescents buzzing in the ceiling. Steadying himself with a sigh he checked the clock at the corner of his screen displaying 2pm, and dug a spiral notebook from his bag, decorated with a slurry of sea creatures, superheroes, and princesses as was insisted by Pretzel which never failed to bring out a small breathy laugh. Opening to a blank page he drafted a list of everything he needed to get done, listing every little assignment he needed to get through, and got to work.

His eyes stung, but with every new assignment crossed off the list weight was chipped from his shoulders leaving his load ever so slightly lighter.

Eventually his list led him to what he was dreading most. It was simple in theory. Just a few free response questions with no right or wrong answer. So simple it was infuriating. Things had right and wrong answers which made sense. When demand goes up so does supply. That made sense. Explaining the ethical dilemma of hypothetical coworker drama at an imaginary office? That made absolutely no sense. He was sure that Professor Hendrix made these with the sole purpose of torturing him.

Nonetheless, he was forced into the young professor's bidding.

Gillion gnawed at the end of his pencil, scanning the question:
Your coworker Linda hasn’t been performing well at the office supply company you work at…

Number one Gillion didn’t, and never plans to, work for an office supply company rendering this question already useless.

And she is often rude to you and nasty with customers.

Then she shouldn’t be working there in the first place. The answer was clear already, speak to Linda about her behavior, and if she doesn’t change that behavior she should be removed from the company.

During a recent shift you smelled alcohol on her breath…

Then she should be fired.

And you heard from other coworkers she’d lied about why she’d missed her previous shift.

Double fired then. Was that an option? This question was already longer than it should’ve been. It’s simple she wasn’t performing as she should’ve been, so she needed to be dealt with. Maybe it was the schools of Canella, but these are simple lessons he’d learned young at The Academy.

After filling out the first question he moved onto the second question reading:
How would this situation change if you worked in a hospital?

Now he was clearly messing with Gillion, as there’s no way his answer could change besides firing his disrespectful coworker faster.

The final question:
How would your reaction change if Linda was a close friend of yours? Who you knew was going through a rough break up?

These questions were laughable. Of course Gillion would feel horrible for this hypothetical Linda, but there is no excuse for her lies and dishonorable actions in the workplace. Perhaps he’d be a bit nicer in letting her go? He would have to fire her no matter what. She wasn’t performing as she needed to.

Writing out the last of the answer he let out the longest most euphoric sigh once the final assignment was crossed off the list. Glancing at the clock his heart sank seeing a clear 6:30pm.

Shooting up from his seat he shoved his laptop and notebook in his bag with no regard for its safety and ran out the study room earning turned heads from the people left in the surrounding rooms. If he got to the other side of campus in record time he could make it to Pretzel, and then promptly home with enough time to get through a short movie, and pray and beg Jay to watch it with them.

It was all a blur as he sprinted through the pale light of the street lamps lining the sidewalk towards the lab. He’d never been so thankful for the sight of the boxy white building, like a shining beacon to a sailor lost at sea. The young woman at the desk didn’t even bother to look up from her work as Gillion plowed his way through the door and down the halls, digging through his pockets for his student I.D.

While in his adrenaline fueled frenzy he’d failed to notice the steps behind him, until a hand made contact with his shoulder. He grabbed at the wrist pulling it forward while turning to meet the stranger.

Who turned out to not be a stranger, but in fact the man he was looking for with Pretzel standing beside him, a hand in Finn’s free hand.

Gillion quickly let go of his wrist letting it drop between the two of them.

“Quite the grip you’ve got there Gillion.”

“Haha, I suppose I do. You’d surprised me, that's all.”

“Papa, do we get to watch a movie with Auntie Jay now?”

He cringed at the mention of Jay and the movie, praying he’d be granted the mercy of the young girl forgetting about their previous agreement. An ugly pit grew in his stomach at the notion of trying to wriggle his way out of his promise. For even a second. He felt disgusting at the idea.

“Of course my dear.” He said through a small forced smile, pushing it to reach his tired eyes, and offered up his hand.

Saying goodbye to Finn the two made their way to the car, and back to the apartment. Pushing his key into the doorknob his wriggled his way into the doorway glancing around the room for any sign of his housemate. A dirty bowl was left in the sink with a small soup spoon beside it. Good. Jay had eaten while they were away. Wait.

“Pretzel did Grandpepaw take you for food?”

“Mhm! Grandpepaw and I got student food.”

“Student food?”

“Yeah! From the line with all the little spots, like they have at the mall.”

“Well I’m glad you liked the student food.”

A mop of red hair popped out from the hallway, followed by Jay’s full body entering the kitchen. “What were you two cool cats out doing for so long?”

“I’m not a cat, Auntie Jay!” Pretzel giggled running around the table, and into the kitchen hugging Jay’s legs.

“Missed you too, Pretzel.” Jay replied through a quiet laugh.

“Can we watch the princess movie with the the ummm the frog and and they kiss?”

“The princess and the frog?”

“Yeah that one!”

“If that’s okay with your Papa.”

“He already said we could since I stayed with Grandpepaw!”

Gillion pressed at the microwave button labeled ‘popcorn’ drowning out the other two’s conversation, focusing instead on the grounding hum of the machine. Watching the paper bag spin and inflate with a soft popping as the time counted down. Opening up the bag, and wandering out of the kitchen he was met with Pretzel already cozied up in a pale blue blanket in the center of the couch with Jay beside her at the edge leaning against the armrest with a remote in hand.
“Glad you joined us Gill.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He said, placing himself between the two, offering the snacks up to both of them.

Watching the family on screen cooking together, and listening to the swell of the film’s music he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift closed. If only for a second.

Chapter Text

Chip has never had to put his phone on do not disturb.

But thanks to a certain Tidestrider he was struggling to figure out how to stop his phone from sounding like a swarm of bees were in his pocket while he was at work.

While more times than not his co-workers were more than happy to leave him alone, today they all suddenly started showing an interest. The situation was only made worse by the fact that they were horrible at hiding it. Some nearly breathing down his neck, others looking away as soon as he looked up at them. He’d never had a preference between his jobs, but home depot seemed to be just beating out The Blue Royale in the coworker department as he felt a presence behind him.

“Hello Karina.”

“Who’s this Gillion fellow?”

“Don’t you have prizes to be stocking or something?”

She frowned, moving to stand next to him leaning with her forearms against the glass prize counter mimicking Chip’s bored looking posture. He was granted approximately 3 seconds of silence before she began interrogating him once more. She gave a dramatic sign and slid down the glass top until she was squatted on the obnoxiously patterned carpeting looking up at Chip with a sour expression.

“You’re no fun. There’s nothing to do since all the children that would usually be swarming the place are in school anyways.”

There were only a few college aged people scattered about the arcade section, and even then it was sparse as they’d only stay for a few minutes before growing bored of the games, walking out.

“I’d rather it be dead than have to deal with a billion screaming kids and the mess that comes with them.”

“Awe do you deal with enough of that at home?” She quipped, popping back up to a mostly standing position, but still leaning into the counter for support.

Chip placed his phone face down on the counter, turning his attention to Karina with a scowl on his face, and an attempt to keep his eye from twitching. “Alright, what do you really want?”

She let out an overly dramatic sigh leaning further and further into the prize counter until she was practically hanging off the side. “To not be bored? I don’t know! You seem to have a lot going on with your phone buzzing about.”

“Don’t you have your own life to keep you from boredom?”

A drawn out groan sounded from Karina’s space on the countertop, as she peeled herself from the glass. “Not really? My marketing classes are a nightmare, my roommates do squat so there’s nothing interesting there, and I’ve got nothing in the romance department since I’m too busy with mundane shit.”

“Bummer.” Chip noted as he slipped his phone back into his jean pocket and started carting around his moping coworker, doing as much as he could to make the time go by faster. Labeling items, cleaning shelves, reorganizing, hell even sweeping, anything to move away from Karina’s need to dramatize his life.

Buzz.

Chip could’ve snapped the cheap plastic in his hand. If he didn’t look at Karina she couldn’t start prying any more. If he didn’t see her she didn’t see him. That’s how that worked. Right?

“Getting another message Mr.Popular?”

If he didn’t say anything she’d get tired and move on.

“Chiiiiiiip.”

Surely she’d get the hint.

“C’mon you and I both have nothing better to do.”

The bristles of the broom pushed harshly into the thin carpeting breaking apart the appearance of the brightly colored geometric flooring. The intrusion creating a new pattern in its own way.

“Could be something important.”

His carpet induced trance was broken as Karina spoke, and he pushed himself to keep moving, sticking to his promise not to break under her pressure. He knew what she was doing. It was probably just Gillion again, trying to send him an incomprehensible meme or something similarly pointless. It didn’t matter that his weird sea creature themed top text bottom text memes were able to fish a genuine laugh out of him from time to time. They were still pointless. The only other person who’d be texting him during work would be Lizzie, but even then she was busy at work herself. Though something could’ve happened at the shop. Working with cars can be dangerous. But Lizzie already knew that, she’s skilled in her craft, she’s been doing it for years, she’s practically a pro. Then again, accidents can always happen.

Chip reached for his pocket, but could feel the satisfied grin of Karina watching a couple feet away behind the counter. He couldn’t give her the satisfaction. So he made the executive decision not to look at his phone until he could be sure Karina wouldn’t see. It was probably nothing anyways, he reassured himself continuing his sweeping moving deeper throughout the arcade.

His shift continued as usual after his initial spat with Karina. Mostly working on general upkeep and assisting the small groups that trickled in and out of the arcade. Eventually Karina stopped interrogating him about his messages though if that was due to the lack of buzzing or her own interest was anyone’s best guess. Chip was happy nonetheless no longer having to entertain his coworkers' obsessive questioning.

After clocking out for the day Chip felt like he could finally take a breath once he entered the sanctity of his pride and joy, besides Ollie of course. The Millenium Chipper was his personal project, which despite helping create, Lizzie couldn’t stand. She’d practically begged Chip to stop putting off getting a new car warning him of its limited lifespan. But time and time again Chip reassured her there was only smooth sailing ahead for the vehicle, despite its collection of scratches and dented bumper. The imperfections were where all the character came from anyways.

Pressing his keys to the ignition it took a second, but the car hummed to life beneath him. A soft buzz in his pocket reminded him that he’d never gotten the chance to check what the mystery message from earlier was. What was initially two messages from Lizzie turned to multiple, alongside some from Gillion as he switched do not disturb off. Panic gripped his chest for a moment at the sight of his sister’s name at the top of the screen. His eyes quickly scanned the messages looking for any sign of distress, but was instead met with a series of simple requests.

I know you’re at work.

Nothing important.

U up to call tonight?

Ik u don’t have a shift tonight.

Can’t hide from me forever.

I know where you live.

As quickly as panic entered his body, it had left. Now replaced by curiosity at the prospect of a scheduled call, as opposed to the more sporadic ones the two usually ran by. He shot a quick “sounds good” back to Lizzie before skimming Gillion’s messages. As he’d expected there wasn’t anything of note in the messages besides him sending Chip a play by play of his day, as well as asking Chip how his own was.

However, the very end of Gillion’s paragraphs read,

Do you need any help with Ollie today?

“What the fuck?”

Did he think Chip couldn’t handle his own kid? Did he get such an inflated ego that he thinks he has a right to parent Ollie any better than Chip had already been doing? Who did he think he was? Digging into his life, launching a take over, a mutiny. Chip could just scream. But he didn’t. He was very adult and not at all passive aggressive about the situation.

Day was busy. Can take care of everything just fine.

Thanks.

After sending the message Chip tossed his phone into the passenger seat with a thud, and sped off to pick up Ollie. Just fine on his own, thank you very much.

Arriving at the familiar school building Chip hopped out of the car, and made his way towards the usual spot outside the classroom to pick Ollie up. Flipping his phone screen towards him, he saw through the cracks of his screen protector for the time. Proud of himself for making it there early, at least for him, he found himself at the open back entrance where he saw Ollie happily chatting his teacher’s ear off. Though she seemed to be listening intently he could only imagine what vivid nonsensical picture Ollie was cooking up for her.

Aslana noticed him walking towards them, pointing Ollie towards Chip walking forward.

Upon following Aslana’s outstretched finger Ollie hopped up from his spot and waved wildly at Chip as he ventured closer to the pair.

“How was school?”

“Good! We got to go to the library today and we got to pick out a book,” Ollie slipped his hand out of Chips and began digging around in his backpack slung loosely around his left shoulder, pulling out a thin hardcover book. “I got Frog and Toad, we gotta practice reading it tonight. Miss Lana said so.”

Chip stopped in his tracks, Ollie walking a few steps in front of him before realizing Chip wasn’t with him. His face twisted in confusion, which looked a bit silly with Ollie’s proportions, his larger eyes making him into an open book paired with a questioning pout on his lips where a crooked tooth ever so slightly poked out which didn’t help his case when trying to look serious in any regard.

“Well then we better get home asap,” Chip began to take off towards the car ruffling Ollie’s hair as he passed “Last one to the car’s a rotten egg!”

Looking back at him Chip began to slow to more of a jog giving him a chance to catch up, before ultimately booking it to the car. It didn’t matter Ollie was in first grade, growing up with an older sister Chip was well versed in the stakes of a race to the car.

“You always win.” Ollie whined as Chip held the back seat door open for him, reaching over to help him get settled.

“You’ll beat me one day, bud.” Chip mused as he buckled him in before closing the door and heading around the driver’s side.

The ride home was uneventful, Chip and Ollie both singing along with the radio at full blast bouncing between classic rock and broadway ballads on The Millenium Chipper’s crackling speakers, fritzing in and out due to the crooked aux cord connecting the phone to the car.

After struggling with parking outside the apartment complex, Chip let Ollie out of the backseat and the two came into contact with the dreaded stairwell they had to traverse. Chip should’ve seen it from a mile away. He knew the look. It was practically his look, but he was blinded by pride.

“Hey Chip.”

“Yeah bud?”

His foot had nearly hit the first step.

“Race ya to the front door.”

With that Ollie was leaps and bounds ahead of him. By the first floor Chip had nearly caught up, meanwhile Ollie attempted to switch strategies skipping steps when he could. There were still two floors for them to race up, there was no way Chip was letting Ollie pull this one on him no wa-

“Gah”

Ollie’s arms flailed out for a moment as he was nearly to the second platform, but it would seem his wax wings began to melt as Ollie's shoe latched onto the underside of the step and was headed for the corner of the concrete step.

Chip’s hand flew out to grab the loop at the top of Ollie’s backpack holding him back from the step.

“Maybe we should just call this one a tie.”

“What no way! You just don’t wanna lose!”

Chip let go of the backpack once he could tell Ollie was no longer teetering on the edge of the concrete. “That’s not true.”

“Yeah it is! You don’t want me to win the race!”

Ollie began to get louder, his voice echoing on the stairwell, and Chip was starting to hope he didn’t draw neighbors out of their respective places.

“How about we call this one a win for you then.”

Shaking his head Ollie glared up at Chip with his arms crossed clearly unamused by Chip’s olive branch. “But then I didn’t really win.”

“Then let’s set some race ground rules so no one nearly breaks their face on the stairs. First rule being no racing on the stairs, second rule being we count off on races so we both know when they’re starting.”

Ollie looked skeptical for a while before ultimately agreeing to Chip’s terms and conditions, and the two finally finished the final stretch to the apartment.

Once safely inside Chip had a moment to finally recover from how winded the stair race made him. Maybe he should take Gillion up on that gym offer. No what the hell is he thinking, really being gym buddies with the guy who’s practically trying to step in as Ollie’s guardian. Thinking about it now he hasn’t texted him in awhile…maybe he finally got the hint. Yeah, maybe he got it. Chip felt something eat at his stomach, a gnawing pit. He was probably just hungry. Yeah, hunger.

Chip moved towards the kitchenette he peeked into the fridge noting the severe lack of many items of real nutrition. He’d have to run to the grocery store before work tomorrow. Poking his head out towards the hallway he yelled out to Ollie who was already busy doing who knows what in his room.

“Any request for groceries?”

“Pizza!”

“Anything else?”

“Mmmmm, mangoes!”

Of course. Why did he have to ask. At least it’s healthy.

“Noted!”

Getting to work on dinner, it was the gourmet meal of some pasta dressed in a decadent store bought marinara sauce, the finest of quality frozen meatballs, and the most exclusive of vegetables, microwave steamed broccoli.

The two ate, talking through their days, meaning Chip listened as Ollie rattled off everything he’d done after he’d woken up. Explaining like every second was the most important, and Chip was happy to ingest every detail. When Ollie spoke with Chip he was loud and animated, which Chip took great pride in. He knew Ollie to be shy with strangers and slow to trust but when someone breaks through to him there’s no stopping him, not that anyone would want to stop him.

“Once I finish up on these dishes you wanna read through that book?”

“Yeah! I’ll go get it so we can read it.”

“Where you wanna read at?”

“Mmm, your room!”

“Alright meet me there.”

Chip didn’t need to look up from the plate was scrubbing at to know Ollie was running off at the speed of light to get his book and jump into Chip’s bed. Huffing out a chuckle he finished scrubbing the dishes and placed them on the makeshift drying matt of an old towel that was rarely moved from its spot on the counter. The chipped mix match plates and cutlery sat in dripping disarrange as Chip did what he could to straighten up the kitchenette before moving to his room where Ollie sat crosslegged surrounded in a nest of blankets and both of Chip’s pillows at his back, already two pages into the already short book.
“Seems like you don’t need my help with this one.” He quipped, rearranging a couple of the blankets on the edge of the amalgamation to keep a bit of warmth.

“There’s still a few words I need help with.” Ollie noted not looking up from the book.

Chip didn’t believe the boy for a second, but was happy to sit and supervise his reading. He stumbled over a few words here and there, but quickly course corrected as Chip not so subtly began sounding the more difficult words out under his breath for the other to hear. As Frog and Toad’s adventures were wrapped into neat endings, Ollie closed the book, and looked up from his position leaning against Chip’s arm.

“When do Pretzel and Mister Gillion get to visit our house?”

Chip sucked in a breath, “I don’t know, we’ll uh, have to see when Mister Gillion and Pretzel have time.”

Nodding softly against Chip’s arm, Ollie brought his hand up to cover a yawn.

Of course he wanted to see the ever popular Mister Gillion again, even after he’d just seen the man at what was supposed to be their day at the park. Chip should’ve known their two person paradise could only last so long. Chip had just hoped he wouldn’t have been replaced so easily.

Chip removed the book from Ollie’s lap and placed it on his bedside table, “how do you feel about a sleepover tonight huh bud? Just like old times?”

“Can you go get,” another yawn interrupted Ollie’s speech, “Can you get my otter?”

Reaching over Chip smoothed out Ollie’s unruly hair, brushing out loose strands with a feather light touch, “yeah no problem kiddo.”

Quietly pushing through his bedroom door he quickly grabbed the requested plush as well as his phone scrolling to Lizzie’s contact. The phone rang for a few moments before Chip was met with a response.

“Took ya long enough. You free tomorrow?”

“Yes hi hello to you too my wonderful amazing sister, I’m doing great thank you so much for asking.”

“Oh c’mon Chip don’t be like that, are you free or not?”

Chip gave an exaggerated sigh into the receiver, “No, I have back to back shifts tomorrow, but Monday I have the afternoon off if you don’t mind taking over Ollie duty at night.”

“Is that all I am to you? A glorified baby sitter?”

“Perhaps.” he chuckled.

It was Lizzie’s turn to sigh so loud the phone speakers crackled, “Well if that’s what must be done in order for you to finally, actually, for real meet Jay I guess I’ll spend time with my favorite nephew.”

The phone would’ve smashed against the floor if not for Chip’s quick reflexes as he’d caught the device just as quickly as he’d dropped it. “Wait, I get to meet your girlfriend like for real? Like she’s actually real?”

“Oh my god you already know she’s real, but yes you get to meet her. We’re getting lunch on the boardwalk and you’re gonna like it.”

“Aye aye!” Chip replied with a mock salute only he could see.

“Alright. Meet on the boardwalk, noon sharp on Monday. Don’t be late.”

“Elizabeth! I am offended. Late? Me? Li-”

“Be on time.”

With that the line cut to silence, and Chip was left with a slightly fuller schedule, and a plush in need of delivery. He scrolled through his phone, and added ‘meet the elusive and totally real Jay’ to his calendar for Monday at noon before shutting off his phone.

“Chip, are you coming back!” Ollie yelled from beyond the door.

“Yep, just had to call Aunt Liz about somethin!”

“What! Why didn’t I get to say hi!”

Chip pushed the door open to see Ollie wearing a heartbroken expression.

“Awe c’mon bud, would it make you feel better to know you’re having a sleepover at her place Monday night?”

Ollie’s mood brightened in an instant, “On a school night?!”

“Yeah on a school night. Plus you’ll see her tomorrow anyways, a little birdy told me she needs help at the garage.”

Ollie shuffled close as Chip finished getting ready for bed, tucking himself further into the blankets against Chip’s side. Leaning towards the bedside table, Chip flicked off the lamp, leaving a small light emanating from his phone, allowing for the room to be spared from total darkness as the two drifted to sleep.