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Verlaine shooed Chuuya away as he and Rimbaud sat at one of the picnic tables, hoping to get some of their homework done while they were tasked with babysitting Chuuya and taking him to the park. Chuuya huffed as he walked over to the swings, bored out of his mind since his brother wouldn’t play with him.
“Hey, Chuuya!”
Chuuya turned around, smiling when he saw a familiar face that he had seen before in the park. “Albatross.”
“What’s up, kid?” Albatross held a fist out to Chuuya, both of them bumping their fists together.
“Paul-nii brought me to the park, but he’s too busy studying.” Chuuya pointed to where Verlaine and Rimbaud were with their books out.
“Why don’t you come hang out with me and my friends then? I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“Okay!”
Chuuya laughed as Albatross carried him on his back to where the rest of his friends were at. Chuuya was a bit confused, seeing the older kids and what they were doing- one of them was playing with a couple of dolls while another one sat with him just observing, another one was reading a book, and one had a stuffed animal and some toy doctor equipment.
“Guys, this is Chuuya.”
“How old is he?” the boy sitting next to the one playing with the dolls asked.
“I’m four,” Chuuya answered, sliding down Albatross’s back to be on the grass. “How old are you ?”
“We’re twelve, they’re eleven, and he’s thirteen.”
“A teenager?! That’s like how old Paul-nii is!” Chuuya’s eyes widened as he looked at the teen as he closed his book, setting it on the blanket.
“Why is there a preschooler with you, Albatross?”
“‘Cause he’s chill.” Albatross looked at Chuuya. “Alright, so that’s Lippmann, Piano Man, Iceman, and Doc.”
Chuuya tilted his head, then turned to look at the other four that were on the blanket. He glanced at the boy playing with the dolls, introduced as Lippmann. “Why’s your name ‘Lippmann’?”
Lippmann was taken back by the question. If anything, he thought Chuuya was going to ask about the dolls, not his name. “Because that’s my name.”
“He’s from America,” Piano Man, the boy sitting next to Lippmann, answered. “He moved here a couple years ago.”
“That’s still kinda weird, and playing with dolls too.”
“I can play with the dolls if I want to,” Lippmann retorted. “What’s wrong with playing with them?”
“Blocks are so much cooler than dolls.”
“Lippmann can play with the toys that he likes, and you can play with the toys you like, Chuuya. There’s nothing wrong with it,” Iceman stated from his spot on the blanket.
“Stupid preschooler,” Lippmann muttered as he glared at Albatross, annoyed that he brought a preschooler over to them.
Chuuya looked at Piano Man next. “Like, why’s your name ‘Piano Man’? You play the piano or somethin’?”
“Um, no. That’s just what they call me,” he replied, shrugging it off like it was nothing.
“That’s kinda lame.”
Piano Man glared at Albatross, then turned away to play with Lippmann and the dolls, trying to keep his mind off of Chuuya and his mouth.
Albatross chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. He was thinking that maybe it was a bad idea to bring Chuuya over.
“What about you? Why ‘Doc’?”
“I want to be a doctor when I’m older.” Doc pointed to his spread of tools before looking back at Chuuya.
“Fair enough. What about you?” Next was Iceman. “They call ya ‘Ice’ cause you’re stone cold?”
Iceman smiled, holding a closed fist out to Chuuya, chuckling when Chuuya tapped his fist.
“Alright… What about you?”
“Me?” Albatross pointed at himself. “What?”
“Your name?”
“Oh… It’s ‘cause I’m a problem for everyone.” Albatross smiled, crossing his arms.
“You’re the biggest problem anyone ever meets,” Piano Man chimed.
“Hey, Albatross.”
“Yeah?” Albatross looked at Doc.
“Bet you won’t race Chuuya to the monkey bars.”
Albatross looked down and saw that Chuuya was already gone, running across the playground toward the monkey bars. He took off in a full sprint, chasing after Chuuya, until-
“Woah!”
***
Verlaine looked up from his textbook, staring at the small group of kids standing in a circle, looking down. He glanced at Rimbaud who was also staring.
“Paul-”
Verlaine got up, ignoring Rimbaud. He walked over to where they were, hearing crying as he got closer. He moved two of the boys out of the way, recognizing the oldest of them as someone in the grade below him from school and the blond boy kneeling on the wood chips. The thing that stood out to him the most though was Chuuya’s knees and hands all scratched up and red from the fall.
“What happened?” Verlaine growled. He helped Chuuya stand up, brushing the dirt off his clothes before picking him up.
“I-”
“Did I ask you?” Verlaine glared at Albatross, watching him cower a bit from getting yelled at.
“I tripped, and-and Albatross tripped over me,” Chuuya whimpered, wiping his face with a closed fist.
“Alright, and how did that happen?”
The other boys were entirely confused with how gentle Verlaine was with Chuuya.
“I was trying to beat Al-Albatross to the monkey bars.” He sniffled, hugging Verlaine.
“And are you hurt so badly that you’re all done playing?”
“No!”
“Then, quit clinging onto me like you’re about to die and go see Arthur to get cleaned up.” He dropped Chuuya back into the dirt.
The others watched as Chuuya pushed himself up, stumbling a bit before he ran over to where Arthur was sitting.
“He’s fine. This happens more often than you’d think. He gets too in over his head and being around older kids like you all-” Verlaine looked at them. “Which I would kick all of your asses if he would’ve gotten hurt worse than that, but I’ll let it go this time . Next time, I won’t be so lenient.”
Lippmann leaned over to Piano Man, whispering, “I think ‘lenient’ is one of our vocabulary words this week.”
“Shut it for a minute,” Piano Man hissed.
“He said a curse word,” Albatross mumbled, awed by Verlaine’s demeanor.
“Shut up, Albatross.” Doc kneed his back.
Iceman pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed with his younger friends and how they were acting because of an eighth grader.
“We’re used to him getting a bit wild and getting scraped up. Just be more careful next time. Got it?”
They all nodded their heads, a bit nervous with Verlaine threatening them.
***
Chuuya sat down, holding his hands out to his brother’s friend, hissing as Rimbaud dragged a sanitary wipe over his hands and knees. He was getting squirmy as Rimbaud helped clean him up.
“You have to be more careful, Chuuya-kun. We had to start bringing a mini first aid kit with us because you manage to get hurt everytime we come to the playground.” Rimbaud shook his head, folding up the used wipe.
“I will, Rimbaud.” Chuuya pushed himself up, running back over, stumbling in the process, tripping himself and falling back into the grass.
Verlaine and Rimbaud shook their heads as Chuuya pushed himself up.
“I’m okay!” Chuuya yelled out as he kept running back toward the other boys.
“He’s a mess,” Verlaine commented as he sat down, burying his face in his hands.
“Yeah, but you care about him.” Rimbaud nudged his friend, smiling at him.
“That I do, Arthur. That I do.”
***
“I’m back,” Chuuya announced as he stood in front of the five, panting after running.
“Welcome back, kid.” Albatross fist bumped him again. “How about we walk to the monkey bars this time?”
“Okay!”
“Bet you won’t hang upside down again,” Doc snickered.
“I will!”
Iceman shook his head, not even bothering with trying to stop them because he knew that Albatross would still do it anyways.
“Piano Man and I are just going to stay here and play,” Lippmann said, handing a doll to his friend. “I’m not interested in getting dirty.”
“I just don’t want to deal with them right now.” Piano Man took the doll, making himself comfortable on the blanket.
“I’ll go with them to keep an eye on them and make sure no one else gets hurt again.” Iceman stood up, following behind the three since they had already taken off.
Verlaine glanced up after getting settled back into his seat and getting his homework back in order. He was happy that Chuuya was at least socializing, even if it was with some of the older kids.
“He’ll be fine, Paul. We have a lot of work to do.”
“You’re right. He’ll be okay.”