Work Text:
“Mawtin why there pictures of ducks everywhere?” Douglas asked from his seat in the shopping cart.
“They aren't ducks they are geese”
“They look like ducks”
“They are bigger. And if you see them you need to be careful. They have sharp teeth and will bite you if they don't like you”
“Teeth? So they like dog-ducks?”
Martin had no idea how Douglas got to that conclusion but if it made him be careful around geese “Yes”
“Why dog-ducks everywhere then”
“They are being advertised as Christmas dinner”
“But. No eating ducks! And no dogs. So no eating dog-ducks!”
“I promise you we won’t have any of these animals for Christmas dinner”
“No one eat them!”
“We can’t stop other people from buying their Christmas dinner”
“We hide pictures. No one can think about buying ducks!” Douglas eyes started to shine with the same mirth he got as a grown up when he thought about a perfect scheme.
“How do you want to hide the pictures”
“Put them in closet!”
“There are no closets in the supermarket”
“But at home!”
“We can’t take the pictures with us the boss of the supermarket will get mad at us”
Martin saw in Douglas eyes that this was the only plan he had right now “But. Ducks are friends! No eating ducks!”
“How about we finish shopping, I will get you a treat and then we will go home and work on a plan to safe all the ducks and geese from being eaten”
“What tweat?”
“What do you want?”
“Bwead for ducks”
“We have a lot of that at home. Don’t you want something for yourself?”
“I can still feed ducks if I choose?”
“Yes”
“Weedish fish!”
“Ok we will get them. First we have to get fish-fingers and then we can go and look for Swedish fish in the candy aisle.” Martin started pushing the cart again, having stopped to tell Douglas about the geese.
“Yay” Douglas threw his arms up almost hitting Martin pushing the cart “And then we rescue ducks. WE RESCUE DUCKS”
“Douglas, keep quiet”
“But we rescue ducks!”
“Yes but I won’t buy you the Swedish fish if you can’t keep our plans secret. There are people who don’t want us rescuing the ducks and if you tell them what we are planing they will try to stop us”
“We need to rescue ducks! Are they evil people?” Douglas almost whispered.
“No, you can’t say people are evil just because they think differently from you. They just don’t like ducks as much as you do”
“Ducks make happy. How can people not love ducks?”
“A lot of people don’t share opinions. I like planes a lot but there are a lot of people who don’t like planes or like planes less than I do and sometimes they don’t like me because I like planes. It will happen to you too, but it’s nothing bad. You just have to find the people who like the same things as you or like you a lot.”
“Mawtin, you like duck. You make happy! Others need like you”
“Thank you” He refrained from arguing further with Douglas. Martin knew he would keep arguing that ducks and Martin were the best and that no one was allowed to not like both. Also they had reached the candy aisle and Martin was walking down it looking for the chosen sweets. Douglas turned around as much as he could to look at the shelves too.
“Mawtin. There fish!” He pointed at the box he had spotted a bit in front of them, Martin followed Douglas’ gaze and recognised the packaging now too so he pushed up to it.
Martin was able to just about pull the cart away from the shelf far enough so Douglas couldn’t reach it, because as soon as the fish had been in reach Douglas had leaned out of the cart and grabbed for the fish in a way that would only end in disaster.
“Only one bag.”
“You always say I need food for growing”
“Sweets are not food for growing up. You need to eat vegetables and other things to grow”
“But fish are more tasty!” Douglas argued.
“If you want to get as big as me or even Arthur you need to eat proper food. If you only eat sweets you will stay small and then you always need to be looked after by an adult”
“I grow up and be like Mawtin! I will fly ducks!”
“So only one bag. See I have one” Martin reached out and took the first bag from the shelf “And if you are nice Santa might give you more for Christmas”
They finished their shopping trip without anymore incidents. Martin was able to pay and go to the car without Douglas stopping him. As always Douglas protested being put into his car seat but Martin was used to that.
________________
When they arrived at Douglas’ house he went straight up to his room and Martin thought he might be able to put away the groceries in peace while Douglas played upstairs, but Douglas came straight back down a wad of paper and the box with his pencils in his hands. Placing the things on the table first Douglas climbed up onto the chair so he was sitting at the kitchen table.
“We plan to rescue ducks”
There was no way out of it Martin had promised “Do you have any new ideas?”
“Need fish first”
“You can have a few but not all of them” Martin said opening the bag of sweets he had just unpacked and handing 4 fish to Douglas before putting the rest away in a cabinet Douglas couldn’t reach. Martin then continued to put away the groceries. He could hear Douglas muttering and drawing behind him.
“What do you want for dinner?”
“More fish!”
“No sweets for dinner. I can make fish-fingers if you really want fish”
“Yes”
Douglas worked on his planes to rescue the ducks from becoming dinner the whole time while Martin prepared their meal and gave his input when Douglas had questions.
After dinner they worked on their plan a bit more and Douglas drew a little banner telling people that ducks weren’t food. When it was bed time Martin promised that he would get his secret helpers on the project because it would be suspicious if the two of them came back to rescue the ducks.
When Douglas was asleep Martin cleaned up the living room. He carefully put away the banner at the bottom of his bag. He would hang it in his attic when he returned.