Chapter Text
It took him a while to notice.
Not that it was his fault. He had actually been trying to spend more time with Dev! After all, being seen with his kid at that recent event had apparently really boosted public opinion on him! And now that his business (and parental ) rival was back in Dimmadelphia for a while, he needed that more than ever.
So he had invited Dev to business outing after business outing. He was sure the kid appreciated the opportunity for bonding and , more importantly, invaluable business experience. And yet.
At first he only noticed that Dev was quiet. It felt so at least. Dev was usually asking questions and bringing up objections. They were ridiculous, but he was still learning after all. It was important for a beginner to ask those ridiculous questions and make pointless objections, that was how they got better.
Dev didn’t anymore. He still spoke obviously at least a little… but when Dale tried to think back on what he said he couldn’t quite remember. Like it was fuzzy or garbled.
When Dale noticed, he began to look at Dev a big more. And he noticed that at times he looked off. In different ways. But he could never put his finger on it. With both of those combined it was kind of creepy.
And then he heard something.
Dale looked up in annoyance. It wasn’t unusual for him to have to remind Dev to keep noises down but this was not the usual annoying buzz and beeps of sounds from his tablet. This was a racket. And-were those voices? He was hearing voices.
Grabbing his tablet so he wasn’t completely interrupting his work flow, he stood and made his way to Dev’s room.
“Devin!” He called out the boy’s middle name. “What in the world is all that noise? Don’t you know I’m-“
Right before the door opened, the noise changed and he almost didn’t catch it. But he did. Then he saw the room and Dev was there. Alone.
”Oh! Sorry Dad.” Dev began to do something on the tablet.
Dale narrowed his eyes. “Who did I hear?”
Dev looked up. “Huh?”
“Don’t play dumb Dev, you’re better than that. I heard voices in here. Who was it? One of your little friends? You don’t have to hide guests from me, okay? Just keep your chit-chat quiet enough that I don’t have to hear it from my office.”
Dev’s eyes were wide. Huh. Dale felt like he hadn’t seen them as often before. Or that they looked… different. One of the two.
“No, Dad,” Dev laughed nervously. “I was just watching something on my tablet! No one was actually here. B-But I’ll turn it down!”
Dale looked at him for a moment. Then he turned and left his room. Except he didn’t leave leave. He stood in the elevator but he paused, not pushing the button yet. Waiting a moment. And then he heard it again.
Oh… so Dev was hiding something from him.
It’s not like Dale was completely upset at that. After all, it was normal to keep certain things from people. Necessary even, at least when you were running a business. But that was dealing with subordinates. Not your father.
Returning to his office, Dale entrenched himself deep in thought.
Hiding something, hiding something… what could it be?
He had an idea for sure. Because there had always been the question of how his planning monitor got scribbled over.
It had been Dev’s birthday. He remembered that because he had to book the party Princess for that day. Well. He made an algorithm that sorted it out actually but it was basically the same thing.
He remembered how he came back and saw the scribbles scattered around the monitor's surface. After he expressed his confusion aloud to no one, he had sighed and begun to hit the undo key. One by one the changes would disappear. But he had noticed added notes. Something about… wishes? Fairies? Hazelnuts? It was hard to remember.
Of course he had deleted the changes. Someone had vandalized all his data, of course he wasn’t going to try to take what they wrote seriously.
And yet…
He checked the status of the au pairs before typing in the command for them to come to him. Dev seemed preoccupied at the moment so surely he wouldn’t mind losing his personal drones for a few minutes.
“Au pair one!” Dale snapped. “Tell me. You were with Dev during his birthday party right? The whole time?”
“Yes,” one drone responded. “The whole time. Totally.”
“Except for when his friend got knocked off of one of us.” The other au pair chimed in. “And he followed her into your secret room.”
The first au pair wavered nervously in the air as if it had just been snitched on. Not that Dale paid any attention.
“So it WAS him! That must be related to what he’s hiding!” Dale frowned. “But why would Dev sabotage my work? I mean a complaint or two is one thing, I can handle that. But my own son? Working AGAINST me?” He rubbed his chin in thought. “Unless it was that friend of his. Who were they?”
“Hazel Wells.”
Oh. Why did that…OH.
Dale wasn’t good with names, except for brand names of course. He had remembered the ‘H’ but the full name Hazel rang more bells than he had thought.
She had been with Dev at some point hadn’t she? And she had won the trivia challenge at Founders Day. And she had been at Dev’s birthday…
Dev was hiding something about her. Dale could feel it. Did it have something to do with how weird his behavior had been recently? How “off” he seemed? Was he related to this whole thing too?
While this ‘Hazel’ wasn’t the easiest to gather information on (as it was generally frowned upon when grown men spies on little girls), Dev was another case. Dev was his child. Which meant he could ask anything he wanted of him.
Although. If he was already hiding things…
“Au pairs!” Dale snapped. He was grinning now. “Give me a list of every place Dev goes after school. You know. When he wants to have fun. I think we need a little more bonding time.”
…
Peri sighed in relief as Dale left the room. After a few seconds, he poofed out of his disguise.
“That was close!” He hugged his twin daughters after they popped back into fairy form.
“It’s a good thing we taught you how to blend in. Hiding in plain sight is such a valuable skill!” Irep said, booping Nelle on the nose. “You’re progressing so fast with your magic! I’m so proud! Not to mention, Nelle, excellent taste in disguise. You really can’t go wrong with a spiked bracelet!”
Nelle nodded and poofed up two onto her own wrists.
Dev shifted uncomfortably, his eyes still darting towards the door. “I just hope he doesn’t notice. He’s always been so weird about the clothes I wear. Something about being ‘on brand.’”
“Of course he is…” Peri groaned. “Everything’s business for him.”
“We should give him funny clothes!!“ Ellen said with a giggle. “Then he’s off bran!! Then he suffer!!”
“Ohh!! She’s already thinking up ways to use her magic to get revenge!” Irep cooed, his face full of pride.
Peri snorted. “As funny as that would be, we just barely avoided being discovered by him. If we’re going to do anything, I don’t think it should be that visible.”
The fairy noticed Dev’s face. He was silent and looked a bit worried.
“But we’re not going to do anything without Dev wishing for it!” Peri clarified, beads of sweat forming. “And if he wanted, he could do it himself! You’ve been practicing your magic with the twins, right kid?”
Dev shifted, smiling slightly. “I have actually. B-But I’m not that used to it yet! I can’t do much without seeing someone.” His face fell. “I mean and I’m not sure I even want any kind of ‘revenge’ on my da- I mean. On him. It sounds fun but I just…”
There was a little bit of satisfaction hearing Dev stop himself from calling Dale his dad. Peri hadn’t really pushed on the whole “dad” thing. The adoption had been Dev’s choice after all, he should go at his own pace. And it seemed that he wasn’t quite ready yet to detach from Dale. Any hostility towards his “old dad” (man that still felt weird to think) seemed to make Dev a bit awkward.
Peri floated toward him, putting an arm around him. “Hey, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to!”
“Too right! And if anyone tries to make you-!” Irep pulled out his morningstar.
Copying him, Ellen pulled her wand out as well. Nelle, noticing Ellen, followed suit. It was clear the two babies had no idea why they were doing it. Nelle in fact was getting distracted by the magic star beads in her wand.
“Now that I’d like to see!” Dev smiled. His wings popped out of his jacket, and he flitted up to his sisters. “Having a whole family of fairies looking out for me is so much better than just one!”
Ellen giggled as Dev grabbed her. “Big family! Big!”
Dev took one sister in each arm. He floated in a laid down position. “You know. There was this one person that I-”
Before he could finish, there was a ding from the elevator. Quickly, the fairies poofed back into their disguises. Dev’s wings popped out of view, and he landed on his bed with an “oof!” Quickly, he sat up, and grabbed his tablet, acting like he had been playing a game.
Dale stepped back in. The au pairs followed him in.
“Was I too loud again?” Dev asked. For once he sounded annoyed. He caught his tone and softened. “I was trying to be quiet-”
“Oh no, not at all,” Dale said. He moved over to Dev’s bed and… patted him on the head. “You know, I was thinking, you've been doing… well. You’ve been completing your directives efficiently. So I was thinking, maybe you deserve some sort of compensation for your productivity.”
While Dev’s eyes widened, from his spot around his kid’s neck, Peri’s eyes narrowed. This was. Weird. The fairy immediately clocked how unnatural this sounded coming from Dale.
However, Dev seemed genuinely touched. “Wait, really?”
“Yes, really!” Dale pulled Dev close. “How about we go to that ice cream place. The full scoop? You like that place, right? Because-”
Dale paused. He glanced at his hand. From his viewpoint around Dev’s neck, Peri could see ink on the adult’s palm.
“Because it has lactose free ice cream!” Dale finished. “Yeah. Right, you are lactose intolerant. So, what do you say?”
“Y-Yes! Of course, I’d love to!” Dev beamed.
“Good!” Dale led Dev to the elevator. “Now tell me what you want before we leave. I’m ordering it on an app, I don’t want to spend too much time there.”
As the elevator doors closed, Peri saw the au pairs. Hovering. Beginning to zip around the room.
And as nice as it was to see Dev happy, Peri felt like this was a really bad sign.