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Nico’s holding his screaming three year old while he’s bawling. Tears stream down his face, and he’s kicking at Nico. Will, on the other hand, is watching their angel of a daughter as she nicely pets a baby goat. Will and Maria both laugh as the goat almost knocks their daughter off of her feet.
Will’s parental instincts kick in and he swoops down to grab Maria before the goat can actually hurt her. She lets out a whine but is easily distracted by Will’s curls, grasping and pulling them with her little fingers.
It would have been adorable if Nico wasn’t currently dealing with a child that could probably be mistaken for an ambulance.
“Micheal, please, do you want to see the piggies instead?” Nico offers, trying to get a grain of control back. The other guests at the petting zoo are staring at him, some looking at him with annoyance but others giving him looks of sympathy, like they also have tornado sirens for offspring. He wishes them luck because it doesn’t matter how much he loves Micheal, he’s not an easy toddler.
Micheal stops wailing for a second to argue, “no! Ride the donkey! No piggies! No, no, no!” Nico groans, he’s about to call for Will to come take his child back, but Will is already there, toddler in hand.
”Thank the gods you’re back, here trade.” Nico basically pushes Micheal into Will’s chest. Micheal’s already stopped crying in the presence of his other dad.
“No way, he’s yours today. I’ve had him all week, it’s my turn with Maria,” he looks at the little girl in his arms, tickling her tummy and making her erupt into giggles.
“Yeah Papa, my turn with Daddy,” Maria sasses, causing Nico to tickle her this time. She continues laughing and saying, “stop Papa, stop!”
Nico gives in to her tiny pleas and sets Michael down, letting him toddle in between Will and Nico’s feet. Will sets Maria down to join him and they start an animated babbling session about gods know what.
Nico looks at his two kids, with so much love he doesn’t know how to express it. Looking up to his husband he finds that he’s looking at their kids the same exact way. Will’s gaze finds Nico, and he all but melts.
Nico slides his hand into his husband’s, then brings his eyes back down to his children, who are now talking about something on the line of pet hamsters. Their little hands are waving in the air as they talk, making large gestures and shapes, just like he does.
As they were about to approach the gift shop, (rest in peace his wallet, Will can’t ever tell them no,) Maria stumbles on her little legs, faceplanting into the gravel. She lets out a little puff of air as her stomach hits the ground. A little gasp and an uh oh spills from Micheal, which would have been adorable if Maria wasn’t laying there without making a sound.
Will (unfortunately) lets go of Nico’s hand and bends down to where Maria is planted on the gravel. “Sweetheart?” He asks, grabbing her by her armpits and lifting her up, placing her on his hip. She lets out a squeal and starts laughing, Micheal starts up too and then Nico and then the whole family is giggling while Will attempts to brush loose gravel stuck to Maria’s face.
The laughter eventually dies down and Nico looks at Will. “I think we skip the G-I-F-T-S-H-O-P,” spelling it out so the kids don’t understand him, “and we go out and get ice cream.” Nico bends down and ruffles his son's hair, “what do you kids say? You want ice cream?”
Micheal’s eyes light up, and he jumps around and cheers shouting, “ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!”
His sister joins in on the chanting, causing Will to sigh, “having ice cream all of the time is bad for them you know.”
Nico rolls his eyes, picking up his son, and kissing his head. “Oh shush, it’s not any better than having six coffees a day. Which you can’t even deny, I lived with you during your residency.”
Wil, using his free hand, punches Nico lightly on his arm, “fine you win, ice cream it is. But just this once.”
The whole family cheers and Nico sets down Micheal, he runs to the car as fast as his little legs can take him, chanting ‘ice cream, ice cream,’ the whole way. He stays there waiting for the rest of his family, bouncing up and down, and tapping the hood like a bongo drum. Do they even need to test him for ADHD at this point? They strap the kids in their car seats, who immediately start babbling a conversation about ice cream, giggling and laughing together.
Nico hops into the passenger seat and looks at Will, who is already buckled in with instructions to the nearest ice cream shop open on his phone. Nico looks to his husband and smiles, ”I love you.”