Chapter Text
Katie was sat at the bar of the cozy Holland cafe, lazily sipping on her third beer of the evening. It was already nearing nightfall as she gulped down the carbonate, alcoholic beverage. She peered over to her right side, where her son Nacho sat alongside her at the bar. He too was sipping a beer, she didn’t seem to care. In fact, she had given him the beer.
“Cheers, Nacho! Your first real beer! I think.” She grinned and held her own glass up to clink Nacho’s. Nacho smiled back, as he always did with the smile practically permanently etched onto his pale face.
Nacho placed a wooden sign, that read “YAY MAMA I LOVE BEER”.
Katie giggled, almost choking on the carbonate beverage in her mouth. “Don’t tell dada about this, he might be mad. In fact, don’t tell anyone. You can keep a secret, right Nacho?” She said to him, pointing at him in a silly but serious way.
He placed another sign down, next to the previous, that read, “yes, i can keep secret”.
Katie hummed and gulped down the last of her beer. She smacked the glass onto the table in satisfaction and encouraged her son to do the same. He too finished his beverage, and began begging for more to take home. She shrugged and reached over the bar to grab a stack of beers. She handed them to Nacho and he crouched incessantly before shoving them into his inventory.
She helped him off his bar stool, he was pretty wobbly on those tiny legs of his. She glanced around, for some reason the Dutch had left her and Nacho alone in the cafe, which wasn’t advised clearly. She was sure they would not approve of her allowing her child to drink beer, let alone steal a good amount of theirs to take home.
“Okay, let’s go find something else to do now. Maybe we could pull a prank on maybe Ewron…maybe the Dutch…” She pondered their next moves, when her thoughts were interrupted by the ding of her communicator in her suit pocket.
“Ah, mama’s got a text.” Katie sang in a sing-song voice, and pried the communicator out of her pocket, peering at it with blurry vision. Nacho watched her patiently, before hitting a backflip.
‘Needyourblood: hey is nacho with you?’
Katie giggled at the question, he had no idea what shenanigans they were up to. She typed out a message to him that read,
‘Saucebxss: yeah we are having a wholesome family night why’
As she sent out the message into the void, Nacho placed a sign in front of them and she waited, crouching down to see what it would read.
“Where dada?” Are the words that were written across the pale wood sign.
“So, I can assume that he is at that reactor of his, like always. Am I right.” She replied in her usually joking tone. Nacho crouched multiple times and hit another backflip, which made Katie giggle.
‘Needyourblood: ?? It is my turn to watch him for the night’
Katie gasped and ran a hand down her face, how could she forget? She really needs to get a schedule going of what days are whose. She was already drunk, her kid was drunk too, and now she had to go see her co-parent?
“Hey Nacho buddy, dada wants to take you back home to the reactor okay? Let’s have him pick you up from mama’s HQ.” She said and patted his head, before pulling her purple warp stone out of her backpack. She scooped Nacho up, and teleported them to KTB HQ, her pride and joy.
The purple haze of the teleportation flowed around them until the familiar pink building had fallen into sight. She placed Nacho onto the polished, white quartz stairs before placing the warp stone back into her backpack.
“Hey buddy, mind giving your mama one of those beers you got in your bag?” She scrunched her nose at him and poked his face. He smiled and threw one at her, she caught it and drank it down quickly.
It was a Friday after all, and she had many successful therapy sessions this week so she was feeling very proud and wanted to let loose. At least she doesn’t do cocaine, like Multi does. Unacceptable, really.
She chased Nacho into the bright pink building, their footsteps echoing loudly into the nearly empty first floor.
‘Needyourblood: uh hello??’
She saw the message light up the communicator, and internally facepalmed. The past message had slipped her mind, she never even thought of a reply. She really did not need that final beer.
‘Saucebxss: oop sorry! We are at my HQ waiting 4 u’
She sent the message quickly, and by the time she peered back up, her son had disappeared. She hadn’t even heard the patter of his little feet leaving the room. She sighed in exasperation, and ran a clammy hand through her strawberry colored hair.
“Alright Nacho, not funny. Where did you go, buddy?” She called out, slowly walking up the grand main staircase, leading to the second floor of the HQ where her and Nacho’s bedrooms were located.
She turned the corner into Nacho’s room to find him jumping on the trampoline she created for him. She couldn’t lie, he looked extra adorable jumping around. Then, he started to chug a beer from his inventory. Her eyes widened and she reached for it.
“Buddy, c’mon, what did I tell you about keeping it a secret! Dada is literally going to be here any second.” She cooed at him, but was beginning to get a bit annoyed. He can be a pain sometimes, truly.
Before she could get a handle on the egg, she heard footsteps stride into the room. Her head whipped around, and found Multi standing there with a blank yet exhausted look on his face. His hands clasped behind his back, per usual.
“Oh heyyyyyy baby-daddy! Uh, sorry, papa..?” She grinned awkwardly at him, Nacho still jumping on the trampoline behind her with a beer in his hand. She kept her eyes trained on Multi’s pale face as his gazed floated from hers, up to Nacho and finally to the beer in his hand.
“Katie, why is-“ he began to inquire about the situation but she cut him off quickly, “What? I don’t really know what you’re talking about.” She said quickly and spun back around to face Nacho.
“Nacho, put that away for fuck sake.” She scolded through gritted teeth, narrowing her eyes at him. He put the beer away and hopped off the trampoline, jumping over to Multi happily.
She turned back around to face Multi, smoothing out her pink outfit, adjusting her sunglasses as well.
“Katie, I don’t think he is old enough to be drinking beers.” Multi sighed, his blue eyes meeting her own. He could tell she had also been consuming alcohol, by the flush in her cheeks that complimented her features quite well. He watched as she pushed a piece of her strawberry hair behind her ear nervously and shot him a silly grin.
“Okay so, duh, I didn’t give him that.” She lied through her teeth and saw Nacho place a sign down in front of the three of them. She gulped as she anxiously awaited what message he would jot down for them. Multi couldn’t help but smirk as the message showed up.
‘YES MAMA DID! I LOVE BEER!’, the sign read. Multi looked pointedly at Katie, but she averted her gaze and turned to Nacho.
“Nacho baby, what did I say about snitching on your mama like that?” She scolded him, quickly tearing down the wooden sign as fast as it was placed.
Nacho crouched and walked away, jumping into the hot tub located in the left corner of the room. He stayed there for a bit, doing backflips and his usual antics.
“Kurwa, whatever. I am here to pick him up.” Multi replied, hands still behind his back. He knew it was getting late, and now with a drunk child and co-parent, he knew it would be a long night. He still had some work he wanted to complete back at the reactor, but was sure he probably would not be getting anything done tonight. Thankfully, he had Katie’s help the past week while he sorted some things out.
Katie shrugged, and plopped herself on Nacho’s bed, sprawling out as if she was exhausted from drinking all night. Which, she sort of was, her head felt dizzy and lightheaded. She felt as if she could fall into a deep slumber at any second now. She was a bit relieved that Multi would be taking Nacho back with him tonight, she needed a rest. She had been watching him the past couple days. Apparently, Multi had been working on some very important project that prevented him from watching over Nacho. She couldn’t lie, she wished he would tell her what he had been up to, he is such a mystery.
Multi glanced at Katie, sprawled out on the bed. He quirked a brow at her behavior, before strolling over to Nacho. “Nacho! Are you ready to go back home?” He gave him a smile, one only reserved for his precious son.
Nacho crouched up and down, before jumping out of the hot tub. “Okay, say bye to mama then.” Multi replied, gesturing towards Katie on the bed.
At the sound of her title, mama, Katie sat up groggily. Nacho ran over to cling onto her leg, his form of a hug. She smiled and pat his head lovingly. “Okay, goodnight Nacho honey!” She beamed, and added in a whisper, “don’t give dada any of those beers because he is a big grump, save some for me.” She stuck her tongue out at Multi after she said this, even though he didn’t hear what she said. He wasn’t even looking over at them anyways, he had been peering at the family portrait hung on the wall.
Nacho ran back over to Multi’s side, as if to let him know he was ready to go. Multi unclasped his hands from behind his back and was ready to walk out with Nacho, before Katie ran over to them.
She caught Multi off guard by enveloping him into a tight hug. He stumbled backwards at her use of force, and was hesitant to wrap his arms around her as well. He settled on wrapping his left arm around her loosely. She always complained that he never hugged her back, she was very fond of physical touch and he usually was not. He inhaled the scent of beer, but a lovely feminine scent brushed past him as well. He had to stop himself from nuzzling himself into her neck, enjoying the scent of her lingering around him a bit too much.
“Goodnight!” She smiled at him as she pulled away from the hug, leaving them both silently wishing the hug never ended. He couldn’t help it as he gave her a very small smile and turned on his heel to exit with Nacho.
Katie watched as he left, and let out a big yawn before trudging across the hall to her own bedroom. She could still feel the cold yet light touch of his hand on her midriff. She smiled to herself at the thought, before snuggling herself into bed. She sometimes spent the night at the HQ, sometimes spent the night under the lighthouse on Schlatt’s island. Tonight, she was in too much a haze to make her way to Schlatt’s island. It hadn’t taken longer than a couple minutes for her to fall asleep.
+++
Multi had finally tucked Nacho into bed, a sigh of relief escaping him, after he had run after Nacho for at least a half hour. He made sure Nacho was tucked into his pink blankets before turning the lights off. He left the child’s room, and strode down a few sterile hallways before reaching the door to his main laboratory. He carefully opened the door, letting it shut behind him quietly. He had been testing different DNA specimens this week. He may have done a couple experiments against others wills, he was a scientist after all. That is what scientists do. He always had a knack for science, new discoveries were like ecstasy for him. He enjoyed being the smartest in the room, as well as the most secretive.
He sunk down on the chair in front of his desk. The desk, which was scattered with pens, notepads, broken test tubes, ripped up pieces of paper, and more. He was chaotic in his workings, and passionate at that. He felt that he was always on the brink of a new discovery. The islanders here helped with that, some of them had some curious DNA.
As he reached for a ballpoint pen, his gaze fell upon a specimen container that carried a familiar lock of strawberry colored hair. He paused, and redirected his reach for this instead. He held the container in his hand, studying the lock with curiosity. He had never actually done any experiment with her strand of hair, instead it was almost a comfort item of his. He let himself indulge in this feeling of his, only in private.
He placed the container that held the woman’s hair back down on the desk in front of him. No time for distractions, he told himself.