Chapter Text
“Wake up baby, we’re going to be late,” Namping gently shook the small bundle of blankets on the bed. The bundle just made a small noise of discontent before burying deeper into the pillows.
“If you don’t wake up then you won’t get any pancakes…” Namping teased lightly “with maple syrup” . He knew his son had a sweet tooth as much as him.
A small tuft of black hair poked out from the blankets, “with the ducky picks?” the small boy asked, “and booberries?” coming out of the little nest of blankets a little bit more.
Namping couldn’t help but give a little laugh seeing the boy’s messy hair sticking out the back, before smoothing it down gently. “Ok luk, with the ducky picks and blueberries for my best boy that’s going to wake up now”
With a small sigh as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, Khao slowly crawled out of bed, wrapped his little arms around Namping for a good morning hug with his milky baby scent before making his way to the bathroom as Namping followed along.
Khao was generally an easy child, loving, affectionate and bright. But one thing he seemed to have gotten from his alpha father was that he hated waking up in the mornings, though all that thought did was send a pang through Namping’s heart as he blocked out that thought. It was coming easier to him now, blocking out thoughts of that alpha since 4 years ago when said alpha disappeared without a trace, but with each passing day as Khao grew into the features of his past love, those big brown boba eyes, that little pouty lips, Namping seemed to find ignoring those similarities a little bit harder.
“All done!” Khao exclaimed as he finally pulled on his Spider-Man t-shirt. “Pancakes pancakes pancakes!” He chanted as he scrambled out of the room and into the kitchen where a spread fit for the little prince was waiting.
Prettt soon breakfast was finished and the pair made their way to daycare and work.
“Papi why do I have to go to school?”
“Because you have to learn things luk, so that you can discover all the dinosaurs in the world remember?” Khao nodded sagely in understanding.
“Papi why do you have to go work?”
“So that I can make money to buy Khao all the blueberries and yummy food Khao wants,” Namping replied indulgently.
“Does this mean if I eat less booberries, Papi doesn’t have to work so hard?” bright brown eyes looked up at Namping in concern.
“No, silly, you can eat as much blueberries you want, as long as it doesn’t give you a tummy ache. Papi also needs something to do all day while Khao is in school right? If not Papi will be sad missing Khao all day,” Namping gave a pretend sad face to his son.
“It’s ok Papi, you can come to school with Khao,” the little boy patted Namping’s hands comfortingly. “Then Papi won’t miss Khao and Khao won’t miss Papi too!” Khao brightened as if it were the most genius idea ever, which brought a laugh to Namping’s face as they arrived at Namping’s office building, which was also where Khao’s childcare was located.
However, seeinng his friends at the door, Khao immediately let go of Namping’s hand and started to run in to the childcare, all thoughts of missing his Papi forgotten. “I’ll pick you up at 6 luk!” Namping called out. “Bye Papi!” Khao shouted back before disappearing into a classroom, as Namping handed the backpack to a daycare teacher.
“Khao’s really gotten out of his shell this past year,” Khun Lin the daycare teacher commented, putting Khao’s Spider-Man backpack in the cubby hole.
Namping nodded emphatically. “I’m so glad he loves daycare now and made so many friends, thank you for teaching him well!” Namping replied with a crescent eyed smile as he waved goodbye, before making his way to the office elevators.
Sometimes, Namping still couldn’t believe this was his life now. Despite everything that happened, he had gotten a traineeship at Reungdet Enterprises, one of the biggest business groups in Thailand. They paid him fairly well, allowing him to afford a small two bedroom apartment not too far from the office and best of all provided subsidized childcare in their office building for employees which allowed Namping to never be too far from Khao.
Since joining the company two years ago, Namping worked diligently under Khun Si (or Yai Si as she told Namping to call her many times) as her secretary, but with her retirement last week, today was going to be the day he met his new boss, supposedly Yai Si’s grandnephew coming in as a new Finance director, who was also the son of the CEO and younger brother to the COO Khun Hin.
Settling into his desk and straightening the photo frame of him and Khao, the chatter from the office suddenly quieted down as a strong yet familiar presence seemed to permeate the floor.
“… and this here is your secretary, Khun Harit,” Fah from HR was giving the orientation. “Khun Napatsakorn has been with us for 2 years, previously working with Khun Si and has been a diligent secretary…”
But Fah’s words were drowned out by the blood suddenly rushing through Namping’s ears. Fuck. He knew that alpha. Knew him much too well for comfort and was one of the last people he thought he’d see again 4 years on. Namping blanked, before a nudge from Fah brought him back to reality.
“Hello Khun Napatsakorn,” a deep, too familiar voice, said. “I look forward to working with you. You can call me Keng.”
And as Namping looked up to those brown eyes, so similar to the pair he just dropped off at daycare this morning, the only thought in his head was “fuck”.