catchacold | Babysitter's Club

"Ouchie!" Teddy pointed at Mick's arm because he knew that one was hurt and pointed. "Ouch." Then pointed at the dog. "Ouchie dog." Mick grunted in amusement and stroked Ash very gently while the puppy wriggled and wagged it's tail hard into Mick's stomach. Damn puppy. Teddy focused on petting carefully, being gentle. "Owie."

"I'm barely hurt, don't scare the kid." Mick huffed and ruffled his boys hair. "Daddy isn't that owie. Daddy is strong, nothing hurts daddy."

"You stubbed your toe yesterday and whined about it for an hour." Axel pointed out from where he was painting his nails, not much fussed over the puppy.

"Daddy is pretty damn owie. And whiny." Leonard wasn't about to deny that. He had to pay enough for the medical bills, they better be damn hurt to justify that. "Ash and you should stop pretending that you're not hurt until you want something." Already the same MO and they only just got the puppy.

Who Hartley and Teddy were obviously beyond smitten with. "You're doing a good job, Teddy. He'll be better soon, I bet. Your daddy saved him, he's a hero."

Teddy grinned and petted his dad this time. "Hero daddy." And then he looked at Leonard and pointed at him. "Len-nah!" It took a long time of talking to Teddy but he finally stopped calling everything but Leonard 'Len-nah' but hadn't quite conquered the name being said properly. He tried though.

"Me and Ash are fine, we're fighters." He smiled at his boys, reaching out to ruffle Hartley's hair. "If anything went wrong, Hartley'd fix it. He's a little genius. He could get my brain transplanted into a robot or something." Looking at Leonard, he smirked. "You worry too much."

Hartley blushed and tried to fix his hair, glancing at Axel to see whether he was judging him. Then instead he continued to focus on the puppy, inspecting what injury there were and telling him that he was a very brave little doggy.

"Somebody has to," Leonard pointed out, still seeing Mick's injuries so plainly. He hated them. He sighed and walked over to pick Teddy up, ruffling the kid's hair. "You'll take care of your daddy when I have to get out, won't you?"

"Len-nah!" Teddy squealed excitedly as he clung onto Leonard and wrapped his arms around him out of habit. Mick watched them with a smile and then lifted up his pup very gentle and scooted closer to Hartley. He passed the puppy over, knowing that if anyone could take care of him, it was going to be Hartley.

"I'm gonna make pancakes, you can hold the puppy. He can't walk on the floor yet, his paws are too injured so keep him comfortable." He patted Hartley's shoulder before he got up and came over to Leonard. "You want any or are you ducking out soon?"

"I have to leave in a few, meet some guy." Leonard looked at Teddy and made a face to entertain him. He was easily entertained, luckily. "I do, don't I? Yes, I do. Carry on my illicit affair. Can you say illicit affair?"

Hartley was overjoyed, because he was a child who loved animals being given a puppy to hold. Of course he was grinning like a dork, walking over to sit down next to Axel. "Nice nails."

"Ccccccit." Teddy tried and then put his fingers in his mouth and made a happy noise. Teddy was, by far, the happiest boy in the world. So little could upset him and he was always so eager to learn. Mick laughed and kissed Teddy's cheek. Then Leonard's, just because.

"Be careful, okay? Don't go getting yourself in trouble. We can always find money. We made thirty bucks today."

Axel looked up from where he was painting his nails and eyed Hartley and the weird burnt puppy. It was trying desperately to get close, sniffing in Axel's direction. "Hey. Nice zombie mutt."

Leonard smiled at the kiss, shaking his head. Thirty bucks wasn't really going to cut it, but that wasn't what this was about anyway. "I'll be careful, don't worry about it. Just a preliminary meet-up anyway. Preliminary, Teddy. You can say that too, right?" Leonard grinned at the tiny boy and set him down on the kitchen counter.

"He's not a zombie. Just a bit hurt. More like a mummy." Hartley stroked his fur gently, avoiding the burned patches. "I guess technically mummies are zombies. Nice nails, Axel."

"Lim-nah." Teddy tried before babbling and adding. "Len-nah-lim!"

Mick snorted in amusement and ruffled his boys hair. "Like I said, he's gonna be a fucking genius, you wait and see. Listen to him. Barely a year old and he can talk better than most kids Axel and Hartley's age. And I bet he could spell better too." He moved into the kitchen and started get what he needed for pancakes. "You should stick around and have a few."

"Mummy and zombies are basically the same only one has bandages." Axel blew on his nails to help dry them and smiled at Hartley, always happy to have some attention from his pretty room-mate. "You seem to like that puppy, huh? You a dog person?"

"Sounds about right," Leonard agreed with Teddy, then he smirked at Mick. "I bet he could, you dork." So in love with his son, but it was adorable, hard to blame him. "I gotta leave in a few minutes, Mick, but I'm gonna be back as soon as I can. Save me a pancake. You make sure he does, Teddy. Be my hero."

"No." Wait, was he? "I don't know. What does that mean? I like dogs. I like all animals." Especially tiny hurt puppies that were licking his fingers.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, Len-nah. p'ca." Teddy paused for a moment, his little brain trying to work out where he was going and he tilted his head to the side, thinking about the last time Leonard had gone to the outside where there was no duckies to feed. "Twink sta'?" Was he going to see Teddy's little twinkle-twinkle.

"You like all animals? That's cute. Maybe you should look into working with animals." Axel teased as he finally reached out to touch the dog. He was very hesitant and when the dog licked his fingers, he flinched and jerked away. He wasn't good with dogs. "All dogs bite, I don't trust them."

"Thanks, Teddy. You're great." Leonard listened to Teddy and smiled as he put it together, shaking his head, only briefly glancing Mick's way. "Nah, bit late for your twinkle star to still be out. I bet he has an early curfew. I'm meeting much less fun people, promise. Or I'd take you along."

"Maybe after I'm done studying music. If I get into any school, that is." Hartley smiled and watched Axel as he touched Ash, shaking his head. "This one won't bite. And even if he did, he's tiny. It wouldn't hurt."

"He asks about that damn twink all the time and we met him once. How does someone make that much of an impression?" To be fair, they all remembered Barry. The kid who was his accidental hostage, who they dropped off at Jitters. Who almost didn't notice he had arrived because he was playing peekaboo with Teddy and on the way into Jitters, tripped over nothing and went flying into the door. Yep, Twink star was memorable.

"You will, you're really smart. Not like us dumbasses." Axel teased as he gently stroked the top of Ash's head, careful of his burns. This time he didn't flinch away when the puppy licked his hand, though he did pull a face. "Dogs are gross."

"For all you know I meet him all the time. But yeah, I don't know. He just likes the name, don't you? Twinkle star." Not surprising, given how much he loved the song.

"You're not a dumbass, Axel. You're an artist. That cake you made the other night? It was beautiful." Hartley laughed at the face Axel pulled and shrugged. "Don't like the licking?" There was something endearing about Axel being freaked out by a puppy. "Once some guy was making his dogs attack me, but I got them to stop." Homelessness, not a fond memory there.

Teddy started to sing it and hell, Mick loved him so he sang it too as he flipped pancakes and watched his boy, even doing the hand gestures for Leonard like Hart had taught him. Twinkly hands and up into the sky.

"It was pretty cool. The cake, I mean. It tasted pretty good." Axel was starting to get really good at making cakes. He moved his hand away from the puppy and held it close as if he'd been mauled, eyeing the mutt curiously. "I don't trust dogs. One of my foster families had a dog and it was a horrible thing. Used to chase me up the stairs. Bit me a few times."

"You two could take this show on the road." Leonard leaned in and kissed Teddy's cheek. "All right, I gotta go. I'll eat my pancake when I get back and I'll try not to wake you."

"It was delicious. Everything you make is delicious." With a frown he pulled Ash closer to himself, petting his head again gently. "I'm sorry, Axel, that's awful. But keep in mind that dogs are always just a reflection of how they've been treated. Even more than people."

"See you in a bit. Don't be out too long." Mick warned as he lifted his boy up and waved at Leonard, encouraging Teddy to do the same. As Teddy and Mick waved Leonard away, Mic headed over to Axel and dumped Teddy in his arms before he could even protest. He was the only one not holding stuff or cooking stuff. "Watch Teddy. Do. Not. Drop. Him."

"You say that every time, I've never dropped him." Axel huffed as he bounced Teddy on his knee, ignoring him as he still sung twinkle twinkle little star. "I know that, Hart. I guess dogs make me uneasy now. I get they're not all bad. Ash seems cool. He's a cute pup."

Babysitter's Club

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