John had driven himself and his four year old daughter, Casey, to Lyndale Park in Edmonds, Washington. It was her favorite; a nice playground, lots of trees, and open space to run around. It was a little cool today; so, as per usual, he dressed her in her favorite fleece yellow salamander coat; while John wore a dark blue fleece shirt and jeans. There were lots of kids at the park today; poor little Casey was clearly uneasy about joining them as she clung to her daddy for comfort. "It's okay sweetheart, I'll be right here. Go make some friends." The little blonde girl nodded; still hesitant, but wanting to do as her father instructed, she timidly made her way towards the slide. As she approached she saw many many children; too scared to talk to them and overwhelmed by the sheer number of them; she turned around and made her way towards the swings. Thankfully, they were empty. She situated herself on the seat and after some effort, she was able to find a small rhythm and created a light pendulum movement. Not like when daddy pushed her; but fun enough.

She wasn't able to stay that way long though, as a rude six year old boy came up behind her and pushed her off the swing. She fell face first into the woodchips beneath. Her hands and face stinging from the impact. Tears welled up in her eyes as she started loudly wailing.

John, who had been reading a book, realized he couldn't see his daughter from where he was currently positioned. He gathered up his things and made his way around the main playground structure to the swings; where he saw his little girl on the ground crying. He started hurrying toward her when a little boy, in a pink hoodie and black cargo pants; who had been closer, ran over and pushed an older child away from Casey. When John reached his daughter, she was hysterical and clung to him. "Shh, it's okay, can you tell me what happened?" he soothingly entreated; Casey just continued to cry. The little boy came over; tousled hair and pointed shades; he couldn't have been much older than Casey.

"That kid pushed her off the swing!" the young boy shouted. Just then, his guardian came over.

"Dirk! You didn't hurt anyone did you?!" A blonde male in a red hemp skirt and matching red hoodie, approached him, looking first at Casey and then at the six year old who now had a mouth full of woodchips and was wailing louder than Casey had been.

"He was the meany! HE started it!"

"I don't care, I told you, you can't hurt people!"

John, listening to the entire thing interjected. "Actually, I think you boy was defending my daughter."

The man looked in his direction and sighed; returning he gaze to Dirk "Tell me what happened, all of it."

Dirk explained what he had witnessed and expressed a deep feeling of injustice over the whole ordeal. "It wasn't his turn!"

The man turned to John and Casey, kneeling down to her eye level; "Is that what happened?" Casey nodded.

"Told you, I wasn't the bad one!" Dirk proclaimed.

Casey calmed down at this point. "Now sweetheart what do we say?"

She looked at Dirk "Thank you."

John looked at Dirk "Thank you young man."

Dirk averted his gaze "It was nothing. ..Hey, you want to play swords?" He asked Casey.

John looked at her for her reaction. She brightened at the offer "Yeah!"

The blonde adult interrupted the two "No, Dirk, remember what happened last time you played swords with someone?"

"What about the soft ones!"

"I don't know if we have those with us today."

"Can't you check?!"

The male looked at John. "Would you mind watching him for a few minutes?"

John grinned "Not at all. Mr…"

"Dave, call me Dave."

"I'm John, nice to meet you." The two shook hands and Dave made his way towards the parking lot.

John took out some Kleenex from his daddy bag and wiped Casey's runny nose and the left over tears on her face. "So, Dirk, how old are you?"

"I'm five!" The boy declared proudly; extending his open hand forward to emphasize his age.

"Are you in school yet?"
"No, Daddy says I start school next year."

"Casey will be starting next year too." The little boy smiled.

The six-year-old's mother approached her son. "What happened!?" The boy pointed at Dirk. His mother marched up and asked "Where's your mom?"

"I don't have a mom anymore." Dirk tone matter-of-fact.

"Well, where's you dad?"

"He left."

"He left you alone?"

"Yep. I live in the park now."

John couldn't help but find amusement in the young boy's lie. Still, he decided to act like a mature adult and address the lady. Claiming to be the boy's guardian and explaining what her son had done to Casey. The woman; aware of her son's aggressive tendencies allowed the issue to drop; grabbed hold of her son and left.

Dave returned a few minutes later with two foam swords, decorated with My Little Pony stickers.

Casey gasped "PONIES!"

Dave smiled at her, "Yes, Dirk loves ponies, you like ponies Casey?" The little girl enthusiastically nodded.
"No way! Who's your favorite? Mine's Rainbow Dash!" Dirk exclaimed.

"I like Fluttershy!" Casey giggled.

Dave handed them both a sword and the two made their way away from the main play area; into a more open part of the park. The dads followed them; sitting on another bench. The kids played, laughing; small arguments surfaced between whether one "got" the other one or not. They seemed to have created some kind of point system between the two; not that they really kept to it. The fathers just sat there. Dave knitting; John reading a Steven King novel. No one paid any mind when it started raining. It's not like it was raining hard; it was just a drizzle. The kids didn't mind and the dads were happy to keep to their activities. After about a half hour; the rain increased; still nothing horrible; but enough for the kids to return to their guardians and complain of being cold. Dave looked at Dirk "You want to go to Café Ladro?"

"YEAH!"

John smiled "That sounds pretty good actually, I could go for a coffee. What do you say Casey? Want to go?"

"Can I get a muffin?" Hope shining in her eyes. John and Dave laughed

"Sure"

"Yay!"

The four made their way to the parking lot first; dropping off various toys into their cars. Then the group made their way across the street to Café Ladro; at a very leisure pace despite the now heavy downpour. Neither family went to Starbucks anymore; instead opting for the Fair Trade coffee house with compostable cups and utensils. Dave ordered the Fremont coffee blend; along with a chocolate biscotti for himself and a large chocolate chip cookie and water for Dirk. John ordered the Queen Anne blend, along with a blueberry muffin and water for Casey. Both dads sanitized their kid's hands before setting up the food and My Little Pony coloring books for the children. The two quietly colored while the two men spoke.

"Dirk really is a good kid; not many kids his age have that kind of confidence. You must be proud."

"Actually, he's my sister's kid; she died in a car crash shortly after he was born. Dirk wasn't in the car, thank god."

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss."

Dave shook his head changing the subject. "Casey's really sweet, you and your wife must be proud of her."

"Actually, my partner's name was Todd. Much like your sister, he died not long after Casey was born; we used a surrogate and he was rushing to make it to the hospital. Wasn't looking where he was going and was hit by a semi."

"…I'm sorry."

John didn't say anything. An awkward silence hung over them. John couldn't stand it and decided to switch topics. "Casey's never warmed up to someone so fast. She usually pretty shy."

The adults looked at the two small children in their care. The kids were sharing their treats and crayons and talking about the show they both loved. The men couldn't help but smile wide.

"Yeah, Dirk's never been this friendly with anyone."

"You two available next week?"

"Sure, Wednesday at noon good?"

"Perfect."

Notes:

Did I inadvertently make an AU Dirk/Casey ship?

So, I actually live in Washington. I don't live in Edmonds; but I've been there enough times. I've also been to Maple Valley and I just didn't like it for a setting. Although I will say, I didn't realize that's where John was from until I looked at his Wiki page. His character makes more sense to me now. I was only there once before; (about 7-8 years ago) to go to a friend's house. The neighborhood was exactly like Johns (all of the houses looked exactly the same and perfectly spaced apart). My friend did have a similar personality to John's too (mainly in the sense of humor). But he and his neighborhood friends were like, ULTRA christian and there really wasn't much to do there.

Also, some of you may be wondering "why Dave in a skirt?". It's not unheard of for men to wear skirts around here. There was actually a utili-kilt trend for a while. It's not what I would call common; but it's not so uncommon that it would earn you weird stares. The skirts are usually pretty plain; and hemp is warm so, yeah.

Also, no one carries umbrellas and unless it's raining enough to cause a flood; no one really pays any attention to it unless they are out-of-towners.