He's having another playdate with Arthur today. Which is nice, because Arthur's a first grader and not in kindergarten, and he has a whole bunch of funny brothers, and a really nice mommy, and he talks funny. Alfred likes Arthur.
Still, he's starting to wonder where it is his daddy goes while they have their playdates.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, buddy?"
His daddy doesn't look back at him because he's gotta watch the other cars on the road. Alfred plays with his seat belt and fidgets in the uncomfortable booster seat.
"How come you don't have playdates with Arthur's mommy?"
His daddy laughs in a weird way and says "Uh," before laughing a little more. Alfred doesn't get the joke, but he laughs too.
"I don't think Arthur's daddy would like that," he hears him say. It's a little hard to hear him, so Alfred says "Can't hear you," and his daddy just shakes his head.
"I'm sure Arthur's mommy is busy enough watching all her boys and you too. Besides, I have some important things to do."
"What kind of important things?"
"Grown up things."
The car stops at a red light. Alfred looks out his window at the dog in the back of the pickup truck beside them. He wants a puppy for Christmas, he decides. Or maybe a new set of dinosaurs. Or a real live dragon.
"Grown up things like taxes?"
His daddy laughs again, but Alfred frowns.
"No, bud. Something more interesting than taxes."
"Like what?"
The light changes, and Alfred has to wave goodbye to the dog.
"Well, like a playdate of my own."
Alfred looks up at the back of his daddy's head. "You're having a playdate without me?"
"Yup,"
"That's not fair! I like having playdates!"
"Well don't you like Arthur? I thought you guys were best friends."
Alfred pouts but nods. "Yeah, but I like making more friends. How come you get to go play with new kids and I can only play with Arthur?"
His daddy sighs. "I'm not playing with kids, Al. I'm playing... uh, I have a date with a grown up."
Now Alfred's curious. He doesn't know a lot of grown ups, and he didn't think his daddy did either. "Is it Miss Honey?" His teacher's the only grown up he can think of other than Arthur's mommy and daddy.
"Nope, it's not Miss Honey."
They're on Arthur's street now.
"Who is it?"
"You don't know her yet."
"Who is it?" Alfred repeats. "Can I meet her?"
His daddy parks the car and finally turns around. He's smiling. "She's an important friend of mine," he says. "You might get to see her sometime soon."
Alfred bounces in his seat. "Really?!"
"Sure, bud. And she has a little boy around your age, too. Maybe you two can be friends."
Alfred claps his feet together, making his light up sneakers flash red and blue. "What's he look like? Is he funny? Does he like pokemon? What's his favorite color?"
His daddy laughs and unbuckles himself. "Easy there, kiddo. Why don't you just wait to ask him yourself?"
-H-
Everyday Alfred makes sure to ask his daddy if he can meet his friend today. Sometimes he asks at dinner, sometimes while he's watching cartoons, and once he even asks while they're doing the dishes.
"Not yet, bud," his daddy keeps saying. "Wait a little longer."
Alfred doesn't wanna wait, but he thinks this friend must be pretty funny, since his daddy's always laughing and smiling lately.
-H-
Alfred's playing with his toy drum in his room. He likes making music, and it's lots of fun to hit the drum and make a tat-a-tat-tam noise, or a tum-tom-tom sound.
He looks up when his daddy opens the door.
"Hey, Al. Come and put your shoes on."
Alfred sets down his drum. "A playdate at Arthur's house?"
"Nope!" His daddy's smile is super big. Alfred scrambles up and through the door, following him down the stairs to the living room.
"Are we getting ice cream?" He really hopes they're getting ice cream.
"Nope. We're doing something even better."
Alfred hurries to the closet where he keeps his shoes. "McDonald's?" He squeezes his foot into the shoe and pulls the velcro straps tight.
"Nope."
"Where are we going?" He stands up and faces his daddy, who's smiling even more.
"You're going to come meet my special friend and her son."
Alfred gasps. "Really?!" New friends are definitely better than ice cream.
His daddy nods and waves him over to the door.
"Yup. My friend invited us to have dinner at her house. So come on and hurry up; we don't want to be late, do we?"
Alfred shakes his head and runs out to the car.
-H-
His daddy's new friend is pretty. She looks like the ladies in all sorts of different fancy commercials, with shiny hair put up and a long dress. There's a little boy tugging at the edge of that dress when she opens the door.
Alfred's never been to an 'apartment building' before, but its a lot bigger than his house. So after his daddy's friend finishes inviting them in, he asks a very important question.
"Are you a movie star?"
She smiles and looks at his daddy for a minute before leaning down. "No, I'm not, but that's very sweet of you."
Alfred doesn't understand though. "If you're not a movie star, how come you're so rich?"
The little boy hides more behind his mommy's dress as she looks back at Alfred's daddy again.
"Who said I was rich?"
Alfred opens his arms as big as he can to show the whole building they're in. "You've got a bajillion stairs and rooms!"
"Oh, they're not all ours," she tells him. She's laughing again. "Just this one."
Alfred doesn't understand. He wants to ask more questions, but his daddy says "Maybe you boys would like to go play together in Matthew's room?"
"Is he Matthew?" Alfred asks, pointing at the only part of the hiding boy he can see; a single loopy curl of hair. His daddy's friend nods and pulls the boy out from behind her.
"Say hello, sweetie," she says to Matthew. Matthew holds onto her arm. He looks like he's going to cry. Alfred doesn't get it.
"Is he okay?" he asks his daddy.
"He's just shy," Matthew's mommy says. Alfred knows about shy kids. He's had a few in his class; some of them even cry when their mommies and daddies leave to go do grown up things while they have school. Alfred has never been shy. Arthur's not shy either, and none of his cool brothers are shy. Alfred doesn't know if he should like shy kids.
"Ça va, mon petit? C'est bon. Dis bonjour." Matthew's mommy makes a bunch of funny noises, and then Matthew looks at her and mumbles a bunch of funny noises back. Alfred looks up at his daddy.
"What are they doing?"
"They're speaking French," his daddy says, much more quitely than Alfred did. Alfred looks back at them and sees Matthew is hiding again.
"H-hello..." he hears.
"Hi! I'm Alfred! I like charizards and fudge brownies and power rangers. What's your favorite color? Do you like dogs; I like dogs."
His daddy laughs. "Maybe Matthew would like to show you his room."
Alfred nods, ready to start playing already, but it takes a few more 'French' nonsence words before Matthew lets go of his mommy's dress and fidgets his way deeper into the 'apartment'.
As they walk, Alfred notices Matthew's shirt. It's red. "I like red."
"...Thanks..."
"You didn't answer me," Alfred says as they stop at a door. Matthew reaches up to open in and then they go in a little room with toys and books all tucked away in their bins and on their shelves. It looks a little like Alfred's classroom, only tiny.
"What do you mean?" Matthew whispers.
"What's your favorite color? Do you like dogs?"
Matthew stands in the middle of his room, playing with the bottom of his shirt for a while. Alfred thinks he's a little weird.
Finally he says "I like red... too. A-and yes."
"Yes?"
"I like dogs. I like lots of animals." Matthew nods to a hammock looking thing up above his bed, where a mountain of stuffies are piled up so high Alfred thinks they'll fall down any second.
"Cool!" Alfred notices a squirtle in the mound. "Oh, you like pokemon too!"
Matthew nods.
"Hey, how old are you, Matthew. Matt. Mattie." Matthew is a long name and Alfred doesn't feel like saying it all the time. He calls Arthur Artie or Iggy a lot, so why can't he call Matthew Mattie?
Mattie looks at him funny when he does, though. "I'm 4."
"I'm 5!" Alfred holds up a whole hand to prove it. "I'm older than you!"
"...When's your birthday?" Mattie asks.
"The fourth of July!" Alfred stands with pride, but Mattie doesn't seem to understand. Alfred wonders if maybe his new friend is a bit of a dummy.
"Mine's the first of July."
"We're like twins!" Alfred says.
"We'd have to have the same mama for that," Mattie snorts. Alfred shrugs.
"Well, I don't have any mommy." He gets ready to answer the question everyone always asks him – Why don't you have a mommy? - but Mattie says something else instead.
"I know."
"What?"
"I said I know you don't have a mama. But that's okay. I don't have a papa."
"How come you know that?" Alfred didn't tell him before now. He's sure of that. "Did my daddy tell you?"
Mattie shakes his head. "No. Mama said so."
Alfred frowns. "Why does she know?"
Mattie looks at him for a very long time, like he thinks he's a dummy. Alfred crosses his arms – he's not stupid!
"She knows because Mama and your Papa are in love."
"Ew! No they're not!"
"Mama says they are," Mattie shrugs. Alfred though he might yell, but since he didn't, Al just shrugs.
"Well maybe she's wrong."
They both stand there quietly for a little bit. Then Alfred notices a bunch of tapes beside a tiny tv on a shelf. He walks over to look at the top one.
"You like Sailor Moon?!"
Mattie jumps and runs over, his face all pink like he's got a fever or something.
"I-I...N-no, I mean, I..."
"Most kids say it's girly," Alfred continues. "But I like it too!"
Mattie stops trying to cover up the tape case with his hands and looks at Alfred like he's never seen another little boy before.
"I... ...Which one if your favorite?"
Alfred decides he likes Mattie a lot.
A/N: So this story takes place within the universe of my ongoing fic Brother Complex, though this is set several years before BC. I offered a one-shot request to crownthegoldfish as thanks for their frequent reviewing and their being the 50th reviewer of BC. They suggested a little piece about Alfred and Matthew (step-brothers in BC) meeting for the first time back when their parents were dating. I had a lot of fun with this.
What Mattie's mom says in French isn't terribly important, but in case you were wondering she says something along the lines of "Are you okay, little one? It's alright. Say hello."
I've played plenty of pokemon, but I've never watched Sailor Moon. I'm a shame to 90's kids everywhere, I'm sure.
This one-shot's unBeta'd like any of my non-Brother Complex work, mostly because my Beta is a busy person and as this isn't a full BC chapter I didn't want to bother her. So forgive me if there are mistakes, and please correct my French. I've taken several years but that doesn't mean I'm any good (especially at spelling), hahahahaha.
Thank you so much for reading! Remember to take any medication or vitamins you need and take care of yourselves, lovelies! Have a wonderful day/night/week/month/year!
~VV