Highlander
"Little Immortals"
Summary:Richie has a 'little' accident. Can Duncan cope raising a seven year old Immortal...especially one as reckless, impulsive, and smart-assed as Richard H. Ryan?
Methos has a 'little' mishap and Connor is enlisted to help out with him. Can he handle a sarcastic, rude, and generally bratty 5,000 teenager?
Author's Note: This takes place any time after season 3.
Warning:SPANKING!!!!! DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. I just wrote this story for fun.
Chapter 7: Of Walks and Games
While Duncan and Richie watched the rest of the basketball game together, Conner did as he had said and invited Methos to take a walk with him.
"So," the five thousand year old asked, "why are you really staying? We both know you don't tend to stay in one place more than a day or so...?"
Conner smirked. He was smart, he'd give him that.
"Can't a man visit family?" he asked, grinning.
Methos snorted. "If you were really 'Uncle' Conner then I'd say yes," he told him, rolling his eyes, "but we both know that's not true—MacLeod thinks you can keep an eye on me better than he can, doesn't he?"
Conner shrugged. "You don't?" he asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.
Methos laughed. "I was taking care of myself when you were a baby," he reminded him, amused.
"That may be," the older Highlander told him, "but you weren't in the body of a teenager then...and from what I've seen that crystal gave you a lot of teenage attitude to go with it."
Methos sighed. "Maybe it did," he said, shaking his head. "I just never expected this, you know..."
Conner nodded. "I can imagine," he told him.
"Can you?" the 5,000 year old asked. "Really?" He raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well..." Conner admitted, "...maybe not 'really', but I can at least be a sympathetic ear, can't I?"
"And a firm hand across my arse, too, huh?" Methos asked, smirking.
Conner chuckled. "Even Duncan needed 'handling' every once in a while and he was thirty-five," he said. "For us, age is irrelevant. True, experience has a lot to do with it, too—but...sometimes we lose control, can't see things properly anymore, and need someone to 'help' us back."
"Highland child rearing philosophy?" Methos asked, smirking.
"Nah," Conner said, "just my own opinion. My Da's philosophy of child 'rearing' is to take a the largest heaviest strap to the kid's naked arse and whale on him 'til he sees the error of his ways...thankfully, things have changed since then."
Methos nodded. "So, you are to be my handler," he said, sighing. "I suppose, given that you have quite the reputation amongst our kind, I can live with that....certainly more so than the eternal Boy Scout back there..."
Conner chuckled, placing an arm around his shoulders. "C'mon," he said, steering him toward the park, "let's go see if we can scope out any fair young lasses—in tight-fitting running skirts..."
Methos chuckled. "I like the way you think, Highlander," he said, and together the two of them took a stroll through the park.
Meanwhile, back at the loft, Mac and Richie sat on the couch and watched as the Seacouver Seals got their butts kicked in basketball.
"Ah, c'mon," Richie exclaimed, after a particularly bad pass, "He couldn't hit the basket if his life depended on it!"
Mac chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm. "Little louder, Rich," he teased, "I don't think they heard you in Cleveland..."
Richie scowled at him. "Real funny, Mac," he told him, "but c'mon they're stinkin' bad today!"
Mac shrugged. "Everybody has an off day, Rich," he reminded him, getting up. "You want some popcorn?"
Richie started to say 'yes', but then stopped. "Uh, Mac," he said, hesitantly.
Mac looked back at him, from where he was getting a soda out of the fridge for the kid.
"Yeah, Rich?" he asked, curiously.
"Is this kinda what it feels like to have a dad?" Richie asked, his blue eyes very wide.
Mac gulped down the lump that formed in his throat, and then went to sit beside the boy.
"I'm not really sure, Rich," he told him. "What do you think?"
Richie shrugged. "Well..." he said, biting his lip, "...all my foster dads ever did was tell me to shut up and get the hell out of in front of the T.V. and you know I never knew my real dad, so..."
Mac sighed. "Rich," he said, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders, "that's all in the past now—you've come a long way since then..."
"But I'm a kid again, Mac" he said, looking down at his altered body, "and I still don't have a dad!"
Mac tried to hide the hurt that caused, knowing the boy didn't really know how he felt about him.
"You've got me," he said, swallowing hard.
Richie grinned. "Yeah," he agreed. "Hey, Mac?"
Mac smiled. "Yeah, Rich?"
Those large blue eyes looked directly into his brown ones.
"Will you be my dad?" he asked, and then blushed. "I mean, I know Joe is probably gonna find a way to fix this—or it might even wear off on its own, you know—but in case it doesn't..."
Mac reached over and placed a hand on the boy's mouth to silence his babbling.
"Richard Ryan," he told him, smiling, "I'd be honoured to be your dad...but are you sure?"
"Hell yeah, Mac," the boy exclaimed. "I mean, you're already kinda like my dad, anyway, and I...well, I guess I always hoped..."
"I've always loved you like a son, Rich," he told him, pulling him closer, "but I knew you never saw me..."
"But I did," Richie told him, sincerely.
Mac chuckled. "I guess we've both been pretty dumb, huh?" he asked, smirking.
"A couple of dummies, that's us all right," Richie said, smiling. "Uh, Mac?"
"Yeah, Rich?" Mac asked, simply enjoying the closeness of his boy.
"I...uh...gotta go, you know," the boy said, blushing.
"Oh," Mac said, sheepishly. "Sorry." He let go of the boy.
Richie got up to head to the bathroom when he felt a sharp smack land on the seat of his pants.
Yelping, he reached back to protect his posterior. "What was that for?" he asked, turning back to Mac.
The Highlander pointed a warning finger at him. "For the swearing," he told him, firmly. "Watch it, Tough Guy...or else."
Richie, despite the stern look, couldn't help but smile. "You got it, Big Guy," he told him, and then he hurried to the bathroom.
Just then, the lift sounded. He glanced to find Conner and Methos stepping off of it.
"Have a nice walk?" he asked his Clansman.
Conner nodded. "Very," he said, winking at Methos. "Good game?"
Mac smiled brightly. "The best," he answered, proudly.
Richie came out of the bathroom then.
"So...when's dinner. I'm starving!"
TBC...
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