Why did this chapter take me so long to write and why did I specifically choose to quote Percy Jackson in it? The world may never know. After this chapter, I'm going to go back and re-edit the past ten chapters before pushing forward. Got some exciting stuff around the corner.
So, parenthood is hard. No one was exactly surprised by that. Immediately upon bringing Morio "Mo" Atlas Gearloose-Duck home (and making it as legal as possible through a process called having a lot of money, which coincidentally was also how Louie got away with murder), things became chaotic.
Louie and Mo were inseparable. Mo liked playing in his room with daddy and grandad and Uncle Lil Bulb and Mars but he was happiest in Louie's arms. At night, when he had nightmares, he called for papa. And papa was always there.
Louie didn't mind it much. He was glad to have a use, a child to hold, and picture books to read aloud. His accident had put a strain on most things but holding Mo was the one thing that was easy and good.
Everything else was kind of going to shit.
Louie and Boyd had at least one argument every day, the honeymoon period wearing off. Boyd's workload had tripled, basically, taking care of chores and cooking and making sure Louie and Mo had what they needed. And Boyd liked serving his little family but it ground his gears how much Louie fussed about being taken care of now that that was literally the easiest solution to most problems. Plus according to Louie, Boyd did the laundry wrong, and, well that just shouldn't be possible. Clothes were clothes and if your clothes couldn't all be washed in the same load on the same setting what was the fucking point? And there was so much laundry for Louie to get mad about now because Mo had acquired so many clothes so quickly and he wore more than one outfit a day, somehow.
Gyro helped as much as he could, already adoring his new grandson, but Gyro had a more important project he was working on, trying to build something that would help Louie walk again from salvaged parts of the Beta Jailbird armor. Physical therapy was a must for the man (as well as the real therapy he'd finally started attending again) but Gyro figured there was a way to make this easier via robotics and Scrooge McDuck had funded this project out of pocket.
Other people were trying their hardest to help too, but their help simply resulted in more laundry. Every single person they knew who had kids had shown up with hand-me-downs and old toys or books for Mo, who was already spoiled but never rotten. Mo didn't trust his new relatives quite yet, other than Gosalyn and grandad, but he loved anyone who brought him a book.
That was the best thing about Mo. He was small and scared and clung to Louie like a koala but he was pretty easy to please. All you really had to do was hold him and read him a story and occasionally give him Skittles. Louie had gotten really good at that. The reading, not the feeding the Skittles addiction. Boyd loved sharing words with his son, knowing the boy would grow up to be just as smart as his parents. And when his dads were busy Gyro would hold Mo with one arm while he worked on his project for Louie and ramble on about the science of robotics and engineering until Mo inevitably dozed off.
Some days were easier than others. Some days were really hard. And some days were just confusing.
Boyd wasn't always sure what he was doing as a dad, which became the most evident when he, Mo, and Mars, were the only ones home.
"Daddy!" Mo called through the house, as Boyd stuffed clothes into the washing machine. Seconds later the toddler came running, Boyd had just left him in his room for a moment while he dealt with the laundry, trying to get it out of the way before Louie came back from physical therapy where Gyro and Donald were currently assisting him.
"Hey, Mo! How are you doing, buddy?"
"What's that?" Mo asked, pointing at the washing machine.
"That's the washing machine, it's for cleaning clothes."
"Why?"
Boyd laughed a little, closing the machine and starting it before scooping up his son and moving him to his hip.
"Because when you wear clothes they get dirty."
Mo frowned, he didn't like that. From what he understood, things were better when they were clean, so he didn't like that things could get dirty just by being worn. That was too complicated for him.
"No."
Boyd was a little puzzled. "No what, bud?"
"No dirty."
Boyd nodded hesitantly, "That's why we wash them. So they can be clean. It's like a bath for clothes."
"Oh." Mo looked bored now. He tugged on Boyd's shirt, "Book please."
"Yeah, okay, sure." Boyd liked reading as much if not more than the next guy. Eventually, he would introduce Mo to the wonderful world of manga. Right now, he perused the books donated to them by Louie's family. All the niblings had been able to pull together a bounty of books from a wide age range. One book caught Boyd's attention, something from his own childhood.
"How about this one, Mo?" He held up the book and let Mo eye it and run his tiny fingers over the cover. And then Mo nodded vehemently.
"We'll start it before your nap and read a few chapters a day if you like it," Boyd said, which sounded like a good enough deal for Mo, though the nap part seemed sus he liked that he was being guaranteed reading time with daddy every day until the big book was done.
"Read!"
Boyd laughed, "Okay, okay, I'm reading."
He flipped open Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief and began to read.
"Chapter 1, I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher. Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."
Boyd kept his tone light, bringing one of his favorite books from childhood to life for his own kid, finishing up chapter 2 (Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death) as Louie was coming home.
"Alright," Boyd whispered, tucking a captivated Mo into bed with a kiss and a stuffed elephant almost as big as Mo, "nap time. Maybe we can read more later."
Mo whined a little but quickly dozed off, and Boyd went to go greet his husband and deal with the wet laundry he'd forgotten about while he was reading.
"Hey, how was PT?"
"Fine," Louie said dismissively, seeming a bit tired himself, "You know."
Boyd didn't know, because Louie hadn't been telling him anything, but he kept his mouth shut on that matter.
"How's Mo?" Louie quickly changed the subject, not liking to linger on the topic of himself and his injury.
"Doing great. Mo and I were just reading and now he's taking a nap. And I'm doing laundry."
Louie graciously didn't say anything about the laundry that Boyd was probably doing wrong, choosing instead to focus on the other half of Boyd's sentence.
"What were you guys reading?"
"I started reading the first Percy Jackson book to him. He really likes it so far."
"Don't you think that book is a little too old for him?" Louie asked.
"Well, it was in his room, and I read it when I was a kid, and he likes it." Boyd already doubted himself as a parent enough. He was getting a little tense as Louie questioned him. Louie was already such a good dad. Boyd couldn't help feeling a little prickly when Louie even implied that Boyd was being a bad dad. Louie probably didn't mean it like that but Boyd was just so nervous and on edge. He knew that they really just needed to slow down and talk about all the tension but they'd both been so busy-
"Hey," Boyd said, "do you have a minute to talk?"
"Uh... Yeah. Should you move the laundry over first?"
"...Right."
A few minutes later, Louie and Boyd convened in the living room with Mars curled up in Louie's lap. Boyd fidgeted with the watch Louie had gotten him, unsure how to start this conversation.
"What did you want to talk about?" Louie asked, offering a tentative smile.
"It's been hard lately," Boyd said, taking a deep breath.
"Yeah… I'm sorry about that."
"I know you are," Boyd said, "I know you say you are. But you're not doing what you can to make things easier."
Louie's eyes flashed with surprise that melted into anger, "Excuse me? I know there's a lot I can't do right now- I don't feel great about that either! But I've been doing my best for you and Mo and the rest of this damn family."
"I know! You're doing your best- you're always doing your best, Louie. You know what I actually want from you? For you to give me half of that. If you would slow down and let me take care of you and Mo and not complain when I do the laundry- that would make everything so much easier."
"So you want me to play dead and let you do everything for me? I'm not gonna be useless in my own home!" Louie's eyes were still so angry.
"You're not useless, Louie! Like you said, you're doing everything you can for Mo. And he loves you for that. You're a great dad. I'm not trying to stop you from being there for him. But you get so defensive when I try to be there for you as if I didn't promise to love you and take care of you for the rest of my life."
That seemed to reach Louie a little.
"I love you," Louie said, "And I'm trying. But I'm still getting used to being taken care of like this."
"And I'm still getting used to all of this. I'm just asking you not to argue with me about the laundry. It would just make things easier."
"You do laundry wrong, though."
Boyd let out a frustrated sigh, "That's beside the point, honey."
"I can show you how to do laundry, it's not that hard-"
"What if we got a maid?" Boyd asked suddenly.
"Hm. We could think about that."
"There are a lot of people in this world, Louie. They want to help you. Please, please let them. Please let me."
"I'm trying," Louie sighed.
Boyd sighed as well, "Me too."