It wasn't hard to hear the creaking of wood in the dead of night.
With everything silent all around them, Tulio and Miguel were awoken almost instantly by the sound.
"That's… not us." Miguel whispered in confusion, glancing around as thought to definitely check, "Nope, definitely not us."
The creaking continued.
"It's Eugene…" Tulio eventually groaned under his breath, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion, "… why did you insist upon putting some fancy screen between us?"
"He needs his privacy."
"He is a troublemaker!"
Miguel was silent… it was true after all. Even if he was only 3 years old, Eugene was starting to build up quite the reputation for being a mischief maker… he was going to run circles around the guards one day.
At the moment however, he was trying to run circles around them, which usually involved playing when it was actually time for bedtime.
Just before Tulio could get out of bed to scold the toddler, there was a yelp and a loud bang, a very similar sound to someone hitting the ground… hard.
"Eugene!"
The pair of them were out of the bed before Eugene could start crying, throwing aside the screen and staring down at the toddler.
Eugene stared up at them tearfully, hands rubbing at his head, which was slowly starting to bruise.
Just before Tulio could say, "And that's why we told you not to bounce on the bed," Miguel pushed past him, already lifting Eugene into his arms and holding him close, bouncing him up and down to try and soothe him.
"You're okay…" he was whispering, shaking his head when Tulio rolled his eyes at him, clearly wanting Miguel to at least try and scold the toddler.
He was disappointed.
"Let me have a look." Miguel gently pulled Eugene's hand away from his head, "Ooooh, it's all red… maybe we should have someone have a look at it?"
"Miguel…" Tulio whined, making his way over and examining his son's head himself, "… doctors cost money, money which we don't have! It's just a bit red, he'll be fine!"
"But what if- "
"- Miguel. He's going to be fine, okay?"
Glancing back at Eugene, Miguel couldn't ignore the fact that the three-year-old was now giggling merrily to himself, getting his fingers twisted in Miguel's bed clothes.
He didn't even seem to remember the fact that he'd just been screaming less than five minutes ago.
"Oh…" Miguel smiled sheepishly, "… yeah, I think he's going to be alright."
…..
"You're flying! You're flying!"
Tulio tried not to groan in annoyance. With the rain pouring down from the heavens outside, they were confirmed indoors for a while… very few customers during rainy days.
The good thing was, they had enough money to last them a couple of days easily.
The bad thing was, that Miguel and Eugene were staring to lose their minds from being cooped up like pigeons.
Take now for example… Miguel held Eugene above his head and was running around the small room, pretending as if Eugene was actually flying.
Why he couldn't fly quietly, Tulio would never know.
"Miguel please!" he piped up over the sound of his son's giggling and Miguel's whooping, "Isn't there a quieter game you can play? Who can stay quiet the longest maybe?"
With Eugene still giggling, Miguel slowly brought him back into his arms and smirked over at his partner. "I think you're allergic to fun sometimes."
"No, I'm allergic to loud noise when I'm trying to work!" Tulio graoned, burying his face in his hands, "He has a lot of toys, make him play with them!"
"But he doesn't want to play with them!"
"Miguel!"
"Tulio!"
The pair stared at each other for a few moments, before Eugene clambered onto the larger bed and started to bounce up and down.
"Didn't you learn your lesson already?"
Eugene just giggled.
"How can you have so much energy… still?"
"He's three Tulio… what did you expect?"
Tulio didn't answer, instead rolling over and burying his face in the bedding, groaning loudly.
