anonymousnerdgirl prompted:

Adopted!verse: Bae's interests tend to the athletics but Gold can't play with him because of his limp. Belle tries to help them find a way to connect.

He was trying, Belle had to give him that. Arthur Gold had shown up to the basketball game – dressed in another one of his expensive suits, bless him – and sat to watch a group of ten and eleven year old boys run up and down a court in a poorly ventilated rec center. He'd even clapped when she had, though she strongly suspected he was mostly just following her lead. He didn't strike her as the basketball type, exactly.
They had both been a little uncomfortable at first with answering questions as to who he was to Bae, but Belle had decided early on not to provide too many details. If he wanted to explain the situation to more people, he was welcome to do so, but anyone who approached her asking who he was simply informed that he was Bailey's birth dad and left at that. No muss, no fuss, and soon enough they were left to the game and each other's company.
"You know, the coach has a crush on you," he whispered into her ear after halftime.
"Who, Michael?"
Michael Tillman was Bae's coach and a single parent himself. He was a widower with twins named Ava and Nicholas who were Bae's age.
He'd also been the first one to come up and introduce himself to the stranger who had accompanied Belle to the game this week.
"Yes, Michael," Gold said with a smirk. "He keeps eying me to see if I'm competition, and to make sure you're looking his way."
"That's ridiculous," she replied. But she knew he was right. Michael was constantly inviting Belle and Bae over for playdates and had asked her to coffee once.
"So you've never considered it?"
She looked at him sidelong, trying to gauge what he was really asking her.
"He's Bae's coach," she shrugged finally. "Bailey loves basketball and Michael is good with him. That's all."
She saw him wince a little, but pretended like she hadn't. She was becoming far too friendly with Arthur since he'd walked into her life with nothing but a birth certificate to recommend him earlier this week. At least he seemed just as disinclined to mention her kissing him as she was. That had been a lapse in judgment she'd not anticipated making, and didn't plan on making again.
"So what else does Bae like?"
It was said almost too casually, but there was a subtle note of longing in it that caught her attention fully.
"He likes a lot of things. He's into sports, mostly. But also video games, superheroes, LEGO, toys that shoot things, Jedi...he has a weird fondness for magic tricks."
She shrugged and he turned to face her.
"Magic tricks?"
"Yeah, I don't know where that came from," she replied. "He's ten, he likes ten year old boy things."
"You'll have to forgive me, but I've not spent much time around ten year old boys since I was one."
"Well, what do you do?"
"I own an antique shop," he explained. "And I live alone. I go to work, I come home. That's about it, really. Well, now I go to your house as well and apparently also to children's basketball games. I don't have many hobbies."
"Aww," Belle gave his arm a quick sympathetic squeeze. "Bae's a sweet kid, honestly. And he really, really wants to like you. This is a great start."
"I'm the oldest father here," he grumbled under his breath.
"Oh that's not true," she said, glancing around. "Well, maybe. But not by much. And I'm the youngest parent here, so it balances out. How old are you, anyway?"
"Forty-eight," he muttered, glancing around.
"That's not too old for this crowd," she replied. "Most of them are in their late thirties or early forties. You'll be fine."
"Everyone is looking at me."
"You're new and a little overdressed," she reminded him. "And they're curious about why there's a new man in my life, they all knew my situation."
"You really think I'm overdressed?"
"You're wearing a suit to a basketball game, perhaps a touch."
"What should I wear next time?"
It was kind of adorable how clueless he was, but Belle was determined not to let him think she was mocking him. She considered his question, trying to picture him in jeans and a t-shirt like the other dads before quickly disregarding it. Something about Arthur called for something a little bit more formal.
"Take your jacket off, for one thing," she finally said. "And the tie."
He nodded and did as instructed, folding both nicely before laying them in his lap.
"Okay, now unbutton your top two buttons and roll up your sleeves," she took in the effect. "Better make it three buttons."
The result was an instant improvement, he now looked like he'd just come from work rather than like he expected a meeting to break out in the middle of the game.
"I feel ridiculous," he muttered.
"But you look exactly like everyone else," she reminded him. "Next time you can wear khakis and a polo shirt, or khakis and one of your dress shirts. Just not a white one, I know you have other colors. I've seen them on you."
"Why Belle, I didn't know you cared," he feigned embarrassment, pressing a hand to his chest.
She rolled her eyes at him and he quickly returned to their companionable silence as they watched the game.
He really was trying, and she could respect him for that.

Gold was pretty sure this was the most awkward he'd felt since high school. He'd hoped that leaving the game would help relax him, but "pizza and ice cream afterward" had turned out to be a team event where Bae spent any moment he wasn't actively putting food into his mouth running around with other kids and begging his mother for quarters to put into an old Street Fighter II machine near the entrance.
Belle spent most of the time at their table, but the other mothers occasionally came around to scope him out and ask her subtle questions. And finally the basketball coach – Michael, Belle had called him – had come over and asked to speak to her privately at which point she'd excused herself to go stand somewhere else with him and talk in low tones.
Gold didn't begrudge Belle having a man interested in her, not at all. Their relationship was friendly but they were barely friends despite the unfortunate and wine-fueled kiss of the other night. And frankly, Michael had been there first. If anything, Gold was the interloper.
He just really wished he had anything to do but sit at a table, pick at rapidly cooling pizza, and watch his son playing. He was so intent on staring at Bae that he honestly didn't even notice Belle coming back over and reclaiming her original seat across from him in the booth.
"Wanna talk about it?" she asked, pulling a piece of pepperoni off her slice and popping it in her mouth.
"No, not really," he sighed.
"I know this hasn't been easy for you today," she continued. "I do. Thank you for coming though, I know this isn't really your thing."
"It's not that," he replied. "It's just...I can't do this stuff."
He nodded towards his cane and saw the flash of recognition in her eyes, and then the sympathy. The sympathy he'd hoped to avoid.
"I get along fine in life," he added. "I just can't be this kind of dad."
"He doesn't need 'this kind' of dad," she said, reaching a hand out to place comfortingly on one of his. "He's got you. We just need to find things you can do together."
"I know nothing about video games, I certainly don't know any magic tricks, and as for Jedi I haven't seen the movies since the '80s," he was pitying himself now, but she had provided a sympathetic ear so she could hardly begrudge him when the truth came out. "That really cuts down on our options."
"How late can you stay up at night?" she said, a smile flashing across her face.
"Beg pardon?"
"You heard me. Think you can be awake enough to drive at 3:30?"
"I...probably," he didn't sleep much usually anyway. "But I hardly see..."
"Bailey!" she yelled across the pizza place, gesturing for the boy to come over before she leaned over to Gold to whisper "just trust me."
"What's up, mom?" Bae was exuberant from the combination of simple carbohydrates and being near his friends and Gold found himself similarly on edge waiting to see what Belle had up her sleeve. He didn't want the child to feel obligated to spend time with him, after all.
"So your dad and I were talking," she nodded towards Gold on the word 'dad' and it squeezed his heart just a little every time she included him in the unit of their family. "You know how there's the new Spider-Man movie coming out next weekend?"
"Yeah..." the boy was looking between the two of them now anxiously.
"How would you like to go see it with your dad on opening night at midnight?"
"Wait, Thursday night instead of Friday?" Bae was practically bouncing now.
"Yup," she nodded and Gold felt himself begin to smile as he saw the sheer joy that was coursing through Bailey's body.
"Oh my God this is so cool!" Bae exclaimed. "You never let me go on Thursday nights! But wait, what about school the next day?"
"I think you can take one day off, don't you Arthur?" she winked at Gold then and he nodded dumbly in agreement.
If he'd thought Bae was excited before, the moment he heard 'no school' the child threw himself at his mother who giggled, but pried him off.
"Thank your dad, not me," she scolded him with a laugh.
"Thank you so much, Dad!" Bae chirped, tackling Gold in a hug so tight he wasn't sure how either were breathing, but he still had the presence of mind to hug the boy before Bae tore himself out of his arms. "I have to go tell Nick! He's going to be so jealous!"
The boy bounded off to rejoin his friends who greeted him with some combination of jealousy and excitement.
"You're welcome," Belle said smugly. "You just became the cool dad."
"It seems you're far more cunning than I gave you credit for," he replied, wishing the grin on his face would go away.
"Did you notice, though?"
"What?"
"He called you 'Dad.'"
The grin got wider, but this time he couldn't bring himself to care.