Yaaas guys, we got RE news! Posting the village chapter work x'D granted all we got was the VR compatibility for 8, but I will absolutely take confirmation of REmake 4 as a win hehe. Here's hoping for more good news on the 13th!
Sorry this chapter is late. I also got a bit of good news story wise, hehe. Chapters 1 through 52 [minus the village chapter] have been scrubbed by a beta reader! Typos? Gone. Tense? Consistent. Punctuation? Proper. This is why the story dropped roughly 7k words QVQ It hurt my soul, but they made a good point about using too many fluff words like 'a bit' throughout those 52 chapters. So fluff words were removed, and the sentences sound more confident now. Next will be chapters 53 through 78. I'm not sure when that will be updated, but I'm trying not to put pressure on them since it's a large project. The goal is that the whole story will be scrubbed up and beautiful =v=
Song Suggestion: As It Was by Harry Styles
Disclaimer: I own nothing. RE belongs to CapCom, long may they reign.
Another month meant the renewal of routines. Emma left for New York on the 1st, around the same time that Chris and Rose went off on another mission. By late into the day on Wednesday the 10th, the two were finally on their way home. Chris glanced over to Rose, only taking his eyes off the rain soaked roads for a second as the silent teen stared out the window with her ear buds in.
There wasn't much room for talking, with her ear's plugged like that. The agent heaved a tired sigh and simply focused on getting them to the warmth and comfort of home. Away from the nightmarish building he'd grown to loath. Streetlights illuminated the path along the various streets until they made their way to the shelter of the garage.
As soon as the engine turned off, Rose was more than happy to get out of the car and start heading inside, with Chris not far behind her. "We're home!" she shouts over the sound of her wailing brother.
"Welcome home!" Emma calls back as she quickly gets up to go and check on them. "How was your trip, did everything go okay?"
"It was boring," Rose grumbled with a scrunched up frown. "Why's Pier's screaming so loud?"
"Oh, he's just cranky that Duke is outside," As Emma replied, Rose made her way around the corner to check. Sure enough, Piers was pressing his face against the glass sliding door trying to will himself outside where a mud covered duke was waiting outside with sad, doughy eyes. "It will just be a little longer. I need to get dinner on the table, then I can take care of washing Duke. Can you help me out and set the table?"
Ugh, she just got home. Can't she just sit and rest for 5 minutes? "Fine." Rose said all the same and stormed off to do what she was told. The sooner dinner was on the table, the sooner Piers would stop screaming.
Emma stayed in the privacy that the small hallway with Chris. "How's she doing?" She whispered only loud enough for him to hear, though her eyes pleaded to hear the same answer. Everything was fine, no complications and things were 'boring'.
"Fine. She's alright... The director's plan seems to be working," Chris admits with a solemn expression. "The extra time to focus on practicing her marksmanship and physical combat, is causing Rose to steadily improving. She's starting to keep up with us. In its own right it's rather impressive but," he paused for a moment to search for the right words. "I'm not sure if I should be proud of her... or ashamed of myself."
Emma reached to gently hold Chris's hand before standing on her toes to give him a kiss. "We're doing our best... Right?" Hopeless silence filled the gaps between the toddler's tantrum as the two remained quiet. "Have you heard anything from Rebecca?"
"Same as always," Chris replied. "She's getting closer, but she doesn't know how far she has left. She's working on a puzzle where she doesn't know how many pieces she has and all of them are blank."
As the two continued to speak, Rose finished setting up the table. To her great annoyance, her PARENTS weren't HELPING. There's a screaming baby. What were they doing that's so important? "This is ridiculous..." Rose muttered under her breath as she made her way from the dining room table over to the couch to flop into the seat and attempt to ignore the ear-splitting screeching.
This was a task that was easier said than done and after only a minute, Rose shifted to peek over the back of the couch. Sure enough, Piers was bouncing in place trying to get the sliding glass door to budge, with no success thanks to the lock. "Hmmm," Rose hummed under her breath before flicking her finger as her magnetic powers kicked in and flipped the lock.
What was once impossible suddenly became possible, and with all the might of a near two-year-old, Piers managed to shove the sliding glass door open. The rain and mud soaked Duke happily hurried inside and shook himself dry, flinging water and debris from his digging everywhere. While this was highly entertaining for Piers, the jingling of Duke's collar and the sudden lack of screaming, quickly alerted both Chris and Emma to the pooches break in.
"Oh gosh. Duke, no," Emma Chided with a mortified expression as she saw the mess. "Outside."
That was a command that Duke did not feel particularly inclined to obey. Instead, he lowered his ears and tail and tried to quickly sulk away and hide.
"Nonono Not on the carpet!" Chris chimed in as he hurries over to try and corner the dog, and Duke ran for it.
"I'll try and cut him off," Emma said only for Duke to barrel past her.
"How did he get in?" Chris asked as the two focused on trying to corral the dog into the downstairs powder room at the least.
"Piers must have learned how to open doors on his own," Emma continued to try and help but duke was hard to grab.
"GREAT! I'm so excited my child is learning new things," Chris replied with forced enthusiasm to press down the frustration and anger as the two managed to get duke into the powder room.
"Well, it's a better announcement of that skill than last time," Emma says as she leans on the door to force it to close behind the pooch.
Rose contently watched this chase scene unfold with a laughing grin until a realization dawned on her. "Wait a second," she's the only other kid they have. "What happened last time?"
Chris and Emma froze up upon hearing that question and stare at each other while silently trying to agree on an answer. "Ask again when you're older," Chris said before making his way back to the kitchen to close the sliding door.
Rose raised an eyebrow. "How much older?"
"When you're 18," He stated as Emma made her way back to the kitchen to start collecting cleaning supplies.
"14 years?!" Rose dramatically flopped back on to the couch. "I'll be dead by then!"
The response caused Chris and Emma to quickly stare at each other once more. Who told her that? She was maturing... Did she figure that out on her own? How long has she known?
The lack of response was not what Rose was expecting. She figured they'd laugh or scold her for making a crass joke like that, but when she sat up to see if they were just quietly laughing to themselves, they just looked. Sad. "... What?"
"It's... Nothing." Chris lied and accepted some of the cleaning supplies from Emma. "Can you help your brother into his seat and start having dinner? Emma and I are going to be busy cleaning."
"Where is he anyways?" Rose asks as she moved to stand up and look around.
Emma leaned and looked around as well, seeing the same thing as Rose. Piers were nowhere to be seen. "Oh my gosh!" Emma shouts as the dots lined up, and she quickly ditched the cleaning supplies she was holding and hurried to open the sliding door, so she could run outside. Sure enough, a minute or so later, a rain soaked Emma walked in carrying a happy mud covered toddler. "Well, It looks like both of my boys are getting baths."
"I thought we child-proofed the locks," Chris says as he stared at the small mud monster that was supposedly his son.
"Yeah, not enough apparently," Emma says as she tried to stay balanced and closed the door with her foot. "Can you help me get Duke up to the bathroom upstairs? I'll just wash them both at the same time..."
"Sure," Chris replies while trying to figure out how this was going to work. The stairs were carpeted as well and that would be a nightmare to clean.
"Sooo. I'm eating by myself?" Rose asked with a poor attempt at a forced smile.
Chris made his way over to the powder room and carefully opened the door just enough to get inside. When he walked back out he had picked up Duke leaving the large dog's legs to dangle in the air. "I'll be down in a few minutes, You can eat by yourself or wait for me." Chris stated as he made his way over to the stairs while duke kicked his legs, as if he was swimming through the air.
Duke's squirming made the trip up the stairs much more difficult, but eventually Chris managed to get upstairs and into the bathroom, where Emma had started washing Piers.
"Thanks," Emma says with a worn out expression while trying to focus on the task at hand. "Can you put troublemaker number two in the water?"
Chris carefully does so. Duke was not thrilled to be in the tub, but sure enough he sat in place while pouting. "Are you okay?"
"Fine..." Emma replied, but Chris clearly didn't buy that. "Do you think someone told her?" Emma whispered, which caused Chris to pause.
"I don't know..." He admits. "I don't think so. She has trends when she's upset, and she hasn't shown any signs of that. I think she just heard me make one too many jokes like that, and she was copying it," Chris shifts to sit on the bathroom floor next to Emma. "Rose is smart, she is going to put two and two together on her own eventually..."
"Should we tell her?" Emma asks as her voice cracked in her attempt to stay quiet. "Even if we say she's technically 14 that's still so young to have to face this kind of situation... What would we even say to her? We've tried everything we can think of. We're running out of options? Sorry?"
Chris leaned back to rest against the bathroom wall while exhaling. They had hoped to have an answer by now. Some good news to give first, but, that didn't seem like it was going to happen. "We're going to have to tell her eventually. She'll resent us if she finds out on her own..." He states, while keeping an eye on the two troublemakers in the tub. "But we still have a bit more time. Let's give Rebecca as much of it as we can... However, Rose should understand her condition in full before she goes to school. I'll see if we can schedule something with the doctors next year."
Emma nods. "Alright. That sounds fair," Emma leaned back to give Chris a quick kiss before he moved to get up.
"I should head back down, so she's not eating by herself," He says before doing exactly that.
'*'*'*'*'
Despite the chaos that came with Chris and Rose's return, life went on, The mud was cleaned up, and Friday evening announced the beginning of the weekend. Rose excitedly smiled while waiting by the door to the garage. "Come ooon you guys are going to be late!"
footsteps could be heard coming down the steps as Chris chuckled to himself. "We're coming. Sheesh, you really want us out of the house, huh?"
Well yeah. The sooner they left, the sooner they'd come back, and the sooner she'd get the money she needed for the concert ticket. "I'm just making sure you guys remember, is all," Rose replied while avoiding eye contact as her parents made their way over to the door.
The rather blatant lie caused Emma to chuckle. Looks like Rose picked that up from her. "We were already on our way, we didn't forget while we were changing."
Chris pat his pockets to check he had his wallet and keys. "We'll be home in three hours. If anything comes up, call."
"Okay, okay, get going already," Rose shooed the two off before crossing her arms.
"Goodbye," Chris announced and closed the garage door behind them. A thud was heard shortly after and the tail end of a long drawn out 'no' from a very upset Piers who was trying and failing to open the door.
"This doesn't get any easier," Emma admits with a quiet sigh as she moved to get into the car all the same.
"Yeah," Chris agreed as he got into the driver's seat and closed the door. "Hold on, I thought he figured out how to open doors?"
"Maybe it's just the sliding door?" Emma suggested with a shrug.
Chris bobbed his head as he got the car started and pressed the garage door opener. "Maybe," or he had help.
"Gary is set to watch the house, right?" Emma asks as she double-checked her seat belt.
"Yep. Just when I figured he'd finally get a break from that," Chris admits while waiting for the garage door to open before putting the car into reverse. "It was one thing to leave her alone on the BSAA campus... Guess he still has a few more nights of babysitting left."
"We really should get him a gift, he's been a saint," Emma chuckles while trying to think of what would be appropriate to give.
"He's doing his job," Chris countered. "He's already well compensated."
"Ooh, so it was his job to help us out when you were thousands of miles away, and I had the results of Pier's ultrasound?" Emma asked, unimpressed. "And there was the time he made sure I knew you were in the hospital, and watched the kids so I could go get you," She listed. "And the time-"
"Okay I get it," Chris said conceding the fight. The guy ASKED for the job. He wanted a more active role without combat, and it doesn't get more active than doing surveillance on a sentient bioweapon child. Giving him a gift for doing said job he asked for seemed strange, but it was not worth an argument. "What do you want to do?"
"I donno," Emma admitted while thinking it over. "Does Gary have kids? Maybe we can offer to baby sit for him sometime?"
Does Gary have kids? Uh... "I have no idea," Chris replied while focusing on getting them to their destination.
"How do I not know this? I used to talk to him all the time," Emma asks while holding the side of her head.
"You beat him in the face with a broom," Chris points out.
Dear lord, she was learning some of Chris's bad habits. "Would a bottle of wine be unprofessional?"
Chris laughed at that. "Yeah, that would go great. Hey, thanks for watching our kids, here's some alcohol to drown out the trauma."
"I'm trying," Emma laughs in return.
"I know, I know," Chris replied through his remaining snickers. "I'll see what I can find out on Monday. Okay?"
"Deal," She agreed and from the conversation grew more passive and relaxed.
Their drive eventually lead them to a small stripe mall a few miles down the way. Various store signs announced the vendors that filled the space. Pet grooming, a tattoo parlor, a florist among other signs. The two eventual pulled into a parking space and made their way over to one of the doors that similarly had a sign over it that displayed the outline of a graceful dancer alongside a flourished font that was barely legible.
"Welcome," Greeted a rather enthusiastic woman. "You must be my 7 o clock appointment. Mr and Mrs Redfield? It's so good to meet you both in person."
"That's us," Chris confirmed.
"Thanks for being flexible with our schedule," Emma adds with a grateful smile.
"Of course, it's no problem at all and completely understandable. Work doesn't wait for weddings," The instructor motions for the two to follow her into the studio. "I did get to look over the song you sent over. I wasn't sure if you have a particular routine or step you want to use, but I took the liberty of looking up a few options, just in case."
"Oh thank god,"
"We have no idea what we're doing."
Hearing the two responses caused the woman to laugh. "That is very common, I promise you both you're in good hands." The instructor stopped to stand in the middle of the studio with the two. "Alright let's start with the basics first. Hold hands on one side. You'll put your other hand on her back and Mrs. Redfield if you'd be so kind to put your other hand on his shoulder, here."
It took the two a few moments, but they worked together and followed the instructions provided. To the instructor's amusement, the two seemed about as stiff as board.
"It's a good start," She praised before circling the two. "You'll want to make a slight adjustment here, though," she adds before gently adjusting their held hands. "You want to make sure you're both at enough of an angle so that your wrists are straight. If your wrist looks like a ninety-degree angle, you're not doing it right."
"Right," Chris shifts and the two correct their stance enough to mostly avoid the condemned ninety-degree angle.
"Have the two of you danced together before?" the instructor asks as she goes over to a speaker set up to start some practice music.
"Once or twice," Emma answers this time.
"And how did that go?"
The two stared at each other for a moment before looking back at the instructor. "It was, well synchronized chaos?" Emma replied with a questioning tone and an attempt at a smile.
"That's about accurate yeah, Fun chaos though," Chris agreed.
"True,"
"I see," The instructor replies while smiling to herself as she noticed the two starting to relax. "We'll try and focus on adding a little more structure then."
And so they did. For the hour they had with the instructor, the couple started out with a few warm-ups to make sure they were moving in time with each other before moving into a more structured routine. It certainly wasn't something they'd be able to learn in one go, but they still had a few months left for more lessons and time to practice in between... Oh gosh, they only had a few months left...
They were a little behind schedule, but nothing they couldn't recover from. The venue was set along with catering and a cake. The dress was at the tailor. Flowers were fine. If they end up looking like dorks because they missed a step while dancing because they waited a little too long for classes, that wouldn't be the end of the world. so, long as they were both there and happy.
These thoughts along with others filled their conversation on the way home from the seemingly short hour long lesson.
"We might be in a bit of trouble," Chris said under a chuckle as he parked the car in the garage.
"Pssh, we'll be fine as long as everyone's glass is full and plates are mounded with food," Emma offers as consolation. "They'll be too busy to notice." She chuckles as she got out of the car at the same time as Chris. "That or I'll just cover your feet with my dress, so they can't tell."
"Don't" Chris replied while smiling as they made their way to the door to the house. "I do not need the additional stress and reason to trip."
"Oh alright, I guess I'll be nice," Emma opened the door to find a quiet home waiting for them. "No screaming, that could be a good sign."
"Could be," Chris closed the door behind them as they walked further into the house and looked around. They weren't immediately greeted by anyone. "Maybe they're asleep?"
"Maybe" Emma led the way up the stairs and stopped at the top step as a soft smile replaced her poorly masked concern.
Rose was sitting in the hallway Playing on her phone while resting her back against the wall by the open door to Pier's room where the lights were off.
"Hey," Chris says to announce their presence, which causes Rose to jolt before looking over.
Rose motioned for both of them to be quiet before getting up and walking over to them so she could whisper. "Hey, I didn't hear you come in. How'd it go?"
"It went fine," Chris says before digging out his wallet and pulling out a $20 bill that he'd picked up earlier in the week for this particular occasion. "What are you doing in the hallway?"
Rose accepted the twenty dollars as soon as it was offered, but hesitated to answer the question at first. "Piers was sleepy, but he kept getting out of bed if I went downstairs." she shifted her stance to try and get more comfortable. "I figured if I stayed in the hallway, I could still use my phone without keeping him up."
"I see," Emma said with a sense of pride. Her daughter was growing up to be kind. Even if there was an emotional outburst every so often. "Pier's is lucky to have such a sweet older sister."
"Sooo," Rose looked between the money and her parents, "since I have enough money to buy the ticket... Can I go to the concert with Summer?" If there was ever a time to ask for anything, it was after being praised.
Chris and Emma smiled knowingly at each other before Chris spoke up. "We've had some time to think it over, and we talked to Summer's parents as well." He paused for some fun dramatic affect, though Rose would likely disagree with that description. "If this is something you really want to go to, we'd be okay with making that your birthday gift. We'd buy the ticket, take care of transportation, food and such along the way." Rose's face lit up as she heard the offer. "and I'd be going with to look after the two of you." Chris explained.
"Is that last part a requirement?" Rose asked and grimaced.
"Yes," Emma bluntly stated, supporting Chris.
Rose thought it over. On one hand, she'd get to go to the concert, and she'd have money during their vacation to visit auntie Claire later in the month. Buuut she has to deal with Chris sulking behind her the whole time and telling her that fun isn't allowed. on the other. No concert. no fun. but still have a handful of cash for vacation time, and she'd get other presents for her birthday.
Who was she kidding this wasn't a hard choice. "I really wanna go to the concert."
"Happy birthday then, We'll get that squared away,"
An excited happy squeal cut off any further response from Chris as Rose quickly hugged the two and started to dance around in the hallway in her excitement.
'*'*'*'*'
Rose had a hard time containing her excitement. Saturday was full of excited questions, pestering and rambling about how much fun she was going to have. This excitement continued well into Sunday as well.
"Do you think they'll notice if I wave at them?" Rose asks while trying, and failing to sit still on the couch next to Emma.
"I donno Rosey. I can be hard to see from a stage," Emma replies with a distant tone as she tried to focus on her computer. If they were going to let her go to this concert, she really needed to focus on getting this freelance project done, so she could get paid.
"Maybe I could bring a sign or something,"
"you're not bringing a sign," Emma quickly shot that idea down while internally pouting. Any other time she'd be thrilled that Rose wanted to spend time with her and talk, but she to focus. "Have you talked to summer about it?"
"Yeah! we're gonna try and dress up all cool and stuff, and it's gonna be amazing!" Rose happily giggled and got up to start pacing around. "It's going to be inside, right? do you think it will be warm or cold? should I bring a sweater?"
"Rose, sweetie," Patience. breathe. "I have no idea, you should go and check the weather. see what to expect."
"Okay," Rose happily sat back down on the couch next to Emma and started poking at her phone. "Hmm well the weather would only help if it's outside. unless maybe that will determine if they have the AC on or not. but it's going to be August and August gets pretty warm."
Emma closed her laptop and put it down on the coffee table. "You know I just remembered that I need to go move the laundry I will be right back. Can you keep an eye on Piers while I do that?"
"Kay," Rose continued to poke at her phone as Emma got up and walked away.
While Emma did go downstairs and into the basement, she went the opposite direction of the laundry room and instead knocked on the door to Chris's study.
"Rose you should talk to Emma she knows more about Music,"
Oh really. Emma opened the door and peeked through. "Not Rose," She announced before walking in and closing the door behind her.
"Oh," Probably should have checked first. Oooh he was in trouble. "Hey Em. Dear. Darling. Love of mine." He listed off any term of endearment he could think of that might get him out of trouble while closing his laptop with a forced smile.
"She's driving you nuts too?"
"Yes."
Emma tried not to laugh at the blunt response. She couldn't even blame him, she was in the same boat. "Okay well I need you to do me a favor," Emma says through her chuckling. "Only one of us can hide at a time and I need to focus on this freelance gig, or we're going to go from having a very excited teenager to a very upset teenager."
Chris winced as he could see where this was going. "You need me to watch them?"
"Please," Emma asked though Chris was already getting up.
"Alright," He agreed as he made his way over so he could give her a peck. She didn't chew him out for pulling the 'talk to your mother' escape route so, he could try and help. "There's a park down the road. Piers is old enough at this point to run around for an hour or two. I'll take them there and see if that wears them out. Is that enough time?"
"Thank you," Emma replies with an enamored smile. "Yeah, that's plenty." She just needed to wrap up this project, and she couldn't do that when she was getting interrupted every five minutes.
Chris opened the door for them and locked it up after they left. as they walked, he checked his phone.
Sunday July 14th, 11:43 AM.
"Have the kids had lunch?" Chris asks as they made their way to the stairs.
"Not yet, it's a bit early," Emma admits.
it was somewhat early for them. "Okay, I'll try and pack something in case they get hungry while we're out," He adds before the two went their separate ways.
Emma went back to her laptop and sat down next to Rose, while Chris went to the kitchen to collect a few lunch boxes. Deli meat sandwiches were prepared and cut in half before being stored in plastic baggies. Another bag that held a handful of chips was added to each lunch box shortly after, along with a bag of carrot sticks. Other quick to pack snacks filled the space between the healthier meal items, a bottle of water and a juice box.
Once all three lunch boxes were closed and collected, Chris made his way over to the living room so he could pick up Piers. "Hey Rose," He cut off the chatty teenager who was in the middle of her 12th question since Emma returned. "Pack it up, we're heading out."
"What? Now? Why?" Rose asks in disbelief at the sudden demand.
"We're going to the park. Yes now. Because I said so," Chris listed off his answers in return before walking away towards the shoe shelves so he could help Piers get ready to leave.
"Can't I stay here?" Rose asks while looking between the two. This was so unfair! They didn't give her any notice at all!
"Nope. Get your shoes on," He replies as he put Piers down. "Piers, can you put your shoes on?"
The toddler nods while saying a confident "yes" and carefully sat down to try and complete the assigned objective. He can take shoes off, so how hard can it be to put them on?
Rose stared at her compliant brother with an expression of utter betrayal. Of course, he was excited about this, he wasn't even two. He didn't know any better.
"Either put your shoes on or you're going barefoot," Chris states as he kneels to help with the last step of getting Pier's shoes on.
Challenge accepted. With that, Rose walked past Chris to go and get into the car barefoot.
Chris rolled his eyes at that, but snuck her sneakers into the day bag by the door, before shouldering it. Despite the act of rebellion, Chris counted that as a partial win, since she did still get in the car. He made sure Piers was properly buckled in, and that the day bag and lunch boxes were properly tucked away. After that, Chris got into the driver's seat and started the process of taking the kids to the park.
Thanks to the fact that it was a bright, sunny clear skied Sunday, the parking lot for the park was packed. This meant a very long walk across hot rocky pavement, which would normally be fine. If you put shoes on.
"Hot. hotohothot hot!" Rose repeated while Quickly sprinting from one patch of grass that divided the parking spots, to another.
"Still think it was a good idea to leave without your shoes?" Chris called ahead while holding Pier's hand and walking at the small child's pace.
"You're being mean!" Rose pointed out with a soured frown.
Kinda yeah, but hopefully now she'll learn not to leave without her shoes just to spite him. Two could play that game, and he's had a lot more practice. With that thought, Chris shook his head. He'd give Rose her shoes once they found a place to sit.
Rose continued to hurry ahead of Chris and Piers and ran over to the playground, only to stop and stare at it with a horrified expression. There were swings, seesaws slides, monkey bars, and a few things she didn't know the names of, but all of it was surrounded by wood chips. Splintery, awful, painful to step on, wood chips. Rose looked around and grumbled to herself.
Eventually, Chris and Piers caught up. As soon as they did, Chris let go of Piers' hand and the child happily ran onto the playground to explore. "I think there's a space over there where we can set up," Chris offers before gently nudging Rose to signal her to follow him.
"Whatever," Rose quietly mumbled, and followed Chris over to the spot he mentioned.
Chris sat down and put down the day bag along with the three lunch boxes. After doing so, he started digging around in the day bag and pulled out Rose's sneakers. "Do you want these?"
Rose hesitated, but after heaving a defeated sigh, she nods. "yeah."
"Next time when I ask you to do something. Do it. I get that I'm the mean dad that doesn't let you do anything fun, but when I give instructions, it's for a reason." He chides as Rose sat down and worked on getting her shoes on.
As much as she kind of hated to admit it. She did sort of want to try playing with the different park equipment. She'd always seen pictures of these things but she never got to try them before. Not that she remembered, at least. "Did we ever go to the park when I was Piers' age?"
"Not really," Chris replied in an attempt to dodge the question.
"... Cause I'm different?"
The question left Chris unsure how to reply for a few moments. "Because I didn't know what I was doing." Chris says instead as he moves to give Rose a gentle pat on the back. "I'll be here, get going."
"Kay," Rose replied with an attempt at a smile before hurrying off to try and find what she wanted to play with first.
Chris tried to key and eye on both kids from his seat on the grass. It didn't take long before he had to step into action as Piers found a spring animal and tried to climb on it. His motor skills were definitely getting better but at this rate, in his attempt to get on the plastic panda on a spring, he was going to climb the whole way over and end up falling on his head.
Seeing this as an inevitable outcome, if he didn't act, Chris quickly got up and jogged over to grab onto Piers' overalls to keep him from falling. "That one is a little too big for you," Chris said, but as soon as he put Piers back on the ground, the child immediately started to try climbing onto the panda again. "I only have myself to blame for your stubborness." He muttered under his breath. This time when he picked up Piers, Chris helped the toddler sit on the spring animal correctly.
Piers was delighted as a wide grin formed. It The toddler flailed his leg to try and get it to move. "Go go," but, it only barely budged. "Goooo," the toddler whined in frustration, as it wasn't working the same for him as it was for the other bigger kids. Piers turned to look at Chris with sad watery eyes. "Help."
Oh for heaven's sake. Chris frowned, knowing well enough if he actually sat on that thing, he'd break it. those were made for kids that were 100 pounds or less and he was well over 200. There's no way that will end well. And yet a moment later Chris found himself standing over the back of the spring toy, basically doing a wall squat without the wall and gently pretend to ride the toy with Piers to get the dumb thing to move.
"Weee!" Piers happily cheered though giggles as the toy sprang to life.
Chris did not plan on getting a workout today. This was supposed to be his rest day, not leg day. Kid, please get bored of this quickly, he mentally prayed and eventually that prayer was answered. Piers carefully climbed off the panda and toddled as quickly as his legs would carry him over to the swings, where Rose was trying to get moving.
"Do none of my kids know how to play at a park?" Chris asks in disbelief that Rose was similarly struggling. This was his fault, wasn't it... He tried not to think about that too much as he followed behind Piers.
"Rawr!" Piers hurried over and grabbed on to Rose's leg
"No, Piers, no rawr. I'm trying to swing," Rose chides as the toddler looked up at her.
"Yes,"
Rose stared down at Piers with a deadpan expression. it was hard to be mad at him when she could tell there was not a single thought going on between his eyes.
"Alright kiddo, leave your sister alone," Chris says as he reached down to pick up Piers and put the child down in the bucket swing next to Rose. Chris waited there and occasionally gave the very stuck piers a gentle push to keep him entertained. However, he continued to watch Rose through an occasional glance. It didnt take a psychologist to tell she was getting frustrated. "Do you want me to give you a push too?"
"huh?" Rose looked over with a confused expression.
"Do you want me to give you a push to get you started? it helps." Chris repeats.
Rose remained silent a bit longer as she continued to try and fail. Before long she spoke up. "Fine."
Chris reached over and similarly gave Rose a nudge to get her swing to move. "tuck your feet under while you're going back, then point your toes forward when you're moving forward. once you get into a rhythm, you'll get going." He coached.
It took some time. for a good ten to fifteen minutes, Chris would switch between pushing Rose's swing and Piers. Luckily for Chris, the captive audience feature of the bucket swing helped immensely with getting enough time to teach rose how to get a swing going by herself.
by the twenty-minute mark, he heard a frustrated grumble from Rose. "I don't get it. I don't think I can do it."
Chris waited until Rose made it back. "... You've been doing it on your own for the last five minutes,"
Hearing that caused Rose to quickly look around. sure enough she swung forwards and once she reached the top she tucked her legs and started to fall back and once again when she reached the peak she noticed that she wasn't getting pushed. When did that stop? "I'm doing it!" she happily cheered at the realization.
"Try not to wiggle around" Chris chided in a panic as her swing swayed from her excitement.
Hearing the panic in his tone just made her nervous as she realized there was a key component of the lesson that was missing. "How do I get it to stop?!"
"Stop moving your legs, it will slow down on its own," Chris replied but it was easy to see that she was getting antsier as the swing continued to sway. She was going to hit a pole at this rate. Chris moved to stand behind Roses swing, taking a solid hit to the chest but in doing so, he managed to grab on and force it to stop. He coughed a few times as he tried to get air back into his lungs but he eventually caught his breath. "There we got. I got ya. all better." He said while stretching a bit and going back to Piers to stop his swing with much less fanfare. " I think we're done with the swings for now."
"Thanks," Rose says with an appreciative tone and a guilty smile.
Chris simply fluffed her hair in response. "No worries, I got your back."
That was a fun one ^U^ next up we have a bonus chapter for vacation with Auntie Claire. This next one is going to be a mix bag chapter, so buckle up for feels of all kinds!
Review Response:
Multifandoms45- I'm so glad you're enjoying the story ^v^ I'm not sure when or if you'll see this, but your comment made my day! I'll keep doing my best.
