Zoysite - I would have wanted Marco as my pediatrician, best doctor there is.

Some days later

Marco looked around the area, trying to find the strawberry blond woman he met before. It was Friday in the late afternoon and after some texting had agreed to meet up for a tour around town, but…

"Am I at the wrong spot-yoi?" Marco pondered as the time to meet drew near, yet he didn't see the woman. After another minute he took his phone and went to their chat, copying the meeting address and pasted it in the navigation app. A second of loading later showed his location dot practically on the red pin showing his destination, so he was or should be at the right mall. Should he go inside maybe? He thought they would meet outside but maybe she-

As he was about to go in, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. "Yes? Oh! Miss Rouge! And-" smiling Marco looked down to the little one hiding partially behind the woman's legs. "the brave boy Ace."

Rouge chuckled at the comment, gently stroking her boy's head. "Good afternoon Marco. Sorry we're a tad late."

"No no its okay, miss-"

"Just Rouge, no need for the miss."

"Rouge then" he nodded, "I only just arrived myself so really, don't worry. I'm glad you found me, I was a little afraid I was at the wrong mall." He said with a light chuckle before his eyes went to the boy that was looking him over in curiosity, "I didn't think Ace was going to come too." They did text a bit about Ace's school hours to make sure that the tour wouldn't last longer than that the little man would be in school for or at the afterschool daycare. "Doesn't he have school?"

Rouge nodded pushing her son a little bit more against her, instinctively wanting to protect him should this man have any intentions of hurting her baby for simply being here. She couldn't trust everyone to be nice... having learned the hard way. "His teacher fell sick and couldn't finish the day. The flu is currently going around, more teachers have fallen sick besides this one so they didn't have a teacher to keep the class busy at the moment. They called just as I was getting ready to come. He could have gone to daycare but..."

"Rouge, Rouge, please" Marco raised his hands, he didn't mean to make the woman feel like she needed to defend herself, "It's okay. I don't mind at all. He seems like a nice child-yoi, so I don't mind if he joins. But if you want to re-schedule, I perfectly understand."

Rouge smiled and thanked the blond before stroking her boy's head, making him look up. "Do you want to give the mister a tour around town? Show him the nice things about the town."

Ace cocked his head, a little confused and looked to the mister his mommy spoke too. … He knew this mister... "! Thank you!"

"You're... you're welcome?" Marco answered as the boy had looked right at him while calling out a thank you. Though he was a bit confused at the reaction, it didn't really seem like an answer to the questions Rouge had asked. And going from the woman's next words she also didn't expect it.

"Why are you saying thank you, sweetie?"

The boy pointed to him and smiled, "Lolly mister."

Both adults blinked begore laughing, Rouge picking up her son as they did, kissing his head, "good boy, Ace. He's indeed the man that gave you a lolly before."

"It's a pity but I don't have any lollies with me today." Marco said after chuckling, kids were so cute. He always kept some treats in his doctor's coat. Since he worked with kids they always came in handy, a perfect reward for a child that behaved nicely for a visit or even to calm one during it. If he had known Ace would come he would have brought some, he'll be prepared next time! For now though... "But, maybe if mom allows it, we could end the tour at an ice-cream-parlor. A place where we can sit down? If that exists close to here."

"Ice cream? Ace loves Ice cream! Mommy please?"

"Hmmm, I don't see why not." The woman smiled at the cheer, but was also quick to hold the bundle of energy as he tried to get out of her grip, perfectly knowing the way to the nearby ice cream place. "But Sweetie, we're first going to take a little walk around the town. After that we'll come back here and eat some Ice cream. So no running to the ice cream store yet, okay?"

"Ace be good!"

"I know you will be. My lil' boy is always good." she smiled and pressed a kiss to raven locks before setting Ace down and holding his hand. "Shall we go?"

Noticing the woman was looking at him, Marco nodded and they started to walk around the town. Rouge explaining they would walk around the centre where she could show some places before they would end back at the mall where both of them parked their cars.

"Oh and here's the fire station. Shanks leads them, he's a great guy. If you like drinking, you'll most likely find him at the bar on the weekends he's off." she chuckled behind her hand, thinking of the funny red-hair. But even whilst tipsy or drunk always his polite self. "The police station is led by Smoker- oh no excuse me, Smoker retired a month ago, his pupil or well previous pupil Cody is in charge now. Still a very young boy, you may even think he's still in school when you see him, but he really takes his job seriously. He's an absolute sweetheart though, even with his busy life after taking over, he still volunteers at the animal shelter whenever they need extra hands."

Marco nodded at everything, amazed everyone seemed to know each other in the town. He didn't think this was a particularly small town, yet this area really was closeknit, but he did like it. "The city hall is-"

"Mommy!" the boy called out, interrupting and pointed in the distance whilst tugging at the arm he held, "Doggy!"

"Yes, a nice doggy." Rouge automatically reacted to her son, giving him a smile before looking back to the blond like nothing happened.

"… And the post-office, it's connected-yoi. I didn't notice before." Marco continued.

"Yes, they are indeed. I guess you've needed to go already to register-"

"Pet! Mommy! Pet doggy!"

"The doggy is going to the park to play, Baby, we can't pet him now. Maybe we'll find another doggy later. -You needed to go to register already there, at the city hall?"

"Yes-yoi." the blond answered slowly, impressed with the woman switching between him and her child with ease, "I still need to go back to get a bit more paperwork in order though."

They chatted a bit more while walking. Rouge doing her best to include all the important places one should know about when moving while telling about the town. And whenever there wasn't anything special about a few streets, Marco would tell about his life. His move, his old place, his job and some hobbies, simple things to keep talking.

The route was planned so that eventually they would end up at the mall, and right now they were entering the park, one of the last stops before they would be back. Seeing they were in an environment with no cars or direct dangers and Ace knew the spot well, Rouge had told the boy he could run around a bit but had to stay close.

And that's exactly what the boy did, taking off into the grass next to them, jumping and playing with everything around. Of course when they passed things such as a slide, the woman would wait a moment to let Ace go down it once... or a few times before walking on. Marco never complained or said anything about it, he really didn't mind and it was nice to see the child play happily.

Even if the raven could enjoy himself alone, he very often came back to them, specifically Rouge. Sometimes just to check in, say a hi or let his mom brush clean his hands of dirt before running back to play. But also, often to show things he found and wanted to show, like rocks and leave or even ants.

"Mommy!"

The word echoed around them for the umpteenth time and Rouge sighed softly as her son came running from a bit away, seeming to be holding a flower.

"I'm sorry, Marco." She apologized softly. It wasn't that she was annoyed at her boy, she loved that he showed her things. But she does feel a little bad for Marco. Her son, even if not intentional, has interrupted the blond in the middle of sentence quiet a lot of times by now. She was so grateful the blond didn't mind her son joining them, but still, it must be annoying to him, right? Especially since they had originally planned to do this while Ace was in school.

"Look!"

The blond smiled and kneeled down, "What a pretty flower-yoi. Did you find it all by yourself?"

The small raven had to take a second to realise that not his mom answered, but the mister that was with her. But once he did he smiled and showed it closer.

"Yea!"

"It's nice. Do you want a flower crown?"

"Crown?"

"Yea, like a prince wears." The blond nodded and patting his head.

"... Princess?"

"Or a princess' crown yes."

The boy seemed deep in thought as he looked at his flower before looking at his mom and back at his flower... and back at his mom... "Mommy crown!" he smiled at the mister, "Crown for mommy. Where-" he started looking around, "Where crown?"

"We make it-yoi. Can you look for a few more flowers for me? With long stems. This-" He pointed to the stem part of the flower in Ace's hand, "keep these long. Can you do that for me?"

Furious nods were there and the boy ran off, making Marco stand up again and follow slowly to re-start their walk.

"… he's going to come by a lot now."

"And I don't mind- Thank you, Ace." he smiled getting a first extra flower before the kid ran off again. "I don't mind that at all, Rouge-yoi. He needs to explore the world at his age, it's good that he's interes- thank you. Interested in a lot."

A smile graced the woman's lip, "Thank you."

The blond just smiled, restarting an earlier conversation whilst accepting flowers from the raven. When he finally had enough he stopped him from running off and crouched before him.

"And now we just do this- and this and- tadaaaaa!" Marco weaved the flowers together with practiced ease until they formed a circle and held it up to show it. "A pretty crown for your mom. Do you like it?"

Little hands took the piece, crunching some flowers but still the eyes lit up brightly, "Yea! Pretty!" Turning to his mom, Ace stood on his tippy toes and jumped, arms outstretched, "Mommy! Mommy!"

With a chuckle Marco spoke, "Ace, can I pick you up? Then you can put the crown on your mom's head." with a nod from the smaller human, Marco picked Ace up and raised him high enough to place the crown on Rouge's head. After it rested nicely, he pulled the boy closer to his body, shuffling him so he was sitting on his arm, "Now, what does mom think of the crown-yoi?"

Stunned Rouge touched the piece on her head, eyes glued to the man that she had only met twice, yet was now holding her son closely and lovingly. Her son looking quite comfortable even. She scanned the man's face, but no annoyance or fake smiles were seen. Or none that she could detect atleast from needing to entertain an unexpected 6 year old.

"I-" she swallowed before as she regained her composer, "It's lovely. Is mommy pretty now?"

"Pretty!"

At the boy cheering Rouge smiled, almost getting emotional but held strong as she took her son back from the blond, hugging him close "Thank you, sweetie. I love it. You're the best son mommy can ask for." she gave her son a big kiss before looking up, wanting to thank the blond for doing this but the smile and nod already stopped her. Somehow making her even more grateful.

After a moment they started walking again, Ace babbled a lot while in Rouge's arms, mostly talking to her but now also talking to the blond every now and then. All the way until they eventually reached to the ice cream parlor in the mall where they had started.

"That will be $15, please."

Rouge was already looking for her wallet in her purse before she heard a 'thank you, please enjoy' "huh?" she didn't pay yet?

As she was about to say just that, she was just in time to see Marco bring his hand back from his pocket and take the kiddie cup from the counter, handing it to Ace and pointing to a nearby table before he was grabbing his own cup and hers. "Shall we sit down-yoi?"

Was asked of her and she just nodded and followed, helping her boy onto the chair and not drop the ice cream he held before it really hit.

"You paid. You didn't need to pay for us too, Marco."

"I know, but I wanted to-yoi."

"Why?" She asked slowly, she wasn't a stranger to people trying to flirt with her, buying her things when she went out to catch her attention and hopefully liking. But this didn't feel like that and besides that, Ace was with her. It was clear that she was a mom and came with 'baggage', as many called what having a child was. So it really was strange to her as to why Marco, a stranger, would buy her AND her son ice cream.

"As a thank you for today."

"But... this day is my thank you for saving Ace. I should be buying you ice cream."

The smile Marco had had fell a little, not in sadness but in a way that showed he was thinking. Realising his reason didn't make sense. He seemed to want to counter a few times but in the end didn't say anything before a sheepish smile came and he scratched his neck. "I guess that would be true... ehm... I don't need any money!" he quickly said, waving his hands, he didn't want that, "Maybe-yoi... to make it even again..." Marco spoke slowly, "I'll need to get another tour? Maybe…. Maybe one at a nice restaurant…"

Rouge blinked and blinked again. Was this- did she just get asked on a date? Kind off?

"Only if you want to, ofcourse-yoi." Marco added as Rouge didn't immediately answer. "I just- You have been so nice to me and... I don't really know anyone in town... and-"

"Sure." she interrupted the rambling and nodded, smiling softly as it just looked like Marco wanted a friend in town. And she didn't mind being that friend, the blond had seemed nice the whole time to her and her son. "I can't say right now when I'll be available though, I will need to look for a babysitter for Ace." Restaurant visits were usually outside of school hours.

"He's also always allowed to come with us-yoi."

"Huh- Excuse me?"

"He's allowed to come. Ace." Marco nodded to the boy, making Rouge looked over to her son too. The boy happily enjoying his ice cream even if a lot was all over his face.

"That's really sweet, like really. But… I'm unsure... Ace is a still young. Even if he can behave well, he won't be allowed in many real restaurants or they don't have food he eats yet."

Marco had been confused for a second when Rouge was saying to not bring Ace, the impression he had gotten is that the woman liked having her son close, but he nodded at the explanation. "I understand-yoi. If you're fine with it, I know a place that welcome's whole families. Members of every age and is still a really good and nice restaurant. They have fancy dishes like those classy restaurants would have, but also have a very nice kids menu." Marco trailed off a little at the end, "but... It's one town away from here though... not far, just a 20 minutes drive. I promise it's worth it, I can even drive or well maybe you don't want to be in the car with a stranger..." Marco cursed himself inside. He just wanted to talk more to the nice woman and son who have been so welcoming of him, thanking them more by treating them to a meal, yet he probably sounded like a creep! "I can pay for your cab or-"

A hearty giggle that somehow made him blushed stopped his rambling, gaze pulling away from the woman opposite him.

"S-sorry... ehm... I just..."

"I would love to take you up on your offer. Are you free next week, Saturday?"

"Saturday?- yes! I think! Wait-" Marco took his phone, quickly scanning his agenda, smiling that indeed their clinic wasn't the one on duty that weekend "yes, Saturday is perfect. I'll call for a reservation for three and let you know what time. That good? Ehm just let me know if you want me to pick you up or you know..."

"That's perfect, Marco. And I'll drive, I'll pick you up."

"Alright- huh?"

A giggle was there again and her hand reached out to stroke Ace's head, "Ace still needs a car seat so I would feel safest to use my own car and drive. But there's no need for you to drive too and waste gas if we're going to the same place and you don't even live far away from us."

"Oh ehm you're sure? Thank you then, that would be nice-yoi."

"Mommy! Bite!"

With another exchange of smiles, Rouge turned to the youngest at the table, accepting the bite offered to her and giving one in exchange. All together finishing their Ice creams, staying a little longer after as the adults still made some small talk. Eventually though Ace had fallen asleep and they decided to call it a day. Marco walked Rouge, who was carrying her sleeping boy, to their car, helping in opening the door to her before they parted ways.