Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Malik
“No. We had a deal. Five cookies and a snack. Those eyes aren’t going to work on me.” Not again, anyway.
They’d already gotten him an extra cookie for Bouncy that had mysteriously disappeared as soon as I’d turned my back, so I had to draw the line somewhere.
“I…” Alton’s manipulation was cut off by a yawn, but it also seemed to reset his brain because he looked down at his plate and then back up to me, like he’d forgotten he was trying to get more Oreos. “Milk?”
That was a curious shift in topic considering he’d been adamant about getting water or apple juice with his sandwiches.
Two so far… cut up into triangles.
And cookies.
“Yes, you can have milk, but I have a question first.” I had several but we’d start simple. “Did you have lunch, little Roo?”
He gave me several long blinks before doing the plate-and-back-to-Daddy routine. Instead of giving me words right away, he shrugged. I just waited because I was going to need even a one- or two-word answer before I could keep going. “Chips.”
Just chips?
“Chips and sparkly juice.”
“Just chips and soda?” When he nodded, I managed not to frown but it was painfully difficult. “How much did you drive this morning? Did you stay at one of the hotels by the highway?”
Long blink.
Confused expression.
“No.” He clamped his lips together to hide a yawn and his hand came up so his thumb was stroking his cheek. “Drive.”
I had a very tired little joey.
“When did you start driving today?” I thought it was a simple answer but he waved his free hand like he was tracing a rainbow in the sky. Wait. “You started driving yesterday?”
I really should’ve asked more questions about where he’d been coming from, but it’d seemed invasive until we’d actually met. The matchmaker had been adamant that we do most of our initial talking in person and not online… probably because of Alton’s ability to read auras.
When he nodded and started shuffling his feet on the floor in the slightly too tall chair, I knew I should’ve asked more questions.
“So you were driving all night? You didn’t stay somewhere last night?” I thought I’d asked it with a careful tone, but Alton scrunched his face up and lifted his free arm to sniff his underarm.
“No stink.” When he straightened and I’d managed not to laugh, he rested one elbow on the table and put his head in his hand. “I had… the truck men… I got clean.”
He’d taken a shower at a truck stop?
“I’m glad you were able to get clean, and you’re right, you don’t stink.” He was, however, exhausted and running on fumes. “Did you take a nap at the truck stop?”
His shrug said he didn’t seem to remember the details which to me said he hadn’t slept in entirely too long.
“Alright, that’s okay.” No, it was not. “Do you want to keep playing and have some fun?”
Alton nodded but another yawn tried to break out. “Yes… I’m…”
That was not quite as much information as he seemed to think it was, but it proved my point about how tired he was correct. “Then you need a nap before we can play.”
As he tried to find a reason to explain why he wasn’t tired, I cut him off. “I like taking care of you, little Roo. It’s what Daddies like to do. But right now, I’m not doing a very good job of it.”
That seemed to stop him in his exhausted tracks and his expression made it obvious he couldn’t decide how to respond. “You’re tired and I would like to help you take a nap.”
Just the word had him yawning again.
“I… I tink… yes… tink…”
No, he was not tinking in any way.
“How about milk in the glider rocking chair?” Oh, that was tempting… especially for a Little who seemed to like being carried as much as I liked carrying him. “It’s a nice big chair and I can snuggle you while you have your milk.”
His low whine said how much he wanted it and his thumb inched closer to his lips. “Bottle?”
I hadn’t planned on mentioning it unless he’d asked but I was glad I could nod. “Yes, I bought a bottle just for my little Roo. Let’s go cuddle.”
Because he was about to fall asleep on the last bites of his sandwich if I wasn’t careful.
He was so tired he barely put up any kind of fuss as I got the new bottle out and filled it with milk. Part of that might’ve been how relieved he was to see a bottle, though. “Mine?”
“Yes, little Roo.” Not wanting him to think it was just lying around, I nodded as I put the milk carton back in the fridge. “The matchmaker hinted that you might need it, so I picked out one just in case.”
“Sneaky.” Whatever else he was going to say was lost as he gave up fighting his thumb and it got sucked into his mouth.
“I agree.” Anyone who fell under the broader mage umbrella was generally sneaky in some way, but whatever flavor she was made it even stronger. “But she’s helpful.”
She had a nearly one hundred percent success rate as long as the parties in question were completely honest about what they were looking for. Unfortunately, lying to ourselves was not strictly a human trait and it caused chaos even with the most incredible magic.
Alton mumbled something around his thumb, but it wasn’t clear enough for me to decipher. He leaned into me when I reached under his arms to pick him up, though, so I decided it was just him chiming in on the matchmaker again.
“There we go.” Grabbing Bouncy off her chair, I tucked it close to him and he wrapped his arms around the toy to hold it tight.
The way he immediately collapsed against me said his driving overnight story had been more honest than I’d hoped. It was probably part of the reason he’d sunk so easily into his Little side and why he’d run himself ragged at the playground.
His second wind… or possibly third… had long since faded and he had no reserves left. But luckily for him, he had a Daddy who was more than ready to step in and handle the situation… at least until his head cleared and he realized how deep he’d submitted.
Then we’d have to see what happened.
“Here’s the big chair.” I’d ordered it several years ago when I’d been sure I’d find my mate any day, however, life had a funny way of doing its own thing. But the chair was still perfect for holding him even if I’d waited a while for him to pop up in my life. “See? It’s perfect.”
“Big.” As his thumb came out, Alton patted my chest and made gimmie fingers for his bottle. “Milk.”
That seemed to mean I was big, which he seemed to appreciate, and he was ready for his bottle, so I snuggled him close against my chest and slipped the nipple between his lips. “That’s my good boy.”
I could see the last of his talkative Little space fade as he slipped deeper into his younger side. Something about suckling and maybe just being held had him going boneless. He made soft sounds as he sucked and gently rubbed his cheek against my chest.
By the time he’d drunk about half the bottle, his eyes were closed and he was barely rubbing the end of Bouncy’s tail between his fingers. He managed to hang on for a few more sucks, but eventually, he was out and his lips were just faintly twitching around the nipple.
I kept rocking him as I gently eased the bottle away and set it on the end table, but he didn’t move a muscle. He sank hard and deep as exhaustion took over and didn’t stir at all when I moved him to the couch a few minutes later.
Between Bouncy and the blanket I’d covered him with, he had plenty to snuggle and I had a feeling he’d be out for several hours. Which was fine with me if I was being honest. So much had changed in just a short couple of hours that having a few minutes to soak it all up would be welcome.
And it would give me time to figure out what I was going to make for dinner for my boy.
Chips for lunch.
Chips and sparkly juice.
“All the ancestors above.”
Chips and sparkly juice.
With no sleep and a truck-stop shower.
I didn’t even know what a truck-stop shower looked like.
I’d mostly moved on from how insane that was by the time I had a roast in the oven and cupcakes cooling on the counter. Alton slept through the wonderful smells of dessert baking, but by the time the scent of the roast was filling the house he started to stir.
Shifts and a stretch had me putting my book down on the end table, but I smiled when he went very still. As I wondered if he knew where he was, he patted himself down and sighed when he felt Bouncy but it still took him several long moments before he peeked his eyes open.
Utter silence.
“One of our first rules for you, little Roo, is going to be about road trip safety.” That was going to come before we addressed his love of cookies and dangerous playground equipment.
Alton blinked a few times before squirming lower down the couch and pulling the blanket over his head.
It made him look halfway between big and Little, so I waited to see what he would do next.
“I distracted myself with work because I was so nervous and then I realized I’d fucked myself over and then I didn’t want to tell you and every time I started to think about pulling over and taking a nap I worried about meeting you.
Everyone says the matchmaker is never wrong. ”
And getting what he wanted was probably scary.
“Does that mean you get to put my boy in danger?” My question had him going still again before I could see his head shake under the blanket. “Does that mean you get to exhaust him and not take good care of him?”
His head shake came with a wonderfully dramatic sigh that time. “I was going to go to bed early tonight… once I found a hotel.”
Ancestors above.
“I’m going to be very nice and not point out how ridiculous it was to come here without knowing where you were going to sleep.” Utterly ridiculous. “What if I’d kept you chatting all afternoon and by the time we were done all the rooms were booked?”
From what I’d heard, it happened on a regular basis because the town by the highway was like an oasis after seeing nothing but desert for entirely too long. Well, swamps and forests in our case. I hadn’t done the drive enough to remember it in detail, but the hotel rooms filled up fairly early.
He might not even be able to get one by the time he left after dinner.
“What will you do if I tell you I have a pillow in the car?”
My groan had him going very still again but he peeked his head out and I could see Little Alton showing his adorable side to me again.
“I have snacks and a blanket too. You can sleep at the truck stops. They’re nice and leave me alone when I tell them no.”
For fuck’s sake.
He was getting propositioned by truckers.
Daddies didn’t overreact.
They didn’t scare their boys when they were confessing utter nonsense.
Air in.
Stress out.
“Well, we’ve discussed the need for road trip rules so that will handle most of the issues you ran into.” At the very least we should be able to make sure he got more sleep and less dirty offers of attention. “Several rules.”
His pout didn’t give me any clue about his headspace, or the fact that he still had a tight grip on Bouncy. “Lots?”
Littlish.
“At least two or three.” I shrugged when his bottom lip poked out. “About sleep and food to start. “My boy cannot run on chips, sparkly juice, and no sleep.”
That got a silly grin as he tucked himself under the blanket again. “I can. I did it lots.”
Goodness gracious.
“That’s the last time.” Sending him back with sandwiches and some water would be a good start. “But if you’re good, when you need to drive back I’ll pack you a lunch and some treats.”
And I’d pack them in the back of the car to make sure he had to stop to get them out.
“Then we’ll make a schedule together and pick out a hotel if you need it.
” From what he’d said, I thought he only lived about twelve hours away but I could’ve been wrong about that.
Looking back, he’d been kind of vague about where he lived in our emails.
“We’re also going to make sure we’ve arranged check-in times and have consequences laid out if you misbehave. ”
He was very skilled at making very dramatic sound effects.
“You make good sandwiches.” He was grasping at straws to figure out how to distract me, but it sounded like he was sliding toward being a grown-up again. “And… and you catch really good.”
It was my turn to groan which got a giggle from him. “I have no idea when that slide got that tall.”
It was dangerous and I wasn’t sure how everyone else hadn’t realized that.
“It’s fun.” Alton’s head popped out of his blanket cave and he smiled as he sat up. “Playgrounds usually seem too small to actually play on but yours is huge.”
Hmm.
My silence had him chuckling and looking big again. “I know I’m short. Well, slightly shorter than average. I’m taller than my mother, though, so I’m counting it as a win. I’m still too tall for most human-sized playgrounds, though.”
With the miniature elephant in the room addressed, I shrugged. “We’re much taller than the average human and our children are sturdier. The playground is meant for a variety of ages to be able to have fun there together too.”
Relaxing back into the couch, he smiled. “So that means it’s perfect for a human-sized person with a Little side.”
It was… and it seemed like it’d been a good start to a very good date.
I just hoped it would continue in that direction now that he was awake and big.