Chapter Text
In the morning, Robert woke up to someone knocking on his door.
As he got out of bed, Beef grumbled, but thankfully did not wake up. He opened the door and was surprised to see Chad.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Just came to drop off some prepped meals. You just have to heat them up.” He explained, then leaned against the door frame, “When my older sister had my niece, I did this for her. She had at least nine months to prepare for a kid.”
He held out a bag that Robert could see contained different containers of food, all labeled with what they were and the ingredients used.
“I wasn’t sure if you or the kid had any allergies, but I listed the ingredients just in case.”
Before Robert could shake his head, Chad was already moving to place the bag on the counter. He was wearing a red sleeveless crop top hoodie with tight jeans and Robert found himself staring.
“I have to go, I’m on babysitting duty today for my niece.” He explained, putting the containers in the fridge.
As he went to leave, Beef, with a serious case of bedhead, came over and gave him a hug.
“Bye bye.” He smiled up at Chad, who just ruffled his hair, making the bedhead worse.
With a small wave, he left almost as quickly as he came.
~
Robert made Beef some eggs from breakfast, not too much for the morning. As he ate, he was messing with his phone trying to figure out how to teach him how to call someone.
“Papa, all done.” Beef spoke up, he was getting more verbose as the days went on it seemed.
He washed up the plate that he used and sat back down with his kid, pulling out his phone.
“Okay, I’m going to teach you how to call Chase.”
Beef watched intently as he opened the contacts and scrolled down to Chase.
“It’s in alphabetical order, see? It goes Chad then Chase.”
He nodded and showed him to click on the contact and showed him the call button. Robert then handed it to Beef to try for himself. The kid got it pretty quickly and looked very proud of himself.
Robert smiled then went to clean up the rest of the kitchen from breakfast, as he did burn an egg while attempting breakfast. As he watched the small frying pan, he heard the sounds of someone being called.
Okay… that was supposed to be knowledge for emergencies, but whatever.
He rounded the corner as he dried the pan as Chase picked up.
“Robert? Do you know how fucking early it is?”
Beef stared at the phone wide eyed.
“Bud, you gotta speak so they know that you’re there.”
He nodded and focused really hard before landing on, “Grandpa.”
Instantly, Chase’s rant died down and Robert dropped the pan he had been drying. He grabbed the phone and put it off speaker.
“Sorry Chase, no idea where he got that from.”
The phone clicked, the tell tale sign that he had just been hung up on.
Fuck. Where did Beef learn that? He had to hold it together and ask. Not like the only person who was like an actual dad to him just hung up after hearing his kid refer to him as grandpa. It wasn’t Beef’s fault. It wasn’t.
He took a deep breath and sat next to him, “Hey, buddy, you’re not in trouble, but where’d you hear that?”
Beef looked up at him, really taking his time, probably trying to find the word or words he needed, “Vis.”
Right, Courtney called Chase grandpa from time to time.
“Alright, okay…” Robert thought about how to explain it, “So a grandpa is your parent’s parent. Chase isn’t my dad.”
If Chase had been his dad, that would have made his life so much better. That was besides the point. Chase didn’t want a kid, especially a kid as fucked up as Robert.
Beef seemed confused and he sighed. He stood up and started looking around, there was a box shoved into his closet that he never wanted to touch again. Just had his old stuff before he went dark on everyone and sold his father’s house. All he had was one box.
As he rooted through it, trying to find at least one picture of his dad, surely the one in his desk drawer at work wasn’t the only one, someone knocked on the door. He didn’t notice until a hand fell on his shoulder, causing him to jump.
“Hey kid.” Chase crouched down next to him, “Didn’t you hear me knocking?”
His eyes drifted to the box, mostly dusty clothes, but pictures of Robert and Chase laid on top, the only pictures that Robert found. He stood up, his back cracking.
“Alright.” He looked around, “I’m calling in Mandy to take my grandkid out while we have a chat.”
~
Mandy wasn’t sure if she was the best with kids, but Beef certainly made it seem easy. He didn’t try to stray too far until they actually got to the park. The they in question being her, Beef, and Courtney who decided to tag along. Her roommate had overheard the call and decided she needed to join.
She nervously sat on the edge of a bench, keeping an eye out. Courtney, meanwhile, sat back relaxed. One of the kids playing was a baby kaiju and Mandy knows that Beef only has had a few days of being human so she couldn’t help worrying.
“Relax.” Courtney chuckled, “She may be big, but Bruno has been working on controlling her strength.”
Mandy paused, “Is that the kaiju he adopted?”
She nodded then waved over the golem construct.
“Sup.” He greeted.
Mandy relaxed slightly. Bruno was trustworthy, so that kid wasn’t a worry anymore. Actually since they had showed up, a lot of parents or other babysitters left. Maybe also worried…
This is one of the parks made for superkids. It’s not their fault they’re still learning their powers.
The kaiju looked over to her dad as Beef approached her.
“Venoria, be nice.” He simply reminded her.
~
Meanwhile, Robert was now sitting on the couch with Chase.
“Want to tell me what you were looking for?”
Robert curled his hand and uncurled it, “I wanted to explain to Beef that you aren’t his grandpa.”
“Look,” He sighed, “That kid’s existence is already… weird. Besides, I know that Robbie wasn’t the best.”
He didn’t look up, just staring at his hands still.
“What I’m trying to say is does it look like I’ll be having any of my own kids or grandkids anytime soon?” He grabbed Robert’s hand, “You’re a good kid, Robert.”
He looked up finally.
“I treated you like a little brother, but even then I could tell I was doing better than the fucker who was actually your father. So if you want, I’ll be there for you and that kid.”
Robert found himself crying, quiet tears.
“Oh, kid…”
Chase brought him in for a hug.
These are the hugs he missed. Not his father’s, but Chase’s. God. He missed this, he missed him.
~
Back at the park, Mandy was finally relaxing. Venoria needed some quiet time to herself and Beef was happy to play alone in the nearby sandbox. She made a mental note to get the sand out of his clothes later.
Then Courtney got up.
“Hey, you!” She yelled and moved over to where a woman was leaning over talking to Beef, who was nodding at something she had said, “It’s weird to talk to kids you don’t know.”
She put her hands up. For someone taking a walk in the park, her sun dress was strangely extravagant with the ends of it tipped with peacock feathers.
“I just had a question for the little one, that is all.”
“Yeah, well. You can ask the adults, not the kid.”
She hummed, pursing her lips, the same color of the peacock feathers, “You remind me of a chihuahua moreso than he does.”
Mandy stood up, “Who are you anyway?”
“Not important. I got my answer.” She waved her hand to shoo them, “I’ll be going. I would say I hope we don’t meet again, but fate is a dreadful creature.”
She walked away, her healed sandals clacking on the concrete of the sidewalk. Mandy couldn’t shake the feeling that she was familiar in some way.
She sat back down and sighed. Chase still had the amulet. She felt useless. If something did happen to Beef, what could she do? Then she looked over to where Courtney was now crouching in the sand next to Beef, realizing that Robert might just feel the same way.
~
Robert looked up as he was about to toss a box into the dumpster. Mandy was standing there with Beef. He waved them over.
“Hey, just throwing out some of my old junk.”
She nodded as she walked over, looking around, “I see that. I would have brought Beef up to your place, but I think he knew where you were.”
Beef ran over and hugged his legs.
Quickly, he dropped the box into the dumpster to ruffle his kid's hair.
“What was in there anyway?”
“Just some old junk.” Robert smiled down at Beef, “Nothing important enough to keep holding onto.”
She nodded and as they reached the door, she spoke up, “Hey, if you need help with anything… don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Or even the z-team, I bet they would be happy to help.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He nodded, “Alright, Beef, ready to go eat dinner with grandpa?”
As they made their way upstairs, the kid ran in to give Chase a hug and Robert looked over at his now empty closet. Some skeletons weren’t worth towing around forever.
“I heard that Flame Brain meal prepped for you.” Chase opened his fridge, “Hopefully his cooking is better than his temper.”
Robert laughed, “I can assure you it is, gramps.”
The three of them found themselves on the couch, Beef in between them. Chase was telling some of Robert’s childhood stories to Beef, which Robert found himself correcting at times. He had a feeling that Chase was getting some of it wrong just so he would correct him, however.
Whether he understood it much or not was up for debate, but his tail was wagging.
And that’s how he fell asleep, between the two of them. Between his dad and his grandpa.