gunsforhire | [LOG] A Day In The Park

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[LOG] A Day In The Park

Who: Omega, Tex, open
What: Taking the kids to the park for some family bonding
Where: The park near the Ai house
When: 4/3, afternoon
Warnings: none

Grocery shopping with three children hadn't been the most fun, but they survived and got everything off the list. They even dropped it off at home and put it away without distracting Delta too much. But Omega knew that wouldn't last, so he'd planned on taking them to the park.

He'd invited Tex too, if she wanted to come. So instead of joining the twins in the sand pit, he hung around the table near the entrance, where he could keep an eye on anyone who came in, Theta on his skateboard, and the twins all at once.

She was going to come, he was sure. Or call, there could be an emergency, but she'd at least call. He could trust her that much.

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Oh, she'll be there. She's not sure what to bring and settles for simply herself. She's had time to get a purple helmet and clothes that are far less identifying. Hell, even spending time without her contacts in around the family would help keep her identity hidden since the few that have seen the Soldier without a helmet associate purple eyes with her.

Her helmet comes off as she enters the indoor park and immediately sees the group. The group that is her family. It's going to take some time to get used to that.

"Hey," she calls out as she approaches and sets her helmet down on the table.

"Hey," Omega says, waving the kids over. "Didn't recognize you with the purple helmet." Without her contacts, she looks, well, like their sister. "How are things? Have you heard if Maine's still alive?"

Eta and Iota come over, wearing their light up shoes. They love those things.

"Thought it'd match the eyes," she remarks and kneels down so she can offer the twins a hug. This isn't how she imagined herself spending any of her weekends in Gulch, but she can't say she minds much. "And I haven't heard a peep, so he should be fine. No beacon has gone off."

Eta hugs her back enthusiastically, Iota waits until he sees how Eta's attempt goes before getting his own. "Thank you for shoes," Eta tells her, while Iota nods agreement.

Omega smiles at them. "That's good," he says. "I'm guessing the test isn't easy. I wish the grape would come here and say hi," he finishes loud enough for Theta to hear.

She ruffles Iota's hair when he comes in close enough. "Glad you like them. I would have gotten your brother over there some," here she motions towards Omega, "But his feet would have busted them wide open."

She watches Omega as she remains kneeling, figuring she'd stay level with the twins as long as they were near. "It's not, but he'll do fine. If I hear from him before you do, I'll let you know."

They giggle at the idea, more so when Omega makes a face and says, "It's not my fault they don't make them in my size. I was not consulted."

He nods to her. "Appreciate it. I'm sure he'll pass. I just want to know when I can bring him his donuts."

"Could always custom order one," she teases. Light-up shoes on Omega would be pretty impressive and she might have to look into that when his birthday rolls around. "And you're planning to bring him his favorite then?"

"But he has two feet," Eta informs her gravely. "He needs two shoes."

Omega tries very hard not to laugh at her. She is right, after all. "Yes. Or get Delta to. I think he might like that better."

"He's got others," she replies. "Besides if he has two, he'd be faster than the both of you and that wouldn't be fair." Because light-up shoes? Clearly improve speed.

"As long as whichever of you gets enough extra to bring home."

"There's two of them and one of me," Omega says. "I need all the help I can get."

They are better-behaved than anyone of the older ones at that age. (Especially Delta. Nobody was worse than Delta.) Omega wonders if it's because they've never known the Counselor. Theta at five didn't remember him, but he also had a hard time letting other people take care of the twins, leaving them to go to preschool.

"Well, I didn't go with them...but I don't think anyone is going to argue against donuts."

"They could use the treat after this last week." She smiles at the twins once more before finally standing. Her eyes scan the park. There's no obvious threats in the area, just kids playing. This might be the first outing she's had in a while where she won't need to pull out one of the many hidden weapons on her person.

"So, do you let them run wild while they're here or what?"

"They were playing in the sandbox, and Theta's on his skateboard over there. It's good to let them explore on their own terms. Teaches them to take initiative and all." Omega doesn't know how much Tex knows about kids. "So...yes. They run wild. For their own good."

She knows approximately what Omega has just told her, though she's eying him like she's not sure if he's speaking the truth. "Did you pull that out of your ass or do you mean it?"

"I read it in a magazine in a pediatrician's waiting room," Omega says. "If I can't trust that source, what can I trust?"

He's half-sarcastic, of course. But it's true that Eta and Iota are not constantly whining for adult attention like some kf the other kids at the park.

"Is that where you've gotten all of your parenting advice?" The kids seem fine and a magazine is a helluva lot better than the Counselor, so she'll give Omega that.

"There's always the Internet. Somebody's going to tell me what I want to hear." Really, Omega has been making it up as he goes for years. "Anyways, I'm not really their parent. I'm their brother."

"With the age difference, how much do they realize that?" she asks. She doubts the twins see much of a difference between 'big brother' and 'parent' with their family situation.

Omega watches the twins get back in the sandbox together. "They know," he insists. "I would be a terrible father."

"You keep them safe and have stuck around despite all the crap being thrown at you. Can't be any worse than the father that left," she replies as she leans back against the edge of the table.

Is she making fun of him? "Have we met? I'm the one with the temper, Sigma's the one who got stabbed, and I certainly haven't had anything worse than a teddy bear thrown at me."

He shrugs and folds his arms. "And he didn't leave. He wasn't there. Price got thrown out, Alpha got taken. How was I supposed to leave?"

She rolls her eyes. "What does Sigma have to do with this? And that's the point. You could have left easily, but you give a damn. That's a good thing. I refuse to believe Price is our father, which means he's somewhere out there and dumped the asshole on us."

"Didn't exactly keep him safe, did I?" Omega checks on the twins, on Theta. "Price made it very clear he was not our father. That our parents didn't want us."

So why did they keep having kids? For a while, Omega had thought they wanted a girl, until Eta showed up.

"He's still breathing, isn't he? Can't stop everything from happening, but I bet things would have gone to shit sooner if they didn't have you around." Why is he arguing so hard with her?

"I'm trying to give you credit, asshole. You were there when I couldn't be.

Omega looks away from her. "That's about all I did. The bare minimum. If I hadn't thrown the Counselor out, well. It was bad, but I don't wonder if there weren't times later that were worse."

He kicks the table leg. "You were taken. You weren't there to see just how bad Delta and I did back then. It's nothing to be proud of."

"You did what you could. And you don't even know if there's something I could have done to stop leaving." Neither does she, but that's besides the point. Her eyes are following Theta as she skates down one of the park's paths.

"They came out all right, so you must have done something well."

Omega doesn't know how to answer to that. Because of course his brothers and Eta turned out well, he can't deny that. They're the best.

So instead, he shrugs and says, "You know what counts as a good day at home? When we have enough food that I get to eat twice."

"I can chip in," she replies. "I've got money and have only had myself to spend it on until recently. You don't need to starve yourself."

"Oh, it was just an example," Omega says. "We make do now."

How, he's not sure. Coupons, probably. Sigma and Epsilon eat more out of the house now. They don't have a lot, but they have enough.

"Let me help," she says with a sigh. "I might not be staying with you guys, but I'm not looking to just meet up for play dates once a month and pretend I'm in your lives."

"We don't need help," Omega says quietly. "Like I said. We get by. I can take care of them."

Which is a slight exaggeration, but he's not going to get them dependent on her help so she can disappear and leave them worse off.

"Then why the hell am I here?" she demands bluntly. "If you're not even going to try to treat me like part of the family then why are we bothering with this?"

She had told him she'd try and he agreed that would be enough, not that he would smack away all attempts to help.

"Because you wanted to be part of the family," Omega snaps. "This is being part of the family. I take care of them, Delta takes care of them, we're the ones who threw out the Counselor, we're the ones who take responsibility."

Well, he never said this would be easy. Told her the exact opposite, in fact. And he can't take her help, not when she doesn't know how much they need. It's too tempting to abuse the offer.

"We don't ask Sigma, we don't ask Epsilon. That's what being part of the family means."

"And where does that leave me?" she snaps back. She doesn't know what the hell he wants her to do if not help.

"Do you want me standing on the sidelines and watching you struggle and talk about how you can't afford to put feed yourself while I have the money to help?"

"I told you we're doing better," Omega insists, grabbing the edge of the table. "You know who throws money at us, pretends like that's help? Our parents. We don't need money, we need..."

Omega shakes his head. They need money. Or goods and services that money can be exchanged for. There's a few things he can think of, though.

"Eta needs someone to teach her how to be a girl, so she'll at least have the option. Iota needs someone to listen when he talks. Theta needs help with his homework. Gamma needs ... I don't know what Gamma needs, he lies so much. Sigma needs people to stop leaving. Epsilon needs to leave. Delta needs someone to tell him he's doing a good job without him asking."

It pours out him like a torrent, and he cuts himself off. "You want to just drop in and be handed a list of problems to solve? There you go. You want to help? Pick something."

The table is bolted to the ground. A shame, Omega would have found great satisfaction in using it for punctuation.

"I'm fucking here aren't I?" she spits out. "I'm not throwing money at you so I can walk away guilt-free. I'm offering it if you need it and I already told you I'm not planning to skip town the first chance I get."

That list though? Helps. Somewhat. It's a list of personal things she can assist with or at least try to, but she can't help but notice one name is missing at the end there.

"What do you need, Omega?"

"I don't need anything," Omega lies, folding his arms before he tries to flip the table despite the bolt. "Maybe to borrow some equipment later. But I'm fine."

She snorts as she stares him down. "I don't know why you're so damn afraid to ask for help."

"I am not afraid." It will take more than Tex to make him back down in public, in front of the littles. "I ask for help when I need it. I just don't need it."

"Don't ignore a resource when you have it," she replies and pushes off from the table. If Omega's going to be pissed, she's going to run around with the twins for a while to let him calm down.

Omega does not need help. But Theta might, so he's going to go check on the grape. Just in case.

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[LOG] A Day In The Park

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