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Miu was growing restless, impatient. Most of the time, he didn't entertain her impatience, even if she got it from him. Right then, he was feeling pretty eager to get on as well, after all he was even more impatient and prompt than she was. Though their motivations were entirely different. Of course, they wouldn't make it far, as there were usually at least one or two distractions that kept Enzo from progressing. Most of the time, the goal was to get him out of the hotel before anything went awry. It wouldn't be the first time that plans were tossed aside because Enzo was unwilling to let go during work hours. In truth, Kosei should have felt proud of him, considering his work ethic was historically shite.
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Right then, however, he wasn't feeling motivated by work ethic, thus he really wanted to leave.
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He sighed as the concierge spoke up. It was like clockwork here. He half expected it by this point though Enzo always looked so surprised by the disruption to their plans. With a beleaguered glance, he looked down at his watch. Relax, it's not that big of a deal. Time anxiety aside, he wasn't gonna nag Enzo for something he couldn't control.
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As he glanced back up, he noticed the boy before maybe even Enzo did and was struck by deja vu so strong that it was like a weight in his stomach. His lips pinched, the thought simmering in the back of his head before it became quite clear. "Um Miu, why don't you give Enzo a break? You can ride on my shoulders." She didn't protest too much as that would mean she'd stand taller than anyone else in the room.
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Son.
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He might have choked on the oxygen right then. Why did it feel like he'd seen this coming? "Uhhh Enzo...." Did it even need to be said that the punk walking up to them like they owned the place was the spitting image? No probably not. Enzo would remain in denial regardless. He'd just have to sit back and watch it play out.

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[attr="class","text"]The last thing Enzo wanted was for Miu (and Kosei) to begin grousing because he was holding them up. It was an inevitable extension of their departure, because it happened every time they attempted to leave the Nimbus with any sort of planned itinerary in mind.[break][break]
But he couldn’t help it! The Nimbus was his baby, the thing he’d poured all of his effort into. The ultimate distraction from the mess his life had become when he’d first got his hands on the building. Long before it had been erected and expanded into what it was now. Back when they had been two little punks trying to make something of themselves, and then just…him.[break][break]
Okay, so he’d needed the distraction and something to fixate on so that he didn’t think about his crippling loneliness (something he was certain to, aha, lovingly heckle Kosei about now.) Sue him.[break][break]
All this to say, it wasn’t much of a surprise that he got held up on the way out the door, but Enzo was trying. He could feel Miu’s messing up the careful part in his hair in her growing impatience. But it certainly wasn’t his fault that his staff, or maybe his partner, was in the business of playing silly little tricks on him.[break][break]
Enzo continued to stare, smile stretched taut. “What? You even pay some kid hanging out to do this?” The careful tailoring of his speech began to slip, trending back toward the rowdy way he’d spent most of his early life speaking in. He forced a laugh, eyes darting between Kosei and his attendant and the kid quickly sauntering up with a sort of lazy indifference that still touted a special sort of self-importance that Enzo willfully attempted to not recognize.[break][break]
Another dry sputter of laughter as he gave them a look. “Ya got me,”he reiterated, but there wasn’t any comfort in the face he was met with. His concierge looked ill, the kid looked smug, and when Kosei turned his attention to Miu, and lifted her off of Enzo’s shoulders, his stomach turned over.[break][break]
‘Sup, Pops.’[break][break]
“Kosei..” he echoed back, out of the corner of his mouth in a tone that said help sos, please say sike right now. Enzo’s stare remained on the boy, no more than probably fourteen. god, that woulda meant he’d been no more than eighteen or nineteen himself when…when.[break][break]
Aw, fuck.[break][break]
Enzo cleared his throat roughly and forced his expression to neutralize as much as he could manage. “There’s no way you’re my kid,” he said after a moment, breezily in an attempt to brush the baby conman off.[break][break]
‘Ma knew you’d say that. Remember her? Nina?’[break][break]
His expression twisted up in thought, “Nope, no Nina’s.” He waved it off, even though his brain immediately scrolled back to the exact face in memory.[break][break]
‘She said you say that too.’ It was annoying that even if he refuted it, there was no denying it. It was like he’d gone through a copy machine and spit out a mini version of himself at that age. Same sandy blond hair, same violet eyes. The same arrogant sharpness in his triumphant smile It’d be easier if he’d favored his mother.[break][break]
Kosei wasn’t gonna let him live this down. Especially after Enzo had loudly boasted about never spawning a surprise child. Numerous times.[break][break]
It was fine, he could handle this. Kid probably wanted something from him. He could deal with it. “Got a name, punk?”[break][break]
‘Nico.’[break][break]
“Well, we’ve got somewhere to be, Nico. Unless you wanna go to the zoo.” He froze, head slowly swiveling toward Kosei like it was on a hinge, his expression blatantly asking Please tell me I didn’t actually just do that, as his eyes went round, smile forced.[break][break]
‘Zoo’s baby shit, but yeah sure. I’ll go.’ The boy drawled, one shoulder shrugging as he looked up and away as if he found the ornate staircase molding more interesting. Intentional indifference, intentional insult. Too late to backpedal now, then. [break][break]

Had he woken up in his own personal hell? Did he die in his sleep or something??

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Under normal circumstances, Kosei would have complained. He was prompt. It was an unfortunate side-effect of being in a military family. When something was planned at a specific time, he wanted to be there on time. Of course, being around Enzo for so long had bred some complacency and forgiveness for tardiness, but not enough to excuse it entirely. Right then, there was no way in hell he was going to complain or risk anything that might compromise whatever the hell was going on.
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So he gawked, like a fly-catcher, mouth open and eyes darting between the two. The kid was such a likeness for his partner that it was almost unsettling. It also made so much goddamn sense and he wanted to rub Enzo's face in it after so many years of dealing with jabs that he was the one to knock someone up. At least that someone had been his partner at the time, as terrible as she had been.
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"Enzo, just look at him." He didn't need to say anything more than that. The kid was his carbon copy, insolence included.
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Kosei...
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He held his hand up, other one hoisting Miu up for a better grip. "Nope, I'm staying out of this."
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Then Enzo invited the kid. Kosei gave him a look. "Yeah sure, come along." Miu was scowling not sure what to think of what was going on. She was perfectly inscrutable, but it was clear she didn't like anyone who took attention from her. "Daddy, whose that kid?"
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"Alright then, time to go." He prompted, spinning around.

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[attr="class","text"] “Not helping…” he grumbled out of the corner of his mouth. He knew the kid was his spitting image. Thank you, Captain Obvious. For once, he was at a loss. There were no witty remarks or smooth charms to con his way out of the situation.[break][break]
And still, he’d expected Kosei to throw him some sort of bone, some way to help him shake the little punk loose. But of course the traitor cut and ran. Well, sort of, considering he was still standing there with Miu on his shoulders.[break][break]
Nico looked up at the little girl, lazy grin glinting with an edge of antagonism that only worked between kids with an age difference. Upper and lower classmen in school. Siblings.[break][break]
Oooh, what was he supposed to do with that conclusion? Where did this end? With the pair of them actually functioning like siblings? That would imply the kid was here to stay, which, uh…no..? Maybe? Enzo was feeling the stirrings of an oncoming migraine in his temples. Alto Marean curses were muttered in a stream under his breath.[break][break]
“That kid is Nico,” the boy replied, still looking up at Miu, all teeth in his smile. Like looking in a mirror, that smile. “Who’re you, tiny?” Speaking the attribute without affection, but teasing—if by some power of intuition, knowing immediately what might offend the girl.[break][break]
“Yep. Zoo time.” His hand planted between Nico’s shoulders and steered him away, and out the doors. “We’ll figure out what you’re doing here later. First, we need to get to the ferry.”[break][break]
He cast a mutinous eye back at his partner, narrowed and sullen. Traitor, was what it said, I will not forget this.[break][break]
Luckily, the ferry was only a short walk, and the zoo was practically on the other side of the bay. Maybe he could ditch the kid somewhere in the foot traffic? No… he’d just find them again. Ugh. Maybe once they got Miu properly distracted with the girafarig or the grookey exhibits, he and Kosei could actually talk about this…unfortunate turn of events.

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"I'm sorry, what do you want me to do?" It wasn't like he was full of suggestions. When he'd discovered he had a daughter, which was almost immediately... he couldn't exactly recall Enzo being full of helpfulness. Though, Enzo had been surprisingly helpful after the fact, even if Kosei had wrongfully treated him for it.
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There was the guilt again.
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He sighed, knowing he had no fucking excuse. Then again, it was a little hilarious to see Enzo with a kid of his own, as if there had ever been any doubt of such a thing. Enzo was hardly safe about sex. Was it really surprising that he had a brat of his own? Kosei was only surprised that this was the first to find them.
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"I'm not TINY." Miu screeched, her temper expectedly short.
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Kosei sighed, knowing he would inevitably have to comfort her and ensure that she was, in fact, a big girl. "Yes, yes... you're a big girl. You tie your own shoes and dress yourself." By the looks of her princess dress, clearly her fashion style was biased.
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The awkwardness set in immediately. Kosei didn't know what to say. Under other circumstances, he would have said: not my mankey, not my circus. Unfortunately, he was tethered to Enzo and their concerns were one and the same.
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"Soooo Nico, do you live around here? Is your mom around?" He actively tried not to think about Enzo's lengthy list of possible baby-mommas.

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[attr="class","text"] “I don’t know,” he sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose, “At least you were informed long before now.” Enzo, despite every effort to hide it, was a bit natural in caretaking. But that didn’t mean he knew how to grapple with it or adapt to it on the fly.[break][break]
Nico snorted, eyes rolling. “Sure you aren’t, pipsqueak.”[break][break]
Enzo’s eyes cut to the boy in silent warning. The last thing they needed was for Miu to get wound up into a furor of little girl anger. Not before she could be adequately distracted by the cuteness of the girafarig exhibit.[break][break]
He let Kosei placate her best as he could. Had he still be carrying her, he supposed that would have fallen to him. Instead, he was stuck trying to puzzle out why exactly this kid had turned up at the hotel. They should be official, have tests run and all that. But it was like Kosei had said—look at him. It was more than a little undeniable.[break][break]
There were maybe a few traces of his mother in the set of his expression when he wasn’t watching them back. From what Enzo could remember, she’d been just as inclined to the casual nature of their entanglement. And clearly she hadn’t been inclined to inform him of the existence of the boy.[break][break]
Would he have wanted to know back then? Would it have made a difference?[break][break]
Complicated questions that spawned uncertain, complicated answers.[break][break]
Enzo was a selfish creature—fixated on his goals and the agenda he’d built up from nothing alongside Kosei, and then by himself. There was every likelihood that
“Dewford. Nah, she’s not around.” The answer pulled Enzo out of his thoughts. “Does she know you’re out here?” he asked then, adding to Kosei’s line of questioning. Something stubborn and resentful flashed in the boy’s eyes.[break][break]
“Doesn’t matter.”[break][break]
His brows climbed, and he scoffed. “It absolutely matters,” he replied immediately, “The last thing I need is for your mother to think I’ve somehow absconded with you.” As if he had any real way to have devised that sort of scheme. Arceus, was this what he’d been like with his own mother before he’d run off?[break][break]
But that had been completely different. Or so he told himself.[break][break]
The stubborn set to Nico’s jaw, teeth clenching told Enzo he wasn’t about to change his mind. He chanced another glance at Kosei, curious as to whether or not he was experiencing war flashbacks from that stretch of time when they’d been younger and constantly at each other’s throats.

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"Informed? She dropped off a crying infant and told me good luck. I'd hardly call that informed." He had floundered a lot in those first few months. All because his ex didn't want to be a mother. He had never prepared to be a father either, but he also was thankful his daughter wasn't in the hands of a heartless harpy.
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Miu made a screeching sound that was absolutely feral. Her tiny hands gripped his hair a touch harder. "Ah, Miu, soft hands. Please. Inside voice."
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Luckily, he managed to tide her over with a promise of gift shop stuffies. Nothing like bribing a little girl into silence. If only she was a pipsqueak though. She was hitting her growth spurt every other day. It depressed him, that soon she would be tall and want nothing to do with him. What was he supposed to do after that? It was panic inducing.
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"You came a long way then." Kosei said, trying to skirt around anything that may invoke any potential backlash.
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Unfortunately, for him, Enzo lacked all tact. Kosei leveled him with a dry, tired expression as if Enzo was another of his children and not his partner. The only person who knew how to talk Enzo through a temper tantrum was Kosei, arguably. The same could be said of his son.
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This was going to be a long day, but luckily he could see the plaster decorations of a tropical rainforest. "Almost there."

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