Some much needed hugs in this chapter!
Chapter 3 of my baby domino twins and dad Rex fic without a name if any of y'all have suggestions I'd love to hear them, I can't decide on a good title :(
Links to previous chapters: 00 01 02
Next chapter: 04
Summary: Rex and Fives bond as they get ready for bed.
CW: Implied/referenced child abuse
Chapter 3 - Home
Rex’s keys clattered across the hallway floor loudly. He cringed and held his breath, stopping in his tracks. Fives’s head burrowed deeper into his shoulder, his boney legs constricting around Rex’s hips.
“It’s okay, I got you,” Rex hushed quietly, hoping the boy wouldn’t fully wake up.
Fives shifted again in Rex’s arms, pressing his small body up even further against Rex’s chest. The boy hummed quietly, slowly pulling himself from the depths of sleep, “…Echo?”
“Rex!”
Rex whirled around, clutching Fives tight as the boy jerked awake in his arms. He was met with a familiar face staring at him half hidden behind a mop of jet-black hair and the door to apartment 6116.
“Hardcase!” Rex heard Jesse’s voice bark from deep within the apartment behind the teen in front of him.
“What?” Hardcase answered, still eyeing Rex and the boy in his arms.
“Leave him alone. Aren’t you supposed to be grounded?”
Hardcase rolled his eyes, turning his head back towards the apartment, “Aren’t you supposed to be putting Tup to bed? Anyways, Kix isn’t even here right now.”
“Right, so that means I’m in charge. Get back in here.”
Hardcase stepped out into the hallway and let the door slide shut behind him, grinning at Rex, “Oops.”
Rex readjusted his grip on Fives as the boy squirmed in his arms, trying to turn to see the new presence in the hallway.
Hardcase moved into the kid’s line of vision and gave a small wave, “Hey, little guy.”
Fives snuggled his head back down into Rex’s shoulder, clearly not wanting to interact.
“Hardcase,” Rex warned, moving to pick up his keys. “You should listen to Jesse.”
Ignoring the comment, the teen bent down and grabbed the keys swiftly before Rex could reach them, “Here, let me get that for you.”
Rex sighed and let Hardcase open his apartment for him, holding out his hand for the keys as the door swung open, “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Hardcase said, dropping them in Rex’s palm.
“Get back in there before you give your brother an aneurism,” Rex ordered over his shoulder before kicking the door closed behind him.
Rex set Fives and the bag of clothes down on the kitchen counter, “Sorry for waking you up. My friends can be a little, uh… overly enthusiastic. Sometimes.”
Fives rubbed at his eyes looking around the small kitchen and adjoining living room.
“Yeah, so, this is my apartment,” Rex wrung his hands, studying the boy’s curious glances for hints of satisfaction or distaste. “I know it’s not that big, but it’s got two bedrooms, so, you know, I figured it should be alright if you and Echo are okay sharing a room.”
Fives’s eyes snapped to Rex’s, a look of pure wonder etched across his face, “A whole room just for me and Echo?”
“Uh, yeah… is- is that-” Rex stumbled over his words, anxiety building in his chest. He took a deep breath, “Is that not okay?”
“We never had a whole room to ourselves before.”
“Oh, well, yeah, you guys will have your own room. It’s not set up or anything yet, so we’ll need to do that.”
“Tonight?”
“No,” Rex said the edges of his lips twitching up at the hopeful note into the boy’s tone. “Tonight we’re just gonna get you all cleaned up and ready for bed. First up, we got to take off these shoes.”
As Rex removed Fives’s socks and shoes the boy fidgeted uncomfortably.
“Something up?” Rex asked, peeling off a sock.
“Was…” Fives’s faced screwed up in confusion. “Was he a grown up or a kid?”
“Who? Hardcase?”
Fives nodded.
Rex chuckled, “Yeah, I can see how that’d be confusing. He’s a teenager, so he’s kinda in between being a big kid and an adult.”
“Will I be a teenager too?”
“Mhm,” Rex affirmed, taking off the last sock, “When you turn thirteen.”
“When will I turn thirteen?” Fives asked, letting Rex help him hop down off the counter.
Rex dug around in the shopping bag and pulled out one of the pairs of dino pajamas and a pair of underwear, “Do you know how old you are now?”
Fives shook his head, following Rex as he made his way towards the bathroom.
“Well, when’s your birthday?”
“What’s a birthday?”
Rex stopped outside the bathroom, looking back at the boy’s questioning face. The kid had no idea how heartbreaking his innocent question was. Rex sighed and stepped into the bathroom, depositing Fives’s new clothes on the counter, “It’s the day you were born when you were a baby. Everyone has a new one on the same day every year. So, for example, on my birthday this year I turned twenty-four.”
Fives looked down at his own body then looked up at Rex, “I don’t think I’m twenty-four yet.”
Rex turned away from Fives, both to obtain a clean towel from the cabinet and also to hide his face from the boy. Every word Fives said solidified just how deprived and neglected the twins had been in her care. It made him livid, not just at her, but at himself: for not being there, for not even trying to find out that he had kids he should have been there for. He did not want Fives to see him fuming and think he was angry at him, so he took a deep breath.
Once he made sure his expression was neutral, Rex turned back to Fives, “No, not yet. I think you’re around seven right now.”
“So, then I’ll be a teenager in six years?”
Rex smiled, surprised that with Fives’s lack of basic knowledge he knew how to do subtraction, “Yeah, I think so.”
Rex had showed Fives where everything was in the bathroom and explained how to work the shower bath, but he still resorted to fidgeting nervously in the hall outside the closed door after he got changed into his pajamas.
After only a few minutes of waiting the water in the shower turned off. Rex rubbed the back of his neck, listening intently for any cries of distress. That had been an awfully short shower for the amount of filth on the kid.
After waiting and not hearing anything from inside the bathroom, Rex’s anxiety won out and he knocked softly on the door, “You okay in there, bud?”
“Y-yeah,” came a slightly panicked response. “I’m almost done. S-sorry.”
Rex frowned, “It’s okay, take as long as you need.”
Rex stood outside the door for a minute trying to think of something better to say to ease the boy’s anxieties before he gave up and went into his bedroom to sit on the edge of his bed. As soon as he did, he heard the bathroom door open, and a little face appeared behind it.
“All done?” Rex asked, surprised that Fives actually did look clean.
The boy nodded, pushing a sopping wet curl away from his forehead.
Rex laughed and made his way over to Fives, who opened the door a little more for him.
“Here,” Rex said, grabbing the towel that Fives had left on the edge of the tub and using it to dry his hair, “If you rub it on your head like this it’ll dry your hair.”
Fives squirmed a little, but calmed down after Rex explained what he was doing. When Rex was done drying Fives’s hair, he hung up the towel on the back of the door and began rummaging around in his bathroom cabinet for a new toothbrush for Fives. After finding one, he held it out, “Toothbrush.”
Fives took the toothbrush, and went over to the sink, “Can I use your toothpaste?”
“Yeah, of course.”
As Fives brushed his teeth, Rex picked up the boy’s dirty clothes from the floor and threw them into the wash, changing his settings to “soil level heavy” before letting it run.
By the time he had finished, Fives reappeared from the bathroom. He smiled shyly as Rex approached, “I put my toothbrush next to yours.”
“Perfect,” Rex said, smiling.
Fives smiled back.
“Ready for bed?” Rex asked, hitching his thumb to his bedroom.
Fives regarded him nervously, “Is-isn’t that yours? Your room?”
“Yes, but I’ll be sleeping on the couch,” Rex said quickly, pointing to the couch behind Fives in the living room.
“I can sleep on the couch,” Fives said, looking up at Rex with big innocent eyes.
“I’m sure you can, but I would feel a lot more comfortable if you slept in a real bed tonight.”
“But…” Fives’s eyebrows pushed together in confusion, “But it’s yours?”
“Your right,” Rex nodded. “And that means I get to make the decision of who sleeps in it.”
Fives stared at him, bewildered.
“And I’ve decided that person is you.”
Again, the boy made no response.
Rex sighed, “Am I going to have to chase you in there?”
Fives sobered and shook his head vigorously, slowly backing away from Rex and sidestepping into the bedroom. Rex held back a smirk and followed the boy into the room.
Fives was standing in the middle of the floor, looking between Rex and his queen-sized mattress. He had a funny look on his face, almost as if he were asking permission to approach the bed.
“Go on,” Rex snipped, jerking his head toward the bed, he was exhausted and just wanted to get Fives to sleep as soon as possible so he could crash himself. He regretted his clipped tone as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He didn’t want to scare the kid.
Fives climbed up onto the bed and sat on top of the sheets, balling them up into tight fists as he stared at Rex, Rex thought for further directions.
No.
Not for further directions.
There was a slight quiver in the boy’s lip just visible in the dark room.
Fives was trying not to cry.
Rex, scared he had frightened the boy, covered the distance between them slowly and sat on the edge of the bed, a bit away from Fives, “What’s wrong?”
At that Fives burst into tears, his whole body shaking. Rex tried not to get upset himself and took a deep breath. He didn’t know if Fives was crying because of him or just because of everything he had gone through today or because of Echo, or what, but he wasn’t going to be able to figure it out unless he handled this with tact. Rex thought back to all the times others had tried to comfort him before settling on his first question.
“Do you want me to stay here or go?” Rex had hated it when the people who had hurt him tried to comfort him and he didn’t want to do the same with Fives, but he also didn’t want to say anything that would make Fives assume that Rex thought Fives was upset at him.
Fives tried to say something but was racked with a fresh wave of sobs and nothing but unintelligible noises came out of his mouth. Finding a solution to his problem, Fives shakily uncurled one of his fists and reached out to Rex.
“Stay?” Rex asked, scooting closer to the boy.
Fives nodded and grabbed Rex’s arm, pulling it to his chest and hugging it with all his strength.
“Okay,” Rex said softly, pulling Fives into a hug with his free arm and rubbing the boy’s back. Rex didn’t really know what to do but whisper the phrase “you’re okay, I’ve got you” over and over as he rubbed circles.
Luckily, it seemed to work and eventually Fives’s sobs slowed down and his grip on Rex’s arm loosened a little. Rex squeezed the boy tight before pulling back a bit so he could see his face, “Okay now?”
Fives wiped a tear from his eye and took a shuddering breath before shrugging a little and closing his eyes as more tears spilled from them.
Rex pulled him in close again, cradling Fives’s head to his chest, “Oh, bud… What’s the matter?"
“Y-y-you’re- y-you’re-” Fives was starting to hyperventilate, clinging to Rex for dear life.
Rex’s heartrate picked up. He’d done something wrong hadn’t he. And now his son was practically inconsolable. He carded a hand through Fives’s damp hair, hoping to calm him down enough that he would be able to speak.
“You’re t-t-too nice t-to m-m-m-m-me!” Fives let out with a wail.
Rex froze. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it wasn’t that. He went back to rubbing Fives’s back as he tried to organize his thoughts. Suddenly he realized. He turned to the shaking boy in his arms, “Fives?”
The boy sniffled and shifted his head to peak at him, “M-mh-hm?”
“Do you know why they called me to come get you and Echo?”
Fives shrugged, “B-because you’re a- a policem-man?”
“Because I’m your dad.”
Fives looked up at him in confusion, tears come to a halt.
“Do you- do you know what that means?” Rex asked softly.
“It means…” Fives trailed off. “…you have to take care of me?”
“It means I get to take care of you and I get to make you feel safe and I get to make you happy.”
Fives scrubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, sniffling, before regarding Rex curiously and saying in a small voice, “I didn’t know you were my dad.”
Rex smiled, he could barely believe it himself, “I am.”
Fives cocked his head to one side, “Eh-Echo said you were probably a bad man.”
“Do I seem like a bad man?”
“No… but Echo s-s-said you-” Fives took a second to snort some of his snot back up into his nose, “-said you come get us if you w-were a good guy.”
Rex cringed; he knew Echo was right. When he looked down, he was comforted by Fives unjudging face. The boy wasn’t mad at him, just confused, just trying to figure out how everything fit together. Rex shifted the boy off of his lap and onto the bed so they could face each other more comfortably, “You know how you said you didn’t know I was your dad?”
Fives nodded.
“Well, I didn’t know you were my son. Not until today.”
“Oh,” Fives said, blinking slowly. “And I r-really am?”
“You really are,” Rex echoed softly.
@marierg @stressed-cherry @ffdemon @renton6echo @bambambunny @xylionet @tazmbc1
