Forever His Princess

-twenty five-

NIKOLAI EVANS

I laid down beside Manny as he tried to sleep, running my finger up and down his nose. I've seen Mar do it so I figured it helps him sleep. "Hey." I heard Mar say softly from the door.

"Hi, princess." I said in response as she came to peck my lips. "How was court?"

"We find out the decision tomorrow but I think it went well. How was your day with Manny?" I looked over to him to see he was fast asleep so I got up and we both went back to my room.

"Erm... he- he called me dad today." I watched her face to see a reaction but there was nothing.

—

"Ok, come on, little man." I said, taking his hand as we walked outside into the playground. We had already done introductions inside and the teachers had gone through what activities were available to us.

We'd played some board games and other things just before lunch and Manny decided he wanted to go outside. "What do you wanna do first?"

He looked around, trying to decide before he pointed at the football set they had put up. "You wanna play football?"

"Yes, can you teach me how to shoot properly, I'm not very good at it."

"Of course, come on."

We did some passing before I spent the next hour or so teaching Manny how to get the ball into the net and he started getting better at it, getting most of them in.

"Mind if we join in?" I turned to one of the Dads who was with his son.

"Sure." I looked down at Manny, who was shying away from the boy. "Sorry, what was your name again?"

"Liam." He said, shaking my hand.

"Nikolai." I turned back to face Manny, who was looking down at the floor. "What's up, do you not wanna play anymore?"

"I do. Just not with Jason." He said, motioning at the little boy with Liam.

"Jason? Is that the one who pushed you into the wall." Manny nodded slightly. "You know what, we're gonna play against them and we're gonna win, ok? And once we do that, he won't ever mess with you anymore." A smile rose onto his face and he picked up the ball.

"Let's do this." He said, full of determination.

"That's my boy." I said, high five'ing him. "First to ten. You ready, Liam?"

"Of course." He said with a smirk.

—

"Ok, Manny, it's a draw, whoever gets the last point wins, ok?" He nodded. Manny started in the centre and passed it to me, I quickly passed it back and we both ran down the pitch, Liam and Jason close behind us.

Jason tried to tackle Manny but he dodged it, getting closer to the goal. He passed it to me and I swerved past Liam. "Go on, Dad!" Manny shouted and I shot, getting the ball in the net.

Manny cheered loudly and I did the same, both of us pulling off our tops, running round in circles. I picked Manny up and he giggled as I threw him up in the air. "We did it!"

"Yes, we did, little man." We turned to face the other kids and there parents to see them, looking at us in confusion.

"Mr Evans and Manny, I'm going to have to ask you to put your shirts back on please." Manny's teacher said.

"Sorry, got a little too excited there." I said, putting Manny down and throwing my shirt back on.

"Yes, I can see that." I helped Manny with his and we apologised again.