Fern and Micah were walking back home from volleyball practice when they passed by Ferns favorite park, fern looked up at the ravened hair male and slightly tugged on his arm.
"No, its already getting dark, I still have to make dinner" Micah stated while turning back around with the little one following him. Fern pouted as they was upset by this, but they were also getting hungry so they rushed to catch up to Micah and held his hand for the rest of the walk home.
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Micah and fern had rented a small apartment together after Micah found fern regressed and lost one day, he wanted to make sure nothing happened to his baby ever again..
"Okay prince, you watch cartoons while I go cook, alright?" Micah told his little while ruffling their hair
"Otay dada" fern smiled back up at their caregiver, happy to be alone so they can start to think of their plan. Fern watched 'Dora The Explorer' as they got this amazing idea, they noticed that dora never asked her parents to leave, so why should they have to? As fern continued watching they took note that nothing bad happened to dora, so nothing should happen to them either.
Fern slowly got up and crept to the kitchen where they could see Micah cooking intently, 'perfect' they thought as they snuck out the front door shutting it quietly behind themselves. They looked down at their bare feet, then they looked back at the door deciding that they shouldn't risk going back to get their shoes since they needed help putting them on. With their brilliant plan in mind, they set on back down the path to the park.
Once they got there all the streetlights were on and you could see the lightning bugs flying through the grass near the lake, fern being the sparkly loving child that they was decided to chase them around the park, unaware to the trouble that was unravelling at home.
-back with micah-
"Little one, your foods ready" micah said walking back into the lounge "um.. Fern?" he looked around and didn't see a sign of his baby, thats when he started freaking out, running around the house "FERN, WHERE ARE YOU???" After about 30 minutes of looking for anywhere he could have hidden or maybe fell asleep, Micah rushed back to the kitchen to grab his phone 'please still have your phone' he thought as he opened his Life360 app he shared with the little, as they tended to wander off from time to time in public, though they've never run away like this before.
Micah opened the app and searched through the locations, spotting that his partner was at the same place he had told them no about 'oh that little demon is gonna get an ear full when I get ahold of them' he went to the door and grabbed his jacket and put on his shoes, when he noticed that ferns were still sitting right there, grabbing them and going out the door to collect his brat.
-back with fern-
Fern was getting tired of chasing the lightning bugs so they ran over to the playground, ignoring how much the woodchips had hurt to run on. They climbed on the swing and starting swaying as they starred up at the starry sky. "pwetty" they mumbled as they looked around and noticed how dark it was. Fern got up off the swing and started walking around trying to find the path but they didn't get far before the pain in their feet overtook them, it was too much for their little self as they started bawling, and sunk to the ground as their stomach growled reminding him of how hungry they were. "d-daddy..h-h-hwelppp" they muttered out as they laid on the ground holding their stomach in a ball as they cried "i s-sowwy"
-with micah-
As he walked down the trail he could hear crying, and his heart dropped to his stomach as he rushed to the sound knowing it was his baby.
"FERN? WHERE ARE YOU BUBS" Micah yelled as he spotted them, running into a slide to hug the little "you scared me half to death, why would you think its okay to leave like that, without telling me, something bad could have happened" he rambled on only now taking a look at his distressed baby "oh hunny.." he said looking at how puffed up their face was from crying and how dirty their feet were "c'mere dear" he said as fern reached towards him when he heard their stomach growl "is my baby that hungry, huh?" he smirked at the brat in his lap and he stood up holding them.
Fern eyed their shoes Micah was carrying and whimpered not wanting to walk another step. "hmm? oh your shoes? Don't worry, I'll carry you little one, but when we get home I'm gonna clean you up, then you can eat, but after that we need to have a talk" fern sadly nodded into their caregivers shoulder, they knew they shouldn't have taken off " 'm sowwy" they mumbled as Micah walked them home.
Micah set Fern on the bathroom counter, resulting in a whine from the mentally younger one. "Patience please, now hold still this is gonna sting, but it'll be over quick" Micah said as he slipped ferns paci in their mouth to provide some comfort before he got to work. He took a wet washcloth and wiped away the dirt away from the small cuts on the smallers feet, and grabbed the tweezers to pull a few splinters out as the little cried. "there there, I'm almost done, all I have to do is the spray now" he looked up at the littles tear stained face "n-nwo spway" fern stared at the bottle of wound disinfectant. "I'm sorry baby, I have to, here hold my hand" he grabbed the smallers hand as he disinfected the cuts, as the little squeezed his hand and whimpered. "there prince, all done. He smiled as he wrapped ferns feet in bandages and then picked them up as he carried fern to the kitchen.
He reheated the food and set the kid in their chair at the table "hey bud, how old are you?" he asked as fern held up two fingers 'hm that explains why they're not saying much' "okay, do you want daddy to feed you?" he asked to which fern replied with a nod
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After fern finished their food, Micah carried them back to the lounge where he noticed at dora was still on, and paused it as he didn't think nothing of it besides the fact that it was ferns favorite show. "Okay prince, wanna tell daddy why you took off like that?" he questioned as he set fern on the couch and crouched infront of them. Fern pointed at the TV "dowa" Micah sighed, not understanding what the little was trying to say "no dora right now, we're talking" fern was frustrated their caregiver didn't understand them so they tried again "NWO DOWA" they screeched out. Micah was taken aback by their outburst and started to think about the show and what could make fern act like that "I'm sorry baby, could you explain to daddy" he said while caressing the smallers face to calm them down. Fern sat and thought for a minute, to which Micah stood up watching them as he turned dora off and waited for an explanation
"swe nwo ask to weave so why does i have to?" Fern looked up wanting to know. Micah sighed, he needed to start paying attention to what he allowed fern to watch. Micah knelt down to ferns level again. "Fern, you need to remember that I have these rules to protect you, you're the one I want safe, so it doesn't matter what anyone else gets to do as long as you listen, right?" Fern thought for a second before nodding "and we're gonna find you different cartoons to watch so this doesn't happen again, is that okay?" Fern nodded just glad that this was all the punishment they were getting.
"SOFWIA PWEASE" fern said while running up to the tv as they pointed at sofia the first. "Haha okay bub, go get your stuffie and we can watch it until its your bedtime" to that fern ran off to get their owl plushie, it was their favorite cause they thought it looked like micah. They ran back to the lounge and crawled up on Micah as they watched the show until they ended up falling asleep.
Micah grabbed his phone and looked at the time as it read 10:00pm. Hm, right on time he thought as he carried them up to their room and put them to bed for the night.
