Zib's Kid

Chapter 5

Zib was starting to worry.

Of course! Of course the first thing Rocky did when he stepped foot in the speakeasy was get in trouble. By stealing! And now he couldn't find him.

He shouldn't have brought him here. Should he? His poor nerves couldn't handle it! He didn't trust himself with a drink right now, so instead he lit another cigarette and took a walk around the place looking for Rocky. And then another one. And another one, this time in the opposite direction.

He started growing nervous. Did the kid hide under a table? Sneak off into the tunnels, where he could get lost? Did he run off with some stranger? He went back to Jasper and asked him.

"Have you seen the kid?"
"Yours? No. Not since the drink incident."
"Hm."
Jasper saw that. His tone shifted, "I can ask around..."
"No, don't worry, I'll- uh, I'm sure it's nothing, I'll do that."

He walked off towards the stage. He looked around the whole time just in case he caught a glimpse of him, then he went backstage and all of his tension deflated.

There was Rocky, perched over a stack of books and boxes so that he could sit at the table with the rest of the band as they played cards.
Or they pretended to play cards. The kid was too young to possibly know poker and the band was too invested in the animated conversation with him.

"There you are!" said Zib, and as soon as he saw him the kid jumped off the adjusted seat and ran towards him.

"Zib! Zib!" he had never seen him so excited since the syrup incident, "You play music!?"
"Yes, I do, hadn't I told you?"
"What do you play!?"
"Uhm, clarinet, saxophone and piano. I sing too, you heard me singing."
"Aaaaw!"

Zib looked up with an unamused expression. The whole band sat around the table looking at him with shit-eating grins and goo goo eyes.

"You sang to him?" asked JJ.
"Was it a lullaby or a love song?" asked Sy. He didn't need to know it had been kinda both.
"And you didn't tell him you were a musician?" Mozzie took his hand to his chest in mock offense, "Were you trying to hide him from us?"
"Are you ashamed of us?" asked Ben, "Who is she?"

"Who's who?" he asked, still unamused.
"The woman you're sharing your other life with."

They erupted with laughter. Rocky pulled Zib's pants and asked "You have a girlfriend Zib?" he groaned.

"Guys, you're confusing the kid."

They stopped laughing so they could feast on the fresh material.

"Aww, you do care!" said Sy.
"Such a doting father!" JJ took his hands to his face.
"He's got your smile, you know?" Mozzie teased him. There was a moment of hilarious silence, as Rocky and Zib stood perfectly still next to each other. Rocky's little fangs poking over his lower lip, Zib's unamused resting bitch face on, looking very much not alike. Sy snorted at the sight.

"Nah, they got the same ears!"
"No, the eyes."
"The same fluffy tail!"

They broke into more laughter, and Ben made a gesture for Rocky to come closer. The kid, who seemed quite confused by now, did so and Ben whispered in his ear like he was sharing a secret. "Don't worry kid, we're just teasing. No harm done, right?" Rocky smiled at him and Ben offered a hand for him to high five. The others howled at the gesture.

"He's practically one of the family now!"

Zib took a long, suffering sigh. "Guys, I'm sure you're having loads of fun, but the kid needs to eat."

They all stopped and listened.

"Eat? What time is it?" Mozzie pulled out his pocket watch. "It's like... kinda late right? Do kids eat at a different time?" he looked at JJ and the siamese shrugged. "Beats me."
"He needs to eat because he's been skipping lunch for too long now, and today he even got in big trouble for it," Zib clarified. The others gave him a questioning look.