You Promised | Mark Sloan ✓

── bonus: a halloween short

"Do you think eight pancake's enough?"

Mark glanced over from the table, pouring the last glass of milk before turning the cap shut on the carton. "Does it have chocolate chips in them?" he asked, setting the milk carton aside. As Norah nodded yes, he added, "Then I think you better make another two. Kai's a monster for your choc-chip pancakes."

Norah cocked a brow at him before pouring more batter onto the pan. "You sure it's not you who will devour my pancakes?" she mused, and Mark groaned in defeat, claiming the pancakes currently in the pan — with perhaps an unhealthy amount of chocolate chips — to be his.

He walked over to the stove, watching as she tilted the pan around to even out the pancake batter. He waited for when she lowered her head to check the fire before quickly adding in more chocolate chips, earning himself a glare from his wife.

"Oi!" Norah shoved him away from the pan, not before snatching the bag of chocolate chips away from his hold. "You know, you're the reason our kids have a sweet tooth," she chided, narrowing her eyes, "Also, if either of them has a sugar rush tonight, that's on you."

Mark shrugged with a grin, taking a step closer to her back and lacing his arms around her from behind. He rested his chin on her shoulder and felt her melting into his embrace. They stood there, quietly, while Norah made sure the pancakes were not burnt and he continued with kisses on her neck.

"Would it be a bad idea to—"

"Yes," Norah cut him off before he could even lay out his suggestion. "I don't think you wanna deal with the question of 'Why can momma sit on the kitchen counter, and I can't', right?" she smirked, "Bad example for the kids, Mark."

He groaned in response, reaching for the chocolate chips before she swatted his hand away with a hiss.

"Alright, can you get the kids down for breakfast?" Norah asked. "After breakfast, we can put together their Halloween costume before heading to the hospital."

"Yes, of c—" The colour on Mark's face quickly drained as something crossed his mind. "Shit."

His dread gained a questioning look from Norah, who had just flipped the pancake and had now turned to look at him. He had his chin tucked down and looked at her timidly, scratching his head. She knew the look: whatever he was saying next would — very possibly — be the end of him.

"Laurie... Have you seen the, um... yellow felt...?" he finally popped out the question carefully.

There was a moment of silence between the husband and wife before her tone deadened.

The man gulped, not quite ready for what's to come—

"Mark, if you lost that very, very large piece of fabric I bought last night, you're a dead man," she glared, pointing the spatula at him. "That was the last roll in the store!"

"I know!" Mark exclaimed, "I will—"

"Oh, yes, you will definitely be finding that," she cut him off with a grunt, "after you get the kids down for breakfast."

"I—Yes, ma'am!" He was quick to scurry out of the kitchen and hurry up the stairs, looking for the needed-to-be-found-or-I'm-dead fabric along his way. How did he misplace such a large, bright-coloured roll of fabric?

He looked for it in the master bedroom, inside the shelves and under the bed. But he also knew that it would not make sense for him to have kept the fabric in their room. It could only be downstairs, right?

"Oh, shoot, the kids."

Mark closed the door to the master bedroom before walking down to the other end of the hallway, knocking gently on the door of the kids' room. When they moved to their new house a year ago, Norah and Mark had agreed to let the kids share a room as they requested. But the problem arrived when it came to decorating the room. The walls were in a light shade of red and the carpet in blue. As for the final painting job, Kai had insisted on a blue door while his sister insisted on a red, and upon lots of arguments, crying, tantrums and convincing, they finally decided on a middle ground— purple.

Norah almost shed a tear when Kai came up with their final decision; Mark was thrilled.

The purple door flung open before Mark could even reach the doorknob.

"BOO!" Two kids jumped out from behind the door to scare their dad, and Mark returned a shout while clutching his chest, playing along to their attempt to surprise him. The kids high-fived each other at their successful play, then lunged over to crush their dad in a big hug.

"Okay, okay. You two got me good," Mark chuckled, "But it's a bit early for trick-or-treating, no?"

"It's never too early for trick-or-treat!" the boy exclaimed, "I am SO EXCITED FOR HALLOWEEN!!! I WANT ALL THE CANDY!!!"

"ALL THE CANDY!" the girl joined in.

Mark grinned, ruffling both their hair. However, he was starting to wonder if flooding them with candy tonight was the wisest idea. Norah would probably disagree, but then again, he was the fun parent (or so he claims).

"Alright, alright." He crouched down to the kids' height to try to calm the boy down. "Momma made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!" he announced and watched as their eyes widened excitedly. "Oh, and..." he turned to Kai with a whisper, "I managed to get you that dragon tail you wanted."

Kai's eyes widened thrice their sizes, his mouth forming a large 'O' shape. "YES!!!!!" The boy jumped around in giddiness, punching his arms in the air. Mark had to remind him again about their breakfast before the boy raced down the stairs. "MOMMA! GUESS WHAT—!"

Mark had reached the edge of the stairs when he felt his little girl tugging his hand. The dad opened his arms and let the girl jump up to him. She had claimed that she was afraid of walking down the stairs, but Mark knew that she just wanted him to carry her. After all, it did not stop her from climbing up and down the floors when Kai had her doll wedged under his arm.

"Dada?"

"Yes?"

"Did you get my pineapple, too?"

Mark smiled. Both parents had been confused and amused when their little girl told them two days before that she wanted to dress up as a pineapple for Halloween. Since it was almost impossible to find a Halloween costume to buy, Mark suggested that they make the girl's costume themselves. Norah agreed and had bought a large roll of yellow felt fabric from the store last night, hastily handing it to Mark when she met him in the hospital as she got called in for an emergency surgery. Mark had— Ah! He left it in the attendings' lounge!

"Even better, I'll make you your pineapple costume."

"I love you, dada!" the girl squealed in excitement, hugging her dad tighter with her small arms.

Mark grinned, pampering his daughter with kisses on the cheek. "I love you, too, Lessi."

As they reached the kitchen, he noticed that Norah was whispering something to Kai, and the boy giggled. The boy looked at his dad with a twisted grin on his face, and Mark cocked a brow at him as he let Alessia down on her chair. "What's going on?"

Norah had tried to shush him, and Kai had tried to keep the little secret to himself. But, of course, being the cheeky 8-year-old that he is, he failed to retain his wickedness any longer. "I got your extra chocolate chip pancakes!" he burst out, giggling and taking another bite out of the pancake on his plate. Mark gasped, betrayed, recognising the extra chocolatey slice in his son's plate.

"Laurie!"

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Hey all, it's been a while (:
How's everyone doing?

Side note, guess I finally got around to naming Sloarie's daughter 😉😭