Fatherhood

Morning Routine

I had finished several piles of paperwork during the night, but boy was I exhausted. I got changed into my work suit and walked around knocking on the bedroom doors of my sons'. I couldn't have them being late to school.

Māori was awake by then and had already watered the garden. Out of the two of us, she knew more about plants, so I left it up to her. Cook was the first son awake. He was the hyperactive one of his brothers, always ready for something to happen.

"Good morning dad!" He said cheerfully, racing into the kitchen. I followed him there, I needed some coffee. One by one the other boys awoke and flocked in the kitchen. Niue was the only one not wearing his uniform though. I sat down at the table drinking my coffee as I watched the three boys get themselves breakfast.

Samoa still wasn't awake. I got Maori to watch over the boys, just because last time they were unsupervised, they started a fire. The shower still has burn marks from it. I left the kitchen and knocked on Samoa's door again. I listened in to see if he would respond.

"I'm getting dressed," He called to me.

"Okay then, just make sure you are up!" I responded. I walked back to the kitchen to grab another cup of coffee. I was so tired. By the time Samoa was eating breakfast, the other boys were all dressed and ready to go to school. Samoa quickly finished, and I grabbed my things for work.

"You forgot to do up your tie," Samoa pointed out as I started walking out the door. I looked down and yes indeed, my tie was not tied.

"Oh, you boys wait in the car for me, I will just fix up my tie quickly," I said as I walked into the bathroom. I fixed up my red tie and said goodbye to Maori. I hopped in the car and started driving towards Aussie's house. I had to pick up his daughter and take her to school, because he couldn't, being hospitalised and all that.

I pulled up outside the house and a couple of seconds later, Papua New Guinea walked down the stone path and got in the car.

"Good morning Uncle Zea!" She smiled.

"And a very good morning to my lovely niece, off to school, shall we?" I said, copying her tone. She laughed, and we drove off. Papua was doing well emotionally with her father being absent, I just wanted to make sure she was happy.

I drove into the drop off zone and waved goodbye to Samoa and Papua. I then drove to triplets' school and let them out of the car waving goodbye to them. I kept yawning, so I decided to stop by a café for another coffee on the way to work. I was always early anyway. I spotted a new café, well, one I hadn't been to before and drove into the car park to give it a try.

I entered the café and waited in the short line. While I waited, I looked around the café. The whole place was lovely to look at and overall, quite calming. I would have to come back here some other time. I finally got my coffee and I was back on my way to work.

I can't say that work was the best part of my day, to be honest, I would rather do other things. But as a country, I have certain tasks to uphold. I wandered inside the building and took the stairs to the level my department was on. I unlocked my office door and sat down at my desk. It was nothing special, but it was my space. I had a picture of my whole family sitting on my desk for me to see.

There were two desks, one was mine and the other was Aussie's. We had a shared office. Well, we did until Aussie got himself sent to the hospital. The day started off slowly, and work wasn't going to make it go any quicker. I had gotten a lot of work done last night though, so the day should be straight forward.

Or so I thought.

I heard a knock on my office door. I wandered to myself who it could be. I had no meetings that I knew of. I responded to let whoever was waiting for me in. To my awful luck, it was none other than UK. Dammit.

"Good morning son," He said in an overly chirpy voice.

"What are you doing here?" I asked a little rudely. I did not have enough coffee to deal with him.

"I was just moving into my new office," He grinned.

"What!?" I shouted. I did not need this to start my morning.

"Yep, ever since I left the European Union department, I have been having a little bit more free time, so I thought I would find another department to work in," His voice seemed somewhat sinister.

"This is the Pacific Community department, what are you doing here!?" I shouted again.

"Well, there were no free offices anywhere else, so UN put me here temporarily," UK explained.

"That office is already taken," I said, trying to battle with him.

"Not according to UN," He shrugged, sitting down in Aussie's chair. He started taking the small animal figurines that Australia had been given by his girlfriend, off the desk and placing them messily on the bookshelf in the middle of the room. Every little thing he did made me angry. I managed about an hour before I had to take an early break for another coffee.

The break room was empty, which I was happy with. I grabbed myself a coffee cup and started putting my coffee together.

"You know that tea is better for you," I could hear UK say from behind me.

"Why are you following me? I can report you to human resources you know," I growled angrily.

"No need to be hostile, it's my first time in this department, I need someone to show me around, and, there is no HR, we aren't humans." He said in an innocent tone.

"Find someone else, I am not your friend here," I said, picking up my cup of coffee.

"Oh, come on, who better to show me around than my own son," He seemed to half beg.

"You lost your father privileges, so don't even bother playing that card," I explained passive-aggressively. He didn't respond. He knew I was right. With everything going on, this was going to be hell.