Parentsies (Sequel to Newsies MS-HS AU)

Chapter 30 - M and Em

After a few weeks, Spot and Race got some new foster kids, not twins, but brothers. 8-year-old Maddox and 6-year-old Emmet. 

Maddox and Emmet had an interesting sibling dynamic, Maddox was into pretty much anything that was considered dangerous, and Emmet would go out of his way to protect Maddox from anything. 

"I'm bored," Maddox went into the kitchen while Race was baking.

"You could help me make cookies," Race offered.

"But that's boring," Maddox rolled his eyes, "it's not dangerous,"

"Well, do you know what IS dangerous?" Race started to roll the cookie dough into spheres and put it on the cookie sheet.

"What?" Maddox blinked.

"Eating raw cookie dough," Race smiled, "it has raw eggs and raw flour, which can cause food poisoning,"

Spot was sitting at the table with Emmet, doing a puzzle, and he looked up at Race, as if to say "don't you dare,"

"How bad is food poisoning?" Maddox asked.

"Well, if you get it, you could throw up, you'll feel sick, that kind of thing," Race explained.

"So I wouldn't die?" Maddox figured.

"Probably not, no," Race shook his head.

"Can I have some cookie dough?" Maddox questioned.

"Sure," Race handed Maddox a dough ball.

"MADDIE, NO!" Emmet stood up.

"Can't stop me," Maddox ran to their bedroom, Emmet chasing after him.

"You know how much trouble we'll be in if we give him food poisoning?" Spot pointed out.

"It's edible cookie dough, it doesn't have eggs and I baked the flour before I mixed it in," Race chuckled.

"I should probably tell Emmet that," Spot stood up and went to the boy's room. He whispered to Emmet that the cookie dough wasn't dangerous, then took him back to finish the puzzle. 

Maddox and Emmet were definitely a handful, but Spot and Race were only supposed to have them for a short time. They just hoped that a few months wasn't enough time for them to get attached.

"Just one more piece," Emmet held the puzzle piece up, "which means it goes right here,"

"Great job, Emmet," Spot nodded, "what do you want to do, now?"

"I want to do the puzzle again," Emmet replied.

"We've already done the puzzle three times," Spot pointed out, "maybe we can do something else?"

"No," Emmet shook his head, "I like puzzles,"

"Yeah, Nate liked puzzles, too," Spot sighed, "unfortunately, we only have one,"

"Hey, you've done that puzzle enough times, maybe you can figure it out yourself," Race suggested, "do you want to try that?"

"No, I like having help," Emmet smiled.

"We can't blame him, Race," Spot started the puzzle again, "we'll just have to go get a new puzzle tomorrow after school, huh?"

They heard a loud thud in the boys' room, making all three of them jump up and go see what happened. What they found was Maddox sitting on the ground.

"I fell off the bed," Maddox told them.

"You jumped off the bed, didn't you?" Race blinked.

"Yeah," Maddox admitted.