Boy Wonder (Phan)

Two.

"It's called heart! It's what you give someone when you want to tell them that you love them without actually telling them verbally." Kicking my legs up and down I was happily sprawled on my tummy with a bunch of pink and red paper surrounding me along with a couple of tubes of glitter. Papa had put me in charge of the crafts and said I had to be careful with the scissors, they weren't the little kid kind either. But of course neither he nor Daddy had gone very far. Showing Christopher one of many hearts that I had made I didn't show him the extra special one I was making just for him. "So make as many as your little heart desires and then we'll hand them out to anyone you wanted to make sure knows is loved!" Poking his cheek I resumed my own crafts without really watching him but it's not like I had to be to careful, Daddy had given him the little kids scissors just in case, the one with the funky design patterns on them. I'd thought ahead and got one with a smooth edge as well. I got a few dots of glue and with the edge of a qtip made sure they were where I wanted them to be before carefully sprinkling some gold glitter onto it without any hesitation. "Papa!" Beaming up at him as he entered the room I showed him one of the hearts I had already completed, this one had black glitter all over that was still falling off but I doubted he'd mind very much. "I made this one just for you! To let you know that I love you!"

He got down on his knees and his dark eyes welled up with tears, "Thank you." His voice was a whisper as he gently traced the somewhat glitter pattern on the front. "This really means alot to me, Little Cub." He wrapped his arms around me and kept me close for longer than I would've thought usual. Upon voicing my concern he pulled away and looked down at my with surprise before laughing, "Never could get anything past you." The smile he was wearing, the one that looked worn out and stretched, slowly burned out. I was suddenly starting to cry and upon that he freaked out and shook his head, "It's not what you think! Me and Daddy aren't fighting again. It's these stupid taxes and bills and such, grown up stuff." He patted my head and laughed, "You don't have to worry about that kind of stuff for a long time, alright? Now go on and play with your brother, he misses you." Looking behind I noticed that he'd stopped cutting and had been watching us probably this entire time, tears welling up in his own eyes. "Love you, Little Cub."

Receiving a small kiss on the top of my head I skipped back happily to Christopher, "You shouldn't be so sad when I'm not right next to you! What about when school comes around? You're a little young to start but I have to be gone for hours!" Those tears were beginning to fall and I was beginning to freak out. Like father like daughter, eh? "Okay, okay. No more sad talk, alright? Do you want to help me give my other heart to Daddy?" Holding up my one of my other hearts with blue glitter falling from it he suddenly beamed and jumped up to join me. Smiling I ran for Daddy's work room even though we'd been told not to bug him. Peeking my head into his room I saw him hunched over a desk, his hands on the back of his neck, and a groan emitting from his lips. "Daddy?" Suddenly he perked up, sitting straight, and turned around to face the both of us. There it was again, that worn out and stretched smile that Papa had been wearing. I left Christopher's side, despite his whimper, and climbed up onto Daddy's lap. "I know we're not supposed to bug you but I just couldn't wait." I had hidden the heart behind my back, he rose a brow and tried to grab it but I shook my head. "I love you Daddy!" I smacked him in the face with the heart and I guess he must've just cleaned it and forgotten to dry it all the way because some glitter stuck to his face. "Oops." I thought I was going to get in trouble but he just wrapped his arms around me and told me that was exactly what he'd needed. "I really love you, Daddy."

Sliding down from his lap after kissing his forehead I took Christopher's hand and exited his room, letting him get back to his boring grown up things. "Alright! Back to work." Getting onto my tummy again I expected him to join me but instead he just stood and looked down at me with those large dark eyes. "Are you alright, Christopher?" Standing back up I checked the back of his forehead like I'd seen Daddy and Papa do plenty of times to me whenever I acted a little off or started coughing. "Does your throat hurt?" I was reciting what they always asked me, but he just shook his head, starting to suck his thumb again. "Do you feel cold?" It was fairly warm in the warm so it would be a slight concern but he just shook his head again and suddenly his tiny arms were around me and he opened his mouth, but it closed just as fast. Smiling I just wrapped my arms around his tiny body and lay my head on top of his, I knew what he'd wanted to say before he shushed himself. "I love you too, Christopher." I don't know how long we stood there but I didn't mind, it was nice. He'd actually attempted to verbalize his thought. Good.