Flower Crowns and Leather Scars

B:2 C:4

An old part of Chase Brody would say he wasn't worried about the villain. That he should just enjoy the day out with his kids. It was a sunny day, quite warm for the month of August, so the children were playing at the park under their fathers supervision. An old part of Chase would scold himself for his mind being on the glitch rather than his children, but that part of him was gone and had been replaced with the new part that was indeed worried. Worried because he hadn't seen him all week. It was Saturday, the whole week had been full of returning home to a cozy warm apartment without the soft sound of static in the air. Brody thought he should've been grateful for the silence, but his heart was telling him otherwise.

He didn't realize how much he longed for the cold now instead of the usual warmth of his home, until he'd been without it for the past couple of days. His attention was brought back to the park when his daughter Max ran up to him. "Daddy! Come play!" A smile quickly formed on his face as he scoop his girl up in his arms and walked over to the large play set. "What do you want to do Max?" The little girl held her arms up in the air. "Monkey bars!" Chase chuckled bringing her over to the bars where his son, Grayson, was sitting in the grass watching. "Can you do them on your own?" Maximum nodded putting her arms up and grabbing onto the bars.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you go." Chase said as he slowly let go of his daughter keeping his hands lingering just below her in the event she was to fall. Max made a small grunting sound before she moved her arms out slowly to grab the next bar. "There ya go." Chase muttered looking down to give Grayson a quick smile which was happily returned. The father looked back to his daughter as she moved her other arm to join the right on the second bar. "You got it honey." Max smiles putting all of her strength into gabbing the next bar only to lose the grip she had on the other and fall right into her dads arms. "I gotcha." Chase smiled as she's poured. "Again!" With a small laugh Chase lifted his daughter up again."I can do it this time!" She huffed determined. Chase smiled looking away for a brief second. 

This is when their eyes locked.

The other man seemed surprised that Chase had noticed his presence. Their faces mirroring each other with looks of shock. Chase glanced from him back to his daughter and gave the man a look with his eyes hoping he'd understand it. Said man didn't move only continuing to stare at Chase. With a sigh Chase removes his hands again as his daughter tried the monkey bars again. This time, she got four bars through before falling. However, she fell to the ground as her dads attention had briefly slipped from this world.

"Oh I'm so sorry baby!" He went to apologize, but Max stood right back up after dusting herself off. "I'm fine daddy! I'm a big girl." She said climbing o the ladder to try once again. Chase hit his lip looking back over to the bench, pleased to see the other still there. "You guys stay here, I'll be right back." After getting an okay from both children, Chase moved towards the man sitting in the bench. 

"You just gonna drop your daughter like that?"

"I didn't drop her."

"Yeah cause you never caught her."

Chase huffed blowing some hair out ignore his face. "What have you been up to?" He watched as the man flinched lowering his head. "Nothing." The former hero hummed looking the man up and down. He had his regular clothes on, the only clothes he had it seemed, and the hood was once again up. He'd only looked like this before and that was the day he passed out on Chase. "Need some water?" 

The glitch looked back up, face melting into a small smile as he shook his head. "No, thanks." Chase returned the smile and decided to sit down next to him. "How have you been?" Anti asked. Chase shrugged with a sigh. "Bored. This week was bland. Jack, one of my coworkers wasn't at the shop at all this week so it was just me and Marvin, another coworker, so things were quiet and a little awkward." Anti let our a breath of air that sounded like a laugh. "Eventful." He joked. Chase smiled shaking his head. "Shut up." He looked down at the ground. "I missed you."

The other man tensed looking over at Chase. When they me eyes, Chase could see dark bags under the mans eyes. "You look tired." He commented. Anti nodded looking back at the ground. "I am tired. So very tired." He muttered. Chase sat up straight finding there to be more behind Antis words then what he was letting on. Chase went to give the man a hug frowning when he flinched away. "Anti..." Gently he grabbed the mans face turning it towards him. Slowly, he slipped the hood off of his head, cupping the glitch's face. "What's going on?" Anti refused to meet his eyes. "Same as last time, shit at the gang."

Chase huffed. "Yeah except last time I didn't care." Chase bit his lip at his words when the villain flinched. He sighed leaning forward until their foreheads touched. "Nonetheless, I care about you now. Honestly, it scares me how much I care. To go from hating you to-" Chase stopped himself as he saw the tears welling in the others eyes.

It hurt, actually hearing that he hated him...

Chase looked away from Anti. He'd almost said that he loved him. But he didn't right? It was only a small crush, something that would go away in the next month and they'd be back to hating each other.

Except

He didn't want that, and it hurt his own heart to think about hating Anti. "I-" he began again. "I care Anti...I care about you. So please." He met Antis eyes again swallowing a little when he saw the streams heading down his cheeks. "Please tell me what's wrong." Anti let out a shaky breath that was on the verge of a sob.

"C-Chase...I-"

"Daddy!"

Both men pulled away suddenly as the two kids came running over. "Daddy you missed it, I did it!" Max cheers hugging Chase legs. Chase had put a hand to his chest to calm his beating heart. "Max, I think you scared daddy and his friend." Grayson giggled. Max did the same just hugging Chase tighter. "Good job baby, I'm sorry I missed it." He said ruffling Max's hair. Grayson looked over at Anti who flinched at the child's stare. "Why are you so sad?" Chase tensed looking over to Anti. The glitch turned his head away not knowing how to respond.

He'd never really engaged with a child before (if you don't count Zoey hugging his legs every now and then). He rose a hand to his face to hastily wipe the tears away and tried to force a smile out but it wouldn't come. Grayson gasped quickly climbing up onto the bench and into Antis lap. Chase let out a small noise of protest. 

He was getting more comfortable with Anti but wasn't exactly sure how he felt when his kids were involved.

Anti apparently sensed this in Chase and say as tense as one could be. But Grayson gave him a big smile before wrapping his arms around Antis neck. Anti flinched sending a panicked look to Chase both a plea for help and a silent apology. However, Chases tension had eased as he smile. Leave it to his kids to make a stranger feel better. "Hey Max, why don't you give him a hug too. I think he needs it." If Antis she's could go wider they would as Maximum crawled up beside he brother and did the same.

"Go on and let it out Anti." 

Let what out exactly? He didn't know. All Anti knew was that the next moment he had his arms wrapped around two little angels and was sobbing his heart out. At some point in time, he'd have been pulled to his feet by Chase to be brought into a hug. A hug that was just like the one they shared that night on the couch, only with Anti on the receiving end this time. The two children would at some point latch themselves to the two men's legs and giggle quietly.

But at no point, would they see the man on the other park bench. Who had been watching just as long as Anti. And who got up with a grin on his face as he stared at his phone. The newest photo being that of two children playing on the monkey bars.