Chapter 411: Papa
Later that evening, after the birthday party was over, everyone started cleaning up the cottage ground.
Some were tidying up outside, gathering wrappers and folding picnic blankets, while others cleaned the inside of the cottage to get things back to normal.
Inside, Princess, Faye, and Eriko were working through the living room mess.
Also Dina was inside..
Faye was standing by the counter, busy washing the stack of dishes from the party snacks, when a loud, firm knock echoed off the front door.
"Papa! Daddy is here! Daddy is here!" Dina shouted instantly, dropping her toys on the floor and running straight for the entry.
Leo walked into the cottage carrying his daughter high on his shoulder, his chest puffed out like he was expecting everyone inside to be thrilled by his presence.
No one cared.
Not even Eriko turned his head around.
"Hello, everybody! Daddy is home!" Leo announced, his voice booming over the sound of running water in the sink.
"This is my home..." Eriko muttered, ignoring the ex...
Princess swung around with her mop in hand, about to yell at Leo for barging in like he owned the place, but when she saw the pure, glowing joy on Dina’s face, she caught herself and stopped.
The birthday girl was genuinely happy that her father had finally come to her birthday, even if it was already late at night and the food was gone.
Leo moved to the living room, sat on the plush couch with his daughter, and opened up the massive, expensive present he had brought along for her. Just as Dina began tearing into the wrapping paper, the front door swung wide again and Malo shuffled into the room.
He was carrying his little sister in his arms, while Donny was clinging tightly to his pant leg, weighing him down so much he had to take dragging, agonizingly slow steps just to cross the living room floor.
Princess, who was still standing near the hallway mopping the floor, spotted her daughter wrapped around Malo’s ankle like a tiny anchor.
"What is happening?" Princess asked, staring at the bizarre sight.
"She doesn’t want to let go of my leg!" Malo cried out, wincing with every inch he tried to move.
He was practically dragging the baby along the floor, pulling her along with every single heavy step.
Princess dropped the mop handle to the side and marched over to remove her daughter from Malo’s leg.
She reached down, grabbing Donny by the waist to yank her away, but the little pup grunted and refused to break her hold.
When Donny realized her hands were slipping off the fabric and she no longer had fingers gripping Malo’s jeans, she opened her mouth and used her teeth instead.
She bit down hard on the meat of his calf.
Malo opened his mouth and screamed so loudly that even the sleeping birds outside in the trees seemed to wake up and scatter into the dark sky.
Finally, after a frantic minute of wrestling and pulling, the chaos came to an end.
Malo was slumped flat on the floor, weeping like a dramatic baby, while Faye sat on her knees next to him, gently patting his head with one hand and feeding him a glazed donut with the other to shut him up.
Meanwhile, Donny was over on the play rug, busy playing with Charlie as if nothing had happened at all. She had only refused to let go of Malo in the first place because he had picked up his sister while the two girls were playing around with toys outside, making Donny jealous and angry.
She hated it, when he called playtime over..
A few minutes later, Paye and Kaye brought the rest of the pups inside the cottage, having finished up the trash cleanup in the yard.
Eriko spent most of the remaining night pacing near the kitchen and cursing his ex-husband, not caring one bit that Dina was sitting right nearby listening to every word.
According to Eriko, Leo never invested his time, money, or energy into anything unless he had something direct to gain from it.
And he was completely right.
Leo hadn’t come all the way out here just to celebrate his daughter’s 7th birthday. He had come for his sister because he was still actively trying to convince Princess to go into the tunnels and kill off the Walkers once and for all.
Eventually, when Princess refused to give him the time of day, Leo turned around and started talking directly to Malo.
The boy was just eating his donut..
Malo’s eyes immediately lit up. He seemed genuinely interested in the business proposition Leo was laying out.
Leo leaned over the back of the sofa and promised Malo full ownership of the teenage nightclub if he succeeded in getting rid of the Night Walkers, making absolute sure not a single one remained in his tunnel network.
That was an insanely good deal, especially considering it was something Malo had openly wanted for years.
Secretly... He wanted to be like Leo...
He had always dreamed of running the Friday night club, standing at the doors, and controlling the crowd. And there is the racing...
Before he could say yes out loud, his best friend stepped up behind him and smacked him hard across the back of the head.
Faye knew the second Malo took a job, he was going to drag her straight into the middle of it.
They already had more than enough dangerous problems to deal with right now without adding a underground extermination quest to the pile.
Besides, even if the Chief wanted the Walkers gone immediately, if the job wasn’t going to be handled by Malo, Faye, or Princess, then it naturally fell on Kiara, who was the only one with the actual power to wipe them out completely.
And is on Princess’s side, she also doesn’t want anything to do with the walkers..
Malo rubbed the sore spot on his head and sadly declined Leo’s offer, though he clearly kept the tempting deal tucked right at the back of his mind for later.
A little while later, Eriko was sitting on the floor in the center of the living room, helping Minny change out of his messy diaper.
Minny looked up into Eriko’s face, giggled, and suddenly uttered his very first words.
"Papa... Papa..."
He was staring straight up, calling Eriko "Papa."
He said it clearly, right in front of his actual parents, who both stopped what they were doing and stared at the scene like they were ready to murder Eriko right there on the spot.
"See? That is what you get for letting my papa babysit your pups. Lalalala..." Dina chimed in, singing out a taunt to the two girls from her spot on the couch.
She had actually been teaching the little pups to say it on purpose for weeks.
She always pointed and said "Papa" to Eriko whenever she was playing with the pups around the cottage, purely because she wanted to teach Faye and Princess a harsh lesson for turning her papa into their full-time personal nanny.
After all, the two of them were always dropping the pups off at the cottage without warning whenever they needed to run off somewhere else.