The Sun and The Stars (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 12

"I spy with my little eye something... blue," I say to Kai, watching as he nods his head eagerly before looking at all the toys and stuffed animals he had lined up so we could play the game with them. Now that I saw all the objects that he found around the apartment, I realized how many things he had that he never played with. I was planning to go through them at some point to get rid of some stuff without him knowing since his room was starting to look a bit cluttered.

"Is it Ricky?" Kai asks in an indecisive tone as he points to the blue octopus that I had chosen for the game. I nod my head, making him jump up in excitement while he claps his hands together. "I knew it!"

"Good job, buddy," I tell him, patting his head while he gets comfortable in his spot on the floor again. He scans all the items while I look away, not wanting to know what he was picking since he usually stared at the object for a few seconds before giving me his clue. I glance out the window to see that the rain was still pouring, just like it was when I woke up this morning. I was planning to take Kai to the park today since the weather report said it would be sunny. But they were clearly wrong, so I had to settle for playing games with my son inside.

We had already played doctor before breakfast and even a small game of hide-n-seek with Kai winning multiple times since I knew to choose obvious places for him. Then, we had some breakfast, pancakes with chocolate chips, his favorite. After we ate and I washed him up since he always got maple syrup everywhere, he had lined up all his toys and things and asked if we could play I-Spy, so that's what we were doing. I was happy to be spending time with my little man and he seemed just as enthused to be at home with me instead of at daycare whenever I was working.

"I spy with my little eye... something purple!" Kai said, jumping up-and-down a bit as he picked his item. I scan the lineup of things, making sure to take my time to let him get even more excited that he had picked something good. I already knew the stuffed animal was the teddy bear that Kadri had gotten him for Christmas since it was the thing with the most purple on it, but I wanted him to think that I didn't know.

"Hm," I say, tapping on my chin with a perplexed look on my face to make Kai giggle a bit. He was still shaking with excitement while staring at my face, waiting for me to make a guess. "is it Alfie?"

Kai giggles again, shaking his head eagerly while holding his monster stuffed animal close to his body. "He doesn't have any purple on him, Daddy!"

"Oh, you're right," I say in a playful tone, throwing up my hands in defeat with a small smile, making him giggle once again. I take some more time before pointing to the teddy bear. "the bear?"

"Yes!" Kai says with a huge smile. I look down at my son, glad that the littlest things could bring him joy and I wish I could just capture his mood for a lifetime because I never wanted to see him sad or upset. His smile was the thing I looked forward to seeing every day and I'm so glad that he was using it a lot today because it made me forget about everything bad in the world.

I reach over, brushing some of his curly hair out of his face and he reaches up to grab my hand. He wraps his tiny hands around mine, holding as tight as he could while I scanned the items to continue the game. Before I could give him my hint, there's a persistent knock on the door, making both of us jump. I felt confusion run through my body, making my nose scrunch up lightly because no one was planning to come over since everyone was busy.

Kadri and Ximena were at a meeting with a publisher for one of Kadri's books, so there was no way they were here. My parents had gone out of town for the weekend to visit one of their friends and I had watched them drive away this morning, so they obviously weren't here. And Aria knew that I was with Kai, so there was no chance he would just come over. I look over at Kai with a confused look on my face before playfully poking his chest. "Did you invite someone over?"