bambi eyes || tradley

23. no place like home

"Where are we going?" Brad curiously looked out the window, pressing his hands and face to the glass as Connor's car made its way through an unfamiliar neighbourhood. Tristan only smiled at his boyfriend's impatience. He was like a little excited puppy on the way to arriving to his new home.

"Patience, Bambi," the dark-haired boy instructed his boyfriend. "We will get there soon."

"Is this going to involve vanilla ice-cream with blueberry and banana toppings?"

"How about if you be patient, I'll make you the largest ice-cream sundae once we get back to the house?" Tristan offered.

"We are not going to be back to the house until Sunday?" the small boy questioned with worried eyes. "We do not have a lot of time, Tris! I do not think this surprise is a good idea right now."

"No, I did not mean the day. A sundae is like ice-cream with added ingredients," he explained.

"Ohh." Bambi smiled widely. "That would be perfect! When are you expecting us to get back to the house?"

"I don't know." Tristan shrugged his shoulders as he carefully pulled the vehicle into the gravel pathway, the rough texture causing Connor's car to slightly bounce as it slowly rolled through. "Does anything look familiar to you?"

"Should it?" Bambi asked with a blank expression. He eyed his surroundings before leaning back into his car seat with a shrug. "I do not think I have ever seen this place."

"It's okay," Tristan reassured him. He squeezed his hand and extended an arm over the curly-haired boy, pushing the door open for him. Bambi squeezed his hand back and climbed out. They automatically interlaced hands once again as they made their way to the front door whilst Bambi darted his eyes around the house. He felt bad for not remembering. Just by the way Tristan had asked him, he had automatically known he should've remembered it, but  after waking up in Tristan's apartment, there was no other memories the brown-eyed could pick up besides these little confusing flashbacks that only involved a lab, a faceless doctor, and a bed inside of a tube.

"Wait." Bambi paused as he took sight of a enormous tree, a large tire hung on a branch by a thick rope. He'd unlinked his hands with the taller boy's and raced off towards the perennial plant pausing his quick footsteps in front of it. Something inexplicable hit him, and now it was suddenly gone. Just like that.

"Bambi, what are you doing?"

He gasped as a little voice rung his head in the same sentence. Except it was feminine and less mature like a child, asking: Brad, what are you doing?

His eyes widened. Dad said we're not supposed to play outside when Mummy and him aren't there watch us.

Bambi remembered picking up the small bike resting against the large tree, anyway. He remembered swinging his little leg over it, not being able to care less what his sister said, and as she threatened to tell their mother once she woke up from her nap, he remembered speeding off down the street. His sister's words were soon forgotten, and he was only thinking of making it to the playground. He was only five-years-old then. He didn't even know where the playground was; although, he thought he did.

The twenty-year-old realised he was unconsciously walking down the street, following the direction five-year-old him took. His footsteps quickened into a sprint as Tristan shoued his nickname after him before the small boy paused in the middle of the road. There was a memorabilia on the grass beside it, kid toys and a teddy bear included in the collected objects. Brad gasped at the realisation. This was where it happened.

"Bambi!" he heard Tristan shout. the older man finally caught up to him, out of breath and sweaty as he dragged the small boy out of the street. "What the hell is wrong -"