ATP Kindergarten (Chapter 31)
Title: ATP Kindergarten
Main pairing: Andy Roddick/Roger Federer
Other character: Richard Gasquet
Rating: G
Warning: Possible destruction of innocence, angst
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Richard has trouble falling asleep and wanders out of his bedroom.
Author's note: Betaed by the awesome crystaleyesd as usual. I'm painfully aware of how long this story is. Thank you to those who still have the patience :)
From the previous chapter:
Andy had been shocked at his credit card expenses and had got a job in the kindergarten as the school manager. His day had been going fine until an annoyed Marat - who had failed to impress Juan Carlos by helping him out with his ‘tennis video’ class- had bothered him and caused him to drop the fork tray. The two had gotten into a fight and Roger had to serve tennis balls at them while Tim had demanded them to follow him to his office.
Chapter 31: All the things Coach Andy has to do (II)
‘Meh…’
Richard rolled over to his side, hugging his stuffed crocodile a little tighter. He was usually a good sleeper but tonight, he had trouble falling asleep.
‘Dad told me to count lambs but it never works! I’ve tried with crocs, penguins, lions, and elephants too but it never really works!’
The six year old thought hard, hoping that he would be able to come up with a better idea.
‘Ah, I remember dad heating up some milk for me. I got on the Dreamland boat easily with that warm glass of milk.’
He was happy to retrieve such an important piece of memory from the back of his mind. All he had to do now was to see if dad was awake.
‘I’ll be back soon, Crockie.”
Chu.
After giving a peck on his stuffed animal’s tail, the boy got out of bed and tiptoed out of the bedroom. He didn’t want his dad to be alarmed, thinking that there was a thief in the house because of his footstep.
‘Hmm… is he in Dreamland?’
Richard put his ear on the door and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how late or early his dad used to go to bed. He was the one who always fell asleep first.
Slap.
The six year old jumped as he heard a violent sound. Someone must have hit someone.
‘What’s going on?’ He put his ear back on the door and listened.
“Who’s been the naughty boy? Huh?”
“Me. I was. I’ve been a bad boy.”
Slap.
Richard put his hands over his mouth, trying to keep a frightened gasp coming out of it. He obviously recognized the voices. His dad was punishing Coach Andy.
‘Should I go in and help? What should I do? Since when does dad hit people?’
It was hard to think straight when the sound of a hand hitting a naked butt kept echoing in his ears.
“I’m sorry! Won’t happen again! Forgive me, Roger!”
Slap.
“I’ll do anything! Just give me orders!”
He heard Coach Andy cry out again and felt little tears creep in his eyes. He was scared. He had never seen or had even imagined his dad do such a thing. He had heard about other kids getting spanked when they did something really bad but he himself never got spanked and the sound of Coach Andy getting punished was only growing louder.
‘Crockie!’
The boy ran back to his room and noticed that his hands were shaking as he locked the door. He couldn’t ask dad for warm milk even though he needed some, more than ever.
“Boohoohoo…”
Richard cried into his pillow and put his hands over Crockie’s ears. He didn’t want the crocodile to hear him cry and feel bad.
‘It’s okay, Crockie. He’s not going to hit you.’
As tears smeared onto the small pillow, Richard remembered how grandma had told him about dad’s younger days. There were times when he had destroyed his racquet on court and he had behaved even worse in his junior years, getting kicked out of tennis clubs.
‘Maybe the bad him is back!’
Richard shuddered with fear, and wondered if he should tell mom about it.
‘Wait. Did dad hit mommy when they stopped loving each other? Is that why they’re not living together anymore?’
He had been told from both of his parents that because people change little by little, sometimes it just happens that two people in love get to fall out of love after a long time, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility of mom getting hit. He didn’t think his dad would have been such a monster but he often saw on the news how some people hit their wives.
‘Maybe they lied so I wouldn’t get hurt.’
A very interesting scenario was developing in the young boy’s head while the father didn’t even have a clue that his son was fully awake.
The next morning, Andy had to fetch the master key to open the door to the boy’s bedroom. The alarm clock was ringing incredibly loudly, but apparently, the boy had been too deep in his sleep to notice it.
“Hey, sweetheart, time to go see Ernie.”
Andy shook the little boy and gasped when the six year old opened his puffy eyes.
“You had a bad dream? What happened?”
He had already been worried when he had found the door locked. Now, he was worried sick enough to feel his throat tighten up.
“Are you okay, Coach? Does it hurt? You have to go see Mario!” There were tears in the boy’s eyes as he buried his face in the American’s chest.
“Hmm? What are you talking about? I’m fine whatever it’s about.” Andy rubbed the boy’s back and placed affectionate kisses on top of his head.
“Breakfast is ready, boys!”
They both heard Roger call out from the kitchen, and Andy noticed with a surprise how Richard sprang out of bed and flew out of the room.
‘Whoa. There must be a hungry monster inside him.’
Growl.
Andy realized that he himself must be hungrier than he had thought and hurried to the breakfast table. It had been a long, hard night, but probably one of the best ones he and Roger had ever had.
“What’s with the red eyes, sweetie? Omelet looks that bad today?” Roger chuckled as he took a good look at its shape. It didn’t look particularly angsty.
Richard didn’t answer. He just shook his head and held up his shaking hand to pick up the fork.
Clatter.
The fork dropped on the floor and Richard burst out into a sob. “Boohoohoo…”
Andy and Roger looked at each other, completely taken aback at the boy’s reaction.
“Richie, is everything all right? Does your wrist hurt?”
Roger tried to touch his son’s wrist but Richard jerked back.
“Okay, okay. I won’t touch it if it hurts. Let’s get you to a doctor, okay?”
“Wait, Rog. I don’t think it’s the wrist.” Andy said, remembering that the boy had hugged him just fine a couple of minutes ago.
“Then, what is it? Was this your favorite fork, dear? I’ll wash it nice and clean right away. Don’t worry.”
Roger picked up the fork from the floor and turned around towards the sink when Richard asked between sobs.
“Are you going to… hit me?”
A knife twisted inside the father’s heart as he tried to process the information.
“What?”
“Are you…?” The boy’s voice failed to hide the terror that coursed through his body. He was terrified.
“Why would daddy hit you?” Roger turned around to face his son. He was shocked, to say the least.
“I… I… dropped it.”
“The fork? So? It’s no big deal.”
“But Coach Andy dropped forks yesterday and… and you hit him!!”
Richard’s tone was accusing and Roger’s jaw dropped in disbelief. He didn’t know if he should laugh at how his son thought he had hit his boyfriend for dropping forks when they had only been enjoying some playful time or if he should cry at how his very own son thought he would hit him just because he had dropped a stupid fork.
“I heard it! He said sorry! But you kept hitting him! How could you? Boohoohoo…”
Andy felt his heart warm up and couldn’t resist hanging a smile on his face. The six year old was obviously very scared while accusing his dad but he was brave as he stood up for his favorite coach. Andy was touched; a little boy who wasn’t his family by blood was actually defending him against all odds.
“Aww, sweetie, he wasn’t hitting me because I dropped forks. We were doing role plays! You know what a role play is, right? Your dad was a cop and I was the bad guy. I robbed ten banks and got caught when I was robbing the eleventh.”
“Role play?” Richard looked up with a confused look on his face. “You mean, like acting?”
“Yeah! Like acting.” Andy gathered the boy in his arms and made him sit on his lap.
“But I heard him spank you! Who’s the naughty boy? Slap! Slap!”
‘Oh, holy mother of god, we need soundproof walls in that room. We thought he was asleep! What was he doing out there?’ Andy thought as he made sure that Richard felt safe in his caressing arms.
“It wasn’t like that, pumpkin. He was just making similar noise with his hands.”
Andy picked up both of Richard’s hands and made him clap. “Like this. One hand was on my butt and he clapped.”
Richard was confused. Something in his gut told him that this wasn’t the entire truth but he couldn’t find a weak point in Coach Andy’s explanation.
“I… um… thought that it sounded a little different from a clap.”
Both Roger and Andy’s heart dropped six feet at the boy’s words, but Andy recovered nicely. “Ahaha, it was late so I’m sure your hearing was off. Ears can get tired pretty easily, you know. Now, are you ready to eat? Daddy will get you a new fork.”
Roger nodded and opened the drawer of the kitchen counter. He left a small fork in his boyfriend’s hand before leaving the kitchen. “I’ll join you shortly.”
Andy bit his lips as he read the pain written all over his boyfriend’s back. Apparently, the father was devastated and Andy felt bad that he couldn’t comfort both the dad and the son at the same time.
“Nom nom…”
Now that the horrible mystery was solved, Richard was enjoying his omelet, happy that the American was feeding him. He wouldn’t have thought about eating food off someone else’s fork if he had been with Ernests, but the baby boy didn’t have to know about this childish side of his.
“What’s up with daddy? He’s not hungry?”
Andy wanted to yell ‘He’s heartbroken because of you!!’, but he knew that it wasn’t fair to the six year old. He was certain that Richard had no intention to tear his dad’s heart; he had just been frightened and worried that his dad might lay a hand on him.
“Daddy’s going to be fine. Can you promise me that when he comes back, you’ll give him a big hug?”
Richard nodded while he opened his mouth for another piece of omelet. He was so relieved to confirm that his dad wasn’t a bad person. He loved his dad very much and he knew dad loved him back. He wanted things to stay that way until they both grew old and had really grey hair.
“Good boy. You keep eating, okay? I’ll go check on daddy.”
“Okay. Yum. Can you tell him I love him? And his omelets too?”
It took a lot to make Andy Roddick swallow hard because tears threatened to form in his eyes, but an innocent boy who loved his dad could do the job so easily.
“Sure thing. That’s the first thing I’m going to tell him.”
Andy headed towards Roger’s bedroom and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
The voice was so weak and broken that Andy had to take a deep breath before walking in.
“He wants me to tell you that he loves you.”
“He does?”
Roger had a sad yet hopeful look on his face and Andy added quickly, “And your omelets too.”
“Haha… He probably loves those omelets more than me.”
Of course, the Swiss didn’t mean it but it had hurt so much to hear his boy accuse him of such violence and it had killed him to think that he had been worried about getting beaten.
“You’re the one he loves the most in this world, Rog. It’s not Mirka. It’s not Ernie. It’s not crocodiles. It’s you, Roger. It’s you.”
Well aware that it sometimes helped to hear out loud words that were pretty obvious, Andy kept whispering the same thing over and over again until Roger’s head laid on his shoulder and his T-shirt started to get soaked.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. He was just scared. He didn’t mean to hurt you in any way, you know that. It’s going to be all right.”
Andy felt Roger tighten his grip around his waist. The shoulders that had always looked strong enough to carry the expectations of his country and the tennis world didn’t look strong today. They rather looked like they would collapse if someone decided to lay an extra bit of burden on them.
“Roger, shh, he didn’t mean it. He would never hurt you on purpose. Our little boy was confused and worried, that’s all. He loves you today just as much as he did yesterday.”
Andy wished he could switch places with his boyfriend. It made his heart ache to see the Swiss suffer.
“Daddy…?
Richard was standing in the doorway, his right hand strongly gripping his precious fork.
“I’m sorry!!”
Andy cursed inwardly as he figured that the boy had overheard him.
“I’m sorry, daddy!”
Andy let go of Roger and Richard seized the opportunity to cling to his dad’s waist.
“Don’t cry, daddy. Boohoo… I’m sorry!”
The American flinched as the boy started yet another round of sobbing in his dad’s arms.
‘I can’t deal with two crying Federers at the same time. What did I do to deserve this? Ah right, I’m the one who dropped those stupid forks and asked for a punishment. Damn me.’
Andy spread his arms and hugged the two crying babies.
‘I’m going to get back at Marat for this. If he would’ve left me alone as I told him to, I wouldn’t have dropped that damn fork tray! He must be enjoying his big, fast breakfast by now while I’m consoling these crying monsters!’
Gritting his teeth, he tried to come up with a nice revenge plan until he heard a sound louder than the sobs.
GROWL.
“Eh, sorry, guys. I’m hungry. Really hungry.”
“What a way to make us stop crying.” Roger’s eyes and nose were red but there was a glimpse of sunlight in his voice.
“What can I say? I must be talented at dealing with crybabies.”
“We are not crybabies.” The two Federers said at the same time.
“Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go attack those omelets!”
Andy led the way and Roger carried his son in his arms, relieved that the boy understood that it had only been a huge misunderstanding.
Chu.
“Love you, daddy.”
The elder Federer felt like crying once more but he didn’t want to hear his boyfriend’s stomach growl again. Andy could make a lot of sounds and growling certainly wasn’t the prettiest one.
“Love you too, sweetheart. Love you so much. Please remember that.”
Roger put the little boy back in his seat and kissed his adorable boyfriend on the cheek. “Love you too. What did I do to deserve you?”
Andy beamed so brightly that Richard giggled.
“You look like Mr. Sunshine, Coach! From Ernie’s new coloring book!”
“I do? I don’t know who he is yet, but I’m sure he doesn’t have an awesome boyfriend like me!”
Andy grabbed his boyfriend’s face and kissed him on the mouth before Roger pulled back.
“Andy, we have a minor here.” Roger protested weakly.
“You should’ve thought about that before saying such lovely words.”
The American gave the Swiss another quick kiss and dived into his plate. He was starving and he didn’t want to disrupt the beautiful atmosphere with another round of growls.