#Dino wars | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

superlarva · 9 months

Text

Teen Hardcase with what I think of as the quintessential teen haircut.

Here's Chapter 6 - Shopping of Raising Dominoes! I had fun writing this one. Well, I have fun writing all of them :)

Prologue: 00 Previous Chapter: 05 Next Chapter: 07

Summary: Rex, Hardcase, and Fives go shopping.

CW: Implied/referenced child abuse (not really in this specific chapter, but just to be safe)

Chapter 6 - Shopping

After dropping Cody off at his car, Rex swung back around to his apartment building to pick up Hardcase. He had to admit, it would be helpful to have the teen around at the mall. An extra set of eyes to watch Fives and an extra set of arms to help carry things would not hurt.

That being said, Rex could not help the feeling of anxiety that settled in his gut as he knocked on the apartment door across the hall from his own. Hardcase could be a handful. He was a good kid, but he was loud and energetic to the point where it gave Rex a headache. He just hoped this was not going to turn into him babysitting the teen.

No one came to the door immediately and Fives began to fidget, “Maybe no one’s home.”

Rex frowned and knocked louder, “Well, Kix and Jesse are at work and Dogma and Tup are at school, but Hardcase should be here.”

“The half adult, half kid?”

Rex smirked, “Yeah, the teenager.”

At that the door swung open, revealing Hardcase, headphones dangling around his neck and mouth gaping a bit at the sight of Rex at his door.

“Uh, hey,” Hardcase fumbled with his headphones to pause his music before grinning up at Rex. He gestured to the headphones a little sheepishly, “Sorry, I guess I had it on a little too loud.”

“It’s fine.” Rex shrugged then motioned towards Fives, “This is Fives. He’s my, uh, he’s my son.”

Rex cringed at how uncomfortable he felt introducing Fives as his kid. Fives was his son and he already loved him more than he ever knew he could love anyone, but at the same time, he did not really feel like he knew the boy. And he sure as hell was not confident he deserved to be the kid’s dad.

Neither boy acknowledged Rex’s awkwardness and Hardcase gave Fives a silly salute, causing the boy to giggle and mimic the salute back, “Hiya Fives! I’m Hardcase.”

Fives giggled again, “Hardcase is a funny name.”

Hardcase grinned, “Fives is kinda a funny name too.”

Fives’s eyes glazed over, and the smile dropped from his face, mouth hanging slightly ajar. Rex jumped in quickly and laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder to try and bring him back from whatever thought had just crossed his mind, “We’re going to go to the mall to get some lunch and some things for the kids if you want to join us.”

Hardcase hesitated, looking between Rex, Fives, and the empty apartment behind him, “Am I allowed?”

Rex’s brows raised, he never knew Hardcase to be this cautious, “I wouldn’t be asking if you weren’t.”

Hardcase narrowed his eyes at Rex before something clicked and he grinned, “Okay.” He raced back into the apartment to grab his things.

As Hardcase disappeared, Rex crouched down next to Fives, “Hey, you okay?”

After a beat Fives shifted his gaze to meet Rex’s, the fog lifting from his eyes. He nodded.

“Hardcase is a good kid,” Rex explained, worried that something about the teen had freaked Fives out. He smiled fondly after Hardcase, “Sometimes he just gets into a little trouble because he’s too… energetic. That’s why he’s not at school today.”

“Do I go to school too?”

“You will,” Rex said, gaging the boy’s reaction. He seemed completely fine now. It was… puzzling.

Rex heard Hardcase footsteps approaching and straightened back up before smiling down at Fives, “Soon. But don’t worry about that right now.”

Hardcase reappeared and shut the door, locking it behind him, “Thanks so much, Rex. I was bored outa my mind.”

Rex smirked, “Don’t mention it. You’re only here to help me carry the heavy stuff.”

“Well, I only came for the free lunch,” Hardcase teased back as they headed down the stairs.

By the time they arrived at the food court, Fives and Hardcase were thick as thieves. Fives had asked what Hardcase’s headphones were, which resulted in them learning that Fives had never heard music before and Hardcase introducing him to the medium.

Fives clearly loved the sounds, his grin only growing wider as each new song was played. Rex made a mental note to show the boy Cody’s CD collection when they visited his apartment.

“Alright,” Rex said as they entered the food court. “Lunch first. What do you boys want?”

“Chicken teriyaki!” Hardcase said grinning and darting off through the throngs of people.

“Does that sound good?” Rex asked Fives as he grabbed the boy’s hand so as not to lose him in the crowd.

Fives shrugged.

Rex realized that it was possible the kid had never had chicken teriyaki before and made his way towards a man holding a platter of samples, “Here, you can get a sample from this gentleman to see if you like it.”

As they approached the man he smiled down at Fives, stuck a toothpick in a piece of chicken, and offered it to the boy. Fives looked up at Rex and Rex nodded, “Go ahead.”

The boy took the piece and popped it into his mouth.

“Yummy?”

Fives’s contemplative face devolved into a massive grin.

Rex couldn’t help but smile back, “Should we get more?”

“Can we? Please?”

“Of course,” Rex said, leading Fives towards the back of the line where Hardcase stood, fidgeting impatiently.

They got their food quickly and made their way to a table by the fountain. Rex had been worried about Fives near the crowds of people, but the boy seemed fine. He had even ordered his meal by himself, copying what Hardcase had said just before him.

Rex watched both boys begin to inhale their food and had to remind them to drink some water between bites. After Hardcase shoved the last bite of Fives’s unfinished chicken into his mouth, he turned to Rex, “So, what are we getting first?”

“I was thinking we’d start with the furniture, then move on to clothes and, uh, other things,” Rex said, starting to wish Cody was with him, making a list of everything the boys would need.

“Cool, so Ikea first.”

Rex nodded and began gathering up their trash. Fives and Hardcase started helping him and they were off to the furniture store before Rex knew it.

Rex himself was overwhelmed with the vast selection of children’s furniture at the department store and could tell Fives was as well. The boy never strayed out of arm’s length of Rex and was staring at the displays with wide eyes.

Hardcase, on the other hand, was pushing the cart excitedly and pointing to various different items he thought looked “cool” and asking Fives if he liked them.

Eventually, Rex picked out a couple bedroom sets that fit within what he assumed was his budget and asked Fives which one he wanted. The boy almost shyly pointed to the dark stained wooden set. Rex grinned, that was the one he would have picked. Hardcase seemed a little disappointed that Fives wouldn’t be getting a bed shaped like a rocket ship.

“What about Echo?” Fives asked, tugging Rex’s sleeve.

Rex frowned, he wished he knew more about the other twin, “Do you think he wants the same kind, or a different one?”

Fives shrugged, “I don’t think he’d care.”

“We’ll just get him the same one then,” Rex said, pulling out a pad and writing down the name of the bedroom set. They still needed two twin mattresses and sheets. Rex knelt down to Fives’s height, “Do you want to go with Hardcase to pick out some sheets for your beds?”

Fives shrugged a little reluctantly.

“I’ll just be right over there looking at the mattresses,” Rex said pointing.

Fives still didn’t look convinced, so Rex stood, pointing to the children’s section, “I don’t know about you Hardcase, but I saw a lot of fun looking sheets over there. I guess if Fives doesn’t want to go with you, you can pick out sheets for him and Echo all by yourself.”

Hardcase grinned, catching on quick, “Oh, yeah, I’ll be sure to get the best ones. Princesses and fairies and butterflies.”

Fives’s brows knit together, eyes darting between the two older men. As Hardcase turned away and began strolling over to the sheets, Fives gave in and ran towards the teen with impressive speed, “Wait! Wait, I’ll go with you!”

Rex snorted, a victorious grin plastered onto his face. As good as if felt to have Fives latch onto him, it was important that the boy would be able to separate himself from him, especially when it came time to send him to school.

Once the boys disappeared down an aisle, Rex turned away and headed towards the mattresses. The bed sets Rex was planning on buying for the boys contained frames for twin beds, so he picked out a twin mattress and noted the name down on his pad for later.

Rex grabbed a few pillows as he made his way back over to the sheets section to make sure the boys were still alive. Fives was standing next to the cart, arms full of what looked like sheets decorated with little colorful cartoon planets and spaceships. He looked over to Rex as he approached and held out the sheets, “For Echo?”

Rex smiled and dumped the sheets and pillows into the cart, “Where’s Hardcase?”

“I wanted the dino ones,” Fives explained, pointing up.

Hardcase was scaling the shelving unit to retrieve white dinosaur print sheets from the top shelf, about 4 meters off the ground.

“Hardcase!” Rex hissed, moving to stand under the boy in case he fell.

Hardcase looked down and shot Rex a sly grin, pressing a finger to his lips, before grabbing the sheets and tossing them down into the cart. He then motioned for Rex to move away.

“Don’t you dare,” Rex said through gritted teeth, even as he backed away towards Fives.

Hardcase sprung from the ledge and hit the ground, rolling as he did to break his fall. It made quite an impressive sound and Rex saw heads turning their way. He grabbed Hardcase by the arm and yanked him to his feet, “They have people who get paid to get things from the top shelf.”

“But that was more fun,” Hardcase smirked.

“We don’t climb inside.”

“What about at the rock gym?”

“That’s an exception. You know what I mean.” Rex sighed, turning to Fives, who was watching their back and forth with interest, “Sorry, kid, sometimes Hardcase isn’t a good example. We don’t climb on things in stores.”

Fives nodded, eyes not leaving Rex’s.

Rex shook his head, he knew Hardcase was just trying to be helpful, but he didn’t want Fives to try anything and get himself hurt, he was so small and fragile. “Okay, we got some sheets…” Rex trailed off thinking of what else they needed.

Fives pointed to a stack of quilts across the aisle, “Look! A bigger one!”

Hardcase picked up the quilt off the shelf that Fives was pointing to, “Hey, it matches.”

The navy patchwork quilt did indeed look like it belonged to the same bedding set as the sheets Fives had picked out.

“You want this quilt?” Rex asked, taking it from Hardcase and showing it to Fives.

Fives nodded and bounced a little on his toes, “Yes, please.”

“Alright, now for Echo’s.”

The trio scanned the shelves in search of a matching space quilt for Echo and found it after a few minutes, adding it to their cart.

Rex led the boys over to get lamps and nightlights next before finishing up at Ikea in the rug section.

After they paid and ordered the bed sets and mattresses to be delivered, they put everything into the trunk and wandered over to Target to get more clothes for the twins. Fives seemed to be enjoying himself and Rex was glad, he had thought the mall might overwhelm him too much and they would have to stop for the day after getting the furniture.

It was starting to get late in the afternoon, so Rex decided he would go grab some of the more “boring” essentials for the boys like socks and underwear while he let Hardcase and Fives take care of shirts and pants.

As Rex finished up, he made a quick stop in the toy section to get a few games for the kids. He didn’t really know what the boys would like, so he just picked out what he thought were the quintessential children’s toys: a box of matchbox cars, a deck of playing cards, little plastic animals, Legos, some cool action figure dudes in shiny white armor holding blasters, monopoly, dominoes, and a coloring kit. He was floundering around the kid’s aisle wondering what else he could get them when something fuzzy caught his eye.

Rex found Hardcase hard at work measuring a shirt against Fives’s body. Fives saw him first and pointed over to a cart with a few sets of clothes in it.

Hardcase, seeming to decide that the shirt would fit, flung it over his shoulder into the cart and turned to Rex, “Kix kept all of Tup’s old clothes, so we didn’t get a ton. I figured we could donate his stuff to you.”

Rex nodded, “That would be great actually. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Rex turned to Fives, “I got you a present.”

“A present?”

“Yup,” He revealed a stuffed T-rex from behind his back and presented it to the boy.

Fives’s mouth dropped open, “Is- is that a real one?”

Hardcase laughed, “No, silly.”

Fives reached out to touch it.

“It’s a stuffed animal,” Rex explained, letting the boy take the toy. “Or, I guess, a stuffed dino.”

Fives looked up from the plushie with big innocent eyes, “What do they do?”

Rex paused, looking to Hardcase, then back at Fives, “Er- wait- stuffed animals or- or dinosaurs?”

“Dinosaurs?”

“Yeah, dinosaurs… dinos,” Rex shut his mouth, mind racing at Fives’s blank expression. Had Fives not known what dinosaurs were from the start? Had he first seen them on the pajamas he had picked out for him that first night and then just recognized them on the sheets and wanted them?

Luckily Hardcase covered for Rex as his mind went into overdrive, “Dinosaurs are these animals from a really long time ago. They’re really cool looking. They don’t live here anymore, but they used to. Their bones are underground now, and people like to dig them up.”

“So, this is a pretend one?”

“Yup,” Hardcase said popping the p. “You sleep with it at nighttime.”

“Oh,” Fives hugged the toy close to his chest and closed his eyes. “Like this?”

“Exactly.” Suddenly, a wicked grin spread across Hardcase’s face, “Hey, you know what that dinosaur is called?”

Rex was pulled out of his thoughts and began to blush. He knew where the teen was going with this.

“What’s it called?” Fives asked, oblivious.

“A T-rex, a tyrannosaurus rex.”

Fives’s grin matched Hardcase’s and he turned to Rex, “Like you!”

“Yeah, like me, kid,” Rex sighed, ruffling the boy’s hair. “Do you want to come help me pick one out for Echo?”

Fives’s face lit up, “Are there more?”

“Uh-huh,” Rex nodded, feeling a little self-conscious, “You can pick out a different one if you want too, I just thought…”

“No! I like this one the most! I just didn’t know there was another for Echo.”

“There’s plenty to choose from,” Rex said, leading the boy over to the toy aisle.

When they arrived at the shelves stocked full of plushies, Fives jaw went slack. He kept the T-rex under one arm and began riffling through the toys, trying to find the perfect one for Echo.

Hardcase and Rex stood back and watched the boy with amusement as he seemed to gravitate towards the other dinosaur stuffed animals. Eventually the boy pulled out a blue triceratops and held it out to Rex for approval.

“Think he’ll like that one?”

Fives nodded and popped it into the cart, keeping his T-rex secure under his arm.

@marierg @stressed-cherry @ffdemon @renton6echo @bambambunny @tearfulsolace @rndmpeep @brokenphoenix99 @nerdy-valkyrie @xylionet @tazmbc1 @eyayah123 @the-bad-batch-baroness @sarcastic-nebula @ihaventpickedausername