Lawrence looked up at the tall blond kneeling down next to him, his expression turning into a scowl when he noticed his stupid grin. Couldn't his dad have asked anyone else to pick him up?

  His eyes instinctively moved to his side, seeing the other, much stupider grin of the boy next to him.

  It took a bit of effort for him to break the silence, but after a while he finally did.

  "What?"

  Dyn chuckled, ruffling Lawrence's hair over his hat, earning a scowl. "What, aren't you happy with your new friend?~" He gestured to the boy next to him.

  Lawrence gred at Liam, earning himself a smile. He hated that stupid grin, it reminded him of his uncle's. They weren't friends or anything, and they barely interacted; the few times they did all being initiated by their parents. His dad knew that he didn't like socializing, but he seemed to want him to befriend this brat.

  He did his best to tolerate him, although it was hard with how annoyingly optimistic he was. And now Dyn was being added to the mix. Just great.

  "He's not my friend," Lawrence huffed, stepping away from Liam.

  Liam chuckled, completely ignoring Lawrence’s statement as he spoke. "Of course Law is happy! We're gonna get the wholeeee day to ourselves!" He excimed, his cheerful attitude ruining Lawrence’s mood even further.

  Rolling his eyes, Lawrence retorted "Yeah, unfortunately."

  If he were to care for the others's responses, he would have probably seen them frown, but he didn't give them a moment longer of his attention. He just wanted to get this over with.

  After an awkward silence passed them, Dyn stood back up straight, stretching his arms out. "Unfortunately, huh~ Well, you’re going to spend the day together whether you'd like it or not... Law."

  Lawrence scowled at the nickname, about to protest, but before he could get a word in Liam interrupted him by enthusiastically asking "Are we gonna drive in your pink birdie car?"

  "My car? of course we will~ Only the best for a lovely child such as yourself." The blond answered, reaching down to ruffle Liam's hair, the boy nuzzling into his hand in response.

  Lawrence raised an eyebrow at the two, wondering why Dyn was being so nice to the boy. He was usually very mean to children, calling them weak or pathetic, like he called him. It was surprising to see him act this gentle. Although, he figured that he was always much nicer in public then when he'd bicker with him alone.

  The two continued to chat as they started walking, Lawrence instinctively following them outside as they headed towards Dyn’s car. He had a very extravagant car, covered with feathers all shades of pink to the point it was ugly. He felt disgusted stepping into it, although he managed to keep his mind off things by repying the conversation in his head.

  He wondered how Liam knew the way Dyn's car looked.

  They slowly made their way into the car, Lawrence sitting with Liam in the back and his uncle getting in the driver's seat before he started speeding off. Despite not usually being one to interrupt, Lawrence couldn't help but speak up in the middle of the other two's conversation, needing an answer and not caring what they were talking about.

  "Liam, how do you know what Dyn’s car looks like?"

  Liam tilted his head to the side, losing his line of thought about what he was bbbering on about to Dyn. "Hmm?" He mumbled, "Oh! I saw his car once, and it was soooo cool. We're friends!"

  Lawrence’s gaze moved to Dyn, who although was driving, kept gncing back at them through the rearview mirror. "Friends, you and him?" He questioned.

  Liam nodded enthusiastically before starting to yap about it, as he always did. "Yes! we met like... few weeks ago. I dunno. I saw his car and I thought it was awesome! So I went up to it and we talked, then we became friends! Isn't it so cool? I'm friends with your uncle! And you!"

  "We're not friends," Lawrence corrected, his brain focusing on pointing that out.

  "Don't be mean to your friend, Lawrence," Dyn hummed, shooting Lawrence a childishly provocative smirk through the rearview mirror.

  "We aren't-"

  "Yeah, Law, don't be a meanie!" Liam chuckled, pyfully pushing the other man's shoulder.

  Lawrence scowled at being touched, immediately scooting away, which caused Liam to try and move closer to him on the car seats. "We aren't. And stop calling me that!"

  "Calling you what?" Liam chuckled teasingly.

  "That- that Law thing!"

  "Aww, why not?" Liam fake pouted, before starting to teasingly chant "L-A-W! L-A-W!"

  Lawrence scoffed, gncing over at Dyn for help. "Can you tell him to stop?" He asked, hoping that the man would do a single good thing in his life and shut this annoying brat up.

  But instead of helping him like an adult, Dyn grinned.

  "Why should I, Law~?”

  Lawrence groaned, throwing his head back against the headrest of his seat. This was going to be a long day.

  Lawrence sighed softly, opening the door to his room before slowly walking inside.

  The car ride felt almost torturous, with Liam and Dyn chatting and yapping about this Cir person. From what he heard, he was Liam's dad, although he thought that Mavik was the boy's father. Either way, he didn't want to hear about him.

  Despite his protests, the two kept discussing the man, talking about how wonderful he is. Dyn described in great detail how the man looked, and he was grateful for Liam's innocence, otherwise he wouldn't have been the only one gagging and looking out the window from sickness. He shuddered again at the thought.

  And the hang out wasn't any good, either; Liam was the most obnoxious ball of happiness he'd ever met, and it was incredibly annoying to listen to him babble about how cool some insect he found was. Why was he so obsessed with those things, anyway? He was so weird, why was he being forced to py with him?

  But, eventually they left, and he was now left alone to his devices. Finally, he could focus on something other than that brat.

  He closed the door behind him before sitting down on his bed. He leaned his head back against the wall, taking off his hat.

  The whole day felt weird to him, and he needed to unwind. People often said he acted like an old man in that regard, often getting tired of just socializing, but he couldn't help but find it exhausting. Sometimes he just liked to get his mind off of his life.

  If it weren't around his bedtime already, he would have turned on the TV to watch his favourite fictional science show, but it was too te for that. Despite that, he couldn't help himself craving something to get his mind off of things, which was why he reached to grab a book from his bedside table.

  Despite his behaviour, he really did enjoy himself some good drama. Although, whenever it came to his own personal life, he tended to try and stay away from it.

  Lawrence opened his book, sliding the bck-spotted bookmark off and pcing it aside, before he started to read.

  He sat there silently, only the sound of his steady breath there to be as a white noise while he read. His eyes read the first few lines, taking in the content, before his reading was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a hushed tone.

  It wasn't from his room, not quite. It was from the room next to him.

  He turned his head to the wall he was leaning on, hearing a muffled noise that sounded like his father's voice. If he concentrated and leaned his ear against the thin wall, he could hear what he was saying in the silence of the house.

  "You told her you what!?" Rosinante whisper-yelled, taking Lawrence aback.

  While the other side of the conversation could barely be heard, if Lawrence tried hard enough, he could make out the words of what sounded like a voice coming from a phone.

  "Yes, I said that. And I don't regret it. She’s still living in the house for now, but I gave her two weeks to leave."

  Lawrence raised an eyebrow hearing the words. The voice was hard to recognize, even with his skills, but it intrigued him nonetheless.

  "Mavik..." Rosinante mumbled with a sigh.

  Oh.

  That's who it was.

  ....Of course it was Mavik.

  "You're being too harsh on her. I understand you fell out of love, I really do, but you have a child together for Christ's sake! How do you think she’ll feel while living without her son?"

  "Not a concern. She’s taking Liam with her."

  Lawrence’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard those words. From what he understood, Mavik was kicking his partner out, and making Liam live with her. That surprised him a lot, since he always thought of the man as intelligent. That was such an idiotic thing to do. Sure, Liam was obnoxious, but dads love their kids. His dad did, at least.

  "You don't want to keep Liam?" Rosi sounded fbbergasted as he spoke. Mavik was starting to sound, quite honestly, bitchy. "He's your son. I know you didn't want a child this early, but he's six. He needs a father figure."

  "Then I hope he finds one eventually." Mavik simply replied, his tone gruff and harsh.

  Lawrence felt a terrible feeling in his stomach when he heard those words. The man sounded so cold, he couldn't believe that the ever-cheerful Liam was his son. They were so different, and it made him think about Liam's mom... Did Cir care about Liam as little as Mavik did?

  For some reason he found himself hoping not. Wow. It really was like a book.

  Rosi sighed loudly, causing Lawrence’s attention to snap back to the conversation. "So you're broken up now?" He checked.

  "We are," Mavik agreed with a thoughtful hum. "And... I would appreciate if you don't tell anyone about my connection to yer. Single people with kids are undesirable, no offense to you."

  Now was Lawrence’s turn to get upset. He insulted his father, and it was making him annoyed.

  "Don't you think it will hurt Cir's chance to find someone if you leave Liam with her?"

  "I couldn’t worry less about her future without me in it she's barely even a woman, no one is going to take her with or without a child. It's the least of her worries for now, anyway, she should be more focused on finding a pce to sleep in. I think she managed to get a job in your company again, although a much lower-paying one. Pathetic." Mavik scoffed. "She’ll probably come back crying to me in a few weeks, don't worry about her."

  Lawrence wished he could shut his brain off. He didn't want to listen to the rest of this conversation. This guy was sick.

  "You're really kicking her out so soon? There's no way she'll manage to find a pce to stay in time. And yes, her new sary... isn't the best, to say the least. I think you should let her stay for a few more months."

  By now, Lawrence had made up his mind, and he slowly rose from his bed. Still, the voices ringing in his head were killing him.

  "I don't care where she goes. She can sleep on the streets if she wants to. She’s too full of himself right now, and she's more of a liability than anything." Mavik compined.

  "She’ll return herself to me after she learnt her pce, then I’ll consider taking her back in."

  Lawrence’s fists clenched by his sides at those words, walking towards the door of his room and throwing it open. He just wanted the noises to stop, he just wanted to go to sleep and forget about this mess. It was quite overwhelming for a six year old, even if one as mature as him.

  "Mavik, she was your partner, and Liam is your son... you can't be serious. Why are you acting like this?"

  "They’re but a nuisance to me. And what are you saying I'm acting like?"

  Every step Lawrence took seemed faster than the st one, as he marched to his dad's room. He reached up for the doorhandle.

  "Like... you're acting like you're entitled to her, as if she isn’t even a person... like you deserve her-"

  At that point Lawrence couldn't handle it anymore, swinging the door open as he heard the man speak from the phone.

  "Is that not the case?"

  As the door opened with a loud thud, Rosinante's head snapped towards him, seeing Lawrence standing in his doorway looking unwell. He immediately hung up the call without another word, rushing towards his son.

  "Lolo! Are you okay?" He asked, grabbing his son's face to inspect it.

  Lawrence made a small noise when his dad grabbed his face, taking a step back and pulling his head away. He came up with a quick excuse as to why he came.

  "Yeah, I'm fine... I just-" He sighed, "Just tired. You're being really loud... I can't sleep like this."

  Rosi nodded, sighing softly. "Right, right. Sorry. A friend needed my help," He paused for a moment, which Lawrence could guess was to think of whether the word 'friend' was still the right one to use. "I'll be quiet now, I promise. Let's go to sleep?"

  Lawrence nodded, knowing that this wasn't going to get off his mind but agreeing anyway.

  "Yeah... let's."

  -

  Notes:

  From the people I’ve had read this story, most say he's too smart for a six year old. I say he's too young to use that intelligence for good.