milliways_bar | (no subject)

Emcee has come downstairs to fetch a meal to take back to his room when he notices the doctor watching his little boy do rolls on the floor. Normally Emcee is not one to go toward children, giving them as wide a berth as possible, but Guppy's child is-- unique. At least to him he is. He's not met any boys wearing tutus before, which is what he was wearing when they last met.

Emcee was a woman when they last met as well. Hmm. That will probably be confusing if the boy remembers.

Oh, well. He would still like to say hello to Guppy.

With his meal in a take-away box, he crosses the room to their table.

"Hallo, Dr. Sandhu-- whoops!" He stops just short so that the boy doesn't tumble into his feet.

"Hey Emcee. Careful Gil." Guppy smiles at both.

Gil looks up at Emcee and smiles. If he is confused by the change in Emcee, it doesn't seem to bother him.

Emcee looks down at the boy. Oh, dear. What a charming little thing. He almost rouses something paternal and nurturing deep inside him, but ha ha, that's ridiculous.

"Are you practicing for your dance class?" he finds himself asking Gil.

"Yes!" Gil says, clapping his hands. "Amma star!"

Guppy smiles. "Yeah... you definitely don't get it from me."

"Oh, are you now? How delightful."

And then he beams at Guppy.

"Which leads me to ask, because I am ever-so curious-- how did your duck recital go?"

"Gil did very well. I fell off the stage." Guppy says, going red.

"Daddy splat!" Gil declares.

"Oh, no," Emcee gasps, stifling a laugh at Gil's commentary. "What exactly happened?"

"Well at the end, Gil sort of ran forward, I thought he was going to fall off, so I leapt forward to catch him. Except he'd squatted down and I tripped over him." Guppy says.

"All fall down!" Gil says.

"That sounds--" He snorts indelicately. "--unfortunate! Oh, dear, I hope you weren't injured too badly."

Physically, as well as his pride.

"Mildly bruised only." Guppy grins. "My own fault. Do you want a drink or anything to eat?"

Gil attempts another forward roll.

"Well, thank goodness for that. I think Gil may have had a better idea of what he was doing than you did," he chuckles as he watches the boy do another roll.

"And no, thank you kindly, but I have dinner that I am taking upstairs," he adds, tapping the box. "I need to sit down and sort out a few things before I return home."

"Fair enough. I was wondering if I could ask you something, actually, if you have time." Guppy says.

"Oh, yes, of course, Doctor, anything at all," he says, curious as to what he might ask, if it's not about dancing like a duck.

"What age did you start enjoying dressing up and performing?" Guppy asks. "I mean, I have four kids and all of them have dressed up, but not as much as Gil does."

Emcee raises his eyebrows.

"Ooh. Now that is a question, indeed."

He tips his head thoughtfully. "I can't say that I know how old I was, because-- well, I have no birth certificate and nobody told me when I was born. But when I was a child, a little older than Gil, I think, I used to sing and dance in pubs for money and food. I didn't dress up, only because I didn't have any 'dress up' clothes or costumes or things like that. It wasn't until around, oh, say, ten years old, perhaps? that I discovered makeup, but I never performed onstage in costume until I was in my teenage years. I was somewhat of a late bloomer, you might say," he adds with a grin.

"However, if I had been fortunate enough to play around in costumes as young as Gil is now, I have no doubt that I would have done so wholeheartedly."

Guppy listens, nodding.

"The other day we had a photography session - he could have gone as a fairy or a super hero, and he was the only boy who went as a fairy, but he wanted to be a boy fairy. We got him dressed up in these little shorts and wings and he bounced around all cute and happy."

"Boy fairy!" Gil declares, remembering.

"One of the mums made rude comments about his scar being on show, but I hope he doesn't mind that too much when he gets old enough to understand it. I can't imagine he'd perform shirtless that often."

Depends on what his chosen type of performance will be, but Emcee refrains from giving Guppy too much to worry about.

"A boy fairy?" This, however, amuses and delights him.

"A boy fairy is a perfectly reasonable thing to dress up as, so never you mind what anyone says," he tells Gil. "In fact, since I believe Halloween is coming up, if you want to be a boy fairy again, I will be a boy fairy, too, just like you."

He turns to Guppy. "What is the scar from?"

Edited 2016-09-18 05:29 (UTC)

"Yes!" Gil seems very excited about this idea, and gets up to give Emcee a hug around the knees.

Then he lets go and looks back at Guppy.

"Daddy too?"

"Daddy what?" Guppy asks.

"Daddy be fairy?"

"...Fine, Daddy will be a fairy." Guppy rolls his eyes and turns back to Emcee. "Gil was born with a heart condition, he had to have open heart surgery twice. He might have to have another operation when he's a teenager and grows a bit, but at the moment he's doing good."

Oh. Emcee wasn't expecting tiny person hugs. Hm, okay!

He tentatively reaches down and gives the boy a light pat on the head, meanwhile shooting a small smirk at Guppy.

"Don't worry about being a fairy, I'll help you out with that if you need it," he murmurs, still amused.

But as Guppy explains Gil's condition, he looks back down at the boy with a more sober expression. Suddenly he seems a lot more precious.

"Well, he does seem to have a certain affinity for an active lifestyle, so that is indeed good to see." He grins.

Guppy gets a picture out of his wallet, of Gil as a newborn. In the picture is a little premmie in a hat with goat ears, with a bunch of tubes and wires.

"Medical science is a miracle." he says quietly. "We didn't even know Fran was pregnant, he was so early. But he's doing good now, and although we have to watch he doesn't go too nuts leaping around, I think the dance class is doing him a lot of good."

Emcee peers at the photo, barely containing the high-pitched aww that most people reserve for kittens and puppies in cages. His heart cracks a little, seeing Gil like that, but the child that he has become is wonderful to see.

"I think the boy is a miracle himself," he says warmly, giving Guppy's shoulder a light squeeze. "Or perhaps just a bit magical."

Guppy smiles slightly, appreciating the squeeze.

"Thanks. I think he's a little miracle too, but I'm biased. Three of my kids were premature, but not quite so poorly as Gil was. Have you met any of my other kids?"

Emcee can count how many children younger than teenagers he's met in Milliways on one hand. The children he met in Bonnie's world don't count.

"I may have seen them around? But no, I haven't met them."

"Ah, I'll have to introduce you some time." Guppy says. "But they're not dancers like Gil, they're each to their own."

He blinks.

"Oh, yes, that would be lovely," he says, though there's a note of uncertainty in his voice. "It really isn't often that people actually want to introduce their children to me, but all right," he adds with a chuckle.

"And I would think that having four children whose interests did not diverge from one another to be a little unusual."

"Why would I not want to introduce you to children? You're clearly good with kids."

As well as a complete sweetie, though Guppy doesn't want to embarrass him.

Emcee utters a short, surprised laugh.

"Me? Oh, I don't know about that. I've never had a reason to be around children in the first place, so I don't know what being 'good' with them means. I work in a nightclub, and not the respectable kind. If anything, people would want to hide their children from me or cover their eyes. That is the society that I come from."

"Yeah, this is Milliways, we gave up on Respectable quite a while ago."

Gil starts doing a little pirouette.

He chuckles brightly. "Yes, well, thank goodness for that, or else I would have had my work cut out for me," he says with a wry smirk.

Watching Gil spin on his toes, he then asks Guppy, "Does he have any upcoming performances?"

"Not at the moment, but I can find the video of our last one if you want to see?"

Emcee raises his eyebrows at him, a grin tugging at his lips.

"You actually do have a video of it?"

He recalls the absolute need to see Guppy wearing a tutu with feathers in his hair.

"I do." Guppy admits, getting his phone out to find the video Fran had sent to him.

It takes him a moment, then he hands the phone over.

"There you go."

Emcee takes the phone and taps the play button (he's pretty familiar with modern technology).

The show begins quite nicely with all the children doing their dancing bits and all. But when Guppy appears onstage, in costume, with little Gil beside him, Emcee lets out a half-laugh, half-awww.

"Oh my god, how adorable are you two," he gushes.

The performance is equally adorable. But then Gil darts toward the front of the stage, and then Guppy follows, and then--

"Oh no!"

Emcee covers his mouth.

And then he taps the screen to replay that part.

"Oh! Oh, that looked like it hurt."

He replays it one more time...