↬ language, secrets
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now
you smile as you approach the preschool classroom, hearing your son ask his teacher a question. it sounds like their afternoon group, which it usually always is by the time you get to picking him up.
you lean against the doorway, watching as your little guy leans forward, pointing to the picture on the page.
"the kissing hand!" finn squeals. "my mama and i do that!"
one kid that you remember is named lewie looks toward the door, and he reaches for your son, pulling at his sleeve.
"mommy!" your son squeals as he spots you in the doorway of his classroom. he jumps up, running into your open arms.
"told you i'd be back soon!" you coo, giving his cheek a kiss.
"yeah!" he wriggles in your hold and you set him down, letting him run to his cubby to grab his stuff.
finn slips on his rocket zip up, and slings his small backpack over his shoulder.
"okay, i'm ready mom. let's go!"
"i need to talk to your teacher real quick, okay?" you tell him.
ms. macy nods at you, indicating she heard you, before she goes to finish the book.
you ruffle finn's dirty blonde locks. he has ricky's brown eyes, and his loose curls are also definitely from ricky, but he thankfully got his blonde hair from your estranged father.
finn sighs, going to grab a sheet of paper and markers from the art shelf. he sits down at one of the three tables in the classroom and pulls out a gray marker, looking down at his jacket for reference as he does a crude outline of a rocket ship.
ms. macy finishes up the book, closing it and setting it in her lap as she smiles at her group of children.
"finn?" she calls. your son stops his drawing of his rocket ship and looks up at his teacher. "what was your favorite thing you did at school today?"
finn hums, placing his chin in the palm of his small hand as he thinks. he smiles as he says, "playing rockstar with soren."
that's something he has in common with his dad, his love of music. not that he knows that. you love music too but more so listening to it— not creating it.
the rest of the kids go, sharing their favorite part of day ("taking a nap!" is your personal favorite). then ms. macy lets the kids go play and gets up to walk over to you.
"good afternoon, y/n!" she greets, smiling warmly. "what's up?"
"hey, yeah. so uhm, finn and i are going to go to salt lake for two weeks or so for christmas. is that alright?"
finn's ears perk up at that news, and he looks up at you, a big smile on his face.
"we're going to visit grandma?" he asks excitedly. "and auntie marta?!"
you smile at him, nodding once before turning back to ms. macy.
"yeah, that should be fine! i would just call carol on monday and tell her as well."
"wonderful," you smile at ms. macy. "so we're leaving tonight, yeah. we'll see you in january?"
"see you!" she smiles.
finn shoves his drawing at you, then turns to give ms. macy a big hug.
"merry early christmas, ms. macy." he says before skipping out of the classroom.
"finn michael!" you call after your son. you sigh, wishing ms. macy "happy holidays" before you run after your son.
he's waiting at the front door of the center for you. you lean down to his height, cupping his face.
"finn, i love you but you can't run away from me, okay?"
"i wasn't going to go out to the car though!"
"finn."
"okay," finn sighs. "i won't do it again, i'm sorry mama."
you place a kiss against his forehead, grabbing his hand as you walk out to the parking lot. you unlock your car, opening the door to the backseats. finn throws his bag in the car, climbing into his carseat. you know he can do it himself, but you go to buckle him in before closing the back door and climbing into the driver's seat.
"mom, when are we going to grandma's?"
you turn in your seat to smile at your son.
"today! our stuff is in the trunk. we'll be there by six."
"yay!" finn cheers, throwing his arms in the air. "mom, do you have the tablet? so i can finish goblet of fire?"
his love for harry potter? he got from you.
thankfully, you had yet to pull out of your spot, so you reach into your backpack on the passenger side floor and pull out the tablet, reaching behind you and handing the device to finn.
he thanks you as he reaches and takes the device from your hands, pressing the on button. you know he had watched some of the movie last night so you're not totally surprised when you hear the yule ball scene.
you smile to yourself, turning the key in the ignition. you pull out of the parking spot, and turn on to the road.
—♫♪♬—
your younger sister, marta, is the first to come out to greet you as you pull in to your mother's driveway. you can guarantee she just wants to grab finn and run into the house to do something with him.
sure enough, she opens the back door, unbuckling finn. he flings his arms around her neck, and she happily wraps her arms around him.
"auntie marta!" finn plasters a kiss to her cheek and she lets out a loud laugh before giving him a cheek kiss in return.
marta is sixteen, the same age you were when you found out you were pregnant; you know she's always been a little salty about you moving to mapleton.
you still remember the argument it had arised when you asked your mom if you could go live with your aunts ("you realize this means i won't ever see my niece or nephew, right?").
you laugh to yourself as you remember your mom's response ("that's my grandbaby you're talking about. you think i'd let her keep us from seeing them?").
"i missed you, buddy!" marta pats finn's back. "you want to go watch this movie? it's called beetlejuice, you'll love it!"
"no, i can't." finn says, frowning. "i'm not finished with goblet of fire. can we watch that? please?"
"sure!" marta nods. "of course we can."
"yes! then we can watch beetlejuice!"
"perfect!"
marta and finn head into the house, leaving you to grab the bags. there's not many, about four if you include your backpack and finn's little one, but the duffels are heavy.
you sigh, turning off the car and stepping out. being back in salt lake hits different. you love mapleton and your aunt cindy and tia rosa, but salt lake would always be your home.
maybe you and finn could move back here someday, move into an apartment. it helps that finn loves it here too.
you go to open the trunk, pulling out the duffels. you'll get the backpacks tomorrow. you set the duffels on the driveway to close the trunk, before picking them up and lugging them into the house.
"ugh!" you groan, dropping them by the doorway.
"sweetie?"
"mom!" you run into the kitchen, where your mom is cutting cucumbers in preparation for dinner. you throw your arms around her, squeezing tightly. "i've missed you, mama!"
"awe!" she coos, setting down her cutting knife. she wraps her arms around your waist, squeezing tight. "where's the little guy?"
"with marta," you tell her.
"ah."
"yeah."
"no, more!" you hear finn tell marta. "i've already seen this part too! voldemort is back!"
you and your mom laugh at finn's pronunciation of voldemort. he doesn't say the "r", which he's got correct, but he over-enunciates the "e" so the name comes out "voldeemort."
"i love that kid," your mom says. "you did good."
"he's great, huh?" you pull your bottom lip between your teeth, taking a seat on one of the island chairs. "so where will finn and i be sleeping these next two weeks?"
your mom rolls her eyes at you.
"y/n, i swear. you ask this every time and you know damn well your room is always the same as you left it, and my old scrapbooking room is finn's."
your lips turn up in a small smile.
"oh, and tomorrow we're going to salt lake center for some last minute christmas shopping," she wipes her hands on her valentine's apron you swear she's had since you were maybe ten. she scowls. "i forgot to get finn's big present, so hopefully they still have it in stock."
—♫♪♬—
"hey finn, let's go to build-a-bear!" you say to your son, whose eyes light up like the fourth of july.
"really?"
"yeah! i'll get you one of your christmas presents early."
you'd only gotten finn two small presents this year. it was always your mom who got finn his big presents for christmas, though you would always try to get him something big for his birthday.
you work at a gas station in mapleton. it's not the best, but it's enough to pay the bills you got to pay (you're in charge of the energy bill and half of the water bill at your aunt cindy and tia rosa's place) and occasionally get finn a few new toys. but thankfully, your son wasn't much worried about having a lot of toys. he'd rather curl into your side with his favorite stuffed animal of the month and listen to you read to him.
"yes! let's go!"
yeah, you want to get finn something he'll for sure love for a while. but you also need to break off from your mom and marta so they can go hunt down his big gift.
the two of you say goodbye and head off to find the build-a-bear.
it seems right away, finn knows what he wants. he grabs two fawn and skips to the stuffing machine, handing them over to the young girl waiting.
"both soft please?" finn asks her, folding his hands behind his back.
"of course!"
when she's finished, she hands the fawn back to finn and he hugs them both to his chest tightly before smiling his brightest smile.
"they're perfect!" he tells her. "thank you!"
you get them sewn up, then he runs off to get clothes and accessories for the fawn. he grabs a dress for one of the fawn, ballet shoes, and a flower crown; then a suit for the other fawn along with two pairs of red and white shoes.
they remind you of east high's colors.
"come on, mommy. let's go name them!"
when finn's excited, you compare him to a ping pong ball— all over the place. he gets on a computer then remember he needs help spelling.
"mommy!" finn calls to you, even though you're right behind him. "help!"
"i'm right here. what's up?"
"i want to name this one," he lifts up one of the fawn, pulling the suit outfit with it. "franklin."
"okay. let's try sounding it out, okay?"
finn nods, his tiny fingers hovering over the keys.
"fff—"
"f!" finn shouts out.
"yeah! rrr—"
"r."
"aaa—"
"a."
he types up franklin, with your assistance, and who he belongs to.
"okay mommy, you need to look away for this one." finn says, and you laugh. he frowns at you. "no, for real!"
"okay!" you turn around, quickly checking your phone to see if your mom or sister had texted you yet. "you done?"
"nope!" finn pops the p. "how do you print?"
"do you see the little printer icon?"
"no."
"can i look?"
"no!" finn snaps. "excuse me! i need help but my mom can't look!"
a worker approaches and finn politely tells them what he needs help with. the worker helps finn print out the birth certificate and you go to purchase the animals, curious as to why your son picked two.
nearly seventy dollars later, you can say this is your big present to make it up to him for being unable to do so for his birthday.
finn bounces up to you, grabbing one of the fawns and the dress, slippers, and crown from the bag. he sits down on the floor, ripping the dress from the cardboard hanger and putting it on the fawn. then he ties the slippers on her and finally sets the crown on her head.
he jumps up, handing the fawn to you and pulling the birth certificate from behind his back.
"i know you paid for it, but i wanted to get you something. so you have franklin's mama because franklin's her baby, like i'm your baby."
you can't help the couple of tears that fall down your cheeks as you lean down to give your son a big hug. he wraps his arms around your neck and you stand up, one arm under his bum to support him, and grab the bags.
"can i have franklin?" finn asks.
with some struggle, after all there's a preschooler clinging to you, you pull the fawn out of the bag and hand him to finn, who holds him to his chest.
"mom, i love you." finn says as the two of you walk out of build-a-bear. he puckers his lips for a kiss, and you quickly give him one.
"y/n?" you stop in your tracks at the voice, your hold on finn tightening ...
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧