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"Dad, look!", Noah exclaimed, climbing into Oliver's office chair, "I'm you!"
He looked tiny and adorable in the chair, his feet not quite touching the ground and an exaggerated scowl on his freckled face. Oliver had taken him in here to look for an eraser for Noah to do his homework because he lent his own to a classmate and forgot to ask them to return it.
Oliver chuckled. "Well, Mr. Ritz, even teachers need erasers sometimes. So let's see where I put mine."
He opened a drawer on his desk and immediately made a find. He took the eraser and looked at Noah who was carefully rolling the chair away from the desk for more space. He began gleefully spinning around in Oliver's office chair, now that the desk wasn't in the way.
"Be careful, Noah.", Oliver said, already in position to drop the eraser and step in in case something happened.
His son's laughter sounded through the room as his long curly red hair flew with the wind created by the swift spinning motion of the chair. After a few spins, he reached for the windowsill to stop because he was probably getting dizzy, subsequently knocking a potted plant to the ground.
The chair came to a stop at the same time a loud crash could be heard. The laughter died down and Noah's face fell. He stared from the broken pot to Oliver and back at the shards. Oliver sighed.
"I'm going to get the broom and the dustpan. Stay in the chair until I have all the shards, okay?", he said, putting the eraser on his desk.
He left the room to get the things and when he came back, the chair was empty. Looking around the room, Noah was nowhere to be found. He told him to stay here, why did he leave? As he looked around the other rooms in their apartment, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Then he reached the only room he hadn't checked yet, only to find it just as empty as all of the other rooms.
A deep-set panic constricted his chest. Where the fuck was his kid? He didn't hear the front door opening or closing. In fact, he didn't hear any doors opening or closing, other than the ones he opened and closed. So he couldn't have left the apartment. Oliver would have noticed if he left. Why didn't he notice him leave? Why would he leave?
"Noah?", he called out into the empty apartment. No response.
Maybe he was hiding and Oliver didn't look closely enough? He hurried back to his workspace to begin his search anew.
"Noah, where did you go?", he tried again, walking towards the shelves on the other side of the room, looking for anything vaguely child-shaped. Should he check their closets?
"Dad, I'm right here!", came a muffled response from behind him.
He whirled around just in time to see his son's body flicker into view, still sitting in his chair, his face scrunched up in confusion. Then, just as fast as he reappeared, he disappeared again, his body fading away.
He let out a startled "What the-!"
In that moment he heard the familiar distant sound of keys jingling and the front door being opened. Mark was home. Thank fuck. This was definitely a whole family discussion situation.
"I'm home!", his husband announced.
"Uh... Byron, can you come here for a second? We're in my workspace!", he responded.
When Mark came up to the room to find only a broken pot and Oliver standing there uselessly with a small broom in his hand and no sign of their son, he got that adorable worried rabbit look on his face.
"Where is-", he cut himself off, as he stepped into the room, eyes widening in realisation.
"Oh."
"Yeah.", Oliver replied.
"Noah, sweetie, you're invisible. Can you try to reappear for us?", Mark said, scanning the room for their invisible son, "Just focus on wanting us to see you."
It took him a moment but eventually, after multiple encouragements from Mark and Oliver, they could see him again. Flickering at first, then solidly here again.
"There you are! Hey, buddy! Did you have a nice day at school?", Mark asked, walking up the the chair.
Noah nodded. "Mhm-hm! But I gave someone my eraser and they didn't give it back, so I was helping Dad look for an eraser."
"I see you found one.", Mark said, pointing at the eraser on the desk, "Did you knock over the plant or was that your Dad?"
"That was me.", he admitted, his green eyes downcast, "Are you mad?"
"I'm not mad. Did you do it on purpose?"
Noah shook his head. "I was spinning around in Dad's chair and I tried to stop and then it dropped.", he explained.
"Then I'm not mad at you for an accident.", Mark replied and rubbed his shoulder in a comforting manner.
"And Dad?", their son asked, looking up at Oliver.
"I'm not mad at you either.", Oliver said softly, "I'm just glad you didn't get hurt. A pot is replaceable. Just be more careful next time."
Noah broke into a huge relieved grin. "Can I get up now?"
Oliver glanced at the plant pot shards that were still lying around on the floor.
"Tell you what, why don't you go to the kitchen with your Papa and get snacks while I clean up the shards?", he suggested.
"Can we eat apple and pear slices?", Noah asked, beaming at his dads, excitedly rocking back and forth in Oliver's chair.
"Of course! Come on.", Oliver said.
He picked up Noah and carried him out of the room. He put him down just outside the threshold where definitely no shards were lying around. Mark followed them out of the room and as soon as Noah's feet touched the ground again, he grabbed Mark's hand and pulled him towards the kitchen.
"I'm still getting my welcome home kiss. Don't think I forgot about that!", Mark called out to Oliver, laughing as he followed their son.
"Can't wait!", Oliver chuckled fondly, before turning around and attending to what used to be a pot.
After Oliver threw away the remains of the potted plant, he walked into the kitchen where Mark was peeling and cutting pears and apples for their son.
"Hi.", he properly greeted his husband.
Mark stopped cutting for a moment, in favor of softly kissing Oliver. "Hi."
"Are we gonna talk about this over apple slices or later?", Mark asked, putting an emphasis on "this", subtly nodding in Noah's direction.
"Over apple slices, Noah still has to do his homework and he struggles with his focus more when it gets later."
"Good call."
Mark finished cutting the slices and brought them to the kitchen table on a plate. Noah stole a pear slice before the plate even hit the table.
Oliver took a small apple slice for himself and said: "We need to talk about what happened today. Your Papa and I already told you that we are Atypical. Do you remember what that means?"
Noah nodded. "You have superpowers."
"Yes. And today you turned invisible, so your Dad and I think that you also have superpowers.", Mark chimed in.
"I have superpowers?", Noah asked, staring at his dads with wide eyes.
"Yes, you're Atypical. We didn't know before because your ability wasn't active yet but now it is.", Oliver explained.
"So I can turn invisible all the time now? Awesome!", their son exclaimed, grabbing an apple slice.
"You need to learn to control it first but once you do you can turn invisible whenever you want.", Mark said, "We can help you or if you want, you can talk to a doctor about this and work on this with them."
Noah hummed an exaggeratedly long hum and stuffed two pear slices at once into his mouth, still humming.
"Can I think about it?", he asked.
"Yes, of course.", Mark and Oliver assured him at the same time, making Noah laugh. His dads joined in on the laughter.
They dropped the topic for now and shared the fruit slices. Oliver then had to go and get the eraser because throughout all the excitement, he forgot it on his desk. He sat down with Noah, who was understandably distracted by his new ability, trying to turn invisible at will, and helped him with his homework. He only explained stuff when Noah didn't understand it and made sure to get rid of outward distractions to help him stay on track when he struggled with focusing.
Mark warmed up leftovers from the day before and they ate dinner. After they tucked Noah into bed, Oliver brought it up again, as they were cuddling on the couch, holding hands and Mark's head resting on Oliver's shoulder. There was a show Oliver didn't know or care about on TV.
"What are we going to do about school? What if he goes invisible in front of his classmates or his teacher?", he asked.
Mark thought about it for a moment. "Maybe we should leave him at home until he has some control.", the younger man suggested, "Do you think we could help him with that on our own? His ability is very different from yours and I've only ever temporarily had his."
"I don't trust the AM with our son, so it's either gonna be that or we ask a professional who isn't affiliated with the AM for help.", Oliver replied, "But he should get a say in that."
Mark squeezed Oliver's hand. "We'll figure it out. Let's just keep him home for tomorrow and then we'll have the weekend to worry about this."
"Yeah.", Oliver agreed, pressing a kiss to Mark's forehead, "He'll sleep on it and then we can decide together what to do next."