Eclipse was catching up on Parts and Service paper work and emails while keeping an eye on the boys’ readings, things seem to looking good with nothing outside of expected parameters.  He paused for a moment when he noticed that Andy’s stress levels were spiking and then he got a warning of mild abrasions on his legs and arms.

“Huh?” he muttered he better check on that, might just be some rough play.

Then he heard it.

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”

Eclipse did not realise he was moving until he found himself vaulting over a fence to follow Andy’s voice. There he found Jake and Andrew huddled together and a Moon Model Halloween decoration walking away with Andy over their shoulder with the poor kid looking like he was about to have a panic attack.

“GET YOUR HALLOWEEN REJECTED LOOKING ASS AWAY FROM MY KIDS!” he roared. 

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Solar and Sun were standing nearby happily watching Dazzle as she ran around cooing over the castle before declaring that she will the princess of the forest and clambered inside to stake her birthright. Sun checked their cooler to make sure that they had everything for their picnic before pulling out two sodas and handing one to Solar.

“This is nice” Solar said. “I can see why you do this often with Dazzle”

“Heh, yeah Jack looked like he was having fun though we might need to tell him that he can’t climb up the trees with his dagger hands” Sun said.

“Or jump up on equipment, I’m going to have to check to see if the bridge’s brackets are ok after that…” Solar mused.

“None of that, we are having a family day out. You are not on the clock” Sun declared.

“Says the guy monitoring the children in the castle play area?”

“I help one kid find their mummy…” Sun began only to see Solar give him a look “Look being a responsible parent is different from being on the job. We can inform the park owners if it looks like Jack’s damaged anything ok?”

“Ok” they both took a sip of their soda and enjoyed the relaxed playful atmosphere of the park, for a grand total of two minutes.

“GET YOUR HALLOWEEN REJECTED LOOKING ASS AWAY FROM MY KIDS!” they heard someone roar and Solar sighed giving the soda back to Sun.

“That’ll be my son” he sighed wearily “Better get Dazzle in case we are going to be evicted from the premises” Sun smiled sadly and turned towards the castle. Solar followed Jack’s tracker to the big play structure to see a very strange sight, Eclipse holding a boy who was hugging him like he was a life preserver on open ocean, two boys huddled behind him and Jack standing there looking very confused. Even stranger was Eclipse seem to be comforting said clinging boy.

“I…I thought…he was gonna…gonna take me away…” the boy said between shaky breathes “I thought I was gonna…be…t…tra...trapped again…I don’t wanna…not again…please not again…”

“You’re safe, just breathe can you breathe for me? You need to let your systems cool down, ok?” Eclipse said softly one hand rubbing the boys back in a soothing pattern. “Now listen to me…” the boy looked up at him.

“I am NOT losing any of you again do you hear me? Did you really think after everything I haven’t put precautions in place in case you got taken? Let me tell you something I have twelve plans in place if anything happened to any of you, fourteen more for if you were taken off world. Each of you have an interdimensional tracker placed in your bodies, you could be on the other side of the multi-verse and I will still find you” he explained.

“I’m sorry” the boy blubbered.

“You’re okay, everyone is okay” he then glared at Jack. “Now what the hell is your problem? Why did you grab him?”

“I wanted to ask questions!” Jack exclaimed.

“By manhandling him?!”

“He kept running away!”

“Cos you were scaring him!”

“Not my fault!!!”

“Jack!” Solar called out and Jack turned to him,

“Hi DAD!” he declared happily.

“Can you please tell me what happened?”

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Dazzle had clambered into the castle giggling with glee at all the pretty carvings on the wall showing fairies, flowers, and all sort of forest creatures. She looked around and saw a throne and beamed happily already imagining the fantastic adventures Princess Daring Deer and her Pumpkin Knight could do.

“Oooh this castle is so pretty!” she heard someone coo and saw a black and white puppet walk in and rub one of the carvings she then turned to Dazzle. “Heeeeeey!”

Dazzle waved shyly.

“My name is Charlie what’s yours?”

“My name is Dazzle; I like your hair it’s all sparkly”

“Why thank you” she beamed putting her hand through her hair “I like your ribbons”

“Wanna play?” Dazzle asked.

“Yeah!”

“Ok I was thinking princesses and knights my friend Jack was gonna be the knight but he went off somewhere…” Dazzle explained.

“My dad…well not my real dad he’s my adoptive dad said that Princesses don’t really have any power in royal courts they’re kinda just there to be married off and look pretty…” Charlie said “We could be queens! They can do all sort of important stuff!”

“Yeah, but we can’t both be queens!” Dazzle retorted.

“Then I won’t be a queen I’ll be…your court magician!” Charlie declared.

“Yeah, I like that! That sounds cool”

“But I can only do pretend cos Eclipse says I’m not allowed to do magic without an adult around” Charlie stated 

“Pretend is just as good!”  Dazzle exclaimed “Wait you can do magic too?”

“Yeah. Can you do magic?”

“No but my daddy can!”

Charlie perked up at that, she had not heard of anyone else capable with magic so maybe this was her chance to she could find a teacher! That would one less thing for Eclipse to worry about and that would make him less grumpy!

“GET YOUR HALLOWEEN REJECTED LOOKING ASS AWAY FROM MY KIDS!” she heard Eclipse roar, speaking of grumpy she thought I better go see what that was about.

“Dazzle!” a voice called and Sun crawled in “Hey sweetie can you come with me for a minute?”

“Sunshine what are you doing here?” Charlie asked.

“Sunshine?” the Sunny Model replied.

“Never mind I have to go cos I think Eclipse is mad at someone”

“Eclipse?!”

And with that Charlie teleported away, leaving a very confused Sun and an amazed Dazzle.

“She really could do magic!” Dazzle gasped.

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“So, Dazzle mentioned that they were like her so you just decided to kidnap them?” Solar said trying to keep his composure after Jack just happily admitted in a public area that he wanted to take a child away for questioning.

“I was going to bring them to Sun and see if they were a relative” Jack stated, “They could be siblings or cousins to Dazzle, I needed to confirm with Sun”

Andy had calmed down at this point but was keeping a firm grip on Eclipse’s arm, the other boys were now just watching out of curiosity and to see if Eclipse was still going to rip this Jack o’ Moon a new one.

“There are better ways of going about that Jack you should have come to us first, now I think you need to do something don’t you?” Solar declared his arms crossed and giving him the dreaded dad look of disappointment.

“Okay…” he mumbled before walking over to Andy and Eclipse and knelt so he looked as non-threatening as possible. “I am sorry for scaring you, I was only going to ask you a question but then you started running and I thought we were playing tag… I did not mean to frighten you.”

“You’re not going to take me away?” Andy asked.

“What? No!” Jack cried out. “I mean it would depend on the circumstances, like if you were in danger or something!”

“Did you call that Eclipse guy your dad?” Jake asked.

“That guy is Solar” Eclipse exclaimed loudly. “And no, we are not related, he is a dimensional variant of me”

Sun and Dazzle then came running up and Jack skittered over to her.

“So, are we getting kicked out?” Sun asked.

“Aaaw Daddy, I want to stay here for a little while longer, we didn’t even get to have our picnic!” Dazzle cried out pulling at Sun’s jumper.

“Daddy?” Eclipse demanded looking at Jack and Dazzle and then at Sun and Solar. “Never thought you were the sort to want kids of your own, then again you did have a habit of never separating your home and work life” he chuckled, but before he could comment further Charlie suddenly appeared albeit on top of the swing set.

“Heeeeeey Eclipse, I heard you shouting everything okay?” she asked, Sun ran over gave a worried yelp before helping her down and Charlie smiled happily at him in thanks. She then saw Dazzle and the boys; Charlie tilted her head as she looked at Dazzle and then at her brothers giving each group a good stare.

“I thought so you’re a ghost kid too ain’t ya Dazzle?” she exclaimed happily.

“How did you…” Sun stuttered.

“I have super powers I can sense ghosts and stuff!” Charlie declared proudly.

“Wait a second…you said Dazzle is a ghost kid too. That would imply there are others” Solar said cautiously with Sun and Solar now staring at Eclipse with a silent demand for answers, Eclipse stared right back with no intention of giving the two anything.

“Okay you caught us; me, Andy and Jake are ghost kids happy?” Andrew declared in annoyance.

“Andrew!” Eclipse snapped.

“What? They have one of their own, they can’t give you any shit over it unless they want their own kid to be taken away” the boy stated calmly.

“He has a point dad” Jack admitted.

“Okay let’s start things over” Sun declared clapping his hands once to get everyone’s attention. “I’m Sun, this is Solar. The one that chased you and is very sorry about doing so is Jack and the faun and totally not a ghost kid is Dazzle”

“I’m Jake this one is Andrew and the one holding on to Eclipse is Andy, and Charlie is the black and white magic puppet we are also totally not ghost kids” Jake said pointing to each of them in turn.

“Are you guys like triplets? Which one is evil one?” Jack asked bluntly causing Solar to give a soft groan of embarrassment.

“Andrew” Jake and Andy said without hesitation to which Andrew just gave a shrug.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you all, how about in the way of an apology I treat everyone to ice cream, how does that sound?” Sun said which cause Dazzle and Charlie to bounce up and down with excitement.

“Hey if you’re paying” Eclipse muttered before looking down to Andy “Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I mean he didn’t mean to scare me so I guess I’m okay with it” Andy said softly.

“HORAY!” Jack shouted and with that they left the play area to the food court, it was not anything huge it was more aimed for people to bring picnics but there were a few food shacks one of which sold locally sourced ice-cream.

“So, what flavours does everyone want?” Sun asked cheerfully but paused and looked to Eclipse “Do they have any allergies I need to know about?”

“Not that I know about” he murmured.

“Can we even eat?” Jake asked.

“Let me check, hey Solar how is your stomach? Any issues?” Eclipse demanded, Solar who was reading out the options to Jack turned to look at him confused.

“Fine…why do you ask?”

“Then yeah you guys are able to eat, there shouldn’t be any problems” Eclipses said to Jake, he beamed happily at Eclipse before trotting off to go with Sun and the other to make their orders.

“Why did you ask me though?”

“I used you as a prototype for a working nano stomach in case I ever needed another source of energy.” He explained and Solar gave an angry growl.

“Why am I not surprised you used me as a guinea pig?” he growled.

“Consider it payment for bringing you back from the dead, given the circumstances you got a pretty good deal!”

There was an awkward silence between the two as the watch the others get their ice cream.

“So…Jack calls you dad and Dazzle calls Sun Daddy?” Eclipse asked.

“Yup”

“Never thought you were the sort to start a family, didn’t think Sun was your type either” he smirked.

“Oh, fuck off!” Solar snarled “it’s not like that!”

“Suuure” Eclipse chuckled.

“What about you? I can’t wait to hear the explanation as to why you have brought three boys and a child puppet to an adventure park!” Solar demanded, with that Eclipse just glared off into the distance.

“I did not adopt them; I did not take them they just…I don’t know came to me and before I knew it, I was looking after them. It all started when Andrew showed up and demanded I made him a body, I then found Andy and Jake stuck inside our dimension’s version of Stitch Wraith and well…Charlie is her own long story.” He grumbled watching each kid excitedly get their ice cream and Sun herding them back towards them. “Why did Sun ask if any of them had allergies? Their ghosts, not like they are going to die of an allergic reaction.”

“You’d be surprised” Solar said, “We found out that sometimes a soul will still react to those stimuli, Dazzle is like that with peanuts. Even though she does not have lungs she would still start wheezing and struggle to breathe if she eats anything with peanuts in it. God poor Sun was so freaked out that day”

“How does that work?” Eclipse asked his scientific mind and concerned father instincts both demanding more information.

“My guess, either she was constantly told that peanuts were bad for her or she might have had an extremely bad reaction when she was younger and it just stuck with her so much it imprinted not only on her mind but her soul as well. Which tracks when you think of how ghosts tend to cling to stuff from their previous lives.” Solar explained. “And as much as Moon and I would love to study that phenomena further Sun would kill us if we tried.”

“A pity”

“Look Eclipse I got a strawberry and cream cone!” Charlie declared showing him the said treat “It’s got bits of actual strawberry in it!”

“Nice” he said, he noted that Andy and Andrew both got chocolate mint and Jake got caramel, Dazzle was already tucking into her vanilla ice cream that was coated in rainbow sprinkles and Jack had something purple?

“Look Dad I got lavender ice cream!” Jack explained as Sun handed Solar his ice cream as well.

“Sounds…tasty?”

“Turns out the ice cream makers here like to experiment now and again” Sun stated before handing Eclipse a vanilla ice cream who took it tentatively. They all sat down watching the world go by eating their treats while all three solar models thinking about how weird their lives had turned out despite their completely different views on life and roads they have taken in said lives they had somehow all ended up adopting kids and finding themselves here, now united by their kids love to climb on stuff and eat frozen treats. If you had asked Sun if he could see himself sitting with Eclipse eating an ice cream two years ago, he would have probably slapped you.

But now…

“Andrew what’s wrong?” Dazzle asked quietly “Why are you crying?”

That got Eclipse’s attention and he turned to see Andrew hunched over trying to hide the fact that he had tears streaming down his face. He checked his monitoring programmes and there was no indications of pain or malfunction, he started to check all the readings to try and find the cause of the problem when Andrew spoke up quietly.

“I know it’s just ice cream…just average ice cream…but, it’s been so long since I’ve eaten anything, tasted anything…” he whispered. “I don’t know I just got really happy about it”

“That’s okay!” Dazzle chirped up and gently patted him on the back “I felt like that too after I had mac and cheese at Sun’s house”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I forgot how good food taste and feels” Jake added, this started a whole conversation about food and what their favourites were.

“My favourite is sponges!” Jack said.

“Yeah, Sponge cakes are nice, I like the chocolate fudge myself what’s your favourite flavour?” Andy asked.

“I like gristle” Jack said and no he did not elaborate.

The three dads watched this with interest, Sun and Solar happy that their kids had found like minded friends and Eclipse was now dreading the fact his kids were probably going to start asking him to cook stuff. This fear was further put in place when Charlie declared that she wanted to try Sun’s amazing Mac and Cheese to the agreement of the others.

“Well, we’ll discuss that later but right now why don’t you finish your ice creams and go play?” Solar said, Jack all but inhaled his and bounced up and down while waiting for the others to finish. Once they had they all ran off back into the play area Charlie and Dazzle planning on playing in castle and the boys playing Tag with Jack.

“Socialising is important for children’s development” Eclipse mused out-loud.

“Yup its why we came out here” Sun said.

“I would like to propose an exchange”

Solar and Sun looked at him confused as Eclipse turned to them.

“I propose that my children go to your house and try this Mac and Cheese and engage with activities with your two kids, in exchange you can bring them to my dimension and I will set up some activities for them and my children there. What time would best suit your schedules?” he said, there was a pause before Sun burst out laughing.

“What?” Eclipse demanded angrily he had tried his best to sound respectful and polite!

“You made a playdate sound like a business deal!” Sun chuckled.

“But what Sun is trying to say is that yes, we would love for Charlie and the boys to come over for a play date, and if things go well we could make it a regular thing. I can understand having four kids makes it hard to get stuff done?”

“You have no idea” Eclipse grumbled.

“So, we can make an arrangement of regular play dates so each parent gets some time to themselves, we can work out a rota later” Solar said. Eclipse thought out it, this deal would work out for him as it would give the kids times to explore stuff that he did not have the experience or knowledge in like cooked food and games and it would allow him time to work on projects that require strict concentration.

“Very well I believe this alliance can work”