“Hey little guy,” Ryan called out after watching the same cartoon five times, “what do you want for Christmas?”

Ryan shrugged. “Billy said if I tell anyone Santa won’t get me anything, so I can only tell Santa.”

Did Reynard know about this? “Well, I bet you didn’t know, but I’m actually best friends with Santa! So if you tell me I can tell him.”

Ryan’s look was skeptical. “What’d he get you last year?”

“What?”

“Santa. What’d he get you last year?”

“Well - that’s not important right now. What’s important is what you want to get this year!”

The theme music was playing again and Ryan was looking suspicious. Eugene wasn’t sure he could sit through another episode of overly cheerful children with talking stuffed animals. “Why don’t we go visit your daddy, huh?” Reynard wouldn’t kill him for showing up at the restaurant, right?

“Papa Eugene, how come you don’t have a car?”

Eugene winced a bit at the question as he helped Ryan onto the bus seat. “Maybe I just don’t like driving.”

“I thought it was because you crashed too many times in Mario Kart. Do they take away your car for that?”

Eugene went from scandalized to defending his honor in a heartbeat. “My Mario Kart score is perfectly acceptable, thank you very much. Who told you I crashed?”

“Daddy.”

“Your daddy has a big mouth.”

“He does not!”

“Then did he tell you about all the times he lost? That’s even worse than crashing, you know.”

The rest of the bus ride was spent discussing video games, which turned out to be a successful diversion from the long ride for a five year old. Eugene watched for their stop and helped Ryan climb out and then got them a seat at a booth where Ryan could color while Eugene tried to figure out which position Reynard was working today.

Turns out, Reynard wasn’t even there. Ryan was stuffing his face with pizza while Eugene laid his head on the table and cried. “Sorry buddy. I can’t seem to get anything right. It seems like your daddy went home while we were on the bus.”

Ryan shrugged. “You could just call him, you know.”

“Meanie,” Eugene pouted as he sat up. “Give me a breadstick.” He snatched one up from the basket and started breaking it up into little tiny pieces. A few of the smallest bites made their way into Eugene’s mouth.

“Daddy says we’re supposed to eat veggies, too,” Ryan said as he chomped down on another bite.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Eugene scolded lightly. “And you are eating veggies. That’s why I got you a veggie pizza.”

“I am, but you’re only eating sticks. They’ll make a mess of your belly if you don’t have any veggies. Daddy said so.”

Of course Reynard had trained his kid to eat healthy, that traitor. “Don’t worry. I’ll eat more veggies at home. We should get going before your daddy wonders what happened to us.”