After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1182

Chapter 1182: Playing Children
A/N: Happy new month guys!! Sadly weren’t able to catch that top spot (it was so close ugh) but I’m touched by everyone’s efforts. Some angels even gave me tens and tens of GTs *sobs*

I will still upload an extra chap tomorrow to express my thank you! Love you guys!

TL;DR: This chap is mostly on the kids and some hints of some future dynamics xD. Chapter request (“More babies please”) From discord lovelies Dejel and BoneRuler~

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Planning a party wasn’t a 10-minute thing. Inevitably, the babies would get bored just sitting there.

Wiggling their diapered bums, the two babies crept out of their parents’ laps and headed to the table where Theo was doing his homework.

Seeing the babies, the bigger kid put down his book and notebook and placed them in the space to do for later.

Theo—even the other kids Maya and Horus (who were now in friends’ houses) —did not show any impatience at all even when they were ‘harassed’ by the twins, which was sweet and admirable.

And so… while the adults planned, the babies were playing around with the older kid.

At first, Meatball was with the other two on the play area side of the room. He then saw his AwesomeMan action figure—complete with cape—and decided to make him fly around the house.

The important part to Meatball was that the cape had to flutter, otherwise, it was a useless cape.

And so… Meatball came running all over again, making ‘zoom zoom’ sounds he associated with the superhero (as told during Uncle Ansel’s story times).

Fortunately, the hallways were wide so he was relatively unimpeded. He was like a hyperactive puppy that zoomed everywhere, just looking to use up that boundless energy.

Unexpectedly, he stopped and squatted down, his diapered bum almost touching the floor. The adults’ eyebrows rose, wondering what he saw until he grabbed it with his tiny hands and opened his mouth to eat it.

The nearest adult, Ansel, was sitting nearby. In his hurry, he ended up crawling like a lizard, arriving just in time to stop him.

“Meatball! What’s that?” he gasped, taking it away. The other adults also stopped what they were doing and looked over.

It was a toy ball owned by the neighbor kittens. Since the animals and children played around all four lots, the toys tended to get scattered all over.

“This is a cat toy! Don’t eat it!” Ansel said, reprimanding the kid. But then the baby boy looked up at him with those rounded eyes and Ansel’s tone softened. “It’s dirty…”

Little Meatball was always trying to eat everything—it was getting alarming.

Althea—who had also run over with the others around the same time as Ansel did— kneeled down to check her son’s mouth. She heaved a deep breath when she saw there was nothing unusual.

Then, she looked at the baby with furrowed eyebrows—genuinely confused.

“Why are you like this?” she asked, not noticing the people around her giving a side eye.

That said, she just placed a pacifier in his mouth, one that was tied on his neck so it wouldn’t drop to the floor when he spits it out, before letting him go.

“Don’t eat random things,” she said, then paused in wonder. “Though it won’t be too bad to strengthen the stomach.”

Everyone: “…”

…

On another—decidedly more peaceful— side, Theo was playing dolls with Pepper. On one side of the ground floor living room, there was a large play area where the kids’ toys were placed.

While technically the entire four villas were the children’s play area, it was still nice to have the babies settled snugly in one area, not worrying the adults.

This place was also Pepper’s favorite area because it had most of her toys, including a large dollhouse bigger than she was.

This was a gift from Bianca for her six-months birthday back then. Came with the dollhouse were various pieces of furniture she could arrange herself, as well as a dozen unisex little dolls she could dress up.

At one point, Baby Pepper decided every doll (even the male ones) should be wearing a dress.

“Ugwee!” Pepper pouted, pushing away one of the male toys. Theo quickly understood what she wanted and took a random skirt in the ‘fashion box’ and placed it on the doll.

Baby Pepper seemed to be satisfied with it and giggled. “Pwetee!”

“Than you Handsome Thweo!” she said and the little boy let out a cute toothy grin and resumed playing house with the little girl.

Some adults at this time—while chatting about the party—were either watching Little Meatball running around or were watching these two.

It happened that the people watching the latter were the dads, who saw this adorable interaction.

Beanie laughed out loud. “Did you hear that? She called Theo handsome!” he said, very proud.

Baby Pepper was famously blunt when it came to these things. Whenever Beanie asked if he was handsome, she would very tactlessly tell him otherwise.

“Good thing he didn’t inherit my face!”

Ansel looked at him weirdly. “Is that something to be so happy about?”

Beanie did not understand his question. He was just beaming with pride right now.

“…”

The two children continued to play dollhouse, with Little Pepper’s dolls ordering whatever doll Theo was holding up.

“Yes, Pwincess Peppah,” Theo said, making the doll walk around the dollhouse to do errands Pepper’s doll gave out.

Theo took over another cute toy to bring and act silly, and it made Baby Pepper giggle. It was so milky and soft it made people go soft from the cute attacks.

Theo was apparently also smitten, and he just stared at her with an adorably warm smile.

This was an innocent interaction between children, but some adults couldn’t help but think of more.

“They’re so adorable together,” Beanie said. “I wonder how it would be like when they become adults.”

Then a bright idea occurred to him. His face lit up as if he just had a eureka moment.

“Hey, wanna arrange a marriage?” he blurted out, looking at the side to see Garan’s cold gaze.

Beanie immediately shivered in fear for his life, robotically turning away.

“I was joking,” he said, immediately backtracking. He only dared take a breath when he felt the literal cold leave his body.

Beanie scratched his nose and looked at his son who was practically a knight beside Pepper. To be honest, it reminded him a lot of how Garan and Althea were when they were small.

The difference was that Althea did not have a dad who could make metal skewers and freeze anyone to death.

At this, he could only shrug.

‘Sorry bud, you’ve got a long way to go.’