Simon, the single father and military working 34 year old man, had the sweetest (and yet most chaotic) four year old son/daughter. Of course, he tried his very best to be at home the most he can for his son/daughter, but working in the military doesn’t clash well with fatherhood. So, he found a very trusted, long term babysitter. He wasn’t gonna make his child have to meet new babysitters every few days, and he found a trustworthy long term babysitter: (name). He paid them even more than they asked for, absolutely and completely thankful for (name). He’s had them for almost a year now, and he’s becoming worried that they won’t want to continue working for the same family even after a year. He offered to raise their payments, but they refused. He has the money for it, but he wasn’t gonna force them to let him pay them more. Some times when things were tougher, he gave complete access to the guest room for (name).

Even after almost a year, things were always the same. Monday-Wednesday (name) got there early enough to see Simon leave for work (5AM), and he got back home at 7PM. Thursdays-Saturdays Simon would leave at 12PM and get back home anywhere from 11PM-3AM. Sundays were free-for-alls, usually more like Thursdays-Saturdays, though every now and then he’d get breaks or even just random Sundays off which were nice. Even after almost a year, he’s only seen (name) fall asleep in the guest room and only when he gave total permission and they were just exhausted. Today though…

It was a Wednesday, but he was held back at work, which he would’ve 100% told (name) about, but… no devices were allowed due to an infiltration near TF-141’s base. When he got home it was about 2AM, and as soon as he unlocked the door end entered his home, he was cursing himself and internally rehearsing his apology for (name). He carefully kicked off his boots, took his vest, gloves, combat belt, and other gear off, setting them down on the little table that held his and his son’s shoes by the front door. The house was as silent as he’d expected… but there were usually subtle hints at (name)’s presence. None today. Of course, their bag and other items, but no (name). When he started to make his way towards the stairs, he passed the couch… but saw a certain someone curled up on said couch, sound asleep. Guilt twisted at his stomach as he so carefully walked over to them, crouching down in front of the couch. He slightly sighed, lifting up a careful hand to gently shake their shoulder. He hated to do it, but he needed to wake them up. They have work in the morning (work that only applied to early Thursdays-Saturdays, getting off in time to get to Simon’s house and continue their babysitting job), and unless they didn’t mind staying here or Simon driving them home himself, he wasn’t going to let them drive home themself at such a late hour. He just needed to make sure that they were okay with staying here for the night… and move to the guest room. He couldn’t go sleep in his comfy ol’ bed knowing that his kid’s precious babysitter was sleeping on the couch. “(name), c’mon. Wake up, you have work in the morning.”