[b]Roleplay title:[/b] Hold My Flower
[b]Setting: [/b]September 1989; USA, Earth
[b]Characters Involved:[/b] Mephia Zevi, Thomas Roosevelt, Mephis/Anthony Roosevelt/Rodrigo Armando

“Look at the new outfit we bought him! Anthony is such a cute baby, right?”

Mephia stared blankly at the infant held in front of him. Thomas gave him an expectant smile and waited for a response. Silence passed between them, except for the baby making gurgling noises. Said baby wore a striped white and blue hat that covered his tiny head, with a clashing red and orange striped onesie that said the phrase ‘baby boy’ in the center. His socks were green with neon pink stars. Mephia rolled his eyes. “This outfit was the urgent thing you had to tell me about?” he drawled, uninterested in baby clothes.

“Yes dad, you never visit, you’ll miss out on seeing him grow up! You lost that chance with me, but I don’t want that to happen with Anthony. I know you love the little guy.” Thomas reasoned with a cheery grin, causing Mephia to frown. He vaguely remembered his parents happily fussing over every little thing Mephisto did as a baby and they often felt upset at Mephia for having zero interest in his younger brother. But since he did actually care about his grandson, did that mean he had to act like that too? Mephia sighed. It sounded so pointless to give so much attention to a child, but if his parents and now Thomas did it, then maybe Mephia should try to emulate that behavior. At the very least, he could prevent the boy from growing up into a weakling that he felt sure Thomas would raise him into.

“I suppose I could start spending more time with the child.” He replied in a bored tone and took another glimpse at Anthony. His son dressed him in a lame outfit that definitely did not warrant a visit to his house. “But if you are going to use new clothes as an excuse to invade my home, make sure he is dressed in something less horrible.”

Thomas sputtered and looked confused. The younger man examined his baby with a frown. “What? This outfit is not lame, I picked it out myself!” he defended, and the corner of Mephia’s lips twitched slightly. Mephia had seen decades of changing fashion trends ever since he arrived on earth and by far the 80s were the worst. Most people looked like thrown up rainbows in baggy clothes, with Thomas sadly being one of those people. His son was nearly his mirror image and every time he saw him it was like Mephia was looking at a weak version of himself who enjoyed wearing neon colored windbreakers and headbands. He almost regretted not raising the boy himself; maybe if he had, Thomas would be wearing all black like him instead of the multicolored monstrosities.

“Ah, now I know what went wrong. Do not worry I will fix him. Give him here.” Mephia practically ordered Thomas and snatched the baby into his arms. The infant happily cooed and tried to reach out for Mephia’s hair. Ignoring how his dark locks were pulled by a surprisingly strong grip, he cradled Anthony in his arms and looked at his son. “Go away somewhere for a while.”

Thomas gave him a fake pout, secretly glad that his indifferent father was actually volunteering to spend time with Anthony. Being relieved of his son also meant he suddenly had free time and Thomas was definitely going to take the opportunity. “Fine, I’ll come pick him up in a few hours.” He informed, trusting his father to keep the baby safe. “You can call me if you need help.”

Mephia scoffed. As if he would need help to deal with a child, especially his own grandson! Thomas laughed casually and turned to leave, Mephia never spotting the smug smile on his son's face at the fact that he now had a free babysitter for Anthony.[i] I can't believe that my plan worked![/i] thought Thomas, looking forward to a relaxing evening without a crying infant, changing diapers, and getting spit up on.

One hour later, Mephia glared at the other customers in the store, who were glaring at him because he did nothing to stop the baby in his arms from crying. Anthony’s crying had caused the other babies in the vicinity to start bawling their eyes out. He personally did not care, screams and tears never caused a reaction from him before and Mephia was not about to start now. “What are you looking at?” he scowled at a mother giving him an irritated expression while she tried to soothe a toddler in a stroller. Ignoring the rest of the stupid humans, Mephia glanced back down at Anthony who had now stopped crying. Instead the infant was giggling. Apparently, his angry face made him laugh. He allowed himself a small smile towards Anthony before turning his face neutral and glancing back to the racks of clothes.

At first Mephia only planned to purchase a new set of clothes for Anthony since he, an old wizard from another planet, apparently had more fashion sense than two young humans born on earth. But after seeing advertisements of babies looking "stylish", Mephia felt jealous and annoyed. Why did babies in ugly outfits get recognized as the most attractive when his grandson was one hundred times greater than them? He would look the best even if he wore a potato sack! Not wanting his grandson to look inferior to a stupid human infant, he resolved to buy him the greatest outfit in the store and prove that his precious grandchild was earth's most attractive baby. But, there was one problem Mephia ran into. Everything looked either plain, neon colored, or had ridiculous patterns. The shirts with phrases like “world’s most handsome baby” or “future heartbreaker” were the worst in his opinion. Mephia wondered if this was the reason Thomas had been forced to buy the ridiculous outfit poor Anthony currently wore. The only clothing he found acceptable was a black shirt that said “I have the coolest grandpa” and only because it was one hundred percent true. Oh, if only he knew the spells to manipulate clothing, he would have used his magic in a heartbeat.

It was when he found costumes on early sale for Halloween that Mephia found something to his liking. It was a costume of a fearsome beast, an extinct creature of earth called a dinosaur, and he was looking at a costume of a dark green colored T-Rex with large black eyes. The small description claimed the T-Rex was the king of dinosaurs! Mephia approved of dressing up his grandson as an ancient, powerful king. 

"Look, child, do you like this costume?" he cooed, showing the T-rex to the baby. Anthony smiled and gave him a quick "ya!" before reaching out for the costume. Mephia allowed this and smiled approvingly. He was beginning to understand, just a little, why parents loved spending time with their children. "You do like it. Hmm...Why don't I buy you some new toys, too?" he decided as soon as he saw how overjoyed the baby looked examining the T-rex, probably thinking it was a toy. 

It was practically foreign to him, the happiness he felt when he interacted with his grandson, but Mephia welcomed it.