Wait! How Did The Stray Dog I Picked Up Turn Into A Man?!

Noah’s heart thumped warmly as he saw the drawing. She had rushed off to draw him and did a really good job at grabbing his heart.

"Do you have more?" He asked and she ran off to bring the others she had drawn before.

He didn’t have any photos of such things, so he felt this strange warmth that he hadn’t felt before. He was impressed by something that he wouldn’t normally have been impressed with if he had seen it in passing.

Why?

It was because it was his daughter’s handwork.

"Daddy, I have these as well." Olivia yelled as she ran back with a bunch of papers in her hands and she dropped them on the floor, kneeling to spread them out.

Noah sat on the floor to take a look at them and even without being told, he was somehow able to tell what was going on in those caricature and shapeless drawings.

Most especially the drawing of Michael with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Gosh, how was he feeling these drawings so well?

He took out his phone and took a picture of all the drawings, praising Olivia for her handiwork.

"My daughter is so talented." He said. "Do you want to be an artist? I’ll definitely support you."

Olivia giggled, her small hand over her mouth.

"Stop it, Daddy. You’re praising me too much." She said but wouldn’t stop giggling.

"But it’s true. How many kids your age could do such a great work?" He asked and then grabbed her, lifting her up. "You did such wonderful work, Olivia. Whatever you want to do, I will definitely support you."

Olivia looked at the warm and supportive smile on her father’s lips and smiled.

"It’s funny how Papa said the same thing." She said as he dropped her back to her feet.

"Your Papa did?"

Olivia nodded.

"Yes. Papa said he would support me. He would do whatever he could to make sure whatever dream I had came true since his own dream couldn’t come true." She said, her voice soft and cute. "Daddy, why couldn’t Papa’s dream come true?"

Noah paused at that question.

Michael lived a hard life so it was even harder to manually dream. He could wish, but not dream. On his birthday when he was alone and everyone else had forgotten to celebrate that day of his birth, he would wish that the next year, someone would remember and someone would wish him a heartfelt happy birthday.

That was the only wish he had, and it came true thanks to Noah, but for his dream... What was his dream?

"Are you sure that’s what your Papa said?" Noah asked and Olivia gave it a thought.

Maybe she misheard?

Noah stroked her hair as she thought deeply, with her cute forehead creasing seriously, and he laughed.

She was adorable.

"Hm, maybe he said something similar but the way he looked, it felt like his dream never came true." She said.

"Did you ask him what dream it was?" Noah asked but Olivia shook her head.

"Papa looked sad and I made it my mission not to open up closed wounds."

Ah, look at this little one using big words.

Who taught her about the idiom; ’opening closed wounds’?

"Liv, let’s ask him," Noah suggested. "And if your Papa’s dream really hasn’t come true then let’s make it come true together."

Olivia’s eyes twinkled and she nodded.

"Yes, yes. Operation, Help Papa fulfil his dream." Noah laughed, and at that same moment, the front door opened, and Michael walked in, his phone pressed to his ear as he talked to a client on the phone.

He saw both of them sitting on the floor and the scattered pieces of paper.

He wondered what they were doing without him so he quickly concluded his call.

"Yes, yes, I won’t be available this weekend so I’ll deliver the flowers earliest Monday and latest Tuesday." He said. "Yes, goodbye."

With that, he cut the call and then flopped on the floor, as if his legs had given in.

Thank goodness the floor was rugged so he wouldn’t hurt himself from falling that way.

"Welcome back, Papa." Olivia greeted him, even though it hadn’t been more than an hour since he went down to the flower shop.

"What are you two doing?" He asked and then picked up one of the papers. "This... When did you draw this?" He looked up at Olivia who got up and went to look at the drawing to know exactly what he was talking about.

"Ah, you’re asking about this." She smiled. "I drew it while you were sleeping."

It was a drawing of Michael sitting with his legs crossed and his chin resting on his knuckles, which rested on the arm of the chair.

He had his eyes closed so it was clear he was sleeping.

"Why didn’t you show it to me afterwards?" Michael asked. "This is really good." He looked at the others to see if there was one he had missed.

"See this, Papa. I drew Daddy just now." Olivia showed him the drawing she had drawn as quickly as she could. "I was rushing to draw it but Daddy said it came out nice, hehe."

Michael looked at it and then at Noah. He was on a call? He hoped Noah wasn’t going to have to leave all of a sudden because something came up.

As if the worries he had were spilling out of his eyes and not his lips, Noah leaned closer and then flicked Michael’s forehead, shocking them both.

"You honestly think too much." He said. "And what you’re worried about won’t happen. I told Sebastian I’ll stay for a month till Olivia is done with the session and also asked him to get my private jet ready."

"A private jet?!" Michael and Olivia exclaimed at the same time, and realizing he had acted the way a child would, Michael looked away, clearing his throat.

"I mean, a private jet all of a sudden?"

He wasn’t surprised that he could afford owning a private jet, it was rather the shock that he had asked for it all of a sudden that got him excited.

"I don’t want to have to go through the trouble of booking a plane ticket right now." Noah said. "And my daughter’s going to be on a plane for the first time," he patted her head. "So, I’m going to make sure she rides in the most comfortable one."

Michael gulped, thinking for a moment as he processed this.

Well, it wasn’t a bad idea.

Their safety would be assured and there would be no form of discomfort.

"Alright. Then I guess I’ll start packing soon." Michael said, planning to stand up when Noah caught his hand.

"No need to pack. How about we go shopping tomorrow after Olivia comes back from school?" He suggested and Olivia nodded in excitement.

"Yes, daddy, let’s go shopping." She said and turned to Michael. "Papa, we haven’t gone shopping in a while and since Daddy is here, it’ll be more fun, so please don’t say no." She pleaded, revealing her puppy eyes.

Even if she didn’t do that, Michael wasn’t exactly planning on refusing.

He also enjoyed shopping. Especially when he would get to pick out whatever he thought looked good for his little cinnamon roll and Noah.

"There’s no reason not to." He said, sighing with a smile. "You make it sound like I take out the fun in everything."

"Well, you like being cautious and are sometimes strict, so..." She pouted her lips while rolling her eyes away, not wanting to meet her Papa’s gaze.

"Jeez, what do you take me for?" Michael sighed. "And besides, I had to be a little strict with you so you wouldn’t turn out badly." He added and glanced at Noah. "I didn’t know when your daddy was coming back but before he did, I wanted to do a good job of raising you, even though I wasn’t in the best condition."

"And did I turn out right?" She asked a question she had very much answered on her own.

"Why don’t you look in the mirror and answer that?" He asked, laughing and she closed her eyes, rubbing her chin.

"I’d say I turned out well if I look at those stubborn kids from my old school." She said and this prompted Noah to ask.

"You already changed schools once?"

Olivia paused and then looked at her Papa who didn’t look very happy about this. It wasn’t that he was upset that she brought it up, it was the memory that got him upset.

"Don’t even get me started." He said, folding his legs properly. "Some kids and their parents deserve to have their heads checked once a week by a psychiatrist. They’re not normal, I tell you."

Noah went silent. It only meant there was some type of problem. Was this also because he was absent?

Just as Noah could read Michael, Michael could equally read Noah and knew what he was saying.

"Don’t think of blaming yourself. Those kinds of people are everywhere, and even if you were here, it wouldn’t change a thing, cause Olivia doesn’t have a ’mom’." Noah froze. "She only has a Papa and a daddy, so those people wouldn’t understand and only judge more since they’re just so prejudiced. And it would be a waste of my time and energy to try to explain to them as well cause like I said, they’re not sane in the head. So, instead of that, I made sure to show them how mad of a dog I was compared to them." He said so proudly like it was an achievement.