,,,,, Sesame Street au with single dad alex.
alright, so single dad au rules, lawrence is somehow adopted -- alex takes the sesame street gig because it pays well and because his kid is the only thing he cares about, might as well make something he can watch. as far as lawrence is concerned, and as far as alex is concerned within lawrence’s hearing, the whole thing is real, the puppets and the set and all of it. which means when lawrence assumes that george is alex’s best friend in the whole world, alex can’t exactly deny it without shattering the illusion. and -- fine, they are friends, it’s not like alex has much of a life between work and the kid, so maybe he’s closer to george than to anyone else who isn’t his son. but they’re not hang-out-after-work close. alex goes from filming to his baby and back again. he’s worried that if he starts spending too much time with george beyond that stoop on sesame street that -- that he’ll forget the way things really are, and start to believe the illusion, too.
but of course lawrence wants to visit the set. and they have their ways of doing it without breaking it to the kids that it’s all a show, and lawrence is a smart kid but also has a big heart full of belief and imagination, so it’s fine. then lawrence meets george. it’s not that -- alex knew he’d love george, everyone does, but it’s immediate, george is lawrence’s favorite person (aside from alex -- hopefully) the moment he crouches down to say hello to him. lawrence wants a hug, so he gets a hug, and george is so thoroughly gone on this kid immediately, he’s the sweetest thing, bright like his dad, and curious, and hilarious, and it’s just. immediate. george can understand why alex was so reluctant to tell anyone he was a parent, of course he wanted to keep this wonderful little boy to himself. it’s a perfect afternoon, lawrence is so impossibly happy, and alex is so much softer around his baby, so much more open to the magic of things.
then lawrence wants to hang out with george. all the time. can’t understand why him and alex don’t hang out all the time, because they’re best friends! his dad smiles so big when george says something nice to him! it’s so easy, and alex -- alex is stuck, because lawrence wants it so much, and george is completely open to it when alex mentions it half-jokingly. “he can’t understand why we don’t hang out outside of work. and i mean, i don’t have a life, so i get why he assumes that, my time is split between him and you, basically, but -- you, obviously, have. other things to do.” and george tilts his head, faintly amused, “i don’t, really. the most fun i have all day is here. if you’d like to do something, the three of us, we could. i would enjoy that.” and george is his friend he’s just also kind and beautiful and sometimes when alex sits beside him on their stoop all he feels is warmth and muscle where their arms touch and alex cannot afford everything that would mean, but somehow his dumbass mouth opens and -- “yeah. he’d like that. i -- i would like that.”
