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Chapter 21

Daniel's P.O.V

You know the feeling when your heart seems like it was going to explode from happiness that you felt from the others? The feeling like as if you have found the final missing piece to complete your life after several of years losing it? That was what I felt when I saw Jared jumped on Angelo, hugging him and kissing him on the cheek.

There he was, my adorable little boy, happy to see his long lost guardian angel after three months of finding him. What I didn't know was that the 'angel' we were looking for the entire time was always sitting on my side, talking to me almost every day, and now, was standing beside me hugging my son.

"Daniel..." Angelo spoke up while his face buried in Jared's neck. Jared was giggling from the tickles. "How did you know?" he asked me.

"Surprise!" I boomed softly, with a lot of enthusiasm in my tone. I was about to explain it to him when my mother came out from the kitchen.

She was wiping her hands when she emerged to the room. "Jared, I told you not to run...." She stopped and looked at Angelo, and at Jared who was still clinging on Angelo, and at me. "...around the house." she finished. "Oh my god!" she suddenly boomed. "Daniel, you found him!" she gasped whilst running over Angelo's direction.

Jared was grinning from ear to ear, showing his almost decayed teeth. "Nana, it's my guardian angel! Daddy found him!" he cheered. He then slid down from Angelo and pulled him inside the house, me trailing behind them and closing the door in the process.

When everyone was standing on the living area, I marched beside Angelo. "Mum..." I looked at my mother who was by then wiping her teary eyes. "I want you to meet Angelo."

Silence fell. Then after a while, she squealed like a teenager girl who saw One Direction in a red carpet. She jumped several times and I actually had to calm her down before she had a heart attack. She stared at Angelo, walking closely to the guy. "You mean, all this time?" she shifted her gaze on me.

"Yup. All this time, the 'guardian angel' we were looking for was with me." I looked at Angelo with pure adoration in my eyes. He blushed a bit and bit his lower lip.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Bradley." She greeted my mum.

Mum didn't respond at first, instead, she just hugged him so tight I thought she would crush Angelo's ribs. And then she mumbled, "Please, call me Sonia."

Angelo leaned out from the hug. "Ma'am, I can't call you that. I'm not going to be comfortable calling you just by your name." he answered politely.

"Hmmm..." my mum put her finger on her chin. "Fine then, call me mum as in mumma. Sooner or later you'll be my son in law." She giggled.

"Mum!" I jumped in, making Angelo's face a shade of red.

We then had our breakfast after our short introduction. Mum made us a pancake and bacon, Angelo had a rice and egg since I told my mum that Angelo was used to heavy breakfast.  Jared hadn't stopped talking to Angelo and I was actually surprised that Angelo can get on Jared's armalite mouth. They talked about how we come to the same shopping centre where they first met almost every weekend just to find him. Everything was fine until Jared started the topic about Percy Jackson series. It went from fine to extra super fine. The two boys were actually meant for each other in terms of their interests.

"Daniel, how did you know it was him?" my mum asked me all of a sudden.

Angelo looked at me like as if he wanted to asked the same question. "I just knew it on Friday, the day I told him about Jared. Then Angelo told me that he helped a little kid at the shopping centre during his first day at uni, which happened to be our first meeting as well." I explained, taking a bite of my pancake.

"That's why you had that interesting smirked on your face." Angelo said. I nodded.

Before going to the trip, mum didn't stop pestering me until Angelo agreed to stay and have a dinner with us when we got home. My idea was actually to  Angelo back in his apartment on the way home. I had a feeling that mum was thinking of something again that's why he convinced Angelo to stay for dinner later.

We said our goodbye to my mum and went through the hour journey to the Seaworld theme park.

Usually, Jared is asleep on his child seat at the backseat half way of the trip, but on that day, he seemed to have drunk a lot of energy drink or maybe my mum had poured some adrenaline in my poor boy's bacon. Either way, the whole trip was full of singing, talking and complaining how he had to pee. Every 5 minutes, the boy needs to pee. Fortunately, Angelo was there to fix things at the back, and Jared was really comfortable with him. He was just really good with kid.

When we get there, Angelo and Jared were really excited to the point that they went ahead to the gate, forgetting that their ticket was with me. When I came up to the gate, I saw Angelo trying to find our ticket in his bag. He must have forgotten that he gave it to me to keep it before leaving the house.

I walked up behind them. "Looking for this, sir?" I teased.

Both boys turned at me, Angelo was sighing while Jared was giggling and complaining how his daddy walks slowly. Well, it was because I had to carry our lunch and Jared's baby things.

We waited in line for 10 minutes; got our printed VIP Id's and went straight to the big aquarium.

In the massive aquarium were the rarest and colourful fishes swimming.There were also big fishes such sharks and manta ray. Both Angelo and Jared were fascinated from the view and it was funny how they look like. Both of their faces were pure awe and whenever sharks swim past them, they stepped back a bit as if the shark would get them.

Right after the aquarium, we went to jellyfish section. There were lots of jellyfish with different LED light flashing at them which makes them illuminate. They were placed in a big tube according to their species and were bobbing up and down. Jared would occasionally ask whether they are edible or if they have jelly. He said Spongebob loves to catch them and eat their jelly with sandwich. I was actually surprised when Angelo thought so too.

After the jellyfish, we went to see the dolphins. Having the VIP ID's, we had an opportunity to touch and play with the dolphin just before the late afternoon show. We were brought to the massive swimming pool and were given a swim suit to change. The staff then explained to us the rules when playing with the dolphins. After a couple minutes of instruction, the dolphin trainer blew his whistle and five of the dolphins swam right straight to us. Jared and Angelo were really excited to the point that Jared named one as Patrick and wanted to kiss the dolphins. We were given some fish to feed the dolphins and the dolphins did some tricks in return. Angelo and I were allowed to swim with them but not Jared being a child he was. So instead of swimming with the dolphins, Angelo tried to convince the trainer if Jared could get a kiss from them. And he did convince the trainer, making Jared jumped in glee and reeked with dolphin stink.

We lost track of time and we didn't realised that it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. We decided to stop at the theme park's food court and had a lunch there. Angelo prepared a meal called chicken Adobo, he said it was one of the best Filipino delicacies – and so it was. We had it with rice and I could swear that if I'm about to marry Angelo one day, I could live my entire life eating his Adobo. Jared loved it as well and for the first time, had an appetite for a lot of food. After the main course, we had custard or leche flan as Angelo called it. It was the best custard I've ever tasted and Jared almost finished all of it if it wasn't for my warning about his teeth.

We've rested for a while after the delicious and heavy lunch before resuming the excursion. Angelo and Jared kept their selves busy the whole time by looking at the theme park map and deciding which attraction we should go next. In the end, they decided to see the penguins before the four o' clock dolphin show.

Jared was on Angelo's back when we started to find the big refrigerator where they keep the penguins at bay to keep their required habitat. There were no problem getting in to the room, as soon as the staff saw our ID's hanging on our neck. They guided us to the room where they keep almost 20 penguins with different colony. Jared was allowed to play with them carefully; he actually had a tamed penguin hugged him. The staffs were so delighted at Jared. On the other hand, Angelo and I kept the other penguins busy by feeding them fishes. After almost an hour of Jared walking like a penguin with the penguin and us feeding the rest, we decided to check out the polar bear and her baby. We bid our farewell to the kind staffs and went straight to find the polar bear.

I didn't know how big a bear can be until I saw the polar bear. It wasn't just big; it was huge and furry and looks so soft and cuddly. Unfortunately, Jared got scared by it when the mother accidentally bumped its head in the mirror glass between us. He almost cried but Angelo comforted him so easily, and so we decided that it was time to move out.

Being the VIP's, we got the first row to the dolphin show and we didn't have to wait in line like other people has to. We were place on the seat just near enough to see the dolphin do the tricks. The show was half an hour. Through the show, two kids were asked to come in front and play with the dolphins, somehow, Jared was luckily chosen.

After the dolphin show, both Angelo and Jared were exhausted to walk around. We decided to take a rest and have an ice-cream. We also had taken a photo of three of us in one of the photo booth. We went to souvenir shop as well and bought some stuff penguin and bear for Jared. He named the penguin as Pocho and Chacha for the bear.

It was nearly closing time when we decided to pack and head home. Jared was feeling too lazy to walk that time and so he had Angelo carry him up to the car. He even wanted to have Angelo seated beside him on the back seat until Angelo explained that I need a help to navigate back home or else we're not gonna get lost and nana would be sad. I was actually amazed how quickly Angelo could think of a reason for Jared to believe.

On the way home, the car was quiet as Jared took a nap. I bet the kid was exhausted from the long walk and adventure we had. However, the boy seating on my left was quiet as well. He was looking out through the window.

"Is everything okay?" I asked him. He turned to me and his lips quivered into smile that makes my heart melts. I couldn't see his whole face but I could feel him staring at me with his smile.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." He replied. "Thank you Daniel."

A blushed crept onto my cheeks while I gripped the stirring wheel hard. "For what?" I asked, trying to act cool.

"For this day. I never had so much fun like this in my life. I like to do it again." He answered.

"I could get use to this." I said out of nowhere.

His smile faded and was replaced by a confused glare. "What do you mean?"

"I mean this. Us. The three of us together. I love it." I said.

He didn't answer and never talked to me after that until we got home. I was actually worried that I might have said something to him or I might have scared him from the idea of being the three of us together.

When I parked the car at the garage, Angelo went out of the car first and marched to Jared door. He woke Jared up and carried the boy inside the house, me trailing behind them whilst carrying the bags.

My mum opened the door for us with the same gleam of amused and happiness from the morning we left. "Aren't you a wonderful family!" she mused.

"Hello mum." Angelo greeted her. My mum hugged him in return as she murmured about how she liked being called mum by Angelo.

Angelo went seated at couch while Jared was cuddling him. The two of them were just perfect together. I wonder how they would separate without Jared crying. The kid couldn't handle his emotions when someone close to him has to say goodbye.

I went straight to the kitchen and helped my mum fix the table. However, when I started to pick up the plates, he shooed me away and told me to stay with Angelo.

I marched out from the kitchen to find Angelo reading a magazine while Jared was still cuddling with him. I was watching Angelo when I noticed a different emotion from his eyes which quickly disappeared. He then heaved a big sigh, making Jared to look up at him and smiled. He kissed Jared in the forehead, and from that moment, I decided that I will never let him go in my life.

I walked towards them and seated beside them.

"Daddy!" Jared cheered while clinging at Angelo. "Guardian angel smells so nice."

Angelo chuckled. "Jared, just call me Angelo, okay?"

Jared frowned. "But I don't want to. Daddy said I have to call somebody older than me as Mister or Miss. But you are my guardian angel."

Angelo softly patted Jared head. "Okay then, you can call me Kuya. It means big brother. Is that okay to you?"

"Kuya?  Okay. KUYA." He answered and then back to cuddling.

"What was the big sigh for? Are you alright?" I asked Angelo.

He shifted his gaze at me. "Daniel, I need to talk to you." He said.

My heart suddenly beats so hard in my chest and I swallowed the lump that suddenly built up in my throat. "What is it? Is there a problem?" I asked my voice a little bit shaky.

"I just...." He was cut off when my mum called out from the kitchen to tell us that the dinner was ready.

"Perhaps, after the dinner." He said. He picked up Jared and went to the kitchen. Leaving me behind on the couch thinking over a million reasons why Angelo acted like that all of a sudden.

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