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It was an exciting day for Ingo and Emmet. Since they had gotten Litwick and Tynamo, they were finally allowed to stay home all by themselves. It would only be for a couple hours so Ma and Dad could go out for lunch, Ingo and Emmet had already had theirs, but still.
“Alright, now tell me the rules,” Ma said.
“Don’t open the front door unless it’s you,” Ingo said.
“Numbers are on the fridge,” Emmet said pointing towards the kitchen.
“And we can have a bowl of chips for a snack.”
“Or popcorn.”
“Yes, or popcorn.”
Ma laughed. “You got them all. We’re leaving Wugtrio here too, just to help out in case something goes wrong. What is it you two say, safety checks?”
“Yup!” they both said with a nod.
“Are you ready, dear?” Dad called from the front.
“Just need to get the helmets, honey!” Ma called back. “You two stay safe and call if you need anything.”
“We will, Ma,” Ingo said.
“Yup!” Emmet added.
It took another ten minutes of goodbyes and their parents repeating the rules for them to finally leave. Ingo wasn’t sure why their parents were so concerned about leaving them alone. They were already eleven. That’s double digits! Plus a whole year! Between that and their Pokemon, they would be completely fine.
Ingo turned away from the window and to his brother. “What do you want to do Emmet?”
Emmet flopped back onto the couch, humming an ‘I don’t know’.
Ingo sat back down too. “I didn’t think this far ahead,” he sighed.
They sat there, trying to think of what to do with the whole house to themselves, for a while. Tynamo and Litwick even wandered over to sit with them.
“Oh!” Emmet cried, standing up suddenly.
“Did you think of something?” Ingo asked, still drawing a blank himself.
Emmet nodded, arms flailing rapidly. “Computer!”
Ingo jumped up too, stamping his feet in excitement since he was still holding Litwick. “You’re right! We can play the computer! But what game do we play?”
Emmet ran off to the computer room. Ingo followed, entering the room just as Emmet pulled out a disc from the binder of computer games. He showed it to Ingo.
“RollerCoaster Tycoon?” Ingo asked. “Did you figure out how to play it?”
Emmet shook his head. “We can now!”
“But our turns on the computer aren’t long enough,” Ingo said. “But Ma and Dad aren’t here. So we can have a super long turn!”
Emmet nodded enthusiastically. “Yup!”
“Good Idea, Emmet! And if we get off before they come home, they would never even know.”
Emmet wiggled the mouse, turning the computer on, then opened the CD tray. Ingo ran off to the kitchen to bring back a chair for himself while Emmet booted up the game.
It took a few false starts and resetting their park a couple times, but eventually Ingo and Emmet managed to figure out some parts of the game. They still weren’t very good at making the roller coasters themselves, but the game had a bunch of already made ones, so it wasn’t that much of a problem.
Their newest problem was that their rides kept breaking and they couldn’t figure out how to fix them.
“We are running out of money,” Emmet pointed out.
“Yeah,” Ingo sighed. “We can’t keep selling broken rides and buying new ones.”
“Also, there is throw up everywhere,” Emmet added, wrinkling his nose.
“I don’t know how to clean it up,” Ingo said.
Emmet pointed to a picture at the top of the screen. “We need that guy. He has a broom.”
Ingo looked at the picture. It was near the buttons that opened the other menus. Maybe…
He clicked it, opening another menu.
“I didn’t know that was a button,” Ingo said. “I think we can get people to clean up here.”
“And fix our rides! Woo hoo!” Emmet cheered, throwing his arms into the arm.
Ingo got a few janitors and mechanics and put them throughout their park. Not long after, they got an alert saying the Ferris wheel was broken. They watched the mechanics in their windows closely.
“Look, that one’s getting a call,” Ingo pointed out.
They watched the mechanic as he put away his radio and walked over to the Ferris wheel. He went in and a moment later, the ride was working again.
“It worked!” Emmet cheered. “What other guys can we get?”
Ingo opened the worker menu back up. “There is also security and entertainer.”
“What’s an entertainer?”
Ingo got one and put them in the park.
“It’s a Bewear,” Emmet said.
“I think it’s a guy in a Bewear costume,” Ingo corrected.
“Doesn’t matter,” Emmet said with a shove. Ingo shoved him back.
“How many should we get?” he asked, getting another.
“Two is good.”
Ingo got another one.
“Ingo?”
And another one.
“Ingo.”
And another one.
“Ingo!” Emmet laughed. “That is too many!”
Ingo kept getting Bewears until Emmet wrestled the mouse from his hand.
A little while later, Ingo had gone off to the kitchen to make some popcorn when he heard Emmet gasp.
“Ingo!” he called.
“What?” Ingo hit start on the microwave.
“Come here!”
Ingo ran back to the computer. Emmet was bouncing in his seat and poking the screen.
“Look! Look!”
Ingo leaned in close and gasped when he saw what Emmet was pointing to.
It was a railroad ride.
“We need it!” Ingo shouted. “Get it! Get it!”
Emmet was standing now as he clicked on the train ride.
“We should build it,” Emmet said as he chose the custom track option.
“Yes!” Ingo said with a bounce, “We should make it go all the way around the park!”
“We should make Train Land!” Emmet declared.
“We should make Train Land!” Ingo repeated.
The microwave beeped in the distance.
“I am going to get the popcorn,” Ingo said, running off, “You start on Train Land!”
-----
“Your bike is as terrifying and exciting as the first time I rode on it,” Nico said as he got off it.
“You love it,” Mel laughed, putting down the kickstand and getting off herself.
Nico managed to get his helmet off and held it out to her. “No, it scares me. I love you. I’m going to go check on the boys. Make sure they didn’t make a mess.”
Mel took her helmet off, then took his. “I’ll finish up here. If they were fine alone today, maybe we can go out more.”
“I’m sure they’re good,” he said, heading out of the garage, “At worse they left their toys around the living room. But what else is new?”
It was almost suspiciously quiet when Nico entered the house. Then he heard Ingo laughing and Emmet yelling at him from the other room.
“Stop adding Bewears!” Emmet said, trying to hold back a laugh.
He entered the other room to see Ingo and Emmet sitting at the computer, Litwick and Tynamo asleep on the desk. Wugtrio sat on the ground, giving a wiggle hello when they saw him.
He managed to creep up on his sons and placed a hand on each of their heads. “What are you two doing?”
Nico was expecting a jump in surprise, or even a shout from Ingo.
What he wasn’t expecting was for them both to go silent, then burst into tears.
“Oh no!” Nico said, pulling his hands back and crouching down to their level. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
They both kept crying.
“What’s wrong?” Mel called from the front of the house. “Is someone hurt?”
“It’s fine!” he called back, “I just scared the boys by accident!”
“You’re a dumbass!”
“Language, dear!” He turned back to Ingo and Emmet. “Hey, it’s okay. I was being dumb. I’m sorry.”
Emmet buried his face in his hands as Ingo shook his head. He couldn’t get more than a single word out through his sobs. “We- We- You- We-”
“Hey, hey,” Nico said softly, taking Ingo’s hands. “It’s okay.”
“It’s- It’s not!”
“Take a breath.” Nico took one of his hands from Ingo’s and managed to get one of Emmet’s. “Both of you. I can’t understand you when you’re crying. Let’s try to calm down a little first, okay?”
It took a few minutes, but eventually, Ingo and Emmet both managed to calm down. They both still looked downright miserable, but it was an improvement.
“Alright,” Nico said, wiping away the last few tears on their faces with his sleeve, “What happened?”
“We wanted to play RollerCoaster Tycoon and we didn’t set a timer ‘cause you and Ma were gone so we were going to have a super long turn but get off before you came home so we didn’t get in trouble for having a super long turn,” Ingo rambled off, working himself up again. Emmet nodded along, bottom lip starting to wobble. “But then you and Ma came home and we were still playing and now we’re gonna get in trouble.”
“Take another breath, Ingo,” Nico said.
Ingo did, the inhale shuddering a little bit.
“Now, did anyone get hurt?” Nico asked.
Ingo shook his head.
“And did you boys get along?”
Emmet nodded.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about!”
Ingo and Emmet stared at him in disbelief.
“But- But we were on the computer the whole time you were gone!” Ingo said.
“I’d rather you two play on the computer all afternoon than burn the house down,” Nico laughed.
Ingo looked offended as he scooped up Litwick, not waking her in the slightest. “Litwick would never! And neither would Tynamo!”
Emmet held Tynamo close with a nod, the little fish also still asleep.
“It’s just an expression,” Mel said, entering the room holding two cups with lids and straws. “I got you two some juice. Here you go.”
Emmet gently placed Tynamo on his lap and took his cup, quickly draining most of it in one go. Ingo took his too, but didn’t drink from it yet.
“Are you sure we aren’t in trouble?” he asked quietly.
“I’m sure,” Nico said, ruffling Ingo hair. “Now, what have you two been doing on here? I don’t think I’ve seen this much on the screen before.”
“Did you boys figure out this game?” Mel asked.
Ingo nodded. “We made Train Land.”
Emmet put his cup down and signed, “Ingo kept adding Bewears. It is Train and Bewear Land.”
Nico took a closer look at the screen. Sure enough, it was covered with train rides and Bewear mascots.
“Why don’t you give us a tour?” Mel asked with a laugh.