Hi, sorry it's been a hot minute. I started writing a one-shot and then it got so long that I'm literally turning it into a book now, so you can be excited about that if you want.

This one-shot in inspired by Bojack Horseman in the episode with the same title (DISCLAIMER: I don't own the chapter title—I couldn't come up with anything so I just put the inspo) where he's underwater and has to watch the little seahorse. I just speed ran the entire show this past month or so, if you were wondering.

Anyways, have fun! Enjoy! See you later! Ignore the beginning, it's a bit rough!

Bread? Check.

Jason scratched off the item on his grocery list with a sigh, frowning at the many items that followed. Neither he nor his two roommates had made an actual trip to the grocery store for nearly three weeks, and Jason finally got tired of the disappointment he felt every time he opened the cabinets and caved. Now, though, the list seemed endless since they'd run out of practically everything.

His next stop was the breakfast aisle, and Jason found himself spending an embarrassing amount of time there, trying to find some weird vegan cereal that Piper asked him to get. He ran a hand through his hair as he neared the end with no luck, but before he could finish looking, a weight rammed into Jason's leg. He managed to stay upright, but not without a good amount of stumbling around. Confused and already dreading the bruise that would be on his shin tomorrow, he glanced down to see the culprit and found a little girl, probably no older than four or five.

"Hi, mister!" She grinned at him, one of her front teeth missing and giving her the slightest lisp.

He crouched to her level with an expression that was more curious than anything else. "Hey there. Are your parents around?"

The aisle was empty besides Jason, but he hoped that perhaps the girl's parents would be in the next one or somewhere else nearby. Unfortunately, she shook her head and killed Jason's dream.

"We're playing hide and seek," she explained to him, "so I have to stay away."

"I should really bring you back to—"

"Then I'll lose, mister!" She frowned, looking like Jason killed her puppy. "Will you help me, please?"

Jason sighed. Clearly, she was not going to be of any help. He'd much rather know that she was safe with him than with whatever stranger she'd go to next if Jason said no, though.

"Let's make a deal," he offered, and she nodded excitedly, "I'll help you win your game if you help me get my groceries, okay?"

"I love helping!"

With a smile, Jason reached to hold her tiny hand, his other one pushing the cart. Despite Jason's underlying fear that he would get in trouble for kidnapping, the girl actually made his trip much less miserable. She liked to point things out and tell stories about them. Even if some of them were clearly made up (the spaghetti noodles coming to life, for example), she was quite entertaining to listen to. He stayed on the lookout for her parents, but nobody seemed to be looking for her.

"Mister," she asked, shivering as they made their way through the freezer aisle, "what's your name?"

"I'm Jason," he smiled as he handed her a box to add to the cart—it was her favorite part of shopping, according to her. "How about you?"

Even with her squeaky s sound, Jason could hear the girl's proud "Estelle."

"How old are you, Mr. Jason?" She grabbed ahold of Jason's hand again as they moved on, swinging it with an odd amount of strength for a child. "I'm four!"

"Wow, you're pretty big, huh?" He offered, smiling when her face lit up. "I'm twenty-one."

She gasped. "You can have wine?"

Jason couldn't help but laugh. "You bet."

"Can you eat ice cream whenever you want?"

"Breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Jason assured her, earning a giggle from the girl.

"Are you married, Mr. Jason?"

He forgot how many questions children had about literally everything. "Not yet. Maybe when I'm older."

Estelle clearly wanted to tell Jason that he was already old, but she managed to hold herself back. Jason was impressed with the girl's social skills.

Instead, she moved onto family questions. Jason wondered if this is what it was like to be interrogated by the cops. "Do you have any brothers or sisters? I have a brother and two puppies!"

"Wow," he grinned at her, grabbing the next item on his list and offering it to the child to keep her busy, "I have an older sister and a puppy, too."

"My daddy goes on walks with me and the puppies all the time," she smiled dreamily as if she would much rather be on a nice walk than at the grocery store. Jason couldn't imagine why.

"Do you still have to go to school when you're older?" She asked, obviously more worried about Jason's answer to that question than her previous ones.

"You can if you want to," Jason explained, "Do you know what you wanna be when you're older?"

"I want to tell stories like me and my brother do with each other," she was quick with an answer. Jason smiled at the thought of Estelle and her probably 7-or-so year-old brother exchanging
stories about magic and kings in a dimly lit living room.

"Then you might want to go to school when you're older to be the best storyteller," Jason continued, earning a surprisingly excited response from Estelle. She seemed to be very pleased with the idea of getting better.

"I wish you could meet my brother," Estelle frowned, "We could all be best friends."

"Is he your best friend?"

She nodded with intense enthusiasm. "The bestest! You're my second best friend though, Mr. Jason."

"I'm honored," Jason smiled down at her as they turned a corner.

"Estelle!" A voice suddenly shouted from behind Jason, and the blond whipped his head around to find the source.

Jason had to physically restrain himself from gasping when he turned around to see a worried yet somehow still perfect man.

"I won!" Estelle grinned, dragging Jason over to the man. "This is Mr. Jason. He's one of my bestest friends now!"

She dropped Jason's hand and reached upwards, the man lifting her into his arms looking very scared to let her go again.

"Is she your daughter?" Jason asked, not sure how else to even attempt to break the awkwardness.

"Sister," the man corrected as Estelle adjusted his hair, "I'm really sorry."

Jason blinked twice. This was Estelle's brother? He supposed he should be relieved—it'd be a bit awkward if he thought her father was hot.

"No big deal," Jason awkwardly reassured with a nod, "We had fun."

"Can't believe I lost her," he muttered, looking Estelle in the eyes before continuing, "Don't tell mom."

"Don't tell mom what?" Estelle grinned, and the man nodded in approval.

"I'm Percy, by the way," he shifted his gaze and held out his free hand towards Jason, who really wished this guy didn't have the most vibrant eyes Jason had seen in a long time. "And you're Jason?"

"Yeah, that's, uh, that's me," Jason cursed himself for acting stupid as he shook Percy's hand.

"Thanks for watching her," he smiled at the blond, "I'm glad she ended up with you and not some weird creep."

"That's not nice, Percy," Estelle muttered, crossing her arms and looking disapprovingly at her brother.

He gave her a quiet apology before turning to Jason and sighing. "I guess we should be going."

Jason nodded reluctantly. He wouldn't mind staring at Percy for a bit longer. "I guess so."

Percy's eyes flickered between Jason's face and the rest of the store as he stood there a few seconds longer than he probably should have. "Do you...need anymore help with your stuff? It's the least I can do for watching her."

Normally, Jason's first instinct would be to push away the offer and claim that he'd be fine. In this case, however, he accepted the help with open arms. Perhaps he liked spending time with Estelle, or perhaps he just felt oddly drawn to the boy in front of him. Nonetheless, he nodded his acceptance and started telling Percy which sections they still needed to hit.

Percy gently set Estelle down and allowed her to begin grabbing things, occasionally doing the same himself. Obviously, he also knew that Estelle enjoyed the thrills of grocery shopping.

"Does she live with you?" Jason asked curiously in hopes that he didn't accidentally strike a nerve somewhere. He assumed the easiest thing to talk about that they had in common at the moment was Estelle.

"I moved out a while ago," Percy shook his head, "but she visits a lot. Parents are out of town this weekend."

Their conversation carried on like that for a couple of minutes, quickly turning into witty banter that left Jason's cheeks aching from all of his smiling. Percy was a breath of fresh air after spending so much of his time with Piper and Leo, even if his new friend was clearly just as much trouble.

"The whole lab was on fire?" Jason clarified with a hearty laugh as he listened to Percy's sophomore year science experiment gone wrong.

"Most of it," Percy grinned, handing Estelle a pack of yogurt. "I'm not allowed within ten yards of the school, and I failed chemistry...obviously."

"I was a chemistry major for a month," Jason noted and watched as Percy shook his head.

"We all make mistakes."

"It was fun!" Jason defended himself with playful defense. "Until I had to actually take a test on it."

"I think you and I are very different people, Jason," Percy gave him a warm smile, their hands brushing together as he passed by to grab the next thing on Jason's list. Jason wished he could say that the contact didn't send electricity up his arm.

The same thing happened a few more times, and Jason was starting to think it wasn't an accident. By that point, Estelle had slowed down a bit, and Percy straggled behind with her. The two of them chatted quietly between themselves as they started knocking out the last portion of the list. Jason frowned as the number of items got smaller and smaller.

Finally, the dynamic sibling duo ended up at Jason's side again, and he felt a tiny finger tap his shoulder. He turned to Estelle to find her mischievous, toothy grin spreading across her face while Percy's back was turned to both of them. Jason raised his eyebrows, frankly a bit frightened at whatever was about to happen.

"Can I tell you a secret, Mr. Jason?" She asked him quietly. He nodded her with a silent encouragement to continue. She beckoned him closer and cupped her hand around his ear to whisper, "Percy thinks you're pretty."

"Is that so?" Jason asked, trying and failing to fight down his rising blush.

"He told me not to tell you," she said, "but gossiping is wrong."

With that, Percy tuned back in and gave his sister a very concerned look that only got worse when he saw the red color that Jason's face had turned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Jason answered almost too quickly, desperately looking at his list for an excuse to change the subject, "one more thing."

They ventured to the corner of the store where Piper's weird, vegan protein blends were. He pulled out the photo that Piper had texted him, unwilling to make the same mistake that Leo did by bringing home the wrong one.

"You a health nut?" Percy asked curiously, taking a glance around the aisle.

Jason shook his head. "This is for my roommate. She isn't either. She's just obsessed with protein shakes for whatever reason."

"Girlfriend?" The smallest hint of bitterness imbedded itself in Percy's voice. Jason wondered if it had anything to do with Estelle's secret.

Jason could have laughed (he did, just a little). "No, no, definitely not. She's madly in love, and I'd be much more likely to date my other roommate Leo—actually, scratch that, I hate the thought of doing anything romantic with him, but yeah. Just three college kids living off Piper's rich dad."

Percy's smile was faint, but Jason noticed the relieved glint in his eyes. "Well, looks like we're done."

"Yeah," Jason agreed.

Silence.

They started speaking at the same time.

Jason couldn't deal with the awkwardness. "Thanks for—"

Meanwhile, Percy clearly had other things on his mind besides groceries. "Look, I really enjoyed—you first."

The two laughed, the previous ease of the conversation settling back in.

"I was going to say thank you for the help," Jason finished, "and the company."

Percy nodded, and Jason gave him the symbol to go ahead with what he'd been saying. "I was just wondering if you would maybe want to get lunch or coffee or whatever sometime."

"I'm free next weekend," Jason smiled, watching Percy's foot tap nervously on the linoleum floor. "And I have been wanting to try that new brunch place on 11th and 23rd."

Percy's eyes lit up although his face remained mostly calm and pleasant. "My mom took me right around opening—it's amazing."

"Looking forward to it," Jason said with a nod.

He caught Estelle's wide grin as the two men exchanged phones and added each other's number. Jason couldn't help but smile back.

"Text me," Jason told Percy as he returned the phone.

"Will do," Percy laughed softly, "I'll see you next weekend, I guess."

"See you then," Jason agreed.

He crouched down to give Estelle a sad goodbye with a promise that they could hang out soon 'since Percy was getting to hang out with him.' She gave him a firm hug before leaving with her brother, both of them throwing a wave over their inner shoulders as they disappeared through the automatic doors. Jason sighed happily, right before he caught a glance at his incredibly full cart and his smile dropped off his face.

Checkout was going to take a while.

I stayed up late to finish this just for you guys LOL. Hope you enjoyed it!! See you soon!!