Chapter Text
Chase was sitting in the corner, his nose squished towards the wall. He had pitched a fit about his loss of crackers, and in the end, House had to put him timeout. Bell was sitting in Russel's lap, being bounced up and down gently as the adults chatted over him, and he did some drawing.
He hadn't been put in time out along with chase because he didn't pitch a fit when his snacks were taken away, and the whispered apology uttered into Russel's neck when he was scooped up from the stool. Plus, Russel was still working on building Bell's trust, so he did his best not being too harsh or firm.
"So... How long have you had the kid now?"
House asked casually, twirling a pen around. They had, for the past hour or so, been going through paperwork and other necessary things to get Bell's medical files sorted out, he needed to get checked out and get all of his shots.
"About a month, why?"
Russel answered, one hand on Bell's hip while the other wrote something down in a notebook.
"Oh, you know..."
House trailed off, glancing over to Chase. Who was supposed to be sitting in timeout but instead he was now playing with the trains on the tracks him and Bell had set up earlier.
"Chase! Get back in timeout, you've still got ten minutes left."
He corrected, pointing at the corner Chase had been sitting in.
"But daaaad, 'm hungry AND bored.."
Chase whined loudly but quieted after House fixed him with a stern stare.
"There's dinner in around fifteen minutes, pizza."
Russel commented, putting the pen down to stabilize Bell, who was seemingly falling asleep. He chuckled slightly and lifted him up from his lap.
"Max?"
Russel bounced him slightly in his arms, but he didn't react, that wasn't his real name
"Maksim? Buddy?"
Still no reaction.
"Okay then.."
He mumbled as he stood up from his chair and carried Bell over to the couch, laying him down and tucking him in. Sighing as he crouched down next to Bell's head
"Maksim, dinner is soon but you can still rest, okay?"
He mumbled, stroking his hair gently.
Bell closed his eyes, it felt nice to be fussed over like this, but he knew Russel didn't really care about him, he only took care of him because the government and the social services people told him to. He wasn't his real son, he didn't deserve the fussing. Mr. Russel was too nice to him, he hadn't earned any of it.
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Half an hour later the pizza finally arrived, both Chase and Bell were already situated on the couch, watching the Backyardigans. House and Russel were in the kitchen, cutting and plating the pizzas, for the kids and for themselves.
"You know I really like the penguin, I think his name is Pablo or something-"
Chase chatted happily, but cut himself off when he saw House and Russel walk into the living room with all their plates.
"PIZZA!!"
Chase exclaimed happily, giggling as a plate was lowered onto his lap, cheese and pepperoni, his favourite.
"Here you are."
Russel said and smiled at Bell as he handed him the same thing Chase got, Bell just stared blankly at the pizza for a moment before focusing back on the screen. Not even reacting to the couch shifting when House and Russel sat down and began eating.
Chase was still quietly chatting House's ear off with comments about the show they were watching, but it was still fairly quiet. To the point that when Bell finished his third slice of pizza, he just fell asleep, again.