Chapter 141: Like Father Like Son. 2004 CE

Helios was walking casually through the corridor of his summer home in upstate New York, accompanied by his cat Leo. he looked ecstatic to explore the place, it was his first time here, and Pluto was planning to bring him every summer to spend some time here.

The maids adored the boy, pinching his cheek any chance they got, and he was now running away from their nasty grasps.

As Helios walked through the corridor, he noticed that one room wasn't fully closed, and it made him curious as hell. He walked towards the door, and peeked on what's inside the room.

As he peeked, he saw that his father was sitting in the middle of the room, many paintings surrounded him, and he was painting himself, killing time.

The door creaked as Leo tried to get it, making Pluto turn to him.

"Helios? What's up buddy?" Pluto questioned softly as he smiled.

Helios stood in front of the door, looking around shyly. "Um… what are you doing daddy?"

"I'm painting," said Pluto. "Want to try?"

Helios nodded vigorously as Pluto said that he entered the room along with Leo, who instantly made himself comfortable in the corner of the room, and he sat on Pluto's lap, watching him paint.

"Here, you take the colouring, and paint it on the canvas." taught Pluto, giving him a brush and dipped it on colouring.

He guided Helios's hand to the canvas, making strokes and shapes on it. As soon as Pluto let go of his hand, Helios tried another colour, and another, and another, and another. He was painting randomly, without a certain shape to think of, he was having fun, but then he realised he was ruining his father' painting.

"Sorry daddy…" Helios murmured in guilt.

Pluto chuckled. "It's fine my dear, you want your own canvas?"

Helios nodded rather excitedly, and Pluto took a blank canvas, putting it on the floor below him. He took another set of paint, before putting it beside the blank canvas.

"There." Pluto said, placing Helios just in front of the canvas. Helios crawled to it, grabbed the brush, and quickly dipped it to the paint.

"Just don't be too messy, yeah?"

"Okay daddy…"

Pluto sighed, then he continued to paint his canvas, letting Helios do his thing.

—

As night came by, Pluto was still painting rather seriously, almost ignoring his surroundings entirely, if not for Helios, he wouldn't probably tell what time it is, because even though he was focused the entire time, he was watching over Helios.

"Helios?" a voice sounded from outside. "Helios, where are you?"

Pluto then turned to the door, and the door opened, revealing Thena with a worried face.

"Hey, have you seen—" Thena turned to Helios, who was half asleep at this point, almost falling face first towards his painting. "Pluto… you gave him the paints?"

"Well he seems interested in it, so I gave it to him." Pluto shrugged as he stood up and kissed Thena, before the two of them walked to Helios, checking the boy.

"His face is covered with paint now…" Thena sighed as she fixed Helios's face, and picked him up.

"Hey, look at this." said Pluto, pointing at the paint.

It was the painting of three people, two adults and one kid. It had this childish stroke to it, but it was miles better than a normal Toddler's painting. That painting depicted Pluto, Thena, and Helios, sitting on a sofa back at home.

"Well, like father, like son." Thena stated in amusement as she examined the painting. "It's quite good actually."

Pluto hummed in agreement. "Yeah, well, he looks like me, interested in art like me… it's only a matter of time before he falls in love with a blonde…"

"And what's wrong with that?" Thena snorted.

"Nothing's wrong with that." Pluto chuckled.

That conversation made the boy wake up, and he turned his sleepy face towards the painting.

"Daddy… give it to me…" he murmured sleepily.

"It's bedtime boy, you could take a look at it later…" Pluto said as he grabbed the painting.

Helios whined incoherently, then, he did a grabbing motion once again, and a golden hand construct suddenly appeared, snatching the painting from Pluto's hand, and it gave it to Helios as he hugged it, before continuing to sleep.

"We really need to deal with his powers…" Pluto sighed.

"Maybe once he goes to school we need to set up some ground rules." Thena said, cooing Helios as he slept on her arms. "Anyway, I'll take him up to bed first, dinners in the kitchen if you want."

"Sure, I'll eat it later." Pluto hummed.

Thena just exited the room, followed by Leo who just woke up from his cat slumber, leaving Pluto alone in his painting chamber.