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"C'mon! I bet they're there already!" Ignacio spun on his heel and hollered back impatiently to his slowly striding father. He rocked a bit on the balls of his feet. "When you say one, you get there at one," he added.

Devon rolled his eyes and readjusted the messenger bag on his shoulder. "It's not one yet and this is Zack."

That didn't seem to mean much to Ignacio, though, and he hurried on ahead. They were to meet at the rose garden. It wasn't his idea of fun but it was always cool to see other people and outside was outside. Besides, the sun was shining brightly, it was warm but not hot, and everything was green and alive. For a moment, Ignacio fought the urge to lay down in the grass and roll wildly.

It helped that the impulse coincided with spotting the rose garden and the meeting bench. He doubled his speed to reach it. Unfortunately, no one was there yet so, with a sigh, Ignacio flopped onto the bench and waited for his father who arrived a slow five minutes later.

Spotting the quiet girl, Ignacio grinned whitely and waved back. Then he promptly left the bench to trot a few steps towards her and her father. "Hi, Devakanya," he called and it was rather adorably obvious that he had practiced her difficult name for the occasion. "I'm glad you're not late. It's perfect out here."

Devon pushed himself up from his slouch and raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, Zack. Good timing. I thought this kid was gonna loose it, waitin'."

"She must've woke you up. You look rough." Devon sprawled back on the bench again. "Iggy wakes me up all the time," he added.

Interpreting her look correctly, Ignacio made a vague motion of deferral. "I dunno," he said. "We're outside. I don't care what we do. You wanna just explore the roses or make Dad take us to the playground or something? Dad said he wanted to sketch but we can make him."

Ignacio nodded amiably. Then he trotted over and tugged at Devon's backpack. "C'mon," he ordered. "Devi wants to go to the playground and you said I can't do stuff like that alone."

Blinking slowly, Devon turned to look at his son. "Yeah, that sounded like a please," he drawled. Ignacio huffed and looked at the ground for a moment. Then he muttered something and Devon grinned. "That works. There's flowers by the playground. It'll work." He stood, picking up his bag. He glanced at Zack. "You comin'?"

Devon shot Zack a sideways look and then shrugged. Standing, he shouldered his bag and motioned the kids ahead. "You'll get burnt if you sleep there, anyway," he pointed out in a mutter.

With a bright smile, Ignacio reached for Devi's hand and began leading her ahead. "C'mon," he said. "They're comin' and Dad doesn't mind if I get ahead. As long as he can see us, we're cool. Do you like the swings?" The swings struck him as something a girl like Devi would like. Riley was monkey bars. Devi was swings.

"I thought so." Noticing her rushing a bit, Iggy adjusted his pace a bit. They were almost at the swings, anyway. It wasn't like the playground was going to run away. "Do you still have Blackie?" he asked suddenly, remembering the stuffed horse from their first meeting.

Ignacio nodded, understanding. "Oh, yeah," he said. "Dad makes me leave my toys at home, too. Unless it's balls and stuff like that. Those can come to the park. Everything else, he says I'd lose." He finally released her hand as they reached the swings. Slipping behind one, he held the chains to keep it steady for her and grinned.

Ignacio seemed to think the same way and grinned back at her. "Ready?" he asked as he gently pulled back on the chains, dragging her with him. "Do you mind going high?"