Work Text:
Dani stood in the front room, the ironing board set up and the television on for her to watch as she did her ironing. Malcolm wandered in and slipped his hands around her waist. He nuzzled her neck for a few minutes until she gave him a swat. ‘You’ll be late.’
‘Then McNiall will fire me.’ Malcolm teased. ‘Can you sense how much I’ll cry about that if I were to be fired?’ His nuzzling became kissing.
‘Behave. Gracie will wake up soon.’
‘Wouldn’t want our youngest to see you all hot and bothered.’ Malcolm teased. ‘Raincheck til tonight?’
‘You’re on.’ Dani ran her hand over his cheek. ‘Now, go. I have ironing to get done before Mia gets home. You’ll be back on time, right?’
‘Wouldn’t miss a pizza night out for the world with my favourite girls.’ He kissed her lips. ‘Be home soon then.’
Dani smiled as he left the house. The stack of both her work outfits and his shirts sat on the couch within easy reach for her to grab them to iron. She adored Malcolm but he was not a t-shirt guy so there was always shirts of his to be ironed. Not that Dani was complaining. He happily ironed his own shirts regularly. Today just happened to be a day off for her while he got called into some staff meeting at the paper. She settled into a routine of ironing, hanging and repeating.
Half the shirts were ironed by the time Gracie got up from her nap. The little girl slid out of bed on her own. She got her slippers on the wrong feet but didn’t care or notice. With her favourite Paddington bear in her arms, Gracie made her way down the stairs one step at a time and stood in the doorway of the front room. ‘Mommy?’
‘Hey sweetie. Finished your nap?’
‘No sleepy.’ Gracie rubbed at her eye. ‘What doing?’
‘Ironing.’ Dani said. ‘You want a juice?’
‘Pwease?’
‘Sit nicely then.’ Dani set her iron down safely and went to the kitchen. She got her daughter a cup of juice, set the lid on the cup tightly and returned to the front room. ‘Here you go. You going to watch television while I work?’ Gracie nodded and sat in her favourite bean bag chair with her juice. She carefully set Paddington to sit beside her quietly.
Dani finished the last of her own tops and collected them together to take them upstairs to the master bedroom. She thought nothing of leaving Gracie to sit on her own and watch television as she did.
Gracie didn’t notice immediately but once her mother had left the room, she looked around and saw her mother gone. ‘Mommy?’ She got no response. Gracie slid off the bean bag chair, her half-empty cup left behind with her bear. The pile of clothes on the couch drew her attention. The little girl stood on her tiptoes to get closer to the freshly laundered but wrinkled shirts. They smelled just like her father and it made her smile. Her little hands reached up to grab at the shirts. Instead of grabbing a shirt, Gracie caught hold of the edge of the laundry basket.
Unable to stay on her tiptoes, Gracie tried to use the laundry basket to keep herself up but she was just a little too heavy now and the laundry basket with the wrinkled shirts in it tipped towards her as she dropped to flat foot again. Gracie’s hands however were still gripping the laundry basket.
The basket didn’t stop tipping and in a moment it was toppling over the edge of the couch. Gracie laughed as the basket fell onto her, upended with her father’s shirts tumbling over her. Her hands grabbed a big armful of his shirts to hug them close. Breathing in deeply, Gracie smiled at the reminder of how Malcolm smelled when she hugged him. ‘Daddy.’ She sighed happily. The basket finally settled on the floor, empty of shirts now.
The phone rang, startling Gracie a moment. It stopped suddenly and Gracie could hear her mother upstairs answering it.
Happily, Gracie began to roll about on the spilled shirts in some made up game of her own. After a few minutes she tired of that game and stood up. Grabbing a shirt, Gracie held it up. ‘Daddy.’ Suddenly, she lost her balance and sat down on her bottom. The shirt, one of Malcolm’s standard light blue ones, was even more wrinkled now but Gracie didn’t care. Playing with it, she figured out how to pull it on over her head like one of her own shirts but without help from one of her parents it was a bit of a struggle. With a giggle, she popped her head through the neck of the shirt. It was still half done up from the dryer. Her next battle was to try and thread her arms through the sleeves.
‘Gracie.’ Dani stood in the doorway and holding back a laugh. ‘What are you up to?’
‘Mommy! Daddy home!’ Gracie, draped in the large shirt struggled to her feet. The shirt was more like an over sized and ill-fitting dress. The arms dragged on the floor as she walked carefully to her mother. ‘Hugs, mommy. Daddy wants hugs.’ Lifting her arms up only had the sleeves drooping downward.
‘Are you daddy?’ Dani knelt down, smiling at the sight of her daughter in one of Malcolm’s shirts.
‘Yeah! Me Daddy!’ She went up to Dani and threw her arms around her mother, the end of the sleeves flopping about madly. ‘Daddy kiss!’ Gracie kissed her mother sloppily on her cheek.
‘I like Gracie kisses from Gracie and daddy kisses from daddy.’ Dani hugged her daughter back and kissed her cheek properly.
‘I Daddy!’ Gracie took off, walking around as if she were Malcolm. ’Be good! Pway happy!’
‘Come on, Gracie. You’ll trip in that shirt.’
‘Shush. Daddy work!’ Gracie mimicked her father. ‘Pway quiet!’
Dani approached her daughter to get the shirt off her but the girl realized that this could be another fun game and began to run away. ‘Gracie, no running.’
‘No running.’ She repeated in her ‘daddy’ voice. Instead of running, the little girl disappeared under the dining room table.
‘I’m going to have to wash that shirt again now with you playing in it.’ Dani bent down and caught hold of the little girl, laughing as Gracie squealed in delight. ‘You are such a naughty girl.’
‘No. Not naughty.’ Gracie pouted. ‘Me Daddy.’
‘Then Daddy has been naughty.’
‘Daddy want hug.’ Gracie raised her arms again, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck.
‘How about Gracie wanting a bigger hug?’ Dani asked.
‘Yeah!’
Dani chuckled and hugged her daughter tight. ‘Let’s get you out of this shirt now. You can play being daddy another day.’ She got her daughter to wriggle out of the shirt. ‘I have my Gracie back now?’
‘I back.’ Gracie smiled.